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Impact: Hardcore fights in the country and in the ring

Bob Kapur

Bound For Glory is touted as being Impact’s biggest PPV of the year, and with three weeks to go, Thursday night’s episode of Impact Wrestling was all about building momentum for that show. In some cases, the build was a slow burn. And in others – notably the violent main event and a Knockouts brawl out in the (hardcore) country – the fire was already raging.

On the BTI pre-show, Matt Cardona beat Raj Singh clean in the middle of the ring. Rohit Raju tried to interfere to assist Singh during the match, but he got neutralized by Chelsea Green. It’s too bad that Cardona can’t bring some of the excitement and charisma that he brought during his deathmatch foray in GCW. The match was pretty standard. It’s good to see Singh back in action.

Impact starts off showing Christopher Daniels entering the building from earlier today.

 

Match 1: Laredo Kid vs. Alex Zayne vs. Trey Miguel – Qualifier for X-Division Championship Tournament

This is the first of three Triple Threat matches, with the winners squaring off at Bound For Glory for the vacant X-Division Championship.

Tons of highlights in this one, including Laredo Kid hitting a Double Hurancarana on both opponents at the same time in the opening seconds. Later, Miguel hit a Flying Hurancarana on Laredo from the apron to the floor, and then Zayne hit a Springboard Lionsault on both of them once they stood up. At one point, Miguel had Zayne in a Leglock and at the same time dropped Laredo Kid with a Fireman’s Carry Slam (with some difficulty). But Kid got up and hit a 450-Splash on top of the both of them who were stacked up. Another neat sequence saw Trey scale the ropes, but Kid sent him flying with a Springboard Hurancarana,- but before he could follow-up, Zayne Powerbombed Kid hard.

The ending saw Zayne hit Kid with some kind of Fancy Slam, but Trey threw Zayne out of the ring, and then put Kid away with the Meteora for the pin.

This was a quick-paced affair reminiscent of the X-Division matches of old.  Lots of flying spots, lots of moves. Zayne looked pretty good in his debut match for the company, and he could be one to watch.

Winner: Trey Miguel

Matthew Rehwoldt – who was shown in an inset video watching the last match – cut a video promo about the Laredo Kid. He challenged Laredo Kid to a match next week in order to make everyone appreciate the art of lucha libre – or something like that.

They showed video footage of Sami Callihan getting checked out by a doctor. Apparently, earlier today he had been attacked by W. Morrissey and Moose, and it seems they broke his ankle. Because of what happened, Morrissey’s match against Eddie Edwards later tonight has been changed to a Street Fight, and Moose has been banned from the building.

Eddie Edwards cut a video promo and said that he was going to end Morrissey tonight, and after that, he would be coming for Moose.

The commentators then ran down that match and its stipulations again – odd bit of editing/pacing there – and then ran down some of the rest of the card and promoted Knockouts Knockdown on October 9th. There has been far too much talking and not commentating at this point by Matt Striker and D-Lo Brown.

 

Match 2: The Influence (Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne) (w/ Kaleb) vs. Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering

Ellering and Grace are wearing matching gear, so in theory they are a real tag team and should have the advantage. They certainly were winning the strength and technical game, but some dirty tactics on the outside gave The Influence the edge heading into the commercial. But they lost it during the break, as we saw that a Dashwood attack got reversed and she ended up getting whipped into the ringside barrier.

Some shrewd timing by Madison helped turn the tide and as a result it was Grace that was trapped in the wrong corner for a while. She eventually muscled up, got free, and tagged in Ellering, who took over, nearly pinning Rayne after a Powerbomb. Jordynne tagged in and hit a Jordynne Bomb, but Kaleb reached in from the outside and put Rayne’s foot on the rope, breaking the count.

 

Rayne and Dashwood double-teamed Grace but couldn’t keep her down for the count. Eventually, Grace got loose again and tagged in Ellering.

In the end, with the ref distracted by Kaleb shenanigans on the floor, The Influence hit Ellering with a sloppy double-team Face Planter and got the pin. With the win, The Influence earn a Knockouts Tag Team Championship match against Decay (Rosemary and Havok).

This was okay, and had some ebb and flow, but could have benefitted by being shorter. The alternating back and forth ebb and flow was fine, but we didn’t need it to ebb and flow that much.

Winners: The Influence

Backstage, Gia Miller interviewed the returning “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. He said that no doors are forbidden to go through when you helped create the house – that was a good line. Josh Alexander approached him and thanked Daniels for his help last week. Christian Cage then came in and snarked at Alexander. Daniels told them to keep it civil, and teased that he had a motive for being back that he’d share with them later, before leaving. Cage then told Alexander that last week when he came out and assisted Josh, it wasn’t because of friendship; rather, he didn’t want Alexander to have any excuses when he challenges Cage at Bound For Glory. Cage then told Josh to keep his emotions in check if he wants to achieve success. Christian played the subtle heel role pretty well here.

They showed another lesson from Brian Myers. In this one, he was training his flunkies. The other three were jealous of VSK who is Myers’ teacher’s pet. Beale tried to assert himself over the bottom duo. This was flat comedy.

The Good Brothers sent in another video from vacation. They put themselves over and hyped up the Impact Insiders YouTube streaming service. They said that they needed challengers for their Tag Team Championship match at Bound For Glory, so proposed a contenders match between FinJuice and the Bullet Club.

Knockouts Brawl in the Horse’s Stall

They showed a video of Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo driving up to Mickie James’ ranch. She went into the stables where Mickie was scooping up hay and manure and attacked Mickie from behind, smashing her with some pails and then hitting her with a wheelbarrow, tipping a bunch of hay and manure onto Mickie. Before she could lock the stall door, Mickie ran out and the fight continued.  Purrazzo swung at her with a rake, but Mickie ducked it and they battled on. Purrazzo used a cord to choke Mickie out on a hitching post, but Mickie sprayed a hose in Deonna’s face to escape. Purrazzo dunked Mickie’s head in a big bucket of water and left her laying. She took after some off-screen ranch hands came to save Mickie. This was a fun enough brawl. The cinematic style may be an indicator of what’s to come when they meet for the title?

 

FinJuice cut a promo, saying that they have found a partner to even the odds against the Bullet Club, and introduced Chris Sabin. They face the Bullet Club next week.

 

Match 3: Mad Man Fulton (w/ Ace Austin) vs. “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels

Fulton used some power to ground Daniels early – including an extended Suplex – but Daniels’ speed and wily veteran tactics let him overcome. At one point, Daniels hit an Arabian Moonsault to the floor, which looked good, and the followed that with a  Springboard Elbow Smash for a  two-count. But a big Running Boot by Fulton flattened Daniels, and then Fulton turned the beating up a notch with some power moves and even an aerial attack with a High Cross Body.

But Daniels showed heart in fighting back and hit some good moves like a Flying Hurancarana and some not-so-good moves like an ugly botched STO. Fulton, meantime, hit a Wasteland that looked good. Ace Austin tried to help out his buddy by cheap-shotting Daniels when Fulton distracted the ref, but Josh Alexander raced to the ring to stop Austin with some punches. With things evened up, Daniels hit Angels Wings and that was all she wr- but no! Fulton kicked out! Undaunted, Daniels hit a Flying Cutter, a couple of running attacks, and ended things with the BME.

 

This was good, and the crowd enjoyed seeing Daniels perform his Greatest Hits for the first tie in an Impact ring in 7 years. Even though he’s over 50, Daniels can still go and doesn’t embarrass himself like others who are still competing at his age. It will be interesting to see how long this stint lasts, and if he will be splitting time between Impact and AEW, or if will be mostly here.

Winner: Christopher Daniels

Impact Executive Vice-President Scott D’Amore accepted his invitation to Swinger’s Palace, where Swinger tried to convince him to not hold Bound For Glory in Las Vegas, since his casino would lose business if he had to compete against the real Vegas casinos. D’Amore refused. Swinger said he would simply run the casino anyway, and would operate unlicensed in Vegas like he has been doing in Nashville. Hearing that admission, D’Amore told Swinger that he was shutting down Swinger’s Palace permanently. What a narc.

Ace Austin and Mad Man Fulton went to D’Amore’s office and complained about Christian Cage and Josh Alexander getting into their business. So D’Amore made a tag team match for next week: Austin and Fulton vs. Alexander and Cage.

 

Violent By Design / Rhino segment

Eric Young, accompanied by Deaner and Joe Doering came to the ring. Young said that Rhino has a decision to make: he’s either with VBD or he walks away – knowing, though, that VBD doesn’t let anyone walk away.

Rhino came to the ring and Young asked Rhino if he was going to do the right thing or not. He pressured Rhino and tried to intimidate him into answering. Rhino looked conflicted and didn’t answer. As VBD circled Rhino, Heath’s music hit and he came down to the ring. Heath beat up Deaner, sent Doering over the top rope, and chased away Young. As VBD retreated up the ramp, Heath and Rhino looked at each other. Heath looked a Rhino as if to question what his decision was, but Rhino simply left the ring and headed to the building exit through the crowd – not up the ramp where VBD were still standing – with a conflicted look on his face. This was fine, and everyone played their part well. It’s good to see Heath back. Hopefully he has a longer, injury-free run this time.

They announced that the company will be crowning a “Digital Media” Champion. Over the coming weeks, a single-elimination tournament will be held (based on the ad, it looks like it will be an intergender tournament), with two weekly matches (Tuesday and Wednesday) airing only on Impact Plus and the YouTube Impact Insiders streaming services. The winner will be crowned at Bound For Glory. The tournament kicks off next week with John Skyler facing Zicky Dice and Hernandez taking on Crazzy Steve.

 

Match 4: W. Morrissey vs. Eddie Edwards – Street Fight

Within the first minute, Eddie grabbed some plunder in the form of a garbage can lid, with which he smashed Morrissey after getting sent to the floor courtesy of a big Morrissey boot. Other weapons used were some plastic floor signs – a nice moment saw Eddie going for a dive through the ropes, only to get blasted in the face with one of them.

 

He later did hit the dive, though. At one point, Eddie grabbed a fan’s replica title belt and smashed Morrissey in the head with that, eliciting a “TNA” chant. A hard-looking shot saw Eddie get sent face-first into the ring steps – ouch. But then Morrissey also ate the steel when Eddie tripped him up, taking us to a commercial.

When we returned, the ring was full of weapons, including a garbage can, chairs, and a table, which Morrissey set up. They showed a replay of Eddie getting Chokeslammed on the ring steps during the break. They exchanged head shots with the garbage can lid, and then Eddie hit a Blue Thunder Bomb that dumped Morrissey on the garbage can (see what we did there?). Eddie then grabbed a chair wrapped in barbed wire, but ate Morrissey boot before he could use it.

Morrissey then set up a few chairs in the ring and was going to Superplex Eddie through them. But then Alisha Edwards ran to the ring and blasted Morrissey in the back with a Singapore cane. The distraction was enough to make Morrissey stop, and in his hesitation, Eddie slipped underneath and Powerbombed Morrissey through the chairs. But Morrissey kicked out!

Alisha used the cane to punish Morrissey, bringing him to his knees. Eddie was going for the Boston Knee Party, but Alisha stopped him. Because she wanted to punish Morrissey by holding the barbed wire chair in front of his face to make the move even more painful. Eddie hit that move and easily got the pin.

After the match, Moose ran into the ring and clocked Eddie from behind. When Alisha tried to defend her husband, she got thrown down, too. Moose then Speared Eddie through a table propped up in the corner. Moose and Morrissey then stalked Alisha as she checked on Eddie. Morrissey grabbed her and held her, making her watch as Moose wrapped a chair around Eddie’s neck and slammed him into the ring-post and then smashed the chair necktie with another chair a couple of times, which looked really gross.

 

Eddie was out cold and Alisha fretted about his condition while referees checked on Eddie to end the show.

The match was a pretty standard TV hardcore match with a couple of good big spots – the finish with the barbed wire chair in particular was pretty neat.

But the closing angle was really strong – it looked really violent and could easily be used to write Eddie off TV for some time if that’s the way they want to go.

Winner: Eddie Edwards

 

 

 

Impact Wrestling - Sep 30th, 2021
4

Skyway Studios - Nashville, TN

The main event and closing segment to the show was very strong. Add in the fun Knockouts brawl, the welcome returns of Christopher Daniels and Heath, and a fun opener, and the good far outweighed the meh. That said, the pacing of this show made for a bumpy ride at times, with a couple of runs with little to no action that just felt flat.

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