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Impact: Deonna does what she does best

Bob Kapur

At Rebellion a couple of weeks ago, Steve Maclin and Deonna Purrazzo captured the vacant World Championship and Knockouts World Championship, respectively. Last Thursday, Maclin was spotlighted in the final segment of Impact Wrestling. This week, it was Deonna’s turn in the main event. And while Maclin was trying to duck his newest challenger, PCO, Deonna wasn’t backing down from hers, as she took on a former Champion in Taylor Wilde.

 

Match 1: Masha Slamovich vs. Jordynne Grace

This was a physical affair that saw both women hit hard shots. This was kind of a steak and potatoes contest, with pretty basic moves and story. Surprisingly, Masha kicked out after a Muscle Buster and then a Grace Driver, which usually results in a win for Grace. After an exchange of submissions and multiple rollup attempts, Grace was able to finally hold Masha’s shoulders down for the three-count.

 

The crowd was quite subdued for most of this one, but they picked up in the last couple of minutes and for the rollup exchange leading to the finish. The simple and clean loss seemed like a real step backwards for Masha and really questionable booking. When she came in, she ran up a string of wins and that positioned her as a potential juggernaut. But ever since she lost her first title match, she’s lost some of her mystique, and repeated losses like this since haven’t been helpful to repair that.

Winner: Jordynne Grace

A spotlight video aired for Nick Aldis, going through his entire career, from starting off as Brutus Magnus in TNA, rising up to win the World Championship. They noted he left the company to shake off the Magnus name and prove to the world he could do it as himself – which he did (and they mentioned and showed still photos of him as NWA World Heavyweight Champion). He has returned now with higher star power and a quest to lead the company as champion. The voiceover sounded a bit soft, but overall this was really good.

 

Steve Maclin promo

Maclin came to the ring and said the crowd mistook his tactical retreat from PCO last week as cowardice. He challenged PCO to a title match immediately.

PCO started to make his way down the entrance ramp but was attacked by Champagne Singh and Shera. PCO recovered and beat them up. After PCO cleared the ring, the Director of Authority Santino Marella came out. He said since Singh wanted to fight, he would have to face PCO in a match right then and there, with Shera banned from ringside. Poor Singh.

 

Match 2: PCO vs. Champagne Singh

PCO hit the first big move with a huge Somersault Dive to the floor. But Singh was able to take down the monster with some hard shots. Very briefly. Because PCO came back with some more painfully-looking power moves, including an Eaton-esque Flying Legdrop to the back of Singh’s head. He followed that up with the De-Animator (Guillotine Cannonball Dive on the apron), and then ended Singh’s torture with a hard PCO-Sault.

 

This was another PCO showcase match. The “He’s not human” chants seem more valid every time he’s in there.

Winner: PCO

The Flashback Moment of the Week was a match between Nick Aldis (then known as Magnus) and “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. Magnus won with a big Elbow off the top. Man, I miss Mike Tenay on commentary.

A pre-tape promo from The Design aired. Deaner was upset that Sami Callihan’s betrayed his trust. He said that Callihan will pay for it, and the cost will be pain.

The Coven were doing some witchcraft to cast a spell against Deonna Purrazzo. Taylor had doubt as to whether the spell would work, but KiLynn assured her that it would.

 

Match 3: Johnny Swinger (w/ Zicky Dice) vs. El Dineroco

Swinger and Zicky came to the ring. Zicky reminded everyone that Swinger is looking for his first win, of which he needs 50 in order to earn a title shot. Zicky said that they’d found an opponent, but there was a language barrier, so he needed to go to the back and get him.

The opponent was announced as El Dineroco. The play of words, with El Dineroco rhyming with El Generico was clever. As was the fact that it was Zicky under the mask. He willingly jobbed in seconds to give his mentor Swinger win number one. This was all comedy, and if you like Swinger’s comedy, you’d like this. Clearly, the crowd did,  based on the many chants for Swinger throughout this segment.

Winner: Johnny Swinger

After the match, El Dineroco unmasked and he and Swinger celebrated. Unfortunately for them, Director of Authority Santino Marella saw through the ruse – and saw Zicky’s face, confirming it was a ruse – and nullified the match. Swinger berated Dice afterwards, and seemingly split from him for good before storming off.

 

They showed a clip from the BTI pre-show match where Kenny King beat Toronto hometown favourite Channing Decker. After the match, in the dressing room, Decker told King he respected him and graciously acknowledged that King was the better man that night. King cockily dissed and dismissed Decker.

King then approached Sheldon Jean, and tried to position himself as a mentor to Jean. Jean was a bit leery to take any advice from King at first, but after King left, Jean looked like he was thinking about it.

 

Match 4: The Design (Angels and Kon) (w/ Deaner) vs. The Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Ace Austin)

The Bullet Club’s World Tag Team Championship was not on the line for this one.

For much of the match, the Design used their power advantage to keep Austin trapped in their corner, taking turns beating him up as he frantically tried to reach Bey for the tag. He finally did, and Bey took over, until some sneaky cheating by the Design stopped his roll. But this was temporary and the Bullet Club did some damage by dumping Angels hard onto Kon from the ring to the floor.

 

Deaner prevented a follow up Stereo Dive combo, and then Sami Callihan ran down and beat up Deaner. With the odds evened, the Bullet Club regrouped and put Angels away with an Art of Finesse / Fold combo, which needs a name (The Fold of Finesse?).

This was a fine match, and continued the story between the Design and Callihan. That said, it does highlight a real need for some fresh tag teams to compete with the Bullet Club.

Winners: The Bullet Club

In the back, Dr. Ross was checking on Santino Marella who had been laid out on the floor. Dirty Dango, Marella’s Deputy Director, ran in to find out what happened. Marella showed off a tuft of hair that he’d pulled off the head of the mysterious assailant. Dr. Ross said that Marella needed to take some time off as he’s suffered a couple of head injuries in recent weeks. Dango saw this as an opportunity to prove himself, and he committed to solve the crime. I’m having “Who Shot John E. Bravo” flashbacks.

The Death Dollz were upset because their world has been spiraling since the loss of Taya and the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. As a result, they have lost their power and cannot access the Undead Realm. Crazzy Steve came in, but he and Jessicka didn’t recognize each other, since the last time they saw each other, she was Havok. Steve said that in order to access the Undead Realm, they would have to consult with James Mitchell. Rosemary wasn’t thrilled about that idea, but she realized she had no other option.

 

Match 5: Seleziya Sparx vs. Jody Threat

The crowd was solidly behind Threat, the hometown heroine (Sparx is from Toronto but was billed as being from the nemesis city Montreal). She didn’t disappoint, physically dismantling Sparx with a series of power moves – kicks, smashes, knees, and a German Suplex – and ultimately putting her down with the F-416.

This was a great showcase for Threat who got a star reaction here. It will be interesting to see if she can get the same response outside of Toronto.

Winner: Jody Threat

 

A spotlight video aired for Killer Kelly. It looks like she’s on a collision course with Masha Slamovich, who apparently impressed Kelly with her own love of violence and bloodlust, which Kelly saw when they faced off in the Hardcore War match at Rebellion. I guess she didn’t watch Masha lose earlier tonight.

Gia Miller did a sit-down interview with Frankie Kazarian. Frankie talked about his start with the company, including getting a World Title shot in his first month with the company. He said that the young blood like himself were eventually getting short shrift from some of the veterans that joined the company later on. Kazarian said he was turned off by the politics and the backstage shenanigans, so he ended up leaving the company in 2014. He didn’t mention anyone by name, but as he talked about the mismanagement of the company and the politics, they notably included clips of Hulk Hogan and Dixie Carter. He said because he didn’t feel like people respected what he could do, he left. The piece ended here, so it looks like there is more to follow in future weeks. This was good and seemed like it was a shoot. This was different from anything else on the show (and the polar opposite of the Santino / Dango stuff from earlier) and, consequently, really stood out as a highlight.

 

In a funny moment, during the run-down of next week’s show, there seemed to be a typo in one of the graphics. Moose’s name was spelled “Mooser” which sounds like he could be a Muppet. Though I wouldn’t say that to his face.

Match 6: Taylor Wilde (w/ KiLynn King) vs. Deonna Purrazzo (c) – for the Knockouts World Championship

This one was mostly wrestled in a technical style, with both women jockeying for ground control.

 

At one point, Wilde turned up the aggression with some big Running Clothesline against the ropes, but Deonna kept trying to go back to her baileywick. Some chicanery from King helped Wilde out, and she took over with some ground and pound and hard kicks, whips, stomps, and hair-pulls. She even tried to use one of Deonna’s signature Armbars, but Deonna knew how to escape. They had a hard collision in the ring and that shook them both up. Purrazzo was the first to recover and he blasted Wide with some kicks and knees before putting on the Armbar. Wilde got out of that, but couldn’t get out of the Venus De Milo and had no choice but to tap out.

After the match, King attacked Purrazzo and they double-team Wilde until Jordynne Grace ran in for the save. Grace and Purrazzo shook hands after they chased off Wilde and King.

This was a good match, though the crowd didn’t seem fully-invested based on how quiet they were. Wilde got a lot of offense on Deonna, but nobody seemed convinced she had a chance to win, so that likely played into the somewhat subdued reaction.

Winner, and still Knockouts Champion: Deonna Purrazzo

Impact Wrestling - April 28th, 2023
3.5

Rebel Entertainment Complex - Toronto, ON

It’s fitting that on a show with so many Knockouts matches, that Deonna Purrazzo main-evented. She is truly the standard-bearer for the division, and it was a good idea to put the title on her again. It’s not surprising that she and Wilde had a good match – but the good thing about Deonna is that she can elevate anyone, even without the experience and skills of Taylor.  Otherwise, it was a pretty solid show, overall, with some good matches and some storyline plate-setting, but nothing that couldn’t have been missed.

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