Tag: Eddie Edwards

Impact Wrestling results: Tessa & Edwards vs. Taya & Elgin

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns tonight from Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas, NV with a full crowd. 

Opening video focused on Shamrock being announced as the new inductee into the Impact Hall of Fame and the return of Sami Callihan, who threw a fireball at Shamrock. 

Willie Mack defeated Acey Romero, Chris Bey, Daga, Rohit Raju, Jake Crist, Cousin Jake, and Trey Miguel in an X-Division #1 Contendership scramble match

Match started and everyone paired up, but once the ring started to clear, Acey Romero was left standing tall. He took out Mack with a Senton, but was then taken out by Trey, with him and Bey working together with a double missile dropkick. 

We then got a great sequence between Trey and Bey with reversals and counters, and a couple of taunts, before ending in a stalemate. Trey offered a hand-shake, which Bey answered with a kick. 

Rohit came in and faced off with Bey, who ended up taking a CrossRhodes and fisherman’s suplex. Cousin Jake came as he took out Rohit with a corner spear and a deadlift powerbomb. Jake Crist came in and hit a kick combo on the other Jake to take him out. Mack then came in with the samoan drop and moonsault combo, followed by a suicide dive. 

Daga and Trey got in the ring, later joined by Bey for a great three-way exchange with Daga taking both of them out, getting a two count on Bey until Rohit broke up the pin. Daga then took out Rohit with a kick combo but couldn’t do the same to Acey Romero. 

Romero took out Daga with a slam and went to the top rope, but Cousin Jake and Crist stopped him. We got a Tower Of Doom spot with Acey on top, everyone but Rohit and Daga were involved, the latter getting a frog splash in for a two count when the former broke it up. 

Everyone took turns to hit a knockout strike and take each other out sequentially until Trey locked in submissions on Crist and Bey, which was broken up by Rohit.

We got a couple more finishers, leading up to the usual dive sequence where everyone hits their dive. Acey Romero seemed to have the final spot, but Jake Crist stopped him. Acey hit the pounce on Crist and dove on everyone for a huge pop. 

Back in the ring, Cousin Jake hit his finisher on Crist, only for Mack to steal the win with a frog splash. Mack may have hurt Cousin Jake with that frog splash. 

Willie Mack vs. Ace Austin for the X-Division championship is now official.

Backstage, Dave Crist hyped up Madman Fulton about their match tonight. Jake Crist arrived and told them that they all need to get back to their winning ways. Jake and Dave argued that Sami Callihan was playing tests on them and that’s why they had to win.

Moose defeated Chase Stevens

Moose jumped Chase before the match, but got distracted trying to get the referee to ring the bell, giving Chase time to recover and get the better of Moose for a bit. Chase hit an early German and an ax kick for a two count. He got another pinfall attempt with a powerslam.

Moose tossed Chase into the ropes and hit the No Jackhammer Needed on the rebound for the win. Total squash.

Moose attacked Chase after the match, hitting him with a chair over and over. He went to Pillmanize his head, but D’Amore came out to stop him. D’Amore distracted Moose and allowed Suicide to attack him. Suicide had a new attire, more DC than Marvel.

Rosemary was again at a bar drinking, talking trash to the patrons and bartenders. She talked about how she spent two years seeking revenge and once she got it, she was empty. 

Raven was there and made little notice of her, so Rosemary approached him. Raven talked about revenge and said that revenge is forever, not just two years. 

Backstage, Ace Austin and Reno Scum approached Mack to congratulate him. Mack told him that he knows Ace and knows he is all about playing mind games and won’t let him get close. Johnny Swinger also approached Mack and cheered Mack to become the champ because what the fans want is a Mack vs Swinger match for the title.

Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz)  

Reno Scum jumped The Rascalz to start the match and got a quick DVD on Xavier for a two count. From here on, they had control over Xavier and worked over him with quick tags, and mostly strikes and chokes. Thrownstowe got a two count over Xavier with a headbutt and moonsault combo. 

Wentz got the hot tag, went wild on Luster with kicks, earning a two count. Rascalz hit a kick combo on Luster, getting another two count. They went for  a double top rope move, but Wentz was thrown off, with Adam blocking Wentz. Reno Scum hit a footstomp/curb stomp combo on Xavier for the win. Ok match. 

We got a quick glimpse of Su Yung stashing a dagger for tonight’s match.

It was announced that next week  Impact is having a TNA-themed retro show.

We got a vignette for Tenille Dashwood. We still don’t know when she returns.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was TNA Sacrifice 2008’s LAX with Hector Guerrero and Salinas vs Team 3D. 

We got a video package about #CancelCulture. Joey Ryan said that next week, Cody Deaner is being cancelled. 

We then got a vignette with Cousin Jake and Cody Deaner talking about shows that have been cancelled. Cody doesn’t know why he’s being cancelled. They kinda made fun of toxic masculinity which wasn’t cool.

We got a promo by Sami Callihan, talking about why he came back to attack Shamrock. He said it was just part of a bigger plan. I just can’t picture Callihan as being computer savvy. 

Rhino & Sabu (with Super Genie) defeated oVe (Dave Crist & Madman Fulton) in an old school rules match

Sabu and Dave started the match, Sabu went for the leg takedown, but Dave was stronger and got off. Sabu started hitting punches and clotheslines, so Dave tagged out.

Fulton and Rhino went at it. Fulton had every advantage and went crazy with punches and chokes, but Rhino managed to come back and clothesline Fulton outside. Crist took out Rhino and sent him outside. Sabu then sent Crist to the floor and dove on both him and Fulton.

They brawled outside the ring for a bit. Rhino and Crist went up the ramp, while Fulton and Sabu stayed around the ring. Sabu was the first to use a weapon on Fulton. 

Rhino and Fulton went to the ring, Fulton had the upper hand. It soon became a normal tag match again. oVe worked over Rhino until he made a comeback on Dave Crist and tagged in Sabu. 

oVe once again gained control over the match, cutting off Sabu. Dave got a two count when Fulton threw him on top of Sabu. Dave started arguing with the ref and allowed Sabu to recover and hit a desperation cutter, before tagging in Rhino.

Rhino came in and took out Dave, hit a clothesline on Fulton. Spinebuster on Dave for a two count. Fulton ate a chair to the gut by Sabu, then Sabu hit a terrible over the top rope flip. 

Inside the ring, Dave Crist low blowed Rhino, pushed off the referee, and went to hit Rhino with a chair. The referee took the chair away in what was being billed as an old school rules match. Rhino then Gored Dave and picked up the win.

Somewhere in the Undead Realm, Su Yung arrived. She had her noose with her. Yung roamed around, finding creepy things, until she found Father James Mitchell and Havok. Havok took a weapon, while Yung had a freaking machete. They did some fencing spots until Yung got the noose on Havok and choked her out. 

Suddenly, Mitchell’s gimp woke up, broke his chains, and attacked Su Yung with a bat. The Gimp choked Yung, then hit her some more. But when he went for the kill, Yung cut the gimp’s throat with the machete. 

Yung tried to kill Mitchell, but Havok jumped her with the rope and choked her. Yung once again recovered and got off. Havok took Yung’s mouth with a hook, but Su Yung locked in the Mandible Claw. She was about to stab Havok when Mitchell stopped her. 

Mitchell told Su Yung that she proved she’s the winner and the one to be with him, but he also said that he was tired of both of them and wanted both of them gone. He ordered the minions to take them both out. 

Su Yung and Havok were both sent out to the desolate deserts of the Undead Realm, which I’m guessing it’s somewhere in Nevada. This was awesome. 

Taya Valkyrie & Michael Elgin (with John E. Bravo) defeated Tessa Blanchard & Eddie Edwards

Elgin and Edwards started but it didn’t last long before Taya and Tessa came in for a quick sequence of reversals. Tessa had the upper hand, but then Elgin tagged in and, while Tessa made a stand, Elgin was too much for her. Eddie tagged in and had a longer run against Elgin.

Back from commercial, Elgin is still working over Edwards, as he tags in and out with Taya, who really had some credible offense on Eddie. 

Edwards finally made a comeback against Elgin, hitting a desperation blue thunder bomb. Tessa got the hot tag, who ran wild over Taya. Tessa hit a couple of clotheslines and a cutter to earn a two count. 

Tessa went for a samoan drop, but Elgin blocked her. Elgin superkicked Eddie, but it was enough to give Taya the opening to take out Tessa with a double knee for a two count. Elgin and Taya hit a couple of clotheslines to the corner before Taya assisted Elgin with the top rope powerbomb, but Tessa managed to reverse into a rana. Tessa landed the Samoan Drop on Taya and got the tag to Eddie. 

Eddie hit Kobashi chops on Elgin then followed that with a baseball slide and an over-the-head belly-to-belly to send him out of the ring Eddie went for the suicide dive, but Taya got in the way. Tessa ran over and knocked off Taya to the floor, followed by Bravo thanks to a double superkick. Tessa and Eddie hit stereo suicide dives on Elgin and Taya to the outside. 

Back in the ring, Eddie went for a headscissors on Elgin from the top rope, but Eddie was tossed off. Eddie countered by dropping Elgin on the ropes, leaving him open for a kick and Magnum combo for a two count when Taya broke up the pin. 

Tessa went for a top rope Magnum, but Taya distracted her. Eddie took out Taya, but Elgin recovered, hit a discus forearm on Eddie, caught Tessa’s Magnum and turned it into a powerbomb on top of Eddie. Elgin went for the buckle bomb, but Tessa reversed into a poisonrana and a tilt-a-whirl DDT. 

Tessa and Taya traded chops in the middle of the ring, then traded superkicks before some miscommunication led to Elgin taking out Tessa with a lariat. Eddie went for the BKP, but Taya stopped him. Elgin and Taya hit a knee and forearm combo. Taya took out Tessa with a plancha. Elgin hit the buckle bomb and Elgin bomb combo for the win. 

Great match! Taya completely belongs in this feud. She also ended up with a nasty cut under her eye.

We got a last look at Su Yung and Havok roaming around the desolate deserts of the Undead Wasteland when suddenly, Rosemary appeared. She made peace with them and told them that if they unite, they can go back. 

Havok and Su Yung went looking for Mitchell, who tried to talk his way out of this problem. Su Yung tried to kill Mitchell with the dagger, but Havok took it from her and killed him herself. James Mitchell then went to heaven, where Abyss was there with cats. I’m not kidding.

Final Thoughts — 

Good show from Impact, it felt full of life. Most of the wrestling tonight was good. It felt somewhat edited, not pushing the Lockdown and the TNA nostalgia show anymore, but there’s still some stuff going towards Rebellion, which has now also been cancelled. 

World title match official for Impact Wrestling Rebellion PPV

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The main event of Impact Wrestling’s next major pay-per-view is officially set.

Tessa Blanchard will defend her Impact World Championship against Michael Elgin and Eddie Edwards in a triple threat match at Rebellion. The PPV is taking place at Terminal 5 in New York City on Sunday, April 19.

Elgin and Edwards’ best-of-five series wrapped up on the episode of Impact that aired last night. It was supposed to decide Blanchard’s challenger for Rebellion, but the finish was Edwards submitting to a crossface at the same time as he reversed the move into a pin.

As officials and Scott D’Amore were arguing about who won, Blanchard came to the stage and cut a brief promo saying she’d face both Elgin and Edwards at Rebellion.

Blanchard has been Impact World Champion since winning the title from Sami Callihan at Hard to Kill in January.

Before Rebellion, there will be a King of the Mountain match for the Impact World title at TNA: There’s No Place Like Home in Tampa, Florida on Friday, April 3. Chris Sabin will be the special guest referee for that match.

Impact Wrestling results: Final match in best-of-five series

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Sam’s Town Casino for tonight’s show, headlined by the final match in the Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards series. 

Opening video recapped the history making match of Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie from last week, where Tessa successfully defended her championship. 

Rhino defeated Madman Fulton (with oVe)

The Crist brothers immediately tried to distract both the referee and Rhino. They got ejected to the back. 

Rhino actually started the match on top with a shoulder tackle, sending him to the floor. They brawled for a bit, at which point Rhino clotheslined the ring post and allowed Fulton to gain control of the match. 

Fulton worked over Rhino with mostly strikes and chokes. The match slowed to a crawl from here. Fulton focused on the mid-section, with several shoulder thrusts against the corner, getting a two count at one point from them. 

Rhino tried some comebacks, but kept getting taken down by Fulton. After a couple of tries, Rhino dodged a flying headbutt and another running shoulder thrust into the corner, sending Fulton into the post. 

Rhino hit a couple of chops and punches, followed with clotheslines. He finally set up the Gore, but Fulton caught him with a big boot for a two count. Fulton went for another top rope move, and once again, Rhino dodged, hit the Gore and pinned Fulton. Good opener, but the wrong man won.

After the match, Jake and Dave Crist came out and jumped Rhino until Sabu and Genie came out for the save. Sabu took out both Crists with chairs, he low blowed Fulton and hit a DDT on a chair to send him packing. These cheap pops are just not worth it anymore.

We got another Chris Bey vignette. He debuts next week!

Gabbi Loren interviewed Tessa Blanchard about what is next. She brought up Elgin vs. Edwards tonight, to which Tessa said that she is ready for either man come Rebellion. She said that no matter who wins, she walks out the champion.

Commentary said that there is security in the production truck because of the hacker that has been messing around with the show.

The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated Desi Hit Squad (Mahabali Shera & Rohit Raju) (with Gama Singh)

Rohit and Dezmond start the match with a nice sequence of counters and misdirections that Rohit got the better off for a bit. Xavier caught Rohit with a one-legged moonsault for a two count and tagged in Wentz, who came in with a senton atomico. Rascalz were going for some double teams, but Rohit poked their eyes and ran to Shera. 

Xavier got worked over by the Desi Hit Squad for a while. Shera did all power moves, including slamming Rohit on top for a two count. This didn’t last long, as Dezmond quickly escaped Rohit and tagged out.

Wentz ran wild over Rohit with strikes, earning a two count after a kick combo. Rascalz went for Hot Fire Flame, but Shera interrupted them, took out Wentz, and chokeslammed Xavier into his knee. Rohit followed with a neckbreaker, earning a two count when Wentz broke it up. 

Wentz tried to make a comeback with several kicks. Wentz and Xavier hit a kick combo on Shera, followed with a swanton by Wentz. Xavier ended up landing a tornillo on Shera for the win. Not surprised The Rascalz won, but over Shera was a surprise for sure. Rohit is so underrated.

Backstage, RVD and Katie Forbes talked about the fans being pervy trolls. The Deaners told her they thought she looked great, which prompted Joey Ryan telling Cody Deaner that he was objectifying her. Ryan challenged the Deaners to a match next week. Rob didn’t even know he was involved.

We got a vignette for Tenille Dashwood, but no return date.

Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace defeated Lacey Ryan (with Madison Rayne) to retain the championship.

Ryan is the lady that stood up to Kiera Hogan last week. I figured she would fight Hogan first, but that is not the case.

Collar and elbow lock up to start, Ryan actually met Grace’s power. Jordynne went for the headlock, but Ryan got the escape, provoking Grace to go at her with a shoulder block. Ryan was able to come back with one of her own. 

Ryan went to the top rope, but got caught by Jordynne, who tossed her down. Grace slammed her for a two count. Ryan snapped Grace’s arm against the ropes and hit a springboard arrow for a two count. 

Ryan looked to hook an armbar, but Jordynne rolled over for the pin attempt. Ryan rushed Jordynne, but got caught with a big boot, a running knee and a running shoulder combo to the corner. Ryan then took the Vader Bomb, but kicked out. 

Jordynne went for the Grace Driver, but Ryan blocked it, so Jordynne followed with a couple of clotheslines. Ryan caught Jordynne with a mule kick and a running kick for two.

Ryan once again went to the top rope, but Grace blocked her and hit the Muscle Buster for another two count. Ryan tried to make a comeback and managed to hit a frog splash.

Jordynne dodged a couple of kicks by Ryan, hit the Grace Driver, and took the win.

Pay attention to Lacey Ryan. While she needs to work on her landings, this woman can go! This was good.

Backstage, Fallah Bahh is talking to TJP about their title match against The North. He’s telling TJP that they can be the first ever Filipino World Tag Team champions. He says that Tito Boy is watching. TJP is ready.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was the Ultimate X match from January 2004 between Chris Sabin, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, and Michael Shane.

Gabbi Loren interviewed the returning Chris Sabin. He said that he will be the special guest referee for the King of the Mountain match at the TNA nostalgia show. Moose interrupted him, saying that he would win. Sabin tried to explain the rules, but Moose got confused and said that he’d win anyway. Moose said the match was stupid and stormed off. At least we now have a confirmed entrant for the KOTM match.

We got a video package with the story of Edwards and Elgin fighting for the Call Your Shot trophy that Edwards won back at Bound for Glory.

We saw Taya Valkyrie drinking her pain away at a bar. She is wearing all black and her mascara was running down her face.  For some reason, Rosemary is also there drinking her pain away, because her life is empty now that all her enemies are fighting themselves. Rosemary said that losing everything was the thing that would bring them together. This is going somewhere; these two are perfect for each other.

Willie Mack & Ace Austin defeated Swinging Disco Balls (Glenn Gilbertti & Johnny Swinger)

Before the match, the referee took away Swinger’s brass knuckles. 

Swinger started the match for his team and the first thing they did was have Swinger accidentally take out Disco to the floor. Disco tagged in and got easily taken down by Mack. Swinger tagged in and suffered the same fate, taking a samoan drop and dropkick combo for a two count.

At this point, the Disco and Swinger started using heel tactics to cut off Mack, using the roll of quarters on Mack’s throat. 

SDBs worked over Mack with quick tags, the roll of quarters, and striking behind the referee’s back, but Mack kept kicking out. Gilbertti hit the side Russian leg sweep and the Idiot’s Elbow for a two count. 

Suddenly, Ace Austin came down and got in Mack’s corner, asking for a tag. The distraction was enough for Mack to make a small comeback and hit the Stunner on Disco, but he couldn’t capitalize. Mack actually tagged Ace, who took down Glenn and Swinger. 

Mack and Ace started to work together, even hitting a double team move and connected with in-sync strikes. Mack hit the samoan drop and moonsault, then set up Ace for The Fold, and Mack hit the 6-Star Frog Splash on Disco and got the win. 

After the match, Ace offered Mack a hand shake, who was confused. He took it. Mack wasn’t that confused a minute ago when he was tagging in and out.

Somewhere backstage, Su Yung attacked Havok with the bull rope. They brawled with chairs until Yung locked went for the Mandible Claw and buried Havok in a coffin. Havok is dead. 

Backstage, Swinger blamed Disco for being rusty. He told him to go back to Memphis to get more work. The Swinging Disco Balls officially broke up. 

We got another installment of Gut Check, this week they showed a 6-way match of the surviving participants. It was an ugly indie match. Winner will be announced next week. 

Eddie Edwards (2) vs. Michael Elgin (2) in the fifth match of the Best of Five series ended in a double finish.

Elgin went straight to work early and took down Eddie with clotheslines, then sent him outside where he hit a DVD on the ramp for a two count.

Elgin went for the Buckle Bomb, but Eddie blocked. Elgin instead clobbered Eddie with forearms, but Eddie managed to dodge the final one and hit a desperation Blue Thunder Bomb. Eddie went to the top rope, but Elgin cut him off. They exchanged some strikes until Elgin hit an enziguri. Eddie once again managed to slip away and hit a sunset powerbomb from the ropes.

Back from commercial, Elgin sent Eddie to the floor the hard way with an over-the-top throw. Eddie recovered, but Elgin went to hit a DVD in the apron. Eddie escaped instead and slapped Elgin, but he couldn’t take him down until he kicked Elgin’s leg. Eddie then followed with a flip dive over the rope. 

Back in the ring, Eddie followed up with a running elbow, went for a German, but Elgin blocked it. Elgin caught Eddie with a F-5 style X-Factor and a DDT for a two count. Elgin followed with a draping neckbreaker. 

Elgin connected with more forearms and neckbreakers, but Eddie kept kicking out. Eddie tried making a comeback, but his strikes had no effect on Elgin. They got into a crazy stiff forearm and chop exchange until Eddie landed an over-the-belly suplex. 

Eddie rushed Elgin to the corner, but Elgin caught him with a sambo suplex. Eddie came back with a belly-to-belly, then a backpack stunner for a two count. Elgin went for an electric chair drop, but Eddie kicked out at two. Elgin went back to clobbering Eddie and tried to hit a top rope Dragon Suplex, completely flipping Eddie over, but Eddie still kicked out. This was crazy!

Elgin went for the buckle bomb, but on impact, Eddie rebounded with a clothesline. Eddie went for a Tiger Driver, but Elgin kicked out at two. 

Eddie finally went for the BKP, but Elgin caught him, slammed him with a powerbomb amd followed with a big Lariat, but Eddie still kicked out. Elgin hit the buckle bomb then the Elgin bomb, and Eddie still kicked out! Crowd was evenly split at this point.

Elgin finally went for the burning hammer, but Eddie escaped. Elgin and Eddie exchanged clotheslines, but Elgin accidentally took down the referee. Eddie hit the Boston Knee Party, but got a two count when a second referee came in. 

Elgin hit a piledriver, but couldn’t follow up. He managed to lock in the crossface. Eddie rolled over and hooked him for the pin, but tapped out right at the three count. 

The new referee gave Eddie the win, while the original referee gave Elgin the win. Scott D’Amore came down to settle things, but before they did, Tessa Blanchard came down. She said that at Rebellion, she’ll take on both of them. THAT is a fighting champion!

That was a fantastic main event with a weak finish, but it was saved at the last minute by Tessa Blanchard being a great champion.

Final Thoughts — 

Really good show, the main event alone is worth going out of your way to watch.

Impact Wrestling results: Ace Austin vs. Tessa Blanchard

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Sam’s Town Casino from Las Vegas, Nevada for the fallout of Sacrifice and the build up towards Rebellion. 

Opening video focused on the main event from Sacrifice where Tessa Blanchard pinned the X-Division champion, Ace Austin. 

Show began with footage from last week’s post-show where Ace Austin told D’Amore that he wants a rematch and he wants it to be a title match. D’Amore makes it for the X-Division Championship instead. 

Daga defeated Rob Van Dam (with Katie Forbes) by countout

Rob started the match shoving Daga around a bit, but once the actual wrestling started, Daga used his armdrag abilities to send RVD to the floor and take him out with a quick dive. Outside the ring, Rob gained the upper hand slamming Daga a bit on the floor and kicking him. 

Back in the ring, RVD kept working over Daga, mostly with kicks and stomps. Rob got a two count with a leg-scissors pin. 

Rob teased the Rolling Thunder, but didn’t deliver as usual, and went outside to make out with Forbes. The distraction was enough for Daga to recover and catch RVD with a dropkick and a dragon screw, at least until Rob poked Daga in the eye. 

Forbes got in the apron and distracted Rob about what people were saying in social media about them, which gave Daga an opening to roll up RVD for a two count. 

Katie Forbes left to the back, which distracted Rob again, and once again, Daga got a dropkick and a monkey flip, got some clotheslines in then connected with a GTS for a two count. Daga hit an ugly suicide dive, and was going for the top rope finish but RVD walked out of the match. This was terrible, it made Daga look weak.

During the match, there was a lot of focus on Katie Forbes blocking people on social media and it worked into Rob getting distracted. May mean something later on.

After the match, the camera followed RVD to the back where Katie Forbes was saying those people don’t deserve to see them. RVD said they paid tickets, so they kinda do. Joey Ryan walked up to them and said he agreed with them and that he went through the same because of his ‘super penis’. Joey Ryan said that if they ever needed to talk, he was there for them.

Gabbi Loren interviewed Jordynne Grace about her successful defense against Havok. Jordynne said that she is a fighting champion and made an open challenge to anyone.  Madison Rayne walked up and said that she is only copying her open challenge from last week. Rayne implied that she has a protege she is preparing to challenge Jordynne tonight.

Matthews and Callis ran down tonight’s card and explained the return of Gut Check.

Rohi Raju (with Mahabali Shera & Gama Singh) defeated Zachary Wentz (with The Rascalz)

This match comes from Rohit costing The Rascalz the tag titles at last Saturday’s Sacrifice match against The North.

Match started with a little bit of chain wrestling with both men getting the upper hand at some point. They later transitioned into a fast paced sequence of reversals and strikes that ended with a release German suplex by Wentz. Rohit recovered and came back with a strike combo and a running knee for a two count. Rohit sent Wentz to the floor for Shera, but Xavier and Trey were there to stand up against him.

Back from commercial, Rohit was still under control of Wentz, the former got a two count with a side leg sweep. Rohit went for a running knee, but Wentz caught him with a strike combo, a running knee, and PK to gain some momentum. Rohit rolled out, Wentz went for the dive, but Rohit faked him, and went for a dive himself only to get caught with a stunner on the ropes. Wentz hit a Bitter End-type maneuver for a two count. 

They exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring, with Wentz having the upper hand, but Shera was there to distract Wentz, giving Rohit the opening to hit a Jumping Knee and a Flatliner for a two count. Raju went for the strikes and bites, and finally the finisher, but Wentz countered. 

Wentz went for the top rope, but Shera distracted him. The Rascalz took care of Shera, but it was enough time for Rohit to move away from the Swanton Bomb and hit a Foot Stomp for the win.

The show was interrupted by the hacker, who blocked the music and lights, but then the show continued. 

Ace Austin cut a promo about tonight’s match. He said that Tessa doesn’t deserve to get a title shot first since he has defeated Tessa more times. He said that after he defeats her tonight, he’s coming for the World Title. He had a great line that ‘Tessa may be undeniable, but he’s inevitable.

We got a promo by oVe, minus Sami Callihan. Dave Crist said that Sami is gone and that no one knows where he is. Dave said that they need a new leader, which prompts a face off between the Crist brothers and Madman Fulton. Jake Crist is there to calm them down and said that it’s all about Ohio.

Knockout’s champion Jordynne Grace defeated Miranda Alize (with Madison Rayne) to retain the title

Miranda Alize is great, but a bit underwhelming as the challenger. She also came out first and unannounced, making it lackluster.

Match started with Jordynne having the strength agvantage in the lock up, but Alize didn’t grant a clean break, slapping Jordynne in the face and angering her. Jordynne retaliated with a slap and slammed Alize down for a quick two count. 

Jordynne gave Alize some stif shots and went for the clothesline, but Alzie used her speed and lucha style to counter with a couple of ranas and knee to the face for a two count. 

Jordynne once again used her power to strike down Alize, hit a snap suplex and a running knee, a sliding shoulder block to the corner, and the Vader bomb for a two count. The shoulder block was so heavy that Alize looked legit hurt in the ribs. 

Alize tried to come back with a cutter, but Grace kicked out, blocked a suplex, landed the Grace Driver and pinned Alize. 

Weak match. Alize is good, but Jordynne didn’t mesh well with her.

Gabbi Loren interviewed The North about their upcoming title match against Bahh and TJP. Ethan Page said that they are the standard of tag team wrestling in the world. I don’t disagree. He said that Bahh and TJP want to be like them, but if they do, they eventually will get to them in the way, and there is no defeating them. Page was fantastic.

We got a vignette for the ‘Ultimate Finesser’ Chris Bey, Impact’s newest signee. 

Somewhere in the back, we saw Havok roaming around, looking for Susie. Rosemary sneaks up on her. Rosemary said that she is now free of Mitchell and that she has another present for her, a No DQ match versus Su Yung. 

Eddie Edwards (1) defeated Michael Elgin (2) in match 4 of the Best of Five series

This match was taped in Dayton, OH by The Wrestling Revolver. Match was commented on by Josh Matthews and D’Lo Brown.

Match started with both men exchanging kicks, shoulder blocks, and a couple of forearms. Eventually, Edwards got an atomic drop and an over-the-belly suplex, but when he went for the dive Elgin leaped over the ropes and hit a back elbow to take down Eddie. Elgin didn’t follow up, letting Eddie hit a fisherman suplex for a two count. 

Eddie went for some chops on Elgin, who came back with a huge elbow to drop Eddie. Elgin followed with another elbow and a sliding one for a two count. Now it was Elgin that went for the chops. Eddie came back with some chops, but Elgin just exploded with a huge Sambo Suplex and a Scoop Slam. Elgin went for the top rope, but Eddie blocked him and hit a Superplex. 

Elgin went for another Sambo, but Eddie countered into an armdrag and hit a Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count. Eddie went for the Backpack Stunner, but Elgin got free, did a cartwheel out of the top rope, came down with a Release German, but Eddie fired up and hit one. Elgin hit a big Uranage.

Back from commercial, Elgin was clobbering Eddie with clotheslines, but as he went for the big one, Eddie wakes up and starts exchanging strikes with Elgin. Eddie counters a DVD and superkicks Elgin, but can’t capitalize. They went back to exchanging chops and forearms until Eddie landed a Tiger Bomb for a two count. 

Eddie went for the Boston Knee Party, but Elgin caught him, set him up in the ropes and went for a second rope German. Eddie punched him off. Eddie went for a moonsault, which he rarely does, but Elgin moved away. Elgin took him down with a discus clothesline and went for a big lariat, but Eddie’s legs crumbled under him, dodging the clothesline. 

Elgin was playing possum and got a small package for a two count. Eddie dodged another clothesline and rolled up Elgin with the Gedo Clutch and picked the win to tie Elgin 2-2. Great match.

Impact Plus Moment of the Week was Against All Odds 2010’s Ken Anderson vs Jeff Hardy in a ladder match for the purple TNA World title. 

Gabbi Loren interviewed Petey Williams and Scott D’Amore. They’re introducing the upcoming nostalgia show – TNA: There’s No Place Like Home. D’Amore announces the return of Ultimate X, the return of the King of the Mountain, and hinted to a Reverse Battle Royal. 

Moose interrupted them and said what we’re all thinking. TNA is dead and it should be left like that and that all focus should be on Impact, especifically Mr. Impact Wrestling. Moose made fun of the ‘stars’ of TNA. Petey Williams said that at least all those men were champions. Moose vs Petey Williams next week.

Also next week, Su Yung vs Havok in a No DQ match and TJP and Fallah Bahh vs The North in a non-title match.

Backstage, Willie Mack was approached by Johnny Swinger, who still doesn’t get it. Swinger said they’re getting better as a team. Disco Inferno approached them and said that he’d be a better partner for Mack because he’s a superstar and Mack needs him. In the end, Swinger and Inferno agreed to become a tag team. 

We got a video package of this year’s Gut Check training camp. The trainer is John E. Bravo and the narrator is Scott D’Amore. They showed two guys that were terrible. One of them, Shogun, was straight up being stiff and unsafe.

We got the commercial for Lockdown, taking place on March 28th on Impact Plus. 

Impact World champion Tessa Blanchard defeated X-Division champion Ace Austin by DQ

Ace went straight for the slam, but Tessa was ready to counter and rolled up Austin for a one count, she quickly followed with two low dropkicks, a running kick to the back and the middle rope Magnum for a two count. Hot start.

Ace went for a suplex but Tessa blocked and countered into a cradle for a quick pin attempt. Tessa went for a Rana, but Ace blocked it and landed a series of three backbreakers to gain control of the match. Tessa tried to make some comebacks, but he kept her at bay with kicks. 

Ace focused on Tessa’s back with knee strikes and went for a bow and arrow. Ace got a two count with a backplex. Tessa tried to make another comeback, but Ace caught her with a strike. He started to show off more and more, giving Tessa more openings until she landed a tilt-a-whirl head-scissors and a dive to finally gain some momentum. 

Tessa went for a tornado DDT, but Ace blocked her and landed a gutbuster. Ace focused on the back with strikes and sunk in a crossface. 

Ace continued going for strikes and kicks to the back, and followed up with a dragon sleeper. Tessa made the ropes and finally made her comeback with chops and punches, but as she went for the Buzzsaw, Ace blocked. 

Ace went for The Fold, but Tessa dodged. Tessa hit a rana and a big tornado DDT, but as she went for Magnum Taya Valkyrie ran down and jumped Tessa for the DQ finish. Taya kept banging Tessa’s head against the mat until the show went off the air.

Final Thoughts — 

An overall good show for Impact. it started weak inside the ring, but it got better towards the second half. Storyline wise, we’re starting to get hints towards Rebellion and the TNA nostalgia show. 

Impact Wrestling results: Sacrifice go-home show

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling kicks off the new set of tapings from Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Opening video recapped Michael Elgin going 2-0 against Eddie Edwards in their Best of Five series. Su Yung attacking James Mitchell, the hacker that has been messing around with the broadcast, and Jordynne Grace winning the Knockouts championship.

TJP (with Fallah Bahh) defeated Josh Alexander (with Ethan Page)

Fantastic match. It started with some little chain wrestling with Josh keeping wrist control and TJP finding ways to counter and reverse. At one point TJP went for a leg-scissors and Josh just blocked it and forced TJP to get the ropes instead.

TJP then turned around the match doing lucha moves, hitting a couple of ranas, at least until Alexander took him down with a shoulder block and began working over him. 

TJP managed to get some speed and locked in an octopus hold, but Alexander rolled him over and once again cut him off. TJP tried again with a submission and Alexander turned it into a backbreaker for a two count.

After some more work, Alexander went for a Green Bay plunge, but TJP managed to reverse it into a crucifix pin for a two count. Alexander decided to go for a second one, but TJP escaped, took down Alexander with a cross armbreaker from the second rope for the near submission until Alexander rolled him over with the pin. 

TJP sent Alexander outside with some headscissors, followed by a corkscrew plancha. Dropkick to the back and springboard dropkick to the head by TJP. He missed the swanton and Alexander caught him with a backbreaker, but TJP still got a quick roll-up for a two count. Alexander went for the big swing, but TJP turned it into a kneebar and a desperation powerbomb. Alexander hit like a Release Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count. 

They got into a striking exchange that ended with TJP on top with a Spinning Kick. Alexander came back with a forearm to the back of the neck and a snap German. TJP recovered and locked in the Armbar again, only to get powerbombed into Josh’s knee for a two count. 

Alexander went for a Super Fallaway Slam, but TJP escaped to the apron. TJP hit a jumping Superplex that almost killed Alexander, transitioned into the Octopus and into an Achilles Lock until Josh made the ropes. 

TJP went for the Detonation Kick, but Josh blocked it. Alexander locked in a sleeper, but TJP rolled over and got the pin. Go watch this match now.

Backstage, Johnny Swinger interrupted the fantastic actor Willie Mack. Swinger told Mack that they need to practice and get some reps. Macks tells him that he’s right and heads to the ring.

Michael Elgin cut a promo on Eddie. He said that he thought they were similar, but that Eddie needed to be pushed to the limits by Callihan and Ace Austin to finally dig in and win, while Elgin doesn’t need anything. He will win tonight. 

Willie Mack defeated Johnny Swinger

This was mostly all jokes. Swinger tried using tricks from the start, and every time, Mack had the upper hand. 

Swinger went for the Fuchi punch but instead took three himself. Swinger finally got the upper hand with a guillotine over the ropes, which he followed with some strikes. He followed that with some illegal chokes, a headbutt to the groin, and some eye rakes. 

Swinger went for the top rope ax handle, but Mack caught him with strikes, clotheslines, and a big scoop slam. Mack connected with the Samoan drop and moonsault combo. Swinger went for his finish, but Mack blocked, hit the stunner and the 6-Star Frog Splash for the win. Ok match, nothing to it, hopefully, this story is done.

We got a video recap of Jordynne Grace’s chase for the Knockout’s championship and last week’s match in which she won it. 

Madison Rayne was in the ring talking about Jordynne Grace. She said that Grace got herself in a match she didn’t belong, she cheated to win that match, and now she’s the champion. Rayne said that tonight, she was holding a special Golden Opportunity Open Challenge. Out came….

Madison Rayne defeated Mazzerati

Mazzerati got a couple of roll-ups and a dropkick to start the match, but Rayne came back with a big knee to the liver and connected with a northern lights suplex for the two count. 

Rayne locked in a cravate for the submission tease, but she instead hit a couple of knees to the face for a two count. 

Mazzerat came back with a jawbreaker and some strikes, a jumping forearm, but Rayne was ready with a ripcord cutter for a two count. Mazzerati hit a couple of bad kicks and went for a Moonsault, but Rayne kicked the ropes off from her, brought her down with the CrossRayne for the win. Mazzerati has potential but needs some more time in the oven.

Gabbi Loren interviewed Jordynne Grace about winning the title. Jordynne said that this meant the world to her, she’s been wrestling since she was 14 years old and that beating Taya for it was the icing on the cake. She said that she’ll defeat Jessicka Havok at Sacrifice and will be a defending champion. 

John E. Bravo then walked up, shouting about Taya being the greatest champion in the company. Bravo said she had a special video package made for Taya. We got the video and it was awesome, it was a full package of Taya’s last few years with Impact. Taya is indeed awesome.

Back from commercial, Taya was screaming at Bravo. Taya said she’s coming to get her title back. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Ken Anderson vs The Pope D’Angelo Dinero from Against All Odds 2010.

Backstage, RVD tried to calm down Katie Forbes about social media. They were talking about losers when RVD starts to make fun of Daga, who then shows up challenges Rob to a match.

Gabbi Loren interviewed Tessa Blanchard, Trey Miguel, and Tommy Dreamer. The latter put over Tessa and Trey for making their names. Tessa said she felt great with this team and that come Sacrifice, it will be one on one vs Ace Austin.

Eddie Edwards (0) defeated Michael Elgin (2) in Match 3 of the Best of Five series

Match started with some clotheslines in the middle of the ring. Elgin went for the quick German, but Eddie landed on his feet and sent Elgin to the outside. He followed with a suicide dive, and back in the ring, hit a tiger bomb for a two count. Strong start for Eddie. 

Eddie went for the BKP, but Elgin dodged, dropped Eddie on the ropes, hit a release German, and a Sliding Lariat. They made it to the apron where Elgin hit a DVD for a two count.

Back in the ring, Elgin worked over Eddie’s upper body with strikes. Eddie tried to make a comeback, but Elgin struck him down repeatedly. After some trash talk, Eddie finally started to build some momentum with chops, but once again, Elgin took him down. 

Elgin went for a second rope punch, but Eddie caught him, sent him outside with a running boot, and once again went for the suicide dive, but this time was caught with an elbow by Elgin in mid-air. Elgin went for the Elgin Bomb on the ramp, but Eddie rolled over and hit a desperation Boston Knee Party as they went crashing down for the countout tease. 

Eddie hit a top rope foot stomp for a two count. Elgin hit a superkick and lariat. Elgin hit a Falcon Arrow for a two count, followed with another sliding lariat to the back of the neck. 

Elgin hit the buckle bomb, but Eddie countered the Elgin Bomb to a pin for a two count. Elgin went for the crossface, but Eddie rolled over, hit a BKP, but couldn’t capitalize fast enough. Eddie went for a lariat but ate two of Elgin’s for yet another two count. 

Elgin went for the Burning Hammer, but Eddie escaped. Elgin hit an enzuigiri, Eddie came back with a diamond-giri and a frankensteiner, but Elgin turned it into a powerbomb. Elgin went for the Elgin Bomb and Eddie turned it into a small package for the win. Another fantastic match tonight!

Moose came down for commentary for the next match.

Rhino defeated Dave Crist (with Jake Crist)

Dave jumped Rhino and got some chops and chokes in. Jake Crist got some cheap shots in while Dave distracted the referee. Dave stomped on Rhino and went for a second rope senton, but Rhino moved. 

Rhino made a comeback with strikes and clotheslines. He followed with a belly-to-belly suplex then went for the Gore, but Jake Crist tripped him, allowing Dave to get some strikes in. 

Rhino finally took down Jake Crist, hit the Gore on Dave, and picked up the win. Total squash match.

Somewhere backstage, Jessicka Havok roamed until Susie showed up, but Susie was playing tricks on her, telling Havok her time had come.

We got a vignette for Chris Bey who will be joining Impact soon.

Gabbi Loren was talking about Sacrifice when her stream was interrupted by the hacker. Callis and Matthews said they’re investigating what is happening.

X-Division Champion Ace Austin & Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe) defeated Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard, Trey Miguel, and Tommy Dreamer

Thornstowe and Trey start the match, with the latter having the upper hand thanks to his speed and lucha ability. Trey drops Thornstowe with dropkicks before tagging in Tessa. 

Tessa came in and hit an assisted hurricanrana, then tagged in Dreamer. Babyfaces continued with quick tags and quick shots until Thornstowe was able to cut off Trey and tag in Ace Austin, who quickly tagged in Luster. He easily overpowered Trey.

The heels jumped Dreamer and the match quickly broke down with triple bionic elbows on Luster The Legend.

Back from commercial, Dreamer is still working over Luster The Legend but suddenly he takes a knee from Ace Austin, and that gives Luster the opening to cut him off and separate him from his team. 

The heels worked over Dreamer for a while with a lot of quick tags, some dirty armpit tricks, and a bunch of strikes and stomps. Dreamer managed to avoid a diving headbutt from Luster and finally tagged in Trey. 

Trey and Ace had a quick sequence until Trey landed the meteora on Ace and went for the pin, but it was broken up by Thornstowe. He pulled Trey outside, slammed him, and successfully cut him off. Reno Scum worked over Trey with several double team moves, scoring a two count with a backbreaker and facebuster combo. 

Trey finally made an escape and hot tagged Tessa. She took control of Luster with strikes then landed a tornado DDT. Tessa hit a Samoan drop on Thornstowe, then locked in a sleeper hold on Ace, but Trey was ready for the blind tag. Tessa and Trey hit sequential Superkicks, ending with a Cutter from Trey for a two count when Luster broke it up. 

Dreamer hit a Cutter on Luster and took him out with an apron senton. 

Tessa hit a suicide dive on Thornstowe and went for the DDT, but Ace was there to kick her head off. Trey followed by kicking Ace off the ring and hit a tornillo to the outside. 

Back in the ring, Ace low blowed Trey, hit the Fold, then pinned Trey for the win. Another good match, but unfortunately the wrong person lost.

Final Thoughts — 

A great show by Impact, three top notch matches and the start of some stories, a good go-home show for Sacrifice, and a good start to build towards Rebellion.

Impact Wrestling results: Jordynne Grace wins Knockouts title

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Opening video focused on the build to tonight’s Knockout’s title match between Taya Valkyrie and Jordynne Grace. Also tonight, match two of the Elgin vs Edwards best-of-five series.

Michael Elgin defeated Eddie Edwards in Match two of the Best of Five series

Eddie tried to start the match with a kick, but Elgin was ready and chopped him down, hit an exploder and picked up an early two count, in addition to gaining control of the match. Elgin went for an early buckle bomb, but Eddie blocked, so instead, Elgin went for strikes.

Eddie hit a rolling German, but Elgin no sold and went for a sliding lariat and countered into a crucifix pin for a two count. Eddie hit a dragon screw on the ropes and went for a top rope dive, but was countered into a sit down powerbomb for another two count. 

Elgin dropped Eddie with one elbow strike after another and ended up sending him outside. Down on the floor, Elgin kicked and slammed Eddie into the apron.

Back in the ring, Elgin kept the punishment while Eddie could barely stay on his feet. Eddie tried to strike Elgin back, but it wasn’t effective. Eventually, Eddie got an enzuigiri in, but Elgin came back with a German and a dragon suplex, followed by a huge lariat for a two count.

Elgin went for the superplex, but Eddie dropped down with the sunset bomb, blocked by Elgin. Elgin blocked a tiger bomb attempt, but Eddie caught him with a lariat and got the tiger bomb for a two count. Eddie went for the BKP, but Elgin dodged to the floor, where he instead took a suicide dive. 

Eddie hit a Diamond-giri, followed with a top rope rana, but Elgin blocked and went for the powerbomb, only for Eddie to counter the rana for another two count. Elbin blocked Eddie’s strike, did a shoulder breaker, and locked in the crossface, but Eddie rotated for the pin attempt.

Eddie hit a short German and a BKP attempt, but Elgin dodged, hit the buckle bomb then followed with the Elgin Bomb for the win. Elgin is now 2-0 in the series.

We got a video package for Jordynne Grace’s chase of the Knockout’s championship, going back a full year when she first debuted.

Gabbi Loren tried to interview Taya Valkyrie. She asked about Taya’s preparedness, to which Taya answered she obviously was, but if she cared about it, she wouldn’t be out there disturbing her. Taya said that no one ever believed in her and no one thought she would be able to retain this long, but now she’s the longest reigning champion.

Mathews and Callis ran down some matches for tonight and for the Sacrifice special.

Madman Fulton defeated Daga

This was a power vs speed match, big vs small. Daga went straight for Fulton’s leg with a low dropkick, but when he tried to follow with a second, Fulton caught him and took him down with one clothesline. Daga went for a rana, but again, Fulton caught him and went for a powerbomb to the floor, but Daga was able to keep the rana and send fulton to the floor, where he followed with a tope suicida. 

Back from commercial, both men make it back to the ring, but Fulton again manages to catch Daga and take him down with a big boot and get a two count. Daga goes for a bulldog, but Fulton blocks him, drops him against the ropes and hits a German for a two count. 

Fulton snaps Daga’s head against the ropes and keeps up with the forearms. 

Daga finally fires up and starts hitting Fulton. He escaped a Scoop Slam and hit a dropkick to Fulton’s back. Daga hit a missile dropkick, then a short DDT for a two count. Daga continued with a superkick and a standing footstomp for another two count. 

Daga went for punches, but Fulton grabbed him by the neck, hit two chokeslams and got a two count. Fulton went for a top rope move, but Daga escaped and hit a second rope German, followed by a DVD. The Crist brothers then came down for the distraction. Daga took them out with a dive, hit a top rope Cutter on Fulton, but when Daga went for the Tornado DDT Fulton blocked and hit an End of Days, dropping Daga on his head, and getting the win. 

Moose was getting a massage, asking to get some work on his butt because Rhino has been a pain in his ass. Moose said that he is tired of dealing with Rhino, who, just in the perfect timing, came in and attacked Moose. He stole his towel and slapped him with it, making Moose run for safety.

Fallah Bahh (w/TJP) defeated Ethan Page (w/Josh Alexander)

Page starts by jumping Bahh, but fails to keep the momentum when trying to shoulder block him. Bahh in the first minute did a cartwheel, hit a belly-to-belly and sent Page to the outside. Josh distracted Bahh, giving Page the opening to kick down Bahh and regain some control.

Page hit a couple of kicks and a shoulder tackle to take down Bahh. Page went for strikes, but Bahh started to fire up and counter Page, whipping him to the corner and hitting a running hip attack. Bahh hit a samoan drop and went for the Banzai Drop, but Alexander was there to save Page and let Bahh drop into nothingness. TJP made sure to run in and take out Josh with a tope con giro. 

Back in the ring, Bahh caught Page with a roll-up and picked up the upset win, earning a tag title shot.

James Mitchell and Havok find Susie. Mitchell is happy that it’s her and not Su Yung, but it turns out, Su Yung seems to have mastered transforming from one to the other and she is tricking Mitchell and Havok.

Rob Van Dam (w/Katie Forbes) defeated Joey Ryan

RVD has a new theme song, they managed to make something worse than RVD’s originally bad theme song.

Joey Ryan started by stalling, putting on oil all over and asking RVD to touch it, which prompted the R-V-D taunt. Katie Forbes got in the ring and made out with RVD, which wasn’t a DQ. Forbes danced in the ring until the distraction was enough for RVD to jump Ryan. 

RVD worked over Ryan for a bit with kicks, but he played to the crowd so much that Ryan started his comeback with some punches, a school boy and a dropkick as the fight spilled outside to the floor. 

Back in the ring, RVD started to resort to heel tricks, poking Ryan’s eyes. RVD did the crescent kick to Ryan, who was on the ropes, but once again, RVD just played to the crowd and teased doing moves, but instead, he just went for Forbes. 

Joey Ryan caught RVD with a tope suicida. In the ring, they traded some near falls before Ryan finally got RVD’s hand on his penis, but Rob was actually able to counter Ryan with a kick. RVD hit the Five Star Frog Splash and picked up the win. Ken Shamrock took the dick flip, but RVD wouldn’t.

We went backstage where Su Yung is dragging James Mitchell with the rope she was hanged with. Su Yung chokes him out and sends him to the Undead Realm again, which is where he lives anyway.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Magnus vs Eric Young from Sacrifice 2014.

Johnny Swinger approached Willie Mack about backing him up tonight, he had the Fuji dust and the roll of quarters ready. Mack told him to stay out of his way. 

Willie Mack vs Mahabali Shera (w/Desi Hit Squad) ended in a no contest

Rohit held up Mack’s foot, allowing Shera to jump him to start the match. They quickly got into strikes, with Mack getting most of them in. As soon as Mack seemed to have some advantage, Rohit attacked him. The referee then declared the match a no contest.

Johnny Swinger came down with a chair to run off the Desi Hit Squad, so the match is being restarted as a tag team match.

Desi Hit Squad (Mahabali Shera & Rohit Raju w/Gama Singh) defeated Willie Mack & Johnny Swinger

Desi Hit Squad started the match with control over Swinger. Eventually, Swinger managed to escape Shera and tag in Mack. Willie took down Shera and hit a rolling cannonball to the corner. He landed the samoan drop and moonsault combo on Rohit Raju. 

Swinger blind-tagged himself in, but actually managed to hold down Shera for a bit until he suggested a double team move.Mack didn’t want to tag, so Rohit eventually pulled Mack out, Shera took down Swinger, then picked up the win.

Gabbi Loren interviewed Tessa Blanchard about her upcoming match with Ace Austin and his mind games. Tessa said that Ace is a scumbag, but not even a good one at it. Ace approached them and hit on Tessa, who answered in the form of punches until Reno Scum and The Rascalz broke them up. Ace Austin & Reno Scum vs Tessa Blanchard, Tommy Dreamer, and Trey Miguel next week. 

Jordynne Grace defeated Knockout’s Champion Taya Valkyrie (w/ John E. Bravo) to win the Knockouts title

Taya jumped Grace to start and goes straight for the strikes and the running hip attacks. Taya distracts the referee to allow Bravo to choke out Grace until Taya is ready to continue with the running knees. 

Back from commercial, Taya maintains control over Grace, keeping up the strategy of distracting the referee while Bravo attacks. Jordynne slowly starts to make a comeback with strikes and lands a desperation German. Taya tried running to the outside, but Grace followed with a suicide dive.

Jordynne went for a top rope move, but Bravo was there to toss her down to Taya’s punches. Taya is back to her strategy, adding kicks to Jordynne’s arm and back. Jordynne keeps trying to get strikes in, finally landing a desperation spinebuster. 

Both women exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring until Grace hit a couple of scoop slams, ending with the Grace Driver for a two count.

They fought on the apron where Jordynne looked for a piledriver, but Taya got off, kicked out Grace, and actually powerbombed her into the steel steps on the floor. Taya pulled Jordynne to the entrance ramp where she hit the Road To Valhalla for the countout tease. Jordynne made it to the ring at 9, and into a two count by Taya.

Taya went for a top rope moonsault, but Grace pulled her off. Jordynne instead went for the muscle buster for a two count. Taya locked in an armbreaker, but Grace powered into a two count pin. Taya relocked it, but Grace reversed it into a crossface, but Bravo pulled them both into the ropes.

Jordynne hit a Vader Bomb and Grace Driver, but Bravo pulled the referee out of the ring. The referee was pulled back into  the ring by Grace and accidentally speared by Taya. Bravo laid on top of Taya to protect her, but Grace hit a top rope senton to take them both out, followed by the Grace Driver for the win. Jordynne Grace has ended the record breaking reign of Taya Valkyrie.

Final Thoughts — 

Good show. It started and ended strong, but there was some stuff in the middle that was totally missable. 

Impact Wrestling results: Elgin vs. Edwards best-of-five series begins

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Fronton Mexico in Mexico City for tonight’s episode. Opening video focused on Tessa Blanchard’s title win, her call out of Callihan, and Ace Austin and Taya’s challenge from last week. 

El Hijo del Vikingo defeated Josh Alexander (w/ Ethan Page)

A total power vs. speed battle. Alexander started the match bullying Vikingo with that power advantage, cutting him off when Vikingo tried to get some speed. It wasn’t long until he caught him with a springboard dropkick, rana to the outside, but when Vikingo went for a tope con giro, Alexander moved and Vikingo landed on the floor. Alexander got a two count.

Back in the ring, Alexander started working over Vikingo with strikes and stomps. Vikingo made a comeback with an impressive Armbar, but Alexander simply powerbombed him off. delayed vertical suplex by Alexander for a two count. 

They got into a slap exchange that ended with Vikingo faking out Alexander and hitting a second springboard dropkick and twisting dive to the floor. Vikingo got whipped to the guardrail, but Vikingo jumped into the rail, into the balcony, and landed a moonsault on Josh. Vikingo took out Page with a twisting Asai moonsault. Vikingo tried to follow with a dive on Alexander, but got caught and powerbombed. 

Vikingo recovered and dropped Alexander in the corner, hit a running knee to the face, and hit a 450 for a two count. Vikingo went for a rana, but Alexander blocked and powerbombed him to the knee for a two count. 

Alexander went for a second rope move, but Vikingo reversed into a rana. Alexander went for a German, but Vikingo again blocked and reversed into a roll up for a two count. Several more roll ups until Alexander went for the double underhook driver, but Vikingo fully rotated into a dragonrana for the upset pin. 

Awesome start to the show. C’mon Impact, get Vikingo a visa already. This got money treatment by the Mexican crowd.

Gabi Loren tried to interview Taya Valkyrie about tonight’s three-way no. 1 contendership match, but Taya had no comments other than Jordynne having no business being in this match.

Moose cut a promo saying that he doesn’t make excuses, but this time, the only reason he lost to Taurus was because of Rhino. Moose said that once he’s done with Taurus, he’s coming for Rhino.

Callis and Matthews ran down tonight’s card. Relevant here is that there are video issues from some ‘hacker’, most likely Callihan.

The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated El Pagano & Murder Clown

Pagano and Murder Clown are way over tonight, given that they’re Mexican and Pagano kept making references to La Parka.

Wentz and Murder start the match with the latter easily getting the better of Wentz with a press slam. Wentz hit a rana on Murder, kicked the knee out of Murder and connected with a small kick. 

Dezmond and Pagano tagged in. Dezmond ran circles around Pagano until Pagano got a reverse suplex and a running neckbreaker. Pagano chopped and hit Dezmond, who then came back with a striking combo himself before tagging Wentz. Murder Clown pulled both Rascalz to the floor and set them up for Pagano’s tope con giro. 

Back in the ring, Murder and Pagano worked over Dezmond with a sloppy monkey flip into a dropkick for a two count that Wentz broke up. Pagano and Murder hit a 5150 on Wentz, which couldn’t wasn’t called as a reference to LAX. Murder Clown followed with a 619 on Dezmond, but Wentz was there to block the follow-up. Rascalz hit a double superplex on Murder, followed by a swanton by Wentz and a tornillo by Dezmond for the win. 

This was really sloppy, Pagano is terrible and Murder can’t exactly hang with the speed of The Rascalz.

Michael Elgin cut a promo on Eddie Edwards, telling him that he is the rightful owner of the trophy. He said that he doesn’t need five matches since he already beat him over and over again. He said that he’ll take the trophy and claim the World Championship.

Moose defeated Taurus

Shoulder tackles and lucha arm drags to start the match, with Taurus hitting an early rana on Moose, who came back with chops and into the chop exchange. Taurus hit a plancha to send Moose to the outside then followed with a corkscrew tope. 

Down on the floor, Moose managed to whip Taurus to the ring post, but failed to chop him and hit the post instead, but then delivered the same, faking Taurus who went headfirst into the post.

Back in the ring, Moose now had the upper hand and worked over Taurus, at one point going for Taurus’ mask. Moose went from corner to corner striking Taurus until he started getting cocky and failed to land a running elbow to the corner. Taurus took out his knee and hit the second 619 of the night, followed with a diamongiri and a slingblade for a two count.

Moose went for the discus forearm, but Taurus blocked with a striking combo. Moose went for another, but Taurus hit a headbutt. 

Moose faked out Taurus, sending him to the ring post shoulder first, then hit No Jackhammer Needed for the win. Good match.

After the match, Rhino stalked Moose and hit the Gore. 

Eddie Edwards cut a promo, addressing Elgin’s promo about him talking and talking, but he’s the one that always walks out with the trophy. Eddie said that it could be a Best of a Thousand, but in the end it’s always the same, him keeping the trophy. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was James Storm vs Kurt Angle from Genesis 2012. 

Gabi Loren interviewed Joey Ryan about Rob Van Dam. Ryan said that he didn’t understand RVD’s reason to go after him and claimed that it’s all because RVD is jealous and worried that Katie wants to touch ‘it’.

Taya Valkyrie came down to join commentary for the following match.

Jordynne Grace defeated Madison Rayne and Kiera Hogan to become the number one contender for the Knockouts title

Rayne and Hogan teamed up against Grace, but Jordynne easily got the better of both, striking them down, dropping Hogan with a Draping DDT, a body scissors on Rayne on to Hogan for a two count. 

Jordynne went for the Muscle Buster on Rayne, but Hogan saved her, so in exchange, Jordynne double clotheslined both. Grace couldn’t get the pin due to the numbers game. 

Rayne and Hogan finally got the upper hand with a couple of double team moves, mostly kicks and strikes while one of them either held or distracted Grace. 

Jordynne made a comeback overpowering Rayne and Hogan with a double suplex. Jordynne slapped both down, gave a scoop slam to each and delivered an ugly Grace Driver on Hogan for a two count when Rayne broke it off.

Jordynne kicked down both women again and went to the top rope, where both women managed to toss her off. Hogan hit an assisted shiranui, but both women tried to pin Jordynne and the referee had to tell them off. The distraction was enough for Jordynne to recover and use Rayne’s arm to choke Hogan for a submission tease. If you use someone’s limb to submit another, who gets the win?

Rayne and Hogan hit a kick combo on Grace to send her down to the floor and finally get a breather, but they started bickering on who should go after Grace, but again, it was enough time for Grace to recover, take out Rayne, hit the Grace Driver on Hogan, and pick up the win and right to face Taya again.

Ace Austin cut a promo showing how he has defeated Trey Miguel twice already. He brought up defeating Tessa Blanchard twice too.

Johnny Swinger approached Willie Mack and told him that they need to work on their teamwork. Mack told him off and said that Swann is his only partner. 

In the locker room, TJP got a new attire for the now thinner Fallah Bahh. TJP is wrestling Vikingo next week!

Dr. Wagner Jr. & Daga (w/ Galeno del Mal) defeated Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe)

Daga and Thronstowe start the match with a quick sequence of counters with Daga getting the upper hand until Luster gets tagged in. Wagner tagged in but was overtaken by Luster’s power advantage,  blocking a crossbody and turning it into a Scoop Slam, followed by a headbutt for a two count. Luster went for a second rope Diving headbutt, but Wagner moved and got Daga in. 

Daga got pulled to the floor by Thornstowe and rammed to the rail to successfully cut him off from his corner. Reno Scum worked over Daga with quick tags and double team moves until Daga made a comeback using his speed to dodge and strike both men.

Wagner got the hot tag and took out both Scum members, hitting dragon screws on each. Samoan drop on Thornstowe, followed by some kind of flatliner by Daga, who then hit a corkscrew to Luster outside. Wagner hit the Wagner Driver for a two count. 

Daga came in and took a huge spinebuster by Luster and a DVD by Thownstowe for a two count, broken up by Wagner. Luster got sent out to the floor by Wagner, followed by a rolling senton. Inside the ring, Daga pinned Thornstowe with the Daga driver.

After the match, Jake and Dave Crist returned and attacked Daga and Wagner Jr, while Reno Scum held off Galeno del Mal outside the ring. oVe hit a triple team move on Daga.

Somewhere in the Undead Realm, Susie was walking around until Rosemary came up to her. Rosemary wants to help her find what Susie is looking for, telling her that maybe the answer is not in the halls, but outside. Rosemary wants to turn Susie into her disciple, which Susie agrees to. Next week, Susie vs Rosemary in a friendly exhibition.

Michael Elgin defeated Eddie Edwards in Match 1 of the Best of Five series

Match started with some mat wrestling, some shoulder tackles, and chops, but Eddie quickly focused on taking out Elgin’s knee with a low dropkick and chasing a submission. In return, Elgin went after Eddie’s arm. 

Elgin went to the floor, followed by Eddie with a suicide dive. Elgin went for a German, but Eddie landed on his feet instead. Elgin blocked a rana and slinged Eddie to the guardrail. 

Back from commercial, Elgin is beating up Eddie with forearms and clotheslines, but Eddie lands a desperation Blue Thunder Bomb to get some space to recover. Eddie drops Elgin with a dragon screw, followed with a diamongiri and a backpack stunner for a two count. Elgin transitions into a single leg crab then into an STF, but Elgin overpowers out to his feet. 

Eddie landed a big forearm and went for a Tiger Driver, but Elgin countered with a vertebreaker. 

Elgin hit a couple of running clotheslines, but failed to suplex Eddie and instead went for a series of Germans and the sliding forearm to the back to the neck for the two count. 

A buckle bomb attempt by Elgin followed, but Eddie blocked. They exchanged strikes, clotheslines, and kicks, with Eddie getting the better of Elgin. Eddie hit a Tiger Bomb, but Elgin kicked out at 2.99.

Eddie went for a top rope Frankenstiner, but Elgin countered into a top rope DVD for a two count. He then transitioned into the crossface and a set of elbows to the neck, locked in the crossface once more and submitted Edwards when Eddie passed out. Really good match.

Final Thoughts — 

Good and fun show from Impact. The Mexico shows tend to be hit or miss depending on the matches, and this one had a good set. Not a lot of storyline developments in this show, however. Josh Alexander vs Hijo del Vikingo is worth going out of your way to watch.

Impact Wrestling results: Hard to Kill fallout

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact returns with the fallout of Hard To Kill, where Tessa Blanchard coronated herself as the new Impact World Champion. She also became the youngest wrestler to capture the Impact World Title. 

Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju & Mahabali Shera) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz), Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe, and TJP and Daga 

Great opener. Shera and Rohit made up for a great team with the big muscle and fast small guy. Shera was mostly portrayed as the best of the match, even with Luster The Legend there. Desi Hit Squad captured the win with a high knee and Sky High combination by Rohit and Shera. 

The big takeaway for me here is the great potential the team of TJP and Daga have. 

Moose cut a promo saying that he made Rhino relevant and that he’ll once again prove he’s the best multi-sport athlete in tonight’s 4-way match against Ace Austin, Eddie Edwards, and Fallah Bahh.

Josh Mathews and Don Callis continued to recap Hard To Kill and ran down some of tonight’s happenings, including a sit down interview with Tessa Blanchard. 

We got a recap of Ace Austin vs Trey Miguel, talking about Ace’s advances to Trey’s mother and him targeting Trey’s knee throughout the match. Recap did a great job at presenting Trey as a great underdog. 

Ace was backstage talking to his manager about getting a sequel for his last porn movie. He said he’ll win tonight’s 4-way.

We got a recap of Rich Swann’s injury from Bash at the Brewery, right before Hard To Kill. This led to the recap of Willie Mack’s valiant challenge against The North at Hard to Kill where he came so close to winning the titles by himself. 

We got footage from backstage, post match of the tag team championship bout. Mack told Swann that he lost and was a failure, but Swann tells him that he was amazing out there and was everything but a failure. Get yourself a tag team partner that talks to you like Swann does to Mack. I loved this.

Eddie Edwards cut a promo saying that Hard To Kill was a show that was made for him, and after a long hard fought battle, he regained his trophy. He said that tonight, he continues the winning streak when he wins the 4-way. 

We got a recap of Elgin vs Edwards from Hard To Kill. Afterwards, Callis and Mathews told us that Elgin has gone to Japan, and we got footage and an interview of Elgin from over in Japan, as he prepares to fight for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Elgin said that he loves wrestling in Japan. He talked about wrestling Nakajima on NOAH’s January 4th show. He talked about defeating Eita in 8 seconds and putting his eyes on the GHC Championship, saying that Eddie won’t be the only gaijing to hold NOAH gold. 

We got a recap of RVD taking out Cage at Hard To Kill, and then later defeating Daga with the help of Forbes.

We then got footage of RVD celebrating his victory, saying this celebration is special because he put a stop to the Machine. Forbes came in with some champagne and very little clothing. They celebrated with some blurred out wardrobe malfunctions and kisses. Rob just kept putting himself over and brought in his girlfriend’s girlfriend and they got naked. Rob said that everyone lives vicariously through him since all wrestling is a tribute of RVD, bell to bell. Rob talked trash to the marks and said that you should still take him seriously even if he parties all the time. Then they had an implied threesome. 

I love these promos from the new RVD, but I always watch these segments looking behind my back hoping that no one sneaks up on me.

Mathews and Callis talked about Shamrock’s return to Impact and his win over Madman Fulton. They recaped his various angles against oVe and the match at the pay-per-view.

We got an interview with Ken Shamrock after his match talking about how the match went like he wanted it to. He said he studied Fulton and used his size against him, he talked about it was his submission work that would work against someone like Fulton. Shamrock kinda put over Fulton saying that he could achieve greatness if he got away from Callihan. He said he had no plans beyond this match. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett from Genesis 2009.

We got a promo by Johnny Swinger talking trash about wrestling only wanting to play video games, then he sexually harassed a lady telling her to play with his joystick. Swinger is an idiot.

Joey Ryan defeated Johnny Swinger

Match starts with Ryan asking Swinger to touch his penis, but he won’t. Match instead started with some wrist control wrestling, with Ryan trying to force Swinger’s hand towards his penis. Only Joey Ryan can make Swinger seem like the serious competitor. 

Swinger teased going for the penis, but cheat-shotted Ryan. Swinger got the heat for a bit with stomps, falling fists, and a couple more dirty tricks, like pulling on the nose and choking against the ropes. Ryan tried to make a comeback with punches, but didn’t go far.

Swinger got cocky and went for a headbutt to the penis, but got himself knocked out, giving Ryan the opening to comeback strong. Swinger got a roll up with the ropes on the ropes, but referee told him off. The distraction allowed Ryan to get Swinger’s hand on his penis, but Swinger got the ref’s hand on his own penis, so Ryan accidentally dong-plexed both men. Swinger tried to low blow Ryan, but hurt his hand, allowing Ryan to hit the superkick for the win. Ok and fun match. 

We got a recap of the women’s 3-way match from Hard To Kill. 

We now got the recap of Tessa vs Callihan’s World Championship match at Hard To Kill. This was really nicely recapped by Mathews, really emotional.

We got a commercial for Rebellion, the upcoming pay-per-view in April. We also got the commercial for Impact’s return to Mexico City for the next set of tapings. Commercial had Puma King and Taurus, so hopefully they get booked. 

In the Twitch stream, Melissa Santos announced that Lockdown is coming back for an Impact Plus special.

X-Division Champion Ace Austin defeated Moose, Eddie Edwards, & Fallah Bahh to retain his championship.

This match took place in the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA for House of Hardcore. 

Match started with all four men in the ring trading strikes. Early on, Moose started to dominate hitting a plancha on Bahh, only to get taken out by Eddie Edwards to the outside. Ace took down Eddie, but Moose came back and got rid of the champion. 

Bahh flipped off Moose, who hit a couple of strikes that Bahh wouldn’t sell, and instead came back with an exchange of chops until Moose went for the eye poke. They traded lariats, taking each other out. 

Back in the ring, Ace and Eddie went at it, with Eddie going Kobashi chops on all men. Eddie sent Moose and Ace to the outside and went for a dive, but Bahh stopped him and Bahh hit the dive instead with the assistance of Edwards, who hit a top rope plancha as well.

After the commercial, it’s Ace and Eddie in the ring. Eddie hits a backpack stunner for a two count. Bahh comes in and takes both down, follows with running splashes to the corner until Moose cut him off and went for dropkicks instead. Moose went for a superplex on Bahh, but then Ace got him with a top rope dive. Ace tried to roll up everyone, but everyone kicked out at two. Ace failed to hit The Fold, and then the rest took each other out with superkicks and lariats. 

Moose and Eddie got into another chop exchange until Moose hit a discus lariat. Ace came in with a kick combo on Moose, but fell to a Blackhole Slam by Bahh. 

Bahh went for a the Banzai Drop, but Moose blocked him. Eddie hit Moose with the BKP, so instead Bahh took out Eddie and went for the Banzai Drop on him, but this gave Ace time to recover, hit a top rope Fold on Bahh, and pin him to retain his championship. Good match. 

We got footage of the World Title aftermatch from Hard to Kill, showing Tessa’s celebration with her family and the Impact roster and officials. We got footage from backstage, with Scott D’Amore saying nice things to Tessa. 

Josh Mathews interviewed Tessa Blanchard in Nashville, TN. Mathews asked about if Tessa ever thought things would end like this and about oVe. Tessa said that she doesn’t think that she’ll be done with oVe, but her goal is now to set goals for females and wants to lead Impact as the face of the company. Tessa accepts being now the ‘hunted’ backstage. 

Mathews asked about breaking the man/woman wrestler barrier, but suddenly, Sami Callihan interrupted by playing a video on a screen they had there. How he got access, we don’t know. 

Callihan talked about how everyone talks about Tessa and Impact making history, but it’s him that has been making history all along, bringing Impact back to life and carrying it for over two years. He said that Tessa may be the champion Impact wants, but Callihan is the champion that EVERYONE needs. 

Tessa started talking to the television, but Sami actually responded and revealed that he was in the production truck, and told her to come out looking for him. Tessa took the bait, but Sami wasn’t there at all, he was somewhere else and told Tessa that she’ll never see him coming. The End.

Final Thoughts — 

Arguably a weak show, it was a recap show with only three matches and a sit-down interview. As a recap of Hard To Kill, we got everything that we could hope for, updates on pretty much everyone involved. 

Impact Wrestling results: Hard to Kill go-home show

Posted on by F4W Editors

This was a fantastic go-home show and really put World Champion Sami Callihan and his challenger Tessa Blanchard over huge.

As we kick off the show, Michael Elgin and Eddie Edwards were in a huge brawl at ringside. Edwards rolled in the ring, grabbed a mic, and said he didn’t want to wait for Hard to Kill and wanted to break his ass New York City-style.

Michael Elgin defeated Eddie Edwards

Don Callis talked about each man being successful in Japan with Elgin winning the IWGP IC Title from Kenny Omega while Edwards was the GHC Champion in NOAH. 

Match highlights: Elgin hit a big lariat, but Edwards absorbed it and landed some chops before machine gun chopping him in the corner. Elgin clubbed him, but Edwards got in more chops. Elgin then chopped the hell out of him before Edwards turned the table with a corner lariat sequence. Edwards ate a German, but used Elgin’s prone position for a basement Boston Knee Party to the back of the head. 

Elgin wanted a powerplex, but Edwards sunset bombed him. Elgin tried to absorb it, but couldn’t, so Edwards forearmed him only to eat a lariat and then a running lariat for 2.5. Elgin got half-crabbed, but turned it into a crossface before getting cradled for 2. Elgin then hit a buckle bomb into the Elgin bomb for the pin and win. This was fantastic. Even in a wrestling stacked week, this was a very good match. 

Later, their PPV encounter at Hard to Kill had its stakes raised with Edwards’ Call your Shot title shot trophy put on the line. Callis called it a dream match despite it literally just being on this show minutes prior.

— The North’s year of dominance was showcased as well as the tag title shot gauntlet featuring Rich Swann and Willie Mack winning and The North trying to rip them apart.

Desi Hit Squad defeated TJP, Fallah Bahh and Daga

The babyface team is the most random assortment of humans since Lifeblood in ROH.

Match highlights: Shera buckle bombed Raju into Daga in the corner for 2. Raj hit a sliding dropkick and a senton for 2. TJP came in in and hit a second rope bodyblock on Raj. Bahh hit a somersault senton leading to a one count for TJP. Daga hit a run-up armdrag/head scissor on Raj and Shera before flip diving on everyone. TJP opened the ropes and Bahh hit a suicide dive on everyone. Daga avoided a tilt-a-whirl with a nice backstabber for 2.

TJP sunsetflipped Shera for two before TJP got hit with a sky high for the pin by Shera who has definitely improved a bit from his last stint in Impact even though he has a lot of work to do.

— Mack and Swann talked about their tag title match Sunday. Mack said he doesn’t want to hold Swann back. Swann said that last year, the only person he could count on was Willie Mack and he relied on Mack to be the man he needed to be here and in life. Swann knows Mack is hurt, but needs him for Sunday in the best condition he can be in and they have to live up to the show’s name and be hard to kill to get the titles. This was not only great, effective hype for the title match, but tremendous character building work that makes a team out to be actual friends and not just professional allies.

— OVE cut a promo about how hard it is to kill them and how Sunday isn’t about Tessa Blanchard, it’s about Sami Callihan. Fulton says that he’ll take the World’s Most Dangerous Man and break everything.

— Johnny Swinger spiked Joey Ryan’s drink with somas before Tommy Dreamer told him to grow up and wanted him to take a drink of his “delayed-release medication”.

— Ace Austin vs. Trey is hyped up with Austin hitting on his mother and Trey threatening to break his neck. This was the reverse of the Mack and Swann stuff in that it built things up, but did so in a way that didn’t feel authentic.

— We then got a lot of build to the World title match Sunday. The Callihan vs. Brian Cage steel cage match was recapped to build up for the PPV as was Callihan vs. Blanchard from Slammiversary. Callihan blames Blanchard for taking his moment away from him. Blanchard talked about growing up in North Carolina and how her mother says she is as stubborn as her father. Her sister talked about how her kids love Blanchard. Tessa said she only saw one of Tully’s matches live before Magnum TA talked about fighting with Tully in the famous I Quit match.

Callihan said that he did everything he could as a kid to eventually get to pro wrestling. His family loved wrestling and his brothers grew out of it, but he didn’t. Both of his parents died when he was in his 20s and his family is now what pro wrestling has given him. He was on a tour of Germany when his mother died and his father said that he should stay there because she wouldn’t want him to miss out on his dream. His father died when he was in WWE developmental, but his father said before that to stay there and not deal with him.

A recap of their NYC street brawl is show and she said that she knows what his goons are capable of, but they can’t stop her at Hard to Kill. Callihan said that everyone’s a sinner, but he’s a saint and the savior of Impact Wrestling. Blanchard said that she’ll make history not due to her gender, but because she ended the reign of the most vile champion in company history. He closes the segment by saying that he will bash her skull in.

— Backstage, Jim Mitchell led Havok to the ring and told Susie to stay in the back. That was quite the radical shift in tone out of nowhere. Rosemary comes out and has “it” in spades.

Havok (w/Jim Mitchell) defeated Rosemary

Susie came down to ringside and Callis gave her a headset. Mitchell took her away from the announce table leading to Callis getting mad at him for spilling his drink. He then politely demanded that someone “smoke this fool”. Havok tombstoned Rosemary to win in nothing much of a match, mainly a backdrop to an angle.

ODB, Tenille Dashwood and Jordynne Grace defeated Kiera Hogan, Madison Rayne and Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie

Rayne mocked Dashwood’s “all about me” deal before Callis made up a ton of facts about Rayne including that she was a 73-time champion and she was the best there was, is, and ever will be. 

Some match highlights: ODB tagged in as did Taya leading to ODB plowing her down with tackles while using the flask to charge up. We got a bronco buster to Rayne and Taya in the corner. ODB hit the Bam on Taya before Grace tagged in for a splash off the second rope and went for a pin. However, OBD threw Grace to the outside and stole the pin, enraging Grace. 

— RVD was making out with Katie Forbes. Moose told him they have had issues before at Slammiversary but RVD has no memory of that and doesn’t even know what day of the week it is. Swinger is passed out on the couch behind them. Petey and Joey Ryan walked up and Joey wanted a sharpie so he can draw on his face.

Rhino and Brian Cage defeated RVD and Moose

Cage worked with Moose for a bit before tagging in Rhino. Rhino backdropped him and chatted with the crowd for a bit. He really gets the crowd into everything he does. Callis talked about Rhino learning a lot of tricks with experience, and getting a nice reaction without doing anything is one of them. Rhino clotheslined Moose over the top and talked to the crowd more before a commercial break.

RVD basement dropkicked Rhino before Moose tagged in and bit Rhino. Rhino hit a big belly to belly and each tagged out. Cage hit a big lariat and RVD took a weird bump for it. RVD kicked him down and teased a rolling thunder before Cage elbowed him instead.

Cage hit an F5 on RVD, but Moose tagged in and clubbed Cage to the floor. Moose and Rhino slugged it out before Cage tornado DDTd Moose. RVD hit a flying kick to Cage before Rhino gored RVD. Moose sidestepped a corner gore and missed the five star frog splash. Rhino hit a gore on Moose and Cage hit a discus lariat for the pin and win.

We closed out with a hype video running down Sunday’s Hard To Kill card. 

Two more matches official for Impact Hard to Kill PPV

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Two more matches have been officially confirmed for Impact Wrestling’s first pay-per-view of 2020.

Impact Tag Team Champions The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page) will defend their titles against Rich Swann & Willie Mack at Hard to Kill. Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards has also been confirmed for the PPV.

During an interview that aired on last night’s Impact, Elgin challenged Edwards to put his Call Your Shot title shot on the line against him at Hard to Kill. The title shot lets Edwards challenge for the Impact championship of his choosing.

Swann & Mack defeated oVe (Jake & Dave Crist), The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz), and Reno Scum (Adam Thornstowe & Luster the Legend) in a fatal four-way number one contender’s match that aired last night. There was an injury angle where Swann won the match on his own after Mack couldn’t continue.

The North have been Impact Tag Team Champions since winning the titles from Santana & Ortiz in July.

Hard to Kill is taking place at The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, January 12. The show will be headlined by Tessa Blanchard challenging for Sami Callihan’s Impact World Championship. Ace Austin defending his X-Division title against Trey Miguel and Taya Valkyrie defending her Knockouts title against Jordynne Grace and ODB in a triple threat match are also set. 

Impact Wrestling results: Cage vs. Edwards, ODB returns

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact returns from Queens, NY after taking a week off with the build towards Hard To Kill. 

Opening video was a full recap of the 6-person elimination gauntlet that lasted over an hour that crowned a new number one contender in Tessa Blanchard. Big emphasis was also put on Swann’s huge performance in the match, overcoming Moose and Elgin, only to fall to Brian Cage. 

Show opened with Gabbi Loren interviewing Michael Elgin about the loss. Elgin said that tonight, he’s going to beat someone. 

Eddie Edwards vs. Brian Cage ended in a no contest

Wrist control chain wrestling to start the match, transitioned into Cage running through Edwards chops into a shoulder tackle. Eddie used his speed advantage to side step him to the outside and go for a jumping rana, that Cage almost blocked by catching Eddie in the air.

Eddie and Cage exchanged some chops and kicks until Cage brought in Eddie with a deadlift auplex for a two count. Cage gained control chopped and tossed Eddie around the ring. Cage hit a couple of backbreakers for another two count. backplex for a third two count. 

Eddie made a comeback blocking Cage’s suplex attempt and after some dodging landed a suplex of his own. Eddie hit Kobashi chops and a second rope hurricanrana. blue thunder bomb for a two count by Eddie. 

Eddie went for a tiger driver, but Cage blocked it and hit a side suplex for a two count. Cage went for the F-5, but Eddie escaped. Cage hit a knee to the face while Eddie hit an enziguri. Cage came back with a big lariat and both men went down. 

Both started trading strikes when Michael Elgin came out and attacked both men. Fans booed. Elgin attacked Eddie mostly until the referees pulled him away.

Commentary told us that this match is being restarted now as a three way.

Michael Elgin defeated Brian Cage & Eddie Edwards in a three way match

Obviously, Eddie and Cage now teamed up against Elgin for a bit, but Elgin being fresher, was able to dodge them and get a quick roll up on Eddie for a two count. Eddie sent both men outside and hit a dive on Elgin as Cage dodged and set himself up, following with a tope con giro on both men. 

Back in the ring, all three men traded clotheslines, with Eddie getting a two count with a twisting Suplex on Cage, until Elgin broke it up. Elgin and Eddie exchanged chops and clotheslines, and now all three men exchanged superkicks. 

Enziguri by Eddie on Elgin, followed by a top rope Hurricanerana, tossing Elgin into Cage. Elgin hit a German on both Eddie and Cage, missile dropkick on Eddie, and one final clothesline on Cage, sending both to the outside. Elgin followed with a big top rope senton to the outside.

Back from commercial,  Elgin is still in control, working over Cage with clotheslines and going for a superplex, but Eddie recovers and blocks him. Eddie hits a blue thunder bomb on Elgin and the backpack stunner on Cage for a two count, but floats it over into a half crab until Elgin breaks the submission via multiple forearms to the face. Eddie goes for the Crab on Elgin, but Elgin kicks him off. Cage now recovered, takes down Eddie with clotheslines and that pumphandle into an x-factor. 

Elgin hits a dragon suplex on Cage and clotheslines both men, diamondgiri on Eddie, followed by a pop-up slam. Elgin hits a suplex and falcon arrow on Cage for a two count. Elgin finally goes for the Elgin Bomb, but Cage blocks him and turns it into an Alabama slam, but out of nowhere, Eddie hits the Boston Knee Party on Cage and a tiger bomb for a two count. 

Eddie goes for another BKP, but Elgin blocks him and exchanges forearms with Cage. He hits a Tornado DDT on Cage. Eddie took out Elgin, but Cage was there to take out Eddie with a lariat. All men down and the fans chant “Impact Wrestling”.

Cage went for a top rope rana on Elgin, but was dropped on the ropes. Eddie took out Elgin and hit the BKP on Cage for a two count. Elgin went for a German on Eddie, but Eddie countered, they traded strikes, Eddie hit the German, but Elgin no sold and came back with a Lariat. Elgin finally won with an Elgin Bomb. 

Wow, hell of a 30 minute opener. 

Commentary ran down the card for No Surrender this Saturday. Taya vs Havok for the Knockout’s title, Callihan vs Swann for the World title, and Ace Austin defends the title against Eddie Edwards in a table match.

The Rascalz were in the Treehouse talking about Ace Austin’s comments on Trey Miguel’s mom. Wentz and Xavier agreed with Ace a bit. In came Trey Miguel’s mom into the Treehouse, with Trey asking her to not be at ringside tonight during their match. Trey’s mom said that other wrestlers bring their moms to the show and asked Trey if he was embarrassed by her, guilting Trey into letting her be there. Trey’s mom is making meatloaf after the match for the Rascalz. 

Out in the streets of NYC, Moose walked down saying that while he lost to Swann, he is still great as he compares himself to Ali and McGregor on their respective loses. Moose walked up to a basketball court where he bullied two fans who have seen that Moose has been attacking people at the golf course. Moose landed a 3-pointer and then attacked the fans. 

Josh Matthews brought out ODB, who was here to talk about her unfortunate situation where she lost her food truck in a fire. Matthews announced that all proceeds of the show were going to help her fix her food truck. 

ODB said she was happy to be home, she explained that she has been working with the food truck for the last 3 years and explained what happened. She said that unfortunately, insurance wouldn’t cover it and thanked the wrestling community for helping her out. She said that Impact always allowed her to be herself and that Impact reached out to her. 

Suddenly, Taya Valkyrie interrupted the speech. Taya had some backhanded comments for ODB and then bragged about being the longest reigning Knockout’s champion in Impact history. Taya talked trash and told ODB that she would donate to the fund so she could now afford a fire extinguisher, and told ODB to get out of her ring. 

After taking so much, ODB finally knocked down Taya, sending her running away. Taya was amazing here, she can trash talk like no other.

After commercials, commentary informed us that ODB will take on Taya. 

We got footage for a press conference with Matthews and D’Amore talking about Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan at Hard To Kill. Tessa said that she would be professional in her quest and put over Callihan’s work in the last few years. Callihan said that Tessa was a spoiled brat and that she was what was wrong with the new generation of wrestlers because she got everything handed to her. Callihan said he should be glorified for being the only one who actually treated Tessa as an equal, and that on January 12, he’s going to “crack her f***ing skull”. Tessa and Callihan got into a pull apart. 

This looked great, but you could tell there was no press there and the pull-apart could have used more people to make it seem more chaotic.

Ace Austin & Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe) defeated The Rascalz

Trey started the match against Thownstowe, with the former getting the better of the latter with his speed. Ace tagged in and blindsided Trey, getting the upper hand with some quick kicks. Ace went for the paper cut, but Trey escaped. 

Wentz tagged in and overtook Ace Austin with kicks. Dezmond blind tagged and hit a double team combo, forcing Reno Scum to jump the rope and take out Dezmond with a German and footstomp combo. 

Luster The Legend, now legal, worked over Dezmond, mostly with strikes and suplexes. Ace and Scum proceeded to cut the ring in half on Dezmond, mostly quick tags between Luster and Thornstowe, with the latter getting a two count with a standing moonsault. Ace taunted Trey while he stomped Xavier. After cutting Dezmond with the card, Xavier finally managed to hit a desperation kick on Austin and got to tag Trey Miguel. 

Trey came in and took out both Scum members, Thornstowe with a neckbreaker, and Luster with a superkick. When he went for the dive, Ace caught him with a kick on the ropes. Dezmond and Wetnz came in for the aid and hit a combo on Ace to take him out. Wentz and Thornstowe followed with dives, and finally, it was Trey Miguel going for the meteora on Thornstowe for the finish but soon realizes that Ace Austin is out there flirting with his mom. Miguel went to attack him. Thanks to the distraction, Thornstowe recovered and rolled up Wentz to steal the win.

Pretty good match, it’s nice to see The Rascalz get into a serious feud for once.  

Backstage, Jordynne Grace told ODB that she had her back. ODB told her that she’ll only leave some pieces of Taya for her at the PPV. 

Backstage, Johnny Swinger approached Joey Ryan to complain about ‘these kids today’ that are killing the business for them. Swinger tells Ryan that they should form a Kliq together. Swinger said that he has a match with Petey Williams tonight and when he gives his signal, Ryan should come out and take him out. Joey Ryan agrees and goes back to his phone. 

Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes came out. Forbes did the introductions. Rob cut a promo saying that he would explain his past actions, but that no one would understand him because no one is as great as RVD and no one would ever want to copy any of them. RVD said that he has been raising the bar for many years already. 

Tommy Dreamer came out and challenged RVD to fight Rhino next week, and that he could be the special guest referee. Rob told him that Tommy was living in the past and they’d done this many times already. RVD said that fans always get excited for ECW reunions, but he wants to move on from that because they all keep clinging onto him. Rob passed on the match, but appreciate the offer. 

Rhino now came out and brawled with RVD into a short pull apart. Forbes tried to kick Rhino among the chaos.

Backstage, Acey Romero and Chris Sabin congratulated Swann. Swann said that it wasn’t his night, but now that it’s behind them, they should focus on next week’s Tag Team Open Challenge for the No. 1 Contendership. 

The North walked up and had some comments for Swann going for the title this Saturday. Swann called out Page on his fake comment (which didn’t sound so fake), and told him that next week, they become the No. 1 Contenders for their titles. 

Gabbi Loren interviewed Fallah Bahh about being attacked by the Desi Hit Squad. Bahh talked and said he is still here and she’s damn right he’s gonna fight back. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was ODB defeating Mickie James to win the Knockout’s Championship.

Somewhere in the Undead Realm, James Mitchell introduced Suzie to Havok. Mitchell told Suzie that if she respects Havok’s space, the three of them will be the best of friends. 

Petey Williams defeated Johnny Swinger

Swinger offered a handshake, which obviously was a trick, but Petey was ready and got a quick two count with a school boy. Petey hit a rana and drop toe hold on Swinger, following with a running dropkick to the back. 

Swinger hit a fist drop on Petey, followed by a headbutt, a double axe handle and a couple of elbow drops that Petey dodged. Petey hit a springboard codebreaker, a side Russian leg Sweep, and prepped for the Canadian Destroyer, but Swinger escaped and called out for Joey Ryan. 

Petey locked in the Sharpshooter and tapped out Swinger. Joey Ryan never came out. 

Commentary ran down next week’s card: Tessa vs  Madman Fulton, Sami Callihan vs Ken Shamrock, Rhino vs. RVD and the Tag Team open challenge. 

ODB defeated Knockout’s Champion Taya Valkyrie (w/John E. Bravo) in a non-title match

Taya quickly knocked down ODB with a forearm and started stomping her, but ODB managed to dodge her and hit a couple of shoulder tackles and clotheslines. ODB chopped Taya from corner to corner and landed a fallaway slam, sending Taya to the outside. 

On the other side of the ring, Bravo stole ODB’s flask, distracting her. ODB forced Bravo to take a sip, which he liked. ODB motorboated Bravo and got a one count after a flapjack on Taya. 

ODB went for the second rope, but Taya pulled her feet off and regained control. Taya choked out ODB and hit a running knee for a one count. 

ODB tried to make a comeback with strikes to the midsection and the running Splash, but Taya dodged this last move and hit a running hit attack instead for a two count. Taya hit a double leg drop to ODB’s crotch and locked in an STF for the submission tease until ODB made the ropes. 

Taya hit a Super Dragon style curb stomp and started slamming ODB’s head to the ring and turnbuckles. Taya started getting cocky and playing to the crowd, giving ODB time to recover, which she did in the form of a second rope Thesz Press. ODB hit the running splash and the Bronco Buster and took a sip of the flask but got distracted by Bravo again, allowing Taya to attack her from behind. 

Bravo, now drunk, said he was the champion now, which was an opening for Jordynne Grace to come out and distract Taya. That led to ODB rolling up Taya with a schoolgirl pin for the win. Match was nothing special other than Taya’s fantastic heel shtick. This felt like some sort of Impact retirement match for ODB, giving her a last big win.

ODB and Jordynne celebrated together in the ring to close out the show.

Final Thoughts — 

Ok show, it started really strong, but it closed out with what felt like a nostalgia send off match for ODB. The stories heading into Hard To Kill are now better cemented, and so I’d say that it was a stronger show for stories than anything else. Opener is definitely worth checking out.

Impact Wrestling results: The North vs. Marufuji & Edwards

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from the St. Claire College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Opening video focused on how last week oVe managed to antagonize the whole Impact roster, ending with Callihan being humiliated by Tessa Blanchard and Rich Swann, which led to tonight’s Daga vs Jake Crist match and the tag team main event. 

Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos, who promoted the upcoming Impact Plus special No Surrender, the Throwback Throwdown Thanksgiving special, and January’s pay-per-view, Hard to Kill.

Ace Austin opened the show coming down to join the commentary table for the next X-Division Championship No. 1 Contendership match.

Trey Miguel defeated Petey Williams, Rohit Raju, Aiden Prince, Brent Banks, Willie Mack to become X-Division Championship No. 1 Contender.

Rohit Raju started the match strong, not only taking out Mack, but tossing Prince out of the ring and following with a dive on to Mack. Left in the ring, Miguel, Banks, and Petey all traded ranas and arm drags. Trey hit a dive on everyone outside, leaving Banks and Petey going one-to-one with Petey getting the better of Banks. Petey hit a diving headscissors on Miguel to the outside. 

Mack returned to the ring and took down Banks and Prince with arm drags and ranas. Mack ended taking out the men in the ring, and a dive on top of everyone outside. 

Back in the ring, the local talent faced off, Prince and Banks were pretty equal to each other, at the end, they just hit double dives too. 

Again in the ring, it was now Miguel, Banks, and Prince going at each other with Miguel taking them out with a meteora, only for Rohit to come in and hit a northern lights and rolling up to an extra auplex to take him out. Petey came in and hit a rana and Flatliner combo, setting up the Destroyer, but Rohit countered and picked up a two count with a roll up, countered into a Sharpshooter for the submission tease until Mack broke it up.

Mack hit the Samoan drop and moonsault combo on Petey for a two count. Banks hit a poison rana on Mack. Prince hit a butterfly brainbuster on Banks for a two count. Finally, Trey Miguel hit some Cheeky Nandos, but got cut off by Banks. Prince suplexed Banks onto Miguel, hit a 450, followed by a Frog Splash, followed by a Canadian Destroyer, but at the end, it was Trey Miguel stealing the pin by rolling up Petey for the win.

Match started weak with everyone selling outside, but it got really good towards the end. Rohit Raju was fantastic here, and Impact really needs to bring back Brent Banks.

Throughout the match, they showed Trey Miguel’s mom in attendance, with constant hinting that Ace Austin is going to try and seduce Trey Miguel’s mother.

Gabby Loren interviewed Rich Swann about next week’s 5-way No. 1 Contender’s match for Callihan’s title. Swann said that becoming world champion would prove everyone wrong that his size will not stop him. 

Next up, Loren interviewed Michael Elgin about the same match. Elgin said that a lot of people wish they can win, but at the end, it’s him that will win. Elgin has proved to get things done since his debut, and now his sights are on the title.

Madison Rayne (w/Kiera Hogan) defeated Alexia Nicole

Rayne mocked Nicole to start the match and got beat up early until she blocked a backstabber and hit a blockbuster for a quick pin attempt. Rayned locked in a cravate and hit some knees, followed with a sliding clothesline for another two count. Kiera Hogan got a slap in on Nicole for good measures. 

Nicole made a small comeback with a desperation Neckbreaker. They traded some forearms with Nicole getting the better of Rayne. Nicole followed with a shotgun dropkick, a backstabber, and an electric chair drop for a two count. Rayne tried to leave the match, but Nicole pulled her back to the ring the hard way, but as she did, distracted herself with Hogan, allowing Rayne to hit a draping neckbreker.

Nicole got a roll up for a near fall, but Rayne came back with Cross Rayne for the win. Ok match, what Rayne lacks in wrestling ability, she makes up with her character work.

Backstage, Johnny Swinger told Aiden Prince that he took a dump in Petey Williams’ bag, but he accidentally did it to Ken Shamrock’s bag. Swinger will suffer for this.

RVD cut a promo from his pool along with Katie Forbes, who was just out there twerking. Rob said that he doesn’t need the money, but that Impact needs him, and so he’ll be back next week. Not good.

Daga defeated Jake Crist

Great match. Daga is in the 5-way No. 1 Contendership match for Callihan’s title, and thus got the win tonight in a great showing. 

They started the show with a fast paced sequence of kicks, slaps, and counters, that ended with Crist outside the ring and Daga hitting a springboard tornillo on him. 

Back in the ring, Crist got Daga with a Dragon Screw, sending him outside, following with a diving DDT, but Daga managed to rebound and drop Crist instead, but at a cost, Daga seemed hurt from the rebound. 

Back from commercial, Crist and Daga are back in the ring exchanging chops before Daga school boys Crist for a quick two count. Crist locks in the Last Chancery, which Daga escapes by elbowing Crist on the face. Crist goes back on the head submission against the ropes and follows with a good old rake to the eyes. 

Daga made a comeback with some elbows and a bit neckbreaker and DDT combo for a two count. Both men exchanged Pop-up Death Valley Drivers. Crist blocked a Dragon Suplex, but ended up eating a couple of Germans instead for a two count. Crist countered Daga with a Powerslam into the corner, followed with a kick combo for a two count. 

Both men took to the top of the turnbuckle and exchanged strikes until Daga hit a rana for a two count. Daga followed with a Tiger Driver ‘98 for the win.

We got a fantastic recap of Joey Ryan vs Ken Shamrock with opera music.

Loren interviewed The North about tonight’s match with Edwards and Marufuji. Great short promo by confident champions, happy to go against top talent. 

oVe (Impact World Champion Sami Callihan & Madman Fulton) defeated Rich Swann & Tessa Blanchard

Tessa and Swann rushed the ring, supekicked Callihan out, and team up against Fulton, how fell to a kick and backstabber combo. Swann hit a phoenix splash to the outside. 

Back in the ring, Tessa and Callihan faced off, Tessa started with strikes, but Fulton distracted her, giving Sami the opening for a Brainbuster. 

Swann tagged in and ran wild on Callihan, catching him with a kick and Rana on the top rope. Fulton came in and cut him off, hitting a Reverse Suplex to regain control of the match. Fulton chokeslammed Swann and tried to snap his neck against the ropes. Scoop Slam followed by Callihan’s elbow and into the headlock. The beatdown continued with Fulton striking Swann’s back and locking in a Bearhug. Slingshot plancha by Callihan for a two count and back into the headlock. Complete dominance by oVe. 

Eventually, Swann managed to roll around and dodge Callihan enough to get the tag to Tessa, who came in and hit a Samoan Drop on Callihan, tilt-a-whirl DDT on Fulton, diving cutter on Callihan. Tessa set up the Magnum, but Callihan blocked it, fed her to Fulton’s slam for a two count when Swann made the save. Swann took out Fulton with a kick, sending him outside, running knee on Callihan, followed by a DDT. 

Tessa took out Fulton with a dive, while Swann got a two count over Callihan with a Moonsault. Callihan went for Swann’s eyes and his baseball bat, but the referee took it away. With the referee distracted, Callihan instead used the belt to take out Swann and pick up the win for his team. Great match.

After the bell, oVe took out Swann with another belt shot. Tessa went for the save, but took a belt shot too from Sami. As the beatdown continued, Brian Cage came down for the save, took out Fulton with an F-5, but Callihan escaped. Cage is not in contention of the title after losing at Turning Point, but he’s not done with Callihan.

Backstage, Loren asked Brian Cage what was next for him. Cage said that he wasn’t done with oVe, Callihan, or the title. Cage said he will be in next week’s title contention match. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was the Ultimate X match of Rich Swann vs Jake Crist vs Ethan Page vs Trey Miguel from the Homecoming Pay Per View.

Johnny Swinger is now bragging about taking a dump on Shamrock’s bag, but the people there tell him that is probably illegal. 

On the other side of the building, Jordynne Grace came up to Taya and told her she wants her shot at the Knockout’s title. Taya said Jordynne doesn’t just get to make challenges, but Bravo takes the challenge instead. Next week, it’s Jordynne Grace vs both Taya and Bravo.

Moose cut a promo from a tennis court talking about he is the greatest of all time. He said that by defeated Shamrock, he proved that he is the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and now he was going to prove he was the best tennis player of all time by defeating Mikey, who he bullied into losing. 

Havok defeated Krystal Moon

Total squash, Havok tossed around Moon from corner to corner, kicked her while down in the corner, rammed her against the apron, beat her down, and hit a Chokeslam for the pin, except Havok broke her own pin, only to deliver a tombstone piledriver instead. Moon was really green even for a squash, but she had great facial expressions of fear and pain. 

Backstage, Suzie found Havok as she returned from the ring. Havok pushed Suzie away, which triggered something in Suzie that brought back some memories of her former self.

It was officially announced that Brian Cage has been added to next week’s No. 1 Contendership match. 

Impact World Tag Team Champions The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page) defeated Naomichi Marufuji & Eddie Edwards to retain their titles. 

Edwards and Marufuji started the match with control, out-wrestling Alexander and chopping around Page, but after some exchanged, the North’s teamwork paid off and they managed to cut off Marufuji for a bit. Marufuji and Edwards came back and sent the North outside, where Marufuji kicked away Alexander, and Eddie hit a rope auicida on Page. 

Back from commercial, Eddie and Marufuji are still in control of the match, working over Page with chops, you can tell that Page is starting to feel them. Right when it seems all good for Eddie, the quick tag work of The North overtakes Eddie and Alexander takes him out with a dive while Page takes out Marufuji. 

The North, now in control, start working over Eddie with quick tags, cheap shots, double team moves, and keeping him away from Marufuji. Page got a two count with a double backbreaker. Alexander went for a suplex, but Edwards blocked it and hit a desperation one instead, finally getting the chance to tag in Marufuji. 

Marufuji came in and ran wild over The North, chopping and kicking both Page and Alexander. Eddie came with the aid with a Frankenstiner, feeding Page into Marufuji’s running knees. Page and Marufuji exchanged strikes but with a blind tag, Alexander came in, blindsided Marufuji, and cut him off. 

The North went for their team finisher, but Marufuji blocked and got rid of Page. He hit a Curb Stomp on Alexander and tagged in Edwards, who delivered a Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count. Alexander went for the ripcord elbow, but Eddie blocked. All four men exchanged kicks and lariats until they were all down. 

Marufuji kicked Alexander, Edwards hit a Powerbomb and a Liger Bomb for a two count. Page pulled Eddie’s ankle, allowing Alexander to kick him. Page and Alexander hit an elbow and kick combo on Marufuji, leaving Eddie alone for the double team finisher and a huge near fall. The North deliver their assisted Spinerbuster finisher next and pin Edwards to retain the titles. Great match.

Final Thoughts — 

Really strong show inside the ring with only a couple of storyline developments, as most of the show built towards next week’s big 5-person elimination match to pick a new contender for Callihan’s championship.

Edwards vs. Kross first blood match added to Slammiversary XVII

Posted on by Joseph Currier

A first blood match has been added to the card for Impact Wrestling’s next pay-per-view.

On last night’s episode of Impact, it was announced that Eddie Edwards will face Killer Kross in a first blood match at Slammiversary XVII. The PPV is taking place at Gilley’s Dallas in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, July 7.

There was a scene on this week’s Impact where Edwards was at a church confessing about the voice in his head that is getting him to do bad things. Kross then appeared and confronted Edwards. Edwards said there are rules in the church, but there are no rules outside. Edwards told Kross that he’ll be waiting for him.

An angle aired on last week’s Impact where it appeared that Kross’ character may have been written off in a brawl with Edwards, but Dave Meltzer reported that it was just an angle to build up their feud and Impact has no plans to grant Kross’ release.

Here’s the updated card for Slammiversary:

  • Impact World Champion Brian Cage defending against Michael Elgin
  • X-Division Champion Rich Swann defending against Johnny Impact
  • Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie defending against Su Yung, Jessicka Havok, and Rosemary in a Monster’s Ball match
  • Impact Tag Team Champions LAX (Santana & Ortiz) defending against The Rascalz (two of Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel)
  • Tessa Blanchard vs. Sami Callihan
  • Eddie Edwards vs. Killer Kross in a first blood match
  • RVD vs. Moose

Impact Wrestling results: Tag Team title match, Lance Storm appears

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returned from the St. Clair College Sportsplex for tonight’s episode. The Twitch broadcast was hosted by Melissa Santos, who was later joined by Don Callis.

The opening video was a full recap of the Johnny Impact vs. Brian Cage saga, making special notice of all the double crosses and games that Johnny played the last few months and the involvement of referee Johnny Bravo along the road.

Scarlett Bordeaux & Fallah Bahh defeated The Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju & Raj Singh) w/ Gama Singh

Bahh started the match against Raju and then Singh, with Bahh constantly getting the upper hand thanks to his size. He kept playing to the crowd, who were chanting Bordeaux’s entrance song.

Bordeaux tagged in, but neither Singh nor Raju wanted to wrestle her, so she tagged out. Both Desi Hit Squad members tried to jump Bahh, but he got them before they could do anything. Raju tripped Bahh, giving Singh a slight advantage. Singh got a one count with a mafia kick.

Bahh made a comeback and tagged in Bordeaux. She went for a suicide dive, but Raju stopped her. Bordeaux started chopping Raju, provoking him. She hit a rana, tossing him to the outside. Bordeaux held the ropes for Bahh, who hit a suicide dive. Bordeaux hit a top rope crossbody to the floor on both Singh and Raju.

Back in the ring, Bahh and Bordeaux went for running attacks in the corner. Bordeaux gave Singh a stinkface. Raju wanted one himself, except he got it from Bahh. Singh took out Bahh and blocked a German suplex from Bordeaux, who instead hit a jawbreaker.

Bahh hit a belly-to-belly on Singh, setting him up for a Banzai Drop with Bordeaux on his back for the win. Fun match — the fans live were loving it.

The Lucha Bros cut a promo on Eli Drake & Eddie Edwards and their Tag Team title match tonight. They said that no one will take their titles.

We got a training video for The Deaners.

Backstage, Drake & Edwards met and hyped each other up about winning the Tag Team titles tonight.

Tommy Dreamer cut a promo on Madman Fulton. He said that he’d been researching Fulton’s past and brought up the similarities between them. He managed to get the word “sanity” in. Good promo — felt like an old ECW backstage promo.

Dezmond Xavier (w/ The Rascalz) defeated Moose

Xavier went for an early headlock, but Moose simply carried him around. Xavier went for waist control, and Moose countered him with a single hip attack. Xavier went for strikes, and he finally got Moose mad.

Moose caught Xavier’s hand and tossed him around. Moose locked in a bear hug, but Xavier escaped by ringing Moose’s ears. Moose hit a huge snake eyes on Xavier, then followed up by chopping and choking Xavier around the ring, clearly going after the neck.

Moose went for the Go to Hell, but Xavier countered into a rana. Moose replied with a big lariat for a cocky two count. Moose went after Xavier’s back, whipping him corner to corner, standing on his back, and hitting a couple of shoulder thrusts.

Moose missed one last shoulder tackle and ended up outside the ring. Xavier went for a tope con giro, but Moose caught him in mid-air in a powerbomb position and swung him into the steel steps.

Moose was setting up the spear, but Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel distracted him, giving Xavier the opening to roll up Moose and steal the win. This was almost like a reverse squash — Moose looked great and Xavier was great as the underdog.

Somewhere in the Undead Realm, Kiera Hogan was lurking around and was met by Rosemary, who told her to go away. Hogan said that this also involves her. Rosemary said that both Allie and Hogan keep getting in trouble because they don’t know how to listen.

Hogan got in Rosemary’s face, telling her that she will get involved whether she likes it or not, and so Rosemary beat her up.

Backstage, Moose cut a promo saying production needs to edit the loss out. Moose said that if The Rascalz want to gang up on him, he can play that game too.

The GWN Flashback Moment of the Week was the LAX vs. OGz 5150 Street Fight from 2018’s Slammiversary.

Tessa Blanchard cut a promo on Gail Kim. She said that Kim is trying to stop her from becoming the greatest Knockout because that is all Kim has left. Blanchard talked trash, bringing up Kim’s husband Robert Irvine. Suddenly, it turned out that Blanchard was outside one of Irvine’s restaurants.

Blanchard went into the restaurant and caused some chaos, bullying the patrons and employees. She finally found the chef, who told her that Irvine was not there today. Blanchard berated the poor chef, who was somewhat corpsing.

Back from commercial, Kim was getting the message about the restaurant. Melissa Santos interviewed her about pressing charges, but Kim said that she will handle things in the ring and teach Blanchard a lesson.

Madman Fulton (w/ Sami Callihan) defeated Tommy Dreamer

Callihan hyped up Fulton before the match by slapping him. Once the match started, Fulton easily dominated Dreamer by tossing him around and choking him against the ropes. Dreamer tried to make a comeback, but Fulton cut him off and stomped him down. Callihan went to get involved, and so the referee sent him to the back.

Back in the ring, Fulton kept torturing Dreamer with a bear hug. Dreamer bit Fulton’s nose to get away and went for the 10 strikes in the corner. Fulton grabbed him for a powerbomb, but they spilled to the outside. They brawled for a bit with Dreamer getting the upper hand and dodging Fulton’s attacks, but it would only wake Fulton up.

Back in the ring again, Fulton went for the bear hug. He hit a suplex and a splash for a one count, then put Dreamer back in the bear hug. Fulton hit a sidewalk slam for a two count. He went for a headbutt. Dreamer dodged, but it wasn’t enough to stop Fulton, who just got up again.

Dreamer tried to strike down Fulton with a couple of elbows, but Fulton was still up. Dreamer hit a DDT and went for a kendo stick, but Fulton caught him with an End of Days for the win. Good showing for Fulton, even if he gave a lot to Dreamer.

After the match, Fulton kept torturing Dreamer until Willie Mack came out with a steel chair and brawled with Fulton. The rest of oVe came out to attack Mack until Rich Swann tried to make the save. Callihan choked out Swann and hit the Cactus Special. Callihan Pillmanized Dreamer’s arm while they made Swann watch. oVe has become a really strong stable.

We got another Deaner’s vignette — this time they were on their way to Impact on a tractor. They debut next week.

Backstage, a doctor was telling Swann and Mack that Dreamer has an injured arm and that he’ll need some time to recover. Swann walked away, but now Killer Kross approached Mack. Kross told Mack that every time he goes to help Swann, Mack is the one that ends up banged up. Mack blew Kross off and challenged him to a match next week.

Madison Rayne defeated Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie in a non-title match

Before the match started, Valkyrie cut a promo on Canada. She talked about last week’s match against Jordynne Grace & Brian Cage, and since she is defending her title at Rebellion, she is making the executive decision to not wrestle tonight. Before she could leave, Rayne attacked her to force the match to start.

Rayne hit a rana, tossing Valkyrie outside, which she used to try and run away — except Grace came out and tossed Valkyrie back in the ring. Rayne used the distraction to roll up Valkyrie for the win. If this means that Valkyrie defends against both Grace and Rayne at Rebellion, it will make Grace look bad for helping someone else get in her match.

We got a special interview by Rolando Menendez with Johnny Impact. Referee Johnny Bravo was behind them cleaning Johnny’s pool. Johnny defended Bravo’s new job, talked trash about Cage, and said that at Rebellion, Cage has no idea how deep Johnny Impact can get in order to retain his championship.

This hinted that Johnny has another secret weapon ready to betray Cage at the Rebellion pay-per-view. Great promo by Johnny.

Cage confronted Don Callis about Bravo. Callis told Cage that they have a plan, that they’ll get a special guest referee, and that Scott D’Amore had the answer. Callis immediately called D’Amore to tell him that Cage was going after him for answers.

We cut to D’Amore, who was being told by Callis to run away. They revealed that they don’t actually have a plan, but Cage was already behind them. Cage threatened D’Amore, but Lance Storm suddenly stepped up and told Cage to have some integrity and rethink his actions.

Storm and Cage got in each other’s faces, with Storm telling Cage he won’t go down that easily. D’Amore improvised and announced that Storm will be the special guest referee for Impact and Cage’s World title match at Rebellion.

Impact Tag Team Champions The Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix) defeated Eli Drake & Eddie Edwards to retain their titles

Fenix and Drake started the match, with the latter getting the strength advantage. Fenix and Pentagon went for an early spike Fear Factor, but Edwards came in to stop them. He took out Pentagon, giving Drake the opening to hit a superplex on Fenix for a two count. Edwards and Drake started working on Fenix, who tried to make a comeback — only to get caught by Drake for an assisted DVD.

Pentagon jumped in, but Drake and Edwards also took him out. The Lucha Bros finally recovered and got rid of Edwards to the outside. Fenix dove onto Edwards while Pentagon got a two count on Drake.

The Lucha Bros went for the spike Fear Factor, but LAX came out to attack them. Drake used the distraction to roll up Pentagon for a two count. Edwards tossed Drake the kendo stick, which Pentagon dodged, hit the spike Fear Factor, and pinned Drake to retain the titles. This was way too short for the potential it had with all four men in the ring.

After the match, Lucha Bros and LAX brawled to the back. In the ring, Edwards tried to comfort Drake. It seemed like Drake was turning against Edwards as fans started chanting “Eli is the weak link” — but they hugged it out and Edwards’ song was played.

Oh, there you go. As they started to walk to the back, Drake finally turned on Edwards and attacked him with the kendo stick to close the show. It was a great team that unfortunately was short-lived.

Final thoughts — 

Overall, this was a good show. All the main feuds got touched upon tonight as we head into Impact’s Rebellion PPV a week from Sunday. Inside the ring, most of the matches felt more like segments or angles, but they were nonetheless fun to watch.

Impact Wrestling results: LAX vs. Eddie Edwards & Eli Drake

Posted on by Antonio Garza

This week’s Impact took place at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada from the newest set of tapings. The Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos.

The opening video recapped the escalating war between LAX and the Lucha Bros, Scarlett Bordeaux defeating Disco Inferno, Gail Kim’s Rebellion announcement, the controversial finish to Killer Kross vs. Brian Cage, and the sad demise of Allie.

Petey Williams defeated Trey Miguel, Idris Abraham, Ace Austin, Jake Crist, and Aiden Prince in a six-man scramble

It had been a while since Abraham was last on Impact. Aiden Prince is a local wrestler from PCW.

The match started with wrestlers pairing up with each other and all of them trying to steal roll-ups on each other. Austin was the first to get taken out with four superkicks at once. Miguel hit a dive on half of the wrestlers in the match, only to get taken out by Austin next after doing some impressive looking headstands on the apron.

Everyone started pairing up one by one, getting a chance to show off before getting taken out. Austin and Abraham were quite impressive — the latter at one point took a plancha from Prince, who somewhat landed on top of his head.

Miguel hit the X19 before Williams locked the Sharpshooter on him. They did a Tower of Doom spot with Prince on top. Williams hit the Canadian Destroyer on Miguel for a two count when the pin was broken up by the rest.

Prince hit a dive, taking out everyone except Williams, who hit a Canadian Destroyer from the top rope on Jake Crist to win the match. Great opener — it got “This is awesome” chants at one point. Crist seemed hurt at the end.

– LAX cut a promo backstage. Ortiz felt that this feud with the Lucha Bros is getting out of hand, but Santana told him that getting here was all they wanted.

Konnan told them that this was all because they had big mouths and it escalated to him getting disrespected and now it was about getting respect. Konnan told them to take care of business against Eddie Edwards & Eli Drake tonight.

– Melissa Santos interviewed Taya Valkyrie. She asked if Jordynne Grace was getting another title shot since Grace won their match by countout last week. Valkyrie was interrupted by Madison Rayne, who said that she wasn’t lost in the Undead Realm, she was “somewhere worse.”

Rayne put her name on the list towards the Knockouts Championship — but Grace came up and said that Rayne couldn’t just cut in line. Valkyrie proposed that Rayne and Grace wrestle for the number one contender’s spot for Rebellion. Rayne was a total heel.

oVe (Sami Callihan & Madman Fulton) w/ Dave Crist defeated Rich Swann & Willie Mack

Swann ran to the ring during the entrance and went straight for Callihan. He stomped and chopped Callihan all over the ring. Willie Mack came in and continued the punishment with power moves — at one point hitting a springboard neckbreaker. Callihan eventually caught Mack with a clothesline when Mack distracted himself with Fulton.

Back from commercial, oVe was working over Mack. Fulton hit a delayed suplex on him. Callihan decided to get into a chop exchange with Mack, which gave him time to recover and hit the Samoan drop and moonsault combo, but Fulton attacked him before he could tag out. Mack would soon after hit a desperation Thesz press and tag Swann.

Swann came in hot, superkicking both Fulton and Callihan. Swann hit the Lethal Injection on Callihan, but he couldn’t land the Phoenix Splash when Callihan moved. He went to hit a pescado, but Fulton caught him, giving the opening for Mack to hit a tope con giro and take out all of oVe.

Back in the ring, Swann went for a Frankensteiner on Callihan, but Fulton held Callihan from behind, helping him block and drop Swann with a powerbomb. Mack saved Swann from the piledriver and went for a crossbody, but Fulton caught him in the middle of the air. Callihan hit the piledriver on Swann to finally pick up the win.

After the match, all of oVe stomped on Swann until Tommy Dreamer came out for the save with a chair. Dreamer faced off with Fulton, but Callihan pulled him away instead.

– Rolando Menendez interviewed Johnny Impact. He told Johnny that his actions were deceptive. Johnny threatened Menendez before saying that he enjoyed being champion and asked what’s the point of being smarter than everyone if you don’t rub it in everyone’s face. Killer Kross walked up, and Johnny told him that he is getting his title shot as promised.

– We got a video from last week’s Rascalz roundtable. Moose once again showed up and bullied them. Moose said that his girlfriend could bring friends and make it a party after next week, when he gets to kick Wentz’s butt. This was pretty funny.

– The GWN Flashback Moment of the Week was Rosemary vs. Su Yung from May 2018 when Yung took out Rosemary with a Panic Switch from the ramp onto a table and then proceeded to lock her in the coffin.

– Rosemary was shown walking in a cemetery, remembering what happened last week in the Undead Realm. Kevin Sullivan actually revealed that he is the father of Rosemary.

Rosemary found Allie’s grave, where she blamed Kiera Hogan for her death because it was James Mitchell that caught her and distracted Rosemary from the battle. She promised to get revenge.

Jordynne Grace defeated Madison Rayne to become the Knockouts Championship number one contender

The match started with both fighting for wrist control and quick pins with a series of reversals. Grace quickly gained control with her strength advantage. Rayne went for a top rope crossbody, but she just crashed against Grace.

Rayne started using her speed to get as many roll-ups and kicks on Grace to finally get her off her feet, but Grace just got back up and hit a big Pounce for a two count. There was then a big senton for another two count as Grace started working over Rayne’s back. Grace hit a backbreaker and sidewalk slam for yet another two count. She continued this dominance for a couple more minutes.

Eventually, Grace went for the Vader Bomb, but Rayne moved away and finally got an opening to recover and get some offense in. Rayne went for another flying crossbody — this time dropping Grace for a two count.

Grace went for the O’Connor roll, but Rayne reversed it into a sleeper. As much as Grace broke it, Rayne wouldn’t let go. Grace got off and hit a torture rack into a bomb for a two count.

Rayne hit a crucifix pin for a near fall. Grace hit the Grace Driver and pinned Rayne to earn a title shot at the Rebellion pay-per-view. Good match, but the crowd was somewhat dead.

After the match, Valkyrie came out and jumped Grace from behind. Grace was making a comeback, but Johnny Impact came out to distract her, allowing Valkyrie to beat her up. Valkyrie hit a curb stomp and set her up for Johnny’s Countdown Splash, but Brian Cage came down for the save and ran the couple to the back.

– Backstage, Ethan Page and Josh Alexander were talking. They talked about being the best from the area and said that Monster Mafia can show they’re the best team — not just in the area, but the world. I’m glad we’re getting Monster Mafia.

Rohit Raju (w/ The Desi Hit Squad) defeated Fallah Bahh

Bahh actually lost some weight since the last set of tapings. Good for him.

Raj Singh distracted Bahh to start the match, giving Raju the opening to jump him, but Bahh was not phased thanks to his size advantage. This was the usual power vs. speed match, with Raju managing to get a lot of offense in as long as Bahh wouldn’t get a hold of him.

After a bit of offense by Raju, Bahh caught him with a Samoan drop and a subsequent crossbody to set him up for the Banzai Drop. Gama Singh distracted the referee, giving Raj the opening to take out Bahh. Raju picked up the win with a roll-up. The match was okay, nothing special, but seeing Bahh wrestle is always a treat.

After the match, Scarlett Bordeaux hit the ring. She distracted Desi Hit Squad, allowing Bahh to take them both out. Bordeaux hit a running hip attack on Raj before Bahh and her celebrated in the ring.

– We got a vignette of Cody and Jake Deaner getting Impact contracts. Looks more promising than the last time we saw Deaner on Impact.

– Josh Mathews ran down the card for Rebellion, announcing that Swann and Callihan will go at it for the X-Division Championship.

– We got a career retrospective video package for Gail Kim. They put her over and how her feud with Awesome Kong had turned the page for women’s wrestling in the United States. At the end, they recapped the current feud with Tessa Blanchard.

– Melissa Santos interviewed Blanchard. She asked about the Gail Kim video and what it felt like to face a legend at Rebellion. Blanchard responded by questioning the “legend” part of the question.

Blanchard said that Kim was a legend, but only in her era of bra and panties matches, not Blanchard’s era. Good promo by Blanchard.

Eli Drake & Eddie Edwards defeated LAX (Santana & Ortiz)

Josh Matthews actually brought up that LAX were just in New Jersey fighting Low Ki & Ricky Martinez, making it seem like this show was live.

Both teams talked trash to each other to start the match. Drake went to cheap shot Konnan, who blocked it and hit Drake. Referee Johnny Bravo kicked Konnan out to the back.

In the ring, Santana and Ortiz jumped Edwards and Drake to start the match. Both teams went back and forth with quick tags and some blind tags in between. There was a lot of double-team moves from both teams.

Santana got the closest to a hot tag, going wild on Edwards. He went for a frog splash, but Drake cut him off and hit a great superplex. Edwards got a two count with a powerbomb. Santana hit a rolling cutter on Edwards, followed by the double inverted suplex, but Drake pulled Ortiz to break up the pin.

LAX went for the Street Sweeper, but Lucha Bros came out to distract Santana. Santana dove on them, giving Drake the opening to hit Ortiz with the kendo stick, setting him up for Edwards’ Boston Knee Party for the win.

Lucha Bros took out LAX with a pair of superkicks after the match. They brought out a table, with Pentagon powerbombing Santana through it to close the show as they stood tall over LAX.

Final thoughts —

A really good show by Impact. The work inside the ring and the build toward Rebellion were both solid.