The build-up to Impact’s Slammiversary show continued this Thursday night, with many of the angles advancing along smartly en route to the Pay-Per-View. While the match between Impact World Champion Josh Alexander and Joe Doering was a clubbering affair, that wasn’t the only hard-hitting action of the night. Indeed, the night was full of big brawling fights that took place in the ring, backstage, and even down on the farm.

After a highlight reel of Sami’s attack last week, the show started with a hacker video promo by Sami. He said that what happened last week was just the beginning for Moose. And that by the end of the night, he’d have Moose begging and pleading for mercy.

 

Match 1: Tenille Dashwood (w/ Madison Rayne) vs. Rosemary

The commentators noted that Havok wasn’t in Rosemary’s corner as she was still feeling the effects from getting beaten up by Masha Slamovich last week.

Rosemary beat up Tenille for some time before Madison provided a distraction from the outside, allowing Tenille to take over. She got a bit too cocky after nailing Rosemary with shots in the corner, and then Rosemary took her to the Underground. Until, once again, Madison made the difference from the floor. Rosemary kept fighting and eventually made a comeback, punishing Tenille with an Inverted Crossface, forcing Tenille to desperately pull Rosemary’s hair to escape. After some back and forth, Rosemary shoved Tenille into Madison, who was trying to interfere on the apron, and rolled up Tenille for the pin.

After the match, Tenille and Madison attacked Rosemary and beat her down, until Taya Valkyrie ran down for the save.

 

After the two unlikely allies – remember their frenemy-ship from the original Wrestle House days? – cleaned house, they didn’t hug it out like the Impact audience wanted, but Rosemary did thank her and they seemed to part amicably.

This was a good, basic match, and introduces some interesting possibilities in terms of whether Rosemary’s friendship/loyalty will be divided between Taya and Havok, particularly if Rosemary’s win leads to her getting a Knockouts Tag Team Championship match after beating one of the champs.

Winner: Rosemary

 

Good Brothers visit the Briscoes’ Farm

The Good Brothers were at the Briscoes’ chicken farm in Sandy Fork, Delaware. They were angry about the Briscoes saying that they weren’t hard anymore and couldn’t grind. They trespassed all around the grounds, insulting the Briscoes, the farm, and trying to intimidate one of the Briscoes’ kids. They walked around and saw who they thought was a farmhand and ordered him to get them some beers. Bad idea, because it was Papa Briscoe. They threatened to beat him up, and he was ready to scrap, but then Jay and Mark came riding in on their pickup truck, and the brawl was on. The Good Brothers actually fared well and were getting the better end of the fight, but then Papa Briscoe stopped things and approached them, wielding a large wrench. They went after him, and then Mark and Jay picked up some implements of destruction and scared the Good Brothers off.

 

This was fun, though it was surprising to see the Good Brothers get so much offense on the Briscoes’ home turf.

Backstage, Gia Miller asked Heath if there was any update on Rhino’s condition after he was injured by Honor No More last week. Heath said that Rhino needed surgery and it wasn’t known how long he may be away. Heath said that he was going to get his revenge on each member of Honor No More.

 

Match 2: Steve Maclin vs. PCO

They started off ugly with a huge Clothesline spot that looked like neither one enjoyed. After that, PCO Speared Maclin off the apron, but PCO ended up bleeding from it. And he followed that up with a Somersault Dive to the floor where PCO nearly landed right on his head. It didn’t prettier from there, with a big Flying Dive by Maclin to the floor and a Spinebuster that planted PCO on the entrance ramp. They brawled in and out of the ring for a bit. PCO went for a top rope move, but Maclin caught him and dropped him with a Superplex. Some more brawling led to a big DDT by PCO which he followed up with a Cannonball. He then hit the De-Animator (a Somersault Senton off the top to the apron), but Maclin continued to fight on despite the pain. More brawling around the ring. Then Maclin hung PCO up on the guardrails and hit him with the Crosshairs – that looked great. He rammed PCO into the ring steps and then jammed PCO’s arm between the ring steps and the ring and then hit the steps with a huge Running Kick.

PCO, now bleeding from his head and mouth, pulled out his arm, and – EWW GROSS! His shoulder or some upper arm joint looked like it was dislocated, clearly out of the socket.

 

Trainers and medics ran down and tried to convince the monster to stop, but he was crazed, and simply tossed them aside. He went back into the ring to fight, and Maclin drilled him with a steel chair and then DDTd PCO onto the chair. Maclin called in the referee, who had been checking on the condition of the trainer, to make the count and that was all she wrote.

But like a horror movie come to life, as Maclin celebrated the win, PCO woke up and grabbed his ankle, shocking Maclin and sending him scrambling out of the ring. Maclin watched from afar as PCO – blood pouring out of his head and onto his face – stood up and Frankensteined in the ring.

This was crazy. The announcers said that PCO was not human, and that may not be hyperbole. At 54 years old, he may be trying to steal the “Middle Aged and Crazy” mantle from Terry Funk with this kind of performance.

Winner: Steve Maclin

The Flashback Moment of the Week came from Slammiversary 2008 when Samoa Joe won the King of the Mountain match to retain the World Championship.

Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans burst into Deonna Purrazzo’s dressing room to complain about Deonna not helping her take out Mia Yim last week. Deonna said that she agreed they had a common problem in Yim, but didn’t agree to team up with Steelz or have her back, particularly as she still had designs on the Knockouts Championship, which Steelz holds. After Steelz and Evans left, Chelsea Green sidled up to Purrazzo and minimized Steelz, but suggested that she and Deonna having an agreement to watch out for each other wouldn’t be a bad idea. Purrazzo seemed open to the suggestion.

Backstage, Gia Miller welcomed a special guest – the TNA/Impact legend, the “Blueprint” Matt Morgan, who she said is now the Mayor of Longwood, Florida. Morgan reflected on his time in Impact and said he was proud of his career, and is proud of what the current stars are doing. He was interrupted by Honor No More’s Vincent who said that the legacy of Impact doesn’t matter as HNM will beat Team Impact at Slammiversary.

 

Match 3: Joe Doering (w/ Eric Young and Deaner) vs. Josh Alexander

Alexander had requested this match as a way to take out Doering so he wouldn’t be a factor during Alexander’s World Title defense against Eric Young, who is Doering’s Violent By Design leader, at Slammiversary.

Early on, Josh used his classic mat wrestling to nullify Doering’s power advantage, controlling the big man and dictating the pace. But some interference by Deaner stuttered Josh’s momentum and he soon was on the wrong end of a Cross Body Press by Doering and was hurt by the collision.

 

Doering then smothered Alexander with a few power moves, strikes, and submissions. But the champ fired up and soon it was Doering on the mat, courtesy of a pair of German Suplexes. He was going for the trifecta, but Deaner and Young broke things up. During this confusion, Doering was handed the VBD flagpole. He swung at Alexander, but missed, and Alexander grabbed it, and nailed Doering with it. Unfortunately for Josh, the ref saw it and called for the disqualification. After the match, Deaner and Young tried to attack Josh, but he was ready for them and they backed off. Young and Alexandre stared holes in each other as VBD retreated back up the ramp.

This was really good while it lasted. The DQ finish was the right call, since they’ve done a great job of booking Doering strong and he now remains undefeated – potentially setting up a future claim to a title shot if Alexander gets past Young – or, perhaps even more interestingly, some friction between him and Young if Young wins the title. Not sure if this accomplishes getting rid of Doering as a factor at Slammiversary, so there are a few ways this could go during the PPV.

Winner, by disqualification: Joe Doering

In the back, Gia Miller asked Moose if he was worried about Sami Callihan, but Moose said he wasn’t worried about Sami’s mind games. But then the lights flickered on and off, and Moose seemed a bit flustered. He told Gia he was going off to find Sami and put an end to things, and stormed off.

They showed a clip from the recent New Japan Pro-Wrestling Super Juniors show where X-Division Champion Ace Austin joined the Bullet Club. After that, Austin and the Bullet Club beat up someone in their locker room. This could have been more interesting if we had any idea who any of these people were. Other than Luke Gallows and “Switchblade” Jay White, most of this group had never been seen on Impact TV lately, including the guy they beat up. Or if they had been, they’re pretty forgettable. Such is the problem with the Forbidden Door – any stranger can walk on in.

The commentators announced that Alex Zayne is the last entry into the Ultimate-X match for the X-Division Championship match at Slammiversary. It’s possible Zayne was the guy who just go beaten up, but if he is, he looked much different on the poster.

Moose was searching for Sami backstage. The lights flickered off and on and Sami was suddenly in front of Moose with a bat. They brawled in the backstage area and found themselves fighting in an empty storage room. Moose battered Sami against the wall and smacked him around until Sami was bleeding.

 

With Sami down, Moose tried to leave, but found that Sami had locked the two of them in there. Sami then gouged at Moose’s eye with the key and escaped, leaving Moose alone in the locked room and turned off the lights, leaving Moose pounding at the door beckoning to be let out.

A video promo aired with Matt Cardona and Brian Myers. Cardona was still carrying the Digital Media Championship belt, which he’d stolen after losing it to Rich Swann. He said that since he can’t defend the title because of his injury, he was passing it on to a worthy person who deserved to carry the lineage of the title. He handed the belt to Myers and proclaimed his as the new champion. Myers said something boring before challenging Swann to a match at Slammiversary.

 

Match 4: Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, and Eddie Edwards (Honor No More) vs. Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, and Frankie Kazarian

The first half of the match saw the Impact Originals handily in control, out-wrestling, out-maneuvering, and out-smarting all of HNM no matter what combination of wrestlers were in the ring at the time. But some expert cheating by HNM saw them pull some shenanigans behind the referee’s back, and they triple-teamed Shelley, and Taven and Bennett held him prone for a Flying Dive that blasted Shelley on the floor. This led to a sequence where HNM then blasted Sabin and Kazarian as well, taking them temporarily out of the equation, so they could continue to beat on Shelley unimpeded.

Using more dirty tactics, Honor No More isolated Shelley in their corner and beat him up for a while, while Sabin and Kaz could only look on from their corner. Every time Shelley was able to break free, HNM would attack his teammates and take them down from the apron so Shelley couldn’t tag out.

Shelley finally broke loose and got the tag, and soon Kaz and Sabin repaid HNM for their actions by taking all three down. The pace sped up and the ref lost all control, leading to a neat sequence where some vintage double-team MCMG action by Sabin and Shelley was followed by a huge Flying Dive by Taven that took pretty much everyone out of the equation.

Kaz and Bennett were left standing, and Bennett put Kaz down with a huge Spear on the floor. More action in the ring saw Sabin kick out at 2-and-a-half after a nifty triple team move by HNM. But Team Impact had their own tricks and hit Eddie with a triple combo – but Eddie kicked out!

More frenetic action saw a parade of finishing moves dished out from all sides. As Sabin went to finish things with a Cradle Shock on Eddie, Bennett low-blowed him. A hurt Sabin had no defense to offer after that, and a Die Hard Driver by Eddie ended the match.

 

After the match, HNM beat down the Originals, but Heath hit the ring with a chair in hand. Despite the 3-on-1 odds, he went hard at HNM and dropped them. He whipped the chair into Eddie’s face and hit Eddie with the Wake Up Call. Dang, that chair shot looked vicious. Heath then set up to Pillmanize Eddie’s ankle, but Vincent and Kenny King ran in and assaulted him. HNM then had the 5-on-4 advantage and beat down everyone. They then used the chair to Pillmanize Heath’s ankle, and celebrated their villainy.

This was a fun match, and the crowd really enjoyed it, particularly in the closing minutes. The biggest complaint would be that the refereeing hit AEW-levels of incompetent in terms of enforcing the rules around tagging in and out. The post-match beatdown looked good, though, and adds to the intrigue of which two surprise members will join these three Impact Originals at Slammiversary to take on Honor No More.

Winners: Honor No More

 

 

 

 

Impact Wrestling - June 9th, 2022
4.5

Osceola Heritage Park Events Center - Kissimmee, FL

This was a really fun episode, with the highlight definitely being the freak-show spectacle of PCO. The rest of the show did a good job of building towards Slammiversary, and added some intrigue to some of those matches. They didn’t make it easy for themselves to try to make next week’s go-home show even more of an escalation from this week’s – but if they do, that should be a really good one, too.