By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Impact Wrestling TV
Taped in Las Vegas, Nevada at Sam’s Town Live
Aired December 9, 2021 on AXS TV
Highlights from last week’s Impact Wrestlng show aired…
Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown were on commentary. Dave Penzer was the ring announcer…
1. Chris Sabin and Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James vs. Matthew Rehwoldt and Deonna Purrazzo in an intergender match. Rehwoldt offered to wrestle Mickie to start the match. Mickie locked Rehwoldt in a headlock. Rehwoldt took down Mickie with a clothesline. Sabin blind tagged in and hit Rehwoldt with a kick. Mickie and Chris hit Matt with a boot for a two count. Sabin put Rehwoldt in a standing Fujiwara Armbar. Rehwoldt escaped and gave Sabin a clubbing blow to the back.
Deonna distracted Sabin to allow Rehwoldt to trip up Sabin off the top rope. Deonna tagged in and worked on Sabin with a front chancery. Rehwoldt and Deonna traded quick tags to cut the ring in half on Sabin. Rehwoldt hit Sabin with a modified Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count. Sabin caught a flying Rehwoldt with a dropkick. Mickie and Deonna tagged in with both women trading aggressive ground and pound. Mickie got the advantage after a Thesz Press and neckbreaker.
Sabin cleared Rehwoldt from the ring. Deonna escaped a Cradle Shock. Sabin gave Rehwoldt a suicide dive. Deonna gave Sabin a dive. Mickie gave the heels a dive at ringside. Rehwoldt tripped Mickie on the apron. Mickie ended up hitting Deonna with a seated senton. Deonna rolled up Mickie and Rehwoldt held Deonna’s hand away from the ref’s vision to give her the win via a leverage pinfall.
Deonna Purrazzo and Matthew Rehwoldt defeated Mickie James and Chris Sabin via pinfall in 8:15.
John’s Thoughts: An ok match, but not a match/outcome that has me more interested in seeing a Mickie vs. Deonna rematch more than I already was. I thought they were doing a better job when they were having Deonna tease either being crestfallen or having a change in demeanor. This seems like pro wrestling 101 booking in it’s most uninteresting form. They also give Sabin all these wins against their main eventers, and they have him as the filler counter to Matthew Rehwoldt here. Not very effective.
Gia Miller interviewed Matt Cardona about Scott D’Amore announced after Impact last week that Matt Cardona earned a title shot and will face Moose and Morrissey in a triple threat match for the world title. Cardona said he only came to Impact for one thing, a world title opportunity. Cardona said in his 18 years wrestling he’s only had one world title opportunity and that match only lasted about 10 seconds (Sheamus vs. Zack Ryder for the WWE Championship on a random episode of Raw back in 2010). Cardona said he understands how rare and special these matches are.
Cardona said he doesn’t care what match they put him in because he’s “Always ready”. W Morrissey showed up and said Matt was being a typical “Mid Cardona”. Morrissey said Cardona sever sticks up for himself and goes after what he deserves and that’s why Cardona is always stuck at the spot he’s in. Morrissey said unlike Cardona, he goes out and takes what he wants. Morrissey said Cardona may be happy taking any match, but Morrissey wants a one-on-one title match against Moose. Morrissey said that there’s a lot of time between now and Hard to Kill and he implied that he might injure Cardona before then. Cardona said Morrissey doesn’t have to sneak up on him because he’s willing to face Morrissey in a match tonight where if Cardona loses he’ll back out of the triple threat. Cardona said he’s going to prove to Morrissey that he’s “Hard to Kill”…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Please tell me I’m not the only one that hopes that Morrissey beats up Zack Ryder in a parking lot to take his character out of the Triple Threat match at Hard to Kill? At least have Morrissey beat him on this episode to knock him out the triple threat. In all seriousness, Matt Cardona has not look good when having to take criticism from Moose and Morrissey over the last two weeks. Moose and Morrissey are right! Cardona’s lame babyface character is content being complacent. Moose and Morrissey, while fighting dirty, exhibit a level of pluckiness that Cardona doesn’t exhibit. Moose and Morrissey come off as more admirable when compared to “Always Ready” and Happy-to-be-here Zack Ryder.
An ad aired for the Impact Hard to Kill PPV…
Highlights from the Rich Swann and Willie Mack vs. VBD match aired…
Eric Young led a Violent By Design promo to hype up their match later in the show…
John’s Thoughts: Young was one of the hottest acts in Impact when he came back to Impact and the Violent By Design vignettes were so well thought out back then. Since he came back from injury, it just feels like he’s back to the same level he was as the leader of Sanity when WWE didn’t know what to do with him and his faction. Simply put, Impact doesn’t know what to do with Young and VBD which is a shame because he and Swann were carrying their main events around a year ago.
Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown checked in from ringside and ran through upcoming segments for this week’s show…
Entrances for the next match took place. Raj Singh is dressed up like a dorky poser for some reason…
2. Rohit Raju (w/Raj Singh) vs. Lawrence D. Larry sprayed his perfume in the aire which Raju sold as nasty smelling. Larry gave Rohit an atomic drop and running uppercut. Larry hit Raju with a crossbody for a two count. Raju caught Larry with a kick combo. Josh Alexander showed up and tosssed Raj aside. Alexander gave Raju a backbreaker bomb for an apparent DQ.
Rohit Raju defeated Lawrence D via apparent DQ in 2:14.
Alexander asked Jonah to get his ass out here. The show cut to commercial…[c]
John’s Thoughts: All things considered, for what little time Larry and Rohit had in that match, they looked really good in terms of putting together moves. Rohit is one of Impact’s most underutilized talents and Larry has shown potential. Too bad they are stuck inside Impact’s bad comedy fetish vaccum. What makes things worse is they acknowledge that their comedy is esoteric and sucks by having Josh Alexander treat it like crap.
Instead of getting Jonah, Alexander got the world’s most fearless wrestling GM, Scott D’Amore, walking out to tell Alexander to calm down. D’Amore said he understands that Alexander wants Jonah, but Jonah isn’t in the building. D’Amore said he predicted that Josh will do something like this and he asked him to stay at home. D’Amore said Alexander can get what he wants, a match with Jonah at Hard to Kill. Alexander said he’s ready for a fight now. Alexander said D’Amore is testing his patience.
D’Amore yelled that he’s trying to teach Alexander patience and that Alexander is like family to him. D’Amore said he wants to see Alexander as world champion and the face of the company. D’Amore said he wants Alexander to have it all, but he has to get his emotions in check. Alexander rolled Raj Singh in the ring and gave him a Jay Driller. Alexander said “this” is him being patient…
John’s Thoughts: Solid segment to call back to Christian’s statement about Josh Alexander’s emotions eventually getting the better of him. As much as I would like to see D’Amore sell more for large heels, he was good here playing the role of the concerned paternal figure in Alexander’s life (Again, D’Amore has been great in the role of Impact’s GM, I just find that he puts himself over too much at times, not here though). If they are having Jonah stick around for more than a cup of coffee, I’d put Jonah over Alexander with Alexander’s rage getting the better of him. It allows Impacct to develop a much needed upper card star in Jonah while delaying Alexander’s quest for the world title in a good way.
A security guard asked Hikuleo and Chris Bey if they could sign some posters for Impact’s merch table, but Bey berated the guard out of spite for recent Bullet Club loses. Laredo Kid showed up and spoke random spanish. The security guard implied that what Laredo said was NSFW…[c]
Steve Maclin got in Scott D’Amore’s face backstage and pointed out that Trey Miguel has never beaten him in any of their encounters. D’Amore said Maclin is right in terms of not being pinned or submitted, but he also hasn’t been winning any matches too. D’Amore said Maclin put his hands on a security guard last week. D’Amore got in Maclin’s face and said that this time there are no opportunities and this time the answer is no. Maclin walked away. D’Amore gave Maclin a condescending “nice job”.
Rosemary and Havok showed up to ask D’Amore about his Ultimate X announcement. D’Amore said that he’s been so busy that he deligated the announcement to someone else so he’s not the person to see. D’Amore walked away…
John’s Thoughts: Again, not the worst thing in the world, but add Steve Maclin to the list of badass monsters that have to sit there and take it from the world’s most fearless babyface GM Scott D’Amore. Again, there’s no problem with D’Amore being fearless, but do all the heels have to break character to sell for him?
Entrances for the next match took place…
John’s Thoughts: Is it just me or does Juice Robin’s current haircut and beard have him looking like “The Darewolf” PJ Black?
3. “FinJuice” Dave Finlay and Juice Robinson vs. “The Learning Tree” Zicky Dice and VSK. Zicky Dice did a throw up string magic trick to start off the match for some reason. The distraction allowed him to put Robinson in a headlock. VSK tagged in and hit Juice with a double stomp. The Learning Tree traded quick tags to isolate Juice. Juice rolled away and tagged in Finlay who cleaned house.
Finlay hit VSK wiht a diving shoryuken. Robinson tagged in and hit VSK with a flapjack. FinJuice hit VSK with their double team elbow drop backbreaker finisher to give Juice the pinfall over VSK.
FinJuice defeated The Learning Tree via pinfall in 3:24.
Zicky Dice and VSK argued a bit before heading to the back…
Matt Striker hyped up some upcoming segments…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Eh, that was a thing, I guess. Impact has a dead tag team division at the moment. Talented wrestlers, but they just seem to be having matches for no reason. The Good Brothers are the champs right? Eh. Can’t say I’m interested in seeing random New Japan tag teams wrestle without any real context. I’m also disappointed that VSK and Zicky Dice are stuck in a tag team that doesn’t fit their characters. VSK should be doing something more meaningful. Dice is actually good with comedy, but he doesn’t fit in the Learning Tree gimmick. Dice was stellar as the old school stuck-in-the-past heel in NWA. Why not pair Dice up with Johnny Swinger and see what magic they can produce?
Moose got in Morrissey’s face and said he’s not mad at what Morrissey did to him last week. Moose said he understands that he and Morrissey don’t want Cardona in the match to make it a triple threat. Moose said they can all agree that Cardona doesn’t deserve to be in the world title match to make it a Triple Threat. Moose said they should work with each other one more time to take out Cardona. Morrissey said he doesn’t trust Moose and he can take Cardona out by himself. Morrissey said he’ll see Moose at Hard to Kill…
John’s Thoughts: Well, Moose isn’t wrong? Is anyone really clamoring for vanilla Zack Ryder to be in the world title picture (a more developed zack ryder is ok, Death Match King Matt Cardona would be great! But bland Always Ready Ryder)?
Eric Young ordered Joe Doering and Deaner to stay in the back. Young made his entrance for the upcoming street fight…
4. Eric Young vs. Rhino in a street fight. Young tossed away all the weapons that Rhino tried to toss in the ring. Young and Rhino traded advantage. Rhino dumped Young to ringside. Young and Rhino had a walk and brawl at ringside. Rhino hit Young with a baking sheet and trash can to the head. Rhino set up a can in the corner. Young hit Rhino a few times with the various weapons in the ring. Young went for an elbow drop on Rhino, but Rhino recovered and hit Young with a cookie sheet. Rhino gave Young a superplex. Rhino rallied back with clotheslines and shoulder tackles.
Rhino went for a Gore, but Deaner got in the way and took some punches. Doering tried to get involved by Heath ran out for the save. Heath and Rhino cleared Doering from the ring. Young surprised Rhino with a hockey mask shot to the head for a nearfall. Young went for a pile driver, but Rich Swann and Willie Mack ran out to attack Young. Rhino was about to hit Young with a Pile Driver but Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson ran out. The Good Brothers cleared Mack and Swann from the ring. Young hit a distracted Rhino with a low blow and pile driver for the win.
Eric Young defeated Rhino via pinfall in 8:03 to win the street fight.
The heels put the boots to the babyfaces. VBD then started to jaw a bit with the Good Brothers to close the segment…
John’s Thoughts: Yuck. Not due to the talent level of all the wrestlers involved here, but at the direction they are all headed. This was all to set up some bland ass tag team picture? Young, Swann, Mack, and maybe Heath; these guys should be in meaningful singles programs. Swann and Young proved they can carry a strong world title picture. I almost gagged when I saw the Good Brothers run out because they just sucked all the energy out of the room.
Gia Miller interviewed the IInspiration and Influence backstage and wondered if they were all forming a super group. They all ultimately sounded incomprehensible before walking off, not really settling on a combined group name…
A Hard to Kill ad aired…
5. Jessie McKay, Cassie Lee, Tenille Dashwood, Madison Rayne (w/Kaleb Konley) vs. “Decay” Rosemary, Havok, Black Taurus, and Crazzy Steve in an intergender tag match. Taurus wanted to start the match and nobody from the female team wanted to face him. They all retreated to ringside heading into commercial.[c]
The heels had Rosemary isolated back from the break. Steve and Rayne tagged in. Steve did an odd dance number with Rayne which ended in him biting her in the face. Taurus and Dashwood tagged in. Taurus military pressed Dashwood to everyone at ringside. Tenille and Rosemary became the legal people somehow. Rosemary speared Dashwood for the win.
Decay defeated the Influence and the IInspiration via pinfall in 4:35 of on-air time.
John’s Thoughts: A very confusing and unproductive segment. Impact does not know how to do intergender wrestling. What made Lucha Underground fun with their intergender matches were them breaking down the barriers of men and women being in the ring and not having that issue come into play. Impact just brings those issues to the forefront and just makes the situation very staged and awkward. Impact’s intergender matches involve a lot of “oh no! Will he hit a woman?” moments that ultimately lead to no payoff that can be productive. I also feel like Impact’s not getting the most out of the IInspiration by having them mess around with their counterproductive supernatural mess. Remember when Decay were more goth and macabre as opposed to being “demons”? I wish Impact were back in 2016.
They aired Lady Frost defeating Zombie Kimber Lee via pinfall from the Before the Impact show…
Gia Miller interviewed Lady Frost for becoming the newest member of the Knockouts wrestler. She talked about how she’s the “coolest” wrestler, get it. Scott D’Amore showed up to welcome Frost to the Impact roster. Frost said that there’s no one more qualified than Frost to be in Ultimate X.
D’Amore said she would have to take her request to the newest member of the Impact management team, Gail Kim. Gail Kim showed up and congratulated Frost for being on the roster. Gail announced Frost, Tasha Steelz, Rachael Ellering, Chelsea Green, Jordynne Grace, and Rosemary as the women in the Ultimate X match…[c]
Matt Stryker hyped up the Hard To Kill and Throwback Throwdown shows…
Entrances for the next match took place. Morrissey and Cardona brawled before the bell…
6. “Always Ready” Matt Cardona vs. W Morrissey. Cardona was beat up before the bell, but managed to sneak in a Dragon Screw on Morrissey for a two count. Moose was shown watching the match from the crow’s nest. Morrissey left Cardona lying after a big boot.[c]
Cardona hit Morrissey with a jawbreaker and foots. Morrissey knocked Cardona off the top rope with a boot. Morrissey lawn darted Cardona into the turnbuckle. Cardona was busted open at ringside. Morrissey dragged Cardona’s face across the turnbuckle joint. Morrissey punished Cardona for a stretch. In the ring, Cardona managed to avoid a corner splash which knocked out Morrissey for a stretch. Cardona gave Morrissey a series of punches.
Morrissey gave Cardona an X Factor. Morrissey reversed a Broski Boot into a fireman carry. Cardona escaped and hit Morrissey with a Missile Dropkick and Broski Boot for a two count. Cardona struggled to get to his feet and the commentators noted it might be due to the blood loss. Cardona reversed a power bomb into a Ruff Ryder Leg Lariat. Cardona took a while to get to the cover which led to a nearfall. Morrissey recovered and hit Cardona with a big boot. Morrissey kept reigning punches and boots on Cardona in the corner. Brian Hebner called the match off after he tried to hold back Morrissey and Morrissey shoved him back.
Matt Cardona defeated W Morrissey via DQ in 10:00 of on-air time.
Morrissey gave Brian Hebner a big boot, which got cheers. Morrissey gave Cardona a release power bomb. Chelsea Green ran out to check on Cardona. Moose ran into the ring to order Morrissey to hold Cardona in place. Morrissey refused and punched out Moose. W yelled at Green to get out of the way. Cardona attacked Morrissey and dumped Morrissey to ringside. Matt Cardona held up the title belt to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: A contrived and confusing final stretch of segments. The match was actually framed and wrestled well, but that framework only works if Matt Cardona is a beloved underdog babyface, which he isn’t. Based off Morrissey’s and Moose’s past two weeks of criticism, Cardona comes off as the least likable and least sympathetic wrestler in the world title triple threat at Hard to Kill. Moose is a badass, and people like badasses. Morrissey is a badass, but he also has the added real-life redemption story that’s easier to grasp on to. Cardona is just a whiny and complacent babyface.
Impact really needs to build up a top babyface or two to wrestle in their main events. I actually think Chris Sabin is fine, but Eddie and Cardona don’t cut it. Hopefully they turn Morrissey. He’s a giant, but his redemption story could be something the fans can rally behind. They are actually doing things right with Josh Alexander, because if he sticking with the company for a while, then they don’t have to burn through his feel-good title quest so soon.
Be the first to comment