Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Tessa Blanchard and Sami Callihan, Joey Ryan vs. Johnny Swinger, TJP and Daga vs. Dez and Wentz vs. Rohit Raju and Mahabali Shera vs. Reno Scum, four-way X Division Title match

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

Impact Wrestling Hits

Tessa Blanchard and Sami Callihan: Blanchard’s sit-down interview discussing her title win was fine. They didn’t address the controversy of some of the accusations that her peers have made, but I can’t say that I expected Impact to go there. The highlight of the segment and the overall night was the heel mic work of Callihan. He’s displayed some likable traits lately, but this was dark and cast him as the strong heel threat to take back the Impact World Championship.

TJP and Daga vs. Dez and Wentz vs. Rohit Raju and Mahabali Shera vs. Reno Scum in a four-way tag: A solid four-way match that continued the recent winning streak of the Desi Hit Squad. This felt like a “get everyone on the show” match since it was taped right before the Hard To Kill pay-per-view went on the air. Even so, there was some good in-ring action. I continue to hope that Impact’s creative team will stop pushing The Rascalz as mid-card comedy guys in favor of turning them into real players.

Joey Ryan vs. Johnny Swinger: More of an in the middle than anything. It was the usual Joey Ryan penis match. The live crowds have fun with it, but the match loses its charm if you see it too frequently on television. On the bright side, Ryan was working with another comedy wrestler in Swinger, which was a lot more logical than Ryan’s recent match with Ken Shamrock.

Overall show: As much as many fans crave in-ring action, I enjoy the way Impact slows down and showcases their pay-per-view events on the first edition of Impact that follows. Perhaps it’s simply easier or even cheaper from a production standpoint, but this approach makes their pay-per-view events feel more important than simply moving on and beginning the build to the next big show.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Rob Van Dam victory celebration: This will be repetitive for weekly Hit List readers, but I just can’t get past the mixed messages the company is sending with their female empowerment storyline at the top of the card and the RVD and Katie Forbes footage. I’m not offended by any of this, but it continues to feel like the fans who are most likely to be drawn in by Blanchard winning the Impact World Championship are also the most likely to be turned off by RVD and his lady friends. So while I do get a kick out of RVD’s current act and the over the top make out sessions, I can’t help but question whether they are actually good for Impact’s business.

Ace Austin vs. Moose vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Eddie Edwards for the X Division Championship: The match quality was fine, but it was obviously filler to insert a House of Hardcore match from November into the main event slot of the show.