By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
W. Morrissey vs. Brian Myers in a No DQ match: The build of Morrissey as an antihero babyface challenger to Moose is playing out nicely. They stacked the odds against him by having him plow through Zicky Dice and VSK, which opened the door for Myers to have a run of offense before Morrissey made the fiery comeback to get the expected win. The post match angle with Moose put heat on the Impact Champion while making Morrissey look sympathetic. It will be interesting to hear what type of go-home show promo Morrissey delivers heading into a title match.
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Santana Garrett for the ROH Women’s World Championship: I didn’t know what to expect from the open challenge in terms of whether it would be an Impact regular or an enhancement wrestler. The appearance of Garrett exceeded my expectations for the open challenge and she had a quality match with Purrazzo.
Josh Alexander vs. Big Kon: The creative team made the right call in having Alexander plow through Big Kon. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen either member of The Ascension on television, but it still hasn’t been long enough to wash away the stank of how badly the duo was booked by WWE. It’s not that Kon can’t be salvaged, it’s that Impact’s top babyface star shouldn’t struggle to beat a member of The Ascension without a proper rebuild.
Matt Taven and Mike Bennett vs. Rich Swann and Rhino: A solid match that continued to put heat on the Honor No More faction. The angle with Steve Maclin saving the Impact team and eventually joining them after Ian Riccaboni endorsed him was nicely done. I like that Eddie Edwards reluctantly agreed to let Maclin join the Impact team rather than simply welcome him with open arms.
Knockouts Champion Mickie James vs. Chelsea Green in a non-title match: The DQ finish was underwhelming, but the match served a purpose in that it set up James and Green teaming up next week to face Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans. It looks like they are taking the slow build approach to Green turning on James since they have James defending her title against Steelz at the No Surrender event.
Impact Wrestling Misses
Josh Alexander and Scott D’Amore saga: John Moore was had strong praise for this segment in his review of last night’s show, so perhaps I’m in the minority. The performances were strong, but I just don’t get what they are going for. Maybe there will be something at the end of all of this that will explain why D’Amore doesn’t just give Alexander another shot at the Impact World Championship, but right now it doesn’t seem like his character has a good reason. What exactly is D’Amore protecting Alexander from by not giving him a rematch for the title? This would make a lot more sense if D’Amore did his best version of Mickey Goldmill’s “Because you can’t win, Rock” line by saying that he’s protecting Alexander from Moose. I was fine with D’Amore wanting Alexander to get his emotions in check given the way he lost the title. I also liked the big distraction that was created when Jonah attacked Alexander. But now it feels like they are just dragging this out and there’s more tension between Alexander and D’Amore than there is heat between Alexander and Moose.
Bullet Club verbal segment with Violent By Design and The Good Brothers: Well, I wanted a Bullet Club promo. There wasn’t a real mission statement, but they did a lot of talking and established that the are babyfaces, which is logical considering that Impact already has Honor No More playing the invading heel faction. I didn’t care for Young accusing the BC members of clinging to something that was cool ten years ago and reminding everyone that they didn’t even start the faction because it simply hit too close to home and made the babyfaces look bad. The segment wasn’t all bad, but I felt like there needed to be a history of the Bullet Club video package or something to bring viewers up to speed. I’m sure some Impact viewers are aware of the faction’s past, but there are surely a lot of casual viewers who don’t follow New Japan Pro Wrestling and therefore had no clue what these guys spent so much time talking about.
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