Four matches have been announced for next week’s Impact Wrestling episode.
In a tag team match, Honor No More’s Mike Bennett and Matt Taven will team against Heath and Rhino. The teams brawled backstage on this week’s episode after Bennett and Taven were denied a Tag Team title match with The Briscoes at Slammiversary.
In another tag bout, Moose and Steve Maclin will team up to face PCO and W. Morrissey.
In a Knockouts Division match, Mia Yim will take on Savannah Evans, with Deonna Purrazzo announced as a special guest commentator for the bout.
Rich Swann will look for revenge against Matthew Rehwoldt for costing him a title shot in the Gauntlet for the Gold next week, as the two will meet in singles competition.
Here is the announced lineup:
Impact Wrestling, Thursday, June 2–
Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Heath & Rhino
Moose & Steve Maclin vs. PCO & W. Morrissey
Mia Yim vs. Savannah Evans (w/Deonna Purrazzo on commentary)
The main event for tonight’s Sacrifice will feature Impact World champion Rich Swann vs. TNA champion Moose in a title unification that will set up a winner take all match for April’s Rebellion pay-per-view against AEW World champion Kenny Omega.
Swann and Moose have been at odds for months with Moose finally earning the title shot by losing an “I quit” match in an act of mercy proposed by Swann in exchange for the shot. The two then later reluctantly teamed up as part of a six-man tag with Omega on the other side of the ring at January’s Hard to Kill.
Saturday’s show will also feature four additional title matches as Tag Team champions The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) take on FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) for the Impact World Tag Team titles; Knockouts champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against ODB; Knockouts Tag Team champions Fire ‘N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) face Jordynne Grace and Jazz and X-Division champion TJP faces Ace Austin.
The show will also feature Violent By Design (Joe Doering and Deaner) vs. Beer Guns (James Storm and Chris Sabin); Eddie Edwards vs. Brian Myers in a ‘hold harmless’ match; Reno Scum vs. Decay (Black Taurus and Crazzy Steve); and Tenille Dashwood and Caleb with a K vs. Havok and Nevaeh.
Our live coverage of this Impact Plus special starts at 8 PM Eastern.
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We’re on!
Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus) (with Rosemary) defeated Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe)
Not much story behind this match, both teams challenged each other on the Sacrifice go-home show.
Match started with some good offense from Decay over Luster, they’re starting to show more tag team moves. Reno Scum actually managed to cut off Taurus for the heat for a while before the bull made his comeback and got to tag out. Steve had a decent hot tag, but Reno Scum regained control and it took Rosemary hitting the green mist on Luster for th Decay to pick up the win over Thornstowe at the hands of a Taurus Driver.
Ok match, surprised that Scum got the heat on Taurus so much. If the champions were not the Good Brothers, I could see Steve and Taurus getting some wins and challenging for the titles.
– D’lo Brown and Matt Striker ran down the card for tonight.
Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb with a K defeated Havok & Nevaeh
Dashwood and Kaleb have been trying to recruit partners for a while, and after seeing the issues that Havok and Nevaeh had after losing to Fire ‘n Flava, they decided to try and pick them up, causing some dissension between the team, but at the end, they made Havok and Nevaeh a strong team, and now they’re going to get their taste at them as a team.
Dashwood and Kaleb have been trying to recruit partners for a while, and after seeing the issues that Havok and Nevaeh had after losing to Fire ‘n Flava, they decided to try and pick them up, causing some dissension between the team, but at the end, they made Havok and Nevaeh a strong team, and now they’re going to get their taste at them as a team.
Story of the match was that Dashwood and Kaleb had control as long as Dashwood was in the ring, since Kaleb would do everything to help her, but when Kaleb was in the ring, Havok and Nevaeh would regain control, as Dashwood had no intentions of helping Kaleb.
Match saw Dashwood and Kaleb cut off Nevaeh for a couple of minutes before she turned things around on Kaleb and Nevaeh got the hot tag on Havok. Match came down to Dashwood getting rolled up, only for Kaleb to reverse the roll up and Dashwood stole the win.
This adds into the Havok and Nevaeh losing streak and frustrations of the last months.
– Eddie Edwards went to hype Rich Swann up for his match tonight, and told him he can make history tonight and at Rebellion. Good little promo.
Violent By Design (Deaner & Joe Doering) (with Eric Young) defeated Beer Guns (James Storm & Chris Sabin) (with Jake Something)
As a result of losing to Jake Something, Deaner was punished by Young and Doering for the last weeks. Storm and Sabin confronted EY about his actions and abuse, only to get attacked by the trio. The match was booked, but with the number advantage on VBD, Jake Something offered to be out there for Sabin and Storm.
As a result of losing to Jake Something, Deaner was punished by Young and Doering for the last weeks. Storm and Sabin confronted EY about his actions and abuse, only to get attacked by the trio. The match was booked, but with the number advantage on VBD, Jake Something offered to be out there for Sabin and Storm.
Match was similar to the previous in the sense that when Deaner was in the ring, Storm and Sabin had control of the ring easily, but as soon as he would tag Doering, the momentum would get turned around, so it was thanks to Doering that VBD managed to cut off Storm from his corner and get heat on him.
After minutes of being the babyface in peril, Storm escaped the hands of Deaner and tagged in Sabin for a great hot tag, where he even got Doering off the apron and hurt against the guardrail. Unfortunately, an angered Doering jumped in the ring and decimated Sabin for Deaner to pick up, but Sabin survived.
At the end, all hell broke loose, Deaner and Storm brawled outside, Something and EY too, in the ring, Sabin and Deaner took each other out, and the referee got taken out. Suddenly, Rhino jumped in and gored Sabin, the same Rhino that had also been taken out by VBD months ago. Deaner pinned Sabin for the win and Rhino joined VBD. I take it Heath is not coming back any time soon. Pretty good match.
– Backstage, Gia Miller interviewed Brian Myers who only complained about how unsafe the environment is and how he has adapted to beat Edwards. We also saw Myers pay Hernandez some money,so we know he’ll likely be out there.
Eddie Edwards defeated Brian Myers in a Hold Harmeless Match
The story between these two goes back a couple of months now. As of late, Myers has used lawyers and doctors in order to get out of wrestling Edwards, but after looking through the charade, D’Amore has booked Myers in a no rules match against Edwards so they can finally settle their differences.
Match saw Edwards dominate early on, using mostly wrestling moves. He kept control until the ‘most professional wrestler’ started to take advantage of the no rules stipulation and attacked Edwards with a garbage can lid and cooking sheet. Edwards eventually made a comeback, catching Myers with a cooking sheet shot to the head and dropping him with a superplex on top of a couple of chairs and other trash.
Towards the end of the match, Edwards went to put Myers through a table, only for Hernandez to come out and save Myers. Cardona came out to neutralize Hernandez, and left Myers alone for Edwards to stalk with his kendo stick. Edwards ended up hitting the backpack stunner from the apron through the table on the floor, which I think hurts Edwards way more.
Finish saw Edwards hit the Tiger Bomb, load up his kneepad, and hit the BKP for the win. Good match, weapons were unnecessary.
At this point, this rivalry could end here and let Cardona do whatever he will with Myers going forward.
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions Fire ‘N Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz) defeated Jazz & Jordynne Grace to retain the titles
Grace and Jazz became the #1 contenders to the Knockouts tag team championships after defeating the team of Kimber Lee and Susan about a month ago. Ever since, they’ve feuded with Hogan and Steelz.
Hogan and Steelz are so great as a team. Story here was that Grace and Jazz had the strength and experience advantage, as so they could at any point dominate either of their opponents, but when it came to tag team work, Hogan and Steelz’ work just above them, so on two different occasions, they manage to cut off both Grace and Jazz, and with their double team work and quick tags, get heat for quite a while.
Grace eventually got a great hot tag and ran wild, pairing up with Hogan for some great sequences. Grace’s momentum got cut when Hogan and Steelz hit a neckbreaker and footstomp combo for a near fall.
Finish saw Grace go for a Muscle Buster, but lose it, eat a crucifix bomb and Hogan’s rolling fisherman suplex pin for the win. This was really really good.
Hogan and Steelz are super dominant, they’ll need new contenders after this.
– Gia Miller interviewed Moose about his match tonight. Moose ignored her and told her to watch the match.
Ace Austin (w/Madman Fulton) defeated Impact X-Division Champion TJP to become the NEW CHAMPION!
Ever since winning the Super X Cup, Austin has been asking for his well earned singles shot for the X Division championship, he has jumped every one of D’Amore’s hoops and straight up defeated everyone in the division to finally get his match. It’s a really backwards book if you think about it.
This was a fantastic, back and forward match. The wrestling would transition between submission and chain wrestling into high flying moves into sequences of counters and pin reversals.
The match came down to Austin knocking TJP loopy, but instead of capitalizing, Austin got cocky and tried to use TJP’s signature submission, only to get reversed into a knee bar for a submission tease. From here on, TJP kept going for the leg, but Austin had already made more damage, and kept going for the head until he landed a double stomp DDT and the fold and won the match.
I can’t imagine this will be the last time these two face off, but at least we’ll get a couple of new pair ups with Austin as the champion.
– We got a bad Johnny Swinger’s skip with Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K. This ended up with Alisha Edwards and Tenille Dashwood challenging for a match.
Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defeated ODB to retain the title
ODB made her return to the promotion on February 2nd, saving Jordynne Grace and Jazz from the attacks of Purrazzo, Lee, and Susan. Weeks later, Purrazzo singled out ODB and attacked her backstage. After ODB got her retaliation a week later, the match was signed.
After some early interference from Kimber Lee, referee Tolle sent both Lee and Susan to the back.
Match was a clash of styles, ODB is a brawler, while Purrazzo is a technician that focuses on a limb and works on it throughout the match. The match saw Purrazzo go after ODB’s left arm, trying to counter as much as possible from what ODB threw at her, but with ODB’s particular style and power advantage, she was landing as many moves as Purrazzo was countering. Eventually, Purrazzo’s work was done, she took down ODB with the Fujiwara armbar, transitioned into the Venus de Milo, and submitted ODB. This was short, but quite good, both women worked to their strengths.
– D’Amore booked a 12-women knockouts match for Impact this Tuesday. He didn’t say who was involved other than Dashwood and Alisha Edwards.
FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) defeated Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) to become the NEW CHAMPIONS!
The story between these teams could go all the way back to NJPW, but here on Impact, it’s seniors trying to one up their younger counterparts, except Robinson and Finlay aren’t Young Lions anymore and were ready to fire back. Their back and forward trash talk eventually led to FinJuice challenging for the titles that the Good Brothers obliged.
Good match. Two teams known for their history in Japan, but the match was paced like an American match. We saw FinJuice dominate early on, but after a couple of spots, Gallows and Anderson cut off Finlay for the heat. Finlay had a great babyface in peril run, some good tag teases, but eventually he got the tag to Robinson, who had a good run until the Good Brothers also cut him off.
Towards the end, the Good Brothers failed to hit the magic killer when Finlay saved Robinson. Robinson landed two hands of God, and along with Finlay, got rid of Gallows for enough time to hit a doomsday device on Anderson to win and capture the tag team titles!
I wasn’t expecting the titles to change hands here, seems like we’ll be getting more FinJuice for a while.
Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose in a Title Unification Match
A year’s worth of character build for both Moose and Swann finally reaches their climax. Moose, self-proclaimed TNA World Champion, that stole a title belt from a warehouse and actually managed to defend it over a year now seeks to win the Impact World Championship in order to finally get the recognition he deserves. Rich Swann, who came back after a gruesome injury, only to fight and crawl to win and retain the championship, now faces a man that has been stalking him for months, that injured his best friend Willie Mack, and that has been on a rampage for months. After tonight, Impact will have just one World Champion, and that World Champion will have a second opportunity to win more gold as the winner will face off against AEW’s Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at Rebellion.
It has come to become Swann’s layout for most of his matches, but the super dominant Moose vs the smaller underdog Swann worked out perfectly for the story that these two men had been telling for some months.
The match saw a Moose that started dominant from the get go, even after Swann rammed him head first into several ringposts, Moose absorbed the damage and kept dominating. Swann had a couple of comebacks, but Moose kept cutting him off. It wasn’t until Swann managed to counter a second rope bomb into a headscissors takedown that Swann managed to hurt Moose and get some offense in.
At one point, Swann hit a cutter at mid air on a Moose that was half way down from a top rope shoulder block, only for Moose to kick out at one. Swann followed with a 450 for another near fall.
Moose hit a top rope avalanche Spanish fly, only for a near fall, so he started getting frustrated. He chased the lights out, only to go shoulder first into the ring post. Swann tricked Moose three times, but it still wasn’t enough to put down Moose. Finally, Moose went for one final lights out, but Swann reversed it, rolled over Moose, and got the win. This was a fantastic match.
Rich Swann will go on to face Kenny Omega at Rebellion’s main event, in a title vs title match.
Young defeated Eddie Edwards to win the championship on tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling. The finish of the match had Young strike Edwards with the hockey mask he wore to the ring, then pinned Edwards following a piledriver.
After the match, Young continued to attack Edwards, focusing on the leg that Edwards had injured earlier in the match. Referees eventually had to pull Young off Edwards.
Young has been pushed as one of the top heels on Impact Wrestling following his return to the company at Slammiversary. After being eliminated during the five way match for the Impact World title, Young reinjured Swann’s leg, which led to his in-storyline retirement.
Edwards won the Impact World title that night. He had been defending the title in open challenge matches in recent weeks. Young challenged Edwards to a title match last week.
This marks Young’s second reign with the championship. He last won the title on the April 10, 2014 edition of Impact, defeating Magnus (Nick Aldis).
The status of Impact Wrestling’s World Championship will be addressed next week.
Impact Wrestling has revealed that there will be an announcement regarding the future of their World title on this coming Tuesday’s episode of Impact. Tessa Blanchard holds the Impact World Championship but hasn’t appeared at Impact’s two recent sets of television tapings due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Blanchard was supposed to defend her title against Michael Elgin and Eddie Edwards in a triple threat match at Rebellion in April, but that match didn’t happen due to neither Blanchard nor Edwards being able to attend the tapings.
A number one contender’s tournament was held on Impact over the past few weeks. Ace Austin won the tournament and is next in line for a shot at Blanchard’s title.
Moose has been calling himself TNA World Heavyweight Champion since bringing the title belt back at night two of Rebellion. He interrupted a backstage interview with Austin on Impact this week, called the Impact World Championship a second-rate title, and said Austin should come after his TNA World title instead. Austin responded by saying that maybe he will.
Here’s the updated lineup for next week’s Impact:
An announcement regarding the future of the Impact World Championship
Jordynne Grace vs. Taya Valkyrie for the Knockouts Championship
Michael Elgin vs. Sami Callihan vs. Ken Shamrock
Tasha Steelz vs. Susie
Chris Bey & Johnny Swinger vs. Willie Mack & Cousin Jake
Sami Callihan is the new Impact World champion following tonight’s tapings.
Callihan faced Brian Cage in a steel cage match during the tapings in Windsor, Ontario Canada. The ending had Callihan cut off Cage and deliver a piledriver off the middle rope, pinning him to win the title. This follows their match from Bound For Glory this past Sunday where Cage successfully retained the title against Callihan.
After the match, Tessa Blanchard came out and stared down Callihan, making it clear she wanted a title shot in the future. The two faced each other in the main event of Slammiversary back in July, with Callihan scoring the win.
Brian Cage held the Impact title for 180 days, defeating Johnny Impact back on April 28 at Impact’s Rebellion PPV.
Impact officially starts this Tuesday on AXS TV. A special aired last Tuesday that went over current storylines, while also airing a few exclusive matches.
