After Impact released Alberto El Patron tonight (Apr. 7), they were left having to replace him in the main event of their April 22 Redemption pay-per-view (PPV). It was originally set to be Austin Aries defending his world title against Alberto El Patron. But the release left them scrambling to change that.
It was announced by Aries at the House of Hardcore show, that Del Rio will be replaced with both Lucha Underground’s Pentagon and Fenix in a world title triple threat. This is a rematch of the bout they ran at their Lucha Underground vs. Impact show last night when Alberto no-showed. Aries didn’t mention Patron by name, but made sure to mention that his new opponents are “professionals” who showed up last night.
You can watch the Clip of The Belt Collector himself @AustinAries make the announcement HERE: https://t.co/Pz0BgDjh5c
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) April 8, 2018
All the television that leads up to the PPV has been taped months ago. So once again, Impact is going to be forced to do some creative editing to get them to this main event. This is the second time in a year that Impact had to run lame duck television because Alberto Del Rio got himself suspended or fired.
While this is less than ideal in more ways than one, it is evidence that Impact’s partnership with Lucha Underground looks to be a strong one.
The match should be a good one given the talent of the three men. But the weekly build is going to be underwhelming given they already taped a PPV build with Del Rio involved.
More on all of this as it develops.