By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Dot Net Members hear my extended Impact Wrestling thoughts in my weekly audio review. Join us on the ad-free version of the website via PWMembership.net.
Impact Wrestling Hits
Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan: The match didn’t stand out as main event worthy when it was announced, but the wrestlers won me over quickly with the intensity they showed from the start. They were actually able to maintain that level of intensity throughout the match. The closing shot of Callihan hitting Edwards with a bat went from looking hokey because Edwards had to hold a chair on his stomach to becoming very scary when Callihan grazed the chair and legitimately struck Edwards’ face with the bat. Fortunately, Edwards avoided serious injury. On a lighter note, the OVE handheld camera video that aired early in the show was so much better than the campy selfie style promos that WWE seems to be enamored with. Callihan delivered a strong promo and the minor production enhancements added to the video.
Taiji Ishimori and Matt Sydal Ishimori calling Sydal a douchebag was good for a laugh. The Sydal character has been acting like a d-bag lately with all of the spiritual guru talk, so I got a kick out of Ishimori calling him out on it. These two are headed for a title vs. title match next week that looks good on paper. I just hope the company eventually merges the two title belts since the Grand Championship serves no purpose.
Rosemary vs. Hania the Huntress: A decisive win for Rosemary over Hania. Impact management seemed to have bigger plans for this program, but they ended up parting ways with Hania so the clean loss was logical. They wasted no time in setting up Rosemary’s program with Taya Valkyrie making her return and laying out Rosemary on the ramp with her finisher.
Brian Cage: Braxton Sutter shot his mouth off after losing a match to El Hijo Del Fantasma and the new monster of the company came out to shut it. A couple of squash matches followed by Cage destroying Sutter. The company is booking Cageberg well thus far.
Kongo Kong vs. Joseph Park: A minor Hit. The saga of Jimmy Jacobs trying to bring Abyss out of Park hasn’t done much for this viewer, but that’s the story they were telling and it was important to show that the Park character was no match for Kong.
Laurel Van Ness commitment ceremony: An odd way to give final hype to the Knockouts Title match next week, but it was one of those segments that was tough to turn away from. The payoff of Allie revealing herself as one of the cameramen was fun and they have definitely done a good job of making the feud feel intense and personal.
Overall show: A good effort with a show that focussed heavily on the in-ring action. Best of all, the in-ring action came from the Impact Zone and viewers were not subjected to the heavily edited matches taped at independent events. Impact also kept their streaming service sponsored flashback match limited to the closing moments. Impact has done a nice job of building toward their Crossroads themed show for next week. Here’s hoping that all of this becomes the norm.
Impact Wrestling Misses
EC3 vs. Tyrus: The latest partnership between the two resulted in a meltdown during last week’s main event featuring EC3 and Johnny Impact. The split was simply EC3 shoving Tyrus, who shoved him back and then headed backstage. Flash forward to this week and they open the show with a match between the two. There was no additional angle nor promo time from either man. In other words, this felt rushed to the point that I wasn’t even sure which wrestler the company wanted the fans to side with. Furthermore, John Moore made a great point in his Impact Wrestling TV Review while pointing out that rather than having EC3 lose such a pointless match, they could have built to him losing a key match to Brian Cage on his way out.
Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley: Impact continues to waste one of their most talented wrestlers in a silly pest heel tag team. Lee is so much better than this. Konley is also solid and these two could be good tag team if they were positioned as being more than clowns.
Braxton Sutter: I’m still disappointed that the company never told the story it seemed like they were going to tell when Sutter was introduced as an independent veteran who was finally getting a chance with a big company. It would have allowed him to be himself rather than forcing him into these awkward situations. His return to the company doesn’t provide much hope, as he was beaten by Fantasma, destroyed by Cage, and rejected by Laurel Van Ness. The only thing missing was Swoggle returning to punch him in the balls.
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