Preview by Josh Nason

Amid the story that is the alliance of AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and Impact VP Don Callis, Impact Wrestling returns for their final named event of the year: Final Resolution, available on their streaming service and Fite.TV at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

While Omega isn’t set to appear, Impact World Champion Rich Swann will be in action as he defends his title against former X-Division Champion Chris Bey in tonight’s main event. Swann won the championship at October’s Bound For Glory and will be looking for the fourth defense of his title.

The Knockouts title will also be on the line as Deonna Purrazzo will face Rosemary in the first defense of her second title reign. This was made after Purrazzo complained to Impact GM Scott D’Amore after she and Kimber Lee lost to Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie in the Knockouts Tag Team title tournament.

The nine-match card will also feature Karl Anderson vs. Ethan Page with a Tag Team title shot on the line, Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb vs. Alisha and Eddie Edwards, X-Division Champion Rohit Raju’s “Defeat Rohit” Challenge, Tommy Dreamer vs. Larry D in a hardcore match for Larry D’s freedom, Eric Young vs. Rhino, Havok and Nevaeh vs. The Sea Stars, and Hernandez vs. Fallah Bahh with Kiera Hogan as special referee and Tasha Steelz as guest ring announcer.

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We’re on!

Tommy Dreamer defeated Larry D in an Old School Rules Match.

This match came about as a result to the whole “Who shot John E. Bravo storyline”, where Lawrence D, Larry D’s alter ego, was found guilty for shooting Bravo. The result is that Dreamer and D are now wrestling, and if D can win the match, he’ll be free of all allegations. 

This was weak. Weapons matches don’t tend to be exciting without fans being loud for the spots, and in silence, the time spent setting up spots feels longer than they should. The match was slow, it started with a brawl outside the ring, and later into the mat. D dominated early on using cooking sheets and chairs, but once he went to use his weight belt, Dreamer woke up, came back and got close to a win after a and a corner dropkick to a chair. At the end, Acey Romero, D’s tag partner in XXXL, came out to help D, and as a result John E. Bravo ran down for the raid, managed to trick Romero into a table, but fell to D’s right hand. All the distraction was enough for Dreamer to hit the DDT and win the match. The wrong person won and now Larry D has to go to jail.

At one point, Dreamer chanted his own “You still got it” chant, it was sad but funny.

Weeks ago, XXXL were getting a push, now they’re likely going to extend Dreamer’s comedy stories.

— Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne running down the card and just announced that indeed, Kenny Omega and Don Callis are outside the venue.

Havok & Nevaeh defeated Sea Stars (Ashley Vox & Delmi Exo)

There’s really no story behind this match. Sea Stars debuted for Impact a couple of weeks back for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament, in a losing effort to Kiera Hogan  & Tasha Steelz. Havok and Nevaeh however, find themselves in the semi finals of the tournament, going up against the team of Jordynne Grace & Jazz.

This was a squash match with a couple of hope spots for the Sea Stars. After a strong start for Havok and Nevaeh, they cut off Exo and worked over her for a couple of minutes. Vox got the hot tag against Havok and managed to get in some offense, including a suicide dive that ended with Vox being slammed on the apron. Sea Stars had one big spot with a codebreaker into a top rope senton double team move for a near fall, a minute later, Nevaeh got the pin on Exo after a Wheelbarrow assisted cutter. Ok match, Sea Stars have a lot of charisma.

– Backstage, Hogan and Steelz talked about what they would do with the stolen Hernandez money. They’re trying to come up with a plan to keep the money.

Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb with a K defeated Alisha & Eddie Edwards

Story behind this started in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament, where Edwards and Dashwood teamed up for the first time. Even in defeat, they decided to stick together, but when Sami Callihan attacked Eddie Edwards some weeks ago, Alisha’s focused changed to her husband, and Dashwood didn’t take it lightly that has was second in priority to Edwards, so now the Edwards tag together to deal with Alisha’s problem.

A tale of two stories. The work between Kaleb and Eddie was really good, even with some comedy added as Kaleb has to pretend he is a geek; on the other hand, we had Alisha and Dashwood, which wasn’t as great while Alisha had the upper hand. Story of the match saw Dashwood and Kaleb cut off Alisha after Kaleb tripped her on and on again. At the end, Eddie got the hot tag and dealt with Kaleb, but as Alisha was getting ready to take them out with a top rope splash, Sami Callihan interrupted them with his hacking skills, allowing Dashwood the opening to take out Alisha and get the pin. 

Fun match overall. Dashwood’s heel work was fantastic, her cheap shots on Eddie Edwards, checking her makeup after every big spot, taking selfies during the match, and going after Alisha’s hair. 

After the match, Sami Callihan snuck out from underneath the ring, attacked Eddie with a bat and a package piledriver. He went for a second one on Alisha Edwards, but security and referees made the save. 

This Callihan vs Edwards feud will continue. Eddie sold the injured eye after the match when the referees checked on him.

– Gia Miller tried to get an interview from Omega’s bus. Don Callis came out. Miller asked if Omega was planning to get involved in tonight’s show, but Callis said that obviously no and that Omega was only visiting family.

Hernandez defeated Fallah Bahh

This one goes far back when Bahh was John E. Bravo’s best man and stole money from Hernandez to pay for the wedding. After many shenanigans and money stealing, Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz stole the money from Bahh, but Hernandez still thinks Bahh has it. 

Kiera Hogan is the special guest referee for this match, while Tasha Steelz will serve as the special ring announcer. Hernandez was corpsing at Steelz announcing him “right off the cook-out and he thinks he’s cool because he has Chuck Taylors.”

This was a hoss fight, and a good one at that. A low bar, but this was the best that Hernadez has looked in months, doing springboard shoulder tackles and pescados. They traded momentum until Hogan started twerking while counting a pin for Bahh, costing him the win, and causing him to flip out, telling Hogan to stop being ratched. The distraction allowed Hernandez to recover and attack Bahh with the Superman splash for the win.

After the match, Hogan and Steelz didn’t have the money that Hernandez had just won, and so Hernandez threatened them with a weapon and they ran away.

Hogan and Steelz were also fantastic here, completely stealing the show. Steelz getting on the apron to make a special “5 minutes past” announcement was great.

– Miller interviewed Chris Bey about this being the biggest match of his career. Bey said that this is where he always belonged and that tonight, he was taking the title.

Eric Young (with Joe Doering) defeated Rhino 

For weeks now since Turning Point, Eric Young and Joe Doering have been attacking people, among them, Rhino and his friend Heath. Last week, Young and Doering took out The Deaners, and would had been worse if not for Rhino who made the save, and thus today we have this match.

As fantastic as EY is, all I’m thinking about is a Doering vs Rhino match right now. Story of the match was that Rhino had the power advantage over EY and dominated as such, but every time that Rhino started to gain momentum, Doering would distract Rhino, allowing EY to cut him off. Young focused on Rhino’s head, working towards the piledriver. 

The big turn of the match came when Young went for a top rope moonsault, only to crash and burn after Rhino moved out of the way. Rhino hit a couple of slams and a TKO for a near fall, but at the end, Rhino accidentally whipped Young into the referee. 

Suddenly, The Deaners came out to make sure that Eric Young wouldn’t attack Rhino with his own mask, but suddenly, Cody Deaner turned heel, attacking Cousin Jake with Young’s mask. Young took the mask afterwards, finishing off Rhino for the win. Decent match, Young was a lot less vicious than usually, but given the angle at the end, they wanted to keep him low.

Young seems to be building his new stable and Cody Deaner is the new member.

– Scott D’Amore berated Omega’s security when Karl Anderson walked up and happened to be in Omega’s list, hence the ‘family reunion’ that Callis teased.

Manik defeated Rohit Raju to win the X Division title

Rohit Raju has announced that this will be the final Defeat Rohit Challenge after successfully defending against names like TJP, Crazzy Steve, Jordynne Grace, and others. This challenge is opened to anyone except TJP, but as we’ve seen before, TJP has hinted at using other methods to get to Raju.

Raju cut a promo before the match, calling out his challenger and talking about proving that he was the best X Division champion of this lifetime. Manik came out for the challenge, and we all know that Manik is in canon, none other than TJP. Plus we can see the tattoos.

Manik surprised Raju from behind with a top rope splash to start the match. They had a really fast paced match with a lot of reversals and submission work from Manik. Raju cut him off early and started working over Manik’s head with mostly big moves. Raju, suspecting that it was TJP under the mask, started trying to rip off Manik’s mask, but couldn’t manage it. TJP made a comeback and leveled out the competition, heading to a great second half of the match with a lot of back and forward wrestling. At the end, as they start going for the finish and countering, Manik managed to get a quick pin on Raju and finally dethrone him. This match was great, best so far. 

TJP didn’t unmask, so we’ll see whether he works the reign under TJP’s name, or Manik’s.

– Miller interviewed Moose about taking out Willie Mack and what his purpose was for tonight’s show without competition. Moose said that the Swann’s belt is only the second most important title in the promotion, as his TNA title was the most important. Moose said that he’ll challenge  whoever wins tonight between Swann and Bey.

Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo (w/ Kimber Lee) defeated Rosemary (w/ Taya) to retain the title

Purrazzo has been feuding with Sue Yung and the whole Undead Realm package, and so when Rosemary got a pin on the team of Purrazzo and Lee in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament, Scott D’Amore decided that Rosemary was the best contender for Purrazzo since she had been dealing with Yung, James Mitchell, and the Undead Realm.

Rosemary dominated early, but after accidentally crashing outside the ring, Purrazzo rammed Rosemary’s shoulder into the ringpost and managed to cut her off. Purrazzo worked over Rosemary’s left arm, she would switch between locking in submissions to attacks, but as the match went on, she moved her focus to Rosemary’s head, chasing the Cosa Nostra. 

Rosemary managed a comeback and tried to take out Purrazzo’s leg, even coming close to winning with the red wedding, but Kimber Lee was there to pull the referee out of the ring. At the end, Taya got rid of Kimber Lee, but the distraction was enough for Purrazzo to hit Cosa Nostra for the win.

After the match, Purrazzo and Lee antagonized Taya, but she took out both women and held the ring. We may be getting Purrazzo vs Taya soon.

– Over at Omega’s bus, Omega, Callis, and Karl Anderson talked about the old days and Big Fat Masa. Anderson said he had to leave for his match. Omega and Callis said that the old ‘Machine Gun’ from G1 Climax would take out Ethan Page in a minute and be back partying with them.

Karl Anderson defeated Ethan Page (w/ Josh Alexander)

The Good Brothers won the titles back at Turning Point, but in order for the The North to get a rematch, Ethan Page has to defeat Anderson in this match. The reason this is a one-on-one match is because Page took Gallows out of competition for a couple of weeks, and in a sense, Anderson is out for revenge too.

Match started with back and forward action, a really aggressive Anderson, but after Alexander tripped Anderson, Page cut him off with a backbreaker. Page worked over Anderson’s back, always keeping him down, or cutting him off when Anderson would try to start a comeback. Eventually, Anderson and Page started exchanging strikes, where Anderson finally got the better of Page. After his big spinebuster, Anderson started chasing the Gun Stun, leading to him and Page exchanging some big moves and near falls. At the end, Anderson hit a jumping cutter and the gun stun for the win. 

The North won’t be getting their tag team title match and seem to be heading to their end. There was some dissension after the match, Alexander took off his North jacket while Page pleaded with him that he had a plan and that everything was going to be fine.

Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Chris Bey to retain the title

Ever since Rich Swann won the World title, many names have come after him, one of which was Chris Bey, who took the approach of talking trash of Willie Mack and beating him up. Two weeks ago, Bey tagged Swann with the art of finesse, and thus Swann finally agreed to get Bey in the ring.

Match started with a slow pace, but this being Swann and Bey, they couldn’t help themselves and started gaining speed for an X Division style sequence of reversals, and this was the overall pacing of the match. They would slow down when Swann went for Bey’s head, or when Bey would work on Swann’s abdomen and back; yet, they would explode with speed during comebacks. 

As the match went on, both Bey and Swann increased the intensity to their moves. Bey started going for torture racks and yoshi tonics, while Swann pulled out a cartwheel phoenix splash. They had a striking exchange sequence, they followed with a pin reversal sequence, but Bey just couldn’t keep Swann down, which started to frustrate Bey more and more. In the same vein, Swann couldn’t keep down Bey with one of his shotgun kicks that he has been winning with, and so he had to hit a second one and the phoenix splash to finally win.

Great match, great pacing, just not as dramatic as most of Swann’s matches as of late. Chris Bey showed that he belongs in the main event scene.

After the match, Moose came out to the ring, looking like a million dollars, TNA title in hand. Moose took the Impact title and gave it to Swann, making a silent impression on Swann that he is coming for the title.

Moose walked to the back, while Swann celebrated in the ring, as the show went off the air.