Impact Wrestling – November 15, 2018: Since When???
IMG Credit: Impact Wrestling
Impact Wrestling
Date: November 15, 2018
Location: Sam’s Town Hotel & Gaming Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Don Callis
Last week saw a big show with Johnny Impact successfully defending the World Title against Killer Kross, plus Brian Cage going to Sami Callihan’s promotion in Ohio for a fight. That earned him a beatdown, meaning a title match is likely imminent. Other than that, we’re getting ready to head towards Homecoming in January, which could be interesting. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
We open with the recap, which they’ve gotten good at putting together.
Opening sequence.
Tessa Blanchard vs. Ray Lyn
Non-title. Tessa drives her into the corner a few times to start but Ray gets in a few kicks to the ribs. That just earns her a gorilla press gutbuster but Ray escapes a powerbomb out of the corner. A hurricanrana has Tessa in some trouble so she forearms Ray right back down. Now the buckle bomb connects and the buzzsaw DDT finishes Lyn at 3:04.
Rating: C-. Lyn got in some offense here to make this look a little better but the main point was to make Tessa look good. Normally she does that on her own so anything from the jobber makes things even better. You can almost guarantee another Tessa vs. Taya match at Homecoming and wins like this will help keep Tessa strong on the way there.
Post match Tessa says Taya has had excuse after excuse for why she hasn’t won the title. The big reason is that Tessa is better and Taya will only ever be known as Johnny Impact’s wife. Taya comes out to chase Tessa off and shout a lot. The title match is confirmed for Homecoming.
The announcers preview the rest of the show.
Fallah Bahh and KM are happy about being in Vegas. KM has gotten them a match against LAX tonight. If they win, they could get a title shot and if they win that, Scarlett Bordeaux will notice them!
Dezmond Xavier and two guys called the Rascals are sitting in a circle with a bunch of smoke where they all keep laughing. Apparently they have a match in two weeks.
LAX vs. KM/Fallah Bahh
Non-title. Bahh works on Santana’s arm to start and Santana’s shoulder blocks bounce off of him. Some armdrags frustrate Santana even more but he avoids a sitdown splash. Ortiz comes in and helps Santana send Bahh outside. He’s fine enough to trip Ortiz down though and there’s the double roll over him to take over.
Bahh splashes KM by mistake though (so he’s big and kind of dumb) so Santana dropkicks KM in the back for two. A double suplex puts LAX down though and it’s back to Bahh for a running splash in the corner. Rotating running Umaga attacks in the corner set up a Samoan drop for two on Santana. Bahh gets sent outside though and it’s a Lionsault/legdrop combination to pin KM at 7:34.
Rating: C. Nice little match here as KM and Bahh have turned into a passable team. I’m not wild on them and can’t really picture them going further than this, but they’ve gone from nothing to a team with a bit of staying power. It’s not like the tag team division is deep in the first place so a midcard team like them is a fine addition.
Heather Monroe calls herself the Goddess of Girlpower and is ready to debut. Kiera Hogan comes in to tell her to be worried about Su Yung tonight.
Fans go after Scarlett Bordeaux in the parking lot but she isn’t impressed.
LAX has some tools and talk about the OGz. Konnan says don’t worry about them because the bosses said no more. He mentions Pentagon and Fenix and Santana wants a match but Konnan shoots that down too.
Classic Clip of the Week: LAX vs. OVE from last year.
Matt Sydal and Ethan Page are ready for Matt’s singles match tonight against Johnny Impact. Ethan can’t wait to sit underneath the learning tree.
The Desi Hit Squad is sitting by the pool (or at least in some nice chairs) and talk about food. Rohit can’t wait for Thanksgiving but Gama Singh shoots it down because there’s nothing to be thankful for in America. Also next week: the turkey suit match returns. Just in case you needed to remember the stupid past.
Here’s Eli Drake to say the lawsuit is done because that was never the point. Last week he got rid of Abyss because he’s the last of a dying breed. He’s sick of people pretending to be wrestlers and doing a bunch of stupid stuff to make the fans go ooh and ahh. That comes from the nonsense of hardcore wrestling, but Drake is the kind of guy who doesn’t have to do that stuff. Last week was the beginning of getting rid of all that and getting back to wrestling.
And dang it TOMMY DREAMER is here because Heaven forbid we go a month without seeing him in some promotion somewhere. Drake points his finger in Dreamer’s face so Dreamer threatens to bite it off. Dreamer: “I bet you it tastes like chicken.” Dreamer talks about how hardcore is a work ethic that was around way before Drake.
He brings up the lucha revolutions and how Konnan brought in people like Eddie Guerrero to ECW, starting the whole thing. Has nothing to do with hardcore wrestling but keep going. Dreamer promises this isn’t an ECW rant and proceeds to talk about Sabu going through tables. All that matters is the fans and Drake insulting hardcore is insulting the fans. That’s not cool with Dreamer, so let’s fight right now. Drake would rather bail and I can’t blame him.
I’m so over seeing Dreamer either here or in Ring of Honor or MLW or wherever else feels the need to bring in the ECW nostalgia act one more time. It’s been nearly eighteen years since the company folded and Dreamer does the same thing almost every time. I get that he’s been around forever and is apparently quite a good agent. Let him stay back there so we can move on from the ECW tributes or whatever it is they’re going for when they trot him out.
Alisha Edwards comes in to see Moose and asks him to leave before Eddie Edwards gets here. That’s not happening but legal action is threatened.
The referees get together and deem this place an unsafe working environment when Scarlett shows up to hit on them.
Matt Sydal vs. Johnny Impact
Non-title and Sydal has Page with him. An exchange of wristlocks goes nowhere until Johnny sweeps the leg and gets two off a standing shooting star press. Sydal kicks him to the floor though and gets in a kick to the back. It’s time to start in on the leg, which isn’t the worst strategy in the world for Sydal. A dropkick to the knee and a standard basement drop give Sydal two but Impact slugs away in the corner.
The sliding knee misses Sydal but he misses a charge into the corner. That means the sliding German suplex and the Flying Chuck drops Sydal. Page pulls him to the floor before Starship Pain though, earning himself a corkscrew flip dive from the champ. Back in and Sydal hits a middle rope Meteora for two but the Moonlight Drive into Starship Pain is good for the pin on Matt at 8:16.
Rating: C. I don’t know what it is about Sydal matches but they’ve become a complete chore to watch. The wrestling is fine but I can’t even force myself to care about anything he says or does. Giving him Page helped a bit and even though they’ll likely split, it’s not enough to overcome whatever the issues with Sydal are.
Post match here’s Killer Kross and after a break, he says he’s not here to hurt Johnny. When he got into this business, he thought he was the catalyst of change, but then Johnny beat him last week, fair and square. Maybe Johnny is that catalyst for change. If Kross can’t change things, he’s going to make sure that Johnny does. Johnny isn’t protected like some guys in other companies and there’s no “honor” in that. Whenever Johnny needs assistance, just give him a call and he’ll be there. Kross offers a hand but Johnny is smart enough to realize that would be insanely stupid and leaves.
Katarina congratulates Jordynne Grace on beating her last week and suggests a partnership. This turns into Katarina accidentally getting another match with her in two weeks. That’s an oddly specific time.
Eddie Edwards arrives but what seem to be mental health workers (who might have injected him with something) drag him off.
Su Yung vs. Heather Monroe
Su takes her straight into the Tree of Woe for some kicks to the back and it’s already time for the bloody glove. Some forearms don’t get Heather anywhere so she knees Su in the ribs and stomps her face into the mat. That just means the Panic Switch and the Mandible Claw to give Yung the win at 2:45.
Post match Su won’t let go so Kiera Hogan comes in for the save. This brings out Dark Allie (with Rosemary facepaint) to stare at Kiera as Yung lays her out with the Panic Switch. Allie leaves with Su.
X-Division Title: Sami Callihan vs. Brian Cage
Cage is defending and they start fast with Cage running him over with a clothesline. The release fall away slam sends Sami flying and they trade hurricanranas. Sami fights out of a powerbomb so Cage kicks him down. A Dave Crist distraction lets Sami dump Cage to the floor but the Crist Brothers are both ejected. Cage is fine enough to suplex Sami on the floor as we take a break.
Back with clips of Cage’s knee being worked over but managing to run over for an elbow in the corner. Sami slaps on a guillotine choke and then hits a Death Valley Driver into the corner for two. Cage is back up and tries a German suplex but gets rolled into the ankle lock. That goes nowhere and the knee is fine enough for the F5 but Sami gets his foot on the rope.
Sami kicks him eight times in a row and grabs the Cactus Piledriver….for two. Well so much for him winning the title. The ankle lock goes on again and Sami adds a grapevine with Cage getting to the ropes a few seconds later. The middle rope Canadian Destroyer is countered though and the Drill Claw retains Cage’s title at 13:15.
Rating: B-. Fun indy style brawl here with both guys beating each other up. The knee thing almost didn’t need to exist save for the ankle lock at the end and we didn’t even see the knee work in the first place. Cage needs a fresh challenger now and I’m not sure who that’s going to be given the roster at the moment.
Post match Cage says he’s cashing in the X-Division Title for a World Title shot at Homecoming using Option C. Wait that’s still a thing? That you can do at any given time? And no one has used this since….2015? That’s quite the shortcut to get to the title match. Cage as the next challenger is something that’s hard to ignore as he’s the most dominant force in the promotion and it’s hard to imagine him not going for the title much longer. If nothing else it keeps him from losing the X-Division Title, which maintains his near invincible aura.
Overall Rating: C. The main event was good but the rest of the show (aside from Dark Allie) wasn’t much to see. Homecoming is starting to take shape and the show doesn’t sound bad given where we are at the moment. Fine show here, though it was missing the big match or moment to make it really good.
Results
Tessa Blanchard b. Ray Lyn – Buzzsaw DDT
LAX b. KM/Fallah Bahh – Lionsault/legdrop combination to KM
Johnny Impact b. Matt Sydal – Starship Pain
Su Yung b. Heather Monroe – Mandible Claw
Brian Cage b. Sami Callihan – Drill Claw
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