IMPACT Wrestling – ‘1000 Episodes’
September 9th, 2023
By: John Siino
Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY
Fan Celebration
Another day in White Plains, New York for IMPACT Wrestling with an overall much better turnout than Friday’s show. It started with a Fan Celebration in the same building from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., which had a line that went around the block. From the vibe I got, there were a lot of people that came just for the meet and greets, with most that didn’t attend Victory Road the night prior and some that were planning on attending the 1000 Episodes tapings later that night. With a list of just about every person on the IMPACT Roster as well as all the alumni that appeared later, for very reasonable prices for photos, autographs & both, I can see why it had such a great turnout. Having attended other similar events and conventions, I will admit that the way this was set up on the top floor of the County Center, was a very efficient and pretty flawless system to get people in and out of the building. With the layout, even if you only paid for one or two of the talent there, you were bound to interact with pretty much anyone and everyone as you made your way around the floor. And can’t say enough how welcoming and friendly the talent and staff are to make the entire experience a memorable one, even if that was the only thing you planned to do that day. Most of the talent has been in town since Thursday, so you were bound to bump into someone around the city of White Plains, and even some WWE talent that were close by with a house show in Long Island tonight were spotted around White Plains.
Doors opened to the main show around 6:30 with a much more rowdy crowd than Victory Road, with the nostalgia factor bringing in a more diverse crowd. Seems like two episodes of IMPACT Wrestling TV were taped, with some segments and matches being out of order, as they would alert the crowd on what would start and end the show. Tom Hannifan & Gia Miller came out for commentary for two matches taped for two weeks of Before The Impact, with Matthew Rehwoldt replacing Miller for the main show’s matches.
Before The Impact
KiLynn King vs. Jody Threat
Threat hit a German Suplex for the pin at 9:29, even though King’s foot was clearly on the rope. King & the fans brought it to the referee’s attention after, but the decision stood. No sign of Taylor Wilde who hasn’t been seen since her mysterious attack a couple of weeks back. It should be noted that they didn’t air any backstage segments or videos for the crowd to see, so it’s possible this and other matches could be better explained once these air.
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship: MK Ultra (Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly) (c) vs. Death Dollz (Courtney Rush & Jessicka)
Slamovich hit the Snow Plow on Jessicka for the pin at 8:23, to retain.
IMPACT 1000
Ultimate X Match: Alan Angels vs. Zachary Wentz vs. Rich Swann vs. Samuray Del Sol vs. Mike Bailey vs. Ace Austin
Crazy as expected with some wild spots including Wentz using his spray paint a couple of times, including while being up on the Ultimate X ropes. As Wentz & Austin were chasing Angels on the ropes, Angels unhooked the X and fell down, as the X fell on top of him at 9:39, as Alan Angels will now get a future X-Division Championship title shot at a future date.
Feast or Fired Match
This was a 20-man match with Jonathan Gresham, Bhupinder Gujjar, Steve Maclin, Moose, Brian Myers, Johnny Swinger, Laredo Kid, Alpha Bravo, Sami Callihan, Black Taurus, KUSHIDA, Chris Bey, Kevin Knight, Heath, Crazzy Steve, John Skyler & Jai Vidal all coming out together, followed by JOYA (Joe Hendry & Yuya Uemura) & PCO who got separate entrances. JOYA’s entrance was very over with the crowd.
– Chris Bey grabbed briefcase #3.
– Crazzy Steve grabbed briefcase #1, then used a fork to escape his way out of the ring.
– Yuya Uemura grabbed briefcase #4, then as Sami Callihan tried to take it from him, Yuya & Joe Hendry played ‘monkey in the middle with it’ until Yuya escaped the ring.
– Steve Maclin had originally grabbed briefcase #2, but when he was trying to escape with it, Rhino made his return and gored Maclin as the briefcase went flying out of the ring and into Moose’s arms on the outside to end the match at 13:34.
The contents of each briefcase were not revealed to the live audience at any point.
The Knockouts
Scott D’Amore came out to what David Penzer said would be the first segment shown on the TV broadcast. D’Amore mentioned Team Canada opening up the first-ever episode of IMPACT. He spoke about the Knockouts Division, before bringing out Gail Kim who threw to the greatest moments in the Knockouts Division history on the screen. Angelina Love & Velvet Sky of The Beautiful People came to the ring after this and talked about how the video didn’t show enough of them, but of the ugly people just like Kim and said it looked like security camera footage of Wal-Mart. They were about to gang up on Kim until Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans & Jai Vidal came out. Shaw welcomed back The Beautiful People and said without them there would be no Shaw, before saying she’s honored to take their spot and improve on it. Love & Sky asked who was so great from her generation, as Jordynne Grace came out and mentioned some of the greats such as ODB, Tara, Traci Brooks & Gail Kim but said that ‘bitches’ are still constant here. Deonna Purrazzo then made her way out and said she was there to represent her own generation. Out next was Trinity who said she respected each and every one of them in the ring, Deonna said for Trinity to talk to her when she has 3 championship reigns, but Kim said Deonna can talk to her when she has 7. Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed then came out as Raisha asked who would be the first to be crushed by Kong. Out came a returning Tasha Steelz who said you can’t have IMPACT 1000 without her and she was the mystery last spot on the heels team. Mickie James returned next for the mystery spot on the babyface side and proclaimed that ‘Hardcore Country’ is back.
Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju & Champagne Singh) vs. Team 3D (Bully Ray & Devon)
Raju got on the mic and said how could you celebrate IMPACT 1000 without the Desi Hit Squad. Team 3D then came out for their first match in 7 years. They hit the 3D on Singh to get the pin at 4:55 before power-bombing Raju through a table. Bully got on the mic and said they couldn’t have picked a better place to reunite than IMPACT, before getting ECW, TNA & IMPACT Wrestling chants going. Devon thanked everyone for welcoming him back after 7 years after going through back surgery & a stroke and pointed out his wife, kids & family in the crowd.
Josh Alexander & Alex Shelley
Alexander talked about how for 21 years he’s been an IMPACT fan and he’s proud to say it. He said he’s here to make it right about never losing the World Championship which prompts Alex Shelley to come out. Shelley gets offended that Alexander is calling it ‘his’ world title and tells him to not say that anymore and it should be Shelley to come out and celebrate the 1000 Episodes. Shelley told Alexander to thank him for everything that Alexander had now. Alexander said when he was at home he was the biggest Shelley fan, but Shelley called him the biggest mark. Alexander said don’t meet your heroes because you’ll be disappointed and brought up all the people Shellye defeated, but how Shelley lost to Alexander at Emergence. Shelley said it’s his story and Alexander is just a side quest. They were about to make a match between them until The Rascalz came out to attack them. Shelley then left the ring as The Rascalz kept attacking Alexander.
Eddie Edwards & Alisha Edwards vs. Frankie Kazarian & Traci Brooks
Brooks pinned Alisha at 8:32 after hitting the Dead Eye. Kazarian then cut to the screen where they showed a video announcing that Traci Brooks will be inducted into the IMPACT Hall of Fame at Bound for Glory in Chicago. Their son joined them in the ring as Traci seemed legit surprised and emotional about the announcement.
IMPACT X-Division Championship: Lio Rush (c) vs. Chris Sabin
A very competitive match that was without a doubt the match of the show. Sabin hit his third Cradle Shock of the match to get the pin and the win at 16:02. The babyfaces came out after to help Sabin celebrate his tenth X-Division title win.
Dirty Dango (w/ Alpha Bravo) vs. Jake Something
Something hit The Void at 4:06 for the pin, after some failed interference on the outside from Bravo.
Kenny King (w/ Sheldon Jean) vs. Eric Young (w/ Scott D’Amore)
Young & D’Amore came out with the Team Canada entrance and music. The match ended in 35 seconds when Jean came in and attacked Young resulting in a disqualification. Shark Boy came out as the ‘Deputy Director of Authority’ and made an impromptu tag team match
Kenny King & Sheldon Jean vs. Team Canada (Eric Young & Scott D’Amore)
This match ended in 10 seconds when The Design ran out and attacked Young & D’Amore causing another disqualification. Shark Boy then introduced one of the most influential tag teams in IMPACT history with America’s Most Wanted and made an eight-man tag team match
Kenny King, Sheldon Jean & The Design (Deaner & Kon) vs. Team Canada (Eric Young & Scott D’Amore) & America’s Most Wanted (James Storm & Chris Harris)
D’Amore hit a Sky High on Jean, followed by the pile driver from Young for the pin at 9:08
Josh Alexander vs. Trey Miguel (w/ Zachary Wentz)
This was originally advertised as Miguel vs. Alex Shelley for the IMPACT World Championship, not sure if a backstage segment might explain this change. Wentz kept interfering until Shelley came out and attacked him with the title. Alexander followed this with the C4 Spike for the pin at 9:45. Shelley & Alexander then made their World Title match official for Bound For Glory.
Awesome Kong (w/ Raisha Saeed), Gail Kim, Mickie James, Jordynne Grace & Trinity vs. Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans (w/ Jai Vidal), Deonna Purrazzo, Tasha Steelz & Angelina Love (w/ Velvet Sky)
The crowd was feeling some taping fatigue before this match, but this was treated like the main event and absolutely got the crowd hype and back in it. It felt like a fun house show type of match, and James, Kim & Trinity were especially getting involved with the crowd. The entire match was built to a hot tag to Kong which got a huge pop. The ending had Gail Kim dive onto everybody on the outside as Kong hit the Implant Buster on Shaw for the pin at 15:23.
Moose & Brian Myers vs. Rhino & Tommy Dreamer
David LaGreca came out as the special guest ring announcer for what was announced as the main event for tonight, but I could see being a dark match just for the crowd. It is possible it will air in the future as part of their Main Event Mondays broadcast they put up bi-weekly on Impact Plus. Dreamer got a big hometown pop here during introductions. Rhino hit a gore on Myers for the pin at 5:59 to send the crowd happy with a short and fun match.
Final Thoughts
They told the crowd to stick around after as parts of the IMPACT 1000 set would be available for purchase. The merchandise table had a nice variety with affordable prices, with just the IMPACT 1000 event t-shirt being sold out even before the show started, as they had it during the Fan Celebration. The old-school but convenient layout of the Westchester County Center kept a lively crowd the majority of the night and the surprisingly cheap prices for food & beverages kept those lines going all night long. It has always been a fun time whenever WWE was in town, but now that IMPACT seemed to have a very successful weekend it’s inevitable they will return as well as maybe open the doors for other promotions as I can see an MLW or GCW in this building without a question.
