IMPACT! Wrestling
March 16th, 2021
Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee
Commentary: Matt Striker & D’Lo Brown
Before The IMPACT! – Black Taurus (w/ Crazzy Steve & Rosemary) def. Luster the Legend (w/ Adam Thornstowe) by pinfall at 13:24
FinJuice (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) vs. XXXL (Acey Romero & Larry D)
Nontitle match here from the new champions FinJuice, as Juice and Larry D start the match. Quickly Finlay comes in, and they take Larry down with a double bulldog for a 2 count. Romero comes in, but FinJuice fails to take him down, instead, Romero hits a giant-sized crossbody on FinJuice. Romero is able to block Juice’s comeback, knocks Finlay off the apron before missing a senton. Finlay and Larry both come in, as Finlay hits a dropkick and uppercut in the corner followed by a spinning elbow for a two count. Juice is able to knock Romero out of the ring as he and Finlay take Larry down with a flapjack. As Juice dives onto Romero outside, Finlay hits the Acid Drop on Larry for the pin.
Winners: FinJuice by pinfall at 3:31
The Good Brothers immediately come out after the math and ask FinJuice if they are happy that they came into IMPACT and took the titles before Anderson jokingly blames Gallows for losing the titles. Anderson says they have been busy on IMPACT and AEW with Kenny Omega plus he has to home school his 4 children on Zoom. Gallows says they were hungover and not prepared, and were jet-lagged and they ask for their rematch. Juice says that’s not a problem, Finlay says that they are busy and have to go to Japan first and they will have to wait for them to come back in April. Finlay calls the Good Brothers young boys so the Good Brothers start attacking them before FinJuice exits out.
Hacking for Passion
We get a hacker-style video for Sami Callihan where his voice is all over the place and purposely modulated. Sami is basically saying that Trey Miguel is hot-headed and confuses passion with anger. The passion is what his student Sam Beale had last week on IMPACT, even if it meant stabbing Trey in the back. Sami keeps saying how Trey is lacking passion and won’t do what it takes to get the job done, and tonight he will embarrass him and hurt him and make an example out of him.
Dreamer With the Pen
When we come back from a commercial, the Good Brothers barge into Scott D’Amore saying FinJuice winning the titles and taking it back to Japan for a month wasn’t supposed to happen. Gallows is more upset they will be going and dancing in Roppongi with strippers with their titles. D’Amore says it’s their fault for not winning, and FinJuice will be defending the IMPACT World Tag Team Championship in NJPW. And since FinJuice will be back in April, The Good Brothers will get their rematch at Rebellion. Tommy Dreamer walks in and is also upset that they have no tag titles, and says that they got themselves in a mess. D’Amore says they built a bridge with a company that hated them for years, but it’s okay because FinJuice will be back in April. D’Amore says they can do it how Dreamer did it with Paul Heyman and run a company into the ground. D’Amore says the next Impact Plus special will be Hardcore Justice and this is perfect for Dreamer, so since this is so easy, Dreamer can book it himself. Dreamer pulls out a paper that already has a card written up. D’Amore is impressed and approves Dreamer’s card as the commissioner for the evening.
Rhino (w/ Eric Young, Deaner & Joe Doering) vs. Jake Something (w/ Chris Sabin & James Storm)
Rhino is fully decked in the new Violent by Design t-shirt. Right at the bell, Rhino goes and attacks Something, taking him down with a clothesline as Young yells that a new chapter begins tonight and to show them that he belongs and will not be forgotten and neglected. Rhino stays on the offense by digging in the back of Something with his knee before Something is able to punch his way out. Deaner gets on the apron, but quickly gets taken down by Sabin, before Storm and Doering go at it. Deaner gets on the apron once again, gets down by Something who turns around, and walks into a Gore by Rhino who gets the pin from that.
Winner: Rhino by pinfall at 2:07
After the match, all 7 men start brawling and Rhino is able to Gore both Sabin and Storm as the rest of Violent by Design stomps on the three babyfaces.
Tenille & the Followers
After the commercials, Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with the K present the group name of “Tenille Dashwood and the Followers” to her teammates Deonna Purrazzo, Kimber Lee, Susan & Fire ‘n Flava. Deonna says she should be the leader, but Tasha Steelz says since they are 2 champions, it should be them and calls Kimber & Susan, ‘Beavis and Butthead’, Deonna tries to bring the team together and says they should do what they did last week and lay everybody down. Susan screams ‘Team Justice!’ before Kaleb asks Tenille if that’s even their name. Tenille is upset she didn’t get to deliver her inspiration quote and walks away.
Rohit Raju vs. Shera
Raju runs in and attacks Shera from the back before the bell rings, and starts to use his quickness to duck and dodge Shera, but Shera’s power easily takes down Raju including a big Rock Bottom that causes a 2 count and Raju to roll to the outside. Raju is able to outsmart Shera and jam Shera’s arm on the rope before stomping him out in the corner. Raju continues the attacks and yells ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” before beating Shera in the corner. Shera hulks up and takes Raju down a couple of times with clotheslines before delivering a big splash in the corner. He goes for another one but runs into a knee, a kick, and a jumping knee by Raju. Raju follows with a cannonball in the corner, jumps off the top rope but falls right into a chokeslam/backbreaker combo that only gets a 2 count. Raju dodges in the corner and is able to roll up Shera with his legs on the rope for leverage for the pin.
Winner: Rohit Raju by pinfall at 4:06
No Time to Party
Backstage the new Unified Champion Rich Swann is congratulated by Willie Mack on beating Moose’s ass. Mack says they have to celebrate tonight, Swann says they will party but at this moment it’s not the time for the party because he heard some stuff so he has to go to the ring and take care of some business.
Invisible Hand Writing History
Rich Swann comes to the ring and says he can’t hold all this gold and can’t lie, Sacrifice was possibly one of the hardest things he’s ever had to go through in his life. At 30 years old, he’s made his sacrifices but Saturday he and Moose went out there and proved why IMPACT Wrestling is one of the best companies and has some of the best talents. He may despise Moose, but he respects him. At Sacrifice, it just seems to be that Swann was on his high horse and riding on the stallion because he came double champion. Swann says even though this was unspeakable, he did it. He partied on Sunday and partied on Monday, rolling into today where it leads him to what’s on his mind. Swann says he’s had a monkey on his back since January and that’s Kenny Omega when he pinned him. And now it all comes back around, and at Rebellion, Swann gets an opportunity to write his wrongs and do something that never happens in this business. He will go in as the IMPACT Unified World Champion and take on the AEW World Champion and there will not be any Good Brothers, Chris Sabin or Moose by their sides and it’s one of the most important things that has ever happened in this industry. Swann and Omega one-on-one and we will see who the real world champion is and who the best in the world really is.
We start hearing the song Pachelbel’s Canon, as the Invisible Hand, Don Callis walks out. Callis extends his hand and pulls Swann in for a hug and talks about how he’s so proud of Swann. Callis grabs the mic and says Swann has no idea how proud of him he is on this special night. Callis loves to talk about the history and he will talk some history now and tells Swann to stop him if he wants. Callis goes on to say how he’s a huge Rich Swann fan and it was him who fought to get Swann signed to IMPACT. And when Swann broke his leg, he fought to make sure Swann and his family got their check every 2 weeks, because of how important he is. And he called Swann every week when he was injured. Callis says Swann was his guy and pushed to put him in the main event for Hard to Kill even though others doubted him. He calls Swann the shiny toy he was so proud of. Callis talks about his uncle, the Sheik, and talks about how he bought his first car with his first wrestling paycheck and saw someone with a better car and felt bad. Sheik told him there will always be someone with something bigger and better. Callis says that was Kenny Omega, and for Swann not to be offended. Callis says Swann thanked him for putting him in the six-man match and even though he must have celebrated from winning. And while celebrating he probably had it in the back of his head about how he took the One-Winged Angel at Hard to Kill, and how it was hard for him to sleep thinking about it. History says at Hard to Kill he got One-Winged Angel 1-2-3, and no matter how much he likes Swann, he’s only a superstar while Omega is a God of pro wrestling. Callis says even though he’s been here for Swann, he’s always been there for Omega when he fought Okada, Jon Moxley, and headlined another company’s pay-per-view he was always there. And if you heard him on commentary, you would hear Callis scream over and over, One-Winged Angel, and it’s always over. He tells Swann might have made history at Sacrifice, but now he’ll be part of history at Rebellion but in this case, Callis has already written that history and tells him to sleep well.
Paddy Pregaming
We get another paid announcement from Tony Schiavone and Tony Khan promoted St. Patrick’s Day Slam, Schiavone with his green hat on. Khan says he is all business tonight, while Schiavone started celebrating early as they went over the card for St. Patrick’s Day Slam. Khan says IMPACT knows nothing about these types of cards.
Major Problems
We see Brian Myers who walks into a conversation with Eddie Edwards and Matt Cardona. Cardona tells Eddie he will talk to him and tells Myers he needs to stop this and asks why he paid Hernandez to interfere. Myers says that IMPACT is his time to do this on his own and doesn’t want Cardona to be here and tells him to get lost.
Tenille Dashwood, Fire ‘n Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz), Deonna Purrazzo, Kimber Lee & Susan (w/ Kaleb with a K) vs. Havok, Nevaeh, ODB, Alisha, Jordynne Grace & Jazz
Alisha and Tenille start this 12 women match, but Tenille quickly takes down Alisha, while Susan and Kaleb start yelling at each other on who should take the pictures. Alisha is able to take the upper hand here on Tenille including a Stinkface in the corner, before tagging in ODB who gives the Bronco Buster. Susan tags herself in but quickly gets taken down by ODB. Nevaeh and Kimber Lee are next to go at it until Havok gets tagged in and the team hits Lee with a clothesline combo for the two-count. Kiera comes in and gets taken easily by the much bigger Havok who throws her around like a ragdoll and a big splash in the corner, tagging in Jazz. Kiera quickly squirms out and tags in Deonna. As Jazz gets taken to the outside, all the other women come in and start taking turns hitting moves on each other ending with Jordynne and Tasha going at it while the other 10 women are on the outside. Tasha and Jordynne hit stereo suicide dives to all the other women on the outside as we go to the commercial.
When we come back, we see Deonna attempting to pin Alisha, who then gets double-teamed in their corner by Susan and Kimber. Alisha is able to dodge and they hit a double crossbody and both start crawling to their corners. Grace and Lee get tagged in, and Grace hits a driver for a 2 count. Jazz tags in and gets sidewalk slammed by Lee for a two. Alisha hits a stunner on 3:16 day, as all the women start coming in again to start attacking each other. It goes back to Jazz and Lee, Jazz hits an X-Factor that gets broken up by almost everybody. Women start brawling until they clear out to the outside, again leaving Jazz and Lee alone. Jazz ducks an enziguri and quickly applies the STF for the submission win.
Winners: Jazz, Jordynne Grace, Havok, Nevaeh, ODB & Alisha by pinfall at 14:16
Who’s Up Next for the X?
Gia Miller is backstage with the new X Division Champion Ace Austin and Madman Fulton. Austin says everything is right now that Austin is standing tall as the champion, and the youngest at that. At Sacrifice the fairytale folded in the only way it could, even though TJP came and took the title from him, he came back and took the title. Chris Bey comes in and says since they are talking about poetry, let’s talk about art and how Bey beat Austin with the Art of Finesse. As he starts to challenge him, Josh Alexander comes in and says he became the number one contender at No Surrender. TJP walks in, but Austin quickly tells him to get to the back of the line. TJP says as per Scott D’Amore, next week TJP gets his rematch as the best, leapfrogs the rest.
They announced the next IMPACT Plus pay-per-view IMPACT Wrestling Hardcore Justice on Saturday, April 10th which falls on WrestleMania Weekend.
Next Week
IMPACT X Division Championship: Ace Austin (c) vs. TJP
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Jazz
Karl Anderson (w/ Doc Gallows) vs. Eddie Edwards
Sami Callihan vs. Trey Miguel
Miguel runs down the ring and starts the attack before the bell rings but Callihan is quick to take him down. They quickly spill to the outside and start brawling to the entranceway. Callihan goes for a powerbomb, but Trey quickly escapes and hits a fireman carry to Sami all the way back to the ring. Trey goes back inside and tries a hurricanrana to the outside, but Callihan catches him and puts on a Boston crab as they go to the commercial.
We come back and Callihan is beating down on Trey in the middle of the ring before taking Trey back to the outside. Callihan wedges Trey’s ankle in between the ring post and stomps on it. Back inside, Callihan clotheslines Trey for the pin attempt. Callihan starts chopping Trey and whips him across to the other side of the ring and slowly targets Trey piece by piece including the ankle he jammed up before. Trey tries to run towards Callihan in the corner, but he is able to catch him and apply a Boston Crab in the turnbuckle, but Trey escapes and hits a step-up enziguri. Callihan runs into a back elbow, and Trey fights Callihan off but misses a springboard and walks into a ripcord clothesline. Trey rolls out of a piledriver attempt and hits a double stomp as we go to our last commercial of the night.
We come back where both men look fatigued and slowly chop and strike each other in the middle of the ring. Trey fires up and hits a cutter followed by a double stomp attempt that Callihan ducks and hits a rope-assisted neck breaker for a two count. Callihan calls for the piledriver, but Trey reverses it and rolls up for a two-count. Trey comes back with a roll of the dice and gets a 2 count again. Trey looks at the top rope but has some trouble standing so decides against it. Trey goes for the Hourglass submission which is his figure four/arm breaker move but Callihan bites his way out of it. Callihan comes back with a powerbomb for a 2 count but quickly turns it over to a Boston Crab right into an STF right into a Crossface but Trey gets to the ropes. Trey slips out to the floor, as Callihan follows him. Callihan starts chopping Trey against the barricade, tells the camera ‘Thumbs Down’, but runs into Trey who runs up the steps and springboards off the ropes for a cutter to the outside. Trey tries to pull Callihan up but Callihan kicks him off and the back of the head of Trey goes and hits the steps. Back inside, they start slapping until Trey reverses for a 2 count. Trey climbs the ropes and when he’s about to jump, Callihan tells the referee he is injured. Callihan was faking it, so he knocked Trey down and hit a package piledriver for the three-count.
Winner: Sami Callihan by pinfall at 28:03
Siino Vision: Without a doubt, the promo from Don Callis was the highlight of the show, as Don’s words and history with Rich Swann and IMPACT Wrestling can obviously sound legit with his time in the company. I am still hoping for Rich Swann to appear on AEW so they can hype up this match as it’s more important than they might promote it to be and that’s sad. Tommy Dreamer is already back with a pen from his hiatus and I find it odd that they would put Hardcore Justice on the same day as WrestleMania 37, so I hope for their sake they put it on very early in the day.
I like the tease of FinJuice possibly defending the IMPACT World Tag Team Titles in NJPW while they are in Japan for the next month, as that should put more eyeballs and hopefully have fans follow them when they come back in April for Rebellion. I’ll be honest when I originally saw the 12 women match I feared the worse only because so many bodies on the apron at the same time, never works for me but surprisingly it was much better than I expected, bar the repetitive spots of all the women coming in to hit their moves back to back, way too choreographed. The main event was good, when I saw it came on with 30 minutes left in the show, I expected it to be long but the problem is it was cut up with 2 very long commercial breaks that felt like they took up one-third of the match. It ended up being really good, but something tells me their feud isn’t over yet, especially with Hardcore Justice around the corner.
