By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Impact Wrestling TV
Taped in Nashville, Tennessee at Skyway Studios
Aired June 30, 2020 on AXS TV
Highlights from last week’s Impact Wrestling aired…
Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne checked in from what may be their living room (there was a fireplace, flat screen TV, and power socket behind them). Josh noted that Impact Wrestling announced that the Impact World Title was now vacant. The Impact title was sitting atop the fireplace mantle. Rayne announced that the new Slammiversary main event is Trey Miguel vs. Ace Austin vs. Eddie Edwards vs. a mystery opponent for the Impact World Championship…
Chris Bey made his entrance to the empty arena. His opponent was Suicide. Josh Mathews reminded viewers that Suicide was a character in the TNA Video Game…
1. Chris Bey (w/Johnny Swinger) vs. Suicide. Bey was aggressive early on with boots. Bey danced a bit to mock Suicide. Bey hit Suicide with a springboard armdrag followed by a sweep combination. Suicide dodged a Bey moonsault, but Bey landed on his feet. Suicide tripped up Bey and danced to return the favor to Bey. Suicide hit Bey with a basement dropkick. Suicide hit Bey with a electric chair slam. Bey blocked a lionsault with knees.
Bey worked on Suicide with ground and pound. Bey worked on Suicide with methodical offense while Swinger was cheering on at ringside. Suicide countered Bey with an octopus hold. Suicide rolled up Bey for a two count. Bey came back with a kick to the back of Suicide’s head. Bey hit Suicide with an overhead kick while Suicide was draping on the second rope. Bey crash and burned on a moonsault attempt. Suicide caught Bey with a Shotgun Dropkick. Rayne mocked Josh for talking about superheroes and video games.
Suicide hit Bey with a palm strike combo and then knocked him to the mat. As Bey was recovering, Swinger yelled “look! He’s right there! Turn around!”. Suicide hit Bey with a running forearm and face wash kick. Suicide hit Bey with a double stomp for a nearfall. Suicide sent Bey outside by doing his spider-man catch. Suicide sidestepped a running swinger. Suicide hit both Bey and Swinger at ringside with a Trust Fall. Suicide hit Bey with a sunset flip. Suicide planed Bey with a modified suplex.
Bey was crying that his knee was hurting, which caused the ref to go check on Bey. Swinger pushed Suicide off the top rope. Bey hit Suicide with the Bey-mouser (springboard Fameasser) for the win.
Chris Bey defeated Suicide via pinfall in 7:53
John’s Thoughts: A solid match that I thought was a bit too long and competitive to make Bey seem like a credible threat to the X Division title. I get that they’re trying to establish Swinger as the Ace in the Hole for Bey, but they could have done that in a shorter match. This makes Bey look too vulnerable heading into his match with Mack, so much that I don’t see Bey coming out with the title. What was a shining light during this match was Johnny Swinger at ringside. The guy has great comedic timing and it shined through his random cheering.
Josh Mathew and Madison Rayne checked in from their living room. Josh Mathews continued to hype the four way for the Impact World Title at Slammiversary. Rayne said her favorite, not knowing the 4th opponent, would be Ace Austin. Josh sent the show over to Gia Miller who was interviewing Moose…
Gia asked Moose for his thoughts on is “big match” with Crazzy Steve. Moose said the match is only big because Moose is involved. Moose said Steve only thinks about fun and games. Moose said fun and games didn’t make Moose he TNA World Champion or take him to a successful NFL career where he made millions of dollars. Moose said Steve is going to find out why Moose is a 5 star athlete, the real world champion, the best wrestler in the planet, and why Moose is the legend known as Moose…[c]
Johnny Swinger was praising Chris Bey for his good “ring psychology”. Swinger said the refs are stooges and how he’s going to bribe the Slammiversary ref with about $30. A referee appeared behind Swinger and heard all this. The referee said that Swinger can’t pay him off and that Swinger is banned from ringside at Slammiversary…
2. “Reno Scum” Adam Thornstowe and Luster the Legend vs. TJ Perkins and Fallah Bahh. The Scum blindsided the babyface team before the bell rang. The faces regained control and TJ got a rollup on Luster. Josh Mathews plugged the Micro Brawlers again and they showed a graphic of the Tessa Blanchard Micro Brawler. TJ whipped Bahh into Luster. Bahh hit Luster with a Belly to Belly. Bahh and Perkins splashed Luster to give TJ a two count. TJ hit Luster with a dropkick to drap him on the second rope. TJ missed a wrecking ball kick. Adam tripped up TJ to give Luster control of the match.
The heels isolated TJP from his partner, even doing their signature armpit rub. TJP managed to hit Luster with a headscissors takedown to tag in Bahh for the hot tag. Bahh cleaned house. Bahh hit Adam with a hip attack. Reno scumm quickly regained control by hitting Bahh with a tackle and Thornstowe hitting Bahh with a double stomp. TJP tripped up Thornstowe and hit Thornstowe with a wrecking ball kick. TJ tossed Thornstowe into Bahh’s Samoan Drop. Perkins hit Thornstowe with the Mamba Splash (RIP Kobe Bryant) to give Bahh the win.
TJP and Fallah Bahh defeated Reno Scum via pinfall in 4:56.
Josh Mathews noted that the referee was very lenient in the last match by not enforsing tag rules…
John’s Thoughts: A decent enough match, but a win against Reno Scum never really means much because Reno Scum can never rack up wins and seem credible themselves. They keep giving Reno Scum somewhat credible wins only to have them lose their next match. I’m also not too sold on TJP and Bahh being a great tag team either. Bahh was one of the top babyfaces in the company before he was paired with TJP and now he’s just in a middle-of-the-road parity tag team.
It was time for Locker Room Talk with Madison Rayne and Johnny Swinger. Swinger cut off Rayne’s introduction to ran about the referee banning him from Ringside at Slammiversary. Rayne introduced John E Bravo as her guest. Rayne pointed out that Mr. Mundo (the toy dog) was a hell hound now. Bravo said Mr. Mundo has embraced the devil. Rayne wanted to know how Bravo and Rosemary are doing romatically. Bravo kept trying to avoid the question while acting shy.
Rayne introduced Rosemary as her next guest (who teleported in). Rayne tried to get the answer out of Rosemary. Rosemary told Bravo to explain. Swinger cut in saying the sexual tension was so thick that you can cut it with a knife edge chop. Swinger then tried to hit on Rosemary. John E Bravo didn’t like this and started to argue with Swinger. Rayne tried to ask if Bravo was in love with Rosemary again, but Taya walked in. Taya asked Rosemary that since Bravo is kinda useless, if Rosemary can formally be Taya’s tag team partner and they can be the best tag team ever. Rosemary agreed. Taya and Rosemary left. Madison Rayne closed the segment saying that nothing was clear after that…
The commentary team hyped up upcoming segments…[c]
Highlights aired of Deonna Purrazzo’s appearances from the last few weeks…
All Ego Ethan Page and Josh Alexander made their entrance in casual clothing. Page was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. They grabbed mics for a promo. Alexander said they were hear to talk about Ken Shamrock. Alexander talked about how Ken Shamrock couldn’t make it to the ring when he went against the greatest tag team in Impact history. Ethan Page joked about how Ken Shamrock has no friends and can’t have a tag partner. Page said the reason behind that is because Shamrock has rage issues. Page said if he were Shamrock’s friend, he would call for Shamrock to get professional help. Page bragged about having a friend in Alexander.
Ken Shamrock made his entrance to confront The North. Before Shamrock could brawl, the ICU hacker graphic flashed and Sami Callihan was on the big screen. Callihan said “who needs friends, when you have an enemy?”. Callihan then “teleported” next to Shamrock. Callihan and Shamrock beat down the North. The North retreated up the ramp. Callihan did his thumb thing in Shamrock’s face and then followed up with his smartphone teleportation gimmick…[c]
John’s Thoughts: If it’s the North vs. Callihan and Shamrock at Slammiversary, that might be a sleeper hit on the show. Take away Michael Elgin (who’s no longer on the Slammiversary card) and you can argue that Ken Shamrock has been one of Impact’s strongest acts in the last few months. The one thing they have to do out of all of this is heat up Sami Callihan a bit who has been ice cold since going back to his Solomon Crowe hacker character. Callihan has lost all his matches too since coming back so he’s cold on that front too (along with his uncharacteristically average promos).
Scott D’Amore was on the phone talking to someone. He told he person, “a couple of ‘Good Brothers’ like you guys would fit along well here” (get it?). D’Amore hung up. The North approached Scott D’Amore. Ethan Page talked about how even though he’s a karate man, he wasn’t dressed to compete and D’Amore was making for a non-safe working environment. D’Amore got sarcastic, acting like he was going to help his fellow countrymen. D’Amore then booked The North vs. Shamrock and Callihan at Slammiversary for the tag team titles…
This week’s Impact Plus Flashback Match of the Week was Brutus Magnus (Nick Aldis) vs. Eric Young for the Impact World Championship (Was this when they had EY wrestle two matches in one night to replicate the Daniel Bryan WrestleMania moment?). Eric Young won the world title. They aired 7-8 minutes of the match and post match celebration…
The commentators hyped upcoming segments…[c]
John’s Thoughts: I really like the timely teases of former wrestlers returning to Impact. Impact is doing a great job with their Slammiversary teasers. My gripe is on another note. They’ve been showing these Impact Plus Flashback Matches of Impact TV shows between 2008-2014, the Spike TV years; but if you go to Impact Plus, you can’t watch any of their Spike TV shows. So how is this a plug for their streaming service when you can’t watch the matches they’re airing? (Unless I’m missing something, but they’ve had this problem for years and I even was a subscriber at one point. At least they have the rights to the PPVs during that time at least.
Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Trey Miguel in the locker room. Jacobs talked about how we all know that Madman Fulton was Trey’s mystery attacker and how Trey has to wrestle Fulton later in this show. Trey said he’s going to beat down Ace Austin and break a foot all up in Fulton’s ass. Miguel said you don’t beat up people from behind where Miguel is fron. Miguel said when you do something like that, someone like Miguel will “make a dollar out of 15 cents”…
John’s Thoughts: While the content of the promo was a bit contrived (I got where he was coming at about the leftover change, but he didn’t make it all that clear to people who didn’t take a sec to think), this is exactly the type of promos Trey and the Rascalz should be cutting down the road.
Moose forced Dave Penzer to do a formal in-ring introduction for the upcoming match. Moose kept berating Penzer for not saying it like he means it. Josh Mathews continued to point out how Moose isn’t a real champion…
3. Moose vs. Crazzy Steve for Moose’s TNA Toy Belt. Moose manhandled Steve early on. Steve got control after ticking Moose off with a slap and dumping him to outside. Steve botched on a plancha, but Moose helped Steve recover, and slammed him on the ring apron. Moose swung Steve into the ring steps. Moose gut punched Steve a few times. Moose worked on Steve with methodical offense. Moose argued with a referee after the referee threatened to kick Moose’s hand off the rope. Steve bit at Moose’s head to stagger Moose on the top rope. Steve hit Moose with a Sunset Flip for a one count.
Steve gave Moose a series of chops after Moose missed a few punches. Steve hit Moose with a basement dropkick and a Claymore. Steve hit Moose with a cannonball in the corner. Josh noted that Steve was a former TNA Tag Team Champion. Moose caught a diving Steve and hit Steve with a fallaway slam. Moose hit Steve with the spear for the win.
Moose defeated Crazzy Steve via pinfall in 8:15 to retain his toy belt.
Josh noted that there wasn’t a “past TNA Champion” tease like the EC3 one from a few weeks ago. Moose continued to beat up Steve after the bell. Tommy Dreamer ran out wearing a surgical mask and gloves (good for him). He was also wearing a PWI shirt. Dreamer told Moose to step back and stop attacking Steve. Moose teased going away, but then attacked Tommy Dreamer with a big boot…[c]
John’s Thoughts: My guess is that the payoff to this storyline is that Moose ends up losing his “title” to a returning TNA star. Maybe Eric Young or Ethan Carter III based off recent teases? I’d like to see Steve end up getting a push down the road too because the guy has been a very underrated talent ever since he adopted the Heath Ledger Joker homage.
Dreamer cut a promo while his head was bleeding. He cut one of his usual promos where he praised his attacker and praised past legends. Dreamer praised Moose for being a NFL plyer. Dreamer talked about how Moose only joined wrestling because he was looking for a paycheck. Dreamer said Moose is a fast rising star. Dreamer talked about Moose not listening to people like Tom Brady or Bill Bilichik in the NFL and is doing the same in wrestling by not listening to friends like D’Lo Brown or Eddie Edwards. Dreamer said that Moose is going to be a bust in wrestling, so much that Moose had to make his own title belt because he couldn’t win one in Impact.
Dreamer said the bleeding head doesn’t bother him. Dreamer punched at his bleeding head. Dreamer said Dusty Rhodes talked about Hard Times and we’re currently living in the hardest times of the world. Dreamer said the world stopped, but pro wrestling didn’t. Dreamer said Moose is just here for a paycheck, and not heart and passion. Dreamer said the times made the locker room afraid, but Impact Wrestling made the locker room happy and secure. Dreamer said Moose is the only person complaining about things like catering. Dreamer said Moose should be happy for the free food, or go to the store to buy the food he needs.
Dreamer said his tummy and butt may be big, but Dreamer’s a violent man. Dreamer said nobody paid a ticket to see Moose play Football or wrestle. Dreamer said Moose is going to be both a footnote in the NFL and pro wrestling. Dreamer called Moose a waste of talent…
John’s Thoughts: A well delivered promo as usual from Tommy, but I can’t help but chuckle and feel numb to Dreamer’s promos because he does these sappy promos more often than he should. I don’t know. They sound hyperbolic, but you also know that the guy is probably very genuine with with what he’s saying. I commend that. But he did try to stuff a lot in there. He included free food, New England Patriots, NFL, COVID-19, and a few more talking points all while wearing PPE. Again, it was good, but this has become more of Dreamer’s shtick as opposed to selling a big match. I hope we don’t get Moose vs. Dreamer for the fake TNA title because it would make more sense for a former TNA wrestler to challenge for the heritage title as opposed to the Heart and Soul of ECW.
Cousin Jake lost to Hernandez in an arm wrestling contest backstage. Cody Deaner was there too. Some goofy music started playing when COdy challenged Hernandez double or nothing. Hernandez no-sold Cody and easily beat Cody. They played more weird royalty-free music when Hernandez was counting his cash…
4. Kiera Hogan (w/Tasha Steelz) vs. Jessika Havok (w/Nevaeh). Kiera hit Havok with a shotgun dropkick when Havok was putting her jacket down. Havok ended up grabbing Kiera by the head, and tossed Kiera around the ring single handedly. Havok hit Kiera with a delayed body slam. Tasha grabbed at Havok’s foot for a bit of a distraction. Kiera hit Havok with a dropkick heading into commercial.[c]
Kiera had Havok in a sleeper. Havok escaped, but Keira locked the hold back in after giving Havok a boot. Havok escaped the corner and took down Kiera with a series of lariats. Havok hit Kiera with a series of bottom rope face wash kicks. Tasha Steelz distracted Havok by playing with Havok’s gas mask. Tasha tossed Kiera the gas mask while the ref was distracted so Kiera could hit Havok with the gas mask. Kiera hit Havok with three kicks and got the pinfall.
Kiera Hogan defeated Jessika Havok via pinfall in 7:50 of on-air TV time.
John’s Thoughts: I’m not going to complain too much because I believe Kiera and Tasha have been undefeated since forming a tag team? I think? They do keep picking up wins against the team formerly known as Havok and Hazard though. I’m okay with this (despite still seeimg more money with Keira as a flag-barer babyface). I’m just pretty surprised that they’re having the powerhouse team of Havok and Hazard lose so many matches?
Moose was backstage talking about how Dreamer knows nothing about Moose and only got all his information on Wikipedia. Moose said he’s not a kid, he’s the TNA heavyweight champion. Moose said that Dreamer committed a defamation of Moose’s character and that Dreamer needs to give Moose a public apology. Moose threatened to sue the hell out of Dreamer and the company…
Josh Mathews hyped Trey Miguel vs. Madman Fulton as the main event of this show…[c]
Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne checked in from the living room. Josh advertised the World Championship 4-way, Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship, a Knockouts gauntlet, Mack vs. Chris Bey for the X-Division Championship with Johnny Swingger banned from ringside, and The North vs. Sami Callihan and Ken Shamrock for the Tag Team Titles. Josh advertised Sami Callihan vs. Josh Alexander for next week’s Impact show…
Entrances for the main event took place…[c]
5. Madman Fulton (w/Ace Austin) vs. Trey Miguel. Trey ducked Fulton’s early strikes and hit Ace Austin with a suicide dive. Trey tried to hit Fulton with a dive but Fulton caught Trey and tossed Trey back in the ring. Trey used CQC to avoid Fulton’s punches. Trey hit Fulton with a kick. Fulton caught a diving Trey, but Trey escaped the suplex. Trey hit Fulton with a shotgun dropkick. Fulton blocked a Rey Fenix tightrope armdrag from Trey and hit Trey with a chokeslam.
Fulton hit Trey with an impressive one-handed military press. Fulton hit Trey with a unique reverse suplex. Fulton blocked Trey’s scorpion kick and flipped Trey on his face. Fulton worked on Trey with methodical offense. Fulton used a swing and sidewalk slam to escape Trey’s sleeper attempt. Trey went right back on the sleeper. Trey managed to hit Fulton with a Scorpion Kick and leaping neckbreaker. Trey hit Fulton with a rapid kick combination.
Fulton blocked a Tornado DDT and reversed it into a Northern Lights Suplex for a two count on Trey. Fulton softened up Trey on the top turnbuckle. Trey found Ace’s floppy magician stick and hit Fulton on the head with it for the DQ.
Madman Fulton defeated Trey Miguel via DQ in 7:15.
Trey beat down Fulton with a bunch of chair shots to the back. Josh said that Trey is showing ruthless agression. Trey stood tall to close the show…
But wait, there’s more? Impact aired yet another post-credit stinger. Heroic music played as the camera showed Super Eric Young’s old costume and mask. Someone took away the mask to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: Super Eric? That was like the worst version of Eric Young. Hell, I thought Chris Jericho copycat “World Elite Eric Young” was better. Can we get the return of “Showtime” Eric Young? My favorite version of Eric Young was when he was afraid of pyro. I also liked the one that got married to ODB. On that note, it looks like they’re clairifying a few of the teasers which is the move they defnintely should be doing after the huge departures of Tessa Blanchard and Michael Elgin. Right now, it looks like they’re claiming to have signed Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, and Eric Young (so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if they intentionally leaked out the Good Brothers signing).
As for the main event, it was okay. I like seeing Trey Miguel take things seriously. Trey has shown main event upside every time he goes out there without the 70s show gimmick. Talk about more surprising things, I’m surprised they would have Fulton show so much vulnerability after being reintroduced three weeks ago. What can you do I guess? This was a solid show. I’ll cut them a little slack for not putting out that much fresh content due to the editing they had to do over the past two weeks. This week’s show was even more coherent than last week’s given they had more time to put a new show together. It was a plus for them to add the Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne living room segments to patch up their taped material.
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