By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Impact Wrestling TV
Taped in Las Vegas, Nevada at Sam’s Town Live
Aired October 27, 2022 on AXS TV
Highlights from last week’s Impact Wrestling show aired…
Scott D’Amore was speaking on his headset backstage. Mike Bennett and Matt Taven barge into the room. Taven ranted about The Kingdom not having the tag titles anymore and how Maria Kanellis is at home hurt while Vincent is in the hospital. Taven threatened to sue Impact for having an unsafe working environment and said he wants to burn Impact to the ground.
D’Amore told Bennett and Taven that he sympathizes with them and he doesn’t want to see Maria and Vincent hurt. D’Amore said what Taven and Bennett don’t understand is that he really wants them here because they are world class talents. D’Amore said the only problem is that they need to grow up a little bit. D’Amore said he needs to find common ground with them. D’Amore said Bennett and Taven will “never be in this bad position again”.
Taven was pleased and said all they were fighting for was a little bit of honor. Taven wanted a handshake to seal the deal. D’Amore shook Taven’s hand and told him and Bennett that they’ll never be in that position again in Impact is because they’re fired. D’Amore told them to pack up and go as he left his office. Taven asked Bennett “are you serious?”. The We Own the Night theme played…
Tom Hannifan and Matthew Rehwoldt were on commentary…
An “X-factors” fact sheet aired for Alan Angels and Trey Miguel. One notable note noted that Trey has only lost 2 of his last 16 singles matches in Impact. The vacant X Division title was displayed on a pedestal at the stage…
1. Alan Angels vs. Trey Miguel in a first round match of the Impact X Division Championship Tournament. Angels and Miguel started the match with technical chain wrestling. Angels tripped Tray with a basement feint kick. Both men traded rollups. Black Taurus had already advanced on the BTI show. Angels slowed down the action after tripping Miguel off the top rope. Miguel came back with punches. Trey tried to do his Spiderman stop, but Angels dropkicked him in the gut.
Alan Angels gave Miguel a Northern Lights Suplex for a two count. Trey came back with CQC. Angels hit Miguel with a reverse Sling Blade for a two count. Trey blocked a Half and Half by grabbing the ropes. Trey hit Angels with an armdrag. Trey got a breather after nailing Angels with a handstand jump kick. Trey hit Angels with a kick combo into a double stomp. Trey hit Angels with a Meteora in the corner and on the floor for a two count.
Angels dodged a top rope meteora. Angels tangled Trey in the corner and hit him with a Shotgun Dropkick and Spike DDT for a two count. Angels dragged Miguel to the top rope. Miguel slipped away and hit Angels with Cheeky Nandos, followed by a Tiger Feint Kick. Trey hit Angels with the top rope Meteora finisher. Angels kicked out. Angels hit Trey with a back elbow and La Mistica. Angels put Trey in a submission which Trey escaped by a rollup attempt.
Trey reversed a lariat, but Angels reversed the Scorpion Kick into a Half and Half suplex. Angels hit Trey with a Frog Splash for a nearfall. Miguel reversed a discus lariat into a Scorpion Kick. Trey hit Angels with a Paige Turner for the win.
Trey Miguel defeated Alan Angels via pinfall in 8:17 to advance to the semi-finals of the Impact X Division Championship Tournament.
The upgraded graphic showed that Trey Miguel and Black Taurus have advanced to the next round of the tournament (Taurus won a match on the Before the Impact show)…
John’s Thoughts: Great opener! We’ve seen two matches from Alan Angels in Impact and I already feel like I know more about him as a wrestler than his entire time in the Dark Order (I did remember him getting yelled at by Brodie though). Angels has lost a few Impact matches, but they have put him over strong in his losses. He looked good the last time and this time he kicked out of Trey’s finisher. They also noted that Trey rarely loses singles matches. As for the Tournament, this is really going to force Impact to move away from homogeneous multi person spotfests. This should be good because of all the strong singles matches we’re getting and this is the first pace setter.
Chris Bey and Ace Austin were walking around backstage, looking for Bully Ray. They found Ray and Tommy Dreamer. Bey demanded that Bully apologize to Ace for jumping him in the back and lying about it. Bully said he does apologize for taking a swipe at Bey and Juice before the match. Bully then extended his hand to Ace saying it was nice to finally meet him. Ace reiterated that he was jumped by Bully and that Bully is a damn liar.
Bully continue to stress that he’s turned a new leaf and had nothing to do with the attack. Bully said there’s a chance that it might be Moose. Dreamer got in Bey’s face to protect Bully. Bey challenged Dreamer to a match later. Bully thanked Dreamer for having his back and that he has Dreamer’s back later on. Dreamer said that Bully needs to not assist him because him helping Dreamer might give fuel to Bully’s doubters. Dreamer acted annoyed for having to always defend Bully…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Good segment and I like that they found a logical reason to have the babyface stay in the back. What is a bit odd is that Impact’s main event program is centered around two 51 year old former ECW wrestlers in 2022. Can we at least get ECW “legend” Johnny Swinger in here?
Gisele Shaw, Deonna Purrazzo, and Chelsea Green were psyching each other up for their six person tag match later in the show. Green stressed that Mickie’s career can end in this match. Deonna Purrazzo said she and Green can go for the tag titles later on. Shaw said she might go for the Knockouts Title? Green and Purrazzo shut that idea down…
Tasha Steelz made her entrance wearing a shirt that said “Flava Hub” (a play off the Porn Hub graphic). The local wrestler was already in the ring…
2. Tasha Steelz (w/Savannah Evans) vs. Rachelle Scheel. Tasha laid out Rachelle quickly with a Yakuza kick. After stalking Rachelle a bit, Tasha hit her with a cutter. Tasha grabbed a mic at ringside instead of picking up the quick win. Tasha said she felt disrespect that Impact has put her in the ring with some “regular smegular dirty diana”.
She said she’s above all this and shouldn’t be in the ring with the likes of “that”. Tasha said baby gurl in the ring got her five minutes of fame, but now it’s feeding time. Savannah Evans grabbed Rachelle Scheel by the hair and gave her a short-arm lariat. Penzer announced the DQ.
Rachelle Scheel defeated Tasha Steelz via DQ in 1:57.
Tasha said that Evans gave Scheel the appetizer, but now it’s time for the main course. Evans gave Scheel a power bomb. Tasha and Savannah stood tall…
John’s Thoughts: Even though Tasha Steelz technically took the loss, she was good on the mic and through her mannerisms here. This looked like a soft reset for her to rebuild her after having to take the loss to Killer Kelly. In a way, I hope it’s a soft reset for Savannah Evans too, who has good matches but loses all of the time. Impact can have a devastating force on their hands if they can build up both Evans and Steelz at the same time (if that’s their direction, they might be gearing Evans and Steelz up for a run at the tag titles).
Impact Tag Team Champions Heath and Rhino met up with the Motor City Machine Guns backstage, who were giving Heath and Rhino slow golf claps. Shelley reminded them that Heath and Rhino promised them a tag title shot. Heath agreed and told them to take the request to management with their blessing. Heath said he couldn’t wait…[c]
The Guns were going to D’Amore’s office. The Major Players were already there to request a title shot. The Guns and Players bickered outside of Scott’s office. D’Amore came out and told them all to stop bickering. D’Amore booked Cardona and Shelley in a match for later in the show. Shelley argued that Myers and Cardona ruined it for everybody…
3. Chris Bey (w/Ace Austin) vs. Tommy Dreamer (w/Bully Ray). Hannifan noted that they were wrestling in Bey’s hometown of Las Vegas. Dreamer avoided Bey’s quick moves for a stalemate. Both men had another counter and stalemate sequence. Bully and Austin jawed at each other from opposite aprons.[c]
Bey took down Dreamer with a kick and punch combo. Dreamer caught Bey off a crossbody attempt into a Fallaway Slam. Bey hit Dreamer with a dropkick and moonsault for a two count. Bey hit Dreamer with chops while doing Too Sweet. Dreamer did a Too Sweet and chopped Bey in the chest. Bey sent Dreamer into the ringpost and followed up with an elbow breaker. Bey countered Dreamer into a DDT for a two count.
Bey tuned the horn. Dreamer reversed Sweet Chin Music into a cutter for a two count. Bey reversed a dive into a superkick for a nearfall. Dreamer crotched Bey off the top rope. Dreamer hit Bey with a Superplex. Moose walked out and got in Bully’s face to continue to blame Bully Ray for attacking Ace Austin. Bey blocked Dreamer’s Dusty punches with an eye poke. Moose tripped up Chris Bey, but blamed Bully because Bully was standing there too.
Dreamer rolled up Bey for a two count when Bey was distracted with Bully. Bey caught Dreamer with a hook kick and followed up with a springboard Cutter for the win.
Chris Bey defeated Tommy Dreamer via pinfall in 6:50 of on-air time.
Bully Ray went to check on Dreamer in the ring…
John’s Thoughts: Good match, and Dreamer can still hang in there at his age. I argue he’s actually putting in better work these days because he is wrestling more athletic wrestlers. I hope he doesn’t wrestle weekly though as he was getting a bit overexposed as the gatekeeper before all the Dark Side of the Ring stuff put him on the shelf (which I also hope his mind has changed since them. I’m all towards people learning their lesson and becoming better. I’m also all for forgiveness). Cool seeing Bey in a singles match again because I felt like this Bullet Club thing has stunted Bey and Austin’s singles careers right when they were heating up. I still think Bullet Club in 2022 holds everyone back. Their original leader, Finn Balor, is even burying 2022 Bullet Club in his promos on Raw, mocking The Good Brothers for holding on.
This week’s Impact Plus Flashback Match of the week was from Slammiversary 2013. It looked like it was Sting vs. Bully Ray in some sort of hardcore match for the world title. Sting had the visual pinfall, but because this was TNA, D’Von attacked the ref. REF BUMP! Bully Ray picked up the win after hitting Sting with a hammer…
Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis cut a promo backstage about challenging all tag teams in Impact as they try to go for the Impact tag titles…[c]
Bully Ray yelled at Tommy Dreamer backstage about how he’s trying his best to gain everyone’s trust, but they are giving him a hard time. Tommy Dreamer reassured Bully that he trusts him and if people are watching the show, they should be trusting him too. Bully said he’s going to beat down Moose next time Moose gets involved. Bully paced around a bit and cooled down. Dreamer thanked Bully for calming down…
Entrances for the next match took place. Cardona attacked Shelley before the bell. The ref pulled them apart and asked Shelley if he was willing to continue, which he was…
4. “Alwayz Ready” Matt Cardona (w/Brian Myers) vs. Alex Shelley (w/Chris Sabin). Cardona hit Shelley with a lariat in the corner. Shelley dodged Cardona at ringside and worked on Cardona with methodical strikes at ringside. Shelley hit Cardona with a jawbreaker and slingshot splash for a two count. Shelley hit Cardona with short-arm chops. Myers dragged Shelley to ringside to eat a wrecking ball kick from Cardona.
Cardona worked on Shelley with methodical offense. After a few minutes, Shelley managed to dodge a Broski Boot. Shelley got a breather after nailing Cardona with an STO into the buckle. Cardona and Shelley traded forearms. Shelley took out Cardona with a flying axe handle. Shelley hit Cardona with a kick and Tornado DDT. Myers put Cardona’s foot on the bottom rope for the break.
The Guns took out Myers with their Muta Lock-Dropkick combo. Cardona got a thumb in Shelley’s eye and followed up with the Ruff Ryder leg lariat. Shelley kicked out of Cardona’s finisher. Myers tossed the Digital Media Title to Shelley to force the ref to take it from Shelley. Cardona got a two count off a small package.
After the referee pulled the belt from Cardona, Shelley hit Cardona with a DDT on the belt for a nearfall. Rehwoldt said that the Machine Guns keep skirting the rules. Hannifan yelled “What!?!”. Sabin and Myers took each other out at ringside. Shelley rolled up Cardona for a two count. While the referee was telling the timekeeper that it was a two count, Myers nailed Shelley in the head with the Digital Media belt. Cardona rolled up Shelley for the win.
Matt Cardona defeated Alex Shelley via pinfall in 8:42.
Cardona and Myers put the boots to The Guns after the match. Heath and Rhino ran out and cleared the heels from the ring. Heath and Rhino stood tall as Rhino’s theme played…
John’s Thoughts: Good stuff. This is two matches tonight where we have people kicking out of finishers, but Impact doesn’t overdo it and it led to some fun creative dirty-pin spots here. I’m happy Cardona got the win here, because after all that effort cheating, they had to pay it off (unlike Honor No More in the past, who would always lose despite over-cheating). Cardona also had to be the one to go over given his return from injury. This Guns vs. Players feud should be a great feud to set up the next Tag Title contender. I’m actually looking forward to either one of these teams winning the belts over Heath and Rhino.
Josh Alexander and Rich Swann where chatting backstage. Swann said he knows the stress Josh is going through because he’s a former World Champion. Gail Kim showed up and wanted to talk to Josh on the side. Rich left. Gail Kim said that he actually has positive words for Bully Ray because Bully taught her the most out of anybody in the business.
Gail said, that said, Bully also told her not to trust anyone in the business. Gail said that he just wants to advise Josh to watch his back. Josh said he appreciates it. Steve Maclin showed up and clubbed Josh Alexander in the back. Security Guards, Gail Kim, and Frankie Kazarian ran in to drag away Maclin…[c]
Frankie Kazarian and Josh Alexander were recovering from the brawl. Josh said that last time they talked, Kaz wasn’t looking for tag partners, but now he’s assisting Josh out of nowhere. Kaz said that he was just protecting his investment here. He said a lot of guys are trying to make sure Josh doesn’t make it to his title match at Overdrive and Kaz just wants that title match to still happen. Josh said he appreciates that he doesn’t have to worry about Kaz attacking him at least.
Kaz said Josh only has to worry about Kaz at Overdrive. As Kaz was leaving, Josh joked about Kaz looking for tag partners now. Josh said he and Kaz are from two of Impact’s best tag teams (The North and Bad Influence). Josh said that to reinforce the trust he has in Kaz now, they should team up and accept Aussie Open’s open challenge that they laid out earlier. Kaz agreed and the two men fist bumped…
Entrances for the next match took place. Joe Hendry did his “I Believe in Joe Hendry” entrance. Hendry took a mic and talked about how people lose a lot of money in Vegas. He said there might be a man in the crowd who has to go to his wife to tell her that he blew all his money, savings, kid’s college fund, and house on gambling. Hendry said that man will say it’s all okay though, because he got to see Joe Hendry. Hendry said the wife will say it’s ok because they believe In Joe Hendry…
5. Joe Hendry vs. Raj Singh (w/Mahabali Shera). Hendry toyed with Raj early on. Hendry hit Raj with a delayed vertical suplex. Raj came back with a back elbow and called Hendry a stupid idiot. Hendry came back with a Military Press. Raj took down Hendry with a strike combo. Hendry hit Raj with a lariat, did his arm wave, and hit Raj with a delayed Uranage for the win.
Joe Hendry defeated Raj Singh via pinfall in 1:47.
John’s Thoughts: Joe Hendry continues to be fun as they re-debut him. He’s always had the singing cover guy gimmick in the past, but now it seems like he adding a bit of a motivational speaker character to his persona? Reminds me a bit of DDP’s WWE run. A lot of people didn’t like DDPYoga DDP when it was on WWE TV, but I was actually a fan of the fun gimmick. Let’s see Mr. Hendry’s take on the character.
Eric Young and Deaner were backstage. Young was lecturing someone who wasn’t in frame. Young talked about his feud with Sami Callihan. Young asked the unseen person to watch his match with Callihan next week to have their eyes opened…
Mickie James, Jordynne Grace, and Taylor Wilde were warming up backstage. The camera then cut to Eddie Edwards getting mic’d up for a sit-down interview…[c]
Gia Miller had a sit-down interview with Eddie Edwards. She asked him on the status of Honor No More. Eddie said that Honor No More was “no more”. Gia asked if PCO forced him to end Honor No More. Eddie said that there were other factors like D’Amore firing The Kingdom and Vincent and Maria being hurt, so there was nothing left to salvage. Gia asked Eddie about his relationship with Alisha. Eddie said he’d prefer to keep that private. Gia said she respects that, but she noticed that the whole Honor No More thing put a strain on his marriage.
Gia asked Eddie if he’d do things differently in retrospect. Eddie said of course he would. Eddie said Honor No More’s mission was righteous and if they were allowed to succeed there wouldn’t have been any problems between he and Alisha. He said he was just trying to shine a light on there being no Honor in the industry. He said to fight the monsters of the industry, he needed his own monster in PCO. Eddie said PCO is no monster, just a little bitch. Eddie said PCO will pay for what he’s done…
Tom Hannifan and Matthew Rehwoldt checked in from commentary. They advertised the following segments for next week: Yuya Uemura vs. PJ Black and Kenny King vs. Mike Bailey in X Division Tournament matches, Eric Young vs. Sami Callihan, Aussie Open vs. Alexander and Kazarian. Rehwoldt hyped up the New Japan replay show that featured Okada vs. Jonah…
Entrances for the next match took place. Hannifan noted that Mickie’s career will only end if she gets pinned…[c]
6. Deonna Purrazzo, Chelsea Green, and Gisele Shaw vs. Mickie James, Taylor Wilde, and Jordynne Grace. Shaw dodged Mickie’s strikes early on. Hannifan noted that the last person to pin James before the last rodeo was Green. Wilde and Purrazzo tagged in, where they had a Test of Strength. Purrazzo dominated the Test of Strength with a few pin attempts. Wilde escaped with a monkey flip. Wilde hit Purrazo with a back elbow. Grace tagged in and hit Purrazzo with lariats in the corner.
The face team traded quick tags to isolate Deonna. Deonna got hit by an arm drag by Wilde, which allowed her to tag in Green. Wilde dominated Green with arm drags. Purrazzo tagged back in and took strikes from Wilde. Wilde hit Purrazzo with a PK for a two count. Wilde took down Green and Purrazo with leg-scissors and a backbreaker. Shaw broke up Wilde’s pin. The faces cleared the heels from the ring heading into break.
The face team traded tags for tandem offense on Green. Green managed to trip up Wilde to turn the tables. The heels cut the ring in half on Wilde. After a minute, Mickie caught the hot tag and cleaned house. Purrazzo tripped up Mickie and Shaw got a few pin attempts on Mickie. The heels cut the ring in half on Mickie as Hannifan noted that Mickie’s career is on the line every time she tags in. They dominated Mickie for about three minutes. Mickie managed to hit Shaw with a neckbreaker.
Grace got the hot tag and rallied on Purrazzo. Grace hit Purrazzo with a spinebuster for a two count. Everyone took turns hitting signature moves on each other. Grace hit Purrazzo with a front dropkick. James hit Purrazzo with a seated senton for a two count. Purrazzo escaped a Mick-DT attempt. VXT managed to hit James with a Doomsday Blockbuster. Wilde and Grace broke up Green’s pin on Mickie. Shaw dumped Grace and Wilde to ringside.
Shaw picked up the Knockouts Title belt to pose with it. Grace tackled and put the boots to Shaw. Green and Purrazzo went for a double suplex on Mickie. Wilde gave Purrazzo a spear which allowed Mickie to hit Green with the Mick-DT for the victory.
Mickie James, Taylor Wilde, and Jordynne Grace defeated Chelsea Green, Deonna Purrazzo, and Gisele Shaw via pinfal in 13:46 of on-air time.
The face team stood tall to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: Entertaining six-person tag and you can always trust Imapct to put top quality women’s wrestling in the main events of their shows. Good match, but I thought they could have done a bit more with the Last Rodeo stipulation. They played into it, but I thought they could have added a bit more urgency to it. What took it down a bit was Gisele Shaw going to ringside to pose with the title for no reason. I get that it played into the interview segment earlier in the show, but it made her look like a nitwit.
Good show this week pushing forward a lot of the current storylines in Impact. What helps now is that Honor No More is no more and that was one of the weaknesses on the show week-to-week. The X Division Title Tournament will also guarantee us a ton of very innovative singles matches over the next few weeks. lots of older dudes in the main event program in Bully, Dreamer, and Kaz (though Kaz is a baby compared to the other two, and can still wrestle at the top of his game), but that said I can’t fault Impact for doing a good job with the centerpiece Bully Ray story. Bully is a top-tier and sometimes under appreciated main eventer, and it’s cool seeing him carry a main event program with his signature character work.
Be the first to comment