IMPACT WRESTLING
Thursday, October 18th
Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York
RESULTS: Taya Valkyrie over Katarina, Ethan Page over Trevor Lee, Killer Kross over Tommy Dreamer, Allie over Alisha Edwards, Brian Cage over Rich Swann to retain the X division title
-This was the episode coming off Bound for Glory and kicked off with Johnny Impact’s first promo as champion. The negative was the crowd sounded subdued throughout the show. Impact is hardly a stellar promo but shared a story of going to matches at the Great Western Forum as a child with his father and will be a fighting champion. He was confronted by Fenix to set up next week’s title match, which is the hook for the new time slot on POP TV. I felt Impact came off alright during the segment, but it didn’t have the feel of a big championship win because few were expecting it and Impact is taking a big leap into the top babyface role.
-Austin Aries was mentioned briefly with Johnny Impact referring to the last champion as “unprofessional” while speaking to Fenix in the ring.
-They promoted the move to 10 pm next week with Josh Mathews adding that it will be Impact “After Dark”, which made me think of the nightclub they opened adjacent to the Peach Pit on 90210. I guess Scarlett Bourdoux could be cast as Valerie Malone and own the place, Johnny Impact would be Brandon, I guess Austin Aries is Dylan McKay, Tessa Blanchard is Brenda, Allie would be Donna Martin, and Eli Drake is Steve Sanders. POP TV is missing the boat using this cast on a wrestling show.
-Brian Cage defeated Rich Swann in the main event and was the best match on the show. I didn’t think it reached the level of being excellent and the audience didn’t add much. Swann took a buckle bomb and Olympic slam before his final flurry with a cutter off the turnbuckle, a Lethal Injection, and 450 splash that Cage kicked out of. Cage won the match with Weapon X and was confronted by Sami Callihan. Cage fought off Cage and hit the Drill Claw onto Jake Crist to end the show as Callihan & oVe retreated to the back.
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-Tommy Dreamer cut an angry promo directed at Moose and threatening to give him a concussion because he’s not politically correct and doesn’t care about inflicting CTE. Killer Kross accepted on Moose’s behalf and they had a match with Kross destroying Dreamer. The match was stopped by the referee after Kross hit the Doomsday Saito suplex twice and injured Dreamer’s neck. Kross and Moose continued to attack Dreamer after the match, which was overkill and minimized the damage from the suplexes. Josh Mathews mentioned Eddie Edwards wasn’t in the building because of the apron bomb he took on Sunday, which was great attention to detail to explain his absence.
-Allie is now possessed by evil but can also snap out of it and playing a different version of her character. She is a tremendous performer and it’s why I’m optimistic she can play the role more effectively than most. This could be taken as too campy, which the segment on Sunday was, but we’ll see how this evolves. Impact has a better track record characters such as Rosemary, Su Yung, and Laurel Van Ness, so they have that working for them in this new direction for Allie.
-The LAX and OGz feud concluded with a truce called inside a bar with the agreement to split New York and not too cross into either’s territory. I wonder if Daredevil will get involved in Season 3?
-Next week’s show will feature Johnny Impact vs. Fenix for the Impact title, Gama Singh challenged Rohit Raju to a match, and there will be a tag match with Moose & Killer Kross vs. KM & Fallah Bahh.
-Perhaps the best part of the show was the highlight package of Abyss’ Hall of Fame induction speech. It is impossible not to be happy for this guy and take away how much this Hall of Fame induction meant to him. It was better than most Hall of Fame speeches we’ve heard over the past few years from the WWE’s version. I’m glad Impact has uploaded the entire speech.
