Impact Wrestling returned to pay-per-view on Sunday night with the Rebellion card from the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto, Ontario.
Nate Milton and I will be doing an Impact POST Show later tonight on the site with a review of the card and taking your feedback and questions.
You can chat about the show in the comment section below on the POST Wrestling Forum.
The opening video focused on the theme of rebellion and covering the programs leading into the show.
Josh Mathews is calling the show alongside Don Callis.
QUICK RESULTS
*Ace Austin over Petey Williams, Eddie Edwards, Jake Crist, Cousin Jake, and Aiden Prince in 5:15
*Scarlett Bordeaux over Rohit Raju in 5:01
*Moose, Josh Alexander & Ethan Page over The Rascalz in 9:25
*Taya Valkyrie over Jordynne Grace in 9:00 to retain the Knockout’s title
*Rich Swann over Sami Callihan in an oVe Rules match to retain the X Division title in 16:06
*Tessa Blanchard over Gail Kim in 13:02
*Brian Cage over Johnny Impact to win the Impact title in 13:16
*LAX over Pentagon Jr. and Fenix in 20:50 in the Full Metal Mayhem match to win the Impact tag titles
PETEY WILLIAMS VS JAKE CRIST VS AIDEN PRICE VS ACE AUSTIN VS COUSIN JAKE VS EDDIE EDWARDS
The Six-Pack Scramble is an unannounced match they have added. Cousin Jake is independent wrestler Jake Something, who just debuted as part of The Deaners with Cody Deaner on this past week’s episode.
Prince went for a dive and was cut off by Austin’s springboard enzuigiri off the ropes. Austin went for a tope to the floor and Crist caught him with a cutter from the apron onto everyone on the floor, it looked great.
Williams applied a sharpshooter onto Edwards and was broken up by Jake. Crist hit Austin with a cutter off the ropes and dove to the floor with a DDT. Prince landed a 450 splash and Austin stopped the cover. Edwards hit Austin with a Tiger Driver for a two-count.
Williams hit the Canadian Destroyer onto Jake, Austin stopped the cover with a sunset flip onto Williams and got the pin while hooking the trunks.
WINNER: Ace Austin at 5:15
It was way too short but it was clear that Austin was the focal point of the match and was the guy that stood out most. He looked great.
Mathews announced Impact Plus, which is the branding of the Global Wrestling Network. It will feature a new show every Wednesday starting with “Code Red” on May 5th.
Sami Callihan cut a promo, he said Rich Swann became fake and a phony. Swann isn’t facing his big brother but is facing the “Death Machine” and will have to break his legs.
ROHIT RAJU VS SCARLETT BORDEAUX
Bordeaux came out with Fallah Bahh. Originally, she was going to host a “Smoke Show” segment tonight, but they announced this match earlier in the day.
Bordeaux missed Raju with a baseball slide dropkick and took out Gama Singh on the floor. Raju took over and had the heat inside the ring. Callis said Raju is sending a larger political message with his treatment of Bordeaux.
Bordeaux used La Mistica with the crossface applied and Raju escaped. Bordeaux hit a release German suplex and followed with a top rope high cross onto Raju and Raj Singh on the floor.
Raju went for a stink face, was kicked in the balls, and Bordeaux hit Strong Zero and pinned him.
WINNER: Scarlett Bordeaux at 5:01
Bordeaux and Fallah Bahh have a lot of charisma, Bordeaux could be a main event level manager. The match was fine, and it was short enough that the people were with it whenever Bordeaux was on offense.
MOOSE, ETHAN PAGE & JOSH ALEXANDER VS THE RASCALZ
The Rascalz hit senton atomicos one-by-one with Moose doing a kip up after the last one. The audience chanted “Walking Weapon” for Josh Alexander.
Moose hit his Okada-style dropkick with Dez seated on the top turnbuckle. Dez went for a Robinson special onto Alexander and it didn’t come close to connecting, although Alexander rolled out of the ring. Callis called it a “glancing blow”.
Wentz hit a springboard cutter onto Moose followed by Trey with a springboard rana. Wentz did a shooting star from the ramp with Dez pushing him in mid-air onto Page on the floor. Trey’s tope con giro was caught, and Moose ran him into the guardrail. Dez leaped off Alexander’s back on the ramp onto the rest on the floor.
Alexander was hit with a Meteora, Swanton and Spiral Tap by the Rascalz and Page made the save.
Moose and The North triple-teamed Dez, Alexander flipped Dez into a spine buster from Page and then Moose hit a Brogue kick and an awkward looking spear to pin Dez.
WINNERS: Moose, Ethan Page & Josh Alexander at 9:25
This match featured a ton of action, lots of cool spots, and the audience got into it. There were a few awkward moments, but they didn’t harm the match. The six had a lot of chemistry. The audience was very much behind Alexander.
TAYA VALKYRIE VS JORDYNNE GRACE FOR THE KNOCKOUT’S TITLE
Grace attacked her immediately and hit a senton from the second turnbuckle and went for covers right away. Taya snapped her right arm on the top rope and wrapped it around the post. Taya focused on the arm with submission attempts. Taya yelled, “O Canada” before hitting a draping DDT.
Grace fought back and hit a clothesline with the damaged arm. She hit a Michinoku Driver and nearly lost her, which Callis was quick to attribute to the arm injury. Grace hit a Muscle Buster for a two-count. Taya landed two knees strikes to the face, a head butt and each blocked the other’s moves. In the end, Grace’s arm gave out allowing Taya to hit the Road to Valhalla and won the match.
WINNER: Taya Valkyrie in 9:00 to retain the Knockout’s title
I liked the match and it focused on Grace’s arm injury and everything connected to the injury, including the finish. Mathews and Callis pushed how hard Grace pushed the champion.
RICH SWANN VS SAMI CALLIHAN IN AN oVe RULES MATCH FOR THE X DIVISION TITLE
Callihan came out on top of Madman Fulton’s shoulders. Swann came out looking serious and didn’t dance or do his regular entrance.
Swann grabbed a staple gun early on and hit Callihan in the chest with it and continued to use it. He tossed weapons into the ring. Swann went for a sunset flip and was stopped with a staple to the cheek.
Callihan set up a guardrail between the ramp and ring steps, and then fought with Swann on the floor. Inside the ring, Swann was countered and put through a seated chair with an exploder suplex. Callihan’s powerbomb was stopped with an aluminum pan, Callihan spit in his face and Swann wiped it onto his own face.
At the entrance, Swann swung off the metal pole into a rana and then landed a handspring cutter onto the ramp. Callihan grabbed him by the groin and delivered a piledriver on the guardrail that was set up earlier.
Callihan brought a box of LEGO and ended with Callihan taking a rana onto the pieces. Callihan threw powder into Swann’s face and hit a piledriver off the turnbuckle onto the LEGO for a big near fall. Callihan grabbed a barbed-wire baseball bat from underneath the ring, Swann yelled he would never quit. Swann used a groin claw, took the bat, Callihan begged off and said, “I love you”, but Swann hit him anyway.
Swann applied a crossface using the barbed-wire bat as Callihan tapped out.
WINNER: Rich Swann at 16:06 to retain the X Division title
The two worked hard and because of the intensity, this connected beyond just using weapons for the sake of them. Hopefully, LEGO doesn’t send a cease & desist. This match got over strong to the audience.
Impact announced dates at the Melrose Ballroom in New York for Thursday, June 6th and Friday, June 7th.
Tessa Blanchard was interviewed and spoke about her family and how she was brought up with respect. She said respected Gail Kim but all that disappeared when Kim cost her the championship. Kim isn’t coming out of retirement to make an example of her. Tully Blanchard interrupted her and said he will be ringside and couldn’t miss this match.
TESSA BLANCHARD VS GAIL KIM
Kim started off quick, ended up on the floor and Blanchard hit a tope under the middle rope onto Kim. Kim wrapped herself around the post and connected with a kick. Kim was caught in the ropes in the corner and took a codebreaker from Blanchard.
Blanchard attacked her back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and Saito suplex. Kim ran at Blanchard, misses and flew through the ropes and landed on the floor. Kim recovered and applied the figure-four around the post.
In the ring, they traded big forearms, Kim went for Eat Defeat and was kicked out of the ring. On the ramp, Blanchard lifted her with a full nelson and tossed her off the ramp onto the floor.
Robert Irvine was shown in the front row.
Kim countered a slingshot suplex, landed and hit Eat Defeat, which Blanchard kicked out from.
Blanchard bit her arm to escape a Dragon sleeper, press slammed Kim off the turnbuckle and hit a super codebreaker from the top for a near fall. Blanchard applied an STS and rolled to the center as Kim tapped.
WINNER: Tessa Blanchard at 13:02
This was very good, both looked excellent and I thought was the best match on the show, so far.
Blanchard hugged her father, returned to the ring and the two hugged with Kim holding up Blanchard’s arm for the passing the torch moment. The audience chanted, “thank you, Gail” as she exited the ring.
Brian Cage cut a promo about chasing Johnny Impact for five months and will make it “The Age of Cage”. He yelled a lot.
They are going to the Impact title match, so the Full Metal Mayhem match is on last.
JOHNNY IMPACT VS BRIAN CAGE W/ LANCE STORM AS THE SPECIAL REFEREE FOR THE IMPACT TITLE
Cage hits a series of big moves on Impact right away with an F-5 and a deadlift vertical off the rope as Impact kicks out. Impact stopped another deadlift into a German suplex off the middle rope. Cage hit a fallaway slam and standing moonsault for another two-count. It was all-action from the start.
Impact struck Cage in the throat and hit a Spanish Fly off the ramp to the floor. Impact drove Cage’s head into the guardrail and busted Cage open.
Cage seemed out of it and you could see Impact communicating with him.
Taya and John E. Bravo brought out a table and set it up on the floor while Impact worked on Cage’s cut. Cage was set up on the table, got up and powerbombed Impact off the apron through it.
Bravo was dragged into the ring, while Impact grabbed the title. Storm was pulled to the floor by Taya as Impact hit Cage with the title. Impact hit Storm with a dropkick through the ropes. Cage took Taya and hit her with a powerbomb, but Impact grabbed the title and nailed Cage with it. Impact barely hit Starship Pain as Bravo had a referee’s shirt on and counted two. Storm returned and hit Bravo with a superkick.
Cage hit a Drill Claw and pinned Impact.
WINNER: Brian Cage at 13:16 to win the Impact title
After the match, Michael Elgin walked out and stood face-to-face with Cage. Elgin attacked him and hit the Elgin Bomb after pointing to the title and then held it up.
They announced that Slammiversary will take place on Sunday, July 7th in Dallas, Texas, which is the night after the G1 Climax show in the same city.
Konnan gave a pep talk to LAX and called it a “Mexican standoff” tonight with Pentagon Jr. and Fenix.
PENTAGON JR & FENIX VS LAX IN A FULL METAL MAYHEM MATCH FOR THE IMPACT TAG TITLES
Pentagon and Fenix hit simultaneous tope con giros onto LAX and went through tables on the floor.
LAX double-teamed Pentagon with a code breaker off the middle rope by Ortiz and lasted until Fenix returned. LAX turned around and double-teamed Fenix. Ortiz draped Fenix on the top with a Tower of London onto two chairs after Santana hit a double foot stomp from the top. On the floor, Santana launched Pentagon into the crowd.
The four set up chairs and they sat across from each other and trade strikes. Konnan handed forks to LAX and was stopped with chairs thrown at them, LAX threw chairs at Pentagon and Fenix as all four went down.
There were six chairs set up, Fenix came off with a foot stomp to Santana with a package piledriver from Pentagon, and Santana kicked out.
Fenix stopped Ortiz on the ladder and hit a Spanish Fly off it through a table on the ramp and the audience exploded.
Pentagon hit Santana with a Pentagon Driver through a chair for a two-count.
Pentagon brought tacks into the ring, placed them onto the tables set up, but Santana threw tacks into his face. They climbed the ladder in the ring, Pentagon was stopped by Ortiz as Santana stabbed him with the fork and Ortiz powerbombed him off the ladder through the table of tacks and pinned him.
WINNERS: LAX at 20:50 to win the Impact tag titles
Just an insane match with nonstop creative elements. From the reaction, this was the best match on the show and was the right call putting this on last as nothing was following it.
All four stood in the ring alongside Konnan, they all hugged and buried their issues.
The babyface locker room emptied to celebrate with LAX in the ring.
