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Impact: PCO and Gallows tear up the ring – literally

Bob Kapur

Since arriving in Impact Wrestling as part of the Honor No More faction, the “French Canadian Frankenstein” PCO has been a true revelation. On Thursday night, during a street fight against Doc Gallows, PCO once again put on an incredible performance, gutting through the pain like an unstoppable machine. And providing one of the best visuals the company has seen in years. It was the absolute highlight of the show, that was fine, but otherwise devoid of anything truly memorable.

 

Match 1: Deonna Purrazzo vs. Rosemary (w/ Taya Valkyrie & Jessicka)

During the introductions, the commentators noted that Rosemary has never beaten Deonna in a 1-on-1 match. This was a clash of styles, with Rosemary using unorthodox tactics, like trying to bite Deonna’s face off, while Deonna stuck to the basics, working over Rosemary’s arm very tactically. But Rosemary’s feet weren’t hurt, and after they hit simultaneous Big Boots, Rosemary was the first to get up, and she battered Deonna with a series of kicks, nearly getting a win after a Sliding Kick. But when she went for a Spear, Deonna side-stepped her and locked on an Armbar. In escaping, Rosemary kicked Deonna to the floor where she got into a verbal sparring match with Jessicka, who tried to follow Deonna back into the ring.

 

As the ref dealt with Jessicka, he missed a rollup by Rosemary that had Deonna pinned. But he did turn around in time to see Deonna roll up Rosemary for the pin.

This was fine. Deonna can’t really have a bad match, and Rosemary is a good dance partner for her. This seems to be setting up for Rosemary to turn on Jessicka and try to resurrect Havok, but we’ll see how this story plays out.

Winner: Deonna Purrazzo

Backstage, Matt Taven and Eddie Edwards were trying to rally Honor No More and get them all on the same page. They said that, at Emergence, whichever five of them that will compete against the Bullet Club will need to trust each other and have each other’s backs. Eddie again questioned PCO’s loyalties, but Vincent defended PCO. Eddie said PCO could prove his trustworthiness by beating Doc Gallows in the Derby City Street Fight tonight.

Elsewhere backstage, Gia Miller interviewed Gisele Shaw, who was scared after Masha Slamovich issued her a death notice last week. Shaw was confident that she could survive Slamovich, unlike Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne before her.

 

Match 2: Black Taurus (w/ Crazzy Steve) vs. Brian Myers (c) – for the Digital Media Championship

Initially, Myers used some stalling tactics, which was probably the right idea, because when Taurus did get his hooves on him, Myers got flattened. Including by a giant Air Taurus Somersault Dive to the floor. But Myers took over on the floor, shoving Taurus hard into the ring apron. But Taurus was as stubborn as a bull and refused to lose, finally unleashing some of his fury on Myers with a 619, and a Missile Dropkick, which earned him a dos count. Then they traded big moves as the pace picked up. Taurus was looking to plant Myers with a big driver, but Myers poked his finger right through the eye-holes in Taurus’ mask, and rolled up the blinded bull – using the ropes for leverage – to get the sneaky win.

After the match, Bhupinder Gujjar – who Myers has been avoiding granting a title shot – ran out and threw Myers back into the ring where he was beaten up by Decay and Taurus before Gujjar put him out with the Gargoyle Spear.

 

The match was okay, though it was a bit muted, as is everything involving Myers. Not sure that the visual of three babyfaces beating up the lone heel did anyone any favours.

Winner, and still Digital Media Champion: Brian Myers

In the back, Gia interviewed Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace who defends against Mia Yim at Emergence. Jordynne says she respects Mia, but she sees her as an obstacle to be overcome.

They aired clips from last Sunday’s “Ric Flair’s Last Match” show in Nashville, where Josh Alexander’s World Championship title match against Jacob Fatu was spoiled with the run-in from Brian Myers, Matt Cardona, and AEW’s Smart Mark Sterling. Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page also got involved, and after dispatching the heels, he and Alexander celebrated together.

 

Match 3: Gisele Shaw vs. Masha Slamovich

Unlike most of Masha’s opponents, Shaw actually got some offense on Masha, even getting a 2-count on her at one point after hitting a Running Knee.

 

She also surprisingly kicked out of a Bridging German Suplex pinning combination. But that just seemed to irritate Masha, who took out her frustration with a stiff elbow to Shaw’s face. And then, just to put the final punctuation point on her statement, Masha hit Shaw with the Snow Plow to get the win.

This was good, as it was neat to see someone actually get some offense on Masha for once. Still, Masha still looked unstoppable with the strong, convincing win.

Winner: Masha Slamovich

The Flashback Moment of the Week came from April 5, 2016, when Mia Yim (then going by the name Jade) won a three-way match against Madison Rayne and Gail Kim to become the Knockouts Champion.

Backstage, Gia interviewed Mia, and told her what Jordynne said about her. Before Mia could say much, Madison Rayne – who mentioned some recent facial repairs she had done, and looking much different as a result – interrupted and bad-mouthed her. Gail Kim then walked in, making it a true reunion. Gail made a match between Yim and Rayne for next week. Yim was okay with this, but Rayne was upset.

Somewhere in the bowels of the building, Taya and Jessicka tried to cheer up Rosemary who was smarting over her loss earlier. Rosemary questioned whether Jessicka still had what it takes to be part of Decay, given her transformation. Jessicka said that she did, and said she would be in Rosemary and Taya’s corner when they defended the Knockouts Tag Team Championship against Deonna Purrazzo and Chlesea Green at Emergence.

 

Match 4: Violent By Design (Deaner & Joe Doering) vs. the Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)

The quickness and flashiness of the Guns gave them an early advantage, but a cheap shot by Doering hurt Shelley and he found himself trapped in the wrong corner. VBD then took turns beating up Shelley, Deaner hitting him with fast vicious shots, and Doering using his lumbering size and power. Shelley avoided a Flying Headbutt by Deaner and tagged in a fresh Sabin, who cleaned house. The Guns hit a Double-Team Spinning Neckbreaker on Deaner, but Doering broke up the pin and saved the match for his team, before putting both Guns down with a Double Clotheseline. The Guns recovered and dispatched Doering with some flying attacks to the floor. And with the big man out of the way, they were able to double-team Deaner and pin him with a Combo Rollup.

After the match, Doering attacked and knocked down both Guns, and then Deaner bashed them both with the VBD flagpole. KUSHIDA ran into the ring and attacked VBD to make the save. This brought out Eric Young, who blindsided KUSHIDA and then flattened him with a Piledriver. VBD stood in the middle of the ring to celebrate.

 

This was good, and the best thing on the show so far. They’ve done a good job of introducing KUSHIDA to the company, though we’ll see if the crowd still likes him if and when they separate him from his buddies in the Guns.

Winners: The Motor City Machine Guns

A video aired for the company’s next Pay-Per-View: Bound For Glory takes place on October 7thin Albany, NY.

Backstage, the Motor City Machine Guns and KUSHIDA were still angry about VBD’s attack. As Alex Shelley is going to be challenging Josh Alexander for the World Championship at Emergence, Sabin and KUSHIDA challenged VBD to a tag team match. Shelley offered to be in their corner for that match, when Alexander walked in and suggested to Shelley that he focus on trying to beat Josh for the title instead.

Josh left and turned down a hallway, only to run into Eddie Edwards. Edwards said that Josh was right, that Shelley should focus on the world title and not get distracted. Edwards had some cryptic words for Josh and hinted that Honor No More could help Josh retain the title if that’s what Josh wanted. Josh wasn’t impressed with the offer.

 

Match 5: Raj Singh vs. Sami Callihan

This wasn’t a complete squash, but it wasn’t too far off from that. Singh had a quick flurry at the top of the match, but then got mauled and slapped into goofiness before Sami hit him with the Cactus Driver.

 

Rather than pin him, though, Sami locked on a Crossface Chicken Wing, and Singh immediately tapped out in pain.

After the match, Sami grabbed a mic and called out Moose and Steve Maclin. They tried to sneak-attack Sami by pulling the old entrance switcheroo and having Moose attack Sami from behind in the dark, but Sami avoided a Spear from Moose in the darkened ring. Sami went on the offense, but lost the numbers game. When he went for a Cactus Special on Maclin, Moose low-blowed Sami. As Moose left the ring, Maclin hit Sami with KIA (Double-armed DDT) and stood triumphantly.

This was another good match (while it lasted) that felt like it was merely a set-up for the post-match angle to help build up Emergence. The Sami-Moose-Maclin triangle should be coming to a close soon, and after that it will be interesting to see who gets spun off into a new program.

Winner: Sami Callihan

A Killer Kelly hype video aired – she makes her in-ring debut next week.

The Bullet Club cut a promo from a stairwell. They said that Doc Gallows would beat PCO in the Derby Street Fight tonight and then they all would beat Honor No More at Emergence.

 

Match 6: PCO vs. Doc Gallows – Derby City Street Fight

The commentators noted this was the first time these two had ever faced each other.

This was a slobber-knocker right from the get-go, as the two exchanged hard slams on the entrance ramp and on the floor around the ring. The first ugly moment came when PCO got kicked off the apron and he fell backwards, crashing through two chairs that he had set up on the floor – ouch!

They started with the weaponry after that – during the commercial break, the chair got littered with chairs, and they took turns hitting each other with them. Gallows then set up some chairs on the mat, some of them set with the legs sticking up in the air, and others which he’d set up spine-to-spine. And then slammed PCO off the top turnbuckle and right onto a row of chair spines – ouch squared!

But PCO is inhuman and he stalked Gallows to the floor where he Chokeslammed him through a table.

 

After that, PCO used some heavy-duty scissors to cut the ropes holding down the ring covering – taking time out only to smash Gallows in the head repeatedly with a garbage can, knocking Gallows loopy for a spell.

PCO then exposed the hard wood of the ring, but after eating a chain shot to the face, he was the one who suffered the wood, courtesy of a Gallows Spinebuster.

More weapon shots followed, including PCO shoving Gallows’ head into a bass drum. Random.

PCO put Gallows on the apron, positioning it so Gallows’ head was dangling over the edge. He then climbed up to the top turnbuckle to deliver the Decapitation Legdrop. But Gallows got up, scrambled over, and Chokeslammed PCO off the top, sending PCO right through the wood and straight into Hell. That looked awesome!

 

 

The ref started to count PCO out, but PCO zombied his way out of the pit and back into the fight.

 

PCO then slammed Gallows onto the exposed ring wood, and as Gallows lay there, PCO set up for the killing blow. He poured some thumbtacks into a glove, then put on the glove, climbed the turnbuckles, and hit Gallows with a tack-assisted Fist Drop. In pain, Gallows rolled into the hole in the ring and fell to the bottom. PCO climbed into the hole, stood atop of Gallows, and the ref counted the pin.

This was a fun brawl, and another amazing showcase for PCO’s inhuman ability to absorb pain. The visuals of PCO getting slammed onto the chairs, and then right through the ring wood were incredible. They seem to be setting him up to split from Honor No More, and if they’re not, they should consider it, because he is quickly becoming a huge babyface.

Winner: PCO

Impact Wrestling - August 4th, 2022

Old Forester's Paristown Hall - Louisville, KY

This show adequately set up some more matches for next week’s Emergence show. But they really need to kick the promotion up next week, because it doesn’t feel particularly buzz-worthy yet.

Tonight’s street fight was great and a lot of fun – though, as it relates to Emergence, they may have painted themselves in a corner because how does the HNM-Bullet Club match top it?  Again, we’ll have to see how next week’s “go-home” show pans out.

 

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