After attacking former Impact World and X-Division Champion Josh Alexander at Turning Point, Jonah will make his TV debut on Thursday’s Impact Wrestling.
Jonah attacked from behind as Alexander was doing an in-ring promo addressing his recent title loss to Moose, leaving him bleeding from the mouth.
After last week’s Wrestle House 2 episode, this will be the first traditional show post-Turning Point as the company prepares for the Hard to Kill pay-per-view in January.
Thursday will also see Chris Sabin take on “Drama King” Matthew Rehwoldt (w/ Deonna Purrazzo) in singles action. This was also set up at Turning Point via a backstage confrontation.
In a grudge match and feud that has lasted several weeks, Willie Mack and Rich Swann will take on Violent by Design’s Deaner and Doering.
The BTI pre-show match will see Bullet Club member Hikuleo (w/ Chris Bey) vs. Jake Something.
Our live coverage begins at 8 PM Eastern.
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Jake Something defeated Hikuleo (with Chris Bey) on BTI
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Opening video recapped Turning Point’s Cardona vs Morrissey match, Jonah’s debut, attacking Josh Alexander; as well as the Turning Point main event where Moose retained the Impact world title.
Matt Cardona came out to the ring to open the show. Cardona talked about coming close to defeating Morrissey, if not for Morrissey who took out the referee and Moose who got involved. He said he wasn’t complaining, but he was still focused on the title, at which point Moose came out to the ring.
Moose talked about Cardona’s achievements in life, but pointed out that Cardona has never been able to be a top guy in the business. Moose questioned if Cardona really wanted to step up against himself after what he did to Edwards at Turning Point. Moose called Cardona a midcarder and suggested a name change to Mid Card-ona.
Cardona slapped the mic from Moose’s hands and they started brawling. Morrissey came to aid Moose, and Cardona managed to take him down, but after the distraction, Moose hit the lights out. They set up a second, but Edwards ran down for the save. Moosa ran away before Cardona could land radio silence.
– Violent By Design cut a promo about their match at Turning Point, where they showed Rhino what happens when someone betrays them. EY said that tonight, they take out Rich Swann and Willie Mack on the path to the tag team titles.
– Backstage, Scott D’Amore and Cardona met. D’Amore booked Cardona and Edwards vs Moose and Morrissey. Cardona asked for a title shot, so D’Amore told him to show he deserved it tonight.
Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering walked up to D’Amore and asked to join the Ultimate X match. Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans also wanted a spot in the match. D’Amore said that next week he’ll announce the participants, but Evans and Ellering will wrestle for the final spot of the match.
Chris Sabin defeated Matthew Rehwoldt (with Deonna Purrazzo)
This match came up after Rehwoldt challenged Sabin to a match after seeing how Sabin had taken the t-shirt designed to trash Sabin, and turned it into a positive design. Purrazzo came out with Rehwoldt, but instead joined the commentary team.
Match saw Sabin control early during the chain wrestling exchange and with a series of arm drags. Rehwoldt was able to cut him off by snapping his arm on the ropes, and later on catching him with a forearm that sent Sabin to the floor.
Back in the ring, Rehwoldt worked over Sabin, but he kept playing to the crowd and eventually gave Sabin the time to recover, escape from a sleeper, and stun Rehwoldt over the ropes.
Sabin made a comeback, took down Rehwoldt with a couple of forearms and kicks and a jumping tornado DDT. Sabin prepared to end Rehwoldt, at which point Purrazzo left the table, distracted Sabin, and set him up for Rehwoldt to take him out. Sabin was able to recover and hit Cradle Shock for the win
On the floor, Mickie James ran down and brawled with Purrazzo, making sure she couldn’t interfere anymore. They brawled to the back.
While the match was good, this was more about Purrazzo getting interviewed on commentary, talking about coming back after losing the title and challenging James at Hard To Kill. Purrazzo decimated Striker on commentary, it was beautiful.
– Chelsea Green asked D’Amore for a spot at the HTK Ultimate X match, as did Alisha Edwards. He kept repeating that the announcement is coming next week.
Jai Vidal also asked for a match, but D’Amore only had a match available, and it was against Jonah.
Jonah defeated Jai Vidal
This was obviously a squash, Vidal got an early strike, but was quickly destroyed by Jonah with a series of slams, ending with a top rope plancha for the pin.
After the match, Jonah took a mic and said that the wrestling industry is talking about him. He said he will take over Impact. He said his appearance at NJPW’s San Jose show was to target Moose, since he had the title. However, he first wanted to take out Alexander since every fan kept saying Alexander was the best wrestler.
– We got a recap of Turning Point’s X Division match where Trey Miguel defeated Laredo Kid and Steve Maclin. Afterwards, Gia Miller interviewed Miguel about his win. Miguel said that he really wants to pin Maclin and shut his mouth, but when he went for the double pin, Maclin kicked out while Kid didn’t. Maclin then jumped Miguel and they brawled backstage. Brawl ended with Miguel hitting a dive from some boxes.
– We got an installment of Brian Myers classes. Myers wasn’t in the venue, so VSK and Dice kept trying to talk to him. They wanted a substitute teacher since they had lost at Turning Point. Tonight, they’re facing FinJuice and hope to make amends with Myers.
– Backstage, Moose told Morrissey that they needed to get rid of Cardona. Morrissey said it wasn’t any of his concern if Cardona went after Moose or not, but Moose argued that if Cardona is present, he can’t give him a title shot. Morrissey brought up that Moose hasn’t given him the title shot he already promised, but Moose convinced him to stay with him.
Savannah Evans (with Tasha Steelz) Rachael Ellering (with Jordynne Grace)
Winner of this match qualifies to the Hard To Kill Ultimate X match, where the winner gets a title shot against the winner of Purrazzo vs James. Evans has a win over Ellering in their career, so Ellering is also trying to get that win back.
Match was a bit of a hoss fight, with many shoulder tackles early on. As they went on, Evans gained momentum slamming Ellering left to right, but she couldn’t keep her down for the 3 count.
Ellering went for a comeback, but when she went for the springboard leg drop, Evans straight up blocked the leg with her hands and once again cut off Ellering. Evans hit a big DDT, but Ellering still kicked out.
Ellering and Evans traded strikes and the former was finally able to take down Evans, followed with some running kicks and sentons. Ellering hit a discus forearm, but got distracted with Steelz and Grace that were chasing each other around the ring. Ellering took out Steelz, hit a TKO on Evans, and picked up the win.
– Tenille Dashwood returned and met up with Madison Rayne and Kaleb. They told her about The IInspiration and Dashwood was annoyed that she wasn’t the only Australian anymore.
Both teams met backstage and it turned out that Dashwood was BFFs with Lee and McKay. Rayne wasn’t so excited about the new friendship.
Rich Swann & Willie Mack defeated Violent By Design (Joe Doering & Deaner) (with Eric Young)
Both teams have been racking up wins in the last couple of weeks, so they both collide with hopes of getting closer to a shot at the tag team titles.
Doering and Swann started the match and Doering quickly and easily took control, but as soon as Deaner tagged in, Swann and Mack regained control of the match. After hitting a couple of double team moves, Swann got the first 2 count of the match. Before they could continue, Doering jumped in and took out Mack.
VBD cut off Mack and worked over him for a couple of minutes, with Doering doing most of the work, while Deaner came in and out with assists. It was until Mack managed to land a desperation pop-up forearm on Deaner, that he was able to tag in Swann.
Deaner made the mistake of not tagging out, and so Swann was able to take him down with a cutter, and tried to follow with the Phoenix Splash, but EY distracted him. Mack jumped in and took out Deaner, setting him up for the PS and the win.
After the match, EY and Doering jumped Mack and Swann. They teased piledriving Swann, but Heath and Rhino came out for the save and into the brawl with VBD until they cleared the ring.
Backstage, Hernandez asked Johnny Swinger about what happened at Wrestle House. He told him that if he had indeed gotten married, he would have given him money. Desi Hit Squad and Lawrence D approached them, with the latter calling Raju riff-raff. D challenged Raju to a match next week.
Also for next week, Purrazzo and Rehwodlt team up against Chris Sabin and Mickie James. The Influence and The IInspiration vs Decay, and a street fight between Eric Young and Rhino.
Matt Cardona & Eddie Edwards defeated Impact World Champion Moose & W. Morrissey
The feud between these four men has gone on for months, but it wasn’t until Moose won the title that Cardona started to chase Moose, with hopes of a title shot at one point.
Cardona and Morrissey started the match after Moose dodged away from Cardona. He and Edwards were able to dominate Morrissey early on and clear the ring, but once back in the ring, Morrissey cut him off after Cardona distracted himself with Moose.
After a couple of minutes of heat, Cardona escaped Morrissey’s hold and tagged in Edwards. He had a good hot tag, but suddenly, Morrissey pushed him off the top rope all the way to the floor. The fall looked terrible, but seemed ok.
Moose and Morrissey now had Edwards cut off from his corner, so they worked over him for another couple of minutes, going after his head. They did a good job isolating him and keeping Cardona off the apron for when Edwards had managed to escape them.
Eventually, Cardona tagged in, took out Morrissey, and finally got his hands on Moose. He hit a codebreaker and a running kick for a two count. Everyone jumped in and took each other out with kicks. Edwards took out Morrissey with a dive, leaving Moose in the ring, for Cardona to counter a lights out and an uranage with a roll up to win the world champion.
After the match, Morrissey turned on Moose and laid him out with a big boot. The alliance is over.
