Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Alex Shelley and Josh Alexander, Trinity and Mickie James vs. Gisele Shaw and Savannah Evans, Mike Bailey vs. Samuray Del Sol, Crazzy Steve vs. Black Taurus in a No DQ match

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Impact Wrestling Hits

Alex Shelley and Josh Alexander split-screen interview: Shelley is doing a really good job of conveying that the pressure of being the Impact World Champion is getting to his character. As a former world champion before, Alexander is the perfect person to point it out. Shelley comes off as paranoid and has a heelish edge going into the Bound For Glory main event. It’s been a unique build to what seemed like it would be a battle between two straight up babyfaces. It took me some time to get invested in the story, but it came together nicely on the go-home show.

Mike Bailey vs. Samuray Del Sol: A good opening match. Of course, I can’t recall ever seeing Bailey in a bad match, so this was no surprise. I’m beyond excited about seeing Bailey face Will Ospreay at Bound For Glory in what could be a legitimate match of the year contender. Meanwhile, I hope Del Sol becomes a regular with Impact.

Trinity and Mickie James vs. Gisele Shaw and Savannah Evans: The match was built around the heels isolating Trinity and then it ended quickly once James finally took the hot tag. The post match angle with Trinity and James both holding the Knockouts Title was solid. I wonder if part of the reason that Alex Shelley is leaning heel is that Impact wanted to avoid having two straight up babyface matches for their top men’s and women’s championships on the same show.

Crazzy Steve vs. Black Taurus in a No DQ match: An intense brawl from the former tag team partners. Steve going over was the right call given that he’s in the midst of a good singles push and challenging for the Digital Media Championship at BFG. I have never been a fan of the bull head mask that Taurus wears, but he’s been a consistently strong in-ring performer for Impact no matter who they put him in the ring with.

PCO and Rhino vs. Moose and Brian Myers: A soft Hit. This was framed as something of a preview to the Monster’s Ball match at BFG. The most compelling part about the match was Bully Ray coming out and preventing Steve Maclin from doing further damage to Rhino. The actual match was fine from an in-ring quality standpoint. I’m sure the Monster’s Ball match will be good for what it is, but it also feels like it only exists because the creative forces didn’t know what else to do with the participants.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Kenny King vs. Heath: A smooth match from the veterans. My complaint is that it didn’t really need to be on the Bound For Glory go-home show since it’s not like it really played into anything meaningful at the pay-per-view.