It’s a jam-packed edition of the Big Vinny V show recapping a very busy week in TNA wrestling.
We start with Impact where the Rascalz shine, Speedball Bailey beats up an entire army, and the Hardyz reunite for the first time in TNA in seven years. Then it’s on to Slammiversary, where the Rascalz shine even brighter and we get new tag team champions in the ABC, a new Digital Media champion in PCO, a new X Division champion in Speedball Bailey, and finally a new world champion in Nic Nemeth. All this and more on the Big Vinny V Show!
In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Alex Zayne has signed a deal with WWE.
Last week, Zayne had what was billed as his final indie match, a loss to Tony Deppen at GCW’s So Much Fun show. He has stayed active throughout the summer and fall, working for New Japan on Strong, GCW, and other indies.
The Kentucky native has worked consistently in the past few years and has appearances for both Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor under his belt. It’s expected he will report to the WWE Performance Center as part of their next class along with another recent signee, Ben Carter.
Perhaps joining them will be Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel of The Rascalz.
Reiterating what he discussed on Wednesday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said the belief is the two are WWE bound as their Impact Wrestling deals recently expired. Team member Trey Miguel’s deal also expired at the same time and Meltzer said he is drawing interest from both WWE and AEW.
Meltzer said the trio got offers from Impact that “weren’t great”. Their final match for the promotion is set for this Tuesday night’s show.
Next week’s Impact Wrestling on AXS will feature both a Tag Team Title match and a no. 1 contender’s match for the X-Division title.
Impact Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns will face The Rascalz, a match made on Tuesday’s show following The Rascalz’s win over Ace Austin and Madman Fulton. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin came out after their win and offered them a rematch from Slammiversary so they could be more prepared instead of surprised.
The Rascalz are 0-4 in tag team title matches dating back to July 2019 while the Machine Guns will be looking for their second tag title defense since defeating The North for the belts in mid-July.
The other title match will feature former X-Division Champion Chris Bey defending against TJP. This was made Tuesday when TJP asked current champion Rohit Raju for a title shot, but Raju said the former champion (Bey) is first in line so TJP can skip the line with a win next week.
A Locker Room Talk segment featuring Madison Rayne interviewing Kylie Rae and Susie was also announced for next week.
Impact Wrestling presented a special episode entitled This Is Impact, a showcase of what Impact will bring to the table on AXS TV, an introduction to the major players of Impact, a rundown of what happened at Bound For Glory, bringing everyone up to speed with the current storylines. Also tonight, we get a couple of taped matches from Bound For Glory.
Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos. She read comments from the chat, did some small commentary of what we were seeing on the show, and hyped up what we have in store for next week.
Show opened with a nostalgic look at TNA/Impact’s history. The obvious references of Sting, Styles, Angle, Gail Kim, Hogan, and a quick look at all the world champions Impact has crowned. It was nice.
Josh Matthews and Scott D’Amore ran the show from an event center. Melissa Santos will be doing interviews throughout the show from Los Angeles. Don Callis was in the set of Ace Austin’s new film, where he is looking to interview him.
Matthews and D’Amore talked about some of the returns and debuts we’ve seen lately, like Rhino, RVD, Madman Fulton, Jordynne Grace, TJP, Willie Mack, Tenille Dashwood, and Ken Shamrock. A good, quick rundown introducing some of the players. They made a special showcase for Michael Elgin.
We got a Michael Elgin video package, focusing on his debut, his run against Brian Cage, and his build towards the Marufuji match. They talked about him as a future World Champion.
Madison Rayne (w/Kiera Hogan) defeated Shotzi Blackheart
Hogan, wearing the most amazing attire, joined commentary. I totally thought Shotzi had already signed with NXT, I take it she will be finishing her booking, let’s hope WWE doesn’t botch her.
Rayne tried to bully Shotzi at the start, telling her she is the Locker Room Leader. Shotzi attacked her and got the better of her sending her for a breather outside the ring. Shotzi went for the chase, got distracted by Hogan, and Madison attacked her from behind.
Back from commercial, Shotzi is working on Madison, ramming her to the turnbuckles, but Madison counters and hits a Northen Lights for a two count. Madison locked in a cravate and came close to choking Shotzi, who is only released after a series of knees to the gut by Rayne.
Shotzi came back with a desperation Enzuigiri to make some space. Shotzi hit a running knee and a Swinging Bulldog, follows with a kick and earns a two count. Shotzi hit a 619, went for a second, but Rayne caught her, and hit a Slingshot onto the ropes. Rayne hit the Rayne Check and pinned Shotzi for the win. Good match, Rayne looked great, Hogan was great on commentary.
Matthews and D’Amore talked about the women’s wrestling revolution, talking about the history of the knockouts and what they’ve been doing for years now. This was a short showcase about some of the female talent from the past.
We got a highlight showcase of Slammiversary XVII’s 4-way Monster’s ball for the Knockout’s Championship. This led to a video package about Taya’s rivalries with Rosemary, Su Yung, and Havok. We got promos by James Mitchell and Taya, the latter just showing how natural she is with her promos. Matthews and D’Amore then talked about Taya’s record breaking title reign.
Don Callis interviewed Ace Austin on the set of Austin’s first feature film. Ace talked about being the man of the hour after winning the X-Division title. A lady came in and talked about looking forward to working with Ace tonight, this gave the vibes that Ace is working a porn movie.
Matthews and D’Amore now talked about the tag team division. D’Amore hyped the team of Swann and Mack and the Desi Hit Squad as to teams that are likely to have good looking futures coming up. The North was put over for being strong champions, but also for being responsible to retiring LAX out of Impact. We got a quick highlight of that match.
We got an interview by The North from the Impact offices. They said that next week, all eyes are going to be on them, and so they plan to be the first out of the curtain to show what Impact is about. Josh Alexander made an open challenge for next week.
At this point, we got highlights of RVD turning heel during Bound For Glory. RVD will talk about this next week. Furthermore, we got highlights from the Shamrock vs Moose match too. We got a backstage promo from Shamrock saying that he is not sure what is next for him in wrestling.
We got an ‘live’ interview with Moose. He is still celebrating his win. Moose said he had zero pity for Ken Shamrock, he got what he had coming for him. He said that he is the best multi-sport athlete in the world, and that he’ll show why he is a legend next week. He has started calling himself The Alpha Male on twitter, so maybe that’s a hint.
Melissa Santos interviewed Taya Valkyrie, the longest reigning Knockout’s Champion of all time. Taya and Melissa ran down all the accolades Taya has achieved this year. They showed clips of Taya defeating Tenille Dashwood at Bound For Glory. Taya said he felt amazing coming out of her win last Sunday, she brought up that Tenille was her first match, and that even if Tenille had been in the biggest stages and fought the biggest starts, she wasn’t prepared for Taya.
We got some footage of John E. Bravo being sent to interview random people about how Taya’s reign has improved people’s lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Some people had no comments, Bravo hit on all the girls he interviewed, and after the video, Taya was irate that Bravo screwed the interviews up.
Matthews and D’Amore announced that someone has accepted Josh Alexander’s open challenge — Naomichi Marufuji!.
We got a video package of Callihan and Cage’s feud.
The World Champion Brian Cage joined Matthews and D’Amore at the Event Center. Cage said he felt really good from defeating Callihan. Cage talked about being disappointed about being injured throughout most of his reign and that he was ready and looking forward to make up for lost time.
Cage was talking about what was next when Sami Callihan interrupted the interview. Callihan demanded a rematch. Callihan talked trash and said that he sent oVe to his house in Los Angeles, while Cage was stuck at New York. We got footage of oVe in Los Angeles waiting for Sami’s green light. Cage gave Callihan his rematch and told him he’ll tear him apart. Without any crazy gimmicky things, Sami Callihan is turning into a Joker level villain. Good angle.
This was a weird thing for Melissa to recap on the Twitch stream with all the chat telling Melissa to hide from oVe who are supposed to be outside.
Back from commercial, Matthews and D’Amore talked about what had just happened with Cage and Callihan. They announced that Cage vs Callihan will take place inside a steel cage.
D’lo Brown joined the Event Center table to analyse the ongoing rivalry between Cage and Callihan. Brown said that if Callihan can stay inside Cage’s head like he just showed, he speculated that it’s only a matter of time before Callihan is the World Champion.
We got a video package for Tessa Blanchard. It was a highlight reel of the huge rise Tessa has achieved this year, from her feud with Gail Kim to her battles with oVe. They talked that after Bound For Glory, Tessa must be boiling over oVe getting in her business and somewhat costing her the X-Division Championship.
Impact Plus Moment of the Week was Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan from this year’s Slammiversary XVII pay-per-view.
We got another video from Ace Austin’s movie being filmed. It’s definitely a porno.
We got a video package telling the crazy story that Eddie Edwards has gone through the last year, from his feud with Callihan, the eye injury, going crazy, feud with Kross, and his marital problems. At this point, Sami Callihan has been part of most of Impact’s biggest stories in the last two years, talk about being a pillar of the company.
They showed highlights of Eddie Edwards winning the Call Your Shot Gauntlet from Bound For Glory. They speculated that Eddie should go for the World Title, but given his feud with Ace Austin and that they have a grudge match coming, there are hints that Eddie could always go for that. Talking about Ace Austin again, we got highlights from Homecoming’s Ultimate X match for the X-Division Championship.
We’re back at Ace Austin’s movie set. Well, this ain’t PG. Maybe he’s renaming the title to the XXX-Division Championship.
Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Johnny Swinger from LA Live. Jacobs tried to ask what was the difference between wrestling in 1993 and now. Swinger said he is taking one of the young lads and taking him under his wing. Jacobs asked his twitter or social media, Swinger only gave out a P.O. Box. This was funny.
The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, & Trey Miguel) defeated Dr. Wagner Jr, Taurus, & Aerostar
The AAA team came out with their official porra ruda, straight out of Arena Naucalpan, with drums and vuvuzelas. Wagner is working with his mask on. This match has Lucha Tag rules.
Match started with the Lucha team jump the Rascalz and single out Dezmond. They hit a couple of tag moves between Taurus and Aerostar. Later on, Trey got in the ring, making him legal, but also fell to the Lucha team when Wagner locked in La Tapatia, while Taurus had a headlock, and Aerostar dropped a footstomp from the top rope.
Back from commercial, the AAA team is still under control of Trey, just for Dezmond to return to the ring and clear it out and going one-on-one with Aerostar. Wentz comes in and hits the Bronco Buster. Taurus tags in, who takes a triple combo by The Rascalz. Wagner comes in and strikes out all men, but ends up taking a superkick and footstomp combo by Wentz for a two count.
Rascalz go for a triple dive, but Xavier and Trey get taken out, leaving Wentz open to take out Wagner. Aerostar hits his dive, followed by Trey’s Asai moonsault. Wagner follows with a tope suicida.
Back in the ring, Wanger vs Xavier takes place. Wagner finally takes off his mask and hits a sit down powerbomb for a two count. Taurus lands a huge German and sets up Aerostar for a plancha only for Trey to break the pin.
Wentz comes in and takes out Taurus, but is taken out by Wagner, who is taken out by Xavier, who is taken out by Aerostar, and so on until Trey hits Cheeky Nandos and the Trey19 on Aerostar, follows with the Meteora and The Hot Fire Flame to take the win. Great match. It was kinda crazy seeing Dr. Wagner wrestle on Impact.
Matthews and D’Amore close the show running down next week’s card. Ace Austin vs Eddie Edwards, Cage vs Callihan in a cage match, Shamrock addressing his future, Josh Alexander vs Naomichi Marufuji, and much more. Packed show next Tuesday!
Final Thoughts —
Perfect show to bring you up to speed to Impact if you’ve missed the Pursuit Era. The show did a great job introducing you to the main players, the main stories, the fallout of Bound For Glory, and two pretty decent matches.
Impact returns from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, NY, as they continue the build towards Slammiversary, just nine nights away. Opening video featured the build up to Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Calliahn at the pay-per-view, the backstage angle between Eddie Edwards and Killer Kross, the announcement of the Knockout’s Monster’s Ball match, and the return of TJP and Brian Cage.
Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos. She hyped up all of the matches being built for Slammiversary.
The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated The Deaners (Cody Deaner & Cousin Jake)
Jake and Alexander start the match with the latter having the technical advantage, while Jake had the strength advantage, earning him control early on. Deaners kept control over both Page and Alexander with quick tags and a couple of tag team moves, earning a two count on Page.
Page turned the match around on Cousin Jake. They went for a double piledriver, but Jake outpowered them, escaped, and got Cody the tag, who took out Page with a dive. Inside the ring, Josh Alexander took out Jake with a running crossbody.
For a second time in the match, the North gained control, this time over Cody, cutting the ring in half on him with quick tags and power moves. Cody made a comeback with a desperation Swinging Neckbreaker to get the tag to Cousin Jake, who ran wild over both Page and Alexander. Deaner tagged in and hit a Flying Headbutt for a near fall. Jake hit the corner spear and the Dearners went for their finisher, but Page interrupted them. Alexander and Jake traded strikes, Alexander hit a deadlift German, but Jake stood up and hit a desperation lariat for a two count. Cody hit a Deaner DDT and went for top rope move, but Page blocked him, North hit the tag finisher, and picked up the win. Pretty good opener, the Deaners are better than they get credit for.
Josh Alexander got busted open over the nose early in the match, he already had the cut, so he just reopened the wound.
– Taya and Rosemary met in Rosemary’s lair to plan for tonight’s match. Taya is arguing that she doesn’t want to be there. Rosemary tells her to just keep her word that if Rosemary protects her, she’ll get a shot at the Knockout’s title. Really great interaction between the two.
– Rolando Menendez interviewed Brian Cage’s doctor, who said that Cage’s actions last week were irresponsible as he is still not cleared to return to action.
– We got footage from a House of Hardcore show where Moose attacked Tommy Dreamer, blaming RVD for the attack.
– Commentary announced that Killer Kross will face Eddie Edwards at Slammiversary in a First Blood Match.
Knockout’s Champion Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary defeated Su Yung & Havok by DQ
Rosemary and Taya start arguing over who starts the match, but on the other side, Havok attacks them both. She took focus on Taya, making quick work of her with chokes and backbreakers before tagging in Su Yung. Taya made a small comeback, but failed to tag in Rosemary and kept getting worked on, eating the turnbuckle by a Spiderrana by Yung, who immediately went for the Mandible Claw, except Havok tagged herself in and shouted at Yung.
Taya finally managed to escape from Havok, doding a Banzai Drop, and tagged in Rosemary. She went with lariats against Havok, but failed with each one, until she changed her offense into a Slingblade instead. Rosemary to Havok down with a dropkick to the knee and locked in a Last Chancery, but Yung broke it up.
Rosemary sent Havok to the outside and went for a dive, but Havok blocked her with a forearm as she was coming down. Rosemary and Havok started brawling outside the ring. Havok grabbed a chair, but Rosemary dodged. Su Yung took down Rosemary with the chair for the DQ loss.
Taya and Su Yung brawled inside the ring with Yung locking in the Claw on the champion, while Rosemary and Havok brawled outside. Rosemary took out Havok and speared Yung, keeping her promise to protect Taya, but she got distracted, leaving Havok to pick up chairs. Havok returned to the ring and went for Rosemary, but now it was Taya that made the save, and took out Havok with a chair. Rosemary brought out thumbtacks. Taya and Rosemary teased dropping Yung on the tacks, but Havok stopped them. There was some miscommunication with Havok and Yung and it led to Havok wanting to chokeslam Yung, but James Mitchell ran down to break up the fight. Match wasn’t much, but the post-match angle was good.
– Melissa Santos interviewed Ace Austin about his first loss. Austin said that he lost because he couldn’t prepare for someone he wasn’t even in the company prior to last week. TJP interrupted him, took some shots at 205 Live, and said that they can have another match next week so Ace has time to properly prepare.
– The Deaners recovered at a bar and talked about their loss. They were interrupted by the Desi Hit Squad, who made fun of them.
– Impact Plus Moment of the Week was the Mixed Tag Monster’s Ball from Slammiversary 2009 between Taylor Wilde and Abyss vs Raven and Daffney.
– Eddie Edwards was in a church in Boston, MA. He confesses that he has lost everything and he doesn’t care because the voice in his head keeps telling him to do bad things. Suddenly, Kross is there, who teases Eddie, but they agree to not fight inside the church. Kross’s wardrobe makes him look like part of the Deaners now. I miss black suit Killer Kross.
– Backstage, Johnny Bravo is showing off to the other refs and staff. The refs call him a stooge and make fun of him. He talks trash about Rich Swann, who shows up, along with Johnny Impact, as they get into a pull apart. Swann challenges Impact to a tag match between Swann and Mack vs Johnny Impact and Bravo, who accepts in behalf of Impact.
Sami Callihan (w/Madman Fulton) defeated Fallah Bahh (w/Scarlett Bordeaux)
Callihan tried to jump Bahh, but Fallah Bahh was ready for him and started the match hitting a flurry of strikes instead. Callihan tried to chop Bahh, but it didn’t work and Bahh kept the offense. It wasn’t until Fulton tripped Bahh, that Sami got the opening to drop Bahh with a Lariat. The referee ejected Fulton to the back.
Bahh had time to recover and get back in the offensive with some clotheslines, but Sami tricked Bahh and dropped him again. We got the visual of Callihan’s snot drooling out.
Callihan kept control with stomps and sleepers. Bahh eventually powered up and made a comeback, dropped Sami with a Belly-to-belly and followed with a running splash and running hip attack on the corner. Bahh hit a Samoan Drop and went for the Banzai Drop, but Callihan got out of the ring.
Bahh chased Callihan to the outside, bringing him back the hard way. Bahh went to suplex Sami to the outside, but Callihan bit him, got a couple of kicks in, and a rope assisted Cactus Special for the win. Decent match for the time it got. Bahh has improved a lot after losing weight.
After the match, Callihan cut a promo. He said that the Knockouts are not created equal and tried to hijack the show until the fans would stay quiet. He called out Tessa, who took no time to come out.
Callihan told Tessa that she won’t do anything to him because he is a man and he IS Impact Wrestling. Sami said that if Tessa wanted to be treated like an equal, he would oblige, and superkicked Tessa. Callihan kept talking, giving Tessa the time to recover, get up, and take down Callihan. The rest of oVe came out and held Tessa, allowing Callihan to take out Tessa with the bat and deliver the Cactus Special after Tessa spat on him. Pretty strong angle, this is going to be controversial. Even in defeat, Tessa looked incredibly strong.
LAX and Rascalz face off in the center of the ring, allowing Laredo Kid to start the match hitting a flying crossbody on all of the Rascalz, sending them to the outside, set up for Santana to take them out with a tope con giro. Inside the ring, Kid and Trey exchanged a series of counters, with Kid getting the upper hand with a couple of kicks and ranas. With everyone outside, Laredo Kid hit a moonsault to the outside as he and LAX gain control of the match.
Back from commercial, Trey Miguel is being worked on with a series of team moves by all three men opposite his corner. After some chaos with all six men in the ring, Trey gets the tag to Dezmond, who gets a quick pin attempt on Ortiz after Wentz took out Kid and Santana with a huge dive.
Santana came in and ran wild over Trey Miguel with a kick and a Death Valley Driver. Wentz takes him out, and followed one after the other taking each other down until they all laid on the mat to chants of ‘Fight Forever’.
All six men traded strikes in the ring, ending with LAX getting the upper hand with super kicks. Laredo Kid hit a 450 over all three Rascalz stacked up for a two count. LAX and Kid went for a team move on Trey, but Dez and Wentz blocked them and hit a kick combo on Ortiz instead, setting him up for a Meterora by Trey for the win.
Another incredible match between these two teams. Their Slammiversary match has a big change of stealing the show.
– Melissa Santos interviewed Madison Rayne about defeating Jordynne Grace. Madison said that win was soured by Kiera Hogan’s interference and offered Grace a rematch. Hogan interrupted her and said that all the Knockouts are ‘selfish bitches’, except she doesn’t mind accepting she is. Rayne challenged Hogan to a match.
– Back at the Treehouse, Rascalz recovered, but argued that Trey won’t be at the tag match in Slammiversary, leading to a discussion about what the pair at the pay-per-view. They agree to a 3-way match next week with the loser being out of Slammiversary. This is going to be great.
Also for next week, we have the TJP vs Ace Austin rematch, Johnny Impact and Johnny Bravo vs Rich Swann and Willie Mack, and Madison Rayne vs Kiera Hogan.
– Rolando Menendez tried to interview Cage as he came in to the building. Cage’s doctor told him that he wasn’t cleared, so Cage just picked him up and got him out of his way.
Brian Cage came out to the ring and addressed Michael Elgin. He said that it’s taken him 14 years to claim his position as World Champion, but Elgin took away his biggest win from him and sent him to the hospital. He said that he was injured at that time, but he is ready and it won’t happen again.
Impact’s team doctor came out and told Cage that he is not cleared to compete. Cage hit an F-5 on the doctor. Elgin then jumped Cage from behind, he hit the Buckle Bomb and Elgin Bomb combination for a visual 3-count. Elgin posed with the World title. Cage showed signs of not being done, so Elgin hit a second Elgin Bomb and went for a table this time around. Elgin hit a powerbomb from the ring to the table outside on the floor. Crazy spot given Cage’s real injury a couple of months ago.
Don Callis told Elgin to leave, provoking Elgin to attack Callis with a forearm. Elgin went for an Elgin Bomb on Callis, but Cage stood up with a neck brace, ripped it off, got in the ring, and brawled with Elgin to close off the show.
Final thoughts —
This was a really packed show, both inside and outside the ring. Just like last weekend, this could have been a really strong go-home show, yet we still have one more week to go before the pay-per-view. If anything else, the angles tonight really escalated some of the ongoing feuds.
