By Craig Ferriman@MrImpact
Last night IMPACT Wrestling put on another great show in which every match on the card could have been in the main event spot. Josh Matthews isn’t kidding when he calls it the most unpredictable two hours of the week. It had title matches, backstage brawls and straight up fights. IMPACT never disappoint, and everyone should be watching this.
X Division Championship: Jake Crist© Def. Aiden Prince
A very strong opener from the X Division champion after retaining his title in a great opener with the crowd firmly behind the challenger Prince proving that IMPACT should be spending more time on signing him to a deal, he’s very impressive and in front of his hometown crowd put on a showing. But Jake as X Division champion is showing he has the potential to be one of the hottest champions in IMPACT right now after beating Prince with a huge cutter after Prince jumped from the top rope. It seems like Jakes defences are based around him making everyone think he can lose it but always pulls it back and escapes with the win. His new “Golden Draw” demeanour has shone a new light on the former tag team champion, should anything happen to oVe Jake will be just fine on his own.
Backstage, Konnan is attempting to convince Daga & Ortiz that they can work together. I’m not really sure what’s going on with LAX and their contracts, it seems to me that they’ll be working with IMPACT on an appearance basis until October so they can join AEW for their TV show. If that is the case that feels to me like they’re doing IMPACT dirty, I hope that isn’t the case and I guess they’ll be only one way to find out.
Taya Valkyrie cuts a promo backstage with Jimmy Jacobs after coming out of IMPACT Management office unhappy that she has to defend the knockouts championship again tonight against Havok when she already defended it within her contractually obligated 30 days last week at Unbreakable. I must say I’m thoroughly enjoying arrogant heel Taya.
Ace Austin Def. Eddie Edwards Via DQ
This feud between the “One True Ace” and Eddie Edwards over Eddie’s wife Alisha has the potential to be Ace’s biggest feud in IMPACT to date and I’m certainly enjoying watching it all unfold. The match was good, for the period it lasted, it was mainly Eddie trying to keep a hold of Ace so he can send him a message, but Ace keeps managing to get away from him. The finish comes when Ace is trying to get in Eddie’s head when he shouted “What would Alisha think?” this sends Eddie over the edge and nails Ace with a Boston knee party but instead of making the cover he just starts drilling in shots to the head of Austin, as referee Brandon Tolle tries to break it up Eddie elbows Tolle in the face and the referee calls for the bell. This segment was improved in its story telling when Alisha came out to stop her husband from doing any further damage to a guy she says is just trying to be “Friends” with her.
We see highlights from the amazing Tessa vs Sami rematch at unbreakable and can see the passion behind Tessa’s words and how much she wants that history making moment of becoming World champion and makes it clear she’s not done with The Callihan Death machine just yet.
A continuation of the Moose, Fallah Bahh feud next when Moose began insulting Fallah in catering. Fallah wouldn’t stand for it and they just started brawling all over catering and would end with Mr Impact Wrestling crushing a piece of chocolate cake in the face of Fallah Bahh and calling him “Fat Boy”. A very entertaining segment and we finally have the Fallah Bahh we all wanted, just a pure monster and looks like could beat anyone. I do hope that Moose is the eventual winner of this feud though because he has a lot of momentum and nothing should stop that.
Madison Rayne Def. Alexia Nicole
The “Girl on Fiyah” Kiera Hogan joined Josh & Don on commentary for this match and is showing she’s an excellent heel and although I’m not a fan of wrestlers being on commentary during a rivals match it was very entertaining listening to the banter between all three.
Nicole was making her debut for IMPACT and was very impressive she’s someone I had heard of but not actually seen any of her matches however this match was to put Madison over as a heel and to show us that although Rayne & Hogan do hate each other they can get on the same page when they want to put a beating on a common enemy. Rayne would defeat Nicole with a rip chord cutter followed up with a CrossRayne. Hogan and Rayne would jaw jack whilst Hogan was sat on commentary then would eventually get in the ring and get in each other’s faces and Alexia Nicole would try to get in the way which lead to her getting a beat down from the two knockouts only to be saved by Jordynne Grace.
RVD would Join the Rascalz in the Treehouse which was a very funny segment and would love to see more of that.
Knockouts Championship Taya Valkyrie © Vs Havok: Match ends No Contest
Another great knockouts match from two of the best knockouts, Havok deserving of being champion again and I thought it was going to happen at Bound For Glory but now due to interference from the undead bride SU Yung after Havok would choke slam Valkyrie and without the music and the distraction from the undead maids of honour then eventually the Undead Bride. SU who hasn’t been seen since Slammiversary made a B-line to the death machine and the two just started brawling in the ring and although we didn’t actually hear a bell the match was thrown out.
Next Melissa Santos sat down with Jimmy Jacobs to discuss the condition of her husband The world champion “The Machine” Brian Cage and it isn’t looking good according to Melissa, Cage has a few more appointments with specialists and is unsure of how long it could take for the champ to recover after his attack at the hands of Michael Elgin. I’ve said this already, but I think cage will relinquish the World championship leaving the BFG Main event open to Tessa vs Sami 3 for the world championship, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Stone Rockwell vs Nate Madsen: No Contest
I don’t really consider this as a match because both men were already in the ring and the bell rang but nothing really happened and was just set up for Rhino to Gore both men in the ring.
The War machine was given a microphone and called out Big Mike to challenge him to a fight, Elgin says that they’ll fight on his terms but Rhino doesn’t take that for an answer and meets Elgin on the ramp and the two just brawl and is soon broken up by security and officials to the dismay of the crowd. I can’t wait for their first official match in IMPACT it’s going to be a huge heavyweight clash.
Backstage, Ace Austin tells all the trainees that he intends on having sex with Eddie’s wife Alisha.
Gama Singh accepts the Deaners Challenge to a tag team match next week in which the losers will have to become servants to the winners.
oVe have the camera backstage and Sami puts out a challenge to Tommy Dreamer & Tessa Blanchard to a tag match next week against him and Dave Crist. That should be a great match and just another step in the Tessa & Sami feud becoming feud of the year.
Tag Team Titles, The North Def. Daga & Ortiz.
In their third straight main event for IMPACT Page & Alexander are proving themselves as one of the best teams ever to be in IMPACT, Page is just a pure arrogant heel and knows how-to pick-up heat. Alexander doesn’t really speak too much but just shows everyone he’s earned the name “Walking Weapon”. Despite how I thought this match might have gone down with Ortiz & Daga they worked very well and looked like they could have given us a huge upset. Both teams hit great tag team manoeuvres, The North looking like just a pure old school tag team like the Enforcers, they have everything tag team champions should have from their demeanour to the way they work in the ring and having the right champions mentality by wanting IMPACT to line up all challengers just so they can “Knock them down”.
So that was the most unpredictable two hours of the week and put on such a great show, every week they out do themselves, it’s clear from videos from Ethan Pages v-log that the morale in the IMPACT locker room is very high, you can also see from their social medias that all of the talent are enjoying their time in the company.
Many people have said that this locker room has the same hunger for success as the locker room that once held names like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe which I feel is a testament to the way IMPACT is currently being run. If you missed this week’s episode you can watch it again on IMPACT Plus app or it’s repeated every Tuesday/Wednesday on twitch.
