IMPACT! WRESTLING - November 1, 2018

REVIEW - IMPACT! WRESTLING:  November 1, 2018 - Knockouts Title Match, Pentagon Looking For Revenge

This week's edition of IMPACT! had it's share of highs...but just as many lows.  They start the promotion for next week's Final Hour edition with a couple of match announcements, a Knockouts Title rematch, more on the OGz/LAX feud, and Pentagon looking for some payback from last week's attack.

I have to say this right off the bat...NOT enamored with the announcing of Josh Matthews & Don Callis.  Callis, trying to be the "heelish" color commentator, just comes off as sounding stupid.  He just feels very scripted and unoriginal.  He's not funny, and his attempts at jokes are just awful.  Matthews isn't much of an improvement...he comes off as bland...almost to the point of sounding bored.  Anyway, the matchcard this week went down as follows:

Rich Swann v. Willie Mack

Desi Hit Squad v. The Beach Bums

Taya Valkyrie v. Tessa Blanchard (C) for the Knockouts Championship

LAX (C) v. Matt Sydal & Ethan Page

Pentagon Jr. v. Homicide

Rich Swann beats Willie Mack via pinfall:  These two buddies faced off in Mack's first IMPACT! tv match, and it was a back-and-forth affair that showed off both the agility  of the high flying Swann, and the much larger Willie Mack.  Mack is incredibly agile for a big guy.  Mack got some control early enough in the match where he got Swann on the top turnbuckle and went coast to coast on him, but Swann kicked out.  Once Swann got some offense in, he managed to get in a 450 splash, but Mack kicked out.  Boots to the face from Mack, hits a samoan drop, but Swann kicks out.  Mack hits a stunner, still no pin.  Swann hits and RKO type move, lands the Phoenix Splash to land the pin and the win.

Desi Hit Squad beats The Beach Bums via pinfall:  The only thing meaningful about this match was that it debut Gama Singh's son, Raj, as the new member of the team.  Raj and Rohit pick up the easy win.  Later on, we see them backstage where Scarlett Bordeaux shows up looking impressed.  She says to have them send their demo tape to her.  Gama obviously looks interested (who wouldn't), but Rohit reminds her he's a 65 year old man and happily married.  I've seen the Hit Squad for weeks now...and I'm really not impressed.  And all Bordeaux provides is eye candy.

We get a promo hyping up the match between Eddie Edwards v. Moose at Final Hour next week.  We get a brief history of their rivalry.  Not sure how long that match goes without either interference from Kross, or foreign objects are introduced.

Sami Callahan challenged Brian Cage to a match in Dayton, Ohio---Callahan's hometown.  Callahan shows up at the pre-taped segment, only to have a fake Brian Cage come out.  Callahan mocks the phony before dropping him with help from the Crist Brothers.  Later on in the show, Brian Cage responds to Callahan's challenge by saying next week for Final Hour, he'll show up in Dayton and destroy Callahan.

We had the OGz bashing Konnan about how he hung Juventus Guerrero and Psykosis out to dry, and thinks that using Pentagon to get to Konnan will get him one over and the former Lucha star.  LAX & Konnan respond in their own promo, saying that Pentagon can handle his own business.  They know the bosses said that peace must be kept, and that LAX is upholding their side of the bargain.  Konnan reminds LAX to just focus on Sydal & Page.

Eli Drake is looking for a lawyer, and comes upon a janitor's closet where he finds Joseph Park.  Park has the idea of having Drake file a class action suit against IMPACT! for an "unsafe working environment".  These storylines never seem to work out for the wrestler filing the lawsuit.  Just filler stuff that sorely underutilizes Drake's abilities in the ring.  

Taya Valkyrie beats Tessa Blanchard (C) by DQ:  After Taya suckered Tessa into a rematch for the Knockouts Championship last week, they locked horns this week in a rematch from Bound For Glory.  There was a bit of back and forth before Taya took control.  Tessa eventually gets Taya to the outside apron, where she drags her off onto the floor.  Tessa with a suicide dive.  Taya back into the ring, Tessa in control with a submission hold.  Taya powers out, elbows Tessa, and lands a front dropckick for a pin, but Tessa kicks out.  Taya goes for a clothesline, but misses, and Tessa nails her with a neckbreaker.  Tessa tries for a dive off the top, but Taya moves, Tessa lands feet first and rolls.  Action goes outside again, and Taya lands a cross body block on Tessa, and rolls her back into the ring.  Tessa uses the ref as a shield, and shoves him towards Taya.  Taya stops midmove, and as the ref turns around, Tessa clocks him with a right hand, and gets herself disqualified.  Not as good as their match from Bound For Glory, but still not bad.  Tessa proves what a quintessential heel she is by taking the chicken way out by decking the ref.  If there was two things I hated about this match, it was the fact that Taya took too much time to high five the crowd after she rolled Tessa back into the ring, and there was one point in the match where Taya had a pin on Tessa, and the ref botched the count...taking a pause between the two and three count (his timing being off, since he was counting faster than Tessa could get her shoulder up), before Tessa kicked out.  A big glaring mistake that if you've watched wrestling enough, it's a horrible botch.  But with the DQ, it gives them a chance to have these two continue the feud, with Taya having leverage against Tessa going into the next PPV.

We get another Jordynne Grace promo...she makes her IMPACT! debut next week.

LAX(C) beats Matt Sydal & Ethan Page:  LAX had most of the control in this match.  At one point, Santana and Sydal were outside the ring, and Sydal tagged Santana, rolled under the ring as to surprise him, only to roll out and find Konnan waiting for him.  He gets thrown back into the ring, and the punishment continues.  Quick tags between Santana & Ortiz.  Sydal and Page eventually get some offense in, but it's not enough as LAX hits the X-Factor for the pin and the win.

There's a promo for next week's Final Hour IMPACT! Championship Match between Johnny Impact and Killer Kross.  Kross comes off like a ranting lunatic, and Johnny states that if the guy is after the title, that's one thing---but his "just to inflict pain" mantra---he doesn't get it.  Kross feels the title would just be icing on the cake.

We get a moment with Allie---as she's still wrestling with her internal demons, in the wake of coming out of the Undead Realm.  Keira Hogan goes to check on her, and Allie apologizes for not being there for her, but assures Keira she's fine.  Keira calls her on it, and Allie admits there's something wrong.  She's losing control, and she's freaked out.  Keira blames Su Yung, and says one way or another, she's got Allie's back.

Pentagon beats Homicide by pinfall:  In a revenge match from last week's attack on Pentagon's brother, Fenix, Pentagon took on the OGz member Homicide.  Pentagon got on the attack early, and the match spilled outside.  Pentagon hit a couple of chops, slammed Homicide's head onto the ring apron, and tossed him into the ring.  While Pentagon was schmoozing with the crowd, Homicide lands a suicide dive, and takes control.  Action gets back into the ring where it goes a little back and forth.  Pentagon hits a DDT for a pin, but Homicide kicks out.  Homicide gets some control, but Pentagon turns a death drop around to score the pinfall.  After the match, The OGz numbers game takes over as they lay down the attack on Pentagon and Fenix, who was outside watching his brother's back.  The OGz stand tall at the end of the episode.  

I will say this in closing---I get the production value isn't anywhere near the quality of WWE, and I commend them for working with what they got.  But outside of Allie's segments, which have a supernatural feel to them, some of the other segments (such as Callahan's "camcorder" promo that kept fizzing out---lame as effects), seem a little TOO overproduced for this show.  Simple promos work best.  They have a few that get the point across and drive the stories they need to tell fairly well (Allie's story---while fairly unbelievable at times, as well as cheesy), is still compelling.  Eddie Edwards and Moose's feud has a good blood rivalry to it, and I feel that Taya and Tessa's story is faaaar from over.  The LAX/OGz thing adding Pentagon and Fenix to it is kind of a tired way of keeping a blood feud going that LAX had already won.  This story should not continue on further...especially when LAX needs new tag teams to compete against for their titles.  If you're going to use the Desi Hit Squad at all, this would be the time to use them, instead of dragging out a feud that has lasted far beyond its expiration date.  The promo packages were good, helping to promote the matches for Final Hour next week.  But I didn't see any Knockout matches scheduled for that portion of the show.  Missing out on an opportunity here to feature your ladies in something fairly high profile.  I would've saved Taya & Tessa's match for next week instead of having it this week.  We'll see if there's anymore matches added to that before next episode. 

 All in all, an alright week with at least ONE good match, but the others were fair to just move storylines along, or in the case of the new Desi Hit Squad, to put over the new member in a squash.  

That's all this week, please leave a comment, I appreciate you guys checking me out!

Until next week....