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Impact Wrestling is back tonight (Jan. 4) from Ottawa, Ontario and will be airing on Pop TV at 8 PM EST. This is your spot for the live updates and to talk about it with your fellow fans.
Tonight, Alberto El Patron will challenge Eli Drake for the Impact world championship. Also, EC3 will defend his Grand Championship against Matt Sydal and Fallah Bahh, Trevor Lee will defend the X Division title against Taiji Ishimori, and LAX will challenge oVe for the tag titles, but if they are not successful, they must disband. James Storm will have a career vs. career match against Dan Lambert and Chandler Park will have his first Impact match.
We'll be here at 8 EST when Impact starts, so come join us!
Results
Taiji Ishimori vs. Trevor Lee (c) for the X Division championship
Lee has Caleb Konley in his corner.
Ishimori has things going early but when he’s getting into the ring and Lee is distracting the referee. Konley then pulls the challenger face first into the apron. Lee follows up with an apron kick and then gets in the ring to distract the referee some more, allowing Caleb to get a couple more cheap shots in.
This sequence allows Lee to take total control of the match.
Taiji quickly turns it around with cat like speed. A stomp from the top rope gets a 2 count.
There’s a move that I legit can’t tell who got the worst of. Looks like Lee reversed a crossbody but it put both men down as Impact went to break.
They return with Ishimori doing a sweet looking springboard kick that gets him a nearfall.
Some very good back and forth action follows.
Ishimori survives an impressive powerbomb and is able to get to the top rope to hit a 450! 1-2-3! New champion!
Ishimori def. Lee to win the X Division championship
Ishimori walks backstage and sees Dezmond Xavier there to congratulate him. X reminds the new champ that last time they met, Dezmond got the win. He asks about round 2 for the title, which Ishimori agrees to.
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Konnan is backstage and angry, wearing a bandage where Sami Callihan burned him weeks ago.
McKenzie Mitchell interviews James Storm backstage. He says he’s not going to be the fun ol’ Cowboy tonight. Lambert disrespected the company and in turn, Storm. And this isn’t just Lambert fighting Storm but all the boys and girls in the back.
Apparently, Drake vs. Patron tonight was filmed in New Jersey and not the Impact Zone. So I doubt there’ll be a title change.
Fallah Bahh vs. Matt Sydal vs. EC3 (c) for the Grand Championship
Round One: Early on, Bahh’s power dominates. Sydal frankensteiners EC3 and tries to pin him, but Fallah cannonballs the pin. Neither Carter nor Sydal have an answer for him. The only answer Carter has to a possible Bonzai Drop is to bail. This was all the big man.
Fallah Bahh wins round one
Round Two: Round starts with EC3 and Sydal double teaming Bahh and getting him out of the ring. It leaves those two to go at each other. This ends with Carter gorilla pressing Sydal onto Bahh on the floor. Ethan goes to the outside and tosses Matt into the post and then DDTs Fallah.
Carter gets Sydal into the ring and goes to work on him. The smaller man fights back but only briefly as Carter is quickly back on offense. This is Carter’s round.
EC3 wins round 2
Round Three: Carter starts with a delayed vertical suplex on Sydal but Bahh hits him with a crossbody. Then Bahh sits down onto Carter as a cover, which Sydal breaks up.
Matt starts dealing kicks to both of his opponents before walking into a TK3. Bahh hits EC3 with a Samoan Drop. Anybody’s game so far.
Splash from Bahh to Sydal and he climbs the ropes, but EC3 shoves Fallah down to the floor! Matt with a jumping knee and pin to Carter. Up to the top rope... but here comes Bahh to try to stop him. Sydal kicks Bahh to the floor... Shooting Star Press to EC3! 1-2- END OF TIME! NO PIN!
Crowd chanting for one more round but no dice.
EC3 wins the round and retains the title!
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Johnny Impact video package played.
They show Moose walking in and KM blindsides him, laying him out.
Mitchell interviews Allie. She doesn’t get far into it when she’s attacked by champion Laurel Van Ness.
Dan Lambert vs. James Storm
This is a career vs. career match that’s no holds barred.
Lambert came out alone, but surely that won’t last long.
Yup, here’s all of American Top Team, including King Mo and Lashley. It’s a mugging.
But Storm fights back with a bunch of Superkicks and again it’s just Storm and Lambert!
Nope, here’s KM, who breaks a beer bottle over Storm’s head. Lambert for the cover. 1-2-kick out! Storm still alive. But barely.
He gets to his feet but he’s surrounded. Two beer bottles to the head. 1-2-3.
Lambert wins. Storm’s Impact’s career is over.
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Storm walks backstage and the locker room that couldn’t be bothered to actually help him in the match is clapping for him.
They show a video package about the introduction of Joseph Park. Then they show his match with Bully Ray as their GWN match.
Chandler Park (w/Joseph Park) vs. Jon Bolen
Chandler is getting his ass beat.
He’s miraculously delivers a back body drop but then tries to celebrate with his cousin and pays for it. Bolen then tells Joe Park to screw him and his Grandma Jenny. Joseph delivers a punch to Bolen which the referee didn’t see and Chandler rolled him up for the win.
Park def. Bolen
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Matt Sydal is backstage and claims that EC3 is trying to put an intermediary between them instead of facing him one on one like a man. He wants a match without judges and without rounds.
Alberto El Patron vs. Eli Drake (c) for the Impact Championship
This is taking place at Wrestle Pro in Rahway, NJ.
We didn’t get the entire match but decent sized snippets of it. In the end, Eli Drake tried to use the title on Patron, but Alberto ducked and Eli dropped the belt. Patron nailed a DDT to Drake onto the title but that only earned him a two count.
The champ pushed Patron towards the ref, turning the official around, and this time successfully used his championship as a weapon. Drake picks up the pin.
Drake def. Patron retaining his title
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LAX vs. oVe (c) for the tag team titles
If LAX loses, they disband.
LAX is attacked by oVe before they even make it to the ring. Sami is obviously at their side in the thick of it.
The brawl leaves Ortiz completely laid out, resulting in a 2 on 1 handicap match for a long while. And Santana is struggling to stay in it.
They go to break and when they return, Santana hits a big cutter but Ortiz still struggling to get to the ring. In that time, Jake Crist delivers a kick and Dave a DDT for a nearfall.
Santana finally hits a DDT and tags in Ortiz, who’s up and waiting for the tag. And he’s a house of fire. Death valley driver from one Crist into another!
oVe fights back and hits the Street Sweeper, LAX’s own move, to Ortiz. but he kicks out! Later on Santana goes for a splash off the top and Jake Crist, who’s perched on another turnbuckle hits an interception cutter that’s incredible.
Now it’s LAX who hits a Street Sweeper to Jake Crist! 1-2-3! New champions!
LAX def. oVe to regain the tag team championships
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That’s the show, folks! Thanks for watching with us!