Impact Wrestling was back in Orlando last night for their third straight day of post-Redemption television tapings. The final night of this round of tapings will take place tonight.
Impact tapings —
– A Fact of Life segment with Eli Drake opened the first episode. He took a shot at Scott Steiner and called Moose, the fans (twice), Impact management, and Austin Aries the five biggest dummies in Impact. Moose came out and cut a promo on Drake, with Drake hitting a cheap shot and laying him out.
Moose will face Drake at some point to decide who will challenge for Austin Aries’ World Championship at Slammiversary.
– LAX (Santana & Ortiz) defeated The Cult of Lee (Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley)
Eddie Kingston, who was last with the company in 2017 as part of the DCC, returned as the newest member of LAX. Santana had teased the arrival of “King” at Redemption.
– Taya Valkyrie defeated Rebel
Valkyrie set up a match with Madison Rayne for “next week.”
– Brian Cage defeated Dezmond Xavier
– Madison Rayne defeated Tessa Blanchard
– The Cult of Lee (Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley) defeated Fallah Bahh & KM
Cult of Lee won when Bahh accidentally gave KM a Samoan drop. After the match, KM pushed Bahh down and said he’ll always be a loser.
– Brian Cage defeated Rohit Raju
Matt Sydal came out and tried to recruit Cage, saying he sees inner weakness in Cage and will make him stronger than he’s ever been if he gives up his X Division title shot. Cage responded by hitting an F-5 on Sydal.
– Impact Tag Team Champions Z & E (DJ Z & Andrew Everett) defeated Drago & Aerostar
Aerostar was hurt during the match and walked to the back with help after being checked out.
– Moose defeated Kongo Kong
– X Division Champion Matt Sydal defeated El Hijo Del Fantasma to retain his title
Impact Wrestling returned to Orlando last night for the first of six days of television tapings. They were back to using a four-sided ring, Austin Aries returned and won the Impact World Championship, and Johnny Impact won a four-way to become Aries’ next challenger.
Impact TV tapings —
– Impact Grand Champion Matt Sydal defeated Fallah Bahh to retain his title
Impact has dropped the rounds concept for the Grand Championship and there were no rounds or judges for this match.
– Bobby Lashley defeated KM
– Kiera Hogan defeated Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness in a non-title match
Hogan, who signed with the company a while ago, was making her debut here. She won after Van Ness was distracted by Allie.
– There was a segment with LAX and OVE & Sami Callihan that ended with Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley coming out and attacking LAX.
– Johnny Impact & Moose defeated EC3 & Alberto El Patron
– Eli Drake and Chris Adonis did a promo where Adonis was putting over Drake as the greatest champion of all-time, the greatest dresser of all-time, the greatest friend of all-time, and Drake claimed that he was the greatest man to ever live.
That set up Austin Aries making his return to Impact Wrestling. Aries ran down his credentials and mentioned being a former World Champion for the company. This led to a title match between the two.
– Austin Aries defeated Eli Drake to win the Impact World Championship
– X Division Champion Taiji Ishimori & Grand Champion Matt Sydal defeated El Hijo del Fantasma & Rohit Raju
– Cult of Lee (Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley) defeated TECH (TC Reid & Mike Monroe)
LAX appeared on the screen after and Konnan told Lee & Conley that they’re coming for them.
– Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness defeated Kiera Hogan in a non-title match
Van Ness attacked Hogan after the match until Allie made the save.
– Hania defeated Amber Nova
Rosemary tried to attack Hania following the match.
– Johnny Impact defeated EC3, Moose, and Alberto El Patron in a four-way number one contender’s match
Impact pinned EC3 and is next in line for a shot at the World title. Moose appeared to be injured and was helped to the back.
Dark match/Explosion TV tapings —
– Caleb Konley defeated Rohit Raju
This was taped before the show.
– OVE defeated TECH (TC Reid & Mike Monroe)
Both this and the next match were filmed at the end of the tapings.
Over the last two nights, Impact finished their week of television tapings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with a few title changes, a career vs. career match, and a couple of debuts.
Results from the shows are listed below, with notes from the previous days of tapings available to read in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Notes from Thursday night’s tapings —
– Taiji Ishimori defeated Trevor Lee to win the X Division Championship
This began Ishimori’s first reign as X Division Champion.
– Grand Champion EC3 defeated Fallah Bah and Matt Sydal to retain his title
– Chandler Park defeated Jon Bolen
Former EVOLVE wrestler Ethan Page made his debut for Impact Wrestling as Park here.
– Dan Lambert defeated James Storm in a career vs. career match
Storm cut a promo thanking Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter, and Bob Ryder after the match.
– LAX defeated OVE to win the Impact Tag Team Championship
– Kongo Kong defeated Kaito Kiyomiya
Kong won this, which was a match for Impact’s Xplosion TV show.
– EC3 and Petey Williams went to a no contest
The match was thrown out when Sydal attacked EC3.
– Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness defeated KC Spinelli to retain her title
Van Ness had won the championship in a tournament earlier in the week.
– Sonjay Dutt, Garza Jr. & Dezmond Xavier defeated Trevor Lee, Caleb Konley & Hakim Zane
– Bobby Lashley & KM defeated Moose & Eddie Edwards
– Kongo Kong defeated Chandler Park
– LAX defeated OVE & Sami Callihan in a six-man tag team Barbed Wire Massacre match
Notes from Friday night’s tapings —
These were matches that were taped for Impact and the upcoming “Genesis” special episode of the show. They’ll air in December and January:
– X Division Champion Taiji Ishimori defeated Dezmond Xavier to retain his title
This was said to be a very good match.
– Rosemary defeated KC Spinelli
Rosemary did a promo after where she was attacked by Hania the She Wolf, who was making her Impact debut.
– Matt Sydal defeated EC3 to win the Grand Championship
– Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness defeated Allie to retain her title
Van Ness retained after a ref bump and a title belt shot to the head.
– Moose defeated Bobby Lashley (w/ Dan Lambert and KM)
KM caused Lashley to lose the match. Lashley had enough of American Top Team and he and Moose both beat them up after, then Lashley and Moose shook hands.
In matches that were taped for Impact’s Xplosion TV show:
– Eddie Edwards defeated Hakim Zane
– Impact Global Champion Eli Drake defeated Brett Banks
– X Division Champion Low Ki defeated Caleb Konley
Low Ki was busted open near his eye at one point in the match. Sonjay Dutt came out wearing an eye patch after and asked how Low Ki felt being on the other side. He said that if Low Ki was a man of honor he would give him a title shot. Low Ki shook his hand and agreed to the match.
– Davey Richards defeated Vinaash Verma
Richards submitted him with an ankle lock. EC3 came out after and whipped Verma with a belt, which led to James Storm coming out and EC3 escaping the ring.
– Knockouts Champion Rosemary defeated Laurel Van Ness (w/ Sienna)
Sienna tried to distract the referee, but Van Ness accidentally pushed her off the apron. Rosemary then scored the pin with a roll-up. The heels attacked Rosemary after the match before Allie made the save wielding a kendo stick. Rosemary took the kendo stick but just dropped it and smiled.
– EC3 entered wearing Indian-style clothing and with Ethan Singh 3 on the screen. He had a translator and cut a heel promo on the country. After the translator refused to translate, EC3 whipped him with the belt. Storm again came out to the ring. EC3 tried to whip him, but Storm kicked the belt out of his hands. EC3 escaped and Storm posed with the translator.
– Josh Mathews defeated Sandeep
Mathews talked about Scott Steiner’s return before the match. He said he handpicked his opponent, who was previously on the Indian Olympic team and was in a Bollywood movie. He then introduced a large wrestler wearing a singlet. Mathews hit a Swanton Bomb and then submitted him with the Steiner Recliner.
Mathews wouldn’t let go of the hold, which caused Mahabali Shera to come out. Bobby Lashley then attacked Shera, leading to Mathews putting Shera in the Steiner Recliner. Alberto El Patron finally cleared the ring and posed with Shera.
– Braxton Sutter (w/ Allie) defeated Trevor Lee
Lee controlled the match until he went after Allie on the outside. A neckbreaker eventually got the win for Sutter. He celebrated with Allie in the ring until Sienna and Van Ness entered. The heels ran them down and challenged Allie and Rosemary.
– Mahabali Shera won a 10-man Sony SIX Invitational gauntlet
There was a trophy at ringside. Suicide, Matt Sydal, Davey Richards, KM, Swoggle, Eddie Edwards, Spud, Kongo Kong, Moose, and Mahabali Shera were in the match. It came down to normal rules and Shera defeated KM. He celebrated and hugged his family at ringside. A Sony representative, Bruce Prichard, and Scott D’Amore then presented the trophy to him and he celebrated with the crowd.
– Moose cut a promo before being interrupted by Eli Drake and Chris Adonis. Moose said that he has a partner that he will reveal in due time for a tag match against them at Slammiversary.
– Alberto El Patron came out. He cut a babyface promo and talked about all of the countries that he’s wrestled in. He talked about all of the titles he’s won and said that he was going to win the Impact World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary. Bobby Lashley cut him off and they went back and forth.
Bruce Prichard then entered and said that they should both defend their titles in India tonight. Alberto wanted to face Lashley, but they had to take on different opponents. They wanted to know who their opponents would be, but Prichard said that they’ll find out like everyone else when they walk down that aisle.
– Impact World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley defeated Grand Champion Moose to retain his title
Moose was revealed as Lashley’s opponent. They had a competitive match until Lashley gained the upper hand. Moose fought back, but Lashley eventually countered the Game Breaker into a spear to retain.
– GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron defeated Chris Adonis (w/ Eli Drake) to retain his title
Adonis was revealed as Alberto’s challenger and came out with Eli Drake. Alberto won after hitting a double foot stomp. Drake and Adonis attacked him after the match, but Moose cleared the ring. Alberto and Moose then celebrated after.
– Sonjay Dutt defeated Low Ki to win the X Division Championship
Dutt finally became X Division Champion after hitting the Hindu press to defeat Low Ki. He was in disbelief after winning the title. Shera and others came out with champagne to celebrate. Dutt spoke in Hindu, saying this wasn’t for him but was for the entire nation. Shera thanked the crowd and said they were awesome.
Here are some notes from last night’s Impact tapings:
It looks like much of this will be the March 23rd Impact show.
– Karen Jarrett did an interview and said that Maria Kanellis had suffered a nervous breakdown after the Laurel Van Ness wedding and she’s no longer with the company. Jarrett is a babyface here and maybe in charge of the women.
She called out Sienna and told her she’s been a bully to the other women and it has to stop. Sienna said that she earned her way to Impact, and didn’t have to marry someone to get here. Karen demanded an apology right there. Kevin Matthews came out as a relative of Sienna’s and then Braxton Sutter came out to defend Karen, which led to a match.
– Laurel Van Ness defeated MJ Jenkins
Van Ness weeks later still had her wedding dress on, and is pretending to have gone on a bender.
– Andrew Everett defeated DJZ
– Rosemary did an interview and ODB challenged her to a match. This led to most of the women coming out and leading to a brawl.
– Ethan Carter III was doing an interview. James Storm came out to his old music and is back as Cowboy James Storm. He claimed the highest rated episode of Impact was when he won the title (not true) and he’s after the title again.
– Kevin Matthews defeated Braxton Sutter
– Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztic, as LAX, managed by Konnan, won the tag titles in a four-way over Reno Scum, Decay, and Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid
– Eli Drake defeated Caleb Konley
– Bruce Prichard announced that the problems with Jeremy Borash and Josh Mathews as announcers have to stop and there will be a face off next week.
– ODB won a Rumble style women’s match to become top contender for Rosemary
– James Storm did a promo talking about winning the title. Eddie Kingston and Bram came out and said Storm has ruined all of their plans for DCC. Storm laid both of them out with superkicks.
– Andrew Everett won a three-way over Marshe Rockett and Suicide
– Davey Richards defeated Eddie Edwards in a last man standing match
