By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
Josh Alexander vs. Moose for the Impact World Championship: It was an interesting call for Impact to hold the rematch of their pay-per-view main event on this episode. It was a questionable move with the show airing against stiff competition from the NFL Draft and NBA Playoffs. Did Impact officials go with this match because they felt they needed a big match to counter the competition as best they could? It seems like they would have been better off announcing the rematch last night and actually airing it on next week’s show. Putting that aside, it was a very good main event with the new champion beating the former champion clean. The post match angle with Tomohiro Ishii being revealed as Alexander’s next challenger was simple and effective, and it also explains why Ishii beat Jonah on the Rebellion pay-per-view.
Eddie Edwards, Mike Bennett, and Matt Taven vs. Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, and Mike Bailey: A quality six-man tag match with the Honor No More getting a needed win. I was surprised to see friction between Bailey and Shelley over the way the finish occurred, but I look forward to them having a match, assuming that’s the plan. Bennett and Taven were on the winning side, but it feels like they should be positioned as a bigger threat in the tag team division. Impact officials love Edwards, but a good case can be made for positioning Bennett or Taven as the leader of Honor No More.
Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe vs. Heath and Rhino: A solid match, though it did get worse as it went on. The Briscoes were really over with the live crowd and really had them popping during the opening minutes of the match. The action slowed down and the live crowd settled in the rest of the way in a manner that I’m not used to seeing during a Briscoes match. Even so, it was a good reintroduction of the Briscoes. The Impact tag team division desperately needed the shot in the arm that the Briscoes provide.
Bhupinder Gujjar vs. VSK: This was Gujjar’s best match on Impact television. He seems to be gaining confidence and VSK was a good opponent for him. The post match scene with Raj Singh and Mahabali Shera confronting Gujjar was rough, and it’s hard to be excited about the forthcoming Gujjar vs. Shera match. If nothing else, Impact seems to be the only company that attempts to play to the Indian market by actually casting an Indian wrestler as a babyface.
Taya Valkyrie: I could have done without Valkyrie venting about her time in NXT. It felt like something that she should have gotten off her chest in an out of character interview rather than delivering the cliche anti-WWE promo in her first appearance back on Impact. Even so, it was good to see Valkyrie back and looking confident on the mic. She thrived during her previous run in Impact and still feels like a star in their storyline universe regardless of how disappointing her run as Franky Money was on NXT television.
Impact Wrestling Misses
Rosemary and Havok vs. Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans: Steelz took an awkward bump and clearly suffered an injury. She spent a lot of time lying on the mat and holding her head, and then struggled when she opted to continue the match. Why was she allowed to continue? It was obvious that she was having issues and yet for some reason no one stepped in to pull her from the match. I have no doubt that she chose to go on, but wrestlers in these positions needed to be saved from themselves. Most importantly, here’s hoping that she makes a full recovery.
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