Rich Swann & Willie Mack defeated Matt Sydal & Ethan Page
6.25/10
- I'm not sure how I feel about this venue. It looks better than a lot of their TV.
- Mack is so agile. He hangs with Sydal every step of the way. Sydal does his part in making Mack look good, too.
- Page sends Swann all the way around on a back body drop.
- The amount of room that the Impact Wrestlers have to work at ringside is dangerous. There's also a dumb spot where Swann gets tricked into looking under the ropes where Sydal hits him,
- Mack is the only one over in this match to this point, and the place comes unglued for him. He looks like he should be Impact Champion tonight.
- Ethan Page does a top rope body slam and a Swanton, but Swann kicks out and has spit all over him. The crowd is into this now.
- Sydal frankensteiners Swann into a frankensteiner on Ethan Page. Wow.
- This match should have been a 4-way for the X-Division title. No reason there shouldn't be a title match
- Miscommunication leads to a nice sequence where Rich Swann wins with the Phoenix Splash. The last 40 percent of this match was unreal.
- Willie Mack has to shill COMDA hard. It was lame, but he did it about as good as anyone could.
- Commentary shills COMDA hard too.
New York Open Challenge
Eli Drake defeated James Ellsworth
5/10
- Eli Drake comes out and says he didn't see any new faces backstage, and trolls the New York Giants at ringside.
- James Ellsworth answers Eli Drake's challenge. Phenomenal. The crowd isn't happy about it.
- Ellsworth says he's not from New York, but he dated a girl from Staten Island.
- "Fuck you Ellsworth" chants.
- Ellsworth punches Drake, who is over big as a babyface.
- Drake eats a flying flatliner. Ellsworth goes for No Chin Music but gets powerbombed.
- Drake takes too long and gets superkicked for two.
- Ellsworth teases doing a Styles Clash. Instead it's reversed and Eli Drake does two Gravy Trains for the win.
- Eli Drake says he wants Hall of Fame competition.
- Abyss obliges and Black Hole Slams him.
- Callis saying "I THOUGHT HE HAD TO RETIRE!" when Abyss has been doing interviews for months saying "well, I'm not retired"
- Abyss chokeslams Drake through a table.
Impact Knockouts Championship
Tessa Blanchard (c) defeated Taya
7.75/10
- As long as there are no issues I don't know about, I would build the Impact show around Tessa Blanchard.
- Tessa doesn't work with people who can overpower her often, but Taya looks and plays the part.
- A great early series leads to a spear from Taya.
- Taya has a lazy kickout after walking into a codebreaker.
- Taya turns the tide with a German suplex, a hip attack in the corner and double knees. She's on tonight. She goes from superplex to guillotine, but Tessa powers her up.
- "Tessa B aint nothin' to fuck with" chants from the New York crowd. A great cutter gets a two count.
- Taya gets a big moonsault after a nasty uranage. A surfboard stomp hits great, and Blanchard gets to the ropes on a STF
- Road to Valhalla hits, but Blanchard kicks out after the ref is out of place.
- Taya kicks out of a Buzzsaw DDT. Blanchard goes to Magnum for the win.
- Blanchard continues to be the star of Impact.
Eddie Edwards & Tommy Dreamer defeated Moose & Killer Kross
4.75/10
- Killer Kross' submission is not plausible. He attacks Eddie Edwards for a DQ. Moose misses a bicycle kick by a mile.
- Tommy Dreamer comes out and inserts himself into the match.
- Tommy Dreamer just fed Eddie Edwards beer like a mother bird does to its young.
- Production completely misses Giants offensive tackle Jylan Ware shoving Moose.
- Some highlights of this match include Moose's big dropkick to Edwards, and Eddie's top rope frankensteiner on Kross.
- There's a really good extended strike spot that ends in an Edwards Blue Thunder Bomb on Moose.
- Kross gets kicked RITP by Dreamer, but takes him out with a Doomsday Saito.
- Edwards rolls up Moose for the win. This wasn't good. It wasn't fun.
- Kross and Moose jump Edwards. Spear and apron powerbomb. So what was the point of this match?
OVE Rules
OVE defeated Brian Cage, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix
4.5/10
- Callihan says he draws ratings and buys. Impact's numbers are in the toilet.
- No idea why they couldn't do an X title match.
- Pentagon hilariously offered his jaw up for a superkick. This is a cluster early.
- There's so much waiting around for an opponent to do a move in the opening minutes of this.
- Callihan and Fenix are on fire in this match. I really see them as the standouts of this feud.
- Jake Crist recovers well when Cage can't catch him in a Drill Claw and posts him.
- Lots of dives and superkicks. Cage fallaway slams Jake Crist over the top rope onto the pile.
- I am not as in love with Pentagon's work as many others. Fenix, on the other hand, is something special.
- Buckle Bomb and spiked Fear Factor on Callihan, but OVE break up the fall.
- Someone please count the superkicks in this match.
- The irony of the New York crowd messing up a "you fucked up" chant after Dave and Fenix mess up a modified All Seeing Eye.
- Callihan piledrives Pentagon on the apron.
- All Seeing Eye leads to Cage kicking out at 1 to a big reaction. Cage no sells and gets superkicked about 20 times and pinned by Callihan.
- The right man won.
Concrete Jungle Death Match
LAX defeated The OGz
5.75/10
- So if the cease fire ended Thursday after months, why didn't they just fight all night then? What was the point of it to begin with?
- This video package is a good example of how to cool off a feud.
- They jump around in the ring and immediately pop a piece of lumber up, and it's gonna be a total bitch to land on. The turnbuckles are off and the ring mats are up.
- "THIS IS FOR KONNAN!" Is he dead!? He's not dead. We saw him. He's by the shitter downstairs at the Melrose Ballroom.
- Can't begin to tell you how dumb it is to have ten people jumping around in a wrestling ring on the exposed lumber.
- Watching this ref trying really hard to keep the ring together is great. I mean, that and counting the three. That's what he's there for.
- Hernandez pounces Ortiz through the table.
- Hernandez Border Tosses his own partner in Homicide onto the pile outside.
- We see a couple of spots ont he exposed boards. King uranages Santana. Ortiz suplexes Homicide. Santana buckle suplexes King.
- LAX does a thunderous superplex to Hernandez.
- Konnan shows up to a nice pop. Street Sweeper on King wins it. This was rough.
ALLIIIEE
- I can't tell you how much I don't like the Lucha Underground Lite stuff.
- Allie gets help from Father James Mitchell to get into the Undead Realm. Then she murders Su Yung with a hatchet. Cool.
- Allie gets Kiera Hogan out of the casket, but can't escape. Rosemary shows up and helps. Neat.
- Allie is possessed. Oh boy.
Impact Wrestling Championship
Johnny Impact (w/ Taya) defeated Austin Aries (c) (w/ Moose & Killer Kross)
5.5/10
- These two go at it with some real wrestling early on. This is fun.
- I didn't expect this out of an Aries vs. Johnny Impact match. I'll rock with different as long as nobody gets murdered with a hatchet.
- That was probably the best "parkour" spot Impact has ever done. He jumps from the floor to the apron/guardrail and moonsault presses Aries.
- This is a particularly snug, stiff match. It needed to be.
- Impact hits a 360 body press for two.
- Last Chancery is applied, and then Aries throws nasty knees. A couple of minutes later, he gets a flying huracanrana.
- Impact bails on a Starship Pain. A top rope Spanish Fly looks more like Aries caught him with a codebreaker and left the crowd confused. It was an underwhelming 2 from Impact.
- The crowd has died out.
- Aries gets a beautiful and gross Death Valley Driver on the apron and a 450 for two. Two superkicks and a Starship Pain for Impact gets two as well. Impact's foot is on the rope after a brainbuster.
- Aries isn't happy with Taya, and almost gets pinned. Last Chancery applied.
- Aries dives out onto Taya and she gets hits HARRRRRRD. Impact goes off, hits a brainbuster and Starship Pain for the win.
- Austin Aries gets up and no sells Starship Pain after Impact beats him and then signals up to Don Callis, flips the crowd off and walks out.
- Either that was a really terrible work, or AA is being unprofessional.
10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor
Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a "star rating," which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive "TV match" lands at a 5.The gap between 5.75-6 is generally the largest, with anything reaching 6 being recommended viewing.
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