By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
Mike Bailey vs. Alan Angels for the X Division Championship: A hot opening match with the former AEW wrestler facing Bailey, who never disappoints in the ring. I respect that Angels opted to bet on himself rather than re-sign with AEW where he was lost in the shuffle as a member of the Dark Order. His post AEW career got off to a good start with strong match with Bailey. We know that Angels can go in the ring, and I’m looking forward to finding out if he’s good on the mic and what type of character he will end up playing. Let’s face it, there are plenty of really good wrestlers out there, so promo skills and character development will be the real keys to his long term success.
Mia Yim vs. Deonna Purrazzo for a shot at the Knockouts Championship: A top notch main event with good back and forth action and believable near falls. With Jordynne Grace holding the title, there was no real tell regarding the outcome because Yim and Purrazzo are both believable challengers. They went with Yim to set up what should be a good Knockouts Title match at the Emergence event.
Laredo Kid vs. Trey Miguel: A good match. Miguel is booked strong in Impact so the outcome looked like a foregone conclusion on paper. However, Miguel played up a knee injury and that made the outcome feel less certain. Miguel winning this match was fine, but I am surprised that Impact hasn’t done more with Laredo Kid now that he’s under contract to the company.
PCO vs. Black Taurus: Another quality match. PCO came up short with his moonsault, but fortunately Taurus seemed to be okay despite PCO’s legs landing on him. I thought this might be the end of PCO in Honor No More, especially when the other members came out and were all smiles after the match. Rather, it looks like they are stretching out his departure story a little longer.
Rich Swann vs. Mahabali Shera: Swann got a decent match out of Shera. Even so, I was tempted to place this in the Miss section simply out of frustration over how wasted Swann has been since he lost the Impact World Championship. He spent time working a lot of tag team matches before Willie Mack left the company, and lately he has been stuck feuding over the worthless Digital Media Championship.
Impact Wrestling Misses
Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie are headed back to the Undead Realm: Why can’t this company move on from its ridiculous obsession with teleporting and the Undead Realm? Impact is producing a good professional wrestling product. I just don’t understand why they feel the need to take away from that by drifting into this campy nonsense.
Honor No More: Another week, another build to a throwaway tag team match. This one will be an eight-man tag rather than the usual ten-man tag team match, but it’s all the same. I continue to feel strongly that the HNM members would be better off being presented as individuals.
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