IMPACT! WRESTLING - January 18, 2019

REVIEW – IMPACT! WRESTLING:  JANUARY 18, 2019 – Update on Knockouts Champ Taya Valkyrie, OVE & LAX clash, Dark Allie squares off against Jordynne Grace, Rich Swann and Trey Miguel tangle, and Scarlett Bordeaux finally tells us the winner of her talent search…

Quite a packed show for IMPACT tonight, as we are back  for this week’s program.  We got OVE and LAX tussling after last week’s verbal altercation backstage, Rich Swann is in action against Trey Miguel in X-Division action, Dark Allie has to square off against Jordynne Grace, who’s looking for a little payback after the mist job she got at HOMECOMING, the return of the Demon Assassin, Rosemary, and Scarlett Bordeaux finally tells us who the lucky winner was of her talent search.

We start off this week’s show where an opening video caught us up on Killer Kross’ attack on the First Champion Couple of IMPACT at the end of homecoming, Taya’s status, and Johnny’s reaction from that attack.  We also see the highlights from the situation escalating between Rich Swann and Sami Callahan yet again, Rosemary’s message to Dark Allie & Su Yung, and the long awaited decision to the end of Scarlett Bordeaux’s talent search.

We head to the ring where KM, with best bud and tag partner Fallah Bahh in tow, took on Caleb Konley.  Konley got some offense in early when he jumped KM while his entrance.  KM then starts battling back to assert control, when out of nowhere, we quickly jump to Brian Cage walking around the back, asking where Johnny is, and causing chaos, tossing some people around, relentless in his pursuit of the World Champion.  We get back to the actual action in the ring, where KM had control of the match, then Cage came out both competitors, which called for a no contest.  Bahh tried to come in to save his buddy, but Cage lifted him up to the second rope, and powerbombed him.  Then, Cage saw referee Johnny Bravo, who was the ref in his title match against Johnny.  He delivers a devastating lariat that nearly decapitates Bravo, then delivers the Drill Claw to him.  He then grabs the mic and says all this carnage is on Impact’s hands since Johnny had offered him the next title shot, but somehow, Killer Kross is next in line to take on Johnny for the belt next week.

Johnny had heard enough, and finally came out to confront Cage, but was quickly attacked by both Moose and Kross, who start working him over on the top of the stage.  Cage watched the beatdown happen from the ring, and when Kross and Moose left, went up to grab Johnny by the leg, and dragged him down to ringside, where he picked Johnny up, and threw him in the ring.  He was just about to deliver and F5, but Moose and Kross come back, and lay both men out.  After the break, we see Cage cut a promo challenging Moose to a match tonight, or sticking his nose in Cage’s business.

As Matthews and Callis were giving us the card for tonight, Eli Drake’s music hits, and out he comes to the announce table to deliver some commentary.

This brings us to the match between Eddie Edwards and Ethan Page.  Both men were both outside the ring early, with Eddie delivering chops to Page as they circled the ring.  Page then managed to catch Eddie off guard, and tossed him into the guardrail, and got the upper hand.  Another commercial break, and back to action, where Eddie made a small comeback, hitting Frankensteiner on Page, chopping him some more, and then delivered a Blue Thunder Bomb for a count of two.  Page counters with a brainbuster for a near fall.  Eddie then counters that with a tope suicida, but didn’t score the fall.  He then went out of the ring, got Kenny the Kendo Stick, then delivered a blow that made the ref call for the bell.  Page wins by DQ, but Eddie gets his shots in before Page escapes the ring.  Eddie looks deranged.  Wasn’t the greatest match, and didn’t see the crowd get into it much.  While this match was going on, Eli Drake had been delivering commentary with Matthews and Callis, putting Eddie down, saying that he USED to be a great wrestler once, part of the tag team American Wolf, where he began to sing their entrance music.  Saying that Eddie didn’t need all these hardcore tactics to be great.  After the match, Drake calls out Eddie to bring back the American Wolf.  The start of a new rivalry has begun.

OVE cut a video promo.  Callahan tells Swann that it’s time to come home.  Then they turn their attention to the Crist Brothers’ opponents tonight---LAX.  Callahan lays it out and says that the only family walking out tonight is OVE.

Another wasted “stoner roundtable” bit with the Rascalz, where they talked about Trey losing at HOMECOMING, and Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz losing against the Lucha Bros.  They essentially try to hype each other up to make a comeback.  These guys don’t NEED this kind of stupid crap to get themselves over.  Their talent ALONE should be doing that.  I mean…if you’re stoner characters, you’re not going to be motivated to want to get up out of the chair, much less wrestle.  Let’s refine these guys, and let their talent do the talking.  Be more organic.

Dark Allie, with Su Yung in tow, faces off against Jordynne Grace, who has Kiera Hogan with her at ringside.  The start of the match was interrupted by the light fixtures malfunctioning (I wonder why…could it be…ROSEMARY?).  The match wasn’t a long one, as Allie did her best to get some offense in, especially with some distraction by Su Yung.  Anytime Allie would mount some offense, Jordynne would just power back.  Allie resorted to taking whatever cheap shot she could, but was no match for the REAL irresistible force in Grace.  Grace hits Allie with  a pumphandle driver with authority to score the pinfall.  Allie looked like the heel who was no match for Thick Momma Pump, who is beginning to work her way through the roster.  As Grace and Hogan exit the ring, and head up the ramp to the back, Su enters the ring, and has her hand out to Allie, as Allie is still in pain from the beating she just took.  Then, the house lights in the arena go out.  It’s pitch black for about a good half a minute, and when the lights come back on, instead of Su Yung reaching out to Allie, it’s Rosemary.  Rosemary once again offers her hand to the Dark Bunny, calling her home, but Allie refuses, and scampers out of the ring, crawling back up the ramp facing the Demon Assassin.

Scarlett Bordeaux is backstage announcing the winner of her “Smoke Show Talent Search”.  And the winner is------herself.  She begins to put herself over by saying that SHE is the most over woman on the Knockouts Division.  Woman has done NOTHING more months except sex it up and taunt the other talent---and the fans for that matter---to get over.  But she says she’ll be making her debut in an IMPACT ring soon.  All that hype to get the next Knockouts star over.  Hopefully, her hype lives up to it.  She may have the goods in the looks department, but I personally wanna see how she handles herself in a ring.  When she can do that---and win the audience over---I’ll be impressed.  Until then…she’s still eye candy.

Brain Cage and Moose are next to lock up, and Cage wasted no time getting on the attack.  Moose raked Cage in the eyes, but The Machine was unaffected.  Moose tried to run away, but Cage brought him back into the ring the hard way.  They ended up back outside where they brawl for a little bit.  Whip each other into the ring post.  Moose tried chopping him, but Cage moved, and Moose hit his hand on the post, injuring it.  Cage then blocked Moose’s running kick, then nailed a sick apron bomb.  The action finally returns to the ring, where Moose finally got on the offense again, and started working Cage’s left leg.  He got Cage outside, and tried for a countout win, but Cage managed to make it back in before the 10 count.

Cage makes the comeback, but Moose gets into a striking match with him and hits a dragon screw on the fly to get the upper hand.  He then lands a pop-up powerbomb and a senton.  But to no avail, as Cage comes to life and mounts a real comeback.  Cage lands a pop-up powerbomb of his own, then a buckle bomb and a vicious discus clothesline, but only nets a two count.  Moose responds with a dropkick and a Go To Hell, but only gets a two count of his own.  Desperate, Moose tries to take the coward’s way out by grabbing a chair, but he misses Cage, and hits the ringpost, knocking the chair out of his hands, especially since he’s still nursing that sore one.  Cage then hits the Drill Claw and scores the win.

Josh Mattews is conducting a phone call between himself and Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie, who said she’s still recovering, but should be cleared next week.  Taya calls out Tessa once again, saying that she won the title off Tessa thanks to Gail Kim, by saying that Tessa bullied a lot of referees and finally got her come uppance.  Taya said next week, she’d be in Mexico City, and ready to lay the title on the line against Tessa.

We see Killer Kross cut a promo, trying to goad Johnny some more, talking about what he did to Taya, and that the fans wanted Johnny to lose the title to Cage…or himself.  Kross says that next week, he’s taking the IMPACT World Title.

Backstage, McKenzie Mitchell is interviewing Tessa Blanchard about what Taya Valkyrie said.  Tessa begins shouting at her and blames Gail for her losing the title.  Tessa can’t keep it together, and starts to attack some of the backstage crew, until Gail Kim comes out herself to stop her, but gets nailed by Tessa, who continues screaming at her.  Gail responds with an attack of her own, telling Tessa she only has herself to blame.  Tessa then nails Gail with a trashcan lid, and proceeds to throw her into a wall, where there are some cables.  Tessa continues to choke out Gail until IMPACT officials break it up.  The attack proves costly for Tessa, as Sonjay Dutt and D’Amore were arguing with her about her attacks on officials.  They’ve had enough, and suspend her.  In a tizzy, Tessa leaves in a huff.  Not a bad segment, it shows that Tessa is over the edge about losing the title, and is blaming everyone ELSE for it except the real culprit—herself.  We’ll see how long her suspension lasts.

We get a sort-of rematch from the Ultimate X match in the form of Trey Miguel taking on X-Division Champ Rich Swann in a non-title bout.  This match was excellent, though it deserved more time.  It was a pretty damn good back and forth affair, with a lot of series of reversals and counters—allowing both men to show off just how good they can work.  They traded dive attempts until Miguel nails Swann with a tope suicida to gain the upper hand.

The match continues on, with both men trading slaps and kicks.  Then Swann hits a standing Frankensteiner and a frog splash, but can’t put Miguel away.  Miguel countered with a heel kick/cutter combo, but only got a two count himself.  Swann counters Miguel’s 619, and there was several rolling pin attempts and reversals.  But in the end, Swann hit the 450 for the win.  After the match, OVE ame out, and Callahan once again offered Swann an OVE shirt.  Swann rolls out of the ring, no answer given as LAX came out for the main event.

LAX are out with Konnan, and it did not take long before these two teams went at it.  The match begins with a brawl outside the ring, as OVE work over Ortiz, as Santana has been beaten down during a commercial break.  OVE show their tag prowess with quick tags and getting in some double team moves on the battered Ortiz, and almost scoring the win, but not getting more than a two count on a couple of occaisions.

Ortiz finally manages to gain the upper hand by dropping Dave Crist over the ropes, and finally getting the hot tag to Santana.  LAX get a couple of tags in and double tope suicida on both Crist brothers (that move seems to be popular tonight).  Next, all four men and are in the ring, with OVE hitting a superplex and powerbomb combo, and almost score the pin.  LAX respond in kind with a cutter/codebreaker combo on Jake, followed by a double inverted suplex to score the victory.

As LAX and Konnan head backstage to celebrate the victory, they’re met by the Lucha Brothers, and all seems good, with the Luchas saying that it was a good match.  Ortiz then opens his mouth and casually offers the Luchas another ass whooping.  Konnan, pissed off, shouts at Ortiz as the show goes off the air.

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All in all, not a horrible show.  But I gotta tell ya, for a place called “The Asylum” where the promotion got its start, the crowds the last couple weeks have been rather dead.  I remember old TV tapings that had livelier audiences.  Sadly, it’s what happens when you draw flies, sometimes, but I expect better.  Especially for a product that is working it’s ass off from a talent perspective to put on a good show.  Which they did.  Storylines were developed, and moved along, and there wasn’t a lot of wasted time.  They had another cold open, and it helped drive the rest of the night.  They head to Mexico City for the next set of tapings, so I expect a more enthusiastic audience.

I LOVED the match between Swann and Miguel…BOTH were stellar in the Ultimate X match, and we’ve known just how good Swann is from his time in WWE and in the indies.  Miguel is a surprise to me, but mostly because I’d not heard of him until the Rascalz arrived on the scene.  But that kid is GOOD.  The thing I’ll say about the Rascalz---get them a better gimmick than this cheesey ripoff of “That 70’s Show”.  If it weren’t for the fact that the show airs on a network most NO ONE has, and unless you’re either subscribed to Hulu or Twitch, there’d be a lawsuit from FOX quicker than you could sneeze.    These guys are FAR too talented for these awful attempts at comedy.  Xavier and Wentz can be one of the top tag teams on the roster, and SHOULD get another chance at LAX down the road.  Miguel himself has the talent for a singles run (and who knows, could be a part of the plan), and will help enhance the X-Division.  But yeah…the stoner gimmick has gotta go.

They’re doing a nice job on Eli Drake’s build to rid pro wrestling of its hardcore past.  And having a screwed up guy like Eddie Edwards who carrys around a kendo stick like Al Snow did with “Head” all those years ago, and it’s got potential.  And Drake was MAGNIFICENT on commentary tonight. 

Tessa Blanchard going off like a crazed maniac will help her build against Taya, because now she actually has something to prove…but isn’t taking blame for the one person responsible for her situation---her.  But damn does Tessa play that role to a “T”.  Her attack on Gail Kim COULD lead to a future match between the two---a “dream match” if you will.  I know Gail has had back problems, and that’s been part of the reason for her retirement.  But make no mistake…if Gail is healthy, she can go.  And a match with her and Tessa?  Sign my ass up!  Tessa’s “suspension” will also give her a chance to fulfill her obligation to WOW, since she’s been heavily advertised on that show.  But the question begs:  Who does Taya face next now that Tessa is serving a suspension.  I could see Jordynne Grace getting a chance down the road, but what about Kiera Hogan?  Katerina?  Will Su Yung re-shift HER focus BACK on the Knockouts Championship.

With Killer Kross, Moose, AND Brian Cage all having issues with Johnny Impact, I kind of wonder that when the next PPV rolls around---we see a fatal four-way?  It’s a possible chance, and don’t tell me the signs aren’t there, or that IMPACT isn’t suggesting it.  That’s bunk.  They have it in the back of their minds…trust me.

Rosemary’s appearance yet again is setting up for the aforementioned “Dark War” she’s been professing about on social media.  It won’t be long before these two lock horns.  That’s the endgame, to save Allie, and to destroy Su Yung. 

And about Rich Swann and OVE?  He never answered…

To piggyback on that, that would make OVE the next tag team to target LAX?

Finally…is there ANYONE here, by a show of hands, a tiny bit, in Scarlett Bordeaux’s talent contest thing…I’m not either.  I just wanna see how good she is in the ring now.  Playtime is over.

Like I said, was a decent show this week, and I commend them on juggling so may balls in the air, and not lose focus.  Allowing these stories to be told, and making sure they pay attention to detail. 

Okay kids, that does it for me this week, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I’ll catch you on the flippy floppy.  If you’ve subscribed, GREAT.  If not---PLEASE DO!  I’d greatly appreciate it.  And pass the word around on this blog!  You’d be my hero if you did! 

Until next week…..