Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for the first episode since Eric Young dethroned Eddie Edwards and successfully became the Impact World Champion. 

Opening video touched upon ECIII’s threats to Moose; plus Eric Young defeating Eddie Edwards to win the Impact World title.

Eric Young came down to the ring to open the show. EY said that he was a world class wrestler and champion. He said that ever since his return, it was all by design that he’d end up the World champion.

Alisha Edwards interrupted EY and came down to the ring with a mic in hand. Alisha said that EY was a coward for injuring Swann and Eddie, but Eddie wasn’t going to just sit there, he was going to come back and take what was his, like when he came back from taking a baseball in the eye. Alisha said EY hurt her family, to which EY responded that he didn’t care. 

Alisha slapped EY, so he went to hit a piledriver on her, but Dreamer, who gets involved in every feud ever, came down for the save and ran away EY with a kendo stick.

Tommy Dreamer cut a short promo that said that the Edwards and Swann are like their family. He said that when EY decided to leave, it was Swann and Eddie that kept Impact going for him to return. Dreamer said he was using his influence with the company to get a fight with EY tonight. 

Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne introduced the show and ran down tonight’s card.

We saw Moose traveling by plane to where he believes ECIII is holding his TNA World Championship belt. 

Rosemary, Bravo, and Taya talked about their upcoming wedding. Rosemary told Bravo and Taya that they could take care of the wedding planning while Rosemary would resurrect James Mitchell to officiate a demon wedding. 

TJP defeated Chris Bey

Match started with them exchanging strikes when Bey tried to rush TJP, but the latter got the better of Bey sending him flying with an over the head toss and a pancake, quickly followed by going for an armbreaker, but Bey escaped. 

Rohit Raju came out to watch the match.

Bey turned the offense around, catching TJP with an elbow, sending him to the corner. TJP reversed with a rana, an armdrag, and a springboard dropkick to the floor. 

TJP went for the top rope, but Bey pulled the referee over. But when Bey went to attack TJP, he was caught by an armbar. TJP went for another armbreaker, but Bey raked his eyes and dropped him with a clothesline.

Back from commercial, Bey had been working on TJP by stomping on him, getting a two count. Snapmare and diving lariat for another two count. Bey went for a Gory bomb, but TJP rolled through into a yoshi tonic and into a last chancery. Once again, Bey raked TJP’s eyes and caught him with kicks, covering for another two count. 

Bey locked in an abdominal stretch, countered into a backplex by TJP. Atomic bomb and springboard crossbody by TJP, followed by a modified version of the three amigos, and finally the mamba splash. Bey moved away, hit a spinning kick, and into a springboard cutter, but TJP countered into an armbar, rolled over by Bey into a pin attempt. 

Bey got a torture rack into a cutter for yet another two count. Bey tried to slingshot sunset flip, but TJP used the momentum to roll Bey for the pin. Great opener. 

We got a new episode of Locker Room talk with Madison Rayne and the returning Johnny Swinger. The guests this week were Kylie Rae and Susie. Madison asked about Wrestle House, but didn’t really let them answer and implied that Rae went to Wrestle House to dodge Deonna Purrazzo. Speaking of, Purrazzo and Kimber Lee interrupted the interview and challenged them to a tag match. Rae and Susie accepted. Purrazzo and Lee are great.

Bravo was on the phone when Tasha Steelz and Kiera Hogan interrupted him and started bullying him about being invited to the wedding. Bravo brought up Taya and both Steelz and Hogan told Bravo that he needed to be his own man and that they could be their best grooms-women. They are continuing the story that Bravo can’t stand up against Taya.

Brian Myers came down to the ring. He addressed Wilie Mack, telling him that they got off on the wrong foot. He said that he is a superstar so Mack shouldn’t be upset about losing to him, but that Mack should follow the tradition to pay respect to those who paved the way for the new guys like him, and so he called out Mack to shake his hand.

Mack came out and said that he wasn’t there to shake no hands nor be professional, but that Impact gave him a rematch, right there and now. Myers said that he wasn’t even wearing his gear. Mack is the worst promo on Impact.

Brian Myers defeated Willie Mack

Myers tried to get Mack to shake his hand, but Mack refused, so instead he tried to kick him. Mack caught him with a lariat and a back elbow. Myers dropped to the floor, followed by Mack hitting a pescado. 

Myers dodged Mack getting back in the ring, pulled him out again and dropped him on the apron. 

Myers started stomping and punching Mack, hitting a suplex for a two count. Myers locked a headlock for about 3 hours until Mack tried to come back. Myers tried to clothesline Mack, but missed him, giving Mack the opening to come back with a couple of clotheslines and back elbows. Mack hit a leg drop for a two count. 

Mack hit the Samoan drop and moonsault combo for another near fall. Mack went for the stunner, but Myers raked Mack’s eyes, but when he tried to rush Mack, he got taken out by a huge spinebuster. 

Mack ripped Myers shirt off and threw it, making the referee to turn around and get the shirt of the ring, giving Myers the opening to low blow Mack and hit his DDT finisher for the win. Mack looked like a geek.

Gia Miller interviewed Jordynne Grace about last week’s confrontation with Purrazzo. Jordynne said that she had an issue with Tenille about not being on Impact and then just thinking she can come in and get a title shot. Jordynne told Miller to follow her to Tenille’s locker room so they could ask her right there and now. 

The returning Kaleb Conley answered the door instead, he said that he is now Tenille’s personal photographer and that Tenille wasn’t there. They played a vignette for Tenille’s return next week, and went back to Jordynne’s reaction. This was nice. 

Hogan and Steelz planned out how they’d coach Bravo, but Taya confronted them and told them to not talk to Bravo, if they wanted something, they needed to talk to her. She told them they were not invited. Steelz and Taya got face to face and will wrestle each other later tonight. 

Impact World Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) to retain the titles

The Rascalz jumped MCMG with dropkicks while the latter were still mid-entrance, followed by tope suicidas. They hit a couple of running elbows and dropkicks on Shelley, kick combo on Sabin for a two count. 

Dezmond started working over Sabin, got a tag on Wentz for a kick combo and a moonsault for a two count. Shelley blind tagged in and along with Sabin, worked on Wentz’ leg so that he couldn’t even stand up anymore, but he still tried to fight through. MCMG kept the offense on the knee with bars, kicks, and dragon screws. Sabin tagged in and stomped the knees. Shelley hit a rana into a knee stomp, followed by a PK kick from Sabin, and once again, dropped him knee first into the mat.

Shelley locked in a kneebar, and when Dez tried to make the save got caught with an octopus stretch. Wentz finally managed to get Sabin off and hit a standing SSP on Shelley to save Wentz, who hit an enzuigiri to get Shelley off and finally tag out.

Dezmond and Sabin tagged in with the former getting the upper hand with a couple of punches and a kick to Sabin’s spine. Xavier followed with back elbows for a two count. 

Wentz and Shelley got involved with the former taking out the latter, then setting up Sabin for a bridged footstomp for a two count. 

Xavier hit a superkick on Sabin, followed by a jumping knee (the good knee) from Wentz, and went for a hot fire flame, but Sabin moved away, letting Wentz crash and burn. Shelley came back and they hit the reverse STF into a dropkick combo on Xavier, hit the ASCS rush and a new double driver move on Wentz for the win. Great match.

After the match, The North jumped MCMGs and The Rascalz. MCMGs managed to turn things around, but Ace Austin and Madman Fulton came down and attacked them too. The North and Ace & Fulton had a face off before Page told them that each team could get their own Machine Gun to attack. Eventually, The Good Brothers came down and took care of The North, Ace Austin, and Fulton. Rascalz made sure to get the last shot with a couple of dives. Strong display of Impact’s tag team division.

Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes announced that they got picked for a series, the Whole F’n Talk Show, debuting next week.

We saw Sami Callihan in his computer room cutting a promo about getting his ass kicked last week because Katie Forbes was there, and she’s becoming a pain to deal with. He said that next week, RVD and Forbes are debuting their show, but that he promises not to hack the show because he has other plans. This was kinda bad, not the promo, but the presentation, Callihan has cooled off so much since his feud with Tessa Blanchard.

Taya Valkyrie (with John E. Bravo) defeated Tasha Steelz (with Kiera Hogan) 

Taya and Steelz talked some trash to start the match, but quickly got into strikes with Taya getting the better of Tasha with a shoulder tackle. Taya did some lucha arm drags on Tasha and a running dropkick for a two count. 

Taya was going for a running lariat, but Hogan tripped her, allowing Tasha to get the better of Taya with some European uppercuts and a neckbreaker for a two count. All the while, Bravo is on his phone planning his wedding.

Tasha went for a bulldog, but Taya managed to block and drop her with a sitout powerbomb. Taya confronted Bravo and got annoyed that Hogan was shouting that the wedding was more important than her, so she focused that anger to chop Tasha, hit a pop-up knee for a two count. Tasha hit a big elbow to rock Taya off her feet, but she wasn’t able to follow as Taya hit a huge spear and the road to Valhalla for the win. Taya looked amazing here, total dominance.

After the match, Kiera Hogan jumped Taya, aided by Steelz, but Bravo finally got involved and pulled Taya away. Is this a Taya face turn?

We went back to Moose who went to see his old high school football coach, who he asked for a favor. Moose asked if he had seen ECIII but the coach hadn’t, but before Moose left, the coach told Moose to ‘control his narrative’ and that he had been warned. He ran into several men who wore a hoodie similar to E3 and quickly took them out before leaving.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was ECIII & Eddie Edwards vs Moose & Mike Kanellis from 2016.

Rhino and Heath met outside the building talking about last week’s tag team. Rhino told Heath that last week’s stunt kinda upset management, so they talked about what other stuff they can do. Heath said that he needs to start earning some money for more ads and Rhino knew exactly where to get it.

Matthews and Rayne ran down the card for next week, with Purrazzo and Kimber Lee vs Kylie Rae and Susie, Brian Myers vs Mack again, Taya vs Kiera Hogan, The North, Ace Austin, and Fulton vs The Rascalz and MCMGs, and XXXL vs The Deanears. 

Impact World Champion Eric Young defeated Tommy Dreamer in an old school rules match to retain the title

EY rushed Dreamer at the bell, but Dreamer caught him with an arm drag and a couple of scoop slams before going for the kendo stick. EY dodged the attacks and went for the top rope, but Dreamer caught him coming down and sent him to the floor. 

Dreamer pulled out a chain and got it around EY’s eyes. EY came back and attacked Dreamer around the ring. He slammed Dreamer on the apron then rammed him to the ring post. EY pulled the mats and tried to piledriver Dreamer, but was countered with a backdrop. 

Dreamer hit EY with a street sign, pulled out some chairs and went back to the ring where he used some kitchenware to continue the attack. Dreamer set up a superplex onto chairs, but EY blocked him and dropped Dreamer. 

EY, now in control, stomped around Dreamer, going after his head. EY landed a slingshot under the ropes for a two count. EY started using some of the weapons now, hitting Dreamer with a chair on the back, even a second rope steel chair buster, but Dreamer blocked and hit a cutter. 

They exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring until Dreamer hit the atomic elbow and falling elbow for a two count. EY clipped Dreamer’s knee and locked in the figure four leg lock, but Dreamer reached the kendo stick and hit EY until he was released, yet EY kept his offense on the knee with a dropkick. 

EY was whipped into a trashcan, followed by a DDT for another two count. Dreamer brought out a table and set it up on the corner, but EY got him with a low blow before Dreamer could do anything. EY went for the top rope, but now it was Dreamer that dropped him on to the ropes. 

Dreamer went for the DVD to the table, but EY had his hockey mask which he used on Dreamer, followed by the piledriver for the win. One of Dreamer’s better matches as of late. 

After the match, EY went after Dreamer’s knee with a Pillmanizer. Rich Swann came down limping and attacked EY with only one foot. They exchanged some words before the show went off the air.

Final Thoughts — 

Good show by Impact, really strong inside the ring. Storyline wise, they’d set up the seeds heading towards Bound for Glory and it looks promising.