Tag: Sami Callihan

Impact Wrestling results: Michael Elgin vs. Sami Callihan

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for tonight’s episode, which features the second half of the World Title #1 contendership tournament’s first round matches. Ace Austin replaces the injured Ken Shamrock to take on Rhino, and Sami Callihan will take on Michael Elgin.

Opening video was a recap of last week’s tournament matches, with Hernandez defeating Madman Fulton, and Trey Miguel getting the win over Rohit Raju. We also got a recap of Elgin attacking Shamrock, as well as the Moose vs Suicide main event.

Ace Austin defeated Rhino in a World Championship #1 contender first round match

Rhino had the early advantage power-wise, forcing Ace to stall outside the ring on several occasions, at one point dodging an early Gore. 

Eventually, Rhino chased after Ace to the floor where he dropped him with a suplex and went for a chair. The referee was there, however, to stop Rhino. The distraction allowed Ace to recover, catch Rhino with a couple of kicks (including the headstand kick) then rammed him into the ring post. 

Rhino made it back at nine, but Ace was ready to attack him and started to work on him. Rhino had some comeback spots, however Ace cut him off to regain control.

Eventually, Rhino managed to connect a clothesline counter as both men went down. Rhino went wild with clotheslines and elbows on Ace and hit a mini-Gore, but Ace still caught him with a jumping leg lariat for a two count. 

Ace went to the top rope, but Rhino stopped him, hitting a superplex for a two count. Ace went for the chair, but the referee distracted him. Rhino took the chair, but once again the referee took the chair, which allowed Ace to hit Rhino with his Gambit stick and hit The Fold for the win. Okay match.

We got an interview between Josh Matthews and Moose, where the former asked the latter when he’ll end his delusions of being the TNA World Champion. Moose said that when he loses the title, he will let it go. Moose brought up the referee making it an official title match when he raised it over his head.

Matthews brought up that Suicide had a visual pin over him. Moose said Suicide didn’t win. Moose said that he’ll give Suicide a rematch to show that he’s a fighting champion.

Tasha Steelz was backstage when she was approached by Kiera Hogan. She told Steelz that she was impressed and offered to guide Steelz, who agreed to partner up.

Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne ran down the card for tonight.

Crazzy Steve defeated Dave Crist (with oVe)

Crist tried to jump Steve, but got caught with a leg sweep, took a couple of strikes, and a cannonball before escaping to the floor. Steve landed a pescado, wiping him out. Unfortunately for Steve, when he went back to the ring through the ropes, Dave kicked the ropes into Steve’s groin and cut him off. 

Joseph P. Ryan came down to the ramp to observe and make notes on the match.

Dave Crist worked on Crazzy Steve for a couple of minutes, getting several two counts and a submission tease with a Kimura. Crazzy Steve would try to kick Dave away, but it wasn’t enough, and when things got bad, someone from oVe would distract the referee, allowing the rest of oVe to attack. 

Eventually, Crazzy Steve got an opening to hit a jumping DDT from the second rope to pick up the win. This was like a reverse squash; Dave did all the work, then lost to one move.

After the match, Fulton berated Dave Crist. Jake tried to stop him. Madman Fulton said he was done with oVe. Jake Crist tried to stop him, but Fulton choked both men and ripped apart his oVe shirt.

Out in the bar, Rosemary was talking to Mr. Mundo when John E. Bravo approached them. Rosemary hit on Bravo, but he was disgusted and weirded out.

Fallah Bahh & TJP defeated XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D)

Bahh and Acey started the match, a clash of hosses. They went for the lock up, but neither could get the better of the other, so they relied on shoulder tackles and body blocks. 

TJP and Larry D tagged in, with the latter having the easy power advantage, tossing around TJP, but TJP had the speed to dodge and get some strikes on Larry. At one point, Larry went for a sit down pin, but TJP dodged, and followed with a low crossbody for a one count. TJP and Bahh hit the stacked splash, successfully cutting off Larry D. 

TJP and Bahh worked over Larry D with quick tags and double team moves, but eventually Acey Romero got a blind tag on D and saved him.

Back from commercial, Acey and Larry D have cut off TJP and hit a double running splash for a two count. Now in control, Larry D worked over TJP, getting a two count with a huge spinebuster. TJP hit a jumping DDT (jumping off Acey Romero), and dropped Larry D to get the tag to Bahh.

Fallah Bahh came in and took out Acey Romero with a shoulder tackle, sending him to the floor. Bahh continued with a rossbody on Larry D and tried to follow that up with a belly-to-belly, but Larry blocked and allowed Acey to return with a pounce for a two count, broken up by TJP.

XXXL went to double team Bahh, but were caught by a crossbody. Bahh hit the belly-to-belly on Larry D for a two count. Bahh set up the Banzai Drop, but was stopped by Acey Romero, who then dropped TJP with a body slam. Larry D went to the top rope, but Bahh stopped him, hit a Samoan drop and followed that with a bMamba Splash for the win. Good match, Larry D is somewhat underrated.

Self-Proclaimed TNA World Champion Moose defeated Suicide to retain his title.

Once again, Moose forced ring announcer David Penzer to make the proper title match introductions. 

Match started with Suicide dodging some of Moose’s attacks and hitting a rana, but Moose recovered and blocked Suicide’s attacks. Suicide faked Moose to the floor and hit a pescado, but Moose caught him. However, he managed to ram Moose to the ring post.

Back in the ring, Suicide hit a springboard rana and followed with an octopus stretch, transitioning to a pin for a two count. Suicide hit a low dropkick to send Moose out again, but when he went for a rolling senton, Moose caught him and swung him to the guard rail like a ragdoll. 

In the ring, Moose worked over Suicide with chokes and strikes, but he kept distracting himself with the referee. He tossed around Suicide from corner to corner; he legit did this about 10 times before he started talking trash to Suicide. This provoked a comeback from Suicide, with him hitting some clotheslines. Eventually, the fourth clothesline had enough power to spin Moose around.

Suicide dodged Moose’s rushes and hit a couple of running dropkicks, a rolling fireman’s carry slam and a lionsault for a near fall. Moose came back and rammed Suicide to the corner followed by stomps, but distracted himself with the referee once again. In a bit of deja vu from last week, the referee almost got taken out, but they both stopped themselves. 

Continuing his offense, Suicide hit a codebreaker and superkick on Moose. He landed three more superkicks and finally went to the top rope for a crossbody, but Moose rolled over with the momentum and pinned Suicide. Good match, but not as good as their match from last week.

Michael Elgin cut a promo where he talked trash about people waiting for their participation trophies while he puts in the work, then talked about being hated for being the best, like Ali and McGregor once were. But in due time, everyone will appreciate Elgin’s greatness.

Backstage, Chris Bey approached Swinger and told him that if he can’t win, he may as well take out Mack and consider that as a win. Swinger was sure he was winning tonight.

X-Division Champion Willie Mack defeated Johnny Swinger to retain his title

Swinger jumped Mack to start the match, choked him around and started working over him with strikes, clotheslines, and some dirty tricks. Swinger dropped several elbows for a two count. 

Mack eventually tried to start a comeback with a big body slam and leg drop. Mack hit a running splash and went for the Samoan drop, but Swinger blocked and hit a swinging neckbreaker for a near fall. 

Swinger thought he had won. He grabbed the title and celebrated early, but the distraction was enough for Mack to recover, hit the Samoan drop and moonsault combo for the win.

After the match, Swinger wouldn’t let go of the title, so Mack had to rip it apart from his hands. Swinger afterwards jumped Mack from behind. He was joined by Chris Bey as both of them laid out Mack.

We got a promo by The North from the Battlearts Academy. Page said he rented the dojo for a month, but Alexander wasn’t excited for another match. Page said there was no more competition when suddenly Cody Deaner walked in and told them he wanted a title shot. Deaner made the challenge for a match at the Deaner compound. Deaner has a mystery partner for that match.

Also next week, we will have the semifinals of the #1 contenders Tournament.

Michael Elgin defeated Sami Callihan in a World Championship #1 contender first round match

This is a main event in any arena. Callihan walked in limping after the work that Shamrock did on his ankle at Rebellion. 

Elgin had the early advantage in both power and health. He knew that Callihan had a bullseye on his ankle and went after it immediately. Callihan tried to give himself space, but Elgin blocked him and went after his leg again.

Callihan went for the eyes and went for a Cactus special, but Elgin blocked him and went for the leg again. Callihan, however, managed to hit a draping DDT for a two count. Callihan then sent Elgin out with two bicycle kicks.

They brawled for a bit outside the ring, ramming each other to the guardrail and ring post. Callihan started working on Elgin’s arm, but when he went for an apron bomb, Elgin swept him, and once again rammed Callihan’s leg into the apron and guard rail. Elgin tortured Sami’s leg against the ring post but at the very end, Callihan managed to pull Elgin arm first into the ring post. 

Back in the ring, Elgin once again kicked off Callihan’s leg and kept him at bay with kicks. Callihan tried to get into a strike off with Elgin, but was easily taken out. Elgin went for a diving clothesline, but Sami reversed into a crucifix pin for a two count. 

They traded strikes and kicks until Sami landed a big clothesline to finally bring Elgin off his feet. Callihan side-stepped Elgin to the floor and hit a suicide dive.

Once again in the ring, Callihan got a two count with a suplex. Sami went for  another Cactus special, but Elgin reversed into a knee breaker followed by a couple of running clotheslines, then set up Callihan’s knee for a low dropkick.

Elgin dropped Sami on his knee, then followed with a sliding lariat to the back for a two count. Elgin then transitioned to a single leg Boston crab, hinting that Sami would pass out like he did in Rebellion, but Callihan managed to make the ropes instead.

Elgin went for the Buckle-Bomb, but Sami’s knee buckled. Instead, Elgin hit a couple of lariats with Callihan mocking Elgin while he did it. Elgin went for one final lariat, but Callihan collapsed. Elgin lifted Sami, then out of nowhere Sami hit a desperation backplex and a running elbow for a two count.

Sami went for the Cactus special, but Elgin reversed, hitting a Deadlift buckle bomb. Sami came back with a Lariat. Elgin responded with a backfist, but Sami escaped the second buckle bomb. Elgin then hit a second backfist and the Elgin bomb for the win. Great match, this felt like a Japanese match.

Final Thoughts — 

Good show by Impact, it was heavily focused on in-ring action. Three matches that are worth going out of your way to check out.

Two Impact number one contender’s tourney matches set for next week

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The two remaining first round matches in Impact Wrestling’s number one contender’s tournament are set to air next week.

Michael Elgin vs. Sami Callihan and Rhino vs. Ken Shamrock are both scheduled to air on next Tuesday’s episode of Impact, though there was an angle on last night’s show where Shamrock’s status was put into question when Elgin attacked him and laid him out with a con-chair-to.

The winner of Elgin vs. Callihan will advance to face Trey Miguel in the semifinals, while the winner of Rhino vs. Shamrock will face Hernandez in the semifinals. The tournament kicked off with Miguel defeating Rohit Raju and Hernandez defeating Madman Fulton on Impact last night.

The winner of the tournament will challenge Tessa Blanchard for the Impact World Championship. Blanchard was supposed to defend her title against Elgin and Eddie Edwards in the main event of Rebellion, but — due to the coronavirus pandemic — neither Blanchard nor Edwards were able to attend last month’s Impact television tapings.

Moose was originally announced for the number one contender’s tournament, but he did an interview where he removed himself from it. Moose said he doesn’t care about the Impact World Championship and called his TNA title belt the most prestigious in professional wrestling. Moose declared himself TNA World Heavyweight Champion at Rebellion night two.

Willie Mack will also defend his X-Division Championship against Johnny Swinger on next week’s Impact, and XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D) will face TJP & Fallah Bahh.

Impact Wrestling results: Rebellion fallout

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for the fallout of Rebellion. 

Opening video was a quick recap of the second night of Rebellion, where Kiera Hogan said she’d be taking a break after losing to Kylie Rae, while Willie Mack won the X-Division Championship, Shamrock defeated Callihan in a unsanctioned match, and Moose proclaimed himself the new TNA World Champion in the wake of Tessa’s absence.

Sami Callihan came down to the ring to open the show. Callihan cut a promo saying that he had the fight of his life against Shamrock, but he was still standing and it would take a lot more to take him out. Callihan blamed the referee for losing as he stopped the match. He said he didn’t need help from anyone, not the referee nor oVe. 

Callihan called out Ken Shamrock, who came out and got in the ring. Shamrock told Callihan that he is one of the toughest men he’d been in the ring with for not tapping out. Shamrock told Sami that they could go back outside to keep fighting, or they can shake hands and let it go and they can go chase the World Title. Looks like a Callihan babyface run is coming.

Michael Elgin came out to interrupt. He said that he is the only man that is next in line to be the World Champion. He talked trash to Callihan for his antics, because Elgin’s wrestling speaks for him. Shamrock was ready to get in a fight with Elgin.

Elgin attacked Callihan, Shamrock went in for the save and took down Elgin. Callihan was going to deliver the Cactus Special on Elgin, but the latter escaped. Good little angle, with two new names entering the title chase.

Chris Bey cut a promo saying that while there was uncertainty about the next World Title contender, there was no doubt that HE was the no. 1 contender to the X-Division Championship. Bey said that tonight, he was going to challenge Willie Mack for the title. Good promo.

Willie Mack cut a promo. He accepted Chris Bey’s challenge. Mack is such a weird promo.

XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D) defeated oVe (Madman Fulton & Jake Crist) with Dave Crist 

Fulton and Larry D started off with a clash of big lads. They tried to lock up, but neither had the upper hand until Crist slapped Fulton. They traded some shoulder tackles before Larry landed a scoop slam and tagged in Acey for the senton. 

Jake Crist tagged in, but was easily taken down and tossed around by Acey. XXXL double teamed Crist for a two count. Larry D landed some splashes and sentons. Eventually, Dave Crist saved his brother by pulling him out of the ring before XXXL could double team him again.

Back from commercial, we saw footage of how Fulton tackled Acey Romero into the steel steps and successfully cut him off. 

oVe, now in control, worked over Acey. At one point, Fulton got Acey on the top rope, got him up on his shoulders and hit an impressive Lambeau Leap. Fulton hit a running splash and boot. After some more offense, Acey managed to hit a desperation spinebuster on Fulton to get the tag to Larry D. 

Larry ran wild over Jake Crist, hit a release suplex and plancha for a two count. Jake recovered and hit a kick combo, but was sent outside the ring and taken out by a suicide dive by Larry D. Fulton stopped Larry from hitting a moonsault, and along with Jake Crist, hit a doomsday cutter for a two count when Acey broke it up.

Acey pounced Fulton to the floor. Larry knocked out both Dave and Jake Crist and pinned the latter for the win. Good match towards the end, Larry D is so good. The oVe losing streak continues.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Victory Road 2009’s Kurt Angle vs Mick Foley.

We got another episode of Madison Rayne’s Locker Room Talk show. Havok was the guest tonight, introduced as “dark and boring”. Madison asked Havok about losing to Rosemary and what was next, even brought up the possibility of retirement. Havok said that Madison would end up like the last person that got under her skin, meaning either James Mitchel or Su Yung. 

Rayne asked about Nevaeh, who was there during Havok’s match at Rebellion. Havok said she was an old friend, but didn’t know why she was here. Rayne brought up a surprise guest and brought in Kimber Lee. Lee said she was here to rise to the top. Havok and Lee got face to face. Knockouts’ Division just improved even more!

Jake Deaner cut a promo from outside his trailer. He said that since the “kwaranteen” started, he has been living in the middle of nowhere, but it was more like squatting in someone’s ranch. He now has a merch table in the middle of the highway. This was good.

Suicide defeated Johnny Swinger

Swinger jumped Suicide when the ref was checking in for weapons. Swinger mostly tried to choke and rake Suicide, but Suicide has a full body suit so that didn’t do much harm. 

Suicide came back, sent Swinger outside and hit a Plancha. He went to the top rope, but Swinger hit the ropes and dropped Suicide. Swinger went back for more chokes, hit an Olympic Slam for a two count, then went for a headbutt. Suicide dodged striking his way back.

Suicide finished the match with a couple of palm strikes, a codebreaker, and a swanton bomb for the win.

Swinger kept calling him Spidey, which was funny.

Backstage, Ace Austin cut a promo saying that Bey didn’t deserve a title shot because Bey has only been here a couple of weeks, while Ace has beaten everyone. Ace inserted himself into the X-Division title match with his rematch clause.

Josh Matthews interviewed Moose. After a quick recap of last week’s main event, Josh asked why Moose thought he was the champion. Moose said that he disagreed with Elgin being champion by forfeit while he had been out there beating up legends and that made him the real World Champion, because not even Tessa was there.

Josh said that the TNA title was locked up in a warehouse, it doesn’t really mean anything in the books. Moose said that he was there as THE champion. He won it by beating men all year.

Josh announced that starting next week, there will be a tournament to crown a new No. 1 Contender for Tessa Blanchard’s title. Moose told Josh that he was pulling himself out of the tournament because he was the TNA World Champion and didn’t care about the Impact World title.

This delusional Moose is interesting.

Joseph P. Ryan defeated Cousin Jake

Ryan started the match stalling, but after leaving the ring over and over, Jake got his hands on Ryan and started pummeling him. Jake stomped on Ryan and hit a body block before Ryan once again ran out and asked for a time out.

Ryan went back to work on the same arm he worked on during their Rebellion match, but Jake was still more powerful and took him out with clotheslines, landed a dropkick, and hit a two handed chokeslam. 

Outside the ring, Ryan managed to toss Jake into the ring post shoulder first, and got the chance to work over the injured arm some more. Ryan hit a scoop slam for a two count. Ryan kept working until Jake hit a desperation slam to get some space. 

Jake made his comeback with clotheslines and a discus lariat to take Ryan down. Jake hit a deadlift Powerbomb for a two count. Jake sent Ryan to the floor, but when he went for the dive, he was caught by a superkick by Ryan for a two count.

Blocking a slam attempt by Ryan, Jake instead landed one of his own. Jake went for the pounce, but Ryan pulled the ref in front of him, poked Jake’s eyes and rolled him up, grabbing his tights to steal the win.

We got a vignette for Kiera Hogan. This was fantastic, she talked about being born and raised in Atlanta, about always being in the passenger seat and being ready to be the driver.

We got a match from Canada for The North’s title defense. The crowd was made of dummies with Impact and North shirts on, and fake audience sound bits. Ethan Page played into it, but Josh Alexander no sold it.

Page cut a promo putting over Canada and said that they were the best tag team in the world and that all they wanted to do was to compete. Josh Alexander called out Kurt Angle of all people in tonight’s third name drop of Angle. Interesting.

Out came the challengers, two skinny wimps.

Impact World Champions The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated The Creeps

This was a squash match, but it was shown as a long highlight reel of The North torturing these two guys. Page got the pin for the win. This wasn’t good, segment included.

Rosemary was at the bar. She said that it was nice to be back in the ring last week, and then started to read her tarot cards, which told her to follow her instincts. Too cryptic to be useful.

Rohit Raju cut a promo about being entered as Moose’s replacement in the World Title No. 1 Contender’s Tournament. He said that he’d been there for years and that he would be the Impact World Champion. Awesome promo!

Josh Matthews ran down the #1 Contender’s Tournament matches, with Rohit Raju vs. Trey Miguel and Hernandez vs. Madman Fulton next week. Later on, Sami Callihan vs Michael Elgin, and Ken Shamrock vs Rhino.

Also next week, Kimber Lee debuts versus Havok. Moose will defend the TNA World Championship versus Suicide.

X-Division Champion Willie Mack defeated Chris Bey and Ace Austin to retain the title

Match started with Ace trying to use the title belt to take out Mack. Instead, Mack took both men down. Mack took on both men with chops, forearms, double clotheslines, and at one point, hit a double Samoan drop and moonsault into both. 

Ace and Bey got in each other’s faces, but agreed to team up to take out Mack, but it didn’t last long when Ace sent Bey head first into the ring post.

Mack and Ace went at it one-on-one for now, mostly Mack chopping Ace, but the latter managed to sweep Mack, kick him and lock in an armbar for the card-cutting spot. Ace dropkicked Mack to the floor, but Bey cut him off when he attempted the dive. Bey went for the dive instead, but Mack had recovered and caught him with an uppercut. 

Mack now worked on Chris Bey, but once again fell to a kick combo. Mack then went for a pop-up bomb, but Bey countered into a rana. Ace pulled out Bey and brawled with him for a bit, only for Mack to take both out with a tope con giro. 

Back from commercial all men are in the ring, with Bey taking out Mack with a missile dropkick and stomping on Ace on the corner. Ace came back with a beautiful snap suplex for a two count. Ace went after Bey’s ribs with knees while keeping Mack at bay outside the ring.

Bey got a couple of near falls himself on Ace, but then went after Mack and distracted himself from Ace who took him out again. Ace hit a second rope leg drop for a two count. Ace and Bey then took each other out with synched kicks, allowing Mack to come back to the ring.

All three got into a strike exchange that Ace was winning for a while, but when he started going corner to corner, Mack came back with a palm strike. Mack hit running clotheslines and a cannonball on Ace, followed by an exploder on Bey. 

Mack went for the 6-Star Frog Splash, but Ace cut him off with an enzuigiri. Ace went for a top rope rana, but Mack escaped and went for a powerbomb. Ace blocked, but Bey was there to hit a jumping German. 

Mack hit the stunner on Bey and went for the 6-Star again, but Ace cut him off, with a rana, sending Mack on top of Bey. Ace hit The Fold on Mack, but Bey broke up the pin. Ace got rid of Mack and went for Bey, but Bey came back with a kick. Ace managed to hit a Fold out of nowhere on Bey, but Mack broke up the pin. 

Ace hit a spinning kick on Mack, and a second to set up the top rope tana, but Mack held on, hit the 6-Star Frog Splash, and retained his title. Great match, Bey and Ace Austin were great.

Final thoughts — 

Pretty good show, it was fun and had good in-ring action. Not really hurt by the lack of audience. The direction out of Rebellion is interesting now that they have too fallen into the quarantine taping issues.

A delusional champion and a tournament may be the best way to proceed. In addition, the new members of the Knockouts division seems to be a huge improvement.

Impact Rebellion night one results: Ken Shamrock vs. Sami Callihan

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling presents night one of Rebellion. 

Tonight’s episode is headlined by Ken Shamrock and Sami Callihan in an unsanctioned bout. Also, Ace Austin defends the X-Division Championship against Willie Mack, Rhino and Dreamer team up with a mystery partner take on oVe, Kylie Rae will take on Kiera Hogan, and a 3-way tag team match between XXXL, The Rascalz, and Bahh and TJP.

This was Impact’s first show without a crowd since the pandemic started. They’ve been taping towards the ramp for months, so there was little change from their normal set up. 

Rhino, Tommy Dreamer, & Crazzy Steve defeated oVe (Madman Fulton, Jake & Dave Crist)

Dreamer and Jake Crist start the match for their teams. Short wrist control sequence with Dreamer trying to pull off some flips, but still failing at getting the better of Jake. Dreamer tried to do a kip-up and failed. 

Steve tagged in against Fulton, but Steve tagged out and in came Rhino. Well, not much of a babyface. Fulton dominated Rhino early on, but when they came to blows, Rhino held his own and managed to push Fulton back, but he still got to his corner to tag in Dave Crist. 

Steve once again tagged in. He got a couple of clotheslines and a running cannonball on Dave. 

Fulton and Rhino came back in again. They went back to striking each other before Rhino got pushed to the oVe corner where Fulton stopped him with some shoulder thrusts. Dave Crist tagged in, but got easily overtaken and once again Steve is back. These tags feel completely unplanned.

Crazzy Steve got cut off and worked on by the Crist brothers for a bit before he tagged in Dreamer, who came in, took out Jake with the Bionic Elbow and Cutter for a two count before Fulton broke it up. Jake hit a kick combo on Dreamer for a two count, successfully cutting him off.

oVe worked over Dreamer for a couple of minutes until he and Jake Crist collided with double clotheslines. Rhino got the hot tag and took out Fulton and Jake, hit a mini-Gore and belly-to-belly suplex on Dave for a two count. 

Dreamer took out Jake to the floor. Fulton tossed Steve over the top rope, but Rhino was there to send Fulton out too. Rhino hit the Gore on Dave Crist and took the win for the team. This was okay. Crazzy Steve was a detriment to the match.

Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne introduced the show and ran down the card. Matthews announced that both Tessa Blanchard and Eddie Edwards are in isolation. It seems that the Impact title match is off.

Josh Matthews had a face-time interview with Eddie Edwards. Eddie talked about not being at Rebellion, as he forced himself to quarantine to protect his family. He said that once things are good, he’ll come back and go right after the championship.

During the break, we got a promo of Crazzy Steve saying that he was back.

Gia Miller interviewed Michael Elgin about the title situation. Elgin talked about going to ROH and NJPW and his voyage to find the best competition and the World championship. Elgin said that both Tessa Blanchard and Eddie Edwards were afraid of him and are avoiding him. Elgin said that he’ll be the World champion by the end of Rebellion.

The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated Fallah Bahh & TJP and XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D) 

TJP and Xavier started the match with a collar and elbow lockup and some chain wrestling, and thanks to Romero’s distraction, TJP gained early control. As of this point, the story was that the quick smaller guys were doing everything to dodge XXXL’s attempts to tag in. 

TJP kept going for submissions, first an Armbar, then an Octopus Stretch, but Xavier finally tagged in Wentz and hit a combination attack on TJP, took down XXXL and Bahh, and got a two count on TJP. 

Wentz locked in a Last Chancery on TJP, but the latter made the ropes. Wentz kept the upper hand on TJP, but Bahh got the blind tag as TJP hit a dragon screw on Wentz. Bahh and TJP hit the double plancha for a two count when Romero broke it up. 

Back from commercial, Larry D and Bahh are going at it as the former gets a two count with a spinebuster. Larry D goes after Bahh’s arm and gets a second two count with a kick to the head. Romero tags in and hits a splash for a two count. Larry D locked in a sleeper on Bahh and worked it into an armbar. 

Bahh started to make his comeback with a desperation belly-to-belly but wasn’t able to tag out. XXXL hit a sequence of running splash and hip attacks to the corner. Romero and Larry D kept it up with quick tags and mostly strikes, but it was then when Bahh hulked up and hit a huge Samoan drop on Larry D and tagged in TJP.

TJP failed to take down Larry D with dropkicks. He was caught and sent into the Rascalz corner. TJP was taken out by The Rascalz, who tagged in. They lured Larry D to their corner, faked Romero into splashing Larry with a cannonball. They went for Hot Fire Flame, but TJP pulled Xavier out of the ring. 

TJP went for a springboard on Larry D, but he was caught with an Uppercut. Bahh took out Larry, Xavier took out Bahh, Romero hit the Pounce on Xavier and got a two count out of it. 

Larry D went for a Superplex when Wentz came back, took out Romero, hit a Superkick and Springboard Cutter on Larry D, and set up the Corkscrew finish by Xavier for the win.

After the match, The North sent a message to Impact from Canada. They said that they were not stuck in Canada, but rather making sure that Canada was safe. They said that since they didn’t want to go to the US, they were making an open challenge to Canada’s best. 

Miller interviewed Willie Mack and Rich Swann. Mack said that he was really happy to have Swann there to back him up against Ace Austin. Mack said that he wished that they were winning Tag Team gold, but Swann stopped him and told him that the tag titles were in the past and now, it was Mack’s time to become the X-Division champion. Good stuff by Swann. 

We got the build-up video package of Mack’s chase to the X-Division championship. 

Willie Mack defeated Ace Austin for the X-Division title

Match started, but Ace Austin kept stalling outside the ring, dodging Mack and going for several ten counts. He offered Mack a handshake, but when he tried to trick Mack, he was taken out with a right hook to the jaw. 

Ace finally took this seriously and went for a schoolboy on Mack, but Mack blocked him, sent him outside with a strike, and chased him down for more slaps. Back in the ring, Mack went for the Cannonball, but Ace dodged and kicked Mack in the back of the head. 

Ace tied up Mack in the tree of woe, kicking and choking him in the process. Ace went for a crossbody, but Mack caught him mid-air and slammed him. He followed up with a standing shooting star press! Mack continued to punch Ace until the referee pulled him off. 

Thanks to the distraction, Ace pulled Mack into the ropes for the Guillotine and once again cut him off. Ace hit a Superkick for a two count.  Ace kept control with kicks and knees, choked Mack against the ropes. Mack tried making a comeback but kept getting cut off by Ace’s kicks. 

Ace went for a Springboard Rana, but it was turned into a desperation Powerbomb by Mack for a two count. 

Ace and Mack traded strikes in the middle of the ring, the chops sounded like thunder. Mack finally with some momentum, hit a couple of corner combinations and running Cannonball and finally went for the Stunner. Mack hit the Stunner, but Ace reversed it, flipped over, hit The Fold, but Mack kicked out twice. 

Ace went for a second Fold, but Mack countered with a Pop-Up Cutter for a two count. Mack went for the 6-Star Frog Splash, but Ace rolled away to the corner, so Mack turned it into a Coast to Coast instead, but as he took out Ace, he also took out his back. 

Mack went for the 6-Star again, but Ace rolled out and Mack crashed on the mat. Ace rolled Mack with the feet on the ropes, but the ref caught him. Ace went to the top rope but was blocked by Mack. Ace slipped down and dropped Mack, went for a Backplex, but Mack blocked, hit a Stunner from there, followed the 6-Star Frog Splash, and Willie Mack won the X-Division Championship. Fantastic match, completely forgot this was an empty arena.

After the match, Rich Swann came out to celebrate with Willie Mack. Backstage, Swann congratulated Mack and told him that they can still go for the tag titles once he’s good to return. Johnny Swinger approached them and told Mack that The Mack and Pack Connection will live forever and asked for Mack’s first title shot. Swann said they were on the way to party and Swinger invited himself.

We got a video package for Kylie Rae. We got words from Gail Kim, Eddie Edwards, and Tessa Blanchard putting her over. Kiera Hogan, however, only talked trash and cut a nice heel promo. 

Kylie Rae defeated Kiera Hogan

Rae started the match by folding her t-shirt nicely. Hogan pushed her around until Rae flipped and slammed Hogan and went for an early Smile To The Finish, but Hogan made the ropes. 

Rae dropped Hogan with some snapmares. Hogan offered a test of strength, but tricked Rae with a kick and finally got the better of Kylie.

Rae slammed Hogan face-first to the buckle, stomped on her back, hit a running kick, went for the Kylie Special, but Hogan caught her with an elbow and scissors kick for the two count.

Hogan kicked and choked Rae on the corner, then kicked her on the back and got a near fall.

Back from commercial, Hogan was still in control. Rae made a comeback with strikes, but Hogan took her down and landed a running boot for another two count. 

Hogan whipped Rae around some more before Rae caught her with a running elbow and a couple of more exchanges, ending with dual superkicks where they took each other out. They went to exchange elbows and chops again and finally, Rae got the upper hand with clotheslines and the Kylie Special. Hogan escaped, but Rae transitioned to a superkick for a two count.

Hogan hit a huge roundhouse kick for a near fall. She went for the fisherman’s suplex, but Rae countered into one of her own. She hit a running uppercut and a cannonball for another two count. 

Hogan hit another superkick but started talking trash when Rae got her with the STTF for the win. This was pretty good. Give these women some time, and they can have a great match.

Matthews and Rayne ran down the card for next week. Suicide vs Chris Bey vs Trey Miguel vs Rohit Raju, Joey Ryan vs Cousin Jake, Full Metal Mayhem between Rosemary and Havok, and the conclusion of Elgin’s threat to walking out as World Champion no matter what.

We got the video package for Callihan’s return and feud with Ken Shamrock.

Ken Shamrock defeated Sami Callihan in an Unsanctioned Match

Callihan jumped Shamrock with a dive while the latter was making his entrance. Callihan hit a suplex on the floor as the brawl started. Callihan went for a chop, but that woke up Shamrock, who started striking and kicking down Callihan. 

They kept brawling around the ring, mostly ramming each other to the guardrails that were not really protecting anything, against the ring post and to the ramp. Shamrock hit an early crazy plancha from the ramp. He couldn’t even get over the ramp lights, but Callihan caught him. 

They brawled to the back where Sami caught Shamrock with a fire extinguisher and some chair shots. Sami took him down with some garbage cans and pulled out a chain. Callihan started striking down and choking with the chain, but Shamrock wouldn’t submit. 

Sami went for the kill shot, but Shamrock kicked him and finally took over with strikes. Suddenly, oVe jumped Shamrock and took him down. Fulton started hitting Ken with a garbage can over and over. Sami got his bat, but instead of joining in,  he turned on them, taking them out with the bat, as he wanted his one-on-one cowboy fight with Shamrock. 

They took it to the parking lot where they slammed each other against the production trucks. Shamrock was getting the better of Sami, but eventually, he got caught with a  low punch and a sleeper. Ken fought back, got Sami off and locked in the ankle lock. Sami passed out before tapping, yet granting Shamrock the win. 

This was exactly what it needed to be in terms of hiding Shamrock’s shortcomings. Only questionable detail is Callihan losing his first match since his return, but considering that Shamrock is headed to the Hall of Fame, it wouldn’t be productive to have him lose either at this point.

Final thoughts —

This was a really good show by Impact. Four matches worth checking out, where I completely forgot it was an empty arena. This did feel like the stronger card of the Rebellion nights if indeed the World title and the Knockout’s title matches are no longer taking place.

Impact Wrestling results: Sami Callihan returns

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Tonight’s Impact Wrestling episode hails from the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta, GA. This was the first episode in the new set of tapings. Madison Rayne replaced Don Callis on commentary for tonight’s show.

Opening video showcased the death of Father James Mitchell at the hands of Su Yung and Havok. 

Josh Alexander (with Ethan Page) defeated Eddie Edwards

Collar and elbow to start the match. They were both equal, but Alexander got to push Eddie to the corner. Eddie tried to come back with chops, but Alexander returned the favor in kind. 

Eddie recovered a bit and hit a belly-to-belly and followed with strikes, but Alexander stomped his foot and cut him off. Eddie sidestepped Alexander to the floor, but the latter pulled Eddie down for more. 

They brawled a bit outside the ring, mostly Eddie chopping Alexander and distracting himself with Page, giving Alexander the time to recover and takedown Eddie with a running boot. 

Alexander started working over Eddie at this point, going after his back. High angle backplex for a two count. Kicks and chops in the corner sprinkled with some trash talk. 

Eddie fired up and started asking for slaps, Alexander obliged, but it woke up Eddie, who came back with chops, sent Alexander to the floor and followed with a suicide dive. 

Back in the ring, Eddie hit a blue thunder bomb for a two count. Eddie went for the tiger bomb, but Alexander escaped. He ate a forearm to the face, took an enzuigiri, but managed to counter the backpack stunner and hit an airplane slam for a two count. 

Both men started exchanging strikes in the middle of the ring; they got into a great chop exchange. That ended with Eddie going Kobashi on Alexander, hitting a clothesline, and ending with a tiger bomb for a near fall.

Ethan Page distracted Eddie Edwards, which allowed Alexander to roll Eddie for the pin.

After the match, The North attacked Eddie until Tessa Blanchard came down for the save. Eddie and Tessa teamed up and sent The North packing. Tessa and Eddie had a little friendly face-off. 

Backstage, Alexander hyped up Ethan Page about beating a main eventer and number one contender. Page was mad that Tessa Blanchard got in their business and said that they were better champions than Tessa could ever hope for. Ethan Page challenged Tessa Blanchard for a match tonight. 

Kylie Rae defeated Cassandra Golden

Golden jumped Rae while she was still smiling at fans. She tossed Rae around the ring for a bit, from turnbuckle to turnbuckle, but when she went for the running attack, Kylie moved out of the way. Rae came at Golden with a flurry of strikes and a roll-up for a two count. 

Kylie kept it up with strikes, connected the Kylie Special for a two count then followed with a rolling cannonball for another two count. 

Kylie missed the Superkick, escaped a Samoan drop then hit a side leg sweep. She followed up with an STF and tapped out Golden. Good debut for Kylie!

Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Kylie Rae about her debut. She said it was amazing to be back and that she knew that Impact was her home. She announced that she has officially signed with the company. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Scott Steiner’s Math Promo.

Moose came down to the ring to talk about the return of TNA and all the ghosts from the past along with it. He said that he was better than everyone who ever wrestled for TNA, and immediately, Kid Kash interrupted him. 

Kash said that he had been paying attention to Moose for a while and that he agreed that he was amazing, but in his educated opinion, Moose would have never made it in the original TNA. So is he saying that the current Impact can’t hold? Moose challenged him to a fight and to prove it.

Moose defeated Kid Kash

Kash went for kicks early, but Moose blocked him, so Kash hit him with a rana instead, sending him to the outside. Kash went for an over the top rope rana, but just threw himself on top of his head. 

Back in the ring, Kash tried to strike Moose, who simply fired up, hit the No Jackhammer Needed and took the win. Complete squash, Moose proved that the old TNA can’t hold with the current talent of Impact Wrestling. Good for Impact for protecting their roster.

Jimmy Jacobs interviewed XXXL, the new team of Acey Romero and Legendary Larry D about joining Impact. They said that size matters. Fallah Bahh and TJP greeted them and gave them a welcome gift, telling them that the line to the tag team titles is behind them. 

Jacobs interviewed Rich Swann via satellite. Swann talked about how recovery has been hard, saying that he wants to come back so much. He said Willie Mack is going to win the X-Division Championship. 

Ace Austin joined Jacobs and kicked him off the interview. Ace told Swann that Mack will never win the title because he was the weak link in their team. He tried to play tricks saying that Mack wasn’t there to help Swann during his recovery. Suddenly, there was a knock in Swann’s door. Ace said that he cared for Swann so much that he sent Reno Scum to check on him. We then just hear the noise of Swann getting beat up.

Back from commercial, Mack tried to fight Ace Austin for what he did to Swann. 

Sami Callihan came down to the ring, debuting a new theme. 

Callihan said that after he lost the title to Tessa, he decided to set himself aside and do some soul searching. He said that his issues were not just with Impact, but with the whole industry because all companies kept putting over old talent over the new talent and that he wasn’t going to allow Shamrock to take his HOF spot without going through him.

He said that Shamrock wasn’t the most dangerous man in the world, it was him, hitting people with baseball bats and setting them on fire. 

Tommy Dreamer came out to confront Callihan, who immediately cut him off and said that Dreamer was the type of guy always looking to get the rub. He asked the fans to post photos of this moment so Dreamer could trend at least once. Dreamer pulled the nostalgia card and listed a bunch of old-timers who paved the way for guys like Callihan. 

Callihan, tired of Dreamer, attacked him with the mic. Dreamer challenged him to a fight instead. 

Sami Callihan defeated Tommy Dreamer in an Old School Rules match

The match started mid-brawl outside the ring, with Callihan being posted on the corner. Dreamer brought out the weapons, starting with a plunger. Callihan responded with chair shots. Callihan went to kick Dreamer from the apron but was blocked and dropped face-first on the apron. 

Back in the ring, Dreamer used cooking sheets on Callihan to take him down. Dreamer tried to powerbomb Callihan into the fans but was cut off with a groin claw. Dreamer hit the Bionic elbow and some shots with the garbage can.

Dreamer went for a staple gun but was met by a challenging Callihan, who had set up two chairs in the middle of the ring. They exchanged staples until Dreamer stapled Callihan’s groin, followed by a running clothesline. Dreamer hit the ropes but got hit with a drop-toe hold into the chair. Callihan was then sent headfirst into a chair in the corner and a cutter for a two count.

Dreamer tried to piledrive Callihan on a chair, but Sami blocked and hit an STO onto the chair. Callihan set up a chair bridge, but Dreamer blocked and went for a DVD. Callihan blocked and was the one who hit the DVD into the chairs instead. A Cactus special followed, allowing Callihan to pick up the win.

After the match, Callihan tried to take out Dreamer with a senton. Rhino came in for the save. The rest of oVe came out to take out Rhino and Dreamer. oVe was happy to have Sami back. Sami turned off the lights and disappeared, not even oVe knew where he went. Dissension between oVe and Sami brewing?

Rosemary was at a pub offering shots and scaring off the clients. She started talking to someone about once falling in love with a mortal, but she had learned about her mistakes and now was going to take advantage of them. Drunk Rosemary is getting interesting.

We got a video package of Su Yung’s career with Impact, from her debut all the way to the death of Mitchell. Afterward, Suzie was walking around the hallways of Impact. Everyone was avoiding making contact with her. Suzie acknowledged being Su Yung, but that she didn’t like that side of her. 

Cody Deaner (with Cousin Jake) defeated Joey Ryan

Collar and elbow to start the match. Ryan pushed Deaner to the corner, but after a sip of beer, he fired up and got an armbar locked in. Ryan pushed him to the corner again, but Deaner attacked him with strikes, dropped an elbow, and drank the rest of the beer. 

Joey Ryan poked Cody’s eye to gain control of the match. He hit a scoop slam and a knee for a two count. Joey mocked Deaner’s hat and played to the crowd, which only provoked Cody to fire up and come back with strikes. Deaner hit a clothesline and went for the Deaner DDT, but Joey escaped. Unfortunately for Ryan, he escaped into Cousin Jake’s hands, who fed him a beer. Cody Deaner hit the Deaner DDT for the win.

Backstage, Eddie Edwards thanked Tessa for helping him out earlier today, so he offered his help for her match tonight. Tessa said she had this on her own tonight. Eddie was like “cool then”.

Michael Elgin cut a promo. He said that he beat Eddie over and over. He is now stronger than he was before, but Eddie wasn’t. He said that Tessa had bigger balls than everyone in the back, but Rebellion marked one year from him joining Impact, and so his time is coming. As long as Tessa has been undeniable, he’s been unbreakable. 

Next week will have Daga vs Chris Bey, oVe vs Dreamer and Rhino, and Shamrock returns to address Callihan.

Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard defeated Impact Tag Team Champion Ethan Page (with Josh Alexander) in a non-title match

Before they started fighting, Page mocked Tessa’s size. But in return, Tessa took him down and connected with two dropkicks. Page, angered, simply grabbed Tessa and slammed her down with a backbreaker. 

Tessa tried to come back with strikes, but Page took her down with a back elbow and from there started working Tessa with chokes, whipping her from corner to corner. Tessa fired up and hit a flurry of elbows and strikes, but Page once again cut her off with a shoulder tackle. 

Page started going after Tessa’s back with knees and hit a delayed suplex for a two count. Page hit another backbreaker, even with Tessa punching him. 

Tessa started to make a comeback again but this time, Page had to rely on poking her eyes in order to get her off him. Page continued whipping her from corner to corner, but as Page got cocky, Tessa managed a top rope rana to finally get Page off his feet.

Page rolled out and Tessa followed with a trio of suicide dives, but she distracted herself with Alexander, giving Page some time to recover. Page pulled her into the ring, but Tessa was ready and hit a big tilt-a-whirl DDT for a two count.

Tessa started to set up Magnum, but Page caught her in the middle of the air, pulled her into the corner and connected with an elbow to the face. He followed with a punt kick for a two count. Page set up Tessa on the top rope for a superplex, but Tessa fought him off and dropped him. Page distracted the referee, giving Alexander the opening to attack her, but Eddie Edwards came in to take him out. Tessa hit Magnum on Page for the win.

After the match, Tessa and Eddie had a stare-off, but suddenly out came Elgin, who went to Elgin Bomb Tessa, but both Edwards and Tessa fought back. They all stared at each other to end the show.

Final Thoughts —

This was a really fun show. Two great matches to open and close the show, plus many developments heading into Rebellion.

Impact Wrestling results: Ken Shamrock’s career announcement

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas, NV for tonight’s episode. One of the only promotions lucky enough to have a set of taped shows pending to air.

Opening video focused on the final match in the Edwards vs Elgin series, where they went to a double count, but despite the controversy Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard decided to challenge them both to a 3-way title match at Rebellion.

Ken Shamrock was shown arriving at the arena, with Scott D’Amore making sure the building is secured.

Impact World Tag Team champions The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated TJP & Fallah Bahh to retain the titles

Match started with both teams going straight for blows in the ring. The North took out TJP, so Bahh went against both men, getting the upper hand by sending Page out and slamming Josh. 

TJP came in and hit a Poetry in Motion for a quick pin attempt. Similar to last week, TJP went for a springboard, but Page caught him. This time, TJP escaped and chased the ankle lock. Alexander blocked and thanks to Page, broke off TJP’s submission and cut him off.

The North worked over TJP for a couple of minutes, mostly going after the back with stomps and rest holds. Page hit a huge backbreaker, but when he tried to follow with the stalling suplex, TJP reversed, escaped, and tagged Bahh, all behind the referee’s back.

The North continued working over TJP with double team moves. Eventually, TJP dodged and escaped and tagged Bahh, who ran wild on both men, earning a two count on Alexander with a pop-up powerbomb. 

TJP tried to hit a double team with Bahh, but Page tossed TJP to the apron for Alexander to hit his Diving Crossbody. 

Back from commercial, The North have once again regained control of the ring, but not for long. Bahh and TJP hit a double team on Josh for a two count.

TJP and Alexander come to blows in the middle of the ring, TJP hits a kick combo and takes him out with a kick, but right there is Page to take him out. Bahh takes out Page, Alexander hits a German on Bahh, but Bahh fires up and takes out Alexander too. 

Bahh tried to hit a superplex on Page, but Alexander cut him off and hit an electric chair drop. A swanton by Page followed, then The North hit their finisher, but Bahh kicked out at 2.99.

The North go for their other finisher on Bahh, but he blocks it and hits a double lariat to get the tag to TJP, who came in with a Bomba Splash. He misses the swanton, but rolls over and locks in the Rings of Saturn on Page. Bahh locks in the Abdominal Stretch on Alexander. 

Alexander falls back on Bahh’s weight and pulls the ref down with him, so he doesn’t see when Page taps to TJP’s submission. 

After the distraction, Bahh hits a dive on Josh, but in the ring, Page takes out Bahh with a superkick. TJP goes for the Detonation Kick on Alexander, but Page blocks it. The North hit the Northern Assault then pin TJP to retain. 

Great opener, really action-packed, this could have been a PPV match. 

We got a promo by Eddie Edwards talking about his Lockdown team. Lockdown has been postponed, and thus they had a notice on the screen but they still ran the promo. Eddie said he wanted Dreamer, Daga, and Tessa Blanchard.

The Real Housewives of Slamtown with Taya, Heather Monroe, Holly, and Rosemary aired. Everyone was glamorous while Rosemary was, well, Rosemary. They were just drinking champagne and talking and arguing and happy until they were drunk. Then they went to a club where Rosemary sucked Holly’s soul until Taya stopped her, only because Holly was making mimosas next week. This was something alright.

Don Callis and Josh Matthews addressed the hacker, saying that they’re doing everything possible to secure the production trucks. In addition, they ran down tonight’s card and some of the matches that were scheduled for Lockdown. 

Chris Bey defeated Damien Drake

Not exactly his debut, but his first match as an official Impact roster member.

Headlock to start the match. They seem to start a sequence of reversals, but Bey quickly put down his opponent with a shoulder tackle. Bey took down Damien with a low kick, then a kick to the head to send him to the floor, followed by a tope con giro. 

Back in the ring, Bey hit a couple more impressive looking kicks, a jumping European uppercut and a snap neckbreaker. 

Drake tried to mount a comeback but Bey blocked, superkicked him, hit a rana to the corner then connected with a jumping knee that nearly knocked out Drake. Bey hit a springboard famouser for the win.

Good debut match. Bey has tons of charisma and potential.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Shamrock winning the NWA title in the first NWA/TNA show.

Backstage, Alisha Edwards asked Jordynne Grace to be part of her Lockdown team. 

We got another vignette for Tenille Dashwood’s return. 

Gabbi Loren interviewed Chase Stevens. Wow, that’s a name I hadn’t heard off in a while. He is talking about the (now cancelled) TNA nostalgia show. Moose interrupted him and said he didn’t know who Chase was, but he should know him. They brawled for a bit. It sucks for all these guys hoping to make a comeback on that show. Moose’s coat was AMAZING!

We got to the final episode of Gut Check. The finalists are “Shogun” Jackson Stone and Tyler Tirva. Shogun is huge, but doesn’t look so good in the ring. Tirva is a pretty boy, he has a good look, but hasn’t been shown in the ring yet. Some of the talent talked about their Gut Check experience in the past. 

At the end, we got the match between the two, with Shogun taking the win. The match was cut to look awesome. “Shogun” Jackson Stone was the man to capture the Impact contract. He’ll fit right in with the Sheras, Willie Macks, and Elgins of Impact, as he has the size for it.

Jimmy Jacobs had a sit-down interview with Tessa Blanchard. He asked about Tessa’s reign and how it had been. She couldn’t put it into words because it’s a day-to-day run, dealing with Ace, Taya, and so on, so she’s not just riding the reign. Jacobs asked about her challenging both Elgin and Edwards at Rebellion. Tessa said that she is not scared and she’ll take on everyone and that she won’t hide from two of the best in the world, then she will prove she is the deserving champion. Good stuff. Jacobs is great.

Joey Ryan came out with new attire, new theme, and a huge banner that said Cancel Culture, which is the team name for Ryan and RVD. Forbes was completely covering herself.

Joey Ryan cut a promo to reintroduce himself as Joseph P. Ryan. He said they have extraordinary gifts. RVD is an innovator, Forbes has an amazing butt, and Ryan has a legendary penis. He said that they never asked for the fan’s opinions and thus they were objectified and thus they were taking it all away from the fans. 

Rob cut a promo on all those fans that talk trash about them showing too much skin and doing sexy antics.

Cancel Culture (Joseph P. Ryan & Rob Van Dam, with Katie Forbes) defeated The Deaners

Cousin Jake and Ryan started the match. Jake easily took down Ryan with straight punches, a kneelift by Cody, and a lariat by Jake for an early pin attempt. 

Cody, now in the ring, got taken out with a jawbreaker by Ryan and a kick by RVD. He teased the Rolling Thunder, but didn’t deliver. Likewise, Ryan teased the dong-plex, but didn’t deliver either. All that stalling gave Cody the opening to tag in Jake, who came in hot, earning a two count with a Scoop Slam.

Cousin Jake hit the corner spear on RVD and a body block on Ryan, but when they planned to hit the Giv’er Drop, Katie Forbes distracted them long enough for Ryan to hit the superkick on Jake, setting up the 5-Star Frog Splash by RVD for the win.

Gabbi Loren tried to interview Ken Shamrock about his announcement tonight. Ken just said that it was Impact’s management that called him in, so we’d all find out together.

Backstage, Ace Austin approached Willie Mack, who said he appreciated the help, but that he didn’t really need it. Ace said that he was impressed with Mack and said that he himself was interested in getting the tag team titles and he wanted to do it with him. Mack said that he only has one partner and that is Swann. Ace asked Mack if he was interested in being a champion, to which Mack said he was, and so he was in next weeks’ X-Division No. 1 conterndership match.

Kiera Hogan defeated Lacey Ryan

Hogan jumped Lacey to start the match, but after some shots, Lacey got a German on Hogan and a dropkick to get the upper hand. Lacey went for a springboard elbow, but Hogan dodged, kicked her, and hit a version of a leg drop on the apron for a two count.

Hogan worked a bit on Ryan, choking her against the ropes. When she tried to chop her, Lacey came back with a real chop. Kiera hit a running low kick for a two count.

Hogan countered a kick by Lacey and locked in some bodyscissors, then transitioned into a sleeper, forcing Lacey to break out. Lacey landed a heavy slap, followed with a trio of big clotheslines, then finally landed a springboard elbow. Lacey hit a modified GTS for a great near fall. 

Lacey went for a frog splash, but Hogan moved away, escaped a German, kicked Lacey, and hit a swinging neckbreaker to pick up the win. This may be Hogan’s first match in over a year. 

Somewhere backstage, Su Yung picked up a letter from James MItchell. The letter said that Havok vs. Su Yung should happen in the Undead Realm so Rosemary wouldn’t interfere and so they can put an end to this war.

Michael Elgin cut a promo introducing his team for Lethal Lockdown. He tried to create some dissension between Eddie and Tessa. He added Taya Valkyrie to his team, in addition to The North. This Team Canada looks fantastic!

Daga defeated Jake Crist

Collar and elbow lock up to start the match, but they quickly transition into a battle for wrist-control. Some mat wrestling follows until Jake makes the ropes to escape. 

Jake Crist decided to strike Daga, but he countered with lucha-style wrestling, then got into a fast-paced sequence with Jake until he went for the ropes as soon as Daga locked in a submission. 

They fought themselves to the apron where Jake dropped Daga knee-first, but it wasn’t enough until Jake blocked a tope suicida with a kick and hit a diving DDT to the floor.

Back from commercial, Jake was working on Daga with a side Russian leg sweep and a stump puller submission attempt. They exchange kicks and clotheslines until both are down. They went back at it, exchanging forearms in the middle of the ring that ended with Daga taking down Jake with a sequence of clotheslines. He followed with a dragon screw and a magistral cradle for a two count. 

Daga hit a sitdown powerbomb for a second two count. Jake came back with a kick combo to the face for another two count. Crist hit a German, but Daga fired up and landed a German bridge of his own for a two count. Daga went for a top rope move, but Jake caught him with a cutter. 

Daga then hit the dragon suplex and finished off Jake with Daga Driver. Fantastic match.

We went backstage, where security had supposedly found the hacker. They drag some dude outside. D’Amore is notified, and as it turns out it was Ryan Cage, the minister. He was still taken out when he asked to see his brother. 

Next week, Tessa & Eddie team up to take on Elgin & Taya. Also, an X-Division #1 Contender’s Scramble match, Havok vs. Su Yung in the Undead Realm, and Rhino & Sabu vs. Madman Fulton & Dave Crist.

Josh Matthews introduced Ken Shamrock and talked about the TNA nostalgia show. Matthews talked about Shamrock vs. Fulton and said that he showed he still had a lot in the tank. The fans chanted for another match. 

Shamrock said that Impact management invited him here for something special. Josh Matthews thanked him for all he’s done for MMA and pro wrestling and officially announced that Ken Shamrock is being inducted to the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. 

They played a great video of Shamrock’s career, but suddenly, the broadcast was interrupted by the hacker ICU. When the lights came back, Sami Callihan was in the ring and hit a fireball on Shamrock. He used his phone to turn the lights off and disappear. Finally, a non-magical excuse as to why lights go off. 

Doctors and referees checked on Shamrock as the show went off the air.

Final Thoughts — 

A really good show by Impact. Fantastic action inside the ring, and while a lot of the storylines were for shows that are already confirmed as postponed, they all in a way also build towards Rebellion, which is still on the schedule.

Impact Wrestling results: Hard to Kill fallout

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact returns with the fallout of Hard To Kill, where Tessa Blanchard coronated herself as the new Impact World Champion. She also became the youngest wrestler to capture the Impact World Title. 

Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju & Mahabali Shera) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz), Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe, and TJP and Daga 

Great opener. Shera and Rohit made up for a great team with the big muscle and fast small guy. Shera was mostly portrayed as the best of the match, even with Luster The Legend there. Desi Hit Squad captured the win with a high knee and Sky High combination by Rohit and Shera. 

The big takeaway for me here is the great potential the team of TJP and Daga have. 

Moose cut a promo saying that he made Rhino relevant and that he’ll once again prove he’s the best multi-sport athlete in tonight’s 4-way match against Ace Austin, Eddie Edwards, and Fallah Bahh.

Josh Mathews and Don Callis continued to recap Hard To Kill and ran down some of tonight’s happenings, including a sit down interview with Tessa Blanchard. 

We got a recap of Ace Austin vs Trey Miguel, talking about Ace’s advances to Trey’s mother and him targeting Trey’s knee throughout the match. Recap did a great job at presenting Trey as a great underdog. 

Ace was backstage talking to his manager about getting a sequel for his last porn movie. He said he’ll win tonight’s 4-way.

We got a recap of Rich Swann’s injury from Bash at the Brewery, right before Hard To Kill. This led to the recap of Willie Mack’s valiant challenge against The North at Hard to Kill where he came so close to winning the titles by himself. 

We got footage from backstage, post match of the tag team championship bout. Mack told Swann that he lost and was a failure, but Swann tells him that he was amazing out there and was everything but a failure. Get yourself a tag team partner that talks to you like Swann does to Mack. I loved this.

Eddie Edwards cut a promo saying that Hard To Kill was a show that was made for him, and after a long hard fought battle, he regained his trophy. He said that tonight, he continues the winning streak when he wins the 4-way. 

We got a recap of Elgin vs Edwards from Hard To Kill. Afterwards, Callis and Mathews told us that Elgin has gone to Japan, and we got footage and an interview of Elgin from over in Japan, as he prepares to fight for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Elgin said that he loves wrestling in Japan. He talked about wrestling Nakajima on NOAH’s January 4th show. He talked about defeating Eita in 8 seconds and putting his eyes on the GHC Championship, saying that Eddie won’t be the only gaijing to hold NOAH gold. 

We got a recap of RVD taking out Cage at Hard To Kill, and then later defeating Daga with the help of Forbes.

We then got footage of RVD celebrating his victory, saying this celebration is special because he put a stop to the Machine. Forbes came in with some champagne and very little clothing. They celebrated with some blurred out wardrobe malfunctions and kisses. Rob just kept putting himself over and brought in his girlfriend’s girlfriend and they got naked. Rob said that everyone lives vicariously through him since all wrestling is a tribute of RVD, bell to bell. Rob talked trash to the marks and said that you should still take him seriously even if he parties all the time. Then they had an implied threesome. 

I love these promos from the new RVD, but I always watch these segments looking behind my back hoping that no one sneaks up on me.

Mathews and Callis talked about Shamrock’s return to Impact and his win over Madman Fulton. They recaped his various angles against oVe and the match at the pay-per-view.

We got an interview with Ken Shamrock after his match talking about how the match went like he wanted it to. He said he studied Fulton and used his size against him, he talked about it was his submission work that would work against someone like Fulton. Shamrock kinda put over Fulton saying that he could achieve greatness if he got away from Callihan. He said he had no plans beyond this match. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett from Genesis 2009.

We got a promo by Johnny Swinger talking trash about wrestling only wanting to play video games, then he sexually harassed a lady telling her to play with his joystick. Swinger is an idiot.

Joey Ryan defeated Johnny Swinger

Match starts with Ryan asking Swinger to touch his penis, but he won’t. Match instead started with some wrist control wrestling, with Ryan trying to force Swinger’s hand towards his penis. Only Joey Ryan can make Swinger seem like the serious competitor. 

Swinger teased going for the penis, but cheat-shotted Ryan. Swinger got the heat for a bit with stomps, falling fists, and a couple more dirty tricks, like pulling on the nose and choking against the ropes. Ryan tried to make a comeback with punches, but didn’t go far.

Swinger got cocky and went for a headbutt to the penis, but got himself knocked out, giving Ryan the opening to comeback strong. Swinger got a roll up with the ropes on the ropes, but referee told him off. The distraction allowed Ryan to get Swinger’s hand on his penis, but Swinger got the ref’s hand on his own penis, so Ryan accidentally dong-plexed both men. Swinger tried to low blow Ryan, but hurt his hand, allowing Ryan to hit the superkick for the win. Ok and fun match. 

We got a recap of the women’s 3-way match from Hard To Kill. 

We now got the recap of Tessa vs Callihan’s World Championship match at Hard To Kill. This was really nicely recapped by Mathews, really emotional.

We got a commercial for Rebellion, the upcoming pay-per-view in April. We also got the commercial for Impact’s return to Mexico City for the next set of tapings. Commercial had Puma King and Taurus, so hopefully they get booked. 

In the Twitch stream, Melissa Santos announced that Lockdown is coming back for an Impact Plus special.

X-Division Champion Ace Austin defeated Moose, Eddie Edwards, & Fallah Bahh to retain his championship.

This match took place in the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA for House of Hardcore. 

Match started with all four men in the ring trading strikes. Early on, Moose started to dominate hitting a plancha on Bahh, only to get taken out by Eddie Edwards to the outside. Ace took down Eddie, but Moose came back and got rid of the champion. 

Bahh flipped off Moose, who hit a couple of strikes that Bahh wouldn’t sell, and instead came back with an exchange of chops until Moose went for the eye poke. They traded lariats, taking each other out. 

Back in the ring, Ace and Eddie went at it, with Eddie going Kobashi chops on all men. Eddie sent Moose and Ace to the outside and went for a dive, but Bahh stopped him and Bahh hit the dive instead with the assistance of Edwards, who hit a top rope plancha as well.

After the commercial, it’s Ace and Eddie in the ring. Eddie hits a backpack stunner for a two count. Bahh comes in and takes both down, follows with running splashes to the corner until Moose cut him off and went for dropkicks instead. Moose went for a superplex on Bahh, but then Ace got him with a top rope dive. Ace tried to roll up everyone, but everyone kicked out at two. Ace failed to hit The Fold, and then the rest took each other out with superkicks and lariats. 

Moose and Eddie got into another chop exchange until Moose hit a discus lariat. Ace came in with a kick combo on Moose, but fell to a Blackhole Slam by Bahh. 

Bahh went for a the Banzai Drop, but Moose blocked him. Eddie hit Moose with the BKP, so instead Bahh took out Eddie and went for the Banzai Drop on him, but this gave Ace time to recover, hit a top rope Fold on Bahh, and pin him to retain his championship. Good match. 

We got footage of the World Title aftermatch from Hard to Kill, showing Tessa’s celebration with her family and the Impact roster and officials. We got footage from backstage, with Scott D’Amore saying nice things to Tessa. 

Josh Mathews interviewed Tessa Blanchard in Nashville, TN. Mathews asked about if Tessa ever thought things would end like this and about oVe. Tessa said that she doesn’t think that she’ll be done with oVe, but her goal is now to set goals for females and wants to lead Impact as the face of the company. Tessa accepts being now the ‘hunted’ backstage. 

Mathews asked about breaking the man/woman wrestler barrier, but suddenly, Sami Callihan interrupted by playing a video on a screen they had there. How he got access, we don’t know. 

Callihan talked about how everyone talks about Tessa and Impact making history, but it’s him that has been making history all along, bringing Impact back to life and carrying it for over two years. He said that Tessa may be the champion Impact wants, but Callihan is the champion that EVERYONE needs. 

Tessa started talking to the television, but Sami actually responded and revealed that he was in the production truck, and told her to come out looking for him. Tessa took the bait, but Sami wasn’t there at all, he was somewhere else and told Tessa that she’ll never see him coming. The End.

Final Thoughts — 

Arguably a weak show, it was a recap show with only three matches and a sit-down interview. As a recap of Hard To Kill, we got everything that we could hope for, updates on pretty much everyone involved. 

Impact Hard to Kill live results: Sami Callihan vs. Tessa Blanchard

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Impact’s latest pay-per-view, Hard to Kill, takes place tonight in Dallas, Texas.

The show will be headlined by Impact World champion Sami Callihan defending the title against challenger Tessa Blanchard, who is looking to become the first female Impact World champion in history. Blanchard has been built as a serious contender to the world title over the last year. Callihan defeated Brian Cage to win the title back in October.

All of Impact’s titles will be on the line tonight. Ace Austin will defend the X Division title against Trey Miguel, The North will defend the Impact Tag Team titles against Rich Swann & Willie Mack and Taya Valkyrie will defend the Knockouts title against Jordynne Grace and ODB in a triple threat match.

Other matches include Eddie Edwards squaring off against Michael Elgin in a match for the Call Your Shot trophy, Brian Cage vs. Rob Van Dam, Moose will take on Rhino and Ken Shamrock will face Madman Fulton.

Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. EST.

**********

Ken Shamrock defeated Madman Fulton

Not a great match. Shamrock cosmetically looks great and moves well, at least. Fulton isn’t that interesting in terms of in-ring prowess.

Shamrock tried for an armbar early, but Fulton lifted him up. Shamrock got to the ropes. Shamrock keeps him on the ground, but Fulton gets to the ropes. Fulton misses a boot and ends up hung up on the top rope. Fulton grabs Shamrock’s arm and extends it over the ropes on the apron.

As Fulton escapes to the floor, Shamrock launches off with a giant tope to the floor. Fulton catches him, but Shamrock counters and gut wrenches Fulton. This is the point where Jake and Dave Crist, seconding Fulton, start getting involved. Dave hops on the apron but end up getting knocked down by Shamrock. The referee eventually ejects them.

Fulton chokes Shamrock for a long time until Shamrock comes alive, looking for a kimura. Announcers sold it like his shoulder popped. Shamrock wanted the referee to stop the match. Fulton refused, and countered Shamrock’s offense with a powerbomb. Shamrock was able to grab the injured shoulder and lock in the kimura once again, and this time Fulton verbally submitted.

They showed video of both Blanchard and Callihan entering the arena. The crowd doesn’t seem all that hot tonight, but they did cheer for Blanchard and booed Callihan.

Announcers mentioned the injury Rich Swann suffered over the weekend, saying that there was no way Swann would be able to compete tonight.

Ace Austin defeated Trey Miguel to retain the X Division title

Okay match. Standards I feel are higher these days for these kinds of matches, but they had a perfectly fine back and forth match. Never felt real hot due to the lackluster crowd, but both men looked fine here.

Miguel immediately spears Austin and chases him around the ring, then does it again once they re-enter the ring. Miguel catches Austin’s foot on the apron, but Austin cuts him off until Miguel comes back with a 619 and a moonsault off the second turnbuckle.

Austin sends Miguel to the floor and wipes him out with a space tiger drop to the outside. When Miguel hops on top of the steps, Austin shoves him, sending Miguel flying into the barricade where Miguel’s mom was at. Austin sends him back to the ring and continues working him over.

Miguel counters after a couple of uranages by Austin but is cut off as Austin starts working on Miguel’s leg. Austin hit the bangarama but Miguel kicked out at two. Austin used a sharpened card and cut up one of Miguel’s palms. Miguel came back to life and hit a moonsault to the back of Austin’s neck.

Miguel hits a reverse suplex and applies a bully choke, but Austin escapes. Miguel follows up with a springboard downward spiral for another two count. Austin comes back with a spinning springboard kick. Miguel counters Austin on the turnbuckle with a cheeky nandos kick but Austin hits the ropes, crotching Miguel on the apron. He followed that with fold (running blockbuster) for the win.

After the match, Austin taunted Miguel’s mom on the outside, wanting a kiss. Miguel attacked him, leading to a brawl.

Gabi Loren was with ODB backstage. ODB thanked the wrestling fans, saying a new food truck was coming. Says she’ll be a five time knocked up champ.

Taya Valkyrie defeated ODB and Jordynne Grace to retain the Knockouts title

This was fine when Taya and Grace were in the ring. Bless ODB but she actively detracted from the match as she looked real bad. 

ODB and Grace brawled on the apron but Taya came back and dropkicked them both to the floor. Both Taya and Grace went at it until Grace sent her to the outside and took her out with a tope. ODB grabbed Grace and laid her out with a fallaway slam on the stage.

Taya came back in and started working over ODB. Grace came back and started on Taya, but Taya cut her off and bit her arm in the corner. Taya came back and at one point, ODB laid out both Grace and Taya with a bulldog off the second rope.

Grace power slammed Taya twice, then caught her with a spinebuster. Both Taya and Grace continued to exchange offense until ODB broke it up. Grace took ODB to the corner and launched off the top rope with a senton. Taya went for the road to Valhara but Grace escaped to the apron. ODB hit a bad looking TKO. Grace hit the Grace Driver on ODB, but Jonny Bravo distracted the referee. Grace went to 

Loren wanted to interview RVD, but he was making out with Katie Forbes. Forbes interviewed him instead. RVD said he will put his energy where it matters. He’ll take care of Brian Cage first, however. 

Rob Van Dam vs. Brian Cage never happened I guess?

RVD got the heat early when a woman described as RVD’s girlfriend’s girlfriend in the audience grabbed Cage, allowing RVD to attack. Cage cut him off with a superkick, but RVD came back with a steel chair. Forbes held the chair as RVD went for the van terminator and connected with it.

RVD went for the cover, but the ref wouldn’t count it as he told RVD that Cage was hurt. Officials, as well as Daga came out and checked on Cage, taking him to the back. Daga and RVD got into an argument. RVD jumped Daga as a result. Somehow, for some reason, this ended up being a match.

Rob Van Dam defeated Daga

This wasn’t good. I don’t know what RVD gets out of pinning Daga in the year 2020 and I don’t know why all of this was so convoluted.

RVD was on offense until Daga cut him off. RVD came back with a bodyscissors roll-up, but Daga kicked out. Forbes distracted Daga, allowing RVD to hit the legdrop. He went for the five star frog splash, and it connected, giving him the win. d.

Loren went to look for Sami Callihan outside of oVe’s locker room. One of the Crists answered the door and said Callihan didn’t want to speak to anyone but he’s fine.

Eddie Edwards defeated Michael Elgin

This was the first great match of the evening. These two had terrific chemistry with one another and had a hard hitting, heated match.

Eddie started off hot with a tope to the floor, but it quickly turns into a brawl on the outside. Edwards tries to mount a comeback with a tope suicida but Elgin blocks it, sending Edwards crashing to the floor. Elgin follows that with an ego trip on the apron onto the concrete outside of the ring.

Edwards made a brief comeback with a forearm smash in the corner but Elgin immediately regains control Eddie finally comes back alive after a belly-to-belly on the floor then followed it with a tope that sent Elgin into the barricade. Edwards followed with a big backpack stunner for a two count.

Elgin outpowered Edwards momentarily but Edwards cut off Elgin with a blue thunder bomb. Elgin blocked the Boston knee party and countered Edwards by taking him out with a sliding D and a running elbow to the back of the neck. Eddie starts fighting back with forearms to the face, blocks Elgin and both end up with a double clothesline. Neither fall to the floor. 

Edwards finally takes out Elgin with a clothesline and follows with a tiger bomb for a nearfall. Elgin grabbed Edwards and went for a buckle bomb but Edwards escaped with a hurricanrana. Elgin cut off Edwards and took him to the to the top rope, hitting a big German suplex for another nearfall.

Elgin took out Edwards with a splash mountain, but Edwards took out Elgin’s knees and went for the legs but Elgin freed himself, blocked the Boston knee party and went for an STF. Edwards escaped. Elgin didn’t like this and argued with the referee. He hit the buckle bomb, but Edwards floated over Elgin and rolled him up for the win. 

Rhino said he would take out Moose tonight. He used the F word here, I guess that’s new.

Moose defeated Rhino in a No DQ match

This was a good brawl while it lasted. This was probably the best route to go as I don’t know how this would have been as a straight up singles match. People were into the big spots. 

Moose and Rhino started off strong, with Moose hitting a spear that sent Rhino to the outside. Moose used a chair as the two went on the stage. Rhino back body dropped Moose onto the stage. Moose cut off Rhino and set up a table on the apron and barricade. Rhino escapes, then gives Moose a very slow pop-up powerbomb through the table.

Moose gets the heat back in the ring, beating Rhino with a trash can lid and follows with a senton splash. Moose went for an elbow, emulating Randy Savage, but only gets a two count. He puts a chair on Rhino as he went for another elbow, but Rhino planted him with chair shots. After setting up a number of chairs, Rhino superplexed Moose onto the chairs but wasn’t able to get the three count.

Rhino set up a table and went for the gore but Moose cut him off and hit a dropkick in the corner, then another one. Rhino cut off Moose and went for the gore, but Moose pulled the referee in front of him, sending them both into the table. A second referee came out, but Moose kicked out at two.

Moose low blowed Rhino then speared him to get the win.

Backstage, a medical official said that Swann couldn’t compete and can’t even second Willie Mack ringside. Swann didn’t like that and argued with the official. Mack told Swann to do what’s best for himself.

The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) defeated Willie Mack to retain the Impact Tag Team titles

This was real good, and exactly what it needed to be. Mack is excellent and is a great babyface, and that helped the match tons. There were some really great spots near the end.

The North immediately started to double team Mack, but Mack took them both out and clubbed Alexander in the back of the head. He went to go for a tope, but Page distracted him long enough for Alexander to come back. They showed Swann looking concerned backstage as both members of the North worked Mack over. 

Mack started to make his comeback on Alexander, working over both of the North. Page helped Alexander avoid a standing moonsault. Mack came back and went for the six star frog splash, but Page distracted him long enough for Alexander to lay him out. They landed a pair of double team maneuvers, but Mack kicked out.

The North next went for a double superplex but took out Page. Alexander wound up on Page’s shoulders as Mack hit an insane Canadian destroyer as he made a big comeback. He took out Page on the outside and hit the frog splash on Alexander. Mack went for the cover, but Page dragged the referee to the outside.

Mack hit the stunner on Page but Alexander came back as the North double teamed him, planting Mack with a reverse fireman’s carry into a spinebuster for the win.

Next PPV in April is Rebellion, which will take place at Terminal 5 in New York City. No specific date was given.

Tessa Blanchard defeated Sami Callihan to win the Impact World title

This was a really good match.  Maybe a little too long, but they told the story that was needed and both did a great job of telling it. Despite everything that happened yesterday, the crowd was 100% behind Blanchard and popped when she pinned Callihan.

Callihan immediately booted Blanchard and gave her a piledriver, but she kicked out at two. Callihan put her on the top rope, but Blanchard sent him back down by biting him on the forehead. He planted hm with a codebreaker for a two count. Blanchard took him down with a headscissors then followed with two sucide dives. She went for a third, but Callihan grabbed her. Blanchard instead gave him a hurricanrana and a somersault dive to the floor.

Callihan cut off Blanchard and sent her knees first into the guardrail. Callian took her down and applied an Indian deathlock. Crowd is fully behind Blanchard. Callihan continued to work on her knees until she sent Callihan to the floor and started to make a comeback with some chops.

Cutting her off, Callihan swent to the outside, setting up a table to put Blanchard through but Blanchard came back with a running senton. Callihan grabber her and powerbombed her through the table.

Blanchard makes it back into the ring as she brawled with Callihan on the apron. Blanchard went for the eyes then hit the magnum on the apron, sending them both tumbling back onto the floor. They eventually went back to the ring. Blanchard kept daring Callihan to hit her. Callihan eventually attacked her knee, but Blanchard immediately hit a samoan drop.

It is now Blanchard on offense, hitting another magnum. She went to the top rope but Callihan cut her off, went after the knee and hit the Get Outta Here for the two count. Callihan landed for a German suplex, but Blanchard no sold it and hit a counter for a very close nearfall.

Callihan was the first to react with a sitout powerbomb, then went after Blanchard’s leg with an inverted half crab, then an STF. Blanchard tried for the rope break, but Callihan grabbed her hand. Blanchard made the break by using her foot.

After the referee took away the Impact title, Callihan went for brass knuckles. Blanchard low blowed him, hit the top rope magnum and went for an STF, but Callihan escaped and hit another package piledriver for a close nearfall. Blanchard fired back, hitting two canadian destroyers and finally finished off Callihan with the DDT to for the win.

Blanchard’s celebration did not last long as the show went off the air not too long after she pinned Callihan. The first half of this show wasn’t great at all, but at least picked up after Elgin/Edwards.

Impact Wrestling results: Hard to Kill go-home show

Posted on by F4W Editors

This was a fantastic go-home show and really put World Champion Sami Callihan and his challenger Tessa Blanchard over huge.

As we kick off the show, Michael Elgin and Eddie Edwards were in a huge brawl at ringside. Edwards rolled in the ring, grabbed a mic, and said he didn’t want to wait for Hard to Kill and wanted to break his ass New York City-style.

Michael Elgin defeated Eddie Edwards

Don Callis talked about each man being successful in Japan with Elgin winning the IWGP IC Title from Kenny Omega while Edwards was the GHC Champion in NOAH. 

Match highlights: Elgin hit a big lariat, but Edwards absorbed it and landed some chops before machine gun chopping him in the corner. Elgin clubbed him, but Edwards got in more chops. Elgin then chopped the hell out of him before Edwards turned the table with a corner lariat sequence. Edwards ate a German, but used Elgin’s prone position for a basement Boston Knee Party to the back of the head. 

Elgin wanted a powerplex, but Edwards sunset bombed him. Elgin tried to absorb it, but couldn’t, so Edwards forearmed him only to eat a lariat and then a running lariat for 2.5. Elgin got half-crabbed, but turned it into a crossface before getting cradled for 2. Elgin then hit a buckle bomb into the Elgin bomb for the pin and win. This was fantastic. Even in a wrestling stacked week, this was a very good match. 

Later, their PPV encounter at Hard to Kill had its stakes raised with Edwards’ Call your Shot title shot trophy put on the line. Callis called it a dream match despite it literally just being on this show minutes prior.

— The North’s year of dominance was showcased as well as the tag title shot gauntlet featuring Rich Swann and Willie Mack winning and The North trying to rip them apart.

Desi Hit Squad defeated TJP, Fallah Bahh and Daga

The babyface team is the most random assortment of humans since Lifeblood in ROH.

Match highlights: Shera buckle bombed Raju into Daga in the corner for 2. Raj hit a sliding dropkick and a senton for 2. TJP came in in and hit a second rope bodyblock on Raj. Bahh hit a somersault senton leading to a one count for TJP. Daga hit a run-up armdrag/head scissor on Raj and Shera before flip diving on everyone. TJP opened the ropes and Bahh hit a suicide dive on everyone. Daga avoided a tilt-a-whirl with a nice backstabber for 2.

TJP sunsetflipped Shera for two before TJP got hit with a sky high for the pin by Shera who has definitely improved a bit from his last stint in Impact even though he has a lot of work to do.

— Mack and Swann talked about their tag title match Sunday. Mack said he doesn’t want to hold Swann back. Swann said that last year, the only person he could count on was Willie Mack and he relied on Mack to be the man he needed to be here and in life. Swann knows Mack is hurt, but needs him for Sunday in the best condition he can be in and they have to live up to the show’s name and be hard to kill to get the titles. This was not only great, effective hype for the title match, but tremendous character building work that makes a team out to be actual friends and not just professional allies.

— OVE cut a promo about how hard it is to kill them and how Sunday isn’t about Tessa Blanchard, it’s about Sami Callihan. Fulton says that he’ll take the World’s Most Dangerous Man and break everything.

— Johnny Swinger spiked Joey Ryan’s drink with somas before Tommy Dreamer told him to grow up and wanted him to take a drink of his “delayed-release medication”.

— Ace Austin vs. Trey is hyped up with Austin hitting on his mother and Trey threatening to break his neck. This was the reverse of the Mack and Swann stuff in that it built things up, but did so in a way that didn’t feel authentic.

— We then got a lot of build to the World title match Sunday. The Callihan vs. Brian Cage steel cage match was recapped to build up for the PPV as was Callihan vs. Blanchard from Slammiversary. Callihan blames Blanchard for taking his moment away from him. Blanchard talked about growing up in North Carolina and how her mother says she is as stubborn as her father. Her sister talked about how her kids love Blanchard. Tessa said she only saw one of Tully’s matches live before Magnum TA talked about fighting with Tully in the famous I Quit match.

Callihan said that he did everything he could as a kid to eventually get to pro wrestling. His family loved wrestling and his brothers grew out of it, but he didn’t. Both of his parents died when he was in his 20s and his family is now what pro wrestling has given him. He was on a tour of Germany when his mother died and his father said that he should stay there because she wouldn’t want him to miss out on his dream. His father died when he was in WWE developmental, but his father said before that to stay there and not deal with him.

A recap of their NYC street brawl is show and she said that she knows what his goons are capable of, but they can’t stop her at Hard to Kill. Callihan said that everyone’s a sinner, but he’s a saint and the savior of Impact Wrestling. Blanchard said that she’ll make history not due to her gender, but because she ended the reign of the most vile champion in company history. He closes the segment by saying that he will bash her skull in.

— Backstage, Jim Mitchell led Havok to the ring and told Susie to stay in the back. That was quite the radical shift in tone out of nowhere. Rosemary comes out and has “it” in spades.

Havok (w/Jim Mitchell) defeated Rosemary

Susie came down to ringside and Callis gave her a headset. Mitchell took her away from the announce table leading to Callis getting mad at him for spilling his drink. He then politely demanded that someone “smoke this fool”. Havok tombstoned Rosemary to win in nothing much of a match, mainly a backdrop to an angle.

ODB, Tenille Dashwood and Jordynne Grace defeated Kiera Hogan, Madison Rayne and Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie

Rayne mocked Dashwood’s “all about me” deal before Callis made up a ton of facts about Rayne including that she was a 73-time champion and she was the best there was, is, and ever will be. 

Some match highlights: ODB tagged in as did Taya leading to ODB plowing her down with tackles while using the flask to charge up. We got a bronco buster to Rayne and Taya in the corner. ODB hit the Bam on Taya before Grace tagged in for a splash off the second rope and went for a pin. However, OBD threw Grace to the outside and stole the pin, enraging Grace. 

— RVD was making out with Katie Forbes. Moose told him they have had issues before at Slammiversary but RVD has no memory of that and doesn’t even know what day of the week it is. Swinger is passed out on the couch behind them. Petey and Joey Ryan walked up and Joey wanted a sharpie so he can draw on his face.

Rhino and Brian Cage defeated RVD and Moose

Cage worked with Moose for a bit before tagging in Rhino. Rhino backdropped him and chatted with the crowd for a bit. He really gets the crowd into everything he does. Callis talked about Rhino learning a lot of tricks with experience, and getting a nice reaction without doing anything is one of them. Rhino clotheslined Moose over the top and talked to the crowd more before a commercial break.

RVD basement dropkicked Rhino before Moose tagged in and bit Rhino. Rhino hit a big belly to belly and each tagged out. Cage hit a big lariat and RVD took a weird bump for it. RVD kicked him down and teased a rolling thunder before Cage elbowed him instead.

Cage hit an F5 on RVD, but Moose tagged in and clubbed Cage to the floor. Moose and Rhino slugged it out before Cage tornado DDTd Moose. RVD hit a flying kick to Cage before Rhino gored RVD. Moose sidestepped a corner gore and missed the five star frog splash. Rhino hit a gore on Moose and Cage hit a discus lariat for the pin and win.

We closed out with a hype video running down Sunday’s Hard To Kill card. 

Impact Wrestling results: Callihan confronts Blanchard

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Queens, NY for tonight’s episode on the road to Hard To Kill. Opening video focused on the No. 1 Contenders for the Tag Team Titles being crowned when Swann overcame the odds and pinned Dave Crist. It touched on Tessa facing Fulton, and Shamrock fighting Callihan in last week’s main event, ending with Fulton destroying Shamrock. 

Jordynne Grace defeated Tenille Dashwood

Collar and elbow tie up to start the match with both women being quite equal in ability, Dashwood had some nice wrist control locks, but failed when she went for the full nelson and Jordynne overpowered her. Tons of counters and switches until Tenille locked in a kimura after countering the Grace Driver, provoking Grace into the shoulder tackle and deadlift suplex for a two count. Tenille seemed to hurt her leg on the bad landing on the ropes on that suplex.

Tenille hit a Russian Leg Sweep for a two count. Grace used her power to hard whip Dashwood into the corner. Tenille locked in the Tarantula and followed with a double underhook, but Grace got out, countered by Tenille into a DDT for a two count. 

Tenille went for the Spotlight, but Grace dodged and went for a schoolgirl pin for a two count. Grace came back with a huge spinebuster for a near fall. Jordynne chased the Grace Driver, but after being blocked, hit a short distance lariat for another two count.  

Jordynne went for the running knees, but Tenille dodged, hit the low crossbody and the butterfly suplex and earned a close two count. Low dropkick by Tenille and la magistral, but Jordynne reversed into a roll up and got the quick pin on Tenille. Really good opener, I’d be down for a rematch. They put each other over after the match.

Taya Valkyrie ran down and attacked Jordynne until Tenille made the save and set up Taya for a Grace Suplex and sent Taya packing. 

Backstage, Moose told Rhino that he saw his match with RVD and reminded Rhino that at Slammiversary, he defeated RVD and he could had given him some pointers. Rhino Gored Moose for no reason.

Backstage, The North approached Willie Mack who thought he was being jumped. Page told him that they’re not looking for a fight but Mack was provoking them. Page tried to get to Mack’s head about Swann becoming a star and Mack letting him fly. Swann came in and told them to screw off.

TJP (w/Fallah Bahh) defeated Daga

TJP and Daga look like they should be a tag team, both in look and wrestling style. 

Match started with a great sequence of fast paced counters and reversals, some chain wrestling, fighting for wrist control. TJP with the winning dropkick to get the upper hand.

They continued with the quick reversals, looking for the flash pin, Daga getting a two count. Daga then went after TJP’s arm, with an armbar that he would not release and constantly get TJP back into it. TJP however, went for the head with some headscissors, locking in the neck. 

They went back into pin exchanges into the double dropkick to a standing ovation. These two are gold together. 

Back from commercial, both men are exchanging strikes before TJP sends Daga to the floor and follows with a springboard dropkick a la Jericho. Senton atomico by TJP for a two count before going back to the neck. Daga tries to escape, but TJP reverses and uses the Pentagon armbreaker on Daga out of nowhere and changes his focus to the arm now. TJP followed with a couple of over-the-shoulder arm snaps. 

Daga made a comeback with a rana into the corner and some kicks. He followed with a big sunset flip into a foot stomp for a two count. Running forearms by Daga, running boot, and big Senton for another two count. 

Daga went for the tiger bomb, but TJP escaped. They reversed pins until both men traded big kicks on each other. Once on their feet, they traded strikes in the middle of the ring until TJP got a surprise rana into an armbar and transitioned into a triangle hold, but Daga lifted TJP off and locked in an abdominal stretch. TJP escaped and locked in an Octopus, countered by Daga into a half crab into the STF, but TJP got the roll up for a two count. Double clothesline in the center of the ring for the ‘This Is Impact’ chant.

Kick combo by Daga for a two count. TJP went for a superplex, but Daga countered, dropped TJP, and went for the foot stomp but TJP blocked and went for the Superplex again, successfully landing it. TJP follows with Detonation Kick, but Daga kicks out. TJP then transitions into a kneebreaker into Rings of Saturn for the submission win. Fantastic match, this is a must watch.

After the match, Desi Hit Squad jumped TJP and Bahh, taking both out until Daga made the save. Mahabali Shera came out and took out Daga with a huge Chokeslam. Gama Singh applauded his team. 

Cage was in the restroom when he found RVD and Forbes making out. RVD wished Cage luck for their match at Hard To Kill. RVD said that he’ll have no problem with him since he knows the counters of all his own moves.

Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes came out. Forbes introduced RVD in the most cringiest way. Forbes and RVD made out in the ring for a long time while the camera slowly zoomed in. Anyway, Rob talked about getting a lot of attention lately and made fun of the fans for having short attention spans. Rob said that he is taking a stand and taking the long due credit for creating every move and style that we see everywhere today. 

He said that Brian Cage vs RVD was a dream match only for Cage, he called him the biggest RVD mark. This provoked Cage to come out. 

Cage got face to face with RVD. Rob actually is taller than Cage. They traded some strikes until Cage dropped Rob with a discus forearm, but Katie low blowed Cage and set up Cage to get a top rope leg drop and a VanTerminator, except he didn’t give the fans what they wanted and only delivered a short distance dropkick instead. Rob and Forbes made out before leaving to the back.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was The Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me aka The Young Bucks in a Full Metal Mayhem match for the TNA Tag Team Championships. 

Somewhere in the Undead Realm, Rosemary approached Suzie, who said was lost. Rosemary tried to bring back some memories about her former self. James Mitchell came in for the save and told Suzie to stay away from Rosemary. Havok jumped in and attacked Rosemary. The brawling brought back some memories to Suzie, who unleashed a big scream and made everyone stop.

Backstage, Madison Rayne and Kiera Hogan are talking when Taya approached them. They knew that Taya wanted a favor and told her off, but Taya still asked. She wanted help dealing with Tenille, ODB, and Jordynne. Taya offered them both title shots if they help her retain at Hard To Kill.

Ethan Page (w/Josh Alexander) defeated Rich Swann (w/Willie Mack) by DQ

Speed vs power match up with Page getting the better of Swann early on with a headlock, but Swann’s athleticism helps him escape and dropkick Page to get some control. Swann goes for the ten punches in the corner and follows with some chops. 

Snapmare and kick to the back of Page. Swann is striking Page, but Alexander grabs Swann’s foot, allowing Page to rake the eyes, hit a suplex, and get a quick two count while Mack is busy distracting the referee against Swann’s benefits. 

Now in control, Page started stomping Swann left and right. Page went for a suplex, but Swann small packaged him for a two count, only to get taken out by Page again. Page continued to work on him, tossing him from corner to corner, choking him against the ropes, stomping him repeatedly.

Swann finally caught Page with a kick and a jumping clothesline to get some time to recover. Swann hit a Swinging Neckbreaker and a kick for a two count. diamondgiri and cartwheel pin by Swann for a two count. 

Swann went for the top rope, but Josh distracted him allowing Page to get him with a strike, a blockbuster and a Gotch Styles Clash. Page went for the Razor’s Edge, but Swann escaped and hit a kick combo for a two count. 

Swann went for the second rope 450, but Page dodged, shoulder tackled Swann and went for the Swanton Bomb. Rich blocked him and went for the superplex but Page straight up scoop slammed Swann from the top rope and followed with the Swanton for a two count. 

Page missed the shoulder tackle, Swann hit a standing headscissors and sent Page outside. Swann went for an tope con giro, but Josh pushed Page away and took the hit instead. Page provoked Willie Mack outside and Mack took the bait and punched Page for the DQ win.

Commentary sold it as Swann and Mack needing to get their act together.

Backstage, Moose jumped Rhino and they started a pull apart brawl. 

Joey Ryan defeated Acey Romero

Before the match could start, Johnny Swinger came out and sat for commentary. 

Ryan oiled up before the match, secured his lollipop and asked Acey to touch his penis. Acey and Joey locked up with the former overpowering the latter. Joey tried to do some penis moves, but Acey responded with a big crossbody to gain control. Joey tried a comeback, but Acey responded with a spinebuster for a two count. 

Joey punched Acey causing him to fall head first into Joey’s crotch, getting hit hard. Joey went to use the lollipop, but in the rumbling, he gave it to the ref, taking him out. 

Joey went for the penis flip, but Swinger attacked him. Acey took out Swinger, and then Joey came back, hit the Penis Flip on Acey, Lollipop Sweet Tooth Music and pin. Not particularly good, even for the comedy.

Gabbi Loren interviewed Tessa Blanchard about Sami Callihan’s treat about exposing her. Tessa said she wasn’t worried about what he could say, because she knew that it meant that Sami was worried about her coming for the title at Hard To Kill.

Backstage, Elgin approached some guys in the locker room and stole Eddie’s trophy. 

X-Division Champion Ace Austin defeated Petey Williams in a non-title match

Quick sequence of reversals to start the match, Ace got an early kick in, but Petey countered with a big punch. Ace went for a springboard kick, but Petey once again blocked him. Ace then hit a springboard armdrag but Petey came back with a codebreaker and running dropkick to the back. Petey went for the sharpshooter but Ace ran away outside, only to get taken out with a jumping hurricanrana. Outside, Ace hit his apron kick bomb.

Back from commercial, Ace is still in control, going after Petey’s neck. Ace dodges a German and hits a kick for a two count. 

Ace went for the paper cut, but Petey pulled him in for a roll up two count, followed with a German suplex and a leg sweep. Petey called for the destroyer, but Ace caught him with a kick and the bangarama for a two count. Ace signaled for The Fold, but Petey dodged, went for the Destroyer again but Ace blocked him and pushed him to the corner where he went for a kick until Petey blocked him. Ace went for a superplex, but Petey also blocked it and went for a top rope destroyer that Ace blocked. 

Petey powerbombed Ace, went for another destroyer, but failed. Petey tried to roll Ace, but Ace escaped, took the rebound on the ropes and came back with The Fold for the win. Ok match. 

After the match, Ace Austin took a mic and dedicated this match to Trey Miguel’s mom. Mocked The Rascalz before leaving. 

Backstage, Trey Miguel confronted Ace Austin about being in his mom into this. Ace pushed Trey’s buttons and they brawled until Reno Scum separated them. I love a serious Rascalz story.

Commentary ran down the Hard To Kill card and announced that Rhino vs Moose and Shamrock vs Fulton have been confirmed. 

Sami Callihan came out to the ring to expose Tessa Blanchard’s secrets. 

Callihan first said that Tessa was a fake and phony. He said that at Hard To Kill, they’ll make history as the first pay-per-view intergender World Championship match. Callihan called the fans out for trying to make this a gender thing when he doesn’t care if Tessa is a woman because he treats her as anyone else and for him, there is no intergender wrestling, just professional wrestling. 

Callihan said that Tessa is entitled and she expects to get everything handed to her because of her lineage. Callihan had to scratch and crawl and become the face of Impact Wrestling by himself and breaking bones. 

Tessa Blanchard finally came out, but Fulton jumped her from behind. Tessa tried to fight both men, but got taken out until Shamrock came out and evened things out. Fulton and Shamrock brawled in the ring while Tessa and Callihan headed to the back. 

Backstage, Tessa and Callihan got into a great brawl, a lot of people were outside watching the fight. They fought around the parking lot with a lot of takedowns and chokes. They eventually got pulled apart, but Tessa started punching the refs and chased after Callihan to end the show. Good brawl.

Impact is taking the next two weeks off from new episodes, and instead, they’re running two special Saturday editions of Impact Wrestling for the Best of 2019 Awards. 

Final Thoughts — 

Really good show inside the ring. Some of the storyline developments tonight were weak, but some were really good. As the final show of 2019, leading into the winter break, this may have been somewhat weak cliffhanger wise.

Impact Wrestling results: Sami Callihan vs. Ken Shamrock

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from Queens, NY for tonight’s show, on the road to Hard To Kill. Opening video focused on the great 3-way match from last week between Elgin, Edwards, and Cage. It touched upon the stories with Joey Ryan, James Mitchell, Suzie, Trey Miguel vs. Ace Austin, and ODB’s return.

Rob Van Dam (with Katie Forbes) defeated Rhino in an old school rules match

Tommy Dreamer served as the special guest referee. Old School Rules means that there are no rules according to Don Callis.  

Rhino had the upper hand early as the brawl started outside the ring, but as he started bringing out weapons, RVD brought the fight back. Rhino got the first chair shot in, but accidentally lariat the ringpost in the follow up. RVD took him down with a senton from the apron. 

Back in the ring, RVD kicked around Rhino a bit, but he came back with a mop, choking RVD, then followed with a scoop slam on a chair. Rhino went for a headbutt, but Rob dodged. 

Rhino tried to choke out Rob with a chair, went for a running stomp, but Rob caught him with a low blow and followed with the running Van Daminator on the corner. Rob went for a monkey flip, but Rhino countered with a powerbomb into a chair for a two count.

Rhino brought out a table, but he gave RVD the time to recover and catch him with a slingshot to the ropes and a leg drop. Rob brought out a trash can, but also gave Rhino time to recover and attack him with a clothesline.  A trash can and table were both set up in the corners. 

RVD failed to land the split-legged moonsault and took the Gore into the table, but Forbes pulled Dreamer out of the ring to break the pin, and took him out. Rhino pulled Forbes into the ring, but the distraction was enough for RVD to try and school boy him. Rhino countered and went for another Gore, but RVD dodged and sent Rhino into the garbage can, followed with the 5-Star Frog Splash to pick up the win. 

Match was weak, way too slow even for these guys, but the last minutes of the match were ok. 

After the match, RVD attacked Dreamer with a superkick. 

Sami Callihan cut a promo saying that oVe equals ratings and that Impact owes everything to him. He said that the Crist brothers are winning tonight’s tag team no. 1 contendership match, that Fulton will destroy Tessa tonight, and that he will hurt and defeat Ken Shamrock. Good promo.

Josh Matthews and Don Callis ran down the card for tonight, talked about ODB being added to the Knockout’s Title match at Hard To Kill, and announced that Eddie Edwards vs. Michael Elgin has been signed for Hard To Kill. Tonight’s theme is Pick Your Poison, with Tessa picking Sami’s opponent and vice versa. 

Moose defeated Acey Romero

Moose started by going for shoulder tackles but couldn’t even move Acey. Moose started slapping Acey, but it didn’t work and ended up getting tossed around from corner to corner instead. Moose tried to escape to the outside, but Acey caught him with a suicide dive. 

Back from commercial, we see Moose ram Acey into the turnbuckle, and now work over him, he stomped him around, but then he fought he had a chance at suplexing Acey, but it was Romero’s opening to reverse the suplex and get some space to recover. Acey hit a huge crossbody to take out Moose, followed with a backdrop and a spinebuster, earning a two count. 

Moose hit a couple of running dropkicks, but Acey countered the third with a kick, slowing down Moose. Acey went to the second rope, but Moose hit the Go To Hell for a two count. 

They traded strikes in the middle of the ring. Moose poked Acey’s eyes,  but failed to land the discus lariat and took a big pounce by Romero instead. Moose went for the spear, but Acey caught him with a kick. Acey went for a running splash to the corner, but Moose dodged and hit the No Jackhammer Needed for the win. Pretty good hoss fight.

Somewhere in the Underworld, James Mitchell kept introducing Suzie around, when she accidentally touched the noose she was hanged with, which kinda gave her flashbacks to her former self. Not sure why Mitchell decided the noose should stay as decoration. 

Gabbi Loren interviewed Michael Elgin, asking about his motivation to interrupt the Cage vs. Edwards match last week. Elgin said that he attacked him both to show Impact management that he had defeated them before and he didn’t get anything out of it. He challenge Eddie Edwards to put his title shot on the line at Hard To Kill. 

Fallah Bahh defeated Raj Singh (with Desi Hit Squad) 

Aw man, I guess we’re not getting Rohit and Raj in the tag team match later tonight. 

Two weeks ago, Raj and Rohit attacked Bahh, so he came in hot and went after them. He quickly landed a belly-to-belly on Raj and a corkscrew elbow Drop. He went for the corner splash, but Gama distracted, giving Raj the opening to hit a rolling elbow and reverse STO, follow with a series of kicks for a two count. 

Raj now in control, started striking Bahh, even managing to hit a backplex for a one count. Raj continued with strikes, but Bahh now started a comeback. Bahh hit a couple of opened Palms and a Crossbody for a two count. 

Gama distracted the ref, allowing Rohit to jump Bahh, but both Desi Hit Squad members ended up squashed in the corner, with Bahh hitting a Running Hip Attack and the Banzai Drop on Raj for the win. 

Good match, not the best to follow an Acey Romero match with a Bahh match since a lot of their offense is the same, but it does make me wonder of a match-up between the two.

After the match, Rohit caught Bahh with a superkick and him and Raj jumped him until TJP made his return and took out both Hit Squad members with kicks and DDTs. 

Backstage, Joey Ryan is told to go to the management office, which is all a rouse since it’s in the bathroom. It turns out it’s Wrestler’s Court, judged by Tommy Dreamer.

This was done in People’s Court comedy style. It’s Johnny Swinger accusing Joey Ryan of not helping him out last week, but overall Joey is being accused that he is killing the business. Joey Ryan is not selling it and is calling this stupid. 

We got a cameo by the returning KM. D’Lo Brown was a witness and is revealed to be called Dee Lorean Brown. Several wrestlers made statements against Joey Ryan’s penis. Joey Ryan made a statement against all those people that try to take all their insecurities and failures against him. Ryan said that wrestling should be fun. 

Dreamer proclaimed that Ryan was sentenced to face Acey Romero in a match. This was stupid, but hilarious. I think we all felt like Joey Ryan for a while. This segment was apparently written by R.D. Evans.

Rich Swann & Willie Mack defeated The Rascalz, oVe and Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe) to become the number one contenders for the Impact Tag Team titles

This is Tornado Style, so no tags necessary in this match.

All men started brawling in the ring, pairing up. We got The Rascalz superkicking Reno Scum and hitting dives to take them out. Jake Crist followed with a Suicide Dive DDT on both Rascalz. 

In the ring, Swann and Mack double teamed Luster and Thornstowe for a two count when Jake pulled Swann out of the ring. Mack slammed Jake, followed with a standing moonsault for a two count. Mack hit a dive on Luster and Wentz. Swann tossed Dave Crist on the pile, Swann was gonna follow, but suddenly, Willie Mack was injured outside, doing a stretcher job, so Swann had to go at it by himself. The rest of the wrestlers stopped the action to sell the injury as legit. 

Back from commercials, the match has continued with Swann fighting off both Reno Scum, being able to land a double Lethal Injection. 

Jake and Dave Crist come in to double team Swann with kicks and a Spike Piledriver for a two count when Wentz breaks the pin. 

Rascalz double team Jake Crist, only to get taken out by Reno Scum, who then double team Dave Crist with a German and an ugly footstomp combo. Thornstowe pretty much stomped Dave’s head. Luster hit a Razor’s Edge on Swann onto Dave Crist, who was in the Tree of Woe. Swann kicked out at two. Reno Scum went for their finish, but Dez and Wentz returned and took them out, hit a kick combo on Luster, finished with Hot Fire Flame, but Jake Crist was there to break the pin. 

Jake Crist took out both Rascalz with kicks and a powerslam. oVe went for Swann, who tried to stand against them with kicks and strikes, managing to take them out for a bit until he went for the Lethal Injection again, only for oVe to cut him off. oVe went for the Doomsday Blockbuster, but Swann rolled up Dave Crist and win the match. Great action packed match, but I didn’t see the need in doing the Mack injury angle unless it becomes a thing all the way to Hard To Kill.

Backstage, Josh Alexander wants to go and take out Swann, but Page stops him and tells him to trust him and do it his way instead. 

Loren interviewed Taya Valkyrie about having to defend her title against ODB and Jordynne Grace. Taya said that everyone is always trying to get in her space. She doesn’t understand why Jordynne would help ODB get in the match and worsen her chances at winning. Taya said that at Hard To Kill, she proves she’s the woman on power. Usual great Taya promo.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was ODB vs. Gail Kim vs. Brooke Tessmacher from Bound For Glory 2013. I had completely forgotten about Lei’d Tapa.

Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Brian Cage backstage. Cage talked about losing the championship, the rematch, and the chance to regain it. Cage said he supported Tessa as the new contender to Sami’s championship and said that he will be looking close to whoever wins. He said that for now, he wants to take the opportunity to challenge someone he hasn’t had the chance to fight. Suddenly, RVD and Katie Forbes started making out on the couch they Cage and Jacobs were on. Cage was annoyed at RVD. 

Before leaving, RVD said that Cage has stolen a lot of his moves, except for the time he got beat by Tessa. 

Tessa Blanchard defeated Madman Fulton by disqualification

Tessa started defiant by striking Fulton, but she didn’t make any damage. Fulton retaliated by slamming Tessa into the turnbuckle repeatedly, tossing her around, choking her against the corner, stomping her. 

Tessa tried to make a comeback, only to get hit by a powerbomb, that accidentally landed on the ropes and she used the moment to roll over Fulton and roll him up for a near fall. Tessa used the distraction to hit a couple of dives until Fulton regained composure and catch her. Tessa came back with a tornado DDT and went for the top rope Magnum, but the Crist brothers were out there to attack her and give her the win via DQ. Jake hit a top rope Cutter and fed her to Fulton’s crazy chokeslam. More of a segment than a match.

Ken Shamrock came out for the save. Shamrock took out both Crists, faced off against Fulton and started to fight him, but Callihan came out and pulled Fulton away. Callihan wanted Shamrock for himself.

Sami Callihan defeated Ken Shamrock by referee stoppage

Callihan slapped Shamrock to start the match, provoking his anger. Callihan spat on Shamrock, further provoking the wrath. Shamrock punched and kicked Callihan, but the champ kept trying to anger Shamrock with slaps and calling him names. 

They started brawling outside the ring, with Shamrock having the upper hand with strikes, forcing Callihan to rely to heel tactics. Callihan kept trying to chop Shamrock, but they were not that effective. 

Back in the ring, Callihan caught Shamrock with a desperation DVD for a two count. Shamrock countered Sami with a powerslam and went for a corner splash, but Callihan pulled he ref in front of him. Callihan went for a belt shot, but Shamrock dodged, hit a slam, locked in the ankle lock and submitted Callihan, but there was no referee. 

Madman Fulton came back, hit an End of Days on Shamrock, giving Callihan to lock in the Ankle Lock, but with Shamrock already knocked out, the referee awarded the match to Callihan via ref stoppage. 

After the match, Callihan celebrated while Shamrock recovered. Fulton went after Shamrock again and had to be pulled off by Callihan, but drowned in the rage, Fulton even pushed off Callihan. Fulton hit a Front-facing Suplex on Shamrock to the outside, it looked ugly enough that even Callihan told Fulton to stop. Referees checked on Shamrock as the show went off.

Final thoughts — 

An ok show for Impact. We got some good wrestling and a great Wrestler’s Court skit, but not many great storyline developments.

Impact Wrestling results: The North vs. Marufuji & Edwards

Posted on by Antonio Garza

Impact Wrestling returns from the St. Claire College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Opening video focused on how last week oVe managed to antagonize the whole Impact roster, ending with Callihan being humiliated by Tessa Blanchard and Rich Swann, which led to tonight’s Daga vs Jake Crist match and the tag team main event. 

Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos, who promoted the upcoming Impact Plus special No Surrender, the Throwback Throwdown Thanksgiving special, and January’s pay-per-view, Hard to Kill.

Ace Austin opened the show coming down to join the commentary table for the next X-Division Championship No. 1 Contendership match.

Trey Miguel defeated Petey Williams, Rohit Raju, Aiden Prince, Brent Banks, Willie Mack to become X-Division Championship No. 1 Contender.

Rohit Raju started the match strong, not only taking out Mack, but tossing Prince out of the ring and following with a dive on to Mack. Left in the ring, Miguel, Banks, and Petey all traded ranas and arm drags. Trey hit a dive on everyone outside, leaving Banks and Petey going one-to-one with Petey getting the better of Banks. Petey hit a diving headscissors on Miguel to the outside. 

Mack returned to the ring and took down Banks and Prince with arm drags and ranas. Mack ended taking out the men in the ring, and a dive on top of everyone outside. 

Back in the ring, the local talent faced off, Prince and Banks were pretty equal to each other, at the end, they just hit double dives too. 

Again in the ring, it was now Miguel, Banks, and Prince going at each other with Miguel taking them out with a meteora, only for Rohit to come in and hit a northern lights and rolling up to an extra auplex to take him out. Petey came in and hit a rana and Flatliner combo, setting up the Destroyer, but Rohit countered and picked up a two count with a roll up, countered into a Sharpshooter for the submission tease until Mack broke it up.

Mack hit the Samoan drop and moonsault combo on Petey for a two count. Banks hit a poison rana on Mack. Prince hit a butterfly brainbuster on Banks for a two count. Finally, Trey Miguel hit some Cheeky Nandos, but got cut off by Banks. Prince suplexed Banks onto Miguel, hit a 450, followed by a Frog Splash, followed by a Canadian Destroyer, but at the end, it was Trey Miguel stealing the pin by rolling up Petey for the win.

Match started weak with everyone selling outside, but it got really good towards the end. Rohit Raju was fantastic here, and Impact really needs to bring back Brent Banks.

Throughout the match, they showed Trey Miguel’s mom in attendance, with constant hinting that Ace Austin is going to try and seduce Trey Miguel’s mother.

Gabby Loren interviewed Rich Swann about next week’s 5-way No. 1 Contender’s match for Callihan’s title. Swann said that becoming world champion would prove everyone wrong that his size will not stop him. 

Next up, Loren interviewed Michael Elgin about the same match. Elgin said that a lot of people wish they can win, but at the end, it’s him that will win. Elgin has proved to get things done since his debut, and now his sights are on the title.

Madison Rayne (w/Kiera Hogan) defeated Alexia Nicole

Rayne mocked Nicole to start the match and got beat up early until she blocked a backstabber and hit a blockbuster for a quick pin attempt. Rayned locked in a cravate and hit some knees, followed with a sliding clothesline for another two count. Kiera Hogan got a slap in on Nicole for good measures. 

Nicole made a small comeback with a desperation Neckbreaker. They traded some forearms with Nicole getting the better of Rayne. Nicole followed with a shotgun dropkick, a backstabber, and an electric chair drop for a two count. Rayne tried to leave the match, but Nicole pulled her back to the ring the hard way, but as she did, distracted herself with Hogan, allowing Rayne to hit a draping neckbreker.

Nicole got a roll up for a near fall, but Rayne came back with Cross Rayne for the win. Ok match, what Rayne lacks in wrestling ability, she makes up with her character work.

Backstage, Johnny Swinger told Aiden Prince that he took a dump in Petey Williams’ bag, but he accidentally did it to Ken Shamrock’s bag. Swinger will suffer for this.

RVD cut a promo from his pool along with Katie Forbes, who was just out there twerking. Rob said that he doesn’t need the money, but that Impact needs him, and so he’ll be back next week. Not good.

Daga defeated Jake Crist

Great match. Daga is in the 5-way No. 1 Contendership match for Callihan’s title, and thus got the win tonight in a great showing. 

They started the show with a fast paced sequence of kicks, slaps, and counters, that ended with Crist outside the ring and Daga hitting a springboard tornillo on him. 

Back in the ring, Crist got Daga with a Dragon Screw, sending him outside, following with a diving DDT, but Daga managed to rebound and drop Crist instead, but at a cost, Daga seemed hurt from the rebound. 

Back from commercial, Crist and Daga are back in the ring exchanging chops before Daga school boys Crist for a quick two count. Crist locks in the Last Chancery, which Daga escapes by elbowing Crist on the face. Crist goes back on the head submission against the ropes and follows with a good old rake to the eyes. 

Daga made a comeback with some elbows and a bit neckbreaker and DDT combo for a two count. Both men exchanged Pop-up Death Valley Drivers. Crist blocked a Dragon Suplex, but ended up eating a couple of Germans instead for a two count. Crist countered Daga with a Powerslam into the corner, followed with a kick combo for a two count. 

Both men took to the top of the turnbuckle and exchanged strikes until Daga hit a rana for a two count. Daga followed with a Tiger Driver ‘98 for the win.

We got a fantastic recap of Joey Ryan vs Ken Shamrock with opera music.

Loren interviewed The North about tonight’s match with Edwards and Marufuji. Great short promo by confident champions, happy to go against top talent. 

oVe (Impact World Champion Sami Callihan & Madman Fulton) defeated Rich Swann & Tessa Blanchard

Tessa and Swann rushed the ring, supekicked Callihan out, and team up against Fulton, how fell to a kick and backstabber combo. Swann hit a phoenix splash to the outside. 

Back in the ring, Tessa and Callihan faced off, Tessa started with strikes, but Fulton distracted her, giving Sami the opening for a Brainbuster. 

Swann tagged in and ran wild on Callihan, catching him with a kick and Rana on the top rope. Fulton came in and cut him off, hitting a Reverse Suplex to regain control of the match. Fulton chokeslammed Swann and tried to snap his neck against the ropes. Scoop Slam followed by Callihan’s elbow and into the headlock. The beatdown continued with Fulton striking Swann’s back and locking in a Bearhug. Slingshot plancha by Callihan for a two count and back into the headlock. Complete dominance by oVe. 

Eventually, Swann managed to roll around and dodge Callihan enough to get the tag to Tessa, who came in and hit a Samoan Drop on Callihan, tilt-a-whirl DDT on Fulton, diving cutter on Callihan. Tessa set up the Magnum, but Callihan blocked it, fed her to Fulton’s slam for a two count when Swann made the save. Swann took out Fulton with a kick, sending him outside, running knee on Callihan, followed by a DDT. 

Tessa took out Fulton with a dive, while Swann got a two count over Callihan with a Moonsault. Callihan went for Swann’s eyes and his baseball bat, but the referee took it away. With the referee distracted, Callihan instead used the belt to take out Swann and pick up the win for his team. Great match.

After the bell, oVe took out Swann with another belt shot. Tessa went for the save, but took a belt shot too from Sami. As the beatdown continued, Brian Cage came down for the save, took out Fulton with an F-5, but Callihan escaped. Cage is not in contention of the title after losing at Turning Point, but he’s not done with Callihan.

Backstage, Loren asked Brian Cage what was next for him. Cage said that he wasn’t done with oVe, Callihan, or the title. Cage said he will be in next week’s title contention match. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was the Ultimate X match of Rich Swann vs Jake Crist vs Ethan Page vs Trey Miguel from the Homecoming Pay Per View.

Johnny Swinger is now bragging about taking a dump on Shamrock’s bag, but the people there tell him that is probably illegal. 

On the other side of the building, Jordynne Grace came up to Taya and told her she wants her shot at the Knockout’s title. Taya said Jordynne doesn’t just get to make challenges, but Bravo takes the challenge instead. Next week, it’s Jordynne Grace vs both Taya and Bravo.

Moose cut a promo from a tennis court talking about he is the greatest of all time. He said that by defeated Shamrock, he proved that he is the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and now he was going to prove he was the best tennis player of all time by defeating Mikey, who he bullied into losing. 

Havok defeated Krystal Moon

Total squash, Havok tossed around Moon from corner to corner, kicked her while down in the corner, rammed her against the apron, beat her down, and hit a Chokeslam for the pin, except Havok broke her own pin, only to deliver a tombstone piledriver instead. Moon was really green even for a squash, but she had great facial expressions of fear and pain. 

Backstage, Suzie found Havok as she returned from the ring. Havok pushed Suzie away, which triggered something in Suzie that brought back some memories of her former self.

It was officially announced that Brian Cage has been added to next week’s No. 1 Contendership match. 

Impact World Tag Team Champions The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page) defeated Naomichi Marufuji & Eddie Edwards to retain their titles. 

Edwards and Marufuji started the match with control, out-wrestling Alexander and chopping around Page, but after some exchanged, the North’s teamwork paid off and they managed to cut off Marufuji for a bit. Marufuji and Edwards came back and sent the North outside, where Marufuji kicked away Alexander, and Eddie hit a rope auicida on Page. 

Back from commercial, Eddie and Marufuji are still in control of the match, working over Page with chops, you can tell that Page is starting to feel them. Right when it seems all good for Eddie, the quick tag work of The North overtakes Eddie and Alexander takes him out with a dive while Page takes out Marufuji. 

The North, now in control, start working over Eddie with quick tags, cheap shots, double team moves, and keeping him away from Marufuji. Page got a two count with a double backbreaker. Alexander went for a suplex, but Edwards blocked it and hit a desperation one instead, finally getting the chance to tag in Marufuji. 

Marufuji came in and ran wild over The North, chopping and kicking both Page and Alexander. Eddie came with the aid with a Frankenstiner, feeding Page into Marufuji’s running knees. Page and Marufuji exchanged strikes but with a blind tag, Alexander came in, blindsided Marufuji, and cut him off. 

The North went for their team finisher, but Marufuji blocked and got rid of Page. He hit a Curb Stomp on Alexander and tagged in Edwards, who delivered a Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count. Alexander went for the ripcord elbow, but Eddie blocked. All four men exchanged kicks and lariats until they were all down. 

Marufuji kicked Alexander, Edwards hit a Powerbomb and a Liger Bomb for a two count. Page pulled Eddie’s ankle, allowing Alexander to kick him. Page and Alexander hit an elbow and kick combo on Marufuji, leaving Eddie alone for the double team finisher and a huge near fall. The North deliver their assisted Spinerbuster finisher next and pin Edwards to retain the titles. Great match.

Final Thoughts — 

Really strong show inside the ring with only a couple of storyline developments, as most of the show built towards next week’s big 5-person elimination match to pick a new contender for Callihan’s championship.

Impact Wrestling Turning Point results: Cage vs. Callihan rematch

Posted on by Antonio Garza

On Friday, Impact Wrestling presented Turning Point from Hazelton, PA, an Impact Plus special that used to be a traditional pay-per-view.

While this show is not going along with current storylines, it did follow up to Bound For Glory with two championship rematch clauses being cashed in. This show was promoted in conjunction with Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling.

Tessa Blanchard & Jordynne Grace defeated Havok & Madison Rayne

Originally, Kiera Hogan was going to team up with Rayne, but due to an injury, Havok replaced Hogan. Grace was the babyface in peril until Blanchard came in for the hot tag. Blanchard held her own until Rayne distracted her and fed her to Havok. Rayne tagged herself in when Havok was under control, only for Tessa to make a comeback and win with the Buzzsaw DDT in an ok opener.

— Rhino cut a promo backstage, telling Rob Van Dam that his vacation was over and tonight, RV was being sent to the hospital. 

PPW Heavyweight Champion Clutch Adams defeated Facade, Evander James, Desean Pratt, KC Navarro, and Charles Mason to retain

The commentary team sold Navarro strong as a potential X-Division wrestler, but Josh Mathews still managed to mention that his KT Tape was all wrongly placed. 

The match was mostly one pair of wrestlers competing and then onto another, giving everyone a chance to show their stuff. Navarro, James, and Facade all hit dives with Navarro featuring the most impressive one with the height he got. After another quick run of everyone getting near falls and finishers in, Facade hit a coast-to-coast on Pratt, only for Adams to run in with a flying elbow to steal the pin from Facade. This was an ok match. as no one was particularly impressive. However, Desean Pratt is someone worth developing and keeping an eye on.

— Backstage, Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Moose about his opponent tonight, Fallah Bahh. Moose put over Bahh as a great contender now, but that Bahh wasn’t at Moose’s level yet. Moose is fantastic.

Michael Elgin defeated Mike Orlando

Orlando is a big dude, so Elgin gave him some offense at first. In the end, it was Elgin wrestling circles around him. Elgin mostly chopped and tossed Orlando around the ring. Orlando had a short hope spot landing a suplex, a DDT and a TKO but that only led to a two count. Elgin got some near falls before he hit a powerbomb, backfist, and Elgin Bomb combo for the win. This was not a good match and went way too long.

— Jacobs interviewed Taya Valkyrie about Tenille Dashwood getting a rematch tonight. Taya just said that she probably had to get a favor from management to get this match, but just like at BFG, she’ll take care of Dashwood tonight. 

Moose defeated Fallah Bahh

Bahh started the match with momentum, forcing Moose to rely on dirty heel tactics to turn the match around. Moose went to work over Bahh’s leg for a long while, really slowing down the match, but eventually, Bahh started his comeback. The match really picked up from here on as they started trading big moves and near falls. At one point towards the end, Moose superplexed Bahh, but Bahh fired up and came back with a huge lariat for a two count. Moose came back with two running dropkicks and the No Jackhammer Needed for the win.

Bahh has to be top five most improved wrestlers of the year as his moving toward strong style has really helped his matches a lot. This was the best match of the night thus far.

— Jacobs interviewed Rich Swann and Mack about their title shot with The North. They said there is no Rhino or RVD getting involved with their match like how the BFG match should have been. The North interrupted and said that tonight they’ll beat them again, and Swann and Mack won’t have excuses anymore. 

Impact Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie (w/John E. Bravo) defeated Tenille Dashwood in a non-title match

Taya was the only champion to get away with not defending her title tonight. Of all the matches so far, this was the one that went straight to the mat for chain wrestling. Similar to Bahh and Moose, this had Tenille have the upper hand over Taya until Bravo interfered to gave Taya the opening to turn the match around. Taya worked over Tenile’s midsection intertwined with occassional interventions of Bravo and Taya’s fake dog, taking shots at Tenille. 

Eventually, Tenille managed to dodge Taya’s running knees and start a comeback. Tenille got a two count with a top rope crossbody. They went back and forth trading near falls. Tenille hit her running low crossbody to the corner, but Taya kicked out. Tenille went for the Spotlight, but Bravo grabbed Tenille’s leg, distracting her enough for Taya to sneak up behind and roll her up to retain her title in an ok match.

After the match, Taya and Bravo beat up on Tenille until Jordynne Grace came for the save. Jordynne attacked Taya and ran her off.

Impact Tag Team Champions The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated Rich Swann and Willie Mack to retain

This was a really good match. It started with Swann and Mack in control. Swann was hitting Page and Alexander from all angles, but as soon as The North had an opening to double team Swann, they cut him off from Wilie and proceeded to work him over.

After several minutes of Swann being worked on and several tag teases, Mack finally got the hot tag and ran wild. The match broke down into many double team moves as both teams started chasing their finishers. The North initially got theirs countered and Swann and Mack hit theirs, but the pin was broken up.

Finally, Swann set up the Standing Rana into the Frog Splash, but Page blocked the rana, and Border Tossed Swann to take him out. Both North members brought down Mack from the top rope the hard way with thier double facebuster finisher to retain their titles.

— Sami Callihan cut a promo putting himself over while telling Jake Crist that he can’t be the Golden Draw anymore until he regains the X-Division championship. Callihan then told Cage that tonight, he’ll defeat him again and stay the World champion

Eddie Edwards defeated Mahabali Shera to retain the Call Your Shot Gauntlet title shot

Shera used his size and power advantage to run over Edwards early on, but Edwards came back using his experience advantage and used Shera’s power against him. The match then went on to wash, rinse, and repeat that sequence a couple of times as they closed to the finish with Shera getting ahold of Edwards, cutting him off with power and working over him until Edwards would find a way out.

Edwards eventually and unceremoniously hit the Boston Knee Party for the win. This started good, but ended really weak.

— We got a commercial for the Impact Plus December 7th special from Dayton, OH, No Surrender. Swann is challenging Callihan, provided he wins tonight. X-Division Champion Ace Austin faces Eddie Edwards in a tables match, while Valkyrie defends her title against Havok.

X-Division Champion Ace Austin defeated Jake Crist to retain

This was a heel vs heel match, but Austin was given the more devious role as he was the one pulling out all the dirty tricks behind the ref’s back. He also got to work over Crist for most of the first half of the match. 

Crist had a great comeback, hitting a kick combo and later catching Austin’s diving move into a cutter for a two count. Jake went for a Super Cutter, but Austin grabbed the ropes to counter the move and came back with The Fold from the top rope to retain his championship. This was a good match, but somewhat short. 

Rob Van Dam (w/Katie Forbes) defeated Rhino by DQ

The brawl started outside the ring as Rhino was making his entrance. After some minutes around the ring, they finally made it into the ring and we got a good look at the new heel RVD, which pretty much consisted of a lot of taunts and a lot of making out with Forbes. RVD even stopped just short of his own signature moves, yet still managed to beat up Rhino.

Eventually, all the taunting and not actually hitting moves allowed Rhino to recover and make a comeback. Rhino superplexed RVD for a two count. Rhino hit the Gore, but Forbes put Van Dam’s foot on the ropes to break the pin. Rhino went for a chair, but the ref took it away. In the distraction, Forbes low blowed Rhino. RVD brought out a table and tried to Gore Rhino, but Rhino blocked him, picked him up, and drove him through the table for the disqualification. This was a fun match, but the fans hated the finish. 

After the match, Rhino chased the referee away instead of attacking RVD who simply made out with Forbes in the ring. 

Impact World Champion Sami Callihan defeated Brian Cage to retain

The story of the match was that Cage was strong and healed up for this match, and thus none of Callihan’s offense was hurting him. Cage took Callihan on the Tour de Hurt around the ring, slamming him against the guardrail and apron. The champion was desperate and was looking for a countout victory.

It wasn’t until Callihan raked Cage’s eyes and hit a piledriver on the apron that he managed to cut Cage off and gain control. It didn’t last long because Cage recovered quickly, but he was rocked enough so that Callihan could keep up with him. They traded strikes and Cage hit an ugly looking Electric Chair Drop for a two count. Callihan came back with a DVD for another two count and then hit a draping piledriver for another two count. 

Out of desperation, Callihan went for the title belt, but the referee took it away. Amidst the chaos, Cage accidentally clotheslined the referee and hit an F-5 for a visual pin, but the ref was down. 

Jake Crist came down and Cage took both Callihan and Crist out. Cage went for the Drill Claw, but Fulton came down. Cage endured a Callihan low blow, a Fulton chokeslam, a Callihan belt shot, and a Cactus Special, getting pinned by Callihan in finish a good main event. 

Tessa Blanchard to challenge for Impact World title at Hard to Kill

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Tessa Blanchard is getting a World Championship shot at Impact Wrestling’s next pay-per-view.

Impact confirmed today that Sami Callihan will defend his World title against Blanchard in the main event of Hard to Kill. The PPV is taking place at The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas on Sunday, January 12, 2020.

The match is being promoted as “the first time in professional wrestling that a woman will challenge a man for the top title live on pay-per-view.”

“IMPACT Wrestling has always been a trailblazer in the professional wrestling world, from our Knockouts division to never-before-seen matches like Ultimate X,” Impact executive vice president Scott D’Amore said. “In her short career, Tessa Blanchard has already demonstrated that she is not only one of the best female professional wrestlers in the world, but one of the very best, period. On January 12th, she will get the opportunity to make history when she challenges for the World Championship live on pay-per-view.”

Callihan won the Impact World Championship from Brian Cage in a steel cage match at last month’s television tapings in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

This will be the second PPV that a Callihan vs. Blanchard match has headlined. Callihan defeated Blanchard in the main event of Slammiversary XVII this July, with that show also being held in Dallas.

General admission tickets for Hard to Kill will go on sale on Monday, November 18. Titanium tickets are going on sale next Friday (November 15).

Impact Wrestling spoilers: Sami Callihan vs. Ken Shamrock

Posted on by F4W Staff

Results: Wrestling Inc and PWInsider

Impact Wrestling kicked off two straight nights of television tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday.

– Both tapings are ODB appreciation nights, with all of the proceeds from ticket sales going toward helping ODB’s fundraising campaign for a new food truck after hers burned down in September.

ODB made an appearance at the start of last night’s Impact tapings before being mocked and insulted by Taya Valkyrie. ODB attacked her, setting up a match between the two for later in the night.

– Brian Cage vs. Eddie Edwards ended in a DQ

Michal Elgin clotheslined both for the disqualification.

– Michael Elgin defeated Eddie Edwards and Brian Cage in a triple threat match

– Fallah Bahh defeated Raj Singh

TJP saved Bahh from the Desi Hit Squad after the match.

– -Petey Williams defeated Johnny Swinger

– RVD came out with Katie Forbes and cut a heel promo until being interrupted by Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer offered to be the special guest referee for a match between RVD and Rhino next week, but RVD declined.

Rhino started to brawl with RVD until they were separated by security.

– ODB defeated Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie in a non-title match

John E. Bravo kept getting involved in the match. ODB won with a roll-up after Valkyrie was distracted by Jordynne Grace.

– Moose defeated Acey Romero

– Ace Austin & Reno Scum (Luster the Legend & Adam Thornstowe) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel)

– TJP defeated Daga

The Desi Hit Squad attacked TJP and Bahh after. Daga tried to help TJP and Bahh but was laid out by Mahabali Shera.

– RVD defeated Rhino in an Old School Rules match

Dreamer was the special guest ref. Katie Forbes pulled him out of the ring and attacked him when Rhino had the match won at one point. Dreamer and RVD had words after the match, with RVD then kicking Dreamer.

– Jordynne Grace defeated Tenille Dashwood

Dashwood made the save for Grace when Valkyrie tried to attack her after.

– Tessa Blanchard defeated Madman Fulton by DQ

The disqualification came when oVe attacked Blanchard. Ken Shamrock made the save for her.

– Impact World Champion Sami Callihan defeated Ken Shamrock

Fulton interfered in the match and attacked Shamrock after it was over. Callihan tried to call him off, but Fulton continued the attack and threw Shamrock over the ropes and to the floor. Fulton stopped after Callihan told him “Please, no more.”

Xplosion tapings —

– Willie Mack defeated Bobby Wayward