A new era has dawned on Impact Wrestling, as the promotion not only has to deal with their tag team championships being held by New Japan wrestlers, but the new Impact Champion Kenny Omega may be somewhat lenient in making sure he actually shows up on the show for which he is t he champion.
The entire two hour show this past week centred on whether Omega, who successfully won the title vs. title match at Rebellion and taking the titles from Rich Swann, would even show up on Impact on AXSTV that night. Besieged by literally the entire male locker room, Scott D’Amore made it clear: if Omega didn’t show up by the time the show is over, he would be stripped of the Impact World Championship…AND suspended from both Impact and AEW.
Now that obviously wasn’t going to happen, but it didn’t stop the show from being built around an ‘Omega Watch’ as D’Amore announced a six way scramble match at the next pay per view, Under Siege (a very appropriate name given the present circumstances) to determine the #1 contender for the world title. If Omega didn’t show up by the show’s end, the match will be to crown a new champion.
I thought it was apropos that Swann was a no show after this ‘once in a lifetime’ title vs. title match, besides the other stipulation that there was no rematch clause in the contract. As I mentioned in a previous post, Swann’s championship reign was rather lacklustre, but this is not to take anything away from the man’s wrestling ability. An extended time away from Impact and the ring would give Swann some time to rest and repackage himself, maybe around Slammiversary.
Back to the qualifying matches for the six way scramble, the opening match for one of those slots was Jake Something vs. a returning Chris Bey. Bey and Something had a typical big man vs. high flyer back and forth, but Rohit Raju decided to interject and grabbed Something’s leg, which allowed Bey to roll the big man up and use the ropes for leverage to pick up the win and qualify.
At this point, I put Rohit and his friend Shera in the ‘tweener’ column because I’m not sure if I should be booing or cheering them. I am also not sure if Rohit, a former X Division Champion, is gunning for that title again, if he wants to push Shera for a shot at a singles title, or if both are gunning for the tag titles. It’s very confusing how I should react to them at this point.
One thing is certain…there is definitely a future Jake Something vs. Shera match down the road.
Next is the Impact on AXSTV debut of W. Morrissey, formerly known as Big Cass from WWE, fresh after teaming up with Violent By Design as their “hired gun” for the 8 man tag match at Rebellion. Morrissey made short work of Sam Beale, but it was his promo before the match and Matt Striker and D’Lo’s analysis of his words that was more interesting.
Morrissey said there were plenty of ‘bad guys’ in the industry and that they don’t care about fans, including himself who was the only one who would admit it. Striker then links those words with what VBD have been saying about ‘a disease’ running through the business, the difference between the salesmen and the workers, espousing some elements of truth in what the big man was saying.
But apparently Morrissey’s words hit a nerve; Willie Mack told Gia Miller backstage he didn’t know what the big man’s problem was, but he was going to challenge him to a match next week. Do I need some detailed explanation to see to see two big men go at it? No, especially when Morrissey, while bearing obvious resemblances at least in features to Edge, reminds me more of Sycho Sid back in the day.
We then go to a Knockouts match where Taylor Wilde returned to the Impact zone after ten years away from wrestling, as she faced off against Kimber Lee. Before the matc, Deonna Purrazzo, the Knockouts Champion, declined to accompany her friends out to the ring and continued to talk trash about how she defeated everyone…until Havoc came up to do one of those stare downs.
Havoc had been paired with Nevaeh for so long that I haven’t seen enough of how she is as a singles contender, but I’m glad they’re pushing more active Impact talent to face Deonna besides just bringing back alumni like ODB. As for Wilde’s match with Kimber, she tapped out “The Curator” with some modified Indian death lock and looked like she never even retired.
Considering she’s from Toronto, Canada, I guess I’m a Taylor Wilde fan now.
Not sure what Tenille is up to, as she came out after the match to take out Susan, who started attacking Wilde after the match. At this point, I’m more inclined to believe Tenille is just looking for content for the ‘Gram than actually wanting to team up with the former Knockouts Champion and tag team champion.
All I have to say about Josh Alexander’s first title defence as X Division Champion is that this match with Ace Austin, the immediate former champion, was exactly what the Walking Weapon needed commence his title reign with a bang. The fact that he made Ace tap out to the ankle lock in some a quick fashion legitimised that sentiment.
This match is quite the clinic which highlighted some of the best stuff these two wrestlers can dish out. With Omega basically doing the Brock Lesnar style sporadic appearances, at least the X Division has a workhorse champion on the show regularly defending his title.
With Bey qualifying for the first spot in the six man scramble No. 1 contenders match, the other matches on the card were also qualifiers: Matt Cardona vs. Brian Myers in a Rebellion rematch, and Sami Callihan vs. Eddie Edwards in the main event, all the while people were wondering if Kenny Omega would show up on time…or be forced to forfeit the title.
Cardona was still nursing the injured knee he sustained in his Rebellion match with Myers, and was in no mood for cordiality as he attacked Myers before the bell rang. Myers worked Cardona’s knee over but Cardona countered with a Sky High powerbomb for a two count. But as Myers set up for the Roster Cut, he was suddenly hit with the Radio Silence by Cardona who got the three count. Cardona is now added to the six man scramble at Under Siege.
I had a feeling Cardona would win since he lost to Myers at Rebellion; not sure where Myers’ attention should go at this point as I think this rivalry has reached the end point for now. Perhaps the X Division Championship?
Backstage Segments
There were plenty of backstage stuff going on, but here are the ones that stand out.
Scott D’Amore was being interviewed about the Omega situation when Moose walks up, asking D’Amore why he was being forced to qualify even though he was the only man who could beat Omega, as Moose said. Scott then said the qualify should be easy for him then, at which point Moose said he shouldn’t ‘take advantage of our friendship’ because he will not hesitate to hurt the Impact EVP.
James Storm, Moose’s opponent in the qualifier next week, comes up with paper lunch bags and said at times, he wanted to knock out Scott too, but he respected authority and accepted that. Storm then hands Moose the lunch bags (I’m guessing as a peace offering?), and left. Moose then thrusts the lunches to Scott.
I’m not sure why I got so obsessed with those lunch bags, which were just as over in that segment as Moose or Storm. I also am seeing a similar character development with Moose to late 2000s Chris Jericho, who went back to WWE in a suit and tie and spoke very softly but his words had dangerous meanings. Moose doesn’t need to yell or scream, but just talk in a low, menacing voice.
We get another spooky promo in the dark by Eric Young, as he is hyping up Rhyno’s match with Chris Sabin in a six man scramble qualifier next week. What I’m interested in is the ‘Call your shot’ gauntlet trophy which Rhyno won back around January; it hasn’t been acknowledged by VBD or Impact commentators in any meaningful way, but by displaying it they are clearing emphasizing that the War Machine has a title opportunity somewhere down the line.
We also got another backstage moment of Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering, the new Knockouts Tag Champions, being confronted by Fire N Flava. This set up their rematch at Under Siege. Nothing much to say here; we’d have to expect that female tag teams in Impact are going to trickle in one at a time rather than a torrent of them showing up.
And in another indication of the ‘Forbidden Door’ opening again, next week will see New Japan’s El Phantasmo (ELP) from the Bullet Club make his Impact debut. I don’t know enough about current Bullet Club or New Japan to make a comment, but at this point Impact may be more heavily invested in crossover promotional stuff with New Japan than AEW.
We then get to the third qualifier match for this week, as Sami Callihan and Eddie Edwards renewed hostilities. At this point, it was obvious to me that Omega had to do a run in on this match in order to stay Impact Champion, and that is what he did with the Good Brothers causing a disqualification.
Two interesting developments popped up as a result of Omega and the GB’s actions: Callihan was the one who was hit first by Karl Anderson which resulted in the DQ. As a result, instead of some shitty no contest, Callihan technically won the match and he has been added to the six man scramble. (Photos courtesy of Impact Wrestling)
The other development is that as Callihan and Eddie were beaten down, FinJuice came out to make the save but were also beaten down as well. Edwards is now teaming up with the Impact Tag Team Champions to face Omega and the GB at Under Siege in a six man tag match, meaning three wrestling promotions (Impact, AEW and New Japan) will be represented in one match alone.
Final thoughts
I understand the disappointment of not seeing Omega display the Impact titles on either this show or AEW Dynamite, where the big story this past week is that he and Michael Nakazawa are booked to face Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston at next week’s ‘Blood and Guts’ edition of Dynamite. You may also notice, now that Dynamite airs before Impact, Tony Khan has stopped doing ‘paid ads’ during Impact’s broadcast.
The narrative being pushed now is that Impact is being beleaguered on all sides, by All Eilte Wrestling and New Japan who now have possession of two of their main titles. While I am disappointed in the one sided direction of this Impact / AEW collaboration, My guess is that scheduling has affected whether Impact can appear on AEW; both shows are likely pre-taped at this point.
Once things open up more in the summer as more vaccinations roll out across the United States, hopefully Impact and AEW can do more live programming again. After all, it’s only a matter of time when Impact retaliates in some fashion; the story is literally building towards that.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
Recent Comments