By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Impact Wrestling Hits
Mike Bailey vs. Kevin Knight: A hot match that was meant to serve as a preview for the Ultimate X match that both wrestlers will take part in at Slammiversary. Not to take anything away from this match, but I feel like the only things I’ve learned about Knight from watching Impact is that he works for NJPW Strong, and he’s from Atlanta. This was a breakout in-ring performance and one can only hope that Impact will back it up with some real character development.
Moose and Brian Myers vs. Rich Swann and Sami Callihan: Swann and Callihan work really well together and had some fun and innovative tag team spots. They took the loss in this match
Zachary Wentz vs. Chris Bey: A quality opening match with the right finish. Wentz had to win in his first match back with Impact, and Bey was protected in the process. I actually found it refreshing that Santino Marella’s character declined to add Wentz and Trey Miguel to the Slammiversary tag team title match while pointing out that Wentz cheated to win.
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo vs. Jody Threat: This seemed very random and I’m surprised they didn’t have Threat continue to win more matches and build to her first title shot. But she looked good in defeat and got the endorsement of Purrazzo afterward. The post match brawl involving a slew of Knockouts was a surprising way to close the studio portion of the show. I wonder if this was the actual planned final segment or if they had to call an audible due to the Steve Maclin injury.
Joe Hendry and Yuya Uemura vs. Kenny King and Sheldon Jean: The silliness of Hendry tormenting King over working as a male stripper doesn’t do much for me, but they live crowd definitely had fun with it. King did a nice job of selling the taunts of Hendry and the fans before he walked out on his partner, and Matt Rehwoldt was comical as he came to the defense of King on commentary.
Impact Wrestling Misses
None: A quality show from start to finish. The only segment that felt truly must see was the Mike Bailey vs. Kevin Knight match. But all of the other matches were in the solid to good range and the show delivered good hype for Slammiversary. The production team came through with some really good video packages for Alex Shelley vs. Nick Aldis match for the Impact World Championship, as well as some desperately needed promo video packages with Lio Rush and Alan Angels.
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