Impact: D’Amore shows Josh Alexander the door, Moose and Morrissey continue their war

Bob Kapur

Impact: D’Amore shows Josh Alexander the door, Moose and Morrissey continue their war

With nine days to go until No Surrender, it seems that everyone in Impact is preparing for war. Whether it’s a battle over a championship belt, a conflict based on personal differences, or the desire to defend the company’s ‘Honor’ against an invading force, Thursday night’s edition of Impact saw tensions and tempers at high levels all around. Perhaps nothing embodied this more than the show-ending brawl between Impact World Champion Moose and his No Surrender challenger W. Morrissey. Though the real casualty may actually have been Josh Alexander – who didn’t surrender, and may have paid the ultimate price for it.

Josh Alexander / Scott D’Amore confrontation

Josh Alexander came to the ring and took to the mic. He said that the only thing more important to him than the Impact World Championship is the company itself. Which is why he is standing with his fellow roster members at No Surrender on February 19th against Honor No More. But, after that event, he will officially invoke his rematch for the World Championship, whether it’s against current champion Moose or W. Morrissey, who faces Moose at No Surrender.

He was cut off by the entrance of Big Kon – former WWE star Konnor of the Ascension, who looks bigger and hairier than when we last saw him. He got in Alexander’s face, and Alexander demanded a referee come out so they could have a match right then and right there, despite Alexander still being in his street clothes.

Match 1: Josh Alexander vs. Big Kon

Kon started off with some big hits, but Alexander quickly took him to the ground, clamped on an Ankle Lock, and Big Kon had no choice but to tap out. This lasted less than a couple of minutes.

Winner: Josh Alexander

After the match, Alexander put the move on again and refused to let go. Security came out to stop him and he attacked them as well. Scott D’Amore ran in to save one of them from being hit with the C-4 Spike, and Alexander angrily shoved D’Amore to the mat.

D’Amore picked himself up and talked to Josh. He ran through their personal and professional history. He said that it was three years ago that he signed Alexander to the company, and Alexander told him that he hadn’t just signed a wrestler, but a future Impact World Champion. Alexander fired up and said that if D’Amore didn’t support him and give him a title shot, then he should get out of his way. That he was going to avenge what Moose did to him and his family. And that he was going to win the championship again and go to new heights.

D’Amore told him that they had to go through the right process, but Alexander said that he was through with following the process. And if he didn’t get it, then his time in Impact may be finished. D’Amore said that Alexander’s behaviour and attitude were unacceptable, and so he was being removed from the match at No Surrender, and D’Amore was sending him home until this all got sorted out. Alexander said he wouldn’t leave willingly, but D’Amore said he wasn’t going to drag Alexander out of the ring – rather, he had faith that Alexander was professional enough to do the right thing and leave. D’Amore left and Alexander looked conflicted as the crowd chanted his name.

This was great. Alexander cut the promo of his career, and D’Amore is always great when he cuts this kind of emotional promo. Not sure if they have longer-term plans for Big Kon. If so, then squashing him may not have been the best idea. But if this was a one-off, it was fine.

After the break, D’Amore was heading to his office when he was approached by Steve Maclin, who said he wanted to take Alexander’s place in the match against Honor No More. D’Amore said he’d let the other members of the team decide who their partner would be.

Match 2:Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. Santana Garrett – for the ROH Championship

Garrett was announced as the opponent for Purrazzo, who laid out an open challenge for either one of her ROH Women’s Championship or her AAA Reina de Reinas Championship, as per the opponent’s choice. Garrett chose the ROH Championship before the match began.

The match started off with a good technical exchange, leading to a stalemate. Garrett tried to show some mutual respect, but Purrazzo would have none of it, and replied with a kick and another that sent Garrett to the floor. Purrazzo took over, and then went back to her customary strategy of working over her opponent’s arms, with an aim to lock on the Armbar. Garrett fought back and actually even locked on a submission of her own in the form of a Bridging Crossface, but Purrazzo got to the ropes for the break. Garrett tried for a top rope move, but as she dove down, Purrazzo side-stepped it and grabbed her arm, yanking Garrett down to the mat in an Armbar. She was able to transition from the Armbar into a bridging pin.

There was some brief awkwardness in ending, in that Purrazzo only got fully into the bridge position right before the referee’s last count, and it seemed she thought more were to follow. But nothing was technically done wrong here – just awkward.

This one wasn’t a Purrazzo classic, but it was still pretty good. Not sure there was any drama in the open challenge concept, though, since Purrazzo is so good that you don’t expect her to lose to a random TV opponent. If they did this at a PPV or with a bigger name, things may be different.

Winner, and still ROH Women’s Champion: Deonna Purrazzo

Backstage, the Impact team for the match at No Surrender told D’Amore that ROH Champion Jonathan Gresham was their choice as Josh Alexander’s replacement. D’Amore said he was fine with it if Gresham was.

Match 3: Chelsea Green vs. Mickie James

Mickie’s Knockouts Championship was not on the line for this friendly competition. Tasha Steelz joined the commentary team for this one, with Savannah Evans standing guard at her side.

After a friendly embrace before the match, the sportsmanship continued with some technical wrestling early on with neither woman getting the edge. When Mickie slid out of the ring, she turned to confront Steelz who was chirping at her from the commentary desk and got caught with a Baseball Slide by Green. But Green couldn’t capitalize for long as she got Flapjacked by Mickie when trying for a follow-up.

They both attempted their finishers but each escaped the moves. Green was able to hit a big move, which was actually a Cutter – the same finisher used by Tasha Steelz who was not pleased by this, and responded by throwing a garbage pail full of trash into the ring while Chelsea was scaling the ropes to put Mickie away. Steelz then hopped up on the apron and threw more garbage right into Green’s face. As Green went after Steelz, Evans swept out Green’s legs and dropped her hard onto the apron. With that contact, the ref had no choice but to disqualify Mickie James. James wasn’t mad at the loss, but rather the actions of Steelz and Evans, and she helped her friend Green back up and the two of them jawed at Steelz and Evans who made their way up the ramp.

This was fine while it lasted, but it was more about continuing the angle between James and Steelz who challenges at No Surrender.

Winner, by disqualification: Chelsea Green

Gia Miller interviewed Bhupinder Gujjar, who made his debut last week. Gujjar said he was happy to be there to achieve his dream of being a professional wrestler. He said he was proud to represent India and hopefully will do them proud by becoming a champion in the company. Raj Singh came in and tried to ingratiate himself with Gujjar who simply walked away at the sight of him.

Kaleb was in the dressing room playing with the camera that the Iinspiration had given him, when they came up to him and asked him to take their picture. He said no since he didn’t want to anger Madison Rayne. They insisted and he started snapping some pics, when Rayne came in. Busted, Kaleb tried to blame the Iinspiration, but Madison wasn’t buying it. He reminded him that he works for The Influencer (her and Tenille Dashwood), and told him to delete their photos before storming off.

Bullet Club promo

The Bullet Club – “Switchblade” Jay White, Chris Bey, and Guerillas of Destiny – came to the ring. They said that G.O.D. would soon become the Impact Tag Team Champions when they beat the Good Brothers. They questioned why the Good Brothers would want to be recruited into Violent By Design, which brought out VBD.

Eric Young knocked the Bullet Club, saying they were basically a discount version of the original faction, and that VBD run Impact. White retorted saying that the Bullet Club was on top everywhere in the world and that VBD are a mere copycat faction. White challenged Eric Young for a match at No Surrender. Young said that why don’t they have a six-man tag match next week. White said why not do the match right then and there.

The Good Brothers then walked out to the entrance ramp beside VBD. They said that the Bullet Club owes them a thank you for making them stars and for the money they’ve earned. They and G.O.D. exchanged shots over the mic over their respective career successes and the history between the two, and they agreed to a Tag Team Championship match at No Surrender.

This was a fine segment and everyone did a good job of selling the animosity between the groups. White showed more personality here than he had so far during his Impact run, and it was good to see G.O.D. show off some personality as well. This was the first time so far that the Bullet Club stuff has felt truly organic to the show and part of Impact in a broader sense.

They cut to a backstage shot where Jonathan Gresham had been laid out and was lying unconscious on the floor.

A replay was shown of the closing moments from last week when Matt Cardona clocked Jordynne Grace with a chair on the way to beating her for the Digital Media Championship. After that, Gia Miller interviewed Cardona in the back about his actions. Cardona – who, in a nice touch, was wearing a Grace t-shirt – said that he realized, after he was “screwed” out of the World Championship during the triple threat match he had against Moose and Morrissey at Hard To Kill, that he had to start to do things differently. He said that he made the internet relevant for wrestlers so there was no better person to hold the title. He said that he knows Jordynne Grace gets her rematch at No Surrender and told her she had better be ready.

Match 4: Matt Taven and Mike Bennett (w/ Honor No More) vs. Rich Swann and Rhino (w/ Chris Sabin and Eddie Edwards)

Maria Kanellis-Bennett joined the commentary team for this one, while ROH Ambassador Cary Silken sat ringside to watch the action.

Swann and Taven had a nice, fast-paced exchange to begin this match. Swann sent Taven and Bennett to the floor, but when he set up for a running dive attack, Vincent hopped up on the apron to block his path. This led to a skirmish between the others on the floor, so the ref cleared out the ringside area and sent everyone to the back. In the confusion, Taven and Bennett hit Swann with a double-team move to take control.

They isolated Swann in the wrong corner and took turns beating him down. After some double-teaming fails, Swann was able to escape and get the tag to a fired-up Rhino. He battered both of them around easily with some powerful smashes. As he was setting up Taven for a corner charge, Bennett distracted the ref so he didn’t see Maria grab Rhino’s leg and then throw a handful of powder into his eyes, blinding him, and leaving him prone to the Climax by Taven, which put him down for the count.

After the match, Taven and Bennett double-teamed Swann and laid him out too. They jawed at Cary Silken and then went to the floor and grabbed him with intent to physically assault him. Before they could do it, Steve Maclin ran down and fought them off. Bennett high-tailed it to the ring to avoid Maclin, but instead found himself on the receiving end of a GORE GORE GORE!

This was good. It was the right time for Team Impact to get some physical revenge – if not the win – over Honor No More after several weeks of being wronged. Adding Maclin into the mix is an interesting development since he’s not face-heel aligned with any of the others otherwise, and because he deserves a chance for a higher-profile spot with his performances over the past few months.

Winners: Matt Taven and Mike Bennett

Backstage, Silken was talking with ROH commentator Ian Riccaboni and announcer Bobby Cruise. Steve Maclin walked up to them and they thanked him for saving Cary. Eddie, Sabin, Rhino, and Swann then joined the discussion. While none of them trusted Maclin – Eddie in particular was quite vocal about that – Riccaboni said they should trust him. Maclin said that he would stand with them in this war, and the rest of them welcomed him to the team, if somewhat reluctantly.

A replay aired from the finish of the match between Lady Frost and Alisha Edwards from the BTI pre-show. Frost won with the Temperature Drop (moonsault). After the match, “The Quintessential Diva” Gisele Shaw made an entrance and came to the ring, stealing Frost’s thunder.

Gia Miller tried to interview Shaw who insulted her and then said if Frost had a problem, she could face Shaw next week.

Match 5: Brian Myers (w/ Zicky Dice and VSK) vs. W. Morrissey – No Disqualification match

Dice and VSK tried to charge Morrissey as he made his entrance, but he easily felled the Learning Tree. Morrissey then took it to Myers, heaving him halfway across the ring a couple of times. Dice and VSK then came back to help Myers and the triple-team put him down long enough for Dice to get a table and set it up at ringside. But it wasn’t long enough to put him through it. Instead, Morrissey got up and Pump Kicked Dice off the apron and sent him crashing through the table and to the floor.

Myers and VSK went after Morrissey and tried their own table assault. But the table fell as soon as they lay Morrissey on top of it, so they tried Plan B, which was to lean it against the ring apron and drive him through it that way. But Morrissey thwarted the plan and Chokeslammed VSK through that one in an ugly-looking spot.

After a commercial break, VSK and Dice were still out, and Morrissey was blasting Myers with a road sign. But Myers used a Singapore cane to slow down Morrissey and dropped him hard on the steel rampway to cool down Morrissey’s momentum.

Myers then caned Morrissey a few more times, and hit him with a garbage can lid a couple of times to stun and ground Morrissey. Myers took out some duct tape and taped Morrissey’s wrist to the middle rope, effectively trapping him, and leaving him vulnerable for more caning and some smashes with a steel garbage can.

Myers then set up the garbage can beside Morrissey who was laying in the corner and hit a Van Terminator that looked like it would end things – but Morrissey kicked out!

Unfortunately for Myers, not only didn’t he get the win, but that move also freed Morrissey of the duct tape. And now he was angry. He levelled Myers with a huge Clothesline and then squashed him with a series of Avalanches before dropping him with a big Boot to the Head.

Morrissey wasn’t done, as he took some whacks with a Singapore cane, and then dropped Myers with a huge Powerbomb. The crowd chanted for another, but that wasn’t good enough for Morrissey. Instead, he poured out a bag of thumbtacks on the mat and then hit Myers with two Powerbombs into the tacks before mercifully pinning him.

This was a fun hardcore brawl. Morrissey is a beast, and the dominant win was exactly the right way to go.

Winner: W. Morrissey

After the match, Moose ran into the ring and attacked Morrissey from behind. He ground-and-pounded him and then grabbed a steel chair and choked Morrissey with the back of the chair. Finally, he dragged Morrissey to the floor, wrapped a chair around his neck, and smashed that chair with another one several times before walking away and leaving Morrissey for dead.

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