By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
Moose, Eddie Edwards, and Frankie Kazarian vs. Alex Shelley, Jonathan Gresham, and Yuya Uemura: The idea was that the match served as a preview of the six-way match that will determine the number one contender to the Impact World Championship at Under Siege. This explained the oddball pairing of Kazarian with two heels. While I can’t say that the match left me more excited about the six-way match, it did feature good action from bell to bell. Everyone had a chance to shine and the live crowd was invested in this despite it feeling rather trivial for a main event match. The person who wins these types of preview matches typically feels like the least likely person who will win the actual match was set up, but we’ll see if Impact takes a different approach win Shelley winning this one.
X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Laredo Kid in a non-title match: Miguel removing the mask of Laredo Kid before pinning him generated really good heat with the live crowd. We’ve seen similar spots before and it’s conditioned the audience to view heels messing with the masks of their opponents as a major sign of disrespect. The post match angle with Chris Sabin calling out Miguel for disrespecting him and every past X Division Champion by spray painting the belt was really good. Sabin isn’t known for his mic work, but he was really good here.
Sami Callihan and Rich Swann video: This was really effective in establishing the history between the two while also letting them show off their on-air chemistry. There’s a Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vibe to this in that they have a genuine long term friendship forged through pro wrestling. There’s real upside with this duo. But they need to plow through The Design and move on as quickly as possible. Callihan and Swann belong in the tag team title mix, not feuding with a mid-card cult that can only cool them off.
Trinity vs. KiLynn King: A good in-ring debut for Trinity in Impact. The match went longer than it felt like it needed to, but some of that was explained away by having Taylor Wilde interfere a couple of times before she was ejected. Plus, I can respect the attempt to make one-half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions look competitive in defeat. The post match angle with Jai Vidal was painful.
Jason Hotch vs. Ace Austin: Impact’s attempt to make the Good Hands matter continued and I’m all for it. Why wouldn’t the company want them to be a meaningful team rather than bumbling henchmen who lose all of their matches? In this case, Hotch got help from the interfering Brian Myers. It was a tainted win, yet any win gives Hotch and John Skyler more credibility than they had coming into the Chicago tapings.
Dirty Dango attacks Joe Hendry: Please let this be the start of Dango reinventing himself, ideally with a new name.
Jody Threat vs. Sierra: Another spotlight win for Threat. I assume she will start facing some Impact regulars at the next batch of tapings.
Impact Wrestling Misses
Steve Maclin and PCO backstage angle: There just happened to be a bunch of cardboard boxes laid out in front of an exit door for Shera to chokeslam PCO onto. And then Maclin could have slammed a sledgehammer on the back of PCO, but instead he felt the need to place blocks on top of PCO’s back, which he then broke with the sledgehammer. This one really required viewers to turn their brains off.
Be the first to comment