By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Impact Wrestling TV
Taped in Nashville, Tennessee at Skyway Studios
Aired September 22, 2020 on AXS TV
Highlights from last week’s Impact Wrestling show aired…
1. TJ Perkins vs. Chris Bey vs. Trey Miguel to become number one contender to the Impact X Division championship. All three men traded quick moves to start the match. Bey sent Perkins outside with a springboard armdrag. Trey blocked a whip with a baseball slide. Trey reversed Bey’s huracanrana. Trey tripped Bey and hit him with a standing moonsault. Perkins broke up the pin attempt. Perkins converted an octopus hold into a pin attempt for a two count.
Chris Bey ended up dominating the match. Rohit Raju was taunting his opponents at ringside. The commentators kept stating that the X Division title match occurs after this match and wondered how much stamina the winner of this match can still have. Trey ended Bey’s momentum with a enzuigiri. Perkins hit Bey with an atomic drop and springboard crossbody. Perkins hit Bey with the Three Amigos. Miguel prevented Perkins from doing a Mamba Splash.
Trey tripped up both Bey and TJ. Trey gave Bey a nice double stomp to the back of the head while giving Perkins an armdrag. Trey got a two count on TJ. Trey tried to dive on TJ but he ran right into an RKO from Bey. Perkins reversed Bey into a Juji Gatame. Bey tried to reverse into a pin, but TJ turned it into a leg lock. Trey caught TJ with a diving meteora while Perkins had the submission locked in on Bey. Trey picked up the pinfall win.
Trey Miguel defeated TJ Perkins and Chris Bey via pinfall in 7:13 to become number one contender to the Impact X Division Championship.
Rohit Raju quickly tried to get the ref’s attention so he could start the next match immediately. The ref made sure Miguel was ready for the title match and Trey agreed. The title match started…
2. Rohit Raju vs. Trey Miguel for the Impact X Division Championship. Raju quickly rolled up Miguel with a hand full of tights for the dirty rollup win.
Rohit Raju defeated Trey Miguel via pinfall in 0:08 to retain the Imapct X Division Championship.
John’s Thoughts: A good win for Trey and I’m okay with Rohit Raju picking up the dirty win (for now) because he does need a huge overhaul and this can be one of those steps to that overhaul. He’s currently an oppertunitistic chicken-bleep heel. The downside is there’s a fine line between Edge (credible) and Chavo Guerrero (not-so Credible) and Raju is leaning Chavo Guerrero at the moment. Hopefully they move quickly away from him being a total scrub and give him at least a little bit of credibility to go on top of his dirty tactics.
The show cut to Eric Young cutting a promo backstage. He cut a basic promo about how Rich Swann wrestling should be guilt on Scott D’Amore and Rich Swann’s conscience. Young said everything that happens from now on is their fault…[c]
Gia Miller knocked on Tenille Dashwood’s lockerroom and Kaleb Konley came out of it for the interview. Kaleb joked about his name now starting with a K as opposed to the C which he had during his last run. Konley told Miller that Tenille was getting Bee Venom therapy and couldn’t do the interview. Tenille ended up coming out and said one of her inspirational quotes similar to the ones they were showing in her vignettes…
Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne checked in from their commentary set where they ran through the upcoming segments…
3. Susie Yung (w/Kylie Rae) vs. Kimber Lee (w/Deonna Purrazzo). Susie wanted a truce. Lee didn’t, and missed many punches. Susie ended up hitting Kimber with a few snapmares. Susie hit Lee with a bulldog for a two count. Lee hit Susie with a tilt a whirl backbreaker for a two count. Josh Mathews noted that a lot of the knockouts divison have paired off. Lee dumped Susie outside where Deonna was able to give Susie a cheap shot.[c]
Lee hit Susie with the Daniel Bryan roundhouse combo for a two count. Kimber worked on Susie with methodical heel offense. Susie tried to hit Lee with her signature frankensteiner but Lee reversed it right into a Walls of Jericho. Susie reversed the Daniel Bryan kicks this time and hit Lee with a Monkey Flip. Susie hit rapid fire chops and a Thesz Press. Rayne noted that Susie looks more credible due to training from Kylie. Susie gave Lee a spider walk headscissors into the buckle for a two count. Lee hit Susie with a power bomb for a two count.
Deonna kept urging Kimber to hit a Swanton Bomb (which I’m assuming is her finisher, but she never wins). Deonna tried to hit Susie with a cheap shot punch, but accidentally hit Lee. This allowed Susie to hit Lee with the Panic Switch for the victory.
Susie Yung defeated Kimber Lee via pinfall in 8:32 of on-air time.
Deonna Purrazzo attacked Susie and Kylie after the match. Deonna ended up dominating both women and locked Susie with a Fujiwara armbar. Kylie broke it up with a superkick. Kylie got a mic and called out Deonna and reminded Deonna that she’s coming for the title as number one contender…[c]
John’s Thoughts: A well wrestled and good match, but I’m a bit weary about the booking here. Kimber Lee is already the Kassius Ohno of Impact where she has good matches, but she’s the jobbiest of job wrestlers in that you know she can never win a match. But it’s not presented in the loser way too, it’s just she’s not very credible. Susie can take losses, so I don’t know why they had to give her the win (I do like that they’re showing the shades of Su Yung act, but even there I think they’re doing it a bit wonky). Susie’s immensely talented as both Susie and Su, but it seems like whoever is writing her segments, doesn’t understand the nuances of the character and is tearing her character down to bare minimum tropes. Again, good match, but these two in-particular need a bit of reworking in terms of presentation.
They aired another Heath [Slater] campaign commercial. He’s still asking for a job to feed his kids. He noted that a millionaire (WWE) took his last name and he can’t have a last name anymore (can’t he call himself Miller?). They also had Rhino do a spoof of his campaign ads when he ran for Mayor for a city before. They also aired a few celebrity cameo videos (each costing him around $275) telling viewers to get Heath back in Impact. David Hasselhoff, Flava Flav, Nancy Karrigan, and Chuck Norris were the scripted videos that Heath paid for…
John’s Thoughts: Again, even if this is meant for him to swerve into a darker character, they are taking too long with it to the point where they’re coming off as delusional. This is the watered down and inorganic version of his 2016 storyline with Shane McMahon! It’s old, played out, and manufactured. That said, Rhino actually was the star in that segment because that guy has some unexpected natural comedy charisma that Impact should be tapping into. Rhino the cheese and crackers guy is a similar situation to when we found out that Abyss was a way better actor as Joe Park. I’m also hoping Impact didn’t just spend over a $1200 bucks because I’m sure Heath could fork up some of his WWE money for that segment (I would rather see that $1200 go to a wrestler for their hard work).
The Good Brothers confronted The Motor City Machine Guns about how they helped them last week and how they should have a match soon. The Rascalz, Dezmond Xavier and Zach Wentz, walked in and called everyone else old. Wentz was yelling (a bit too loudly) about how they earned the Guns’ respect. Dezmond challenged The Guns. Gallows called out Wentz for screaming too loud and offered them Good Brothers brand beer. The Brothers then walked away. The Rascalz wished the Guns good luck against the Brothers whenever they face…
John’s Thoughts: Zach may want to practice his “serious” promo delivery a bit, and I’m not the only one who thought that delivery was odd because Gallows pointed it out during the segment. Aside from that slip up, I do like the direction the Rascalz are going because they are taking a bit of a more serious tone to their character and their character should be more than just undercard guys who do “fun” and esoteric comedy. (Look at Santana and Ortiz when they were in Impact as the way these two should be presented as).
The Impact Plus flashback match of the week was AJ Styles vs. Bully Ray from Bound For Glory 2013. There was a Dixie Carter sighting with Taz and Mike Tenay on commentary. AJ won after hitting Bully with the Spiral Tap to become new TNA Champion…
An EC3 Control Your Narrative promo aired. EC3 talked about having the TNA title stolen from him before and he felt violated. EC3 said it was time to unite and control the narrative. EC3 said people can control information with smartphones. EC3 told people to call the phone number on screen and claimed it was Moose’s phone number. EC3 told people to send Moose clues via that number…
The show cut to Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary where Taya talked about Rosemary not being there for her last week when she was wrestling. Rosemary said she was knocked out by Jessika Havok. Rosemary offered to help Taya if Taya helps Rosemary. Taya turned it around and said she actually wants to help Rosemary first. Rosemary was shocked of Taya being selfless and noted that she might need to help John E.
They aired a comedy segment where John E Bravo had several of Impact’s comedy wrestlers become his grooms men. Alisha Edwards yelled at John. John E brought up a bachelor party. John E called out Cody Deaner for some reason and said that John E bringing Cody on Wrestle House made him relevant. Cody and Jake ended up leaving for their match. More comedy ensued…[c]
Gia Miller tried to interview Brian Myers backstage, who tried to blow her off. Myers flipped a coffee table when Gia brought up Brian cheating last week. Tommy Dreamer confronted Brian and told him to respectfully clean up his mess. Dreamer stopped Gia from cleaning it and told Gia that as someone new from the company you should fear getting fired for doing something disrespectful like that. Brian pointed out Dreamer hiring him to WWE and how he sees Dreamer as a wrestling dad. Myers said he doesn’t like the authoritative tone that Dreamer is talking to him in. Myers said he’d even slap his own dad if his dad talked to him like that. Myers agreed to clean up the mess, but threatened a confrontation with Dramer. Dreamer told Myers to clean it up and Dreamer walked away.
John’s Thoughts: Welp, as is required for any new heel, you’re required to wrestle inspirational babyface Tommy Dreamer.
The Deaners were about to make their entrance, but were interrupted by Eric Young, who beat up both Deaners at ringside. Young yelled that the world belongs to him. Cody had a punch rally, but Young ended that with an eye rake. Young hit Deaner with a pile driver. Josh poined out that Cody was shivering. EY said that reminded him of Rich and Eddie. Jake chased Young from the ring. When Jake went to check on Cody, EY ran back to the ring and beat up both Deaners. Young left Jake lying with a Pile Driver.
Young called out Eddie Edawrds, Rich Swann, and Scott D’Amore again, repeating that it’s on Scott’s conscience that all this mayhem is happening. Young then continued to taunt and beat up the Deaners with boots. D’Amore ran out to stop EY while he had Jake in a submission. EY was about to attack D’Amore, but he was saved by Eddie Edwards who cleared Young from the ring…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Is it wrong for me to see EY as the babyface in that segment? He saved us from a meaningless Deaner segment. In all seriousness, this might be the best run character-wise that Eric Young has had in his entire Impact career. The Deaners were great in their rolls as the punching bags for the sadistic Young.
Eddie Edwards yelled at Scott D’Amore and told D’Amore to act like a boss. Young said he was the one that needed a rematch with Eric Young. D’Amore said if Eddie doesn’t want to wait, then Eddie can get his rematch at Victory Road. Eddie and Scott yelled at each other a bit where Scott tried to fire up Eddie to take down Eric Young…
4. Sami Callihan vs. Rob Van Dam (w/Katie Forbes). Josh Mathews noted that the stipulation of the match was that if Rob can beat Sami, then Katie Forbes can do anything she wants to Sami in the ring for five minutes. Sami beat up Rob at ringside before the bell. Rob made a bit of a comeback when Rob hit Sami with a knee. Rob then hit Sami with a jump thrust kick from the apron. Rob hit Sami with a rolling thunder at ringside.
The bell finally rang when the action was brought in the ring. Sami regained control by draggind Rob to the mat and hitting him with an elbow drop. Sami then dominated Rob for a stretch.[c]
Rob was dominating Sami back from the break. Rob hit Sami with a basement front dropkick. Rob Van Dam worked on Sami with methodical offense. Josh noted that October 3rd is the Impact Plus Victory Road show with the Eric Young vs. Eddie Edwards main event. Rob and Eddie traded punches from the kneeling position. Sami hit Rob with a spike DDT for a two count. Katie sprayed Sami’s face with hairspray. Rob used his signature body scissors rollup for the victory.
Rob Van Dam defeated Sami Callihan via pinfall.
Katie put the boots to Sami to invoke her five minutes. Sami threatened ot Pile Drive Katie after she twirked at him. Rob hit Sami with a spinning heel kick to ground Sami again. Katie put the boots again. Rob put a chair on Sami. Before that he french kissed with Katie. Sami revcovered and chucked a chair at Rob. Sami did his thumbs up thing, and hit Katie with a pile driver.
John’s Thoughts: This had been a dud of a feud from the start. Rob has cooled off from his fun promos, Sami’s hacker babyface run has been ass, and Katie adds nothing to this program. Simply put.
Gia Miller interviewed Ace Austin and Madman Fulton. Ace and Fulton claimed to be first in line for the tag titles after pinning Chris Sabin last week. The North walked in and talked about being champions for a year. Page mocked Fulton’s intelligence and cut an inspired promo about being the person responsible for the win last week. Fulton threatened to break Page’s orbital bone. Page challenged Fulton and Ace to a match next week…
Jordynne Grace and Tenille Dashwood were shown in different parts of Skyway, getting ready for their upcoming match…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Great delivery from Ethan Page who always hits it out of the park with his promos when he’s given mic time. I liked the intense shift in attitude here. It’s segments like that which have me looking forward to his singles run. But while he’s still tag teaming, I’m really looking forward to Ace and Fulton vs. The North because Ace and Fulton have proven in short time that they are an amazing tag team.
An ad aired for Impact Plus…
The Eric Young Bound For Glory ad aired…
Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne checked in from their commentary set where they recapped some of the show. They then announced the following segments for next week: Johnny Swinger vs. Fallah Bahh to become John E Bravo’s best man, Taya and Rosemary vs. Havok and Neveah, Good Brothers vs. Rascalz, and The North vs. Ace Austin and Fulton…
Dave Penzer tried to introduce the upcoming match, but was interrupted by Kaleb Konley. Kaleb cut a promo bragging about Tenille being an instagram model. Tenille then made her entrance (dressed up in her Evil Emma gear)…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Not a big deal, but did WWE not have a plan in mind for new ring gear for Emmalina? It would have been good to introduce that here instead of the played out Evil Emma gear with aviators.
Jordynne Grace made her entrance for the match…
5. Jordynne Grace vs. Tenille Dashwood (w/Kaleb Konley). Dashwood got Grace in the corner and put the boots to her. Grace gained a bit of an advantage after a few Irish whips to Dashwood. Grace hit Dashwood with corner lariats. Dashwood slid outside and gained a moment of respite after dragging Grace by the hair to the mat. Dashwood worked on Grace with methodical offense in the ring.
Grace made a comeback after a rising elbow. Dashwood countered with a reverse DDT for a two count. Grace recovered and hit her with stiff lariats. Grace hit Dashwood with a Michinoku Driver for a two count.
John’s Thoughts: It sounds like it even confused Josh, but what’s the difference between the Grace and Michinoku Driver? This has happened several times in her matches where it looks like she hits her finisher.
Grace went for a superplex, but Dashwood pushed Grace into the Tree of Woe. Dashwood hit Grace with the Woe double stomp. Dashwood hit Grace with the Emmamite Sandwich for a two count. Grace reversed Tenille into a pin for a two count. Grace caught Dashwood with a stiff backfist. Kaleb Konley distracted Grace from the apron, which allowed Tenille to set up and nail Grace with the spotlight kick for the victory.
Tenille Dashwood defeated Jordynne Grace via pinfall in 9:03.
Konley and Dashwood took a selfie after the match. Dashwood posed on the turnbuckles to close the show…
But wait? There’s more. After the signature graphic, Eddie Edwards was shown exiting Skyway from the backdoor. The camera feed went out and Eddie Edwards was attacked. The camera cut back on with Eddie rolling in pain on the ground to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: A good match. Not main event worthy, but I thought Grace looked good and the point was to give Emma a new win as a heel. My favorite part was Grace throwing all those stiff strikes and Kudos to Dashwood for taking them. There are still a ton of flaws character wise. For one, she’s been teasing a new character, but comes out as Evil Emma again. This has happened more than three times in both WWE and Impact. She’s going for “Instagram influencer” and there are a bunch of tropes people can reach at. The problem with Evil Emma for the longest time is that she’s been pretty bland and disinterested. She was at her height as Adorkable Emma, with the bubbles, and she needs to shift to a more emotive character.
Aside from a few character weaknesses and writing deficiencies, the show as overall good in terms of being a weekly pro wrestling show. It kinda sucks that they can’t have a crowd because it would be nice to see the reactions to people like Eric Young or Jordynne Grace. Well, I will also throw in Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes as something that shouldn’t be on TV because that’s not really coming off as compelling television.
Tenille is very clearly not trying to just rehash Evil Emma. She’s basically doing an Instagram model gimmick, taking hot photos and using “inspirational” quotes.
It’s clear that this is more of a rehash of Emmalina, similar to how Sami Callihan is rehashing the initial Solomon Crowe character he was about to debut on NXT with.
It was clear back then that she was going for an Instagam model gimmick back then when she was doing the vignettes for her re-debut. She showed up once as Emmalina, then came back as Evil Emma. It’s even more watered down here where you have things around her that are saying she’s an instagram model, yet she’s still rocking her old ring gear and aviators.
I’m just saying she should have overhauled the look and portrayal because continuing to play the bored woman who points at the “me me me” words on her butt hasn’t come off as compelling and has been established as pretty damn boring. WWE had the right idea when they did have her doing things differently, but then for some very odd reason they ALSO went back to the old gear and aviators.
“Susie Yung defeated Deonna Purrazzo via pinfall in 8:32 of on-air time.”
I don’t think that happened.