Eli Drake has retained the Impact Global Championship, but neither he nor Chris Adonis had terribly much to do with the fact.
Johnny Impact was dominant early until he got tangled up jawing at Chris Adonis and Drake took full advantage of his distraction to even the score. Soon more direct physical interference from Adonis followed and the action spilled to the floor, the ebb and flow of the match such that every attempt to rally is immediately cut off by the champion.
But the erstwhile Morrison refused to simply lie down and kept trying to create those openings to rally and eventually one lead to a greater opening courtesy of a moonsault fallaway slam and Johnny kept stringing offense together for nearfall after nearfall, but Drake rolled away from Countdown to Impact and Adonis again ran interference to try and force the tide to retreat.
A top rope Spanish Fly nearly ended it then and there only for Adonis to throw the title belt in the ring. The champion failed to use it, so his challenger grabbed it and used it to take his vexing second out for good, but Countdown to Impact wasn't enough this time. Nor, however, could Gravy Train do it, because Impact had it scouted, forcing Drake to put him into the post.
Johnny kept it together and managed to set up and connect clean with Starship Pain, but Alberto El Patron came to ringside and pulled referee Brandon Tolle out to stop the count! Impact tried a dive but Alberto moved away and Tolle took the brunt of it, giving the former champion plenty of time to go around and take Drake out with the title belt.
Alberto then drug everyone into the ring, put Drake on top, and woke Tolle up to count the pin for the one-two-three.
Well, he came in earlier tonight mad as hell and clearly set to make waves, so I guess if nothing else we were warned, right? But I can't help but be a little disappointed that Impact would close the biggest show of the year by having the main event end in interference, neither champion nor challenger actualy having much agency in the process.
There you have it, folks
As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. But hey, at least it's a story they telegraphed earlier in the show. Tuning in on Thursday to see what happens next, Cagesiders?