By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
Christian Cage and Josh Alexander summit: The build to their Impact World Championship match at Bound For Glory has been top notch. Cage is showing just the right level of arrogance to make Alexander the babyface without fully turning his own fans against him. The clip from the AEW fan fest where Cage told fans that he had never heard of Alexander was a great addition to this segment, as it made Cage look two-faced and gave Alexander a trigger moment to take offense. Cage’s closing line about Alexander proving his point about not being able to keep his emotions in check was the perfect way to close the episode.
Rohit Raju vs. Willie Mack vs. El Phantasmo in a qualifier for the Triple Threat to crown the new X Division Champion: Impact couldn’t really go wrong in terms of putting any of these three wrestlers in the X Division Championship match at Bound For Glory. They went with Phantasmo, but not without some good teases for Raju stealing the win in the strong show opening match. Now here’s hoping that Phantasmo gets some mic time. At this point, it feels like you either know him from New Japan Pro Wrestling or you don’t know anything about him if you’ve only seen him in Impact.
Chris Sabin vs. Chris Bey: The quality match that one would expect from these two. Sabin going over clean without Bey getting any help from his Bullet Club crew was a surprise.
Heath and Scott D’Amore: Heath requesting that D’Amore book Rhino as his tag partner at Bound For Glory as his last contract demand was a really nice touch. Rhino hasn’t shown any interest in reuniting with Heath thus far, as Impact has done a nice job of stretching out the build to their reunion. And while I assume this has a happy ending, there is some mystery regarding where Rhino stands going into their match with Violent By Design.
Savannah Evans vs. Lady Frost: There were some camera cuts in the middle of some of the late moves, including Evans’ finisher. I couldn’t tell whether the production team was covering for some clunky moves or if they were just cut happy. Either way, Evans looked dominant in the end, and Frost did a solid job of selling for her. The post match angle with Deonna Purrazzo selecting Evans to face Mickie James next week was
Impact Wrestling Misses
Swinger’s Palace: Just how long does it take to tear down an illegal gambling operation? Impact always has some type of oddball sports entertainment storyline (Undead Realm, Wrestle House, etc.), so it’s hard not to fear that they have something in mind to replace these skits.
Battle Royal: The match filled a lot of time and determined the first and final entrants in the Call Your Shot battle royal. There were aspects of the match that I enjoyed, including W Morrissey getting the win. But the match just sort of plodded along and the involvement of the wrestling zombies and some of the undercard acts exposed CYS as being more of a “get everyone on the show” match rather than something prestigious.
Rich Swann vs. VSK: A fairly straight forward win for Swann over Brian Myers’ top pledge. It was well worked and all, but I’m surprised they are not building up VSK. I’m not saying he should have beaten Swann. Rather, I’m questioning what purpose the match actually served when Swann could have beaten one of Myers’ other underlings. I guess we’ll wait and see if there’s some type of backstage fallout that plays out next week.
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