By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
Juice Robinson and David Finlay vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton for the Impact Tag Titles (Violent By Design cash in the Call Your Shot trophy): The advertised main event was a highly entertaining tag match that would have made for a fine show closing match. I’d be lying if I said I remembered that Rhino had the Call Your Shot trophy when Violent By Design walked out. I assumed VBD were there for a quick beatdown to set up a future match with Robinson and Finlay. Instead, Rhino and Joe Doering used the trophy to get a match against the weary tag champions and made quick work of them. It was a creative way to get the belts off of Robinson and Finlay without doing any damage to them.
Rohit Raju vs. Jake Something: A good opening match that gave Raju a cheap win thanks to outside interference from Mahabali Shera. Something responded by destroying Shera with a post match beatdown that gave Something a measure of revenge. But the beatdown was so severe that it left me wondering where Raju stands, as it’s hard to view the guy as muscle for Raju when he had his ass handed to him by Something.
Jordynne Grace vs. Rachael Ellering: A well worked match between the former Knockouts Tag Champions. Grace appears to be on the verge of a heel turn given the way that she was rolling her eyes at Ellering’s latest Pollyanna promo and then requested the match against her. Grace was respectful after taking the loss, but she also seemed to show some frustration while leaving the ring.
Petey Williams vs. VSK: VSK followed his competitive loss to El Phantasmo with another competitive loss to Williams. VSK has been impressive in both matches and I continue to hope that there’s a plan to feature him as more than an enhancement wrestler. The match was smooth and entertaining from bell to bell.
Kiera Hogan vs. Tenille Dashwood: A quirky battle between two heels, but they pulled it off with a good match and a post match angle that oddly seemed to position Dashwood on the babyface side of the fence.
Impact Wrestling Misses
Teleporting wrestlers: Does anyone watch Impact because they really enjoy teleporting wrestlers? I can’t rule out the possibility that there are a few really odd ducks out there, but I think it’s more than safe to assume that there are more traditional pro wrestling fans who are turned off by this unnecessary nonsense.
Punches in wrestling look faker than teleporting.
They didn’t used to, back when wrestlers practiced those instead of moonsaults into a pile of people on the floor instead
That’s when they were workers first and wrestlers a distant second.
Make it look real, make it look like you’re trying to win a fight, and be a character that’s engaging enough to get the maximum number of people to see you as often as you can. That’s when pro wrestling is great.