Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Ace Austin vs. Eddie Edwards in a street fight, Ethan Page and Josh Alexander vs. Dez and Wentz for the Impact Tag Titles, Moose vs. Hernandez for the TNA Title, Rhino vs. Rohit Raju

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

Impact Wrestling Hits

Ace Austin vs. Eddie Edwards in a street fight: A well worked street fight, though I’d actually prefer to see these two work a more traditional match. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Edwards abandon the hardcore schtick in favor of working his original style, and I suspect that he and Austin could have a top notch match. I liked the spot with Austin using a playing card to cut the eye of Edwards, but it felt like something they should have saved for a finishing sequence. The Madman Fulton interference finish was nothing special, but I like the idea of using Fulton as muscle for Austin.

“The North” Ethan Page and Josh Alexander vs. Dez and Wentz for the Impact Tag Titles: This would have been so much better had a bunch of ninjas shown up and turned this into a cinematic comedy segment. No, not really. Forgive my disdain for that mess making its way into my Impact coverage, but it really was nice to see a quality tag title match rather than the nonsense that aired on Sunday and Monday. I was genuinely surprised to see a clean pinfall rather than a finish designed to stretch out what I assumed would be a lengthy program between these teams. It will be interesting to see where both teams go from here.

Moose vs. Hernandez for the TNA Title: A solid big man match with Moose getting the win with a low blow and a spear. It was good to hear Josh Mathews call out Moose as being a fake champion again, as the hype for this match on last week’s show made it seem like it was being framed as a legitimate title match. The post match teaser with EC3’s entrance theme playing was interesting. Only time will tell whether Impact is actually bringing in all the wrestlers they are teasing for Slammiversary, but this approach is definitely creating interest in next month’s pay-per-view.

Deonna Purrazzo and Jordynne Grace: The video feature that chronicled Purrazzo’s history was solid, but I really like the way she left the Knockouts Champion screaming in agony from her armbar again. The build to their showdown match is off to a strong start and the creative forces are doing a really nice job of making Purrazzo look like a star.

Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh: Nevaeh’s finisher looked good, and I enjoyed the team of Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz taunting her and Havok from behind the ringside barricade. The only negative is that Lee scored a couple of wins over Havok coming into this match and lost that momentum with the clean loss. It’s only one loss and it’s really not that big of a deal, but I hope this isn’t a sign of parity booking in the Knockouts division.

Crazzy Steve promo: A well delivered and well produced promo. Steve’s verbiage was right for his character. I’m still not into his ongoing feud with Cancel Culture because Impact hasn’t sold me on the heel faction, but Steve shined in this clip.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Rhino vs. Rohit Raju: I was really hopeful that Impact would double down on Raju’s recent win by using Rhino to elevate him. Instead, it was a clean win for Rhino and a step back for Raju, who seems to be in the midst of an inter-promotional battle with Natalya for post loss meltdowns. I really hope that whatever they are doing with Raju leads to him getting a meaningful push.

Team XXXL vs. Reno Scum: A super heavyweight team that hasn’t been given a chance to establish their personalties losing to a heel team that loses to nearly everyone else. The match quality was solid, but I still had to fight off the impulse to reach for a remote control. The outcome felt more damaging to Team XXXL than it was helpful for Reno Scum, who will need to be booked as consistent winners for a long time to erase the memories of all of their losses.

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