Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Sami Callihan vs. Pentagon Jr. in a Mexican Death match, Eddie Kingston may have killed a kid, KM and Fallah Bahh vs. Desi Hit Squad, Kiera Hogan vs. Alisha Edwards

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Impact Wrestling Hits

Sami Callihan vs. Pentagon Jr. in a Mexican Death match: An entertaining garbage match brawl. This wasn’t as hot as their pay-per-view match, but it was still entertaining. I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see the heel Callihan go over clean. Creative shouldn’t be in any rush to do this, but Callihan can eventually become the company’s top babyface if they get the timing and storytelling right.

Matt Sydal vs. Zachary Wentz: A good showcase win for Sydal. His offense felt fresh and it didn’t feel like he was just going through the motions in a throwaway enhancement match. I still find the “Third Eye” character to be more of a minor turnoff than actual heat, but Sydal has added strong mic skills to go along with his excellent in-ring work.

KM and Fallah Bahh vs. Desi Hit Squad: The KM and Bahh act provides good, lighthearted fun and I genuinely look forward to seeing what they will do each week. The Desi Hit Squad act continues to be flat. The actual team does a solid job as an undercard duo, but Gama Singh actually brings them down with his uninspired mic work.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Eddie Kingston may have killed a kid: I have enjoyed the LAX vs. OGz feud enough that I’ve been willing to forgive some of the campy aspects of Impact Wrestling attempting to emulate Lucha Underground’s style cinematic. LU created its own universe that is straight out of the comic book world and its been established that they play by a different set of rules that are consistent to everyone in their storyline universe. And while that may not by my style, I applaud them for doing something unique and trying to be a true alternative. The rules in the Impact Wrestling storyline universe are inconsistent to say the least. When I see something as over the top as Kingston attempting vehicular homicide and that horrible camera shot from the perspective of the injured kid it just takes me completely out of the moment. I’m all for using the cinematic style of LU, but leave the deaths and comic book stye to LU.

Opening segment with Austin Aries, Killer Kross, Eddie Edwards, and Moose: Good heel mic work from Aries and the heels beating down Edwards preceded the first appearance of Moose since Bound For Glory. This was simple and effective. The Crazy Eddie character continues to be a bit too over the top for my tastes and it feels out of place in the main event picture.

Johnny Impact pool party: A bizarre segment with Johnny Impact coming off like the third member of BroMans while being interviewed out of the blue by some guy we’ve never seen before as they both stood in front of a pool. And just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any stranger, Kongo Kong showed up at the pool party and fought with Impact for a few seconds before being thrown into a pool. This was just plain awful for both wrestlers.

Scarlett Bordeaux and Grado: A weak follow-up to last week’s fun premiere of the Smoke Show segment. The best thing I can say about the segment is that Bobo inhaling popcorn as he watched Grado’s Big Dick Johnson impersonation was mildly amusing.

Alisha Edwards vs. Kiera Hogan: A minor Miss for a choppy match that did’t seem to serve much of a purpose beyond filling television time. Allie’s post match promo was solid once she got past raving about how amazed she was by Hogan’s performance in this forgettable match.

Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley vs. Brandon Tidwell and Mr. Atlantis: I would love to think that Lee and Konley losing this match is the first step toward the duo snapping and breaking away from their bad pest heel roles. Let me get this straight. Konley worships Lee and hence the Cult of Lee name, but now Konley and Lee both seem to idolize Eli Drake, who wants nothing to do with them. All three of them deserve better from creative.