Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. Rich Swann and Willie Mack in a non-title match, Sami Callihan vs. Chris Sabin, Chris Bey vs. David Finlay, Taylor Wilde vs. Madison Rayne, Tenille Dashwood, and Kaleb in a handicap match

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

Impact Wrestling Hits

Sami Callihan vs. Chris Sabin: A good match with a clean finish that legitimately surprised me. But Callihan is over enough that he can absorb a loss in a competitive match. The post match angle with Moose attacking both men followed by Eddie Edwards saving his longtime rival Callihan was solid, complete with Callihan giving Edwards the bird. Given everything they’ve been through, there should be plenty of friction as they build to wherever this is going.

Chris Bey vs. David Finlay: A good television match. Bey going over while using the ropes for leverage was fine in that it protected Finlay and created the need for a rematch.

Brian Myers and Sam Beale: Myers’ ongoing tutelage of Beale continues to provide some fun comedy relief. Perhaps the funniest thing about the skit is that Beale actually looked better once he put the sleeve on his head.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Christian Cage and Ace Austin: It was so strange to see Cage laughing off the idea of losing the title to Austin and then taking shots at his height once they were in the ring together. Austin is one of the brightest young stars on the Impact roster. Perhaps they are telling a story and this will make sense down the road. In the moment, it felt counterproductive for the babyface champion to be so dismissive of his challenger.

Impact Tag Champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. Rich Swann and Willie Mack in a non-title match: The booking formula was basic with the challengers establishing themselves by beating the champions in a non-title match. My issue with the match is that Gallows and Anderson lose too frequently. They no longer feel like the strongest team in Impact, they just feel like every other team and they just happen to hold the tag titles. Meanwhile, Swann and Mack have been together long enough and have enough credibility that they didn’t need a non-title win to establish themselves. In other words, Impact could have built to the same tag title match without having their champions take yet another loss.

Taylor Wilde vs. Madison Rayne, Tenille Dashwood, and Kaleb in a handicap match: It’s tough to take the new Rayne and Dashwood alliance seriously when they struggled to beat Wilde despite having a three-on-one handicap. That said, my guess is that Impact will make up for this next week by having them score a pin over Knockouts Tag Champions Jordynne Grace or Deonna Purrazzo in the six-woman tag match.