Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Emergence Night One with The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The North for the Impact Tag Titles, The Good Brothers vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton, Chris Bey vs. TJP vs. Rohit Raju for the X Division Title, Moose vs. Trey for the TNA Title

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

Impact Wrestling Hits

The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The North for the Impact Tag Titles: The rematch from Slammiversary was another top notch tag team match. In fact, it was a good night for tag team wrestling on Impact, as the other tag match on this show also delivered. I was surprised that the Guns won the tag titles at Slammiversary because I thought the company would keep them in chase mode and build to an eventual title change. I was just as surprised that the Guns went over clean again in this match, as they have now established dominance over The North with two straight wins, meaning there’s no storyline need for this feud to continue. Are they rushing to set up The Guns vs. The Good Brothers?

Chris Bey vs. TJP vs. Rohit Raju for the X Division Title: Raju winning the X Division was a cool surprise. He’d been slotted as a comedy tag wrestler in Desi Hit Squad and then as a standby wrestler more recently. He proved his versatility, but it always felt like he was capable of doing more than the undercard roles he was slotted in. It’s great to see that he will get a chance to prove that. The actual match was entertaining. The only negative of the title change is that the heavily hyped Bey ended up having a title reign short, but I assume he will slide right into the top contender role.

The Good Brothers vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton: Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson were more entertaining during their first month in Impact Wrestling than they were throughout their entire run in WWE. This was a quality tag match and it was good to see the teams work competitively before Gallows and Anderson went over strong in the end.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Moose vs. Trey for the TNA Championship: A Hit for match quality, but Impact’s creative forces have to know that Trey doesn’t feel like he’s been elevated. Sure, he has been working in higher profile matches lately, but it’s not like he’s won those matches. In fact, he was inserted into the Impact World Championship match at Slammiversary because he was attacked backstage and was unable to wrestle in the finals of the tournament to determine the No. 1 contender. This Miss is really about my ongoing frustration of Trey Miguel, Dezmond Xavier, and Zachary Wentz feeling like they are being wasted. On the plus side, hopefully EC3 stealing the TNA Title belt will lead to him destroying it with a hammer so that the company can move on from using the defunct title belt.

Heath: Apparently, Heath never bothered to think of how he would present himself differently if he ever left WWE. He’s doing the same schtick in Impact that he did in WWE, and it’s disappointing because I really hoped to see him reinvent himself and become a player in Impact. Instead, he comes off like he’s once again desperate for a job on another company’s undercard.

Wrestle House: Given the Emergence theme, it felt like Impact should have taken a break from the campy comedy segments to make the themed shows feel unique. The inclusion of these segments made the first night of Emergence feel just like every other Impact show, albeit with some title matches. While the Taya Valkyrie vs. Kylie Rae match was given a bit more time than most of the Wrestle House matches, it didn’t feel nearly as important as it would have in the regular studio setting.

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