Impact: Moose and Swann heading for some Elite competition

Bob Kapur

Impact: Moose and Swann heading for some Elite competition

Three months ago, when the AEW-Impact crossover began, fans and fantasy bookers everywhere wondered when the companies’ two champions would go head-to-head. That question was answered on Tuesday’s episode of Impact, when Scott D’Amore told Rich Swann and Moose that one of them would be facing AEW Champion Kenny Omega in April in a title-for-title match. But who will face him will be decided when they square off this Saturday at Sacrifice. That news, and building up the rest of the Sacrifice card, was the focus of this week’s Impact.

Match 1: Tasha Steelz (w/ Kiera Hogan) vs. Jazz (w/ Jordynne Grace)

After a feeling-out process, Steelz took over after a cheap shot. She was able to use her speed advantage to maintain control, grounding Jazz so as to negate her power advantage. But Jazz was too strong, and she came back, dropping Steelz with a Samoan Drop and then a big Sit-out Powerslam. Hogan tried to interfere, but Grace pulled her down off the apron. As Steelz reacted to that, she fell prey to an STF by Jazz and tapped out.

This was a solid match, with some good in-ring chemistry between the two, which might not have seemed obvious on paper.

Winner: Jazz

Gia Miller interviewed ODB who said that on Saturday she would beat Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship. Susan interrupted and challenged ODB to a match later tonight.

Announcers D-Lo Brown and Matt Striker said that Impact Executive Vice-President was going to be making a big announcement about the match Rich Swann and Moose will be having on Saturday for the Impact World Championship.

Backstage, Trey Miguel ran into Sam, the student at his training school that Sami Callihan tried to recruit last week. Sam told Trey that Sami wasn’t as bad as he thought, but Trey tried to disabuse him of that notion. Sam challenged Trey to a match, and when Trey refused, Sam said that Sami was right when he said that Trey didn’t have any more passion. This angered Trey who said that the match was on.

A hype video aired for the Moose-Swann match on Saturday.

Match 2: Rohit Raju and Mahabali Shera vs. James Storm and Chris Sabin

Storm and Shera were ready to tear each other apart even before the bell rang. But their partners started the match, moving at a pace too quick to call. The Beer Guns did some nice double-teaming on Raju, but Storm was hankering to fight Shera, enough that he threw Raju into his own corner so he could make the tag. The two big men went at it in a hard slobberknocker, and Storm and Sabin had him down going into a commercial.

Back from the break and the situation had changed, thanks to some double-teaming by Shera and Raju, and they had Sabin in trouble. He was finally able to get free and tagged in Storm who was on fire. But he kept trying to take it to Shera, and vice-versa. So much so that Shera came into the ring when Raju was trying to put Storm away. Raju questioned him about it and they started arguing. This allowed Storm to tag in Sabin who dispatched Shera with some kicks that sent him to the floor, and then Sabin and Storm hit a combo Superkick-CradleShock to get the win.

This was a fun little match. Not sure it’s a good idea to start dissension between Raju and Shera. They just reunited recently, so maybe they could have had some success as a team before teasing a split? And if they do end up feuding, the heel-face dynamic would be weird, since Shera is a natural heel because of his size and look. But Raju is so unlikeable, he shouldn’t be the babyface.

Winners: Chris Sabin and James Storm

Backstage, Reno Sum and XXXL were arguing over who caused their loss last week. Decay interrupted them, and Rosemary started playing mind games, so XXXL left. Decay challenged Reno Scum to a match on Saturday, and Reno Scum accepted.

The Flashback Moment of the Week was from Sacrifice 2010, where the Motor City Machine Guns beat Beer Money and Team 3-D in a 3-way match.

Eric Young and Joe Doering released Deaner from the closet they’d locked him in last week. Young told him that he knew Deaner would accept the consequences of failure. Sabin and Storm walked in and told Young that his treatment of Deaner was inappropriate. Young told them to stay out of Violent By Design business. Deaner attacked Storm and VBD left Storm and Sabin laying before walking off.

Brian Myers barged into D’Amore’s office to talk about the legal filings he had made against Impact. He said that all the lawsuits would be dropped if D’Amore would simply fire Eddie Edwards. Instead, D’Amore said the Myers would have to face Edwards in a Hold Harmless match. Myers accepted before he realized that those terms meant that it was a No-DQ match, and when D’Amore told him, Myers was upset and left.

Match 3: Trey Miguel vs. Sam Beale

Sami Callihan came out and did the introduction for Beale, saying that Trey’s former student was now his protégé.

Trey was reluctant to fight Beale, but eventually he did, beating him in less than a minute with a submission tie-up. Callihan watched this from the ramp. After the match, Trey went after Sami, but Sami used his hacker phone to turn off the arena lights. When they came back on, he was in the ring. He kicked Beale and destroyed him with a Cactus Special, while Trey could only look on and watch in frustration. Trey charged the ring, but Sami hit the lights again and when they turned back on, he had disappeared.

After last week’s good segment where Sami invaded Trey’s school, this was a bit of a step backwards. The teleportation stuff with Sami is a bit too cartoonish, particularly for a guy who competed in a deathmatch just a couple of weeks ago. They could keep the lights thing, but lose the disappearing stuff, and they’d be better off.

Winner: Trey Miguel

Chris Sabin and James Storm were cutting an angry promo, saying they’d beat up Doering and Deaner on Saturday. Jake Something came up to them and said he would be at ringside for the match to help even the odds, since he knew Eric Young would be in VBD’s corner. They agreed.

Up next was the weekly paid ad from AEW owner Tony Khan and announcer Tony Schiavone. They touted the high buy rate for this past Sunday’s Revolution PPV and pumped up tomorrow’s episode of Dynamite. They ran down the results from Sunday, and acknowledged the failure of the exploding ring, retconning that into a story that Kenny Omega didn’t build it properly. And then they ran down the lineup for tomorrow’s show.

FinJuice and the Good Brothers were in the conference room with Scott D’Amore to sign the contract for their Tag Team Championship match on Saturday. Before signing, they challenged each other to a drinking contest. D’Amore left and told them to sign the contract when they were done. After a few rounds of shots, both teams signed the contract. Then FinJuice threw shots in the Good Brothers’ faces. And then the two team started the fakest brawling you’ll ever see. For some reason, as soon as they started fighting, action movie music started playing. This felt very self-indulgent and came across as stupid rather than serious.

Match 4: Ace Austin (w/ Mad Man Fulton) vs. Chris Bey

At the bell, Austin told Fulton to grab a chair and sit down ringside instead of pacing the ring like usual. Some good chain wrestling to start this match, with neither man getting the advantage. The pace eventually picked up, with Bey hitting the first big move with a huge somersault dive to the floor. But Austin paid him back shortly thereafter with a big Fosbury Flop. Back in the ring, Bey nearly got the pin after a Code Red, and later Austin nearly won after a big Springboard Senton. They came up even in a too-quick-to-call series of counters and reversals, and after going to the top ropes, they both tumbled hard to the ground – Ace took a nasty fall, hitting his back on the edge of the apron that couldn’t have tickled.

After an ad break, they were on their knees, slugging it out in the middle of the ring. Austin got the better of things, and then hit a beautiful legdrop off the top for a near fall. He seated Bey on the top turnbuckle., and then went for a Flying Leg Scissors, but Bey escaped. Bey then hit a Verte-bey-ker, but Austin kicked out!

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Bey then hit a big Float-over DDT, but instead of going for the cover, he went for the Bey Blade, but Austin rolled out of the ring. Bey went to get him, but Fulton blocked him, though he didn’t touch Bey. Still, his distraction helped Austin hit Bey and take control. Austin rolled Bey back into the ring, but got distracted by TJP who came out to the entrance ramp. The distraction bought Bey enough time to recover, and he hit a Bey Blade to get the pin.

This was really good.

Winner: Chris Bey

At Swinger’s Palace, TJP collected on the bet he apparently had made on Bey winning the match. Josh Alexander barged in and got in TJP’s face. Alexander said that he was going to challenge the X-Division Champion for the title, no matter who wins on Saturday.

Backstage, Raju berated Shera for costing him the match earlier on. Shera exploded on Raju, picking him up by the head and pinning him to the wall, yelling that he didn’t owe Raju anything. He dropped Raju and stormed off.

Match 5: ODB vs. Susan

This was pretty much a squash, with ODB dominating Susan and hitting her with various power moves. At one point, Susan was able to take ODB down with a big hair pull. But instead of pressing the advantage, she decided to pour out ODB’s flask. This angered ODB, and she hit BAM! to get the pin.

After the match, Kimber Lee and Deonna Purrazzo ran to the ring and attacked ODB. Jordynne Grace and Jazz ran in for the save. Fire N Flava then ran in, making it a 5-on-3. They attacked Grace and Jazz, and also laid out ODB for good measure.

This wasn’t much of a match, but it was fine as a way to help build for Saturday’s matches, where ODB challenges Purrazzo for the Knockouts Title, and Grace and Jazz challenge for Fire N Flava’s Knockouts Tag Team Titles.

Winner: ODB

Scott D’Amore was in his office with someone whose back was to the camera. He was celebrating that a contract had been signed. Then his attention got diverted when he heard Moose’s theme music.

Cut to the ring, and Moose was there. He called out D’Amore and said to make the big announcement, because as he was sure he would be the Impact World Champion after Saturday, it would be most relevant to him. D’Amore told the mystery person he was going to go out there, and left the office. He went to the ring and introduced the Impact World Champion Rich Swann, who joined him and Moose.

D’Amore then announced that their title match on Saturday would be a title unification match with both Swann’s Impact World Championship and Moose’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship on the line.

Then he dropped the big bomb – that the unified champion would then have to defend the title at the Rebellion PPV on April 24. Against AEW World Champion Kenny Omega – with both companies’ titles on the line!

Moose and Swann glared at each other and D’Amore left the ring.

The camera then went back to D’Amore’s office, where Don Callis was on the phone with Kenny Omega. He smiled and told Kenny Omega that the deal had been signed, just as they had planned it. Dun dun DUN!

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