Kenny King is reportedly gone from Impact Wrestling.
Fightful Select reported on Thursday that King has asked for and was granted his release from the company “this week”. His most recent run with the company dates back to last year, when he has part of the Honor No More stable. Back in September, he had lost a title vs. career match against Tommy Dreamer at Victory Road, where Dreamer defeated King to win the Digital Media Championship. His last match for the company took place in October, where he and Sheldon Jean lost to Ace Austin and Chris Bey.
King has spent most of his career going back and forth between Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling. After spending three years with Impact Wrestling between 2012 and 2015, he returned to Ring of Honor in 2015, where he won the ROH Television title twice and the ROH Tag Team titles two more times. Towards the end of his run in ROH, he had been a part of the La Faccion Ingobernable stable along with Rush, Dragon Lee, and Bestia del Ring.
When ROH went on hiatus at the end of 2021, King returned to Impact Wrestling along with a group of other former ROH stars. In July, he defeated Joe Hendry to win the Digital Media title.
Johnny Swinger is getting his chance to win gold at Impact Wrestling Emergence.
Impact Wrestling has announced that Swinger will challenge Kenny King for the Digital Media Championship at Emergence on Sunday, August 27. Along with announcing the bout, Impact released a match graphic that was allegedly designed by Swinger.
BREAKING: @swinger_johnny has chosen to use his title shot to challenge @KennyKingPb2 for the Digital Media Championship at #Emergence on August 27 in Toronto and he’s so excited that he made his own graphic!
Swinger earned a title shot when he defeated Zicky Dice in a Loser Leaves Impact match in July. Swinger using that shot for a Digital Media Championship match comes after a segment between Swinger and King on last week’s Impact. The stuck-in-the past Swinger wasn’t sure what the internet is.
Before Emergence, King will defend the Digital Media Championship against Yoshinobu Kanemaru on the pre-show for Impact x NJPW Multiverse United 2 this Sunday (August 20). King has been Digital Media Champion since winning the title from Joe Hendry at Slammiversary last month.
Emergence is airing live on Impact Plus, Impact’s Ultimate Insiders YouTube service, and Fite TV. The updated lineup for the show is listed below:
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA in action
Impact Knockouts Champion Trinity defends against Deonna Purrazzo
Impact World Champion Alex Shelley, KUSHIDA, Chris Sabin & Josh Alexander vs. Bully Ray, Moose, Brian Myers & X-Division Champion Lio Rush
Knockouts Tag Team Champions Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly defend against Gisele Shaw & Savannah Evans, The Death Dollz (Jessicka & Courtney Rush) and The Coven (KiLynn King & Taylor Wilde)
Impact Tag Team Champions Subculture (Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster) defend against winners of number one contender’s tournament
Digital Media Champion Kenny King defends against Johnny Swinger
Two pre-show matches have been added to this Sunday’s Impact x NJPW Multiverse United 2 pay-per-view — one of which is a title defense.
Impact Digital Media Champion Kenny King will defend against Yoshinobu Kanemaru in their first-ever meeting. King will be looking for the second defense of the title he won at July’s Slammiversary while Kanemaru will be making his Multiverse series debut.
The other will see Joe Hendry, the man King defeated for the title, team with Yuya Uemura & Heath against Rocky Romero, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi. The latter have teamed several times before in multi-man matches in NJPW.
The FITE.tv PPV will take place at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Here’s the current card:
Impact World Champion Alex Shelley defends against Hiroshi Tanahashi
Lio Rush & Trey Miguel vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Mike Bailey
DOUKI vs. Sami Callihan
Zack Sabre Jr. & Shane Haste vs. Moose & Eddie Edwards
Chris Sabin vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Rich Swann vs. Kevin Knight vs. BUSHI vs. Mao vs. El Desperado in a seven-way scramble
Bullet Club (David Finlay, Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin, KENTA, Chris Bey & Ace Austin) vs. The World (Josh Alexander, PCO, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, El Phantasmo & The DKC)
Pre-show: Impact Digital Media Champion Kenny King defends against Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Pre-show: Joe Hendry, Yuya Uemura & Heath vs. Rocky Romero, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi
A tournament to crown the number one contenders for the Impact Tag Team titles will begin on tonight’s Impact on AXS TV.
The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) will take on the team of “Speedball” Mike Bailey & Jonathan Gresham in the semifinals of the tournament.
The winners will eventually take on the winners of Rich Swann & Sami Callihan vs. ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) in the finals.
Also set for tonight, Kenny King will defend his Digital Media Media Championship for the first time as he squares off against former champion Joe Hendry and Yuya Uemura in a triple threat match. King won the title from Hendry at Slammiversary last month.
Knockouts Champion Trinity is set to kick off tonight’s show. She was confronted by former Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo last week when Purrazzo explained she wanted a rematch for the title she lost to Trinity at Slammiversary.
Heath will also take on Alan Angels in a grudge match while Gisele Shaw will go up against Heather Reckless on Before The Impact.
Impact Wrestling on AXS TV lineup:
The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey & Jonathan Gresham in a number one contenders tag team tournament match
Digital Media Champion Kenny King defends against Joe Hendry and Yuya Uemura in a three-way
Trinity will address the Impact Zone
Heath vs. Alan Angels
Gisele Shaw vs. Heather Reckless (Before the Impact)
In a clash of leaders from their respective companies, Impact World Champion Alex Shelley vs. former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi is official for Impact x NJPW Multiverse United 2.
The pay-per-view is set for Sunday, August 20th from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, Impact posted a video to social media where Shelley challenged Tanahashi for the event which “Ace” later accepted. The match will be for Shelley’s title.
While the two have been on both the same team and opposite ends of various tag team matches through the years, this will be their first-ever singles match.
Here’s the current card:
Impact World Champion Alex Shelley defends against Hiroshi Tanahashi
Lio Rush & Trey Miguel vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Mike Bailey
Only one match was announced for next Thursday’s AXS TV show: one that will see the Digital Media title on the line.
New champion Kenny King will defend the gold for the first time since winning it at Slammiversary as he takes on former champion Joe Hendry and Yuya Uemura in a three-way.
The three men (and Sheldon Jean) were part of a tag team match on Thursday’s Before The Impact pre-show that helped set this in motion.
In the night’s co-main event, Trinity (the former Naomi in WWE) defeated Deonna Purrazzo to kick off her first run as Knockouts Champion.
Trinity got the victory following a series of headbutts, a full nelson bomb off the middle rope, and then Starstruck for the submission victory.
It’s the first major singles title for Trinity since her second run as WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion ended in 2017. After eventually gaining her WWE release, Trinity debuted with Impact in March of this year and is now 5-0 in her new home.
The win ends the three-month reign of Purrazzo who began her third run with the title back in April.
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In another high-profile change, Lio Rush defeated Chris Sabin to kick off his first-ever run as X-Division Champion.
The result didn’t come without controversy as Rush attacked Sabin before the match, hitting a suicide dive that drove Sabin into the ramp that he sold as being knocked out. After an Impact doctor suggested he not wrestle, he continued and Rush eventually finished him off with two Final Hours to get the win and title.
Sabin had defeated Trey Miguel last month to begin his ninth reign.
Rush’s first challenger for the X-Division title is likely to be KUSHIDA who won an Ultimate X match to earn a future title shot. The former NJPW star picked up the win after punching Alan Angels in the face, knocking him off the ropes to get the victory.
Rush and KUSHIDA are scheduled for a match on Sunday’s TV taping.
Right afterward, Subculture (Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster) won their first-ever Impact Tag Team titles by winning a four-way that included now-former champions Ace Austin & Chris Bey, Moose & Brian Myers, and Sami Callihan & Rich Swann.
Predictably, The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) got involved after failing to gain entry into the match despite the stipulation of Wentz defeating Bey last Thursday to earn the opportunity.
Wentz and Miguel prevented Bey from landing the Art of Finesse on Myers, pulling Bey and Austin outside the ring. Webster took out everyone on the outside of the ring with the exception of Myers who was hit by an Andrews’ shooting star press for the win and title change.
This was the first win in Impact for the former WWE NXT Tag Team Champions.
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The multi-month run for Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry has ended as Kenny King defeated him Saturday for the title.
King took home the win thanks to the aid of Sheldon Jean who held onto King’s feet while they were on the ropes, giving him the additional leverage he needed to get the pin and title change.
This is King’s first Impact title of any kind since his second X-Division title run ended in 2015. Since winning the title in November 2022, Hendry had successfully defended the title 13 times.
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Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly are leaving Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as the new Knockouts Tag Team Champions.
The duo defeated The Coven (Taylor Wilde & KiLynn King) to win the titles, their first in Impact. The end came when Slamovich countered a Witch’s Wrath with a snowplow for pin and win.
Wilde and King’s reign ends after just three successful title defenses dating back to February when they first won the titles.
A new title match has been made for next Saturday’s Impact Slammiversary pay-per-view.
After several weeks of taunts between the two men, Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry will defend against Kenny King on the pre-show.
The event is set for Saturday, July 15th at Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
King has got into Hendry’s business on Impact’s weekly TV recently with the champion retorting by using his specific style of music videos to mock King.
King will be looking for his first Digital Media title while Hendry will attempt to make his 14th defense of the championship.
Here’s the current card:
Impact World Champion Alex Shelley defends against Nick Aldis
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against Trinity
X-Division Champion Chris Sabin defends against Lio Rush
Impact Tag Team Champions ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) defend against Sami Callihan & Rich Swann, Brian Myers & Moose, and Subculture (Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews) in a four-way match
Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Coven (Taylor Wilde & KiLynn King) defend against Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly
Steve Maclin & Bully Ray vs. PCO & Scott D’Amore with former NHL player Darren McCarty as special enforcer
Ultimate X match: Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Angels vs. Kevin Knight vs. KUSHIDA
Pre-show: Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry defends against Kenny King
The company also announced the first match for their post-Slammiversary fallout taping on Sunday after the PPV as Santino Marella will take on Dirty Dango.
Marella has been a target for Dango ever since the latter turned on Impact’s Director of Authority as part of his new attitude change. Marella surprised Dango recently on TV, thwarting a plan by giving him his Cobra strike.
It’s expected Impact will announce more matches for the Sunday taping next week.
The road to what Nick Aldis hopes is a future Impact World title match began on Thursday and will continue at this month’s Under Siege.
Aldis will take on Kenny King as part of the streaming special that is set for Friday, May 26th in London, Ontario, Canada. King was on commentary for Sheldon Jean’s loss to Aldis Thursday on AXS TV.
Aldis made his surprise return at last month’s Rebellion and got in a confrontation with Impact World Champion Steve Maclin after his title win. Thursday marked Aldis’ first Impact singles match in six years.
In another new development Thursday, the main event title match between Maclin and PCO will be a no disqualification affair. Impact president Scott D’Amore made the change following Maclin’s attack on Rhino following Maclin’s successful title defense.
Here’s the updated card:
Impact World Champion Steve Maclin defends against PCO in a no DQ match
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against Jordynne Grace (if Grace loses, she can’t challenge for the Knockouts title again while Purrazzo is champion)
X-Division Champion Trey Miguel defends against Chris Sabin
Impact World Championship number one contender’s match: Eddie Edwards vs. Moose vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Yuya Uemura vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Alex Shelley
Nick Aldis vs. Kenny King
The Design (Deaner, Kon & Angels) vs. Sami Callihan and two mystery partners
A new match has been announced for Impact Sacrifice.
PCO vs. Kenny King is now set for the streaming special scheduled for Friday, March 24, from Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
The match is part of an ongoing rivalry between PCO and Eddie Edwards. Two weeks ago, PCO was hit by a car driven by an unknown assailant. Then during last week’s episode, King aided Edwards in attacking PCO, leading to speculation it was King driving the car a week earlier.
Recently on IMPACT!, their ongoing battle was brought to a screeching halt when PCO was run over by an unknown assailant. One week later, their former stablemate in Honor No More, Kenny King, assisted Edwards in blindsiding PCO with another brutal assault. Was King the driver in the hit-and-run? And what are his motives for taking out PCO? In any case, Sacrifice will play host to a highly-combustible bout between PCO and Kenny King and revenge is in the air.
Next week’s edition of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV will be the go-home edition before Sacrifice. Four matches are listed for the show.
Impact on AXS TV lineup for Thursday, March 23, 2023:
Bully Ray & Masha Slamovich vs. Mickie James & Tommy Dreamer
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Savannah Evans
Moose & Brian Myers vs. Joe Hendry & Dirty Dango
The Design (Deaner, Kon & Angels) vs. Time Machine (KUSHIDA & Motor City Machine Guns)
Lineup for Impact Sacrifice on Friday, March 24, 2023, from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada:
Impact World Champion Josh Alexander, Rich Swann & Frankie Kazarian vs. Time Machine (KUSHIDA & Motor City Machine Guns)
Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James defends against Jordynne Grace
X-Division Champion Trey Miguel defends against TBA
Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club defend against TMDK
Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry defends against Brian Myers
Impact Wrestling’s first episode since Friday’s No Surrender event will air on Thursday.
Three matches have been announced for this week’s show and one for Before The Impact.
Shane Haste will make his promotional in-ring debut when he faces “Speedball” Mike Bailey in singles competition. Bailey is looking to rebound after suffering a loss to Jonathan Gresham on The Countdown to No Surrender.
PCO vs. Trey Miguel will also air on Thursday. Miguel is coming off a win over Crazzy Steve in a Monster’s Ball match that aired last week. PCO was entered into the #1 Contenders four-way match at No Surrender that was won by Steve Maclin.
Kenny King vs. Kevin Knight is set for this week’s episode as well. King is coming off a loss to Rich Swann from the February 16 episode. Knight picked up a win against Jack Price on last week’s edition of Before the Impact.
Heath & Rhino are set for action on Before the Impact this week. They will take on Decay’s Taurus and Delirious in tag team competition.
Impact Wrestling on Thursday, March 2, 2023, was filmed Saturday, February 25, 2023, from Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas. The advertised card is as follows:
During an interview with Adrian Hernandez released Wednesday, King announced that he has signed another one-year deal with the promotion. He’s been with Impact since early 2022 when he returned as part of the Honor No More angle.
King said:
The news is that your boy is staying put. I felt like I had a really good year in Impact Wrestling and there’s so many more things to do. So many more opponents that I have never even faced, Josh Alexander, Moose, Steve Maclin, that’s just a short list of guys that I’m eyeing, I’m targeting, I feel like we can make magic together.
I’ve signed another year deal with Impact Wrestling. The King, K-I-N-G, will remain in Impact Wrestling for the foreseeable future, or at least this year. I’m really happy to announce that and I’m really excited for what this year is going to bring.
Prior to King’s most recent stint in Impact, he had been with ROH since 2015. King is a former two-time X-Division Champion, two-time ROH TV Champion and won the ROH’s tag titles on three occasions, twice with Dragon Lee and once with Rhett Titus.
Up next for Impact Wrestling will be the No Surrender tapings in Las Vegas from February 24-26, 2023. The promotion then heads to Windsor, Ontario, Canada for Sacrifice on March 24, with a set of television tapings the following day. They then head to Toronto for Rebellion on April 16 and television tapings on April 17.
The collision course for rivals Kenny King and “Speedball” Mike Bailey now has an intersection as the two will meet in a Pit Fight match on the January 19th episode of Impact on AXS TV.
The match will feature no ropes and it can only be finished by either submission or knockout.
After Bailey defeated King in the first round of November’s X-Division title tournament, King cost Bailey an opportunity to advance further by attacking Trey Miguel in his second round match which gave the bout to Miguel by disqualification.
Both were part of a six-way scramble on November’s Countdown to Over Drive show, and have been trading verbal jabs on Impact TV with Bailey issuing the challenge on this past Thursday’s show.
The match will take place on the post-Hard to Kill TV taping in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, January 14th.
Bailey will be in action in another scramble match on the Hard to Kill pre-show while King currently isn’t scheduled for the event.
The first match is official for this December’s Final Battle pay-per-view, the final ROH show before the promotion goes on hiatus.
Shane Taylor vs. Kenny King will take place at Final Battle on Saturday, December 11. The PPV is being held at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.
Taylor vs. King is a grudge match between former friends. Taylor lost an ROH World Championship match against then-champion Rush this February after King hit him with a steel chair. King acted like he was going to stop Rush from hitting Taylor with a chair, but King then hit Taylor with the chair himself.
Shane Taylor Promotions (Taylor, Moses & Kaun) are the current ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions, while La Faccion Ingobernable’s King & Dragon Lee are the ROH Tag Team Champions.
ROH Women’s World Champion Rok-C is set to defend her title at Final Battle. Leading into the PPV, a number one contender’s match to decide her challenger will take place on ROH TV. Willow Nightingale has already advanced to the number one contender’s match. A triple threat match between Trish Adora, Allysin Kay, and Mandy Leon will determine Willow’s opponent.
ROH announced last month that it is going on hiatus after Final Battle. They’ll be taking the first quarter of 2022 to “work internally to reimagine ROH.” ROH talent won’t have their contracts renewed and are able to work wherever they want immediately.
Quinn McKay welcomed us to the show and ran down the card for tonight’s show. McKay promoted a “protege vs. mentor” match between Brian Johnson and PJ Black, as well as a four corners survival match between Brody King, Jay Lethal, Kenny King and Shane Taylor.
Brian Johnson defeated PJ Black in a Pure Rules match (10:58)
Black and Johnson exchanged some mat wrestling in the early stages of the bout, but Black was able to come out on top and take control in the match.
Johnson would eventually escape from the clutches of Black by using his first rope break. Johnson rolled to the outside and looked to catch a breather, but was met with a dive from Black.
After a short commercial break, the broadcast returned as Johnson was in a cradle submission. Johnson immediately used his second rope break as Black taunted.
In the final stages of the match, Johnson and Black traded multiple chops and strikes. Black grabbed Johnson by the beard and suplexed him before following it up with a springboard splash. Once Black went to attempt the pin, Johnson used his third and final rope break. Black tried to capitalize on a weary Johnson, but was met with an eye poke and Johnson’s signature “The Process” neckbreaker which resulted in a pin.
Brody King defeated Jay Lethal, Kenny King, and Shane Taylor (9:21)
Lethal and Brody started the match. Brody attempted to use the same strategy that he beat Lethal with previously, but was met with a fire of rapid defense from the former ROH World Champion.
Taylor tagged himself in and had a short exchange with Lethal, which resulted in him hurting his leg. Kenny tagged himself in and squared off with Lethal. Kenny replicated a few of Lethal’s signature maneuvers, including his signature cartwheel dropkick.
Kenny was still in full control of the match after a commercial break. Brody came in for Lethal and exchanged frying pan chops with Kenny, before Kenny was able to slip to the outside and hit a blockbuster neckbreaker on Brody.
Kenny went for a running maneuver but Taylor tripped him up, allowing Brody to clothesline him. Taylor tagged himself in and went face to face with Brody. Taylor clocked Brody with a devastating forearm that sent him reeling to the outside, which allowed Kenny to slip in the ring and try to take advantage of a distracted Taylor.
Kenny was able to lift up Taylor for a blue thunder bomb, to which Brody came in and picked the bones. Brody threw out Kenny and hit Taylor with a clothesline on the jaw, which allowed him to pick up the win.
Final Thoughts: Both matches on this week’s ROH TV were good matches that had purpose behind them. Black/Johnson was good and advanced the storyline of Johnson joining the Pure division. The four way match was also good for a few reasons, including Taylor getting his hands on Kenny King (but not too much) and despite losing the match, getting some shine. It seems as if the company is building to a Bandido/Brody King match, which should be really good.
Weekly ROH TV (along with MLW and a few others) proves week in and week out that one hour wrestling shows are the best.
In recent weeks I’ve introduced a scale in order to let you know if the current week of TV is worth your while. The scale is as followed:
Must Watch TV
Go Out Of Your Way
Recommend Viewing
Watch YouTube Clips
Avoid At All Costs
This week’s episode of ROH TV is: Recommended Viewing
New Tag Team Champions were crowned on the pre-Death Before Dishonor episode of ROH TV.
On the ROH TV episode that premiered this weekend, Dragon Lee & Kenny King defeated Homicide & Chris Dickinson to win the ROH Tag Team titles. Lee pinned Dickinson after hitting his Incinerator knee strike to the face. Homicide was taken out when King hit a tornillo to the outside leading into the finish. King prevented him from getting back in the ring and breaking up the pin.
Lee is now a double champion in ROH. He also holds the ROH Television title.
This is the second time La Faccion Ingobernable’s Lee & King have held the ROH Tag Team titles together. They won the titles this February but then lost them to Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus at ROH’s 19th Anniversary pay-per-view in March. La Bestia del Ring was filling in for Lee in that match due to Lee suffering a ruptured eardrum.
Homicide & Dickinson won the ROH Tag Team titles from Titus & Jonathan Gresham in a Fight Without Honor at Best in the World this July. Gresham was replacing Williams in that match.
Lee, King & Bestia del Ring are challenging Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, Moses & Kaun) for the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles at this Sunday’s Death Before Dishonor PPV.
Violence Unlimited’s Homicide, Dickinson & Tony Deppen are facing John Walters, LSG & Lee Moriarty in a six-man tag match at Death Before Dishonor.
