Tag: rebellion

Preview by Josh Nason

The next step in the belt collector angle Kenny Omega began back in December when he won the AEW World title continues Sunday as he attempts to take the Impact World title from Rich Swann in the main event of Rebellion. It’s a winner-take-all affair as someone will walk away a double champion.

The match is the most high-profile the company has had in quite some time and they are pulling out all the stops, bringing in combat sports announcer Mauro Ranallo to call the match. 

Rebellion will also feature several other title matches as Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defends against Tenille Dashwood; Tag Team Champions FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) return to defend against former champions The Good Brothers in a rematch; Knockouts Champions Fire ‘N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) defend against Jordynne Grace and the returning Rachael Ellering; and X-Division Champion Ace Austin defends against Josh Alexander and TJP in a three way.

Other matches include Matt Cardona vs. Bryan Myers; a last man standing match between Sami Callihan and Trey Miguel; and an eight-man tag with Violent By Design against James Storm, Chris Sabin, Eddie Edwards and Willie Mack.

Our live coverage begins at 8 PM Eastern.

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Josh Alexander defeated X-Division champion Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) and TJP to win the X-Division title

In what feels like flashbacks to 2000’s TNA, the X Division was revolved around a couple of wrestlers that, no matter the combination, yield top level matches. All three men involved in this match have been trading wins and loses for months now, as of late, Austin defeated TJP to recapture the X Division title, while Alexander has earned wins over both men in the last couple of weeks. 

Match was fast paced from the very start, whether it was 3-way action or pair ups between two, it was constant action. The nature of the wrestler saw Alexander go more for submissions and slams, TJP has a signature style combination of submission work and high flying moves, and at the end, Austin is a more flashy wrestler with a couple of dirty tactics at hand. 

All men got good near falls towards the end, Austin first hit the fold on TJP, but Alexander cut him off. Alexander got a huge near fall after hitting divine intervention on TJP, only to get stopped by Austin. TJP also had a strong near fall when he hit the mamba splash on Alexander, only to get pulled out of the ring by Fulton. 

At the end, with TJP and Fulton both out, Alexander hit divine intervention on Austin for the win and became the new X Division champion! Great match.

– D’lo Brown & Matt Striker ran down tonight’s card. They announced that Eric Young is being replaced in tonight’s match after suffering an injury against Eddie Edwards. 

– Violent By Design cut a promo with EY saying that he is injured, but still leading the group. EY addressed his replacement, saying that he’s not ready for the group and truth, but this is his opportunity to show he is.

Violent By Design (Joe Doering, Deaner & Rhino) & W.Morrissey (w/ Eric Young) defeated Eddie Edwards, Willie Mack, James Storm and Chris Sabin

VBD has been antagonizing the Impact roster for months, and slowly, EY has been recruiting more and more people to join his cause. This feud has gone from The Deaners to the Beer Guns to Tommy Dreamer, and now it reaches the peak as they face a team of the most representative wrestlers in Impact.

The man replacing Eric Young is W. Morrissey, FKA Big Cass. 

Match started with a couple of pair ups between both teams, mostly going back and forward since the VBD team is now full of big lads. Morrissey paired up with Storm, and while Storm had some speed advantage, Morrissey ran over him like a freight train. 

Morrissey successfully cut off Storm from his corner, allowing VBD to work over him for some time, but not long enough to really call him a babyface in peril. Nonetheless, Mack got a hot tag against Deaner, who surprisingly recovered and took down Mack. 

Match got really chaotic with the babyfaces running wild, taking down Morrissey and Doering outside by a double dive from Edwards and Sabin. In the ring, the babyface team hit a couple of signature moves on Deaner coming close to the win, but Morrissey came in, destroyed them all, and got himself a tag before the brawl spilled to the floor.

We got a great spot with Sabin Superplexing Deaner into the floor over all men involved. 

Back in the ring, Mack took out Doering with the stunner, but Morrissey was the legal man. He blocked Mack’s stunner, hit a big boot, hit the east river crossing, and picked the win. Good match, really chaotic.

After the match, he kept attacking Mack until the referees calmed him down. I think EY is gonna love him for the team. Happy to see Morrissey look great and have a good performance.

Brian Myers defeated Matt Cardona

This is a match that has been brewing for months in Impact, but years between the two. Ever since Cardona came to the company, he and Myers started finding themselves on opposing sides. Myers claims that Cardona came to Impact because he was there and wanted to take his spotlight, while Cardona responded that he wasn’t there for Myers, but for himself as he wanted to wrestle the top competition in Impact. After months of tag matches with Edwards and Hernandez and Myers rejecting Cardona’s challenges, the match finally happens tonight.

With the story between these two being that Myers kept running from Cardona, the start of the match played into it, with him doing hit and runs until he hurt Cardona’s back against the guardrails outside. 

Once Myers had control, he worked over Cardona’s back in the ring. Cardona kept trying to start a comeback and gain some momentum, but Myers would cut him off. It was until Cardona had to rely on going after Myers’ newly recovered eye that he got him off his back for enough time to recover and get some offense in. 

The match spilled to the floor where Cardona hit radio silence on the ramp, selling that the landing had hurt Cardona’s lower back, but even after that, Myers kept his hit and run approach to once again take down Cardona. 

Last couple of minutes saw both men exchange near falls. At the end, Cardona went for radio silence again, only to get tossed over and have a bad landing on his left leg. The fall indeed looked bad, so when the referee hit the arm signal, it felt somewhat legit, instead, Cardona got him up, hit two roster cuts, and picked the win. If the referee hit the arm signals, why didn’t he call for the bell and allowed for the match to continue?

Good match, Myers looked way better than Cardona, even when relying on cheats

– Gia Miller interviewed Tony Khan and company. Schiavone, Lynn, and referee Edwards. They tried to big time Impact whe D’Amore cut him off. The referee tonight on Impact’s side is Brian Hebner, so Khan doesn’t trust him.

Jordynne Grace & Rachael Ellering defeated Knockouts Tag Team Champions Fire ‘n Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz) to win the titles

Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz don’t have a good relationship with Grace, but ever since Grace started teaming with Jazz, the teasing grew more and more. In yet another act of antagonism, Hogan and Steelz interrupted Jazz’s retirement speech, pushing D’Amore to making an impromptu match between the two teams, where Jazz won the match. Jazz rejected getting a title shot at the champions, since she would stay true to her Impact retirement, but instead, found a partner for Jordynne Grace — Rachael Ellering.

Commentary said that Jazz has filed for a manager’s license and is looking to continue her career as a manager. 

This was what seems to be turning into Hogan and Steelz’ specialty. A power vs speed match, that the smaller wrestlers manage to gain control out of their tag team proficiency over their opponents. 

Match started with Ellering and Grace overpowering Hogan and Steelz, but a couple of minutes in, Steelz cut off Grace with some help from Hogan, successfully getting her away from her corner. With Grace isolated, they worked over her, going for constant tags, pin attempts, and kicks from all corners. Eventually Grace managed to trick Hogan and Steelz to take each other out and tagged Ellering in.

Ellering had a good hot tag, she and Grace already had some double team moves ready for this match. 

There was a scary spot with Steelz being flipped over the ropes and landing ugly on the apron, followed by a dive from Grace that also looked scary. Hopefully, they’re ok.

At the end, it came down to Ellering and Hogan, with the former hitting a suplex version of a sky high for the win. Grace and Ellering win the tag team titles. Ellering is a champ on her first match.

Trey Miguel defeated Sami Callihan in a last man standing match

Ever since Miguel returned to Impact, Callihan started targeting with his aggressive approach at finding protégés. Callihan claims that Miguel has no passion and can’t handle the stress when things don’t go his way, and so Callihan offers Miguel to join him and together they’d capitalize on Miguel’s rage and dominate Impact. Miguel rejected Callihan’s offer, provoking him to come back at him in a vicious way, calling for a Last Man Standing match.

Match started on all cylinders, within a minute, Callihan just tossed Miguel to the floor for a stiff landing. The match continued on the floor with some back and forward action, but whatever Miguel did, it kept ending bad for him. He went for a dive that Callihan moved away from, letting Miguel just crash and burn against the rail. Callihan continued the attack with chains, chairs, and a wrench. At one point, he slammed Miguel into the erected legs of a table, but after all of that, Miguel kept getting up. 

There was a spot where Callihan hit a piledriver into the table, but the table, instead of breaking, only got the legs bent. It was just the placing of the weight, but it was a good visual.

Callihan hit a second piledriver on the steel steps, put him under the steps and sat on them to keep Miguel trapped, but it was against the ring, so Miguel just snuck out, and got him from behind with a running cutter on a table, where Miguel was able to stand up, but Callihan couldn’t. Miguel wins. Match had a strong start, but it slowed down as it went. Miguel took a hell of a beating to earn this win.

– Gia Miller interviewed Rich Swann prior to his match. Swann said this was the biggest match in the industry. He said he Callis did get in his head at first, but he is now perfectly focused. He said that tonight is both men’s biggest match in their careers because neither he or Omega have ever been in a title vs title match between promotions. Swann said that this was his house and he wasn’t gonna let Omega win in his house.

Impact Tag Team Champions FinJuice (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) defeated The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) to retain

A little over two months ago, NJPW’s Juice Robinson and David Finlay, collectively known as FinJuice, debuted for Impact, quickly got themselves a shot at the tag titles, and won them at Sacrifice. After their win, they agreed to give the Good Brothers their rightful rematch, but not until Rebellion, making them wait while FinJuice would go and wrestle in Japan. The last month has been agony for Anderson and Gallows, as everyone makes fun of them for losing the titles and not being able to get even, but now that FinJuice returns, they face a Good Brothers team that is serious and focused, that is not underestimating FinJuice, and ready to show that the title loss was a fluke.

Match started with FinJuice in control, they got a couple of double team moves on both Anderson and Gallows, but after the referee managed to get some control in the ring, Gallows was left alone with Finlay, who he cut off from his corner.

Good Brothers worked over Finlay for a good couple of minutes, took a beating at the hands of Gallows specially, but after pushing Gallows to tag out, he dodged Anderson’s rush and got the tag to Robinson.

Robinson had a strong comeback, he got a near fall on Anderson with the rolling cannonball. FinJuice landed a couple more double team moves on Anderson, took out Gallows, but when they set up the doomsday device, Gallows threw Finlay off the top turnbuckle to the floor. 

Good Brothers went for the magic killer, but Finlay made it in time to save Robinson, who used the momentum to roll up Gallows to retain the titles. Great match, didn’t get as much time as I wanted.

– Miller interviewed Don Callis, she hoped for Omega, but obviously Callis was there to do the talking. He said he is the man who put all of this together and once again, they’re ready to make history again. Callis congratulated Swann for getting him out of his head, but he still had to wrestle the greatest wrestler ever. 

Callis told Swann that he thinks he has a family in the roster, but will they be there when he loses the title? Callis is fantastic.

Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo (w/ Susan & Kimber Lee defeated Tenille Dashwood (w/ Kaleb with a K) to retain

Not a lot of story between these two, rather two top wrestlers in the division that are to collide for the first time. Dashwood won a 6-way #1 contendership match at Hardcore Justice to earn this title shot. 

As usual for Purrazzo, she immediately started focusing on Dashwood’s arm, working towards the Fujiwara armbar or the Venus de Milo. Dashwood showed that she had the speed to counter and escape Purrazzo’s offense, and instead, focused on Purrazzo’s head, working towards the spotlight kick.

At one point, Dashwood locked in a Muta lock on Purrazzo for a near submission, but Susan and Lee distracted the referee. Kaleb tried to take them out, only to get taken out.

Purrazzo went for a diving headbutt, but Dashwood moved out of the way, hit the spotlight kick for a big near fall, only to get pulled by Lee. Dashwood took out both Susan and Lee. Back in the ring, Dashwood escaped the Fujiwara armbar, only to take the queen’s gambit for the 1-2-3. Purrazzo retains.

Match started somewhat sloppy, but it seemed it was a matter of getting accustomed to each other’s pace. Wasn’t a fan of Lee and Susan interfering.

After the match, the trio attacked Dashwood, but out came Taylor Wilder for her big return. She’s wearing her old gear, so even less rockabilly than her vignettes. Wilde took out both Susan and Lee. Purrazzo escaped.

– Brown and Striker announced Under Siege for May 15th, Against All Odds for June 12, and Slammiversary pay-per-view for July. Commercial had footage of Lauren Van Ness and Samoa Joe.

– Mauro Ranallo has joined commentary.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega defeated Impact World Champion Rich Swann in a title vs. title match to win the Impact title

What else is there to say, this is arguably one of Impact’s biggest matches in their history, if not wrestling history altogether. Not often that you see two promotion’s champions put their biggest prize in a winner takes all match. 

The story coming in to this match comes all the way from the Hard to Kill main event, where Omega pinned Rich Swann with the one winged angel, the one thing that both Omega and Callis made sure to remember Swann each and every day since, that Swann can’t get the OWA out of his head and knows that he has no chance at kicking out of the move that no one has kicked out of. However, as many people have pointed since, every time Swann and Omega were in the ring at Hard To Kill, Swann always had the upper hand and only lost it because of the Good Brothers, and so now Swann has Omega alone in the ring, with no Good Brothers, no Storm, and no Sabin, and while he accepts that he may not be able to kick out of the OWA, he has proven now that he can escape it before he gets hit. Omega was the weapon to win, all Swann needs to do is dodge it.

Match started with Omega getting too cocky for his own good, as Swann repaid all of Omega’s cheap shots from the last month. Swann had a good amount of offense for some minutes, but it all turned around when Omega tossed Swann overhead on the floor into the ropes, Swann tried to rebound, but Omega tossed him upwards, having him land head first in the apron, injuring his neck. From there on, Omega started working over Swann’s head and neck. 

Swann made a quick comeback, which triggered a series of back and forward spots between both men. Omega started going for V-triggers, OWA attempts, and a couple of big bombs for near falls; on the other hand, Swann kept chasing trying to fully recover, mostly openings to kick Omega down and chase near falls with a frog splash. 

There was a botched spot with Omega going for a top rope electric chair, it seemed like Swann was going to counter into either a sunset bomb or a poisonrana, but kinda fell sideways, and Omega just threw himself down. 

After recovering, Omega snapped and started landing dragon suplexes, but as Swann countered and went to hit a Lethal injection, Omega pulled Hebner, who took the cutter instead. Omega went to use a chair, but referee Edwards took the chair away from him. The distraction allowed Swann to recover and catch Omega with the cutter and Magistral for a near fall.

Swann dodged a V-trigger, hit a Michinoku driver for a near fall. Swann went for the phoenix splash, but Omega dodged, hit the V-trigger, and Croyt’s wrath. Followed with a Jay driller, but Swann kept kicking out.

Omega landed a series of unprotected V-triggers, until Swann just dropped for the last one. Omega hit a third one in front of Edwards and Mack. As Omega went to the kill, Swann woke up for one last hope spot, going for the phoenix splash, but Omega moved out of the way, hit a V-trigger and the one winged angel for the win. 

Omega is now a world champion in three promotions while Swann is going to have to answer to a roster full of disappointed wrestlers.