By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Impact Wrestling TV
Taped in Nashville, Tennessee at Skyway Studios
Aired February 9, 2021 on AXS TV
[Hour One] Highlights from last week’s Impact Wrestling show aired… Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown were on commentary…
A lot of random people were in the ring already. Josh Alexander and Trey Miguel got televised entrances. Striker noted that the random wrestlers in the ring will be wrestling in a Triple Threat “Revolver Match” at No Surrender. Striker explained the Revolver Match rules and it sounded like it was a 3-way Gauntlet match where when someone loses they get replaced by the next person in line…
1. Josh Alexander, Suicide, Trey Miguel, and Willie Mack vs. Blake Christian, Ace Austin, Shawn Daivari, and Chris Bey. Striker noted that wrestling Reddit and 4Chan really likes Blake Christian (really?). Alexander dominated Blake early on with his methodical chain wrestling. Ace tagged in and was also dominated by Alexander. Miguel tagged in and flipped his way into being suplexed by Alexander onto Ace.
Miguel hit Ace with a jump move and Mandible Claw. Bey and Suicide tagged in and traded quick moves. Striker noted that since we all wear masks now, we can all empathize with Suicide having to do athletic things in a mask. Ace and Bey were dumped to ringside. Ace blocked a dive with a gamengiri. Bey dragged Mack to his corner to allow Daivari to dominate Mack. Mack went for a standing moonsault Daivari but Daivari got the legs up. Daivari got an inside out lariat on Mack.
Bey tagged in and hit Mack with a nice corkscrew uppercut for a two count. Ace tagged in and the isolation of Mack continued. After a few more tags, Mack ended up getting a breather after getting his boots up during a Daivari dive. Trey and Blake tagged in with Trey having the hot tag sequence. After Trey suplexed Blake, he put Blake in a vertical Muta Lock. Bey broke up the submission. Alexander tagged in, blocked a double suplex and double suplexed Daivari and Ace.
Alexander caught a diving Ace into an ankle lock. Blake broke up the submission when Alexander grapevined the move, allowing him to 450 Josh. Ace shoved his teammate Blake, arguing that Blake hurt his knee during the 450. The bickering allowed Mack to nail both of them with lariats. Mack hit both opponents with corner moves. Mack hit Blake with his Samoan Drop-Moonsault combo. Daivari and Mack took each other out off the top rope.
Suicide staggered Bey and Ace and tossed Bay into Ace with a Military Press. Blake hit Trey with a Half and Half suplex and caught Suicide with a Tope Con Hilo. Trey dodged a draping 450. Trey put Blake in what Striker called an Hourglass Submission (It was a reverse sharpshooter into a kimura). Blake tapped out.
Trey Miguel, Josh Alexander, Suicide, and Willie Mack defeated Blake Christian, Ace Austin, Shawn Daivari, and Chris Bey via submission in 11:58.
D’Lo noted that he believes that Miguel can be considered a mat specialist due to adding some ground moves to his moveset. While Trey and his team were standing tall in the ring, the lights flashed with Sami Callihan’s hacker graphics flashing on the screen. Sami appeared on-screen for a promo. Sami called-out Trey Miguel in particular. Sami said it’s almost certain that Trey Miguel will flake out on the company again once things start going bad for him. Sami said Trey should save everyone the embarrassment and just leave the company now. Sami ended the promo with his thumb thing. The camera showed Trey Miguel doing a random angry yell…
ODB was shown backstage getting ready to head to the ring, taking a sip of her signature whisky flask…
John’s Thoughts: I’m not a huge fan of random filler multi-man matches especially when it follows TNA/Impact’s classic trend of tossing all the undercard and X Division into a random spotfest. That said, this was on the better end of Impact’s huge random multi-man filler matches. Josh Alexander and Trey Miguel got televised entrances and I thought they stood out above everyone which was a huge positive. Miguel and Alexander are two potential cornerstones that Impact should be building their company around. Throw Ace Austin into that mix too. Blake Christian was the designated “enhancement” guy there to take the the pin. It’s always odd when Impact throws in these generic/underdeveloped wrestlers (presumably) from Scott D’Amore’s wrestling school in Windsor.
A bunch of wrestlers gave happy birthday wishes to Tommy Dreamer in a visual birthday card. These wrestlers included Brian Myers, ODB, Doc Gallows, Petey Williams, Alisha and Eddie Eddie Edwards, Matt Striker, Gail Kim, Kiera Hogan, Tasha Steelz, Shawn Hernandez, and Scott D’Amore…
Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown checked in on commentary where they gave more birthday wishes to Dreamer. Striker then ran through the advertised segment for this week’s Impact show…
2. Kimber Lee (w/Susan, Deonna Purrazzo) vs. ODB. Striker noted that wrestlers like Lee and Shawn Daivari were trained by Eddie Sharkey. Lee stalled at ringside before the bell rang and continued to stall in the ring. Lee mocked ODB by holding her own boobs together and trying to ram them into ODB’s boobs, which ODB no-sold (what?). ODB took down Lee with a boob tackle.
ODB dominated Lee early on. ODB tried to do her signature head slamming of her opponents’ head into the top buckle, but was tripped off the top rope by Lee. Lee locked ODB in a butterfly stretch. Lee worked on ODB with methodical offense. [c]
ODB dominated Lee back from the break. ODB hit Lee with a bronco buster. Lee kicked out of a matchbook pin. ODB did the head slam in the corner on Lee. ODB hit Lee with a seated senton for a two count. Lee hit ODB with a back kick and sidewalk slam. ODB body slammed Lee. Susan and Deonna tried to be a distraction, but Jazz and Grace ran out. Susan tried to thrown a shoe at Jazz to no avail. ODB hit Deonna and Susan with a dive. Lee rolled up ODB with a small package for a pinfall win.
Kimber Lee defeated ODB via pinfall in 8:32.
John’s Thoughts: A rare win for Kimber Lee, but a good one in that she could use as many wins as she can get and the returning ODB was protected by all of the expected interference by Lee’s cohorts. It’s always a treat to see ODB back in Impact and she never seems to have lost a step despite running a successful food truck business (from what I hear). By the way? Is it just me or has it seemed like the Knockouts title has been on ice for a long long time with Deonna Purrazzo barely getting any promo or in-ring time?
Striker sent the show to a Johnny Swinger casino segment. It was the usual Impact comedy segment that involved the usual undercard comedy wrestlers in Impact. I guess the “meaningful” part of the segment was that Johnny Swinger is still holding Hernandez’s wad of cash…
Susan, Deonna Purrazzo, and Kimber Lee were ranting backstage about Jazz and ODB trying to take all the shine away from the newer wrestlers. Susan, I guess trying to be a Karen for the first time, said she was going to go to Impact management Scott D’Amore and get him to book her, Kimber, and Deonna in a trios match against Grace, ODB, and Jazz at No Surrender. Susan ran away and Deonna and Kimber showed that they didn’t exactly want to wrestle their enemies…
Cousin Jake made his entrance, still coming out to Cody Deaner’s entrance theme (hopefully for the last time). Jake said things were good when he was teaming with Cody, but now Cody has change. Jake said he was given a chance to be with “family” again, but not exactly the way he wants it to be. Eric Young, Joe Doering, and Deaner made their entrance to cut off Jake’s promo.
Eric Young said he empathizes with Jake and understands that Jake can see the right answer. Young told Jake to open his eyes, see the truth, and be the real Jake. Young told Jake to be the best version of Jake. Young told Jake to take back his life. Striker laid it on thick, as he does, by saying that Jake’s Deaner vest is like skin that needs to be molted. Jake tossed his Deaner vest to the ground and held Eric Young’s VBD towel. Jake said if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
Jake said he stands for something, “Jake Something”. Jake went right at Deaner and hit Deaner with a forearm. Doering took down Jake with a lariat and the heels got the numbers advantage over Jake. Doering was about to stomp a chair into the wrapped-around throat of Jake, but he and EY were stopped by Deaner, who wanted to take care of Jake himself. Young then said because it’s a family issue, he’s allowing Jake to wrestler Deaner at No Surrender so Deaner can end Jake’s sickness for good. VBD then left the ring…
John’s Thoughts: Jake Something is not exactly the most catchy name for a potential main eventer, but hopefully it will grow on me and it sure as hell beats the goofball “Cousin Jake” persona. I do know that he does go by the name “Jake Something” on the indies so it makes sense. Best part of this, is hopefully this is the last we’ve seen of Jake’s comedy country persona because that felt like a huge and unnecessary weight on the back of his wrestling career. This guy has too good of a look and talent to be wasted in an undercard comedy duo.
Rohit Raju was cutting a promo backstage with Mahabali Shera behind him looking intimidating. Raju said that TJP turned to his monster in Manik which inspired Raju to turn to his own monster in Mahabali Shera. Raju talked about how he and Shera go way back. Raju said he’s going to eventually be a two-time X Division Champion with the help of Shera…[c]
It was time for this week’s Tony and Tony AEW Paid Advertisement with Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone. Khan was wearing a Jaguars sweater and sporting a dirty beard, looking like he just woke up in the morning. The Tonys were standing in the middle of what I assume is a green screen of the Jaguars home stadium. Schiavone brought up “The forbidden door” of New Japan being opened between AEW and NJPW when KENTA showed up on Dynamite last week. Schiavone asked Khan to tell him what is this “forbidden door” that people are talking about.
Khan said people have been asking Khan to get into a business relationship with New Japan, but Khan couldn’t figure out what the forbidden door was. Khan said he figured out that “Tony Khan” was the forbidden door and all he had to do was open himself up. Khan said Impact taught him to open up to new experiences. Khan applauded Impact and New Japan wrestlers showing up on Dynamite in recent weeks. Schiavone ran through this Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite card. Khan then thanked Don Callis and Kenny Omega for helping Khan open the forbidden door. Khan then teased showing up at Skyway Studios “sooner rather than later”…
John’s Thoughts: Heel Tony is right, these Tony and Tony paid ads are the most exciting and entertaining segments on Impact Wrestling every week. Part of that is because Impact’s actual storylines and promos are very stagnant (unless you’re involved with Eric Young who is doing Impact Wrestling’s best non-AEW segments week-to-week). Heel Tony Khan has been a surprise in his promo work during these segments. He’s done a great job staying off his own show, and he’s allowed to entertain as a fantasy wrestler, to use his terminology, on Impact in entertaining fashion.
Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson cut a promo hyping themselves up. They did AJ Styles’s “Beat up [fill-in-the-blank]” catchphrase by saying they are going to beat up Storm and Sabin. They also hyped up defending their titles against Private Party at No Surrender…
Entrances for the next match took place. Matt Striker pointed out that Nevaeh is “Heaven” spelled backwards (Oh wait? I didn’t catch that! Striker with the good info for once!)…
3. Kiera Hogan (w/Tasha Steelz) vs. Nevaeh (w/Jessika Havok). Kiera and Nevaeh traded forearms. Nevaeh dominated with her power advantage. Kiera kicked out of a few of Nevaeh’s pin attempts.
[Hour Two] Steelz got in cheap shots on Nevaeh to give Kiera the advantage. Striker praised Tasha’s choice in sneakers. Nevaeh came back with a few knee strikes on Kiera. Striker noted that Nevaeh has dominated most of the match due to her vertical height and length advantage. Nevaeh had Kiera locked in a sleeper.
Kiera got to her feet, but put back down with a sidewalk slam. Kiera got the advantage after an eye rake and dropkick. This gave Kiera a two count. Kiera and Nevaeh traded strong style forearms. Kiera reversed a suplex into a small package for a two count. Kiera blocked a suplex by holding on the ropes. Kiera walked right into an STO by Nevaeh. Tasha thought the referee was distracted by Havok so she hit Nevaeh with a Codebreaker. The referee saw it and DQ’d Kiera.
Nevaeh defeated Kiera Hogan via DQ in 5:48.
Dave Penzer announced the match as a DQ win for Nevaeh. The commentary team praised the referee for making a good call…
John’s Thoughts: Another formula, but effective match in putting some heat behind the presumed challengers for the Knockouts Tag Titles. I would like to see Impact give Nevaeh some vignettes so we know something about the Nevaeh character. WOW did a pretty decent job with their consistent vignettes for wrestlers like Havok, Nevaeh, and Kiera, so why can’t Impact. At the same time, Impact seems to be doing the minimum when it comes to vignettes these days.
They aired more spliced together clips for the Tommy Dreamer visual birthday card. This one included AEW talent like MJF, Chris Jericho, Big Money Matt Hardy, Tazz, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson, Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz…
Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz barged into Scott D’Amore’s office to complain about getting screwed over every week by referee Brandon Tolle. Steelz noted that Tolle ruined their recent matches and their Fire and Flava Festival. D’Amore said he’s agreeing and awarding Tasha and Kiera by making sure Tolle isn’t the referee during Hogan and Steelz’s match at No Surrender. The tag champs were caught off guard and thought they weren’t going to have to defend the titles. D’Amore said it was logical because Kiera and Tasha lost single matches.
D’Amore said he’s giving them more gifts by saying that even if Tolle were the referee they can’t get screwed over because their title defense is going to be a No-DQ match. Kiera and Tasha continued to show that they don’t want to wrestle Havok and Nevaeh. D’Amore blew off their ranting with sarcastic praise…
Larry D, Acey Romero, Kaleb Konley with a K, and Tenille Dashwood were in the ring. Larry cut a promo about facing Decay at No Surrender. Larry noted that they brought Dashwood to their team because they don’t want to attack a woman. Dashwood then compared Decay to tooth decay. Kaleb then made an any challenge to [Tooth] Decay. Crazzy Steve and Rosemary made their entrances. Rosemary said that Decay found a person to team with them. She said the shadow has dark creatures ready to be summoned to the front line. Rosemary revealed AAA wrestler Black Taurus as their honorary Decay member for No Surrender. Black Taurus then made his entrance looking like a bull mask wearing man who may or may not be into BDSM based off his ring gear (which works with Decay’s aesthetic)…
John’s Thoughts: Well. Taurus has a look which should fit with the Decay aesthetic at least. Anyway, what I really like is Rosemary and Steve changing their looks to look main event again. Rosemary is back to cutting good promos as opposed to those pretentious promos she was cutting during her creative burial in the Undead Realm. On the other side of the table, Tenille Dashwood’s promos are very bad! Very bad! As much as I don’t like rehashing old WWE gimmicks, maybe it would be best to bring back Dashwood’s old bubble popping Emma personality? Evil Emma and now Emmalina (now that she’s had a chance to showcase it finally) have come off as very stale and boring.
4. Kaleb Konley (w/Larry D, Acey Romero, Tenille Dashwood) vs. Black Taurus (w/Rosemary, Crazzy Steve). Taurus beat up Kaleb with fast strikes in the corner. Taurus hit Kaleb with a Samoan Drop. Taurus hit Kaleb with a Fisherman Body Slam for the win.
Black Taurus defeated Kaleb Konley via pinfall in 0:51.
Decay tood tall over the fallen Kaleb while Tenille, Acey, and Larry looked fearful at ringside…
Striker hyped the remaining segments on Impact…[c]
John’s Thoughts: I’m not sure if this is permanent, but the BDSM bull man really fits in as an enforcer for Steve and Rosemary. We’ve seen him before on Impact as a random AAA guy, but this is the best he’s looked because he has a reason to be in the ring now. My guess is that it might be temporary because he’s a AAA mainstay and travel is hard these days.
Brian Myers paid Hernandez in-cash for his services (hopefully he deposits this cash in a bank account). Hernandez said he was paid for a singles match, but now it’s a tag team match. Hernandez said Myers needs to pay more money up front for a tag match. Myers said he was going to pay half of the additional money up front and the rest will come when they beat Matt Cardona and Eddie Edwards. Fallah Bahh was then shown standing behind Hernandez, eyeing up Hernandez’s new wad of cash (Ugh, and I get it! People in Impact love this lame looney toon humor)…
5. “The Good Brothers” Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. James Storm and Chris Sabin for the Impact Tag Team Titles. Anderson and Sabin locked up to start the match. Sabin dominated the chain wrestling sequence and tagged in Storm who continued to pummel Anderson. Striker said that Storm has a size mismatch over Anderson. Storm and Sabin traded quick tags to keep control over Anderson. The show cut to commercial with Sabin and Storm clearing the Good Brothers over the top rope to ringside.[c]
Sabin and Storm continued to do quick tags so they can do double-team moves on Anderson. Gallows tagged in and took down Sabin. The Good Brothers isolated Sabin with methodical offense and tags. Big Money Matt and Private Party, Isaiah Kassidy and Marq Quen, appeared at the top of the ramp. Storm got the hot tag and hit Anderson with a quick atomic drop and strike. Storm hit Anderson with a tilt a whirl huracanrana. Sabin tagged in. Storm hit Anderson with a lungblower after Sabin hit Anderson with a enzuiguri. Isiah Kassidy pulled Sabin off Anderson during the pin attempt for the DQ.
Chris Sabin and James Storm defeated The Good Brothers via DQ in 7:18.
Dave Penzer called the match in favor of Sabin and Storm via DQ, so no title change. The commentators noted that Matt Hardy must have planned this to manipulate the Impact Tag Title picture…[c]
Matt Hardy was hyping up Kassidy and Quen backstage. Hardy continued to bring up that he wants to put bounties on tag belts, with Quen and Kassidy not wanting to use the word “bounty”. Scott D’Amore showed up and said that even though Hardy’s doing a good job as manager, but Private Party is crossing the line. Hardy said to not blame them because Private Party are just children in the heat of the moment.
D’Amore said he’s afraid that Storm and Sabin are going to interfere at No Surrender so he’s going to fix this by putting Storm and Sabin in the match. Storm walked away with Hardy and Private Party looking mad at the decision. Hardy said that it’s Private Party’s fault this happened. Kassidy said “I’m appalled” at Hardy blaming them…
John’s Thoughts: D’Amore’s back to being all over TV, but he’s doing so as the babyface authority figure. I have to say, I actually think he’s doing a really good job! He’s establishing a signature move, where he lulls heels into a false sense of security, and then sarcastically punishes them for breaking the rules. Not bad. It also puts more focus on the talent as opposed to himself (where I felt he was getting too much focus a few months ago when he was in every single backstage and in-ring segment for no good reason).
Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown checked in from their commentary set. D’Lo Brown pointed out that the Good Brothers don’t have to be pinned now to lose the titles. The commentary team announced the following No Surrender card which will happen on Impact Plus: Fire and Flava vs. Havok and Nevaeh for the Knockouts Tag Titles in a Texas Tornado No-DQ match, A Triple Threat Revolver Match to become number one contender to the X Division Championship, TJP vs. Rohit Raju for the X Division Championship, Deonna Purrazzo, Kimber Lee, and Susan Yung vs. ODB, Jazz, and Jordynne Grace, XXXL and Tenille Dashwood vs. Decay, Deaner vs. Jake Something, Hernandez and Brian Myers vs. Matt Cartona and Eddie Edwards, and Rich Swann vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Rich Swann for the Impact Championship…
Scott D’Amore was the moderator in the ring for the Rich Swann and Tommy Dreamer world title match contract signing. What stood out in an odd way, was these weird office chairs they were sitting on which made it look like they were sitting on packing peanuts or swimming noodles. D’Amore introduced the signing and wished Dreamer a happy birthday. Swann signed the contract first. Dreamer then took the mic and thanked Swann and D’Amore for the title shot. Dreamer said he’s grateful because there’s a lot of people backstage more deserving of this title match than he is.
Dreamer got emotional and said he has to seize this opportunity. Dreamer talked about how he defeated the best man of his wedding, Tazz, to become world champion before. Dreamer said he won his 2nd world title (The WWECW title) when he beat a best friend in Christian Cage for it. Dreamer said he understands that Swann is one of the greatest pound for pound wrestlers. Dreamer said Swann has a flawless offense, but holes in defense. Dreamer said he’s not going to hold back on targeting Swann’s injured leg. The lights went out and Moose made his entrance, holding his toy TNA belt to the ring.
Moose was wearing a business suit. Moose said he is pissed off because he was promised a match with Rich Swann and Swann said Moose was going to have the first match with Rich. Moose said Swann is coming off as someone trying to take the night off, wrestling a 50 year old man. D’Amore got in between Swann and Moose and threatened to suspend Moose like he did to Ken Shamrock. Moose said he proved he can beat both Dreamer and Swann already and doesn’t need to interfere. Moose said he can hurt Rich anytime and Moose is the “real world champion” with the TNA belt.
Rich said the TNA belt is a thing of the past because Rich’s belt says the world “Impact” on it. Dreamer cut off Moose and Rich and pulled out his phone. Dreamer pointed out a text Moose sent him after one of their matches together where Moose congratulated Dreamer for making Moose sore after the match. Dreamer said Moose looks like Mr. T joined the Men in Black. Dreamer also said that Impact was going to fire Moose, but Dreamer was in the back to light a fire under Moose and Moose impressed everyone.
For some odd reason, they piped in generic canned cheers when Dreamer started talking about “the love of pro wrestling” (as he often does). Dreamer said he doesn’t wrestle for money anymore, but he wrestles for the fans and for the locker room. Dreamer said there are a lot of “little Dreamers” in the back. Dreamer said as long as there’s air in his lungs, blood in his veins, and a beating heart, he will continue to use his platform for good. Dreamer said the world title will him him a bigger platform for good. Dreamer said he’s Rich’s friend, but the world title is going to allow him to bring good to the entire world.
Dreamer then signed the contract. Dreamer asked Swann for a handshake so they can stand together for the love of pro wrestling. Moose left the ring and the show closed with Dreamer’s entrance theme playing…
John’s Thoughts: Oh God! They ruined a amazing Tommy Dreamer with these awful “Only in TNA” generic crowd chants! I guess this is appropriate given that Moose has the TNA belt in the ring. I kid, I kid. Ugh, Only in TNA. Anyway, that contract segment when you take away the hokey background noise, was actually really solid. Dreamer cut another one of his hyperbolic promos, but Dreamer is so wholesome that his hyperbole comes off as genuine and the world title stakes makes it more meaningful than your cut-and-paste crying Dreamer promo. That promo sold me that there is a tiny tiny chance that Dreamer could walk out with a title, even though that chance is still tiny tiny. The contract signing was good, but I thought it was turned into unintentional comedy with the empty crowed and canned cheering.
While I don’t think this show would do good to draw in people who haven’t been watching the show, I think this was a step up for the regular viewers of Impact. The show was still carried by the Tony and Tony paid ad and Eric Young, but the things around it all came together to put on a solid go-home show for their Impact Plus special. Believe it or not, I think one of the biggest hooks of that show is seeing Jake Something wrestle for the first time as a non-comedy badass. Let’s see how the show ends up after the No Surrender show.
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