Impact World Champion Moose attacked Jade Chung at an indie show on Saturday in an angle furthering the storyline with Chung’s husband, Josh Alexander.
Following his match at Saturday’s Destiny World Wrestling event in Ontario, Alexander was celebrating in the ring with Chung and their children. As Chung cut a promo, Moose ran in and speared Chung. Alexander then carried Chung out of the arena.
Multiple camera angles were used in shooting the angle, including one following Moose from backstage to the ring prior to the attack.
Impact posted video of the attack on their Twitter account on Sunday, stating that the actions would be addressed during Thursday’s Impact Wrestling episode.
Moose is set to defend the Impact World title against Alexander at Rebellion on Saturday, April 23.
Moose, real name Quinn Ojinnaka, was arrested on a battery charge in May 2009 after allegedly throwing his then-wife down a flight of stairs during an argument. Ojinnaka was an NFL player at the time and was suspended for the first game of the 2010 season as a result of the arrest.
The domestic violence allegation from 2009 led to WWE deciding not to sign Ojinnaka, according to our reporting.
Josh Alexander has re-signed with Impact Wrestling.
Alexander made his return to Impact at Saturday’s Sacrifice event, laying out and challenging Impact World Champion Moose to a title match at the Saturday, April 23 Rebellion pay-per-view, while also announcing that he had re-signed.
Alexander’s Impact contract and US work visa had expired.
Alexander had been sent home in storyline by Impact executive Scott D’Amore. After his return and attack on Moose, Alexander stated that he had visited Anthem’s headquarters while he was sent home, and secured a multi-year contract with Impact that also guaranteed him the title match.
Alexander’s attack came after Moose successfully defended the Impact World title against Heath in Sacrifice’s main event.
Tickets for Rebellion went on sale on Friday. The event will be held at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Moose’s title defense against Heath was one of six title matches at Sacrifice. Deonna Purrazzo retained the ROH Women’s World title with a win over Chelsea Green on the show, plus Trey Miguel retained the X Division title with a victory over Jake Something.
Three titles changed hands on the show, as Violent By Design won the Impact World Tag Team titles, Tasha Steelz defeated Mickie James to win the Knockouts World title, and The Influence defeated the IInspiration to capture the Knockouts World Tag Team titles.
Heath will be Moose’s next challenger for the Impact World Championship.
The two will square off at March 5th’s Sacrifice on Impact Plus from Louisville, Kentucky.
The match was made when Heath came out and challenged Moose during the champion’s show opening promo Thursday, laying out Moose and standing tall with the belt afterward.
The Good Brothers will defend the Impact Tag Team titles against Violent By Design. Eric Young and VBD asked for the title shot Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows had offered some time ago in exchange for help. When the Good Brothers turned them down, G.O.D. and VBD attacked them and the match was made later.
Rhino vs. Eddie Edwards, born out of Edwards turning on Impact and aligning with Honor No More at No Surrender, was also announced in addition to JONAH vs. PCO.
Here’s the current lineup for Sacrifice:
Impact World Champion Moose vs. Heath in a title match
Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers vs. Violent By Design in a title match
Knockouts Tag Team Champions The IInspiration vs. The Influence in a title match
X-Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Jake Something in a title match
Moose revealed in an interview with PW Insider on Thursday that he is currently dealing with a torn labrum — an injury he plans to work through but will eventually need time off to heal.
“I’m pretty banged up. I need to take some time off at some point to get my shoulder fixed,” he said. “I’ll keep going. I’m the Impact World Champion so I know what that entails. I know I have to put my hard hat on and go to work.”
He’s not sure when or how he sustained the injury, but that it was found when he got an MRI.
He said he once played an entire NFL season with a torn rotator cuff, so he is no stranger to working through injuries.
Moose successfully defended the Impact World title against W. Morrissey at No Surrender last Saturday and took part in the TV taping the next day. He will kick off tonight’s broadcast of Impact on AXS TV with a promo.
Moose will put his Impact World title on the line against W. Morrissey at next month’s No Surrender.
The live Impact Plus event is set for Saturday, February 19th in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Along with Matt Cardona, the two squared off in a three-way for the title at this month’s Hard to Kill that Moose won. On the following Impact, Morrissey made it clear that he wanted Moose one-on-one for the gold, but the champion had no interest.
On Thursday’s show, Morrissey won a handicap match against VSK and Zicky Dice and went searching for Moose but Scott D’Amore said he wasn’t there and then made the match for the special.
Moose will be looking for the sixth defense of the title he won at October’s Bound for Glory while Morrissey is still looking for his first taste of Impact gold.
No other matches have been announced for the event.
An injury has forced a change to the card for Terminus’ debut event.
Terminus announced that, due to injury, Alex Coughlin is off the card for their debut show on Sunday (January 16). Coughlin was scheduled to face Moose.
Mike Bennett is replacing Coughlin at the show and will be Moose’s new opponent.
Bennett, Maria Kanellis-Bennett, Matt Taven, Vincent Marseglia, and PCO were involved in an ROH invasion angle at Impact Wrestling’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view this past Saturday.
Moose is the current Impact Wrestling World Champion.
Terminus is a new promotion from Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black. Sunday’s event is taking place at the Kroc Center in Atlanta and will air live on Fite TV.
Here’s the card for the show:
ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham defends against Josh Alexander in a Pure Rules match
ROH World Champion Bandido defends against Baron Black
Jay Lethal vs. Lee Moriarty
Impact Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace defends against Kiera Hogan
Moose vs. Mike Bennett
Liiza Hall vs. Janai Kai
Terminal eliminator match: JDX vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Invictus Khash vs. Adam Priest
Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi vs. Dante Caballero & Joe Keys
Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak will be the commentary team for the show.
Impact World Champion Moose, W. Morrissey and Matt Cardona — the three men involved in the main event for January’s Hard to Kill — will sign their contracts on Thursday’s edition of Impact Wrestling.
On last week’s show, Cardona defeated Morrissey by DQ and all three men ended up in a brawl with Cardona standing tall.
Ahead of his challenge of Jonah at Hard to Kill, Josh Alexander will battle Rohit Raju. Alexander came out and beat up Raju and Raj Singh last week en route to calling out Jonah for a match.
After teaming last week, Knockouts Tag Team Champions The IInspiration and The Influence came apart leading to Jessie McKay vs. Tenille Dashwood tonight.
Doc Gallows, one half of the Tag Team Champions, will team with Joe Doering of Violent by Design for the first time to take on common enemies in Rich Swann and Willie Mack while in a pair of X-Division matches, champion Trey Miguel will face John Skyler in a non-title affair while Chris Bey takes on Laredo Kid.
Ace Austin vs. Hernandez is set for the BTI pre-show.
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Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) defeated Hernandez (with Johnny Swinger) on BTI.
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Opening video recapped the ongoing build to Hard To Kill’s main event where Moose will defend the Impact world title against W. Morrissey and Matt Cardona.
Josh Alexander defeated Rohit Raju (with Raj Singh)
This match was booked after Alexander interrupted and attacked Raju’s match last week against Lawrence D.
Alexander started dominating the match, but after trying to take down both Raju and Singh, Raju took advantage of the distraction and cut him off for a couple of minutes in the ring. Alexander had a couple of chances to make a comeback, but Singh was there for the distraction and allowed Raju to cut him off and suplex him into the ropes.
Eventually, Alexander caught Raju with a belly-to-belly and a German to finally stop Raju. Alexander’s ribs were still hurting, so Raju was still able to get a couple of near falls with a bridge, but Alexander reversed into an ankle lock, but released to take out Singh.
Raju came back with a couple of running boots and a double stomp, but Alexander kicked out at 2.
Alexander went for the C4, but was too hurt to get Raju up, so instead took out Raju’s knee, powered up for the C4, and got the win. Really good opener, way more back and forth than I expected.
Josh Alexander will face Jonah at Hard To Kill.
– Gia Miller interviewed the Good Brothers and VBD about their alliance. Anderson said that as the champions, they could use any help they could get, so they took in EY’s offer to work together. Him and Gallows said they don’t trust VBD, but they’re willing to work together.
EY said this was a business alliance and nothing else.
– Gia Miller interviewed Chelsea Green about entering the Ultimate X match at Hard To Kill. She said it was historic and after she won it, she would finally go for the title. She said that Cardona will win the title and they’ll be a power couple.
Moose approached Green and was passive aggressive, talking smack about Cardona to her. He threatened that her marriage to Cardona will be short, even for wrestling standards.
Joe Doering & Doc Gallows (with Karl Anderson & VBD) defeated Rich Swann & Willie Mack (with Rhino & Heath)
These four teams have been feuding separately for months, but last week, we saw the union between the Good Brothers and Violent By Design be born as a means to take down their opponents.
Gallows started the match against both Swann and Mack, who tagged in and out and tried going for Gallows’ arm. Swann and Mack took down both big men with double dives.
Back in the ring, Swann and Mack kept that upper hand until Swann got cut off by Gallows with a big boot after he got distracted by Doering’s presence in the corner. Gallows and Doering worked over Swann’s midsection.
Swann managed to connect Doering with an enzuigi and tagged out. Mack came in and took down Doering and Gallows with some help from Swann. They took out Doering, but when they tried to take out Gallows, Swann was pushed off the top rope by Doering. A double chokeslam on Mack later, Gallows and Doering picked up the win.
After the match, Good Brothers and VBD attacked Swann, Mack, Rhino, and Heath, but Eddie Edwards ran down for the save. He took out Anderson, Deaner, and EY with a kendo stick and a dive, and the rest took out Doering and Gallows to clear the ring.
– VSK and Zicky Dice talked backstage about calling Myers about last week’s loss. Dice said to not call him until they face Decay and get a win.
– We got a promo from Jonah, explaining what being the top dog meant. He talked about the time his father was in prison. He compared it with how he attacked Alexander, but unlike his father, he didn’t have Alexander’s respect and thus would beat him up at Hard To Kill.
X-Division Champion Trey Miguel defeated John Skylar in a non-title match
Commentary sold this match as a speed vs power match, but they were not as mismatched.
Match started with a sequence of reversals where Miguel gained momentum catching Skylar with a dive, only to get cut off with a diving spear as he tried to do so again on the other side of the ring.
Skylar worked over Miguel and got a couple of near falls, at one point countering into a release belly-to-belly into the corner where Miguel almost landed on his neck. Miguel came back with some cheeky nandos and the Meteora for the win. Ok match, could have been better with more time.
After the match, Steve Maclin attacked Miguel on the ramp, took the title and knocked Miguel out with it. Maclin has been asking for a singles match with Miguel, and so he dragged the dead body of Miguel to the back. We then saw that Maclin had kidnapped Miguel, tied him, and seemed getting ready to torture him to get that title shot he wants.
Chris Bey (with Hikuleo) defeated Laredo Kid
Last week, Laredo Kid stood up to the Bullet Club after they bullied the staff backstage. Kid challenged Bey to a match, and thus, here we are.
Match started with a sequence of counters and reversals, with both men going for quick pin attempts.
The match would go back and forth between the both, as Bey would cut off Kid early on, but Laredo would make a comeback outspeeding Bey. It would be until Hikuleo started distracting Laredo Kid that Bey would regain control by ramming Kid to the ring post.
Back in the ring, Bey worked over Kid’s midsection, keeping Kid down and distracting the referee to allow Hikuleo to get some cheap shots in. Bey started getting too cocky and allowed Kid to slowly go for a comeback, but Bey was still able to cut him off and take him down with a flying elbow.
Bey caught Kid on the ropes and went for a springboard leg drop, but Kid was finally able to dodge him and take him out, hitting a dive that didn’t make much sense after Laredo ran the ropes on a different axis than the dive. Kid would go to the top rope to finish Bey, but Hikuleo would once again interfere and push Kid off.
The damage on Kid wouldn’t last long, he regained momentum with a series of moonsaults on Bey for a two count. Bey caught Kid with a huge spinning back kick and a slam, but only got a two count.
Laredo Kid hit an avalanche Michinoku Driver for another near fall, tried to follow with a phoenix splash, but Bey moved out of the way. They fought on top of the turnbuckles where Bey laid Kid on the ropes and hit a foot stomp for yet another two count.
Finish finally saw Kid hit a DDT, a huge senton to Hikuleo, but when he tried to go for Bey, got cut off. Kid managed to push off Bey from the top rope, but Bey was ready with a cutter as Kid dove on Bey with a plancha.
– We got a recap of Deonna Purrazzo showing up at ROH’s Final Battle to challenge Rok-C for the ROH Women’s title. We then saw footage of an autograph signing where Mickie James and Deonna Purrazzo had a confrontation that ended with a brawl.
Afterwards, Scott D’Amore and Gail Kim scolded both women and reinstituted the no contact rule. Kim said that their match at Hard To Kill will now be a Texas Deathmatch.
Last week, both teams joined forces to take on Decay, but after not finding chemistry, stepping on each other’s toes, and ultimately losing to Decay, Dashwood looks to get back at The IInspiration.
Story of the match was to see who was the bigger heel of the two. There were a couple of mirror spots and a lot of mocking early on. The bulk of the match continued with back and forth action, but as they went on, Dashwood got more dominant after snapping McKay’s neck on the ropes.
Dashwood got a couple of near falls, best one after her diving crossbody to the corner. She tried to submit Mckay with a full Nelson, but McKay fought her off and finally made a comeback. Dashwood went for a small package, but McKay kicked out and took down Dashwood with a big boot for a two count when Kaleb pulled the ref down.
Outside the ring, Rayne, Lee, and Kaleb all got in a fight, but after the distraction, Kaleb tripped McKay and set her up for Dashwood’s spotlight kick for the win. This was way better than I expected, and will surely end with an Influence vs IInspiration title match.
– Striker and Brown ran down the card for Hard To Kill, including the newly added stipulation for Purrazzo vs James in a Texas Death Match.
Hard to Kill World title contract signing
t was time for the Hard To Kill main event contract signing. This time around, the contract signing is taking place in the ring. D’Amore is proceeding with the signing.
W. Morrissey was the first out, and seemed a bit more babyface than usual. Matt Cardona came out second, along with Chelsea Green. Finally, Impact world champion Moose came out.
D’Amore ran down the accolades that the participants have achieved during 2021 before giving Cardona the contract to sign. Morrissey jumped in and took the contract before he could sign it.
Morrissey took the mic and said that this signing wouldn’t be about mind games, he was there to become the Impact world champion, signed the contract, and left the ring.
Cardona took the mic and agreed with Morrissey, the last couple of weeks, he had been dealing with Moose playing mind games, but he was someone that kept coming back after being pushed back and he was ready for Hard To Kill. Cardona signed.
Moose told Cardona that he will once again fail, signed the contract, and told Green that after Hard To Kill, she’s going to have to realize she’s married to a midcarder. Moose insulted Green and a brawl finally broke down.
Moose took out Cardona and put him through the table as Green looked on. Moose posed with the title over Cardona’s body before leaving, but halfway through the ramp, Moose came back to continue the beat down. He tried to Pillmanize Cardona, but Green interfered. The distraction gave enough time to Cardona to recover and get a chair, but when he swung at Moose, the latter dodged and Cardona nailed Green with the chair. Moose retreated as referees checked on Green and the show went off the air. Everyone was good until the unnecessary chair shot.
Several new matches and a change for the main event have been made for Impact Turning Point this Saturday.
After a brawl during Thursday’s show, the title match between Impact World Champion Moose and Eddie Edwards was made into a Full Metal Mayhem match, Impact’s version of TLC.
After getting Scott D’Amore to agree to the stipulation last week, Steve Maclin defeated Laredo Kid Thursday to earn a slot in the X-Division title match between champion Trey Miguel and Kid this Saturday, making it a three-way.
Three new singles matches include Rich Swann vs. Brian Myers; Chris Sabin vs. Ace Austin; and Matt Cardona vs. W. Morrissey, the latter coming out of a recent no. 1 contender’s match. In a new tag team match built on a grudge, Violent by Design (Eric Young and Joe Doering) will take on Heath and Rhino.
The Turning Point countdown show will see Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace defends against Chelsea Green while FinJuice will face Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus).
Here’s the updated Turning Point card, set for 10 PM Eastern on Impact Plus from Las Vegas:
Impact World Champion Moose vs. Eddie Edwards in a Full Metal Mayhem title match
Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James vs. Mercedes Martinez in a title match
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions The IInspiration vs. Decay (Rosemary & Havok) in a title match
Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers vs. Bullet Club (Chris Bey & Hikuleo) in a title match
X-Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Steve Maclin vs. Laredo Kid in a title match
Ace Austin vs. Chris Sabin
W. Morrissey vs. Matt Cardona
Rich Swann vs. Brian Myers
Violent by Design (Eric Young and Joe Doering) vs. Heath and Rhino
Countdown Show: Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace vs. Chelsea Green in a title match
Countdown Show: FinJuice vs. Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus)
A pair of Impact Wrestling stars have been added to next week’s NJPW Battle in the Valley event in San Jose.
Impact’s World Champion Moose will be in action against Juice Robinson. Moose also took part in the NJPW Resurgence event in Los Angeles this past August, losing to Tomohiro Ishii.
Also added, Impact’s Josh Alexander will take on Yuya Uemura. Alexander briefly won, then quickly lost the Impact title to Moose at last week’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view.
Already announced for the show, Jay White will defend the NEVER Openweight Championship against Tomohiro Ishii, Will Ospreay takes on Ren Narita, Jeff Cobb and TJP tag against Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors, Brody King and Chris Dickinson face Bateman and Misterioso, plus Fred Rosser, David Finlay, Rocky Romero, Alex Coughlin and Alex Zayne take on Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson in a ten-man tag.
Battle in the Valley will air with English commentary on FITE TV, and with Japanese commentary on NJPW World.
NJPW Battle in the Valley, Saturday, November 13, 11 p.m. Eastern time on FITE TV and NJPW World —
NEVER Openweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Juice Robinson vs. Moose
Josh Alexander vs. Yuya Uemura
Will Ospreay vs. Ren Narita
Jeff Cobb & TJP vs. Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors
Fred Rosser, David Finlay, Rocky Romero, Alex Coughlin & Alex Zayne vs. Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
Brody King & Chris Dickinson vs. Bateman & Misterioso
Moose won the Impact World Championship at Bound for Glory, defeating new champion Josh Alexander in a matter of seconds.
Alexander submitted Christian Cage with an ankle lock to win the Impact World Championship for the first time. His family entered the ring and he started to celebrate when suddenly Moose arrived, holding the Call Your Shot trophy which he had won earlier in the show. Alexander hurriedly sent his family out of the ring as the bell rang, with Moose spearing Alexander immediately and pinning him to win the championship for the first time. Moose posed with the championship as the show closed.
Cage had held the Impact World Championship for 71 days, having defeated Kenny Omega for the title on the first episode of AEW Rampage that aired on August 13.
Moose won the Call Your Shot battle royal earlier in the show, pinning Matt Cardona. As a result, he was allowed to choose any kind of title match of his choosing at any time.
A new match has been announced for NJPW Resurgence at The Torch at LA Coliseum on August 14.
NJPW’s Tomohiro Ishii will take on Impact Wrestling’s Moose at Resurgence. NJPW made the announcement this evening.
This will mark the second singles meeting between Ishii and Moose. They faced off on a 2016 Ring of Honor/NJPW War of the Worlds show in Michigan, a match that Ishii won.
Ishii vs. Moose is the sixth match announced for Resurgence. The show will air on NJPW World and FITE TV on Saturday, August 14 at 11 p.m. Eastern time.
Here is the lineup so far:
NEVER Openweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. David Finlay
IWGP United States Championship: Lance Archer (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Jon Moxley & a mystery partner vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson
Fred Rosser, Rocky Romero & Wheeler Yuta vs. TJP, Clark Connors & Ren Narita
Attempting to get a measure of revenge for being fired, Don Callis has assembled Impact World Champion Kenny Omega and the Good Brothers for a six-man tag team match against Sami Callihan, Moose and Chris Sabin, put together by Tommy Dreamer after Callis suggested the idea.
The match will be a preview for the July Slammiversary clash between Omega and Callihan for Omega’s title in addition to Moose vs. Sabin.
Thursday’s show will also feature Eddie Edwards vs. Satoshi Kojima one week after the two failed to wrest the Tag Team Titles away from Violent By Design; Chris Bey vs. Petey Williams in a match between former X-Division Champions; and TJP and Fallah Bahh vs. Rich Swann and Willie Mack.
A week after she defeated Susan, Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo will take on Kimber Lee in a non-title match on the BTI pre-show as the feud between the former stablemates rages on.
Our live coverage begins at 8 PM Eastern.
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Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defeated Kimber Lee (with Susan) in a non-title match on BTI.
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Opening video recapped Don Callis and Tommy Dreamer setting up tonight’s main event between Omega and the Good Brothers vs Callihan, Moose, and Sabin. Also, Edwards and Kojima challenged for the tag team titles last week, which ended with Edwards asking Kojima for a singles match, only to get confronted by W. Morrissey.
Show was going to open with Edwards vs Kojima, but before Edwards could come out, W. Morrissey appeared on the screen and said that Edwards was not going to make it to the match tonight. Morrissey said that everyone respected Edwards, but no one had his back when he jumped him in the parking lot.
Instead of Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers and Sam Beale came out. Myers talked trash to Kojima and ended up attacking him 2-on-1 until Jake Something came down for the save. Referee came out with word from management that a tag match was now official.
Satoshi Kojima & Jake Something defeated Brian Myers & Sam Beale
Match started as a brawl outside the ring, when Kojima and Something brought back Myers and Beale after they tried to leave to the back.
Once in the ring, Something got cut off by Myers and Beale, worked on for most of the match, they kept tagging in and out, never letting go of Something. It was until Something managed to hit a desperation double clothesline that he got a short breather, enough to tag Kojima in.
Kojima took out Myers, hit the machine gun chops on Beale, the top rope elbow, DDT, but as he was about to hit the Koji cutter, he got cut off by Myers. Something hit a blackhole slam on Myers, allowing Kojima to hit the Koji cutter and lariato for the win.
I take it Kojima either didn’t understand Morrissey, or he just wasn’t all that concerned about Edwards getting jumped outside the building. This should be his final night with Impact, so he probably didn’t care much about Edwards.
– Gia Miller interviewed D’Amore about Anthem’s decision to have Dreamer as their representative to oversee operations. He didn’t say much before Rosemary and Havok appeared before them and claimed that they had wins over Fire ‘n Flava and wanted to challenge for the Knockouts tag titles. D’Amore didn’t make it official, but he was going to consider it if they kept the magic to a minimum.
– D’lo Brown and Josh Matthews ran down tonight’s card.
Rachael Ellering (with Jazz) defeated Tenille Dashwood (with Kaleb with a K)
For weeks, Dashwood has been a thorn in Ellering’s shoe, she worsened the rift between Jordynne Grace and Ellering, and after weeks of polite rejections, Ellering finally had enough of Dashwood and challenged her to a match.
The action was back and forward early on, but as Ellering started to gain momentum, Kaleb was there to distract her and allowed Dashwood to cut her off and turned things around.
Dashwood had control for a long while, she kept going for pin attempts, but Ellering kept kicking out regardless of what Dashwood would throw at her. It wasn’t until Dashwood distracted herself taking a photo, that Ellering caught her with a running swinging neckbreaker and was able to cut off the momentum. Kaleb tried to interfere and give Dashwood control again, but Ellering got rid of him, blocked a sunset flip from Dashwood, and rolled her down for the pin win.
Dashwood and Kaleb ganged up on Ellering and later Jazz when Jazz tried to save Ellering. Grace ran down and helped clear the ring. Ellering offered a handshake, but Grace instead hugged her for the reconciliation. I was surprised they didn’t milk the dissension more.
– Miller interviewed Chris Bey about being a neutral party in the gang war that is happening in the X Division. Bey said that he was out there for himself only. Austin, Raju, Shera, and Fulton came down, and while Bey thought they would try to recruit them, they told Bey they didn’t need him, but appreciated he wasn’t getting in the way. The Chris Bey babyface turn is coming.
Rich Swann & Willie Mack vs TJP & Fallah Bahh ended in no contest.
While not official, this match came about as a friendly challenge between each team, as they both have eyed the tag team championships, currently in the hands of Violent By Design.
This was a fun match. It started with some stalemates between both teams, some high flying moves from Swann, but suddenly, Violent By Design ran down and attacked both teams. Rhino gored Mack, Deaner hit the Deaner DDT on TJP, Doering hit a DVD on Swann, and both teams were left laying as VBD posed over their bodies.
This surely has to set up a 3-way tag match for Slammiversary.
– Backstage, Hogan and Steelz argued that Havok and Rosemary shouldn’t be allowed to just jump in and ask for a title challenge, they should work from the bottom to earn their spot. They went looking for D’Amore, and as usual, as means to get rid of Steelz and Hogan, D’Amore just booked a match where Havok and Rosemary can earn their shot. Hogan and Steelz are too good.
– Miller interviewed Dreamer and his team for tonight’s match and whether everyone is on the same page. Dreamer told them that they all had the same enemy and they needed to work together. Sabin said that he was there for Dreamer and Impact, and was willing to work with the team for it. Moose told them that he doesn’t care about anyone, all he cares about is winning. Callihan said that all that matters is beating up Omega and company.
Chris Bey defeated Petey Williams
Similar to Bey’s issues with Austin and Raju, he also has issues with Petey Williams and Trey Miguel, as they also hoped he’d join them to confront Austin and Raju, and instead, Bey left them for dead.
Great fast paced back and forward match. Williams got a couple of bear falls early on, but momentum quickly turned when Bey caught him with a scissors kick between the ropes. The match finally slowed down when Bey locked leg scissors on Williams, but he reversed the lock. Williams came back with a big German, running knees, but when he went for the Canadian destroyer, Bey blocked and hit a TKO version neckbreaker. Bey went for the art of finesse, but was countered into a Russian side leg sweep. Williams once again chased the destroyer, but was blocked and instead locked in the sharpshooter for another near fall.
Finish finally came after Bey blocked yet another destroyer, hit a cutter and the art of finesse for the win.
These two will meet again on Slammiversary in the Ultimate X match for the D Division title.
After the match, Ace Austin, Rohit Raju, Shera, and Fulton all came out. They attacked Williams while Austin and Raju teased Bey to not get involved. Bey was leaving to the back when Miguel and Josh Alexander ran down to save Williams. The numbers game was too much though, but Bey eventually had a change of heart and ran down to help attack Austin and friends. All the babyfaces took out Raju and Austin and controlled the ring. All the babyfaces accepted Bey to their side.
– Backstage, Susan and Kimber Lee plotted that their plans had failed and they had hit rock bottom. Lee tried to convince Susan that they should chase the titles, and if everything else fails, there’s always Su Yung as a backup plan. Susan didn’t know who Su Yung was.
– Jake Something cut a promo about not being the man he was before, he was strong and it didn’t matter what his name was, because he did the talking in the ring. He challenged Brian Myers to a match and if he wins, Myers must call him “professional”.
Steve Maclin defeated Manny Smith
Maclin debuted a couple of weeks ago, this being only his second match.
This was a squash match through and through, and while it was somewhat longer than usual, Maclin never lost control. Maclin got a headlock early on and kept it for a while, hit an olympic slam, a couple of lariats, a spear to a Smith on the tree of woe, and finally, a German and elbows before hitting his signature Michinoku driver II-B for the win.
Team Callis (Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson, & Doc Gallows) (with Don Callis) defeated Team Dreamer (Sami Callihan, Chris Sabin, & Moose) (with Tommy Dreamer)
Two weeks ago, Dreamer, on behalf of Anthem, fired Don Callis from his EVP position with Impact Wrestling. Last week, in a passive aggressive way, Callis challenged Dreamer to come up with a team to challenge his team of Omega and the Good Brothers.
Team Dreamer is a bit of turmoil, as Sabin and Moose are currently feuding and set to wrestle each other at Slammiversary, but also, neither man is on great terms with Callihan, who has always been the antagonist.
The dissension between Moose and Sabin quickly came up, and so Callihan decided to tag in first and deal with the match himself. He managed to maintain control throughout the break, working ok with Sabin, but once again, Sabin and Moose started tagging each other the hard way, and it was through these distractions, that Anderson was able to cut off Sabin and turned things around.
Omega and the Brothers mostly worked over Sabin with quick tags, a couple of triple team moves, constantly going for the head with strikes and chokes. Sabin at one point managed to escape and jump for the hot tag, but Moose didn’t extend the hand, so instead Callihan had to jump in for the hot tag.
Callihan was going for the package piledriver on Anderson, but Omega distracted the referee to allow Anderson to low blow Callihan and force him to tag in Sabin again. Sabin did keep down Omega and company, but now Moose blind tagged himself in, cut off Sabin’s momentum, and when Sabin complained, Moose instead tagged himself out via chokeslam on Sabin.
Outside the ring, Dreamer complained to Moose about turning on them, but because Callis pushed Dreamer into Moose without them noticing, Moose thought that Dreamer had attacked and so attacked back.
Back in the ring, without Moose and Callihan, Sabin was an easy prey for Omega and the Good Brothers to finish and pin for the win.
Omega and company celebrated in the ring as the show went off the air.
The Young Bucks appeared at the end of tonight’s Impact Against All Odds event, helping Kenny Omega retain the Impact World title.
The Bucks appeared at the end of the Impact World title match, which was held at the Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. After a ref bump, the Bucks appeared and superkicked Moose, then laid him out with the BTE trigger. They then helped Omega lift up Moose so Omega could pin him with the One Winged Angel to retain the title.
After the match, the lights went out and Sami Callihan, who is set to challenge Omega at Slammiversary next month, appeared and attacked the Bucks with a bat. He then went to Omega and prepared to attack his eye with the bat. Don Callis, who was doing commentary with Tony Schiavone and Scott D’Amore, was angry and ended up firing him, as in storyline he is still an Impact executive vice president. The show closed with D’Amore and Callis leaving, clearly not on the same page.
The idea to move to the Daily’s Place was made on this week’s Impact, with the idea being that The Good Brothers couldn’t interfere in the match. The Good Brothers instead wrestled in Nashville, Tennessee, where the rest of tonight’s card was held. They lost to the team of Tommy Dreamer and Sami Callihan in the opener.
Impact World Champion Kenny Omega will defend the title against no. 1 contender Moose in the Against All Odds main event — except the match will be in Jacksonville, Florida, instead of the Impact Zone.
The match was moved this past Thursday in order to preserve fairness and to have no interference from the Good Brothers. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson will be busy as they take on Sami Callihan and Tommy Dreamer in a street fight. Callihan gets the winner of Omega vs. Moose at July’s Slammiversary.
Other title matches include Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defending against Rosemary; Violent By Design invoking the Freebird rule as Deaner and Rhino will defend the Tag Team titles against Decay’s Black Taurus and Crazzy Steve while Knockouts Tag Team Champions Fire N’ Flava will defend against Kimber Lee and Susan.
The show will also feature Rich Swann vs. W. Morrissey; a five-way to determine the next challenger to X-Division Champion Josh Alexander; Jordynne Grace vs. Tenille Dashwood and Satoshi Kojima vs. Joe Doering in a clash of old rivals.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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Opening video was a recap of Omega’s reign, starting from the AEW Championship win, to the Impact Championship win, and on to Moose’s rise to become the challenger, the strongest one in Omega’s reign.
Sami Callihan & Tommy Dreamer defeated The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) in a street fight
This match was booked as a means of making sure that the Good Brothers and Sami Callihan would be far away from the Moose vs Omega match later tonight, as they are happening not only in different venues, but different cities. In addition, it was the Good Brothers that cost Callihan all the opportunities he had to go after Omega, as it is believed that Don Callis is trying to keep Callihan away from Omega.
This became a weapons match immediately, after realizing that locking up made little sense, both teams started brawling outside the ring, bringing out the chairs and bats and ringbells. Dreamer and Callihan brought out the garbage cans, cooking sheets, chains, and pool sticks. Throughout all of this, Dreamer and Callihan had managed to maintain dominance over the Brothers, but as the match went on, the match started going back and forth, more and more.
The rest of the match eventually became spot after spot, trading near falls. Anderson got a strong one with a spinebuster on Dreamer, who would recover only to take a magic killer through a table for another strong near fall, thanks to Callihan breaking the pin.
Callihan took out both men with a baseball bat and pinned Anderson for the win.
Callihan is the #1 contender for Slammiversary, so he needed a win here for sure. With this match taking place early, there’s now time for either party to get a flight and try to make it to Jacksonville ASAP.
Joe Doering (w/ Violent By Design) defeated Satoshi Kojima (w/ Eddie Edwards)
Not a lot of story unless you’re ready to read a full column of both men’s work in All Japan Pro Wrestling. Here on Impact, after Eric Young said that they were targeting Mexico and Japan as they had targeted Impact, it was Kojima who came out to confront them and straight up challenged Joe Doering to a match. Ever since, they’ve had a couple of confrontations, but it all climaxes here with Kojima and Doering, in a match between the former Japanese champions.
They skipped all the feeling out start and quickly went to Doering cutting off Kojima and getting heat over him, working the back mostly. Doering slammed Kojima, whipped him around, even locked in a Boston crab at one point.
Kojima eventually managed to dodge DOering and get him with the machine gun chops, falling elbow, but failed to hit the lariat when Doering hit a huge spinebuster. Rhino got involved, but Kojima took care of him by himself.
Flying crossbody by Doering for the near fall. Kojima blocked the powerbomb, landed a lariat to the back, Koji cutter. Kojima went for the lariat, but Doering countered with a DVD and spinning powerbomb for the win.
Interesting that they would book Kojima to put over Doering, I have to imagine that NJPW cleared this decision.
– Decay cut a promo about winning all the gold tonight.
Trey Miguel vs. Rohit Raju vs. Petey Williams vs. Ace Austin vs. Chris Bey fought to a no contest in a 5-way X Division no. 1 contender’s match
All of these men have been chasing the X Division for months on several different feuds. After Alexander was finally done with TJP in their 60 minute ironman match, Alexander is open for new challengers and thus we have this match. Last episode of Impact, all the participants of the match took out Madman Fulton, and thus he is not out there with Ace Austin tonight.
Match started with Miguel and Austin pairing up outside the ring, and after some three-way spots inside the ring, Raju was taken out and we got a great sequence with Williams and Austin. Austin and Miguel took out everyone and took control of the ring to continue working together. We got a sequence with everyone sans Raju getting into a big submission among each other, only for Raju to come back and break everything up.
Raju ran wild for a bit of time and came close to getting the win with a falcon arrow on Bey and a falling elbow on Miguel, but both pins were broken up. Raju and Miguel stayed together with Raju once again getting the upper hand, until Bey came in and took down Raju, followed by Austined taking out Bey.
Williams came back with a codebreaker and Russian leg sweep on Austin for a near fall. Williams chased the destroyer, but was blocked. Austin went for a superplex, but it was turned into a top rope destroyer for a near fall when Miguel broke off the pin.
Miguel went for meteora, but Fulton reappeared, took out Miguel, took out Williams, took out Bey and Raju. All men ganged up on Fulton, but he straight up slammed them all at the same time. Fulton dragged Austin on top of the competitors, but the referee was taking no bs from Fulton and Austin and called it for a no contest due to Fulton’s interference. They made Fulton look like a total monster. I respect that no contest, No DQs is a crutch, but this was a good way around it.
Fulton chased off the referee, but now we don’t have a challenger.
W. Morrissey defeated Rich Swann
This one escalated quickly. It was at Rebellion that Morrissey debuted and took out Willie Mack in their match. At Under Siege, Morrissey destroyed Mack, and after he went to continue the punishment, Rich Swann made his return to aid his friend. Ever since, Morrissey and Swann have been trading shots, but they finally get in the ring tonight.
This was a speed vs power match. Swann had some offense early on as he kept running laps around Morrissey, hit and run, dives, and whatnot, but sooner or later, it was a matter of Morrissey landing one hit to take down Swann and turn the match around.
Morrissey started getting cocky and it allowed Swann to make a strong comeback, landing a 450 outside the ring, one inside the ring, but as he went for the phoenix splash, Morrissey caught him and hit an F-5.
Morrissey went for the chokeslam kill, but Swann escaped and went for the cutter, only for Morrissey to hit a big boot to the back, hit two powerbombs, and in reply to Swann giving him the finger, Morrissey landed a third bomb for the win. This was a big win for Morrissey. As a match, it wasn’t anything special, but it was a productive one to build Morrissey.
– Gia Miller interviewed Purrazzo, Lee, and Susan about walking out of Against All Odds holding all the Knockouts gold.
Tenille Dashwood (w/ Kaleb with a K) defeated Jordynne Grace (w/ Rachael Ellering)
It’s been some weeks that Dashwood has been trying to convince Ellering to ditch Grace and tag team with her instead. Grace has been having some confidence issues, and Dashwood hit when the iron was hot, but Grace is not to be disrespected and has challenged Dashwood to a singles match.
This was the basic Dashwood match, with Grace dominating early on until Kaleb comes in with the distraction and assist, allowing Dashwood to cut off Grace and control the match. Grace eventually made a comeback using her strength advantage, punched and slammed Dashwood around, hit the double knee and sliding elbow combo, hit the Vader bomb, but she still wasn’t able to pin Dashwood.
They went back and forth towards the end, but out of nowhere, Grace locked in a great rear naked choke on Dashwood. As she was about to win, Kaleb interfered, distracting the referee, Ellering took him out, and instead of following up, Grace let go of the choke and started screaming at Ellering to not help her out, allowing Dashwood to recover, roll up Grace, and get the win.
After the match, Grace and Ellering got into a discussion on the ramp that ended with Grace hitting a Michinoku Driver on Kaleb after she finally snapped.
– Brian Myers and Sam Beale talked about studying the show. Jake Something walked by and told Beale that he shouldn’t take advice from Myers, who talked trash to Something.
Knockouts Tag Team Champions Fire N’ Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz) defeated Susan & Kimber Lee to retain
The story between these two is short. These two teams had some dissension a couple of weeks back when they teamed together in a 10-woman match. Nothing came out of it, but when Hogan and Steelz asked D’Amore for new contenders, it happened that Susan and Lee had already requested a match against the champs, and so D’Amore made it official.
This was a heel team versus heel team, but it did force Steelz and Hogan to work a slight babyface game, as it was Steelz that got cut off from her corner and worked on by Lee and Susan. After a couple of minutes, Hogan got the hot tag against Susan. In a matter of a minute or so, the match went all tornado tag, with all women in the ring at the same time, trading near falls. Susan got a near fall after a Lee swanton bomb, Steelz got a near fall after a superplex. At the end, it came down to Steelz hitting a frog splash on Susan for the win. Ok match.
The amount of trash talk that happened in this match was something else, we didn’t need commentary with how much the wrestlers were shouting.
Hogan and Steelz have defeated yet another team, they don’t have many teams left in the roster.
Tag Team Champions Violent By Design (Rhino & Deaner) (w/EY) defeated Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus) to retain
Right after winning the titles, VBD were targeted by Decay, with the story that Steve and Deaner are both students of Eric Young, and so Steve made the argument that he was a better student, yet EY chose Deaner for his group. For the sake of sending a message, EY invoked the Freebird Rule and called for Rhino and Deaner to wrestle Decay and defend the titles.
Story of the match was that Steve was getting into Deaner’s head, and even with EY pushing and pushing, Deaner was the weaker of the two. So every time that Rhino went in, VBD would gain control over the match, at one point cutting off Taurus, but as Deaner would return to the ring, Decay would slowly regain control of the match.
The match eventually came down to Deaner and Crazzy Steve, who got close to submitting Deaner with a crossface, but Deaner made the ropes. Steve got another near fall with what looked like a tornado pedigree, but Deaner kept kicking out, probably out of fear of EY.
Black Taurus tagged in, hit the pop-up Samoan drop and a senton from Steve for a enar fall. Taurus and Rhino took each other out, again leaving Steve and Deaner, but Rhino recovered, took out Steve, Deaner hit a Deaner DDT and picked up the win. This may have been Deaner’s biggest win since joining VBD.
– We got a promo from Steve McClin, talking about how time is torture and how’s he has had a lot of time.
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defeated Rosemary to retain
Rosemary earned this show by pinning Purrazzo a couple of weeks back in a 5-on-5 Knockouts match. Rosemary also managed to defend her right to have a singles match, by pinning Havok in the last Impact episode, who had wager that if she could defeat Rosemary, she’d be added to the match.
Rosemary started this match with control and a lot of offense, a couple of minutes in, she dropped Purrazzo with a exploder on the ramp, but Rosemary made the mistake of giving Purrazzo time to recover, who tricked Rosemary to come at her, only to get her hand bent between the ringpost metal and kicked.
From there on, the match was a Purrazzo title match, with her working an arm thoroughly, but stretching or slamming the arm over and over again. Rosemary would try to break away and chase the as above so below, but Purrazzo would quickly bring her down again.
After a collision in the middle of the ring, Rosemary managed to make a small comeback. Locking in a one handed last chancery, but as soon as Purrazzo got a hold of the injured arm, she broke it off.
Rosemary got a guillotine and tried to turn it into as above so below, but Purrazzo blocked, countered, locked in Venus de Milo, but Rosemary made the ropes. Purrazzo stomped on Rosemary’s bad knee, removed her knee brace. Rosemary hit a desperation spear for a near fall, but when she tried to follow with the red wedding, her knee buckled, and it allowed Purrazzo to hit Cosa Nostra for the win. Match got really good towards the end.
Impact World Champion Kenny Omega (w/ Don Callis) defeated Moose to retain
Moose has had an issue with Omega ever since he won the Impact Championship, nothing personal, but he did become another obstacle in Moose’s path to the championship. Moose won the Under Siege 6-person #1 contendership match to earn this shot at Omega. On the go-home show for Against All Odds, it was decided by Scott D’Amore and Tony Khan that the match would take place in Jacksonville, at Daily’s Place, giving Omega the home advantage for the first time since his Impact Championship win.
Commentary team was Tony Schiavone, Scott D’Amore, and Don Callis.
Early on, the story of the match was that Moose had the power advantage, Omega couldn’t even move Moose. He managed to hurt Moose with a dive, but back in the ring, Moose was again blocking Omega, dodging moonsaults with kip ups, and hitting standing moonsaults of his own.
Moose continued his dominance outside the ring, whipping Omega left and right, but it wasn’t until Moose went for a dive that Omega dodged and Moose went crashing and burning into the sitting area, and just like that Omega had a chance to turn the match around.
Omega worked over Moose’s arm, that he sold injured after the missed dive on the floor. Moose made a comeback and got a near fall with a go to hell, but that woke up Omega and he started going for v-triggers and dragon suplexes.
They started a striking exchange, but as Moose gained momentum, Omega went for the arm and hit a tiger bomb for a near fall. Omega followed up with v-triggers to the injured arm. He called for the OWA, but had trouble getting Moose up and keeping him there.
AEW’s doctor came in to check on Moose’s arm, but Moose pushed him away, he wanted to keep on going, and actually managed to power up and hit a top rope Spanish fly out of nowhere.
Moose went for the lights out on Omega, but Omega pulled the referee in, who took most of the hit. Suddenly, the Young Bucks ran down and superkicked Moose over and over and hit the BTW Trigger. They helped Omega hit the OWA, leading to Omega picking up the win.
This was a fantastic match with really good pacing and escalation. The finish definitely protects Moose for another title match down the line where he can be a full-blown babyface.
After they were celebrating, the lights went out and Sami Callihan appeared with a bat in hand. He took out the Bucks and Omega before Callis confronted him. Callihan teased doing to Omega what he did to Eddie Edwards a couple of years back with the bat and the eye. Instead, Callis reacted and fired Callihan. D’Amore confronted Callis as they went to the back and the show went off the air.
According to Dave Meltzer, Moose has signed a new deal with Impact Wrestling.
The amount of years or were undisclosed.
The 37-year-old has been with the company since the summer of 2016, making his debut at that July’s Destination X during the World title match between Bobby Lashley and Eddie Edwards.
In the years that have followed, Moose (Quinn Ojinnaka) twice won the now-defunct Impact Grand Championship and the TNA World title that he lost to then-Impact World Champion Rich Swann in a title vs. title match earlier this year.
Up next for Moose is arguably the highest profile match in his career as he challenges current World Champion Kenny Omega at next month’s Against All Odds on Impact Plus. Moose earned the shot by winning a six-way no. 1 contender’s match at last Saturday’s Under Siege.
The former NFL offensive lineman started training in 2012 and was signed by Ring of Honor in 2014 — his home for two years before signing with Impact.
