Impact Wrestling preview (Dec. 6, 2018): Man & wife against Moose & champ

Impact Wrestling returns tonight (Dec. 6) from Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the fourth episode from the most recent set of tapings.

Here is what’s advertised for tonight:

• Johnny Impact & Taya Valkyrie vs. Moose & Tessa Blanchard
• Ethan Page vs. Matt Sydal in an Ultimate X qualifying match
• Willie Mack vs. Jake Crist in an Ultimate X qualifying match
• Dark Allie debuts
• Eddie Edwards update from Shady Acres

As per usual, here are our five questions about Impact tonight:

1) Does Moose have issues with Johnny Impact?

The mixed tag main event makes sense on the women’s end of things. Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie have big time issues with one another and will be facing each other in a championship battle at Homecoming.

The men’s side isn’t as clear. Taya is teaming with Johnny Impact, which is exciting given that they are married. But Moose doesn’t seem to fit here.

Moose is actively feuding with Eddie Edwards. Johnny Impact has a date with Brian Cage at Homecoming. They’re worlds apart right now. When Johnny was feuding with Austin Aries, Moose was acting as Aries henchman so there is heat there. But given Aries has not been even mentioned since Bound fore Glory, that’s may be a thread they don’t even want us to think about.

He also doesn’t have any on air relationship (and I’m talking platonic) with Tessa. So it’s a random addition.

Given Killer Kross has been trying to get Johnny to enlist his services, and that Kross and Moose have been a team after Aries left, this could lead to an interesting dynamic if Killer Kross makes an appearance.

2) Is Eddie going to get better?

Eddie Edwards has been a very fluid character this year. He sustained a severe injury as a plucky babyface that turned him into a determined babyface. That character slowly became too obsessed. That led him to become an insane heel which transitioned into unhinged babyface.

Because his wife Alisha wanted to prevent Moose from having him arrested, she had him committed into the Shady Acres psychiatric facility. Last we saw of him, he was completely drugged up.

Is his stay at Shady Acres going to facilitate another change, this time more towards his original form? Or is he going to play the role of Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?

3) Is Sydal experiencing a crisis of faith?

Matt Sydal has been losing. Losing a lot.

It must be hard to continue to preach enlightenment when the results are no longer there. His student Ethan Page still believes and was trying to give his teacher a pep talk last week. This led to Sydal suggesting the match between the two as part of a lesson.

But will it just backfire? Does Sydal lose to his own student?

Storyline, that makes sense. However, he is more of a fit for the Ultimate X match for which this bout qualifies than Ethan Page. We’ll see if this is more about the match or the story.

4) Can Kiera Hogan get through to Dark Allie?

Allie has completely gone over to the dark side, joining sides with Su Yung. It’s actually more of a subservient relationship than a partnership. Allie seems under the dark spell of Su Yung.

Kiera Hogan believes she can break that spell and get the real Allie back. But that’s going to be difficult. Allie seems very lost right now.

My guess is whatever their plan is, it will play out at Homecoming and Rosemary will return for real this time. (As in not in a hokey pre-taped video.) I don’t think Kiera is going to be able to get through to Allie. But I bet Rosemary can.

5) Is Eli Drake moving on to Abyss?

Last week, Eli Drake defeated Tommy Dreamer in a hardcore match, likely putting an end to that small feud.

But that small feud was playing into Eli Drake’s larger war on hardcore wrestlers. It started when he attacked Joseph Park, who’s the alter ego of Abyss. Likely, this ends with Drake facing Abyss. This very well could happen at the Homecoming pay-per-view. Homecoming is Impact’s return home to where they started, so a match involving a TNA original on the card makes all the sense.

Is there a pitstop for Drake prior to that? Or with perhaps a couple episodes off at the end of the year, they get that build started sooner.

Impact Wrestling returns tonight at 10 pm ET on Pop TV. Who’s watching?