By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Impact Wrestling TV (Episode 1,007)
Taped October 26, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland at 02 Academy
Aired November 2, 2023 on AXS TV
Tom Hannifan and Matthew Rehwoldt were on commentary…
Hannifan and Rehwoldt checked in from the Impact Wrestling studio set. Hannifan noted that this week’s show will feature matches from Impact’s recent “UK invasion” tour…
The commentary team sent the show to the finals of the “Glasgow Cup” Tournament that happened on their UK Tour. Joe Hendry had a mic for a pre-match promo. He said he was keeping things short and sweet. He said it was a privilege to bring pro wrestling to Scotland this year. A “TNA” chant ensued. Hendry said the future of the company is bright and the future is bright for Joe Hendry.
Hendry said she he beats Frankie Kazarian he’ll prove he’ll belong on this stage. Frankie Kazarian made his entrance…
1. Frankie Kazarian vs. Joe Hendry in the finals of the “Glasgow Cup” Tournament. Hendry dominated the early collar and elbow lockup. Hendry then went on to dominate a few chain wrestling sequences. Kazarian and Hendry canceled each other out with shoulder tackles. Kazarian took down Hendry with a side headlock takedown. Hendry escaped and worked on Kazarian with strikes and a delayed suplex for a two count.
Hendry hit Kazarian with a elbow drop for a nearfall. Kazarian shoved Hendry off the top rope heading into regular commercial.[c]
Kazarian hit Hendry with a body slam and springboard leg drop for a nearfall. Kazarian worked on Hendry with methodical offense. Kazarian dominated a few minutes. Hendry kept his arms wide to block a chickenwing. Hendry turned the submission into a vertical suplex to turn the tables. Hendry hit a few running elbows and a Fallaway Slam on Kazarian. Kazarian reversed a Uranage into a Neckbreaker for a two count.
Hendry came back with a Military Press and cutter for a two count. Kazarian hit Hendry with Fade to Black (Deadeye) for a nearfall. Hendry hit Kaz with a uppercut at the top rope and followed up with a Superplex. Hendry and Kazarian traded Yay-boo punches. Kazarian both men traded nearfalls off rollups. Hendry got the win off an armdrag and rollup.
Joe Hendry defeated Frankie Kazarian via pinfall in 13:02 of on-air time.
Scott D’Amore entered the ring to award Joe Hendry with the Glasgow Cup…
John’s Thoughts: A good, but pretty predictable, match given it’s live-event nature and purpose of putting over the home country guy. I feel like a lot of matches and segments on tonight’s show will exist in a bit of a pocket-dimension because they are splicing together footage from their UK tour. On one hand, that’ll make this week’s show less must-see. To give them credit, the camera cuts and production seemed TV-worthy.
Moose, Brian Myers, and Deonna Purrazzo cut a promo backstage to hype up their upcoming match against the South Wales Subculture trio. Moose dubbed their team “The Virtuous Pro Wrestling Gods”…[c]
An ad aired to hype up this week’s Impact Wresting Turning Point show on Impact Plus, which will feature Will Ospreay vs. Eddie Edwards…
Joe Hendry cut a promo backstage. He talked about his recent tournament win and then went on to hype up his upcoming match against a YouTuber from WhatCulture named Simon Miller…
Hannifan and Rhewoldt checked in from the studio and plugged the Turning Point show. They sent the show to entrances for the next match…
2. Moose, Brian Myers, and Deonna Purrazzo vs. “Subculture” Mark Andrew, Flash Morgan Webster, and Dani Luna in an intergender tag team match. Myers stalled to draw heat from the crowd. Myers got a shove and some gloating on Webster. Myers no sold a few shoulder tackles and came back with a shoulder tackle on Webster. Webster manated to tag in Andrews.
Luna suplexed her tag team members on top of Myers to give her a two count after she tagged in. Purrazzo tagged in. Both women traded standing switches. Luna took down Purrazzo with a clothesline and suplex for a nearfall. Moose tagged in and Luna was up for the challenge. Moose shoved Luna during a Collar and Elbow. Flash tagged in and also got shoved. The show cut to picture-in-picture break.[c]
The heels cut the ring in half on Andrews for a few minutes back from break. Andrews blocked a Roster Cut with a enzuigiri. Luna and Purrazzo tagged in with Luna hitting a Claymore like kick on Purrazzo. Luna hit Purrazzo with a Fallaway Slam. Moose ran in and hit Luna with a big boot. Webster caught Moose with a springboard moonsault.
Webster hit Myers with a Suicide Dive. Moose went to the top rope. All three Subculture guys gave Moose a triple suplex. Purrazzo broke up the subsequent pin. Purrazzo took down Luna and put her in a Fujiwara armbar. Andrews broke up the submission. Moose gave Andrews a dropkick on the to prope. Moose and Webster brawled to the top rope with Moose hitting Webster with a Superplex.
After alternating moves, everyone took each other out with strikes. Andrews blocked a Uranage. Andrews reversed a Suplex into Stundog Millionaire. Andrews rolled up Moose for a two count. Moose flapjacked Andrews on the top rope and hit him with the Spear for the victory.
Moose, Brian Myers, and Deonna Purrazzo defeated Subculture via pinfall in 14:42.
Hannifan threw in a few more plugs for their Turning Point show on Impact Plus…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Solid match, but again it felt a bit inconsequential due to it being canned house show footage. Not a bad match though, so if you wanted just a little bit of more wrestling this week, it was harmless to add to your palette. One thing that’s going to make it a bit tough to stay invested for most viewers is the wrestlers are working at a live event pace as opposed to working for the cameras, so there’s a different pacing that favors the live crowd.
Kevin Kelly’s New Japan on AXS plug aired…
Josh Alexander and Eric Young were chatting backstage about putting their past differences aside and teaming up to face the Motor City Machine Guns on this week’s Impact…
Hannifan and Rehwoldt checked in again at the studio and introduced the return of Grado to Impact on this week’s show…
3. Trey Miguel vs. Grado. Trey stalled and drew heat from the crowd. Grado then toyed with Trey to start the match. The stalling and comedy antics lasted for a bit of time. One fun house show spot they did was with Grado holding Trey in place so the crowd members could chop him. Ones the match got into regular match flow, Trey got a two count after a uppercut. Grado turned Trey inside out with a lariat after Trey went for a full CQC combo.
Trey looked like he escaped it, but Grado hit Trey with a Bionic Elbow. Trey reversed Grado’s gloating with a superkick. Trey got a two count after a moonsault. Grado avoided a double stomp and hit Trey with a Death Valley Driver for a nearfall. Grado tuned the horn. Trey gave Grado a knee strike combo. Grado surprised Trey with a Wee Boot (big boot) for the victory.
Grado defeated Trey Miguel via pinfall in 8:43.
Grado celebrated as an instrumental version of Madonna’s Like a Prayer song aired…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Happy to see Grado back in Impact for the tour in his neck of the woods. He was a highlight of Impact pre-pandemic with his charismatic comedy. He’s sorta the UK version of Colt Cabana. Hope he ends up back in the states because he is a pretty good comedy wrestler. As for the match, pretty skippable, mostly because again it was made for the live crowd and not for the television viewer, which leads to a lot of stalling.
Another ad aired for Turning Point…
Eddie Edwards cut a promo to hype up his match against Will Ospreay at Turning Point. Eddie based his promo off of how both he and Will took their careers to the next level by wrestling in Japan…
Rehwoldt and Hannifan checked in again and sent the show to the next match…
4. Impact Knockouts Champion Trinity vs. Emersyn Jayne in a non-title match. Trinity asked for a respectful handshake, but Jayne responded with a disrespectful boot. Jayne managed to take down Trinity a few times. Trinity rallied back with a few moves after a Matrix dodge. Trinity hit Jayne with a standing stinkface. Trinity didn’t bite on the bait handshake where Trinity hit Jayne with a enzuigiri.
Jayne hit Trinity with a sliding German Suplex. Jayne worked on Trinity with methodical offense. Jayne hit Trinity with a nice looking deadlift Northern Lights for a two count. Trinity rallie with dropkicks and a Straus Faction. Trinity hit Jayne with the Rear View for a nearfall. Jayne hit Trinity with a leg hook Michinoku Driver for a nearfall.
Trinity gave Jayne a kick and draping Pedigree. Trinity hit Jayne with a sit-out Atomic Drop. Trinity used a body scissors for the win.
Trinity defeated Emersyn Jayne via pinfall in 7:10.
John’s Thoughts: Rinse and repeat with my recommendation tonight. The match wasn’t bad at the slightest, just “there” and fairly inconsequential. It would have gotten a higher recommendation if Emersyn did some things we’ve haven’t seen before, but this was your standard local indie match. I also noticed that the crowd was fairly silent too because they like Trinity, but also probably don’t want to boo the local talent.
Cut back to Rehwoldt and Hannifan in the studio. Hannifan said he was a bit bummed about not being able to make the UK tour. They sent the show to a clip package of the Impact wrestlers wrestling and hanging out in the UK during the UK tour. The package finished with Grado and Scott D’Amore hyping up the TNA name coming back…
Trinity cut a promo backstage to hype up her match against Deonna Purrazzo at Turning Point. Trinity noted that this will be the last time Deonna could challenge her for the title…
Cut back to Hannifan and Rehwoldt at the studio who sent the show to the main event…
5. “The Motor City Machine Guns” Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin vs. Josh Alexander and Eric Young. The match started out with the two wrestlers in the Bound for Glory main event. The match started out with a bit of feeling out. This lasted for a bit, leading to Shelley rolling to ringside to regroup. Shelley sold a knee injury from Bound for Glory.[c]
Young tossed around both opponents back from break. Alexander tagged in and caught Shelley with a big boot. Young and Alexander cut the ring in half on Shelley. This lasted a few minutes. Shelley came back with a headbutt and Dragon Screw on Alexander. Both Guns gave Alexander Dragon Screws on the ropes in the corner. Sabin put Alexander in a grounded Surfboard heading into picture-in-picture.[c]
The on-demand didn’t give me a queue as to when the show cut back from break, so I’ll pick up at a random point. The Guns hit Alexander with a Missile Dropkick-STO combo. Alexander countered Sabin into an Ankle Lock. Sabin tried to escape with boots, but Alexander turned the hold into a Sharpshooter. Sabin got to the rope for the break.
Sabin escaped a Doomsday Device and hit Alexander with a Cradle Shock. Young reversed Sabin into an elbow drop. There was confusion as to who the legal man was (the referee’s botch because Young did tag in earlier). Young regrouped and tagged himself in to get a two count on Sabin. Sabin hit Young with a springboard DDT. Sabin hit Young with a Cradle Shock for the win after making sure to trip Alexander off the apron.
The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Eric Young and Josh Alexander via pinfall in 21:25 of on-air time.
The show cut back to Rehwoldt and Hannifan back at the studio. They were both hyped about the TNA name coming back. Hannifan closed the show by sending the show to a trailer for a movie that was sponsoring the show (apparently it’s a movie about Sharks on cocaine)…
Tasha Steelz vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Tommy Dreamer vs. Crazzy Steve for the Digital Media Championship, and Alex Shelley vs. Jonathan Gresham for the World Championship were plugged for next week’s show in a commercial ad…
John’s Thoughts: A good match with four of Impact’s main event players putting in a strong effort. Again, same comment though, there was no consequence to this match and it’s totally skippable. As a person who watches a lot of wrestling weekly, I would actually recommend that you seek out more unique matches elsewhere as to not overexpose yourself to the great work of all four of these men. Young was the one who had to take the pin as the other three men need to be protected on TV for future storylines (and Young can get his heat whenever he reboots into whatever character he is saving for the future).
This show had decent wrestling, but overall it was totally skippable. All the wrestlers worked hard here, but again, they were working the live event crowd, not the television viewer. The main event seemed very random. They couldn’t fly in Speedball Mike Bailey and put him against a top British wrestler? This show could have also used a Will Ospreay match to make it worthwhile. Next week’s show looks better on paper as it looks like we’ll be getting segments more canon to the Impact universe. I hope we get some heel character development with Jonathan Gresham too in what should be a good match against the world champion.
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