The latest WWE and AEW News and Results
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including all-time record low ratings for WWE Raw.
The guys talk about AEW’s ascension, AEW vs. NXT tonight, the Impact Hard to Kill PPV main event, and then Impact World Champion Rich Swann joins us to talk Kenny Omega & Good Brothers vs. himself and the Motor City Machine Guns.
A fun show as always so check it out in beautiful HD at video.f4wonline.com~!
AEW World Champion Kenny Omega will reunite with two of his former Bullet Club stablemates as he makes his Impact Wrestling in-ring debut next month.
It was announced at the end of tonight’s episode of Impact that Omega & Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) will face Impact World Champion Rich Swann & The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) at Impact Wrestling’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view. The PPV is taking place on Saturday, January 16.
Throughout tonight’s Impact, Omega met with Anderson, hyping him up for his match against Sabin in the main event. Anderson proceeded to defeat Sabin after rolling him up, grabbing his tights. Omega and Don Callis, who were seen watching the match on a nearby bus, celebrated Anderson’s win.
The closing segment of the show saw Swann confront Anderson backstage about the finish. Gallows, who had been out injured, then returned and attacked Swann and The Motor City Machine Guns, who had come in to make the save.
It was here that Omega arrived, taking out Swann with a caution sign. Omega taunted Swann, telling Callis to show Swann the AEW World Championship title belt. Callis said it was the real World Champion’s belt. Omega then proposed the six-man tag team match for Hard to Kill and Callis made it official.
The finals of the Impact Knockouts Tag Team title tournament will also be held at Hard to Kill. Tasha Steelz & Kiera Hogan advanced to the finals tonight, defeating Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie. The winners of the Havok & Neaveh vs. Jordynne Grace & Jazz semifinal match will meet Steelz & Hogan in the finals.
Preview by Josh Nason
Amid the story that is the alliance of AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and Impact VP Don Callis, Impact Wrestling returns for their final named event of the year: Final Resolution, available on their streaming service and Fite.TV at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
While Omega isn’t set to appear, Impact World Champion Rich Swann will be in action as he defends his title against former X-Division Champion Chris Bey in tonight’s main event. Swann won the championship at October’s Bound For Glory and will be looking for the fourth defense of his title.
The Knockouts title will also be on the line as Deonna Purrazzo will face Rosemary in the first defense of her second title reign. This was made after Purrazzo complained to Impact GM Scott D’Amore after she and Kimber Lee lost to Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie in the Knockouts Tag Team title tournament.
The nine-match card will also feature Karl Anderson vs. Ethan Page with a Tag Team title shot on the line, Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb vs. Alisha and Eddie Edwards, X-Division Champion Rohit Raju’s “Defeat Rohit” Challenge, Tommy Dreamer vs. Larry D in a hardcore match for Larry D’s freedom, Eric Young vs. Rhino, Havok and Nevaeh vs. The Sea Stars, and Hernandez vs. Fallah Bahh with Kiera Hogan as special referee and Tasha Steelz as guest ring announcer.
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We’re on!
Tommy Dreamer defeated Larry D in an Old School Rules Match.
This match came about as a result to the whole “Who shot John E. Bravo storyline”, where Lawrence D, Larry D’s alter ego, was found guilty for shooting Bravo. The result is that Dreamer and D are now wrestling, and if D can win the match, he’ll be free of all allegations.
This was weak. Weapons matches don’t tend to be exciting without fans being loud for the spots, and in silence, the time spent setting up spots feels longer than they should. The match was slow, it started with a brawl outside the ring, and later into the mat. D dominated early on using cooking sheets and chairs, but once he went to use his weight belt, Dreamer woke up, came back and got close to a win after a and a corner dropkick to a chair. At the end, Acey Romero, D’s tag partner in XXXL, came out to help D, and as a result John E. Bravo ran down for the raid, managed to trick Romero into a table, but fell to D’s right hand. All the distraction was enough for Dreamer to hit the DDT and win the match. The wrong person won and now Larry D has to go to jail.
At one point, Dreamer chanted his own “You still got it” chant, it was sad but funny.
Weeks ago, XXXL were getting a push, now they’re likely going to extend Dreamer’s comedy stories.
— Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne running down the card and just announced that indeed, Kenny Omega and Don Callis are outside the venue.
Havok & Nevaeh defeated Sea Stars (Ashley Vox & Delmi Exo)
There’s really no story behind this match. Sea Stars debuted for Impact a couple of weeks back for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament, in a losing effort to Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz. Havok and Nevaeh however, find themselves in the semi finals of the tournament, going up against the team of Jordynne Grace & Jazz.
This was a squash match with a couple of hope spots for the Sea Stars. After a strong start for Havok and Nevaeh, they cut off Exo and worked over her for a couple of minutes. Vox got the hot tag against Havok and managed to get in some offense, including a suicide dive that ended with Vox being slammed on the apron. Sea Stars had one big spot with a codebreaker into a top rope senton double team move for a near fall, a minute later, Nevaeh got the pin on Exo after a Wheelbarrow assisted cutter. Ok match, Sea Stars have a lot of charisma.
– Backstage, Hogan and Steelz talked about what they would do with the stolen Hernandez money. They’re trying to come up with a plan to keep the money.
Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb with a K defeated Alisha & Eddie Edwards
Story behind this started in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament, where Edwards and Dashwood teamed up for the first time. Even in defeat, they decided to stick together, but when Sami Callihan attacked Eddie Edwards some weeks ago, Alisha’s focused changed to her husband, and Dashwood didn’t take it lightly that has was second in priority to Edwards, so now the Edwards tag together to deal with Alisha’s problem.
A tale of two stories. The work between Kaleb and Eddie was really good, even with some comedy added as Kaleb has to pretend he is a geek; on the other hand, we had Alisha and Dashwood, which wasn’t as great while Alisha had the upper hand. Story of the match saw Dashwood and Kaleb cut off Alisha after Kaleb tripped her on and on again. At the end, Eddie got the hot tag and dealt with Kaleb, but as Alisha was getting ready to take them out with a top rope splash, Sami Callihan interrupted them with his hacking skills, allowing Dashwood the opening to take out Alisha and get the pin.
Fun match overall. Dashwood’s heel work was fantastic, her cheap shots on Eddie Edwards, checking her makeup after every big spot, taking selfies during the match, and going after Alisha’s hair.
After the match, Sami Callihan snuck out from underneath the ring, attacked Eddie with a bat and a package piledriver. He went for a second one on Alisha Edwards, but security and referees made the save.
This Callihan vs Edwards feud will continue. Eddie sold the injured eye after the match when the referees checked on him.
– Gia Miller tried to get an interview from Omega’s bus. Don Callis came out. Miller asked if Omega was planning to get involved in tonight’s show, but Callis said that obviously no and that Omega was only visiting family.
Hernandez defeated Fallah Bahh
This one goes far back when Bahh was John E. Bravo’s best man and stole money from Hernandez to pay for the wedding. After many shenanigans and money stealing, Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz stole the money from Bahh, but Hernandez still thinks Bahh has it.
Kiera Hogan is the special guest referee for this match, while Tasha Steelz will serve as the special ring announcer. Hernandez was corpsing at Steelz announcing him “right off the cook-out and he thinks he’s cool because he has Chuck Taylors.”
This was a hoss fight, and a good one at that. A low bar, but this was the best that Hernadez has looked in months, doing springboard shoulder tackles and pescados. They traded momentum until Hogan started twerking while counting a pin for Bahh, costing him the win, and causing him to flip out, telling Hogan to stop being ratched. The distraction allowed Hernandez to recover and attack Bahh with the Superman splash for the win.
After the match, Hogan and Steelz didn’t have the money that Hernandez had just won, and so Hernandez threatened them with a weapon and they ran away.
Hogan and Steelz were also fantastic here, completely stealing the show. Steelz getting on the apron to make a special “5 minutes past” announcement was great.
– Miller interviewed Chris Bey about this being the biggest match of his career. Bey said that this is where he always belonged and that tonight, he was taking the title.
Eric Young (with Joe Doering) defeated Rhino
For weeks now since Turning Point, Eric Young and Joe Doering have been attacking people, among them, Rhino and his friend Heath. Last week, Young and Doering took out The Deaners, and would had been worse if not for Rhino who made the save, and thus today we have this match.
As fantastic as EY is, all I’m thinking about is a Doering vs Rhino match right now. Story of the match was that Rhino had the power advantage over EY and dominated as such, but every time that Rhino started to gain momentum, Doering would distract Rhino, allowing EY to cut him off. Young focused on Rhino’s head, working towards the piledriver.
The big turn of the match came when Young went for a top rope moonsault, only to crash and burn after Rhino moved out of the way. Rhino hit a couple of slams and a TKO for a near fall, but at the end, Rhino accidentally whipped Young into the referee.
Suddenly, The Deaners came out to make sure that Eric Young wouldn’t attack Rhino with his own mask, but suddenly, Cody Deaner turned heel, attacking Cousin Jake with Young’s mask. Young took the mask afterwards, finishing off Rhino for the win. Decent match, Young was a lot less vicious than usually, but given the angle at the end, they wanted to keep him low.
Young seems to be building his new stable and Cody Deaner is the new member.
– Scott D’Amore berated Omega’s security when Karl Anderson walked up and happened to be in Omega’s list, hence the ‘family reunion’ that Callis teased.
Manik defeated Rohit Raju to win the X Division title
Rohit Raju has announced that this will be the final Defeat Rohit Challenge after successfully defending against names like TJP, Crazzy Steve, Jordynne Grace, and others. This challenge is opened to anyone except TJP, but as we’ve seen before, TJP has hinted at using other methods to get to Raju.
Raju cut a promo before the match, calling out his challenger and talking about proving that he was the best X Division champion of this lifetime. Manik came out for the challenge, and we all know that Manik is in canon, none other than TJP. Plus we can see the tattoos.
Manik surprised Raju from behind with a top rope splash to start the match. They had a really fast paced match with a lot of reversals and submission work from Manik. Raju cut him off early and started working over Manik’s head with mostly big moves. Raju, suspecting that it was TJP under the mask, started trying to rip off Manik’s mask, but couldn’t manage it. TJP made a comeback and leveled out the competition, heading to a great second half of the match with a lot of back and forward wrestling. At the end, as they start going for the finish and countering, Manik managed to get a quick pin on Raju and finally dethrone him. This match was great, best so far.
TJP didn’t unmask, so we’ll see whether he works the reign under TJP’s name, or Manik’s.
– Miller interviewed Moose about taking out Willie Mack and what his purpose was for tonight’s show without competition. Moose said that the Swann’s belt is only the second most important title in the promotion, as his TNA title was the most important. Moose said that he’ll challenge whoever wins tonight between Swann and Bey.
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo (w/ Kimber Lee) defeated Rosemary (w/ Taya) to retain the title
Purrazzo has been feuding with Sue Yung and the whole Undead Realm package, and so when Rosemary got a pin on the team of Purrazzo and Lee in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament, Scott D’Amore decided that Rosemary was the best contender for Purrazzo since she had been dealing with Yung, James Mitchell, and the Undead Realm.
Rosemary dominated early, but after accidentally crashing outside the ring, Purrazzo rammed Rosemary’s shoulder into the ringpost and managed to cut her off. Purrazzo worked over Rosemary’s left arm, she would switch between locking in submissions to attacks, but as the match went on, she moved her focus to Rosemary’s head, chasing the Cosa Nostra.
Rosemary managed a comeback and tried to take out Purrazzo’s leg, even coming close to winning with the red wedding, but Kimber Lee was there to pull the referee out of the ring. At the end, Taya got rid of Kimber Lee, but the distraction was enough for Purrazzo to hit Cosa Nostra for the win.
After the match, Purrazzo and Lee antagonized Taya, but she took out both women and held the ring. We may be getting Purrazzo vs Taya soon.
– Over at Omega’s bus, Omega, Callis, and Karl Anderson talked about the old days and Big Fat Masa. Anderson said he had to leave for his match. Omega and Callis said that the old ‘Machine Gun’ from G1 Climax would take out Ethan Page in a minute and be back partying with them.
Karl Anderson defeated Ethan Page (w/ Josh Alexander)
The Good Brothers won the titles back at Turning Point, but in order for the The North to get a rematch, Ethan Page has to defeat Anderson in this match. The reason this is a one-on-one match is because Page took Gallows out of competition for a couple of weeks, and in a sense, Anderson is out for revenge too.
Match started with back and forward action, a really aggressive Anderson, but after Alexander tripped Anderson, Page cut him off with a backbreaker. Page worked over Anderson’s back, always keeping him down, or cutting him off when Anderson would try to start a comeback. Eventually, Anderson and Page started exchanging strikes, where Anderson finally got the better of Page. After his big spinebuster, Anderson started chasing the Gun Stun, leading to him and Page exchanging some big moves and near falls. At the end, Anderson hit a jumping cutter and the gun stun for the win.
The North won’t be getting their tag team title match and seem to be heading to their end. There was some dissension after the match, Alexander took off his North jacket while Page pleaded with him that he had a plan and that everything was going to be fine.
Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Chris Bey to retain the title
Ever since Rich Swann won the World title, many names have come after him, one of which was Chris Bey, who took the approach of talking trash of Willie Mack and beating him up. Two weeks ago, Bey tagged Swann with the art of finesse, and thus Swann finally agreed to get Bey in the ring.
Match started with a slow pace, but this being Swann and Bey, they couldn’t help themselves and started gaining speed for an X Division style sequence of reversals, and this was the overall pacing of the match. They would slow down when Swann went for Bey’s head, or when Bey would work on Swann’s abdomen and back; yet, they would explode with speed during comebacks.
As the match went on, both Bey and Swann increased the intensity to their moves. Bey started going for torture racks and yoshi tonics, while Swann pulled out a cartwheel phoenix splash. They had a striking exchange sequence, they followed with a pin reversal sequence, but Bey just couldn’t keep Swann down, which started to frustrate Bey more and more. In the same vein, Swann couldn’t keep down Bey with one of his shotgun kicks that he has been winning with, and so he had to hit a second one and the phoenix splash to finally win.
Great match, great pacing, just not as dramatic as most of Swann’s matches as of late. Chris Bey showed that he belongs in the main event scene.
After the match, Moose came out to the ring, looking like a million dollars, TNA title in hand. Moose took the Impact title and gave it to Swann, making a silent impression on Swann that he is coming for the title.
Moose walked to the back, while Swann celebrated in the ring, as the show went off the air.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for this week’s historic episode, where the newly crowned AEW World Champion Kenny Omega will have his first interview after capturing the title. Furthermore, this is the last stop before the Impact+ special Final Resolution, taking place Saturday on Impact+.
The opening video was a full recap of AEW Dynamite’s World title main event from last week, where Kenny Omega, with the aid of Don Callis, defeated Jon Moxley to capture the AEW World title.
The show opened with Callis and Omega’s bus arriving at the Impact venue, where Josh Mathews will personally interview them both later.
Chris Sabin (with Alex Shelley) defeated Josh Alexander (with Ethan Page)
Alex Shelley made his return two weeks ago and ever since, Sabin and Shelley set their sights on the Tag Team titles, but before that, he’d take revenge on XXXL and The North. On the other side of the ring, The North has been on a downward spiral ever since losing the titles to Anderson and Gallows. They are hoping to earn a title shot at Final Resolution, but before Saturday, Alexander has to take on Sabin.
This was power vs. speed. Alexander dominated about half of the match until Sabin managed to escape Alexander. Towards the end, Alexander regained control but got distracted by his own tag partner, who pushed for Alexander to take Sabin out of action. The distraction was enough for Sabin to recover and roll up Alexander for the win.
With all the buzz around Impact this week, you couldn’t start with a better match. Two of the best wrestlers in the promotion went at it, even if the finish was somewhat weak.
The North is still likely to earn a tag title match at Final Resolution, but given that the MCMGs have gained a win over Alexander, we may be looking into a three-way feud.
– Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne ran down tonight’s card and talked about the upcoming interview with Kenny Omega and Don Callis. They’re really hyping up that the AEW Champion is at Impact.
– Backstage, Chris Bey approached Moose about the main event tonight, where they’re teaming against Rich Swan and Willie Mack. Moose completely ignored Bey but told him that they’ll be talking on Saturday if Bey manages to win the Impact World title.
– We got an old school NWA-style paid ad with AEW President Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone promoting Dynamite. It was also a promo from Khan, talking about how he’s not going to reprimand Omega for breach of contract. Instead, he bought some time from Impact’s programming to invite Don Callis to tomorrow’s Dynamite, where he’ll accommodate him and Omega. Khan even dropped the rumor that he was buying Impact Wrestling.
Brian Myers defeated TJP
This match came from TJP challenging Myers last week after Myers had been bullying himself, Crazzy Steve, and Suicide..
Good match, it got a bit more time than I would have expected. Match started with an arrogant Myers dominating. Soon after, TJP turned things around. The rest of the match was back and forth, with TJP chasing the mamba splash, and Myers mostly hitting big moves. Finish saw TJP land the mamba splash, only to get reversed into a pin for a near fall, followed by a lariat for the win by Myers.
Wasn’t expecting for Myers to win, but I’m sure this will add some fire between the TJP and Rohit Raju story, and hopefully push Myers to a bigger feud.
– Backstage, Cody Deaner told Cousin Jake that he was gonna go out there alone, but Cousin Jake told him that he’d be there to counter Joe Doering. Cody Deaner told him to not get involved no matter what happened.
– Rohit Raju saw TJP backstage and made fun of him for losing yet again. Raju said that at Final Resolution, he is having his final Defeat Rohit Challenge, opened to anyone except TJP. Raju left, but not before TJP wished him good luck in his challenge.
Eric Young (with Joe Doering) defeated Cody Deaner (with Cousin Jake)
For the last couple of weeks, Eric Young and Doering have been attacking random people, Deaner included. So Deaner challenged EY to a match, so he can prove to Young that he isn’t a nobody.
Match saw a fired-up Cody Deaner start strong, but after accidentally going shoulder-first into the ring post, EY turned things around and worked over his shoulder for a while. Cody Deaner managed to make a strong comeback, coming close to hitting a top rope headbutt on Young, but unfortunately for him, he distracted himself with Doering and Cousin Jake, giving Young time to counter by hitting a piledriver to pick up the win.
This was arguably the best we’ve seen from Cody Deaner ever on Impact, even if the match was short and he lost.
After the match, Rhino came for the save before Doering and EY took out both Deaners with piledrivers.
At this point, it seems we’re getting a Rhino vs. Doering match soon, but no real direction for the EY/Doering team.
– Tommy Dreamer confronted Larry D about the whole John E. Bravo shooting. Larry D challenged Dreamer to a match at Final Resolution: if he wins, he gets off scot-free, but if he loses, he goes to prison. Hopefully, Final Resolution is the end to this terrible storyline.
– Afterwards, Dreamer approached Scott D’Amore, who told him that he hated wrestlers making matches. Dreamer wanted to talk about Kenny Omega and Don Callis because he knew these situations tend to send the wrong messages to the locker room. D’Amore was happy about Omega and Callis being there. There you go, seeds for the inter-promotion rivalry being planted.
Taya & Rosemary defeated Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee in a Knockouts Tag Team Championship tournament first-round match
This is the last of the four first-round matches in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament. Winners of this match advance to face Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz in the semifinals.
This was one of the better first-round matches we got, both teams meshed nicely together and all went all out. Purrazzo and Lee cut off Taya early on, but once Rosemary came in with the hot tag, all hell broke loose between the four women. Finish saw Purrazzo accidentally kick Lee, giving Rosemary the opening to spear Purrazzo. Taya took Purrazzo out of the ring, leaving Lee for Rosemary to pin.
The semi-finals are set, with Taya and Rosemary facing Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz, and the team of Jordynne Grace and Jazz taking on Havok and Nevaeh.
– Backstage, Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K approached Alisha Edwards about matching outfits. Edwards said that she had bigger problems to deal with right now and berated Dashwood as she needs to focus on her husband. Dashwood was insulted that Alisha didn’t have time for her and told her that she would teach her a lesson.
– Purrazzo and Lee complained to D’Amore that she was being forced to deal with a zombie and the tag team tournament. D’Amore told her that she now had to defend the title against Rosemary at Final Resolution.
– Sami Callihan cut a promo in the ring about being the best since day one. He said that Impact needed Callihan more than he needed Impact. He replayed footage when he took out Edwards’ eye, saying that it meant a lot of ratings, and thus he had done it again two weeks ago.
Alisha Edwards came out. Callihan told her to not even think about it, because she’d break her neck if she got in the ring. With the distraction, Eddie Edwards snuck behind Callihan and got into a brawl until he sent Callihan running with a bat in hand.
Eddie Edwards was all fired up about being back backstage. Alisha told him that they needed to deal with her problem now, so we’re likely getting Dashwood & Kaleb with a K vs. Eddie & Alisha Edwards soon.
Moose & Chris Bey defeated Impact World champion Rich Swann & Willie Mack
There are several stories between these four men. Moose and Bey have been making advances at Swann’s championship by going after Willie Mack. So far, Moose has defeated Mack, but hasn’t earned a title shot yet. Meanwhile, Bey lost to Willie Mack last week but managed to enrage Swann into putting his title on the line at Final Resolution.
Match saw Moose and Bey cut off Mack early on and work over him for about half of the match until Mack hit two desperation stunners on Moose so he could tag out. Swann came in like fire, running wild on both Moose and Bey, Mack joined in a couple of minutes later, but was caught by Moose’s lights out, and beaten up for Bey to simply come in and pin him, getting his win back. Good main event, everyone looked great and it helped build Chris Bey for saturday’s title shot.
At this point, Chris Bey is likely losing his title shot at Final Resolution, but Moose has not a straight path to the title going into 2021.
– After Mathews and Rayne hyped the Omega and Callis interview one last time, we saw Rich Swann all packed up, heading out of the arena. He was stopped by security because ‘the world champion’ had the whole parking lot blocked off. Swann said HE was the champion. The security guard told him that it was Kenny Omega doing so, by order of ‘the world champion’. Swann angrily walked away. More seeds being planted!
Finally, it was time for the Kenny Omega and Don Callis interview. We saw Josh Mathews enter the tour bus where he met Callis and Omega. They started with the ceremonial nameplate change from Jon Moxley to Kenny Omega’s.
Mathew’s first question was to Callis, asking when this whole plan had started. Callis said that this went back 27 years, back when he was trained as a wrestler under the Golden Sheik. They became family, and that is where he met the Sheik’s nephew, Kenny Omega. Callis said he didn’t make a comeback to start a podcast or be a commentator for NJPW, but it was all part of the plan of joining Omega to make history. He said that he already made history by booking Omega vs. Jericho, which subsequently led to the birth of AEW.
Callis said that last week, they made history for a second time by crowning Omega the AEW World Champion, and setting the course of history on the right path. He and Omega are not there to make matches, nor make memories, but make history.
Mathews asked Omega if what happened last week could tarnish his legacy. Omega put it in perspective, saying that if Mathews had a father figure and he saw someone attacking this given father figure, he’d also go after revenge. He tried to adhere to the gentlemen’s agreement but Moxley broke that when he attacked Callis. That is why he did what he did on Wednesday.
Omega said that he has the top matches on AEW, in Mexico, in Japan, in the UK, everywhere, and so he is now here in Impact Wrestling. Omega said that he is a collector, and while he already has the most coveted item in his collection, he was not opposed to adding other coveted items.
Kenny Omega teased having a big surprise for tomorrow’s Dynamite before closing with his signature phrase of goodbye, good night, and BANG! All three men were perfect.
Final Thoughts:
Great show by Impact. They showcased a lot of their best talent with good matches, they kept the comedy and weirdness to a minimum, and played the AEW angle perfectly subtle, though not ambiguous.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for this week’s episode.
Opening video recapped the conclusion of the John E. Bravo investigation and trial, Rich Swann defending the title against Ken Shamrock, and the consequent attack on Eddie Edwards by Callihan and Shamrock.
The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) defeated XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D)
About a month ago, XXXL re-injured Alex Shelley as a statement that they were serious about chasing the tag team titles. Last week, Shelley announced that he was cleared to wrestle and they are here for revenge.
Good speed vs. power match. MCMGs had early advantage, displaying their tag team proficiency. All good action. XXXL cut off Shelley and worked over him for a couple of minutes before Sabin got the hot tag. Last few minutes were great, with both teams getting a chance to hit their double team moves. MCMGs hit skulls and bones for the win.
Shelley and Sabin could either go back to the tag title scene, or keep feuding with XXXL, who shouldn’t be happy about this loss.
– Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne ran down tonight’s card.
– We saw Sami Callihan and Ken Shamrock arrive at the arena, but Scott D’Amore and security were there to greet them. D’Amore told Shamrock that he was suspended for attacking an official last week when he took out D’Lo Brown.
– Backstage, John E. Bravo confronted Larry D about shooting him. D attacked Bravo, but Tommy Dreamer jumped in to break it up. Dreamer tried to get Larry D to deal with the Bravo situation. Instead, D took out Dreamer.
Jordynne Grace & Jazz defeated Killer Kelly & Renee Michelle in a Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament first round match.
Renee Michelle is making her in-ring debut tonight, while we saw Killer Kelly take a loss last week against Kimber Lee. Likewise, Jazz made her return last week announcing that she was teaming up with Grace on the tournament. Michelle and Killer Kelly look like stars.
The match initially gave us a promising tease of a Grace vs. Killer Kelly match. Jazz was portrayed as a total dominant force when paired up with Michelle.
Match saw a basic formula with Grace getting cut off from her corner, being worked on until she made a short comeback to tag in Jazz, who came in and ran wild against the competition. Finish saw Michelle save Killer Kelly from getting pinned after a Grace driver, only for her to tag in and take an X-Factor by Jazz for the pin. Ok match. While a bit slower than the others, Jazz looked good in the ring.
Jazz and Jordynne Grace advance in the tournament and will be wrestling Havok and Neveah in the semi finals.
– Impact+ flashback moment of the week was the Motor City Machine Guns vs. Generation Me in a Full Metal Mayhem match from Final Resolution 2010.
– Ethan Page cut a promo saying that everyone likes messing with him and accepted that he was the one that took out Doc Gallows. He challenged Karl Anderson to a match at Final Resolution, and if he wins, he and Josh Alexander get a shot at the tag titles. Good promo.
– Somewhere backstage, Alisha Edwards was waiting for Sami Callihan. Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K were there trying to talk to her, but Edwards had her focus on Callihan, who she attacked as soon as he walked by. Edwards was pulled off by security while Dashwood and Kaleb walked away.
Johnny Swinger vs Cody Deaner (with Cousin Jake) ended in a no contest
This was your weekly midcard match that got interrupted by Eric Young and Joe Doering. Swinger tried to make friends with Doering, but was still taken out. Young said that they will continue this until ‘we’ learn that this world belongs to them. I really don’t know what he’s talking about.
– Deonna Purrazzo and Kimber Lee approached Father James Mitchell to ask if he had already taken care of Su Yung. Mitchell said that these things take time and that he didn’t even know where Su Yung was, to which Purrazzo said she knew how to find her.
– Backstage, the Deaners talked in the locker room about having to do something about EY and Doering. Cody Deaner said this wasn’t a ‘we’ problem, he was the one that had to do something about EY next week.
– Purrazzo and Lee came down to the ring and called out Su Yung to come down to the ring if she wanted her contractual rematch. The trap was set and when she got to the ring, out came Father James Mitchell.
Mitchell cut a promo on Yung, saying that she had been a thorn in his side for too long. Tonight, she’d pay for her sins. Mitchell summoned Yung’s bridesmaids, who surrounded the ring. Purrazzo and Lee couldn’t wait and attacked Su Yung, leaving her for the bridesmaids to take her away.
– Moose approached Chris Bey about Bey’s tactics to get himself a World title match. Moose told Bey that if he were to win, Moose would take the title from him.
– Gia Miller interviewed Karl Anderson about Ethan Page’s challenge. Anderson accepted the match because he was out there to take revenge for what he did to Gallows.
X Division Champion Rohit Raju defeated Crazzy Steve to retain the title
Crazzy Steve won himself a title shot against Raju last week when he fought under the Suicide mask and got a quick roll-up after a distraction from TJP.
Match was a clash of styles, where Raju had a lot of trouble countering Steve’s unorthodox style until he managed to cut him off and keep him down with constant kicks and knees, focusing on Steve’s arm. Eventually, Steve powered up and made a comeback, getting a decent near fall with a Koji clutch. Soon after, Raju scored a roll-up and grabbed the ropes for the win. This was surprisingly good for Crazzy Steve.
– Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz revealed that they still had Hernandez’s money. Fallah Bahh approached them about this. When Hogan and Steelz tried to pretend they didn’t, Bahh said he went back and watched the show, and so Hogan and Steelz had to accept they had indeed stolen the money.
They said they didn’t have the money, but that they’d give it to him next week. I hope we are done with this story.
– TJP approached Crazzy Steve and once again, Brian Myers walked by and made fun of them. TJP challenged Myers to a match next week.
– Matthews and Rayne announced next week’s matches, including Eric Young vs. Cody Deaner, Brain Myers vs. TJP, Josh Alexander vs. Chris Sabin, and Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee vs. Taya and Rosemary in the Knockouts Tag Team title tournament.
Willie Mack defeated Chris Bey
In the last couple of weeks, Chris Bey has been trying to get a title shot from Rich Swann, and last week, he happened to talk trash to Willie Mack, which led to this match.
Bey worked over Mack’s leg after he caught him with a low dropkick while Mack was in between the ropes on the apron. Bey dominated most of the match, with the exception of a couple of small comebacks that Mack initiated. The finish, which came out of nowhere, saw Bey go for his finish but Mack blocked, hit a pop-up forearm and landed the stunner for the win. Good match, mostly because of Bey. Seems like a really bad decision to pin Bey right before he goes and challenges for the title.
After the match, Moose came in and hit the lights out on Mack, which brought out Rich Swann, who ran off Moose. Out of nowhere, Chris Bey jumped in with the art of finesse and took out Swann. Bey posed with the title as the show went off the air.
Final thoughts —
Okay show, it went by fast. Most of the storyline developments were to build Final Resolution.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for this week’s episode, main evented by the Impact World Champion Rich Swann defending the title against this year’s Hall of Fame inductee, Ken Shamrock.
Opening video was a recap of John E. Bravo’s shooting investigation, Joe Doering’s debut, the farewell of The Rascalz, and the closing attack on Rich Swann at the hands of Callihan and Shamrock.
The show opened with D’Amore being told that Bravo is in stable condition, but that if he wakes up from the coma, he may not be the same Bravo as before.
Matt Striker is replacing Madison Rayne this week on commentary. Rayne is taking the night off as she will be part of Wrestler’s Court.
Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz defeated Sea Stars (Ashley Vox & Delmi Exo) in a Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament first-round match
This is the Sea Stars’ debut for Impact Wrestling as a team, though Ashley Vox worked some dates back in 2019.
Match saw Exo dominate early on, but once Vox and Steelz tagged in, Vox was cut off and was separated from her corner. Hogan and Steelz worked over Vox for a couple of minutes before Exo got the hot tag, with the Sea Stars getting some near falls. In the end, Steelz managed to take out Vox outside the ring, making an opening for a double team and swinging neckbreaker pin for the win by Hogan. Good opener, Sea Stars looked good.
Hogan and Steelz advance to the semifinals. They will face the winner of Purrazzo & Lee vs Taya & Rosemary.
– Backstage, Jordynne Grace and Jazz, her partner for the tournament, were watching the match that just ended. Gia Miller approached Jazz about teaming with Grace. Jazz said that she wanted to end her career as the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champion.
– Josh Matthews and Matt Striker ran down tonight’s card, plus a quick rundown of the Knockouts tag team tournament brackets.
– Ethan Page and Josh Alexander talked about Doc Gallows being injured and having to be gone for 4-6 weeks. Alexander was mad because it meant they couldn’t challenge for their titles until then.
– We got the first segment of Wrestler’s Court. Madison Rayne is representing Swinger, while D’lo Brown is representing ‘the boys’. Rayne objected that Dreamer is the one doing the investigation and couldn’t be the judge, so Dreamer ended up switching places with Brown.
Rayne’s argument was that Swinger was too dumb to carry out any plan that would end with Bravo’s shooting. Dreamer brought up that a gun was found in Swinger’s fanny pack.
– Rohit Raju came out for a new Defeat Rohit Challenge. He cut a promo putting himself over before someone accepted his challenge. Suicide came out, accepting the challenge. Raju said that he knew who was under the mask and that it was a trick, and so he took the title off the line for the challenge.
Crazzy Steve defeated X Division Champion Rohit Raju in a non-title match
Going by last week’s segment with D’Amore and TJP, we are to believe that TJP is under the mask, and Raju believed it too.
The story of the match was that Raju kept going for Suicide’s mask while he was on the offense. Suicide’s arsenal was really similar to TJP’s and commentary sold it like that. Raju at the end managed to take the mask off Suicide, but it wasn’t TJP, it was actually Crazzy Steve. TJP walked down the aisle, distracting Raju long enough for Steve to cradle Raju, pinning him for the win.
With a pin on Raju, Crazzy Steve could be getting a title shot soon, but there is the argument that it was booked as Suicide, which could open the door for the old Conquistadors swerve and have TJP win the title under the Suicide mask next.
– Backstage, Sami Callihan pumped up Ken Shamrock for tonight’s title match. Moose approached them and told them that they’re fighting for the second most important title in the company. Moose said that it was unfortunate that it wasn’t him who will face Rich Swann, but reminded Shamrock that once he wins, he’ll come for him and remind him of what happened when Moose and Shamrock fought last year.
– Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K were taking some photographs backstage when Alisha Edwards approached Dashwood about tagging again. Dashwood told her to get the hint, but Edwards kept insisting, leading to Dashwood considering teaming with her again.
Kimber Lee (with Deonna Purrazzo) defeated Killer Kelly (with Renee Michelle)
This is both Killer Kelly and Renee Michelle’s debut, who are joining Impact for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship tournament. Purrazzo and Lee are also feuding with Su Yung, who threatened them last week.
The match was good but too short. Back and forward action between the two. Some mat wrestling early on with pin reversals and submissions, leading to a couple of bigger spots towards the end, which saw Lee get the win with a swanton bomb.
After the match, Susie came out and told Purrazzo and Lee that they hurt her friends, and so instead, their friends are going to attack them. They did a great edit to make it seem like Susie was on the ramp while Su Yung attacked the ring and sent Purrazzo and Lee running away.
– Gia Miller interviewed the Motor City Machine Guns. Alex Shelley said that he was cleared to return to action, and they were going after XXXL, The North, and The Good Brothers.
– Rich Swann and Willie Mack met backstage. Swann said he was sorry he couldn’t help Mack with Moose, but Mack said it was ok, he’d been fighting all his life. Chris Bey came in and tried to talk Swann into a title match at the expense of calling Mack a loser, which made both men get defensive and kick him out of the room.
Swoggle (with Karl Anderson) defeated Ethan Page (with Josh Alexander)
Last week, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows told Page that if they wanted another title match, they had to defeat someone of their choosing, and they had hinted that Page would be facing someone ‘Phenomenal’. That person wasn’t AJ Styles, but Swoggle dressed as AJ Styles. We at least got to hear the old AJ Styles theme.
The match saw Page not take Swoggle seriously, so Swoggle took advantage and got some hits early on. Alexander cut Swoggle off and allowed Page to regain composure and work on Swoggle for a bit. In return, Anderson distracted Page, allowing Swoggle to schoolboy Page to score the upset win.
Page seemed to be having a breakdown after the match.
– Back at Wrestler’s Court, Swinger is being interrogated. Swinger made a case that Dreamer and himself went way back and that Dreamer knew that as much as Swinger cheats, he’d never shoot someone.
Dreamer called up Rosemary, who accepted that she never loved Bravo, but she wanted his virgin blood. At this perfect timing, Bravo returned and confronted Rosemary about being used. Bravo said he knew who shot him and it was revealed that it was Larry D’s alter-ego, Lawrence D, and he had done it out of jealousy. Months worth of programming just for this? Total waste of time.
Fallah Bahh vs Daivari ended in a no contest
This only lasted maybe one minute before Joe Doering and Eric Young ran down and took out both men. Young started cutting a promo, but Rhino ran down to attack them. The numbers game was too much and instead, they laid out Rhino. Young ended with a cryptic promo saying the world belongs to them.
– Backstage, TJP approached Crazzy Steve and Swoggle for help. Brain Myers walked up and made fun of all three of them.
– Somewhere else backstage, Purrazzo and Kimber Lee approached James Mitchell about dealing with Su Yung. Mitchell said he’d offer help for a ‘price’, but didn’t go into details.
– Matthews and Striker ran down next week’s card, which includes XXXL vs. MCMGs, Rohit Raju defending the title against Crazzy Steve, Killer Kelly & Renee Michelle vs. Jordynne Grace & Jazz in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship tournament, and Willie Mack vs. Chris Bey.
Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Ken Shamrock (with Sami Callihan) to retain the title
Sami Callihan has been manipulating Shamrock for a couple of months now. Callihan and Shamrock set their sights on Swann after he won the title, attacking him on a couple of occasions, leading to this match.
Callihan interjected himself into the match in the opening minutes and wound up being ejected from ringside. The distraction was enough for Shamrock to attack Swann and gain control of the match, immediately going after Swann’s bad leg. Shamrock had control for about half of the match, he switched from legs to guillotines and back to the leg, just anything to keep Swann down.
Swann eventually used his speed to make a comeback, but every now and then, Shamrock would still find counters and would reverse into submission, only for Swann to escape. In the end, Shamrock had the ankle lock, but Swann rolled over Shamrock and got the win. Well wrestled match, but a bit one-sided considering the champion was involved.
After the match, Shamrock attacked the referee. Callihan came out and hit Swann with the cactus special. He teased attacking Swann with a bat, but Eddie Edwards came out for the save. Callihan and Shamrock took down Edwards and tied him down to the ropes, then proceeded to take out Edwards’ eye once again. D’Lo Brown and security came down, but Shamrock took down Brown. Security finally got Callihan and Shamrock off Edwards as the show went off the air. Interesting angle, one would imagine that this could write off Edwards for a while.
Final thoughts —
Okay show by Impact, nothing really outstanding. It was entertaining and it went by fast. The direction of most of the storylines right now are pretty hard to read.
More than 18 years after he won the inaugural TNA World Championship, Ken Shamrock will have the opportunity to win what it eventually evolved into.
On Tuesday’s Impact Wrestling, it was announced that Rich Swann will defend the Impact World title against Shamrock next week.
Swann has been feuding with both Shamrock and Sami Callihan in recent weeks with Swann besting Callihan in his own title challenge at Saturday’s Turning Point. The recent inductee into the Impact Hall of Fame has never won an Impact belt in his three tenures in the company.
Swann won the title at October’s Bound For Glory.
In other action and storyline advances announced for next week:
Impact Wrestling returns for the fallout of Turning Point, where two championships changed hands and Eric Young introduced his new reinforcer — Joe Doering.
The opening video was a recap of Purrazzo regaining the Knockouts title from Su Yung, Rohit Raju retaining the X Division title from Cousin Jake, Joe Doering’s debut, the Good Brothers winning the Impact tag team championships from The North, and Rich Swann’s successful title defense against Sami Callihan.
Moose defeated Willie Mack in a No DQ match
This is a rematch from Turning Point, where Moose beat up Willie Mack. This, however, is a no DQ match. These two have been feuding since Moose started to antagonize the Impact World Champion Rich Swann, and Mack made a stand to support his friend.
Match saw a far more motivated and dominant Mack early on, but once Moose cut him off and gained control, it was once again all Moose. Every time Moose would hit a big move, he would call out Rich Swann, telling him that this is what pain looks like.
Mack started a short comeback, injuring Moose’s left shoulder, but when he went for the six star frog splash Moose moved out, hit the Lights Out, followed by strikes until the referee stopped the match. This was shorter, but better than the Turning Point match.
With two dominant wins over Mack, it’s just a matter of time before they kick off the Moose vs Swann feud.
– Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne ran down tonight’s card.
– We got one final Treehouse with The Rascalz, remembering some of their best moments in the Treehouse. They’re gonna be missed.
– The Bravo shooting investigation continues with Dreamer. The Deaners approached Dreamer about the gun they found at Turning Point.
Suicide vs Gio ended in a no contest
Not even a minute in, Eric Young and Joe Doering hit the ring and took both men out.
EY cut a promo saying that everything was Impact’s fault for interfering with his plans because the world belongs to them.
– Gia Miller interviewed Deonna Purrazzo (with Kimber Lee) about regaining the title. Purrazzo said she felt fantastic for being a two-time champion in only six months. Kimber Lee said that tonight, they’re going after the Knockouts tag titles. The lights then went all crazy and when they returned, a message was written on the mirror saying “Next week, ur time haz come”, bad spelling and all.
– Heath and Rhino were chatting backstage. Heath told Rhino that he would be rehabbing with Swann’s doctor. After that, Rhino walked out and confronted Erich Young and Joe Doering, telling them they wouldn’t get away with it. EY and Doering responded by beating up Rhino and went after Heath next.
Brian Myers defeated Crazzy Steve
At Turning Point, Myers defeated Swoggle in a singles match, but after he kept attacking Swoggle post-match, Crazzy Steve made the save.
The story of the match was that Myers wanted a straight collar and elbow match, but Steve went at him with his unorthodox style, annoying Myers, so he cut Steve off and worked over him.
Crazzy Steve made a comeback and came close to winning, but Myers resorted to poking Steve’s eyes before hitting his new lariat finisher for the win.
No idea where this is going, but the ‘professional wrestler’ gimmick seems to be working for Myers.
– Impact+ Flashback Moment of the Week was Tara & Brooke Tessmacher vs Gail Kim & Madison Rayne from the November 3, 2011 edition of Impact for the Knockouts Tag Team championships.
– Dreamer interrogated Johnny Swinger and asked to go over his fanny pack. Swinger straight up had a gun in there and said it was a gimmick, but Dreamer wasn’t having it and said that next week, Wrestler’s Court is coming back for Swinger.
Havok & Nevaeh defeated Tenille Dashwood & Alisha Edwards (with Kaleb with a K) in a Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament first round match.
Dashwood and Edwards became a tag team during Turning Point after Dashwood and Grace failed to get along as a team.
The story of the match was virtually the same one we’ve seen in the last month with Dashwood controlling early on, but once things get hard, she will tag out and leave her tag partner dry. Dashwood did at one point try to join Edwards on double teaming Nevaeh, but in the end, it’s all about her, and she left Edwards to get pinned by Havok.
The match was ok, Dashwood’s performance was good, and Edwards looked better than usual.
Havok and Nevaeh advance to face the winners of the team of Killer Kelly and Renee Michelle vs. Jordynne Grace and a mystery partner.
– We saw Jordynne Grace backstage talking to whoever her teammate will be next week. They hinted that this person was thinking about retirement before Grace contacted her.
Hernandez defeated Fallah Bahh
These two have been feuding ever since Fallah Bahh stole a roll of money from Hernandez.
Basic match, Hernandez dominated early on, Bahh made a comeback. Hernandez cut him off and won with the Superman splash. If anything else, this was Hernandez’ best performance so far and Bahh wasn’t doing comedy.
Hopefully this finishes the feud and they can move into something better, but we know that Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz are in possession of the money, so we can’t be sure just yet.
– Backstage, Rohit Raju is complaining to D’Amore about being attacked by Eric Young and Joe Doering. D’Amore told Raju off, but was then approached by TJP, who was reminded that no one named TJP could get a title shot again. D’Amore brought up the question of what Dusty Rhodes would do? He couldn’t have spelled it out clearer for TJP.
– We got a video package recapping the Good Brothers’ path to the tag team championships.
– Ethan Page went for D’Amore and requested The North’s Tag Team championship rematch against the Good Brothers. Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows were there and said that Page should have to go through someone of their choosing before they could earn a title shot. They hinted at someone that was “phenomenal”.
– Mathews and Rayne ran down some of the matches for next week, including Rich Swann vs. Ken Shamrock.
Rich Swann & Trey Miguel defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) in the Rascalz’s farewell match
This is The Rascalz’s final match with Impact Wrestling. In the storyline, they’ve been evicted from the Treehouse and thus can’t stay with Impact anymore. Last week, they saved Rich Swann from a beat down at the hands of Callihan, Shamrock, and Chris Bey, and so in return, he wanted to close off this chapter of the Rascalz’s career with them.
The match was great, it was just a celebration of the Rascalz’s spots. Early on, all four men paired off with each other for some fast-paced sequences of reversals. The meat of the match would see the team of Xavier and Wentz gain control when working more as a team doing double team moves or cutting the ring in half, but once either of them wanted to go one-on-one with either Swann or Miguel, it was the latter that would dominate. Highlights of the match saw all four men trade strikes on one another until they all hit stereo superkicks and they all fell to the mat knocked out.
Finish saw Xavier and Wentz go for a second hot fire flame, but Miguel managed to take down Xavier with a top rope meteora, only for Swann to jump in with his new shotgun superkick for the pin.
After the match ended, all three Rascalz just sat on the ring shedding tears and hugging each other. They all celebrated together in the ring for a couple of minutes, leaving their jackets in the ring before heading to the back. Really emotional.
Backstage, Sami Callihan and Ken Shamrock beat them all down. Callihan then threatened Swann to close out the show.
The way that commentary put over the Rascalz on their way out was a complete 180 from what we see in every other promotion. Even when they did the job, commentary still celebrated the relationship between the promotion and the wrestlers.
Final thoughts —
Good show. Strong inside the ring, especially the main event. Storyline wise, we have some hints towards Hard To Kill, but with Final Resolution happening early December, nothing is set.
Impact held their Turning Point event tonight on Impact Plus, featuring three title matches
The main event featured new Impact World champion Rich Swann defending the title against Sami Callihan. It also featured a rematch from Bound for Glory, where Su Yung defended the Knockouts title against Deonna Purrazzo in a no disqualification match.
Here are the results:
Eddie Edwards defeated Shawn Daivari
– Edwards defeated Daivari with the Boston Knee Party.
Taya & Rosemary defeated Jordynne Grace & Tenille Dashwood
– Grace was pinned after Dashwood ignored her attempts to tag out, instead focusing on taking selfies.
Backstage, Cody Deaner and Cousin Jake decided to go find Johnny Swinger. Deaner was angry that he had lost to Swinger last week.
Brian Myers defeated Swoggle
– Myers pinned Swoggle with a lariat. Myers continued to beat on Swoggle until Crazzy Steve made the save.
Chris Sabin and James Storm defeated Team XXXL
– Storm and Sabin won following stereo superkicks.
Backstage, the Deaners discovered a gun in Swinger’s belongings.
Rohit Raju defeated Cousin Jake to retain the X Division title.
– Raju retained the title after connecting with a shining wizard.
After the match, Eric Young came down with former Triple Crown champion Joe Doering. Both took out the Deaners.
Willie Mack defeated Moose by disqualification
– Moose continued to beat on Mack until the referee called for the DQ.
Eddie Edwards backstage wished Swann the best of luck prior to his title match later tonight.
The Good Brothers defeated The North to win the Impact Tag Team titles
– Page was pinned following The Magic Killer.
Jordynne Grace was shown trying to get into Dashwood’s locker room. Both she and Kaleb with a K mocked her. Grace left. Alicia Edwards emerged and mocked Grace, leading to both she and Dashwood forming an alliance.
Deonna Purrazzo defeated Su Yung in a No DQ match to win the Knockouts title
– Purrazzo regained the title after landing a cradle piledriver.
Rich Swann defeated Sami Callihan to retain the Impact World title
– Swann retained the World title after four spin kicks. Ken Shamrock tried to interfere, but was met by Eddie Edwards.
Four days before the Impact+ special Turning Point, Impact Wrestling returned from Nashville, TN for this week’s episode.
Opening video recapped the ongoing investigation of John E. Bravo’s shooting, Purrazzo failing to recapture the Knockouts Championship from Su Yung, and last week’s main event between the team of Rich Swann and Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan and Eric Young.
Kaleb with a K opened the show to introduce the upcoming match.
Havok & Nevaeh defeated Tenille Dashwood & Madison Rayne (with Kaleb with a K).
The team of Dashwood and Rayne was formed during last week’s Locker Room Talk, as they decided to join forces heading into the Knockouts Tag Team tournament scheduled to start a week from now. This was the match where they wanted to test themselves out as a team.
Story of the match was that Dashwood and Rayne were all friendly when they had the early upper hand against Nevaeh, but once Havok got the tag and Dashwood had trouble with her, she tossed Rayne into the wolves. Dashwood then let Rayne get destroyed by the team of Havok and Nevaeh, and ultimately, got pinned after Havok’s piledriver.
After the match, Dashwood and Kaleb made the notion that Rayne wasn’t at the level of Dashwood and that they’d find someone else. With one week left before the start of the tournament, Dashwood is likely to find herself a partner by the end of the show, perhaps Jordynne Grace.
– Josh Matthews dreaded having to deal with a losing Madison Rayne in commentary later tonight, but nonetheless, he ran down Saturday’s Turning Point card, as well as tonight’s signed matches.
– Gia Miller interviewed The Good Brothers. She asked about their upcoming tag title match at Turning Point. Anderson said that the Impact Tag Team titles are the only titles that have eluded them, and that on Saturday, they’ll finally win them. Ethan Page walked up and traded slaps with Anderson before walking away. Anderson vs Alexander is the main event tonight.
– We got a commercial for Talk N Shopamania 2.
– Tommy Dreamer interrogated Larry D and later Cody Deaner, who was mad about losing to Johnny Swinger last week. He said that he didn’t shoot Bravo though.
X Division Champion Rohit Raju defeated TJP to retain
Stipulation of the match was that this is TJP’s last chance to challenge for the X Division Championship as long as Raju is the champion. This comes from Raju, who argued to Scott D’Amore that TJP kept losing and won’t go away.
Match saw a dominant and focused TJP, working on Raju’s legs early on. Raju pulled the referee in between him and TJP in order to gain control of the match and work on TJP’s arm. TJP made a comeback and before we knew it, both men were chasing their finishers. There was a great spot with Raju countering the mamba splash into a crossface, which TJP turned into a kneebar.
Finish saw the referee distract himself by putting away the title belt that Raju had pulled. But in the meantime, Raju lowblowed TJP, then followed that with a running knee for the win. Pretty good match, it was given enough time to build up some tension.
Per the stipulation, TJP can’t challenge for the X Division title for now. It could be possible for him to find a loophole and win the title dressed as Suicide or Manik.
– Hernandez confronted Fallah Bahh about the stolen money. Hernandez blamed Bahh for shooting Bravo to hide the money from him. Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz walked up and defended Bahh. They told Hernandez off, but while Hogan distracted Bahh, Steelz stole the money from Bahh.
– The Rascalz were in the treehouse for the first time in months. However, they were being evicted from their treehouse, and implied they may be leaving Impact Wrestling.
Chris Sabin defeated Acey Romero (with Larry D)
Two weeks ago, Romero and D took out Alex Shelley with the purpose of making an impact, no pun intended. Last week, Sabin challenged either of XXXL to match.
This was a total speed vs. power match. Romero dominated the match early on, tossing around Sabin from corner to corner. Sabin managed a comeback after sidestepping Romero to the floor and taking him out with a pescado. Sabin went kick crazy, and after a couple of them, finally pinned Romero. Ok match, wasn’t that long, but Sabin looked good.
After the match, D attacked Sabin from behind before XXXL ganged up on him.
– Backstage, Sami Callihan approached Chris Bey and agreed to work together against Eddie Edwards, who is facing Chris Bey later tonight.
– Over at the interrogation room, Dreamer has James Mitchell in the hot chair. Mitchell made the argument that he wouldn’t use a gun to take out someone, nor would he waste Bravo’s virgin blood. Mitchell said he did have an idea on who it could be.
Eddie Edwards defeated Chris Bey
This match came from last week, when Edwards interrupted and spoiled whatever plans Bey had for Rich Swann.
Back and forth match. Bey used his speed advantage to get the better of Edwards early on. Edwards would use his experience to make a comeback and get a roll up win as he dodged a springboard cutter and turned the momentum into a pin. The match was quite short to really build anything substantial, but it showed a lot of promise if these two got more time. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets added to the Turning Point card. Bey is definitely ready for the main event scene.
After the match, Bey came in with a chair to the ring, making time for Callihan to appear in the ring and take out Edwards with a bat. Rich Swann came down for the save, but Ken Shamrock came down too and between the three, took down Edwards and Swann.
Callihan teased hitting Swann with the bat the same way he did with Edwards when he got him in the eye. The Rascalz, however, ran down for the save and chased away Bey, Callihan, and Shamrock. Interesting to tease the departure of the Rascalz and immediately insert them against the main event team of heels, could be their departure match.
– Backstage, as expected, Tenille Dashwood reluctantly asked Jordynne Grace to team up for the tournament. Grace said she didn’t trust her, but at that Turning Point, they can wrestle together and maybe she can earn her trust.
– Rich Swann thanked the Rascalz for the save. Swann suggested he teamed with Trey Miguel and Rich Swann to take on Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz. Everyone agreed.
– Impact+ Flashback Moment of the Week was British Invasion vs Beery Money Inc. from Turning Point 2009.
– Miller interviewed Purrazzo and Kimber Lee about Purrazzo’s No DQ match with Su Yung at Turning Point. Purrazzo said she always has a plan and that she will regain her title. As she was cutting her promo, Kimber Lee disappeared. Purrazzo went to find her, only to see a message in red paint on the window: “I think ur alone now”. It was then that Kimber Lee appeared against the window, knocked out.
– Back with Dreamer and Mitchell. The conversation ended with Dreamer telling Mitchell that he’d use the information for the investigation. He brought Havok in next, who wouldn’t answer Dreamer’s questions.
Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe) defeated Fallah Bahh & Crazzy Steve
There’s really no build here other than Reno Scum are Hernandez’ henchmen and that Bahh has had issues with him since stealing the money roll.
Nothing match. Crazzy Steve was the babyface in peril from the start. Bahh got the hot tag and ran wild for a bit, but Reno Scum regained control and took out Bahh with the top rope curbstomp/footstomp combo.
With the Good Brothers potentially winning the titles soon, it’s time to build up a couple of heel teams to chase them around, and I’m guessing this is the reason for XXXL and Reno Scum getting some wins lately. Bahh on the other hand…I’m surprised he took the fall in this match. Hernandez didn’t even walk out or anything.
– Backstage, Chris Sabin asked for backup against XXXL on Saturday. The man he asked was none other than his long time rival, “The Cowboy” James Storm.
– Willie Mack was in a hallway backstage getting himself checked by a doctor. He got cleared for Saturday before Moose jumped him.
– Matthews and Rayne ran down the final card for Turning Point, including Moose vs. Willie Mack, Eddie Edwards vs. Daivari, Brian Myers vs. Swoggle, Dashwood and Grace vs. Rosemary and Taya, The North vs. The Good Brothers, Su Yung vs. Deonna Purrazzo, and Rich Swann vs. Sami Callihan.
Karl Anderson (with Doc Gallows) defeated Josh Alexander (with Ethan Page)
Both these teams are scheduled to meet at Turning Point for the Impact Tag Team titles. Last week, Gallows defeated Ethan Page in a singles match, and thus, we now have their respective tag team partners going at it.
Good match. Alexander controlled the match for the first half of the match, working over Anderson’s upper body. Anderson managed a comeback and levelled the playing field a bit. They traded a couple of near falls, but as Anderson called for the gun stun, Ethan Page rushed the ring, attacking Anderson for the DQ.
After the match, both teams brawled for a bit before security came down for the pull apart as the show went off the air.
Final thoughts —
Good show for the most part. The whole Bravo investigation is not particularly good right now, but it’s not bad enough to drag down the rest of the show that had some good wrestling and storyline developments heading into Turning Point this Saturday.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN.
Last week, Impact ended with the big cliffhanger of John E. Bravo getting shot during his wedding with Rosemary. The opening video of Impact was a fantastic recap of the last months, showcasing all the things that Bravo had done that would give reason to many of the suspects to take him out.
D’Amore opened the show telling Dreamer that Bravo was in stable condition, but not out of the water just yet. Dreamer, dressed as Sherlock Holmes, said that he was launching an investigation. Well, if anyone had any doubts, this is going to be a complete comedy.
Deonna Purrazzo (with Kimber Lee) defeated Knockouts Champion Su Yung by DQ
Purrazzo is claiming her rematch clause after threatening to sue Impact Wrestling. Purrazzo’s argument had been that she had called out any man or woman ‘alive’ at Bound For Glory, and instead, Su Yung, who she argued is not alive, had come out and defeated her. D’Amore instead convinced her to get her rematch.
Match saw a more aggressive Yung as she went for the mandible claw and the panic switch early on, but Purrazzo, better prepared this time around, kept reversing and targeting the arm. The finish came quick. Yung locked in the mandible claw, and in order to break it, Lee tossed a chair into the ring. Yung and Purrazzo fought for the chair with the latter accidentally getting hit with it in the gut, causing a disqualification.
The match was too short for it to build a good story, but the wrestling had been good until the weak finish. This finish made it feel like this was a blip on the radar before a bigger match to come.
After the match, Yung took out Lee and Purrazzo and held out the belt.
— Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne ran down tonight’s card, they tried to sell Bravo’s injury as a shoot.
— Over at D’Amore’s office, Rhino and Heath were ready to sign the contract. Heath is still visibly hurting, but hiding it from everyone but Rhino. D’Amore suspected that something was off with Heath and told him to heal up before signing the contract. He even offered to help with rehab, but Heath tried to play it cool, acted offended, and walked out since he wouldn’t be able to prove that he was ready to go.
— After Heath and Rhino left the office. Barrister R.D. Evans walked in as demanded a new rematch for Purrazzo since the one granted had ended in a DQ. D’Amore gave Purrazzo an Anything Goes match at Turning Point for the Knockouts title. D’Amore acted like he had one-upped Evans and Purrazzo, but given that Purrazzo had Kimber Lee with her, it should be an advantage for her.
— Somewhere else backstage, Rich Swann approached Eddie Edwards about their tag team match tonight. They said they had each other’s backs.
Chris Bey defeated Trey Miguel
Both these men were part of the BFG six-person scramble for the X Division title, which unfortunately for them, lost to Rohit Raju. At this point, both of them had to restart their path to the title.
This was your quintessential X Division match, with the fast-paced reversal start. Bey had control for most of the match, working over Miguel’s neck, and using heel tactics to cut him off when Miguel would start a comeback. Eventually, Miguel did manage to gain momentum, but as he prepared the Meteora, Bey cut him off and hit a second rope flying cutter for the win.
Hard to believe that Bey will be the sole challenger for Raju, but it is likely that he will feud with TJP for the number one contendership.
— We got a new installment of Locker Room Talk with Madison Rayne and Johnny Swinger. Her special guests tonight were Tenille Dashwood and Jordynne Grace, both partnerless as the Knockouts tag team title tournament approaches.
Grace said that she was confident she’d find a partner. Rayne tried to get Dashwood and Grace to consider teaming since they both are somewhat tied in wins. Grace asked Dashwood about it, but Dashwood instead asked Madison Rayne to team up, which she accepted. Grace walked out, rejected. Everyone was great here, but I really don’t know why they’re doing this with Grace, they better have a hell of a tag partner set up for her.
— Dreamer interrogated referee Brandon Tolle since Bravo had belittled his officiating. Cody Deaner and Swinger then did some comedy about who was next to be interrogated, but they actually had a match coming.
— Rohit Raju came out for the Defeat Rohit Challenge with a great little promo. Raju should get to cut promos on every show. TJP came out, but wasn’t ring ready. TJP asked for an opportunity, but Raju turned him off. Raju said that TJP was always out there trying to steal his spotlight while he had to legit crawl and claw his way to the title.
TJP answered with a fantastic promo saying that he had put in all the work and had all the accomplishments that Raju wouldn’t even dream about. Raju said that TJP kept talking about the past, but Raju was the present.
TJP had enough and tossed his hot tea on Raju, and so they started brawling until TJP tossed Raju out of the ring. Great little angle, TJP finally came off as someone serious about chasing the title.
— Gia Miller interviewed Chris Sabin. She asked for updates on Alex Shelley. Sabin said he was doing well, but he wanted to address all these teams trying to divide and conquer over the Machine Guns. He challenged either of XXXL for a match.
— Backstage, Raju approached D’Amore to do something about TJP. D’Amore said that TJP is getting one last chance at the title, so Raju can defeat him and finally be done with him.
Doc Gallows (with Karl Anderson) defeated Ethan Page (with Josh Alexander)
Last time we saw these four men, they were brawling backstage after Page slapped Gallows right across the face. Today they faced inside the ring.
Story of the match was that Gallows dominated the ring every time that Page stepped up, and so Page kept getting more and more frustrated that they couldn’t even approach Gallows. Eventually, Alexander distracted Gallows enough so that Page could clip him from behind and finally gain control of the match. Page worked over Gallows for a couple of minutes before he started a comeback. As Gallows was about to finish off Page, Alexander got his ankle, but not even with the distraction was Page able to get the better of Gallows, who hit a big boot and won via pinfall. Ok match, but nothing special, Gallows is not the most exciting man in the ring, but Page makes up for it with his selling.
After the match, Anderson and Gallows cleared the ring and sent The North packing.
— Miller interviewed Swoggle about being back on Impact. He said that he was so glad to be back on Impact, and that he had always been seen as a joke and so he was here to turn those thoughts around. Brian Myers interrupted him and told him that he’d always be the sideshow freak of wrestling. He pushed Swoggle to the floor and walked away. Swoggle was actually pretty good in the microphone, why he hasn’t been given the chance to talk before confuses me, and this can’t be leading to a good feud. But if it were to lead to Swoggle managing someone to battle Myers, I think we have something here.
Johnny Swinger defeated Cody Deaner (with Cousin Jake)
There’s no story here other than the skit with Dreamer earlier on, as they’re both suspects in Bravo’s shooting.
The match was all comedy. Deaner kept drinking to gain power and energy, while Swinger kept using old school heel tactics to work over Deaner. Finish saw Swinger try to hit Deaner with a chair, but Cousin Jake stopped him. In the distraction, Swinger used his gimmick fanny pack to attack Deaner for the pin. Nothing match, but I won’t complain about a three-minute match.
— Moose came out to the ring looking dapper. He said in the last few months, he hasn’t been taken seriously, nor has the TNA World Championship. He said that at Bound For Glory, he went to hell and back to reclaim the title and took out one of the best champions in the company’s history. He ran down the names he has defeated all year (mostly older wrestlers), but said that no one talks about Moose, and instead, they talk about Rich Swann.
Moose played the footage of last week’s attack on Willie Mack and told Swann to ask Mack what pain feels like and that he has been warned. Mack came down and attacked Moose, but was taken out instead and beaten down and choked out with the camera cable.
Moose was fantastic, he seems ready to get that big title win.
— Over in Swann’s locker room, Chris Bey congratulated him. He told Swann that he should be the next challenger. Swann told him that Bey needed more than just to ask for a title shot, he needed to earn it. Before Bey could make a claim, Edwards came in as the two headed out for their upcoming match. Chris Bey chasing the world championship? Count me in!
— Dreamer said that he had narrowed down his suspects to 10 people. Swinger, Havok, Brandon Tolle, Cody Deaner, Hernandez, Fallah Bahh, Larry D, James Mitchell, Rosemary, and Taya. This was all comedy and not the good kind.
— Matthews and Rayne ran down next week’s card, including Raju vs. TJP for the X Division title, Chris Sabin vs. Acey Romero, and Rayne/Dashwood vs. Havok/Nevaeh. Also, 11 days away, we get Turning Point on Impact+, where Su Yung defends against Deonna Purrazzo in an Anything Goes match and Moose vs. Willie Mack.
Eric Young & Sami Callihan defeated Impact World Champion Rich Swann & Eddie Edwards
There is a big mix of rivalries between these four men. Last week, we saw Swann retain against Eric Young, but also get threatened by Callihan’s intentions to come after him. Likewise, Edwards has been dealing with Callihan, Shamrock, and Young in the last months.
Match was the basic tag match with Edwards being the babyface in peril, Swann having the hot tag and running wild, and the final minutes with all four men running in for spots. Towards the end, both Callihan and Young go for their signature piledrivers, but Swann and Edwards both reversed at the same time into a sharpshooter and single-leg crab respectively, leading to Young and Callihan having to stop each other from tapping out.
The finish saw Edwards lock in Callihan in a half Boston crab. Ken Shamrock came down, took out Swann, and distracted Edwards enough for Callihan to get him from behind and hit the cactus special for the win.
Commentary early on tried to sell us that Young and Callihan were too big of an ego to work together, but they ended up working perfectly as a team, even fist-bumping as the show went off the air.
Final thoughts —
Good, fun show. We had some really good promos this week, which may or may not lead to feuds beyond Turning Point that is only a week and a half away. A lot of programs still feel up in the air.
Tonight’s show featured the fallout from Bound For Glory where three championships changed hands as The North reclaimed the tag team titles, Su Yung defeated Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts title, and Rich Swann defeated Eric Young for the Impact World title.
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The show opened with Eric Young and Rich Swann brawling backstage on their way to the ring. They brawled more in and around the ring until referees and security came down for the pull-apart. Young asked for his rematch now, but D’Amore wouldn’t give it to him just yet. Swann asked D’Amore to do it now too, and so…
Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Eric Young to retain
Swann was wrestling barefoot and in chinos. He was also recovering from a low blow that took place during the brawl.
This was not much of a match. Young had control early on and worked over Swann, but soon after, Swann recovered, hit the lethal injection and the phoenix splash to retain his title. This must have gone about five minutes.
We got the title rematch out of the way now, so both men can pursue whatever their direction will be after BFG.
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– We saw Nevaeh and Havok backstage where Havok confirmed that Father James Mitchell has been brought back to life. They walked away and headed to D’Amore’s office with the rest of the Knockouts roster where they all wanted news about the soon to be revived Knockouts Tag Team Titles. D’Amore was not there. Kaleb with a K, however, let them know the company just announced online that a tournament will begin in three weeks. Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz made fun of Alisha Edwards for not having a tag partner, but Jordynne Grace was there to back her up and challenged Hogan and Steelz to a match.
Tommy Dreamer defeated Brian Myers in a Hardcore Halloween match
Dreamer was still wearing Road Warrior Animal face paint and spikes. He’s really getting some matches out of the haircut. These two have been feuding for about a month now based out of Myers’ lack of respect for Dreamer.
This was an okay time filler match. Dreamer ran wild early when they brawled around the ring, but once in the ring, Myers gained control. They hit each other with walkers, garbage cans, crutches, kendo sticks, and chairs, but there was nothing really Halloween about it.
Then, Dreamer pulled out a bag with candy corn and thumbtacks when he dropped Myers from the top rope. The fInish saw Swoggle sneak out of a garbage can and low blow Myers, setting Myers up perfectly for Dreamer to hit a DVD through a table for the pin.
Hopefully, this is the end of this feud.
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– Gia Miller interviewed Rhino and Heath about what Rhino wanted for his title shot. He said that he and heath would be chasing the tag titles, but before that, they would go sign Heath’s contract. It was never brought up that Heath was legit hurt during Bound for Glory but it was made out to be obvious the two were covering something up.
– Reno Scum and Hernandez grabbed Fallah Bahh backstage to recover their money. Bahh told them he didn’t have the money anymore as he gave it to Bravo. After they left, Bahh revealed he still had the money.
XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz)
Neither team was able to make it to the four-way tag title match for Bound For Glory, so commentary sold this as a start on that pursuit.
The match saw XXXL dominate early on, working over Wentz with power moves. Xavier got the hot tag and ran wild over Romero, but eventually D joined in and cut off Xavier. The finish saw the Rascalz try to superplex D, but Romero broke it off, leaving Xavier down for D to finish him off with a top rope splash.
Both teams have been trading wins for a while, so it’s still up in the air to see where they go. It would be nice for XXXL to mix it up with other teams.
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– D’Amore met with Deonna Purrazzo, Kimber Lee, and “Barrister” R.D. Evan who was there to make an argument for Purrazzo to get the Knockouts championship stripped away from Su Yung and awarded back to her. D’Amore said he was headed to the ring to address this.
– Miller interviewed Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. She asked about Shelley’s health update and he said he was hurting and would be hurt for a couple of months. Sabin added that once they’re healthy, they’ll be coming for the titles. XXXL interrupted them and said they deserved to be the No. 1 contenders since they have been running over the competition. MCMG told them to screw off because they had nothing for them, and so in return, XXXL squashed Shelley, injuring him further.
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Deonna Purrazzo/Scott D’Amore segment
D’Amore, now in the ring, addressed the Knockouts championship situation. He explained that Evans and Purrazzo had threatened legal action, but that after having reviewed the situation, Su Yung was the rightful champion.
Purrazzo, Lee, and Evans all walked out to the ring. Evans said that the only reason that Yung won the title was because something happened to Kylie Rae, likely at the hands of Yung herself, and thus Purrazzo had to wrestle an unknown competitor. Evans tried to make an argument that changing the title now would save Impact a lot of money, time, and problems.
D’Amore played the same game with Purrazzo, telling her that she could get her rematch next week and reclaim the title, or wait years for the court date and the process to find her in the right. This took too long to set up a title rematch that Purrazzo had the rights to anyway, but at least it was nice to see Evans on screen.
After all that, Yung walked down to the ring and put the mandible claw on both Evans and Lee, hit the poison mist on D’Amore, and then when Purrazzo tried to attack her, Yung locked in the claw on her as well.
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– Backstage, Swann talked with The Rascalz and Willie Mack about having no days off now as a champion. Moose walked up to him and told him that he had the TNA World title and that made him no. 1 in the company. Moose talked trash. Swann got hot and wanted to fight, but instead Mack stood up to Moose. Swann headed to his locker room and came across Callihan and Shamrock, who also gave him threatening looks.
– We got a recap of Ken Shamrock’s Hall Of Fame induction, including brief clips of messages by Bas Rutten, Chael Sonnen, Bret Hart, Ariel Helwani, Mick Foley, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
– Ethan Page and Josh Alexander talked to some of the building security until the Good Brothers interrupted them. They talked some trash to each other before coming to blows.
– The Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Rohit Raju defending the X-Division title against Willie Mack at Victory Road 2020.
– Backstage, Raju was hosting a party for himself, but only Jimmy Jacobs showed up. Jacobs brought up that TJP had the match won, so Raju kicked out his only guest.
– Bravo confronted Bahh about him sending Hernandez out for him and told him he’d tell the truth to Hernandez. He shunned Bahh, saying that he was dead to him. By the way, Bahh’s attire for the wedding is a Ghostbusters Stay Puft marshmallow man sumo suit.
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Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz defeated Jordynne Grace & Alisha Edwards
Even before the match, it became clear that Grace was not exactly excited about tagging with Edwards.
The story of the match was that Grace and Edwards had a lot of trouble working together with Grace wanting to command the match, but Edwards didn’t want to follow Grace’s instructions. So, Hogan and Steelz cut Edwards off for a large part of the match. Eventually Grace got the hot tag and was dominating by herself, but decided to tag in Edwards. This led to the finish where Edwards accidentally took out Grace with a splash. Steelz then rolled Edwards up for the pin.
On commentary, they sold that Grace and Edwards were a good team, but I just didn’t see it. After the match, they confronted one another which ended up in a shoving match. I can now unfortunately see the “team that doesn’t get along” make it far in the tournament.
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– Mack was headed to his car when Moose jumped him from behind and dropped him with a belt shot.
– Taya Valkyrie met up with Rosemary before the wedding. She tried to warn Rosemary that Bravo had become a bit of a lunatic in the past few weeks. Rosemary said she had better plans for Bravo than leaving him at the altar.
– Matthews and Rayne ran down next week’s card: Chris Bey vs Trey Miguel, Purrazzo vs. Su Yung for the Knockouts title, Doc Gallows vs. Ethan Page, and Rich Swann and Eddie Edwards vs. Eric Young and Sami Callihan.
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The Wedding of Rosemary and John E. Bravo
Everyone was wearing costumes. Father James Mitchell was there to officiate the wedding.
The wedding went quick. Mitchell asked if anyone disagreed with the wedding and no one stood up. Bravo, in his vows, did some cutesy Halloween rhymes and threatened anyone that would ruin their day. Rosemary said that once she got a scent of Bravo’s virginal blood, she knew they were meant to be together and that no one from either realm would stop her from getting what she wanted.
They both said “I do” but as they were about to kiss for the first time, the lights went out. A gunshot was heard and when the lights came back on it was revealed that Bravo had been shot. Dreamer, still in full Road Warrior Animal makeup said, “Who shot Bravo? Nooooo!!!!”
This was far less eventful than I expected, but it seems that we are headed into a “Who shot Mr. Burns?” storyline with Bravo. Mitchell was fantastic as always.
Final thoughts:
This was an ok show, but not a strong one coming out of Bound For Glory, especially with the in-ring action. We got some hints for future directions of certain wrestlers, but nothing particularly big.
Rich Swann is the new Impact World champion.
He defeated Eric Young for the championship tonight at Bound for Glory. The finish had Swann escape from a tree of woe position in the corner, cutting off Young with a cutter. He followed with the lethal injection then finished off Young with the phoenix splash for the win.
This marks Swann’s first reign with the championship. Young held the title for 70 days, defeating Eddie Edwards on the August 15, 2020 edition of Impact Wrestling.
The feud started when Young was eliminated from a five way match for the World title at Slammiversary by Swann. That caused Young to viciously attack Swann’s leg, which had been previously injured. Swann intended to retire following an in-ring speech on Impact, but Young once again viciously attacked Swann’s leg. Swann soon resurfaced and attacked Young, setting up the Bound for Glory match.
Two other titles changed hands tonight: The North regained the Impact Tag Team titles, while Su Yung regained the Knockouts title.
Impact’s biggest show of the year, Bound for Glory, takes place tonight.
All of Impact’s titles will be on the line. Eric Young will defend the Impact World title against Rich Swann. Their feud dates back to Slammiversary, when a returning Young was pinned by Swann during an elimination match for the World title. Since then, Young has relentlessly attacked Swann’s leg, nearly causing Swann to retire. Yet, Swann has managed to come back and looks to gain a measure of revenge tonight by winning the World title.
Deonna Purrazzo will defend the Impact Knockouts title against Kylie Rae. Purrazzo has also irked Rae’s friend Susie in recent weeks, who has shown signs of reverting back to her alter ego, Su Yung.
Other title matches include The Motor City Machine Guns defending the Impact World Tag Team titles in a fatal four way against The Good Brothers, The North, and Ace Austin & Madman Fulton. A six way intergender scramble match for the X Division title will also take place, which will include champion Rohit Raju, Chris Bey, Jordynne Grace, TJP, Trey Miguel, and Willie Mack.
The card rounds out with EC3 vs. Moose, Eddie Edwards vs. Ken Shamrock, and an intergender Call Your Shot gauntlet match where the winner will receive a championship match of their choice.
There will be a pre-show event starting at 7 pm Eastern called Countdown to Glory. The Rascalz vs. the Deaners has been set. The Impact Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Ken Shamrock will also take place.
Join us for live coverage starting tonight at 7 pm Eastern.
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Pre-show report by Bryan Rose:
Video messages from Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Chael Sonnen, Ariel Helwani, and Bas Rutten were shown, congratulating Shamrock on his Hall of Fame induction.
The Deaners (Cody Deaner and Cousin Jake defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz)
The Deaners won following the T2G on Dez.
Ken Shamrock’s Impact Hall of Fame induction
The Rock said that he’s shared the ring with many people, but one man he owes debt and gratitude to is Ken Shamrock. At a time where he was cutting his teeth as a heel in WWE, he needed the best hero or badass, and that was Shamrock. He could have refused working with this kid, but he did. He called Ken a founding member of the UFC and the Attitude Era. He said he was extremely proud of Ken and thanked him for the memories.
Matt Striker then introduced Shamrock. He called this a journey and a lot of people got him here to this goal. He thanked Nelson Royal, who helped him get into professional wrestling. He thanked Vince McMahon for giving him the opportunity to enter the WWE at a time when wrestling was hot.
He thanked Bret Hart and The Rock for helping him build his character, and said he appreciated Rock’s speech. He then thanked his family and the fans all across the world. He finished the speech by thanking the fans as without them, athletes can’t do what they do.
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Don Callis and Josh Matthews on the commentary table.
X-Division Champion Rohit Raju defeated TJP, Willie Mack, Jordynne Grace, Chris Bey, and Trey Miguel in a scramble match
Contrary to the name of the match, this was one fall to the finish.
Early on, the story of the match was that everyone hates Raju and went after him, but in the pursuit, everyone ended up taking each other out, and meanwhile, Raju just dodged around and hid outside the ring.
TJP, Bey, and Miguel started with a fast pace sequence of counters and reversals, followed by one between Mack and Miguel. In that same vein, Grace and Mack had a powerhouse sequence with shoulder blocks.
TJP had a spot where he locked 4 wrestlers in different submissions at one point, only for Raju to break it all up one by one, taking advantage that none could defend themselves. Raju dominated the ring for a couple of minutes afterwards. He worked the most on Grace until Mack jumped in and took him out, and they went back to all focusing on Raju, taking turns to strike him.
We got everyone taking turns to take each other out in the ring, and into a sequence with everyone hitting dives one at a time. The highlight being Bey dropping kicking Miguel, who was on TJP’s shoulders, and onto the crowd on the floor.
We got a tower of doom spot with Miguel on top, Bey and TJP in the middle, Grace pulling them all from a tree of woe position, only for Raju to jump in, hit a foot stomp on Grace for a two count.
Everyone took turns hitting their signature moves on the prior, ending with TJP coming close to submitting Miguel if not for Grace, that broke it up. Raju took the opportunity, took out Grace to the floor, allowed TJP to hit the Mamba splash, and right before the pin, Raju jumped in, hit a knee on TJP and stole the pin on Miguel. Good action all around, but considerably slower than the usual X-Division match.
– We got a skit from the Rosemary and Bravo wedding, deciding to get married in the ring. Jacobs interrupted them to tell them to get ready for the Call Your Shot Gauntlet. Rhino and Heath hyped each other out.
This is live and we got the Rhino and Heath spot stopped by the director and restarted.
We got a video package introducing the participants, stipulations, and storylines heading into the Call Your Shot Gauntlet.
Rhino pinned Sami Callihan to win the Call Your Shot Gauntlet
Winner of the match gets a shot at any championship they desire, but in addition, Rhino and Heath’s jobs are on the line if neither can win the gauntlet, but in return, if either does, Heath gets a contract with Impact Wrestling.
Opening spots went to Rhino, who lost the 5-way match this last Tuesday’s Impact, and the returning Daivari, who was ripped. 3rd spot went to Larry D from XXXL, who went straight for Rhino, teaming up with Daivari. Crazzy Steve came in as #4. At #5, the other half of XXXL, Acey Romero, came in and started dominating the ring as a team.
Tenille Dashwood came in as number 6, as soon as she noticed that it was all giants in the ring, she sent Kaleb with a K inside instead. Havok came in next, and she wasn’t afraid to mix it up, got in and had a couple of hoss spots with the men, eliminating Kaleb quickly. Tenille got in the ring either way.
Brian Myers entered at #8, eliminated Crazzy Steve with a judo toss over the ropes. Swoggle returned to Impact at #9, and along with Myers, eliminated Daivari. Myers betrayed Swoggle and eliminated him next. Tommy Dreamer came out with Road Warrior Animal face paint, haircut, weapons, and went straight for Myers, with whom he has been feuding with. Swoggle was eliminated, but still helped Dreamer with a mini Doomsday Device.
Alisha Edwads came in next at #11. Before she could do anything, Myers eliminated Dreamer and Edwards. Kiera Hogan entered at #12. While she wrestled Havok, Myers pretended to take a picture with Tenille and eliminated her instead. Lucky 13 was Taya Valkyrie, along with Rosemary and Bravo with her. Taya came in strong, chopped around D and Romero, hit the running hip knee attacks.
Fallah Bahh was next on #14. Havok eliminated Hogan, and Taya eliminated Havok, only to get eliminated by XXXL. During the elimination of Hogan, she was tossed on top of Tasha Steelz, who was out there as second, but Steelz’s head went straight to a garbage can that Dreamer had brought out. No clue if she legit hurt herself.
#15 was the big surprise of the returning James Storm. He took on both XXXL, eliminated D first. Adam Thornstowe was #16. Luster The Legend was #17. Heath came in at 18, eliminated Acey Romero and Brian Myers.
Sami Callihan entered at #19, and finally, as per last week’s stipulation, entered Hernandez at #20. Hernandez and Reno Scum have been a team for some weeks and went straight for Bahh, who stole Hernandez’s money. The spot here was that the money roll fell to the floor and Bahh would rather eliminate himself for the money than win the match. Likewise, Hernandez left the match in pursuit of Bahh.
Thornstowe and Luster were eliminated next, leaving Callihan, Heath, Rhino, and James Storm as the final four. Heath seems to be hurt. Callihan eliminated Storm and Heath. It’s down to Rhino vs Callihan in a one-on-one match.
Callihan hit a cactus special, but Rhino kicked out. Callihan went for a chair, but was taken away by the referee, and with the distraction, Rhino gored him and won the trophy. Ok match, nothing special other than the return of James Storm.
– Gia Miller interviewed The North about their upcoming match. Josh Alexander said that the odds are against them, but they work best under pressure and tonight they’re taking theit title back. Ethan Page said that they won’t only win the titles back, but will also hurt someone. Both fantastic promos, but Page is just on another level.
– We got a video package recapping the ECIII and Moose feud.
Moose vs. EC3 Cinematic Match
This was a cinematic fight and not an official match with a referee. Moose arrived at an underground ring where EC3 was beating up some geek while his disciples watched on the outside. Moose and EC3 got face to face before coming to blows.
EC3 dominated for a couple of minutes until Moose dropped him with a low blow, busting him open with the exposed turnbuckle. Moose beat him up until he seemed to lose his mind which somewhat helped him make a comeback. They brawled outside the ring with EC3 getting the better of Moose.
EC3 started cutting a promo about how the TNA title is for those who earn it like all the champions in the past, and so he pushed Moose to become one. As EC3 was about to hit his finishers, he had some flashbacks to his past that blocked him, allowing Moose to hit the lights out. Moose beat him up some more before EC3’s minions started chanting for him. Right as EC3 told him to ‘control his narrative’, Moose finished him off with a title belt shot.
This wasn’t particularly good and it was long, but if it all ends with Moose finally becoming the world champion, i’m all in.
Aside from the dark atmosphere, it seemed the whole purpose of doing this match as a cinematic match was to make it really bloody and let Moose, who was wearing all white, walk out all full of blood.
– We got a recap of the Impact Hall of Fame induction of Ken Shamrock. They showed The Rock’s promo and some footage of the Shamrock ceremony.
Ken Shamrock (w/ Sami Callihan) defeated Eddie Edwards
They worked this as an MMA match. Shamrock early on caught Eddie with a knee out of nowhere, got his back and started beating him up, got a rear naked choke. Edwards reversed, got in Shamrock’s guard for a bit. All setting up the theme of the match.
Shamrock worked over Edwards for several minutes, switching between punching and kneeing the head, or kicking out Edwards’ injured leg. Edwards in return, would try to use his strong style strikes to make a comeback, but Shamrock would easily cut him off again.
Eventually, Edwards landed a desperation blue thunder bomb and started going after Shamrock’s legs. Edwards landed a dive and missile dropkick to finally turn things around, right before he started chasing the tiger bomb, but once he hit it, Shamrock reversed the pin for a triangle hold. Likewise, Shamrock reversed the backpack stunner pin with a rear naked.
Edwards hit the Boston knee party and locked in a single leg crab for the submission tease, but before he could, Callihan turned off the lights. When they were back, Callihan and Edwards both had weapons, allowing Edwards to take out Callihan, but the discretion was enough for Shamrock to lock in the ankle lock from behind and submit Edwards.
This was good for what it was. Shamrock gave us a good match, some of his strikes looked quite fake, but some looked way stiff.
The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin), Ace Austin & Madman Fulton, and The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) to become the new Impact Tag Team Champions
Match started with The North taking out Sabin and Shelley, the latter with a piledriver on the ramp. Teasing that he had a stinger and Sabin had to compete by himself or relinquish the titles. Sabin chose to fight.
Story of the match early on was that Sabin was legal and wouldn’t tag out or was kept away from the Good Brother’s corner while The North, Ace, and Fulton took turns to work over him.
Sabin stayed as babyface in peril for a good part of the match, both heel teams got a lengthy run working over him. It wasn’t until Sabin got a desperation DDT on Fulton that he was able to drag himself to the Good Brother’s corner to tag out.
Karl Anderson got the hot tag and ran wild over Austin. Gallows came in and for the assisted neckbreaker for a near fall, followed by the biggest hoss fight with Gallows taking out Fulton after a striking battle.
Gallows took out The North, but Sabin got the blind tag to run wild over them and Anderson who also got a blind tag a minute later. Sabin and Anderson had a good exchange of strikes until Austin got the blind tag. Sabin started taking everyone out around the ring, hit the cradle shock for a two count when Page broke it off.
Page and Alexander came in, but couldn’t put down Sabin with their finisher, but once again, Sabin had to rely on tagging Anderson and Gallows.
Finish saw Anderson rolled up Josh Alexander, but Alexander kicked out, sending Anderson right into Page who had the title belt at hand, hit Anderson with the belt, and left him open for Alexander to pin him for the win and regain the titles. Great match, no idea why Shelley was gone for the whole match, but the angle gives him and Sabin an argument for a return match.
– Backstage, Rosemary and Havok left to revive Father James Mitchell, but once left alone, John E. Bravo flipped out at Taya. Hints of a Taya betrayal later on.
– We got a great video package for Kylie Rae vs Deonna Purrazzo. Great promos by both.
Su Yung defeated Deonna Purrazzo (with Kimber Lee) to become the new Knockouts Champion
Deonna made her entrance first, but when Kylie Rae’s music came up, she didn’t walk out. Purrazzo cut a promo that Kylie Rae had no-showed and instead, called out anyone who wanted to wrestle. Out came Su Yung. This is a weird development that is going to annoy a lot of people.
Purrazzo pretended to be scared of Su Yung and commentary sold it as her not having prepared for a match with her, but rather for a technical match with Rae.
Su Yung dominated early on, at one point dropping Purrazzo with a backbreaker on the apron. Purrazzo would try taking down Yung with roll ups, but couldn’t keep her down. Yung in return, kept her offense with palm strikes from every corner.
Eventually, Purrazzo managed to block an arachrana and turn things around for her. As usual, she worked over Yung’s arm with quick snaps and submissions on it. In a tribute to SANADA, Purrazzo locked Yung with a nudo on the ropes for the dropkick. She followed with it a trifecta of German supleys, but before she could finish Yung, she got dropped with a DDT for the ten count tease.
Su Yung had a second wind over Purrazzo with palm strikes and a rolling senton from the apron to the floor, followed by a pedigree, but not even that was enough to keep Purrazzo down. Yung brought out her glove.
Amongst the chaos of Yung trying to lock in the mandible claw, the ref took a bump and thus he couldn’t count for Yung’s visible pin. Kimber Lee took out Yung with a chair and helped Purrazzo Pillmanize Yung, who managed to dodge.
Yung got the claw on Purrazzo, poison mist on Lee, but Purrazzo escaped. Su Yung hit a stunner and the Panic Switch and won the match, regaining the title. I can understand where they want to go with this, but ending Purrazzo’s reign and changing a match on the spot is not the right way to do it. Ok match overall, it got really good at the end.
– Matthews, Rayne, and Callis announced that Impact is bringing back the Knockout’s Tag Team Titles, first champions crowned at Hard To Kill 2021, on January 16, live on pay-per-view.
– We got the video package for Young vs Swann, good promos by both.
Rich Swann defeated Eric Young to become the new Impact World Champion
Early on, Young kept trying to go after Swann’s bad leg, but the challenger kept either dodging or reversing, until he got enough momentum to send Young off the ring. They brawled a bit outside the ring after Swann hit a dive, but it was here that Young tossed Swann into the apron, landing head first, teasing that Swann had injured his neck.
Young started going after the neck, he hit a top rope neckbreaker, clubbed at the neck, kicked him behind the head, but Swann kept fighting back. Fantastic selling by Swann after every kickout, and great comments by Callis on how a neck injury spreads through the nerves.
Slowly, but surely, Young started to get cocky, and thus started distracting himself shouting at the camera and at Swann, who in return, started to get angrier and power up, until he exploded into a flurry of strikes and huge top rope takedown.
Swann hit a big diamongiri, jumping leg-scissors, and a frog splash combo for a near fall. Young hit a falling elbow on the neck, and right into a crossface, but Swann made the ropes.
Swann and Young exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring until EY got another neckbreaker on Swann. Young then took down Swann going for the injured ankle again. Swann escaped a piledriver attempt to take down Young with a kick combo and a standing phoenix splash for a two count. Young had Swann on the tree of woe, but Swann got ahold of Young’s neck for leverage and swung around for a cutter.
Finish Swann hit a lethal injection and a phoenix splash for the win. Fantastic match, great storytelling.
The babyface roster came out to celebrate with Swann as the show went off the air.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for tonight’s episode.
Opening video focused on the attack on Rich Swann at the hands of Eric Young, with the question on whether Swann will be able to get cleared to wrestle for Bound For Glory. In addition, it recapped last week’s Motor City Machine Guns vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton main event that led to the interference of The North and The Good Brothers, setting up tonight’s Fulton vs Gallows match. Finally, they showed ECIII burying the TNA Championship belt for good.
Show opened with Moose complaining to Scott D’Amore that he hasn’t done anything to deal with the ECIII situation and that Moose is booked to wrestle at an undisclosed location. Moose is just asking for management to do things right.
ECIII cut a promo on Moose telling him that he is learning and coming closer to controlling his own narrative. Still a lot of ambiguity, but I’m still hopeful it ends with a Moose and ECIII tag team.
All three teams have been feuding in one way or another for months. Taya and Rosemary have defeated the other teams in tag team matches while the other team interfered, and thus now they are all involved in the same contest. One particular detail about this feud is that Rosemary needs Havok’s aid to bring back James Mitchell back to life so he can carry out her wedding with John E. Bravo.
Story of the match was that Steelz and Hogan avoided getting in the ring, allowing Havok and Nevaeh to cut off Taya, who became the babyface in peril. Steelz and Hogan only tagged in when Taya was at her weakest, but as soon as Taya made a comeback on them, things turned around, and now it was the teams of Taya/Rosemary and Havok/Nevaeh trading tags to work over the heels.
Eventually, chaos spilled out, with all women getting involved. Towards the end, Hogan hit a dive on Havok, followed by Taya with a plancha. But either due to timing or just missing their spot, neither properly caught Taya, who just went straight to the floor.
Finish saw Rosemary spear Steelz and hit the double underhook sitout bomb for the win.
This was pretty good given the teams. Hogan and Steelz have been good since they came together but Rosemary is the one that has shown the most improvement in the last month.
At this point, we know the Rosemary and Bravo wedding is in two weeks, but we don’t have a match for any of these teams for BFG; however, with this win, it seems that Rosemary and Taya can move on towards setting up the wedding episode.
– Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne ran down the card for tonight and Bound For Glory, updating with the new matches announced during the week, including Eddie Edwards vs. Ken Shamrock, Moose vs. ECIII, and the Call Your Shot Gauntlet.
– Backstage, John E. Bravo berated his wedding crew for going over budget on the wedding preparations. Fallah Bahh, his best man, arrived and confirmed he had not secured any money. As we know from last week, Bahh did indeed steal money from Hernandez, and Crazzy Steve figured it out, and thus called him out on it. Defensive, Bahh challenged Steve to a match tonight. No reason why Bahh suddenly wants to keep the money.
– Rosemary approached Havok about getting her help to bring back Father James Mitchell. Havok told her that it had taken a lot to kill Mitchell and that she had done it for a reason, to which Rosemary said that jeopardizing her wedding could break the time continuum for some reason. Havok offered Rosemary a match next week, in which if Rosemary wins, Havok helps her bring back Mitchell. A literal life or death stipulation.
Bahh came out tightly gripping the money roll like if it was a forbidden treasure. His whole demeanor screamed Gollum and the one ring. Steve came out and tried to get the referee to find it and for Bahh to lose the t-shirt, but failed.
This wasn’t much of a match. Steve kept trying to grab Bahh’s money and Bahh responded by using his strength to toss him away and save himself. Steve tried to choke out Bahh, but was unsuccessful.
In the end, Steve managed to tear off Bahh’s t-shirt, revealing the money roll, and as Bahh went to cover it, Steve rolled him up for the win. Not particularly good, but at least it was short.
With the reveal, we should expect Hernandez to come after Bahh and potentially the whole wedding crew.
– Rhino met with Heath in the locker room. Rhino told Heath that he felt sorry for what happened to him last week, so he had gone around and pulled some strings to get Heath a spot at the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, and if either Rhino or Heath wins, Heath can get a contract with Impact. Rhino told Heath to get ready since they have a match later tonight.
D’Amore entered and told Rhino that he was a good friend, and brought up that Rhino agreed that if neither wins, Heath is gone, and Rhino will give up his own contract.
This stank of a heel turn by Rhino, but that last detail from D’Amore really clears it off and somewhat telegraphs the finish to the CYSG at Bound For Glory.
Kaleb with a K came out to introduce Tenille Dashwood, announcing that she will be entering the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, as will all the participants of the following match.
Hernandez, Cousin Jake, Alisha Edwards, Rhino, and Heath defeated Tommy Dreamer, Brian Myers, Tenille Dashwood, Johnny Swinger, & Cody Deaner
Matthews confirmed that the participant order was picked at random and thus we now have Myers and Dreamer in the same team, who have been feuding for the last couple of weeks.
Stipulation of this match is that the winning team will have a five way match next week, where the winner will earn the #20 spot at the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at BFG.
This was chaotic, a lot of comedy and really quick spots to try and get everyone in for a short time. Most of the in-ring action came from Hernandez beating up Dreamer, but thankfully, Heath and Myers had a good short run at the end that led to Swinger blind tagging himself in, only to get the Wake Up Call from Heath for the win.
– Backstage, Callihan teased Eddie Edwards, distracting him from Ken Shamrock, who attacked him from behind, and once again went after Edwards’ ankle.
– Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Eric Young about his attack on Swann. EY said that his match at Bound For Glory was unconfirmed at this point and asked Jacobs why Impact thought that it was smart to have Swann miraculously recover and put him back in the ring with the man that caused all the damage to begin with.
After the attack on Susie by Purrazzo and Lee at Victory Road, Kylie Rae is out to get some revenge for her friend. In the same vein, commentary sold it as Purrazzo using this match to get Kimber Lee to weaken or completely take out Rae before their BFG match.
Rae was super fired up for this match; she wasn’t smiling as usual. She controlled the first half of the match, going for submission attempts and strikes on Kimber Lee, but it wasn’t until she went for a rana from the apron that Lee blocked her and with an apron bomb, turned the match around.
Lee worked over Rae’s head for a while, at one point dropping her with a delayed vertical suplex for a near fall. Rae eventually made a comeback, hitting the Kylie Special for a two count. Lee got another good near fall with a sitdown powerbomb, but at the end, Rae locked in the smile to the finish to make Lee submit. Really good match, great action and the correct amount of heat headed towards BFG.
After the match, Kylie Rae didn’t release the STTF, allowing Purrazzo to attack her from behind. They brawled a bit until Rae nailed Purrazzo with a superkick and cleared the ring.
Prior to the next match, Anderson and Gallows cut a promo saying that at first, they came to Impact for the money, but they’ve realized that they like it, and that they’re the best, but to be the best, they have to hold the Tag Team championships. They promised that they would walk out of BFG the new champions.
This was a scary hoss fight, it was more of a brawl than anything else. Within a minute Fulton hit snake eyes on Gallows and they spilled out to the floor for a brawl. They punched and kicked each other around and up the ramp and neither cared when they were counted out.
After the commercial break, we got confirmed that Impact management have restarted the match under No DQs rules.
We picked up the match as Fulton and Gallows brawled around the ring, Fulton found a led pipe, while Gallows carried a chair. They then proceeded to hit each other with everything they could find, chairs, metal signs, golf clubs, and whatnot.
Fulton was in control for most of the match, destroying Gallows, but it wasn’t until Fulton tried to con-chair-to Gallows against a chair locked between the turnbuckles that Gallows dodged, sent Fulton head first into the chair, hit a double handed chokeslam on a bed of chairs and picked up the win.
This was great for what it was. Weapons matches are not the best in empty arenas, but this was so brutal that I completely forgot the lack of fans. No sight of the Motor City Machine Guns or The North, but it’s been weeks of all eight men being involved in the same ring, so it was a nice chance of pace to allow two men to fight each other.
– Matthews and Rayne ran down next weeks’ card, including the Call Your Shot Gauntlet #20 spot match, Callihan vs Eddie Edwards, Rohit Raju, Chris Bey, & Jordynne Grace vs Willie Mack, Trey Miguel, & TJP, all competitors in the BFG X-Division Scramble match for the title, and finally The North vs The Good Brothers.
– Eric Young came down to the ring to demand answers on the status of his Bound For Glory match. He hijacked the rest of the show until someone confirmed that Swann had given up.
We saw D’Amore finish the call with either Swann or Dr. Foreman then headed to the ring to deal with Young.
Out in the ring, Young demanded that D’Amore confirm the cancellation of the World title match at Bound For Glory. D’Amore said that Young had done additional and substantial damage to Swann’s leg. After a lot of trash talk by Young, D’Amore told EY that the match is still on because as per medical assessment, Rich Swann’s recovery is ahead of schedule and would be cleared for Bound For Glory.
Irate, Eric Young jumped Scott D’Amore and proceeded to break his ankle. Rich Swann then appeared and laid out Young with a cutter. Young retreated as Swann held up the Impact World title.
This was the perfect execution of the cocky heel getting swerved by the clearance of the valiant babyface, but they couldn’t hold off on Swann’s return and thus ended up spoiling any questions on Swann’s status and making us wonder why Swann didn’t confront Young earlier.
– Before the show ended, we saw Moose finally find ECIII, who told Moose that he was a fraud, whose personality was just a combination of all his idols.
ECIII and Moose started brawling on a bridge, but it ended with ECIII knocking down Moose and laughing at what Moose had become, someone who could be easily beaten.
Moose recovered and attacked ECIII with his fists, leaving him all bloodied up. He walked away with the TNA title as ECIII laughed in the background. This was a bit of the payoff we’ve waited weeks for, but being so close to BFG now, I don’t know what else we can expect for the pay-per-view.
Final thoughts —
Overall a good show building up heat for Bound For Glory.
