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Impact: Masha gets a leg up on Deonna; Honor No More are challengers no more

Bob Kapur

Since coming to Impact, Honor No More have been looking to make an impact by way of winning some championship gold. While Eddie Edwards will get his chance against Josh Alexander at Bound For Glory, the rest of the faction didn’t have to wait, as the OGK – Mike Bennett and Matt Taven – beat the Good Brothers on Thursday night’s episode of Impact to win the Tag Team Championship. Another person looking to win a championship is Masha Slamovich – and in the show’s main event, she beat Deonna Purrazzo to become the number one contender to Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace. Those two matches bookended another good episode full of good matches and strong promo segments.

 

Match 1: The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) vs. The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) (c) – for the Tag Team Championship

Maria was banned from ringside for this one. The champs started off fairly dominant, but Matt Taven was able to turn things around, and then he and Bennett trapped Anderson in their corner for a while. He finally capitalized on a mistake and tagged in Gallows who was raring to fight.  After he threw both OGK members around for a bit, the OGK looked to be in trouble. But Bennett evaded a charging Gallows on the floor, and Gallows hit the steel steps hard. With him out of commission, the OGK were able to double-team Anderson, hitting him with the Proton Pack to put him down and out, and a 3-count later, the Honor No More faction captured their first gold in Impact Wrestling.

 

This was a good, straightforward match, and a good way for the Good Brothers to leave the company (as their contracts with the company have now come to an end, and it looks like they will be heading to different pastures).

Winners, and new Tag Team Champions: the OGK

A short hype video aired for Killer Kelly. She’s got her eyes on Tasha Steelz, which is unfortunate news for Tasha.

In the back, the OGK celebrated their title win with the rest of Honor No More. Eddie Edwards continued to throw shade (as the kids say) PCO’s way, suggesting the monster shouldn’t be trusted, and Vincent again played the peacemaker. Bad audio mixing here, as the crowd noise from the arena was playing over the promo, and at times drowned out the talking. In fact, the background noise happened with every backstage vignette tonight – not a great presentation.

 

Match 2: Kenny King (w/ Maria) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey (c) -for the X-Division Championship

No surprise that this one started off quickly, and they did a good blend of moves, counters, and gymnastics. The pace continued even on the floor, with Bailey using his Quick Kicks to hurt King – but then King countered with a big Suplex that sent Bailey crashing into the edge of the apron.

 

In the ring, King maintained control with some flashy power moves. Bailey came back, and as the action revved up, the referee got caught in the middle of the action and ate an accidental boot to the head, knocking him silly. With no ref to see him, King hit Bailey with a low blow and kicked him in the head. A new referee came in for the count, but Bailey kicked out. After some back-and-forth jockeying, Bailey attempted a Springboard Sunset Flip, but King sat down and – thanks to some added leverage from Maria on the floor outside of the referee’s eye – was able to hold Bailey down for the 3-count, giving Honor No More their second championship win in one night.

Or maybe not.

Because after the OGK and Eddie Edwards ran out to celebrate with King and Maria, they got some bad news. The original referee, who had awoken in time to witness Maria’s chicanery, told the second official what had happened. So the referee threw out the decision, called for the match to re-start, and banished Honor No More to the locker rooms.

After the match continued, they exchanged a couple of big moves each, and when King went for the Royal Flush, Bailey reversed it and rolled up King for the win.

The first match was pretty good, and probably King’s best since he rejoined the company. The shenanigans in this one could be used to further a rematch storyline, leading to some kind of stipulation match between the two, so that could be interesting.

Winner, and still X-Division Champion: “Speedball” Mike Bailey

Backstage, Brian Myers stormed up to Impact Executive Vice-President Scott D’Amore and complained that Bhupinder Gujjar had stolen his Digital Media Championship, demanding that D’Amore get it back for him. D’Amore shamed Myers for asking him to fight his battles for him, and told Myers to get it back himself. A fired up Myers said he would, turned around, and walked right into a punch from Gujjar, and hit the ground. Gujjar then draped the belt onto Myers’ fallen body with a big smile. Okay, that was funny and – unusual for anything involving Brian Myers – even entertaining.

 

In a bar, Jessicka was ecstatic about her winning her debut match last week, and was celebrating with Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary, the latter of whom looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. Jessicka said that it was time for them to go after the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. Rosemary said that she wasn’t sure that Jessicka was ready to be in their corner for such a match. Taya suggested they do a try-out, and have Jessicka prove herself by being in Taya’s corner next week during her match against Chelsea Green. Rosemary agreed.

The Flashback Moment of the week was from October 29, 2019, when Sami Callihan beat Brian Cage in a steel cage to win the World Championship.

Backstage, Gia Miller welcomed the New Japan Strong Tag Team Champions, Aussie Open. They said they were on a quest for titles, and they would start their journey for the Impact Tag Team Championships next week, when they debut against the Bullet Club.

During that promo, Moose could be heard yelling in the background. After Aussie Open left, Gia went over to see what the commotion was about. She saw Moose and Steve Maclin arguing about their Barbed Wire Massacre 3-way match with Sami Callihan on Victory Road. After Maclin left, Gia tried to get some words from Moose, but he stormed off.

Somewhere in the bowels of the building, Violent By Design noted that they had all come full circle on the path they had been following. Eric Young said that Joe Doering was going off to walk his own path, but that all of their paths will cross again. Doering left, leaving Young and Deaner. Young said that he had to walk a new path, and when Deaner expressed concern about being left behind, Young told him that he could follow Young if he wanted, or not, but it was his choice.

 

If you hadn’t heard, Joe Doering is taking time away as he is battling brain cancer one more time. Get well soon, buddy – you got this.

 

Mickie James starts her Last Rodeo

Mickie James made her way down the ring wearing the most minimal outfit that put the hardcore in Hardcore Country.

 

She noted that November would mark her 24th anniversary as a wrestler. She emotionally talked about sitting at her sister’s deathbed, her WWE release – mentioning “trashbag-gate” – and the criticisms she had heard throughout her career. And she said that she loved all her time in TNA and Impact and all her great moments here.

She said that after losing the Knockouts Championship to Chelsea Green, she felt like maybe she couldn’t still hang with today’s women. She said that all she ever wanted was to make the business better for women, and she’s done that. But that she has always said that if she can’t hang with the women in the back, then she doesn’t belong in the ring anymore.

But she said she wants to see for herself if she does have what it takes. That she wasn’t going to retire. Instead, she was going to test herself. She said she wants to earn another shot at the Knockouts Championship by starting from the bottom and climbing her way back up to the top. But she said if she loses at any point on her way to the title, she will retire.

Backstage, Gia Miller did a sit-down interview with World Champion Josh Alexander, who will be defending the title against Eddie Edwards at Bound For Glory. Josh put over Eddie, noting that he had always wanted to wrestle him, and this is their first 1-on-1 match. Josh said that he has no intention of accepting their invitation to join Honor No More – noting that he could not turn his back on the company he represents and loves being the flag-bearer of – and dismissed it as Eddie playing mind games.

Eddie walked in and sat down beside Josh. He said that being committed to a company that doesn’t reciprocate that respect makes someone a chump. As proof, he cited the example of Impact allowing Heath to cut off Josh and attack HNM last week before Josh could say his piece against HNM. Speak of the devil, because Heath then attacked Eddie, rushing him and tackling him off the couch. A few officials (Tommy Dreamer, Lance Storm, and D’Lo Brown) ran in, peeled Heath off of Eddie, and dragged him away.

Scott D’Amore then came into the detention room where they put Heath to talk to him. D’Amore said that as much as appreciated Heath taking it to HNM, he couldn’t sanction Heath attacking the number one contender to the title in backstage brawls. Instead, he said Heath could have a match against Edwards next week. Heath thanked D’Amore and left.

Heath then approached Josh and apologized for interrupting him last week. Josh noted that Edwards was right about one thing: that Heath did cut him off last week. Josh left without accepting Heath’s apology.

 

Match 3: Alex Zayne vs. Mascara Dorada

This was the debut for Dorada, who was most-recently known as Gran Metalik in WWE. The announcers noted that the winner of this one will become the number one contender for the X-Division Championship.

Dorado did some nifty rope tricks, but Zayne used some basic power to hurt Dorado, hitting him with vicious chops, and then delivering more punishment by hitting a series of moves on the apron, sending Dorado hard onto the hardest part of the ring. Back in the ring, Dorada blocked a Hurancarana attempt, and then did some more flashy flippy-doo moves, including hitting a huge Somersault Splash from the top rope to the floor, and then a huge Senton Splash off the top, the impact of which left Zayne bleeding from the mouth.

 

Zayne used his power to fight back, and hit a series of big moves, but couldn’t keep Dorada down. After some reversals and reverse reversals, Dorada hit a Tornado DDT and a Dorado Driver for the win.

This was a good debut for Dorada, as he had a few shining moments. The ending came a bit out of nowhere, and there were a lot of big flashy moves that they could have ended on that would have been more visually exciting. But overall this was fine. Not sure that it’s a good idea to have someone earn a title shot with a single win – a few more matches would give people a chance to care about Dorada, and he’ll probably need that, especially against a fan favourite like Mike Bailey.

Winner: Mascara Dorada

Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace visited Mickie James in her dressing room. Grace said she would look forward to facing Mickie when she eventually earns her title shot. But for now, she had to watch the next match to see who would become her number one contender.

 

Match 4: Deonna Purrazzo (w/ Chelsea Green) vs. Masha Slamovich

The winner of this one will indeed become the number one contender and will face Grace for the Knockouts Championship at Bound For Glory.

This was a unique match for both women early on, as Purrazzo used some uncharacteristic moves like a Hurancarana to prevent being on the receiving end of a typical Masha 1-minute squash.

 

Green’s interference actually led to Purrazzo getting the upper hand on Masha, blasting her with a knee to the face when Green tied Masha’s leg up in the ropes.

For the next few minutes, Deonna went on the attack, hurting Masha with a Suplex on the floor, and then working over Masha’s back, neck, and torso. But Masha juggernauted back with a series of strikes, kicking Deonna repeatedly in the head. This led to a slugfest in the middle of the ring that Masha got the better of thanks to a series of headbutts. Perhaps instinctively, Purrazzo escaped any more harm by clamping on her trademark Armbar, which sapped Masha’s strength as she fought her way to the ropes to break the hold.

Purrazzo went for a Queen’s Gambit, but Masha reversed it and hit the Air Raid Crash for a very close fall. Green’s distraction allowed Deonna to finally hit the Queen’s Gambit, but in a major shocker, Masha kicked out!

 

Deonna tried again for an Armbar, but Masha broke loose with a Spinning Back Fist. After taking Green out of the equation with a big boot to knock her off the apron, Masha picked up a dazed Purrazzo and hit the Snow Plow for the 1-2-3, earning her ticket to the title match at Bound For Glory.

This was really good because of how different it was from the norm for both women. Deonna wasn’t able to use her technical style to control the match, but instead had to break out some different moves to try to wrestle from the underdog position. Masha, meanwhile, finally had a competitive match and mount a comeback, which was something we hadn’t seen before. To their credit, it worked well, and a rematch at some point would be most welcome. Masha has been booked as a major force, so it will be interesting to see if they continue that and give her the title at BFG.

Winner: Masha Slamovich

After the match, Jordynne Grace entered the ring and gave Masha her own death warrant and they had a stare-down in the middle of the ring to end the show.

Impact Wrestling - September 1, 2022
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The Factory - Dallas, TX

Highlighted by some strong matches and a very good promo from Mickie James, this episode was very good in building towards Bound For Glory. The company still has another special event between now and then – Victory Road on September 23 – so arguably they should be focused on that show. But now that some matches are now set for BFG, perhaps the next few weeks will focus on the other one. Whatever they do, hopefully the roll that Impact’s TV is on right now continues.

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