Rebellion 2021 Preview

We haven’t been around for one of these in a little while. Impact Wrestling is back with another of its quarterlyish pay per views with Rebellion, and this time it is al about the guest star. The big main event is AEW World Champion Kenny Omega vs. Impact Wrestling World Champion Rich Swann in a title for title match. Impact has done everything it can to make this interesting and it has gone about as well as you would expect. Maybe the rest of the show can make up for it. Let’s get to it.

Tag Team Titles: FinJuice(c) vs. Good Brothers

Let’s get this out of the way to start: FinJuice is not very interesting. They’re talented in the ring, but their characters in Impact boil down to “we’re from New Japan and like wrestling.” Unless I’ve missed something, there isn’t much more to them than that. I understand why it’s a big deal to have the titles defended in New Japan for Impact but it doesn’t do much for the champs. The Good Brothers aren’t much better, but at least they’re around.

Without much drama, the Good Brothers win the titles back here, ending the quick excursion title reign. That way we can have the titles on Dynamite as well as the Good Brothers get to speak in insider terms and hang out with Omega even more while making young boy jokes. It worked so well the first time so why not let them do it again since they’re having so much fun?

Knockouts Tag Team Titles: Fire N Flava(c) vs. Rachael Ellering/Jordynne Grace

The titles go more and more in the same vein as the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles as we have another thrown together team getting a title shot. Ellering debuted on Impact as a replacement for the retired Jazz so sure let’s have a title match. These titles have not exactly gone well, though Fire N Flava are rather good as the annoying heels who talk WAY too much.

I’ll go with the champs retaining here, just for the sake of not dealing with someone who wasn’t in the promotion three weeks ago becoming a champion. I’m still not sure how necessary these titles are, but there are enough women on the show that it makes some sense. I just wish they would do a better job setting up teams, especially given how many options they have. But yeah, the champs retain here, as they should.

Trey Miguel vs. Sami Callihan

This is Last Man Standing and hopefully this wraps up their feud before they suddenly become best friends who kind of hate each other but work together anyway. It’s a tired trope and you see it enough today all over the place but you know it’s probably coming. They should be able to have a good match though as Miguel can do anything and Callihan is made for this kind of a brawl.

I’ll take Miguel to win here as it would pay off the idea of him having no heart, especially if he can survive a package piledriver or two. Callihan is already a former World Champion so the loss isn’t going to do much damage. Go with what makes sense here, which hopefully means they go in different directions after the match. Miguel is someone with a lot of potential and he doesn’t need to be bogged down with Callihan as his partner.

Matt Cardona vs. Brian Myers

I’m not sure what to think of this one as they have done a decent enough job of keeping this from being Zack Ryder vs. Curt Hawkins, but what we’re getting still isn’t all that great. These two are just kind of there in the ring, though they do their things well enough. I don’t know if I really need to see the match, but this is the logical way to go for both of them.

I think I’ll go with Cardona winning here, as I don’t think Impact is ready for the devastating power of a guy with a running clothesline as a finisher. Cardona is more interesting than Myers, who can stick around as a gatekeeper for the midcard, which is where he fits in best. The match itself should be fine, though I’m scared about how annoying Matt Striker is going to be.

Knockouts Title: Deonna Purrazzo(c) vs. Tenille Dashwood

Dashwood really is one of the weirdest cases in all of Impact, as she should be the top star given all of the potential she has, but for one reason or another it has never clicked. It feels like it has taken forever to get us to her having a big time title match and I’m really not sure if she is actually going to win the title. This could go either way, but what should be a coronation is feeling more like an obligation.

I’ll go with Purrazzo to win here as she seems like someone who could be champion for a very long time to come. There is not much of a reason to put the title on Dashwood here other than “hey maybe we should make Dashwood champion”. Hopefully they figure that out, because Purrazzo is being turned into quite the champion. I don’t know who takes it off of her, but hopefully they have some time before they need to figure it out.

Violent By Design vs. Chris Sabin/Eddie Edwards/James Storm/Willie Mack

I’m curious as to how this one is going to go as Eric Young has a torn ACL. He is capable of having a decent match even on one leg, but I’m not sure if this match has been taped in advance or not. This is a match that has been set up fairly well so hopefully the match goes as good as it could. The match should be a solid one, assuming they don’t do anything nuts, which they should be able to pull off here.

This could go either way, but with Young hurt and going away for a pretty long time, there is little reason to have Violent By Design here. Therefore, I’ll take the motley crew to win here, which makes sense given the situation. Above all else, they could have a way to write off Young here, which could go in a few different directions. Just have a violent match with the right people going over and everything should be fine.

X-Division Title: Ace Austin(c) vs. TJP vs. Josh Alexander

This is the first Impact match in a good while that I have been looking forward to this much. These guys are all talented and capable of coming up with something awesome. They have been feuding over the title for a little over a month now and this is the logical way to go. As long as they are given time and the chance to have a great match, this is all but destined to steal the show.

I’ll go with a hunch here and say Alexander wins. You really could go in any of the three ways to walk out with the title. Madman Fulton can help Austin out a bit but I think someone winds up tapping to Alexander to give him the title for the first time. The good thing about this match is that you really could go with any of them, meaning that if the match is given the chance to shine, we should be in for an awesome match no matter what happens.

Impact Wrestling World Title/AEW World Title: Rich Swann(c) vs. Kenny Omega(c)

And now we have the match that Impact has treated as the biggest match of all time and AEW casually acknowledges if they have nothing else to do because Lost In Space was a rerun this week. This seems to be part of AEW’s grand plan to make Omega the champion of all things, meaning you should be able to see how this one is going. Granted you should have been able to see that from the second Omega showed up in Impact.

Omega could win this match if he showed up to work without his pants, so of course he is walking out with the titles. This is what AEW thinks is some kind of amazing story and if they just have to make Impact look weak to do so, I’m sure Impact will go along with it because that is what they do. The match will be good, but Swann has as much of a chance at winning as I have of being Miss Nevada 1972.

Overall Thoughts

The more I look at this card, the less interested I am in the show. The main event and Tag Team Title match don’t do much for me as the endings are just about obvious. There are interesting parts on the show, but I’m not sure how many of them are going to live up to the hype. Then again, Impact has a great record of having good shows with bad builds, so maybe they can pull it off again here.

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