Impact Wrestling returned last night (June 21) from the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. You can find the results at the live blog there.
Light that Spark
The main event of the evening was oVe (with Sami Calilhan in their corner) against El Hijo de Fantasma and Pentagon Jr. This stemmed from last week when Sami tried to rip the mask of Fantasma.
The match itself was fine. Fantasma played the face in peril (mainly because Callihan hit him in the leg with his bat when the ref was turned). Pentagon was the hot tag and picked up wth win.
The real angle happened post match. Sami immediately jumped Pentagon. He instructed Dave Crist to hold Pentagon as he attempted to hit him with the bat, but the former champ kicked both men below the belt to get out of trouble.
Instead of making his way to safety, Pentagon decided to try to break Jake’s arm. It’s what he does. But that allowed Sami to regroup and hit him in the head with the bat multiple times. With Pentagon weakened, all three tried to rip apart his mask until Fantasma finally chased them off.
Sami Callihan plays a great heel, and it should bring out the best in Pentagon. Finally in Impact, Pentagon has a reason to be angry. This is a man who will break someone’s arm when he’s having a fine day. Now he’s pissed.
The closing angle did a very good job continuing to paint the oVe/Callihan trio as vile humans while putting sympathy on Pentagon finally.
Hopefully Callihan can bring out the best Pentagon has to offer for Impact.
New Tag Champs
LAX defeated Z & E to win back their tag team championships. The match opened the night, and the teams lit it up. King, the catalyst of the new champs’ success, was ringside for the match. I don’t know if it’s as much that he gave them good wrestling advice as it is Santana and Ortiz need someone to tell them what to do because they’re incapable of getting things done without some leadership. But either way, his arrival helped right the ship.
The rushed tag title scene still isn’t my cup of tea. This match was announced last week and then happened this week. One week in between for the teams to cut a promo on each other would have done well to hype up this match, a match that was very good once the bell rang. (I also don’t love how easy it is to get a title shot. Pretty much one win as a tag team gets you a tag title shot, which weakens the belts a bit.)
The story of LAX, however, is not rushed. This has been a long arc about the loss of Konnan and how Santana and Ortiz went into a slump without leadership. Now they may have leadership that’s actually slimier than Konnan but they don’t care. However, Diamante does.
During their clubhouse celebration afterwards, Konnan finally returned. But he wasn’t in a celebratory mood and made it known to King that he doesn’t trust him. I’m curious to see how this is all represented at Slammiversary.
Impact has been telling a couple long arching stories and have been doing rather well with it.
Madison: #1 contender
Madison Rayne defeated Taya Valkyrie, keeping her winning streak going. Much like her last match, Madison was on the defensive the vast majority of the time against the larger opponent. And they played that up well. Taya shrugged off moves that Madison tried because she was just too strong. But in the end, Madison was scrappy enough to pick up the win, this time with a Cross Rayne (similar to the Crossroads).
After the match, she cut a promo revealing that Impact management told her if she defeated Taya, she’ll get a title shot against Su Yung at Slammiversary.
Madison will make a good competitor for Su. While I don’t see her win streak leading to championship gold, Rayne is a good worker and will make a good opponent for the champ. I’m curious to learn how they’re going to tell the story in the month until their fight in Toronto. How much will they play into Su Yungs mystic side against an opponent who isn’t part of that world?
Standby
KM had an interesting night last night.
He called out Fallah Bahh after their team dissolved last week. Bahh came out and handed him a note. It pretty much called KM a bully and said he wasn’t going to fight him. But he had a wrestler on standby who would. (He also ended every sentence with “Bahh” like the old telegrams did with “Stop.”)
KM assumed it was standby wrestler Richard Justice. But nah, it was Scott Steiner.
The Big Bad Booty Daddy won with a Steiner Recliner.
Honestly, this didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t actively dislike it, but it didn’t move the needle at all. KM is an OK heel in the sense some people in the crowd boo him, but I’m still at the point that I don’t care about his character. And the match between him and Steiner was pretty forgettable.
Steiner being buds with Fallah Bahh seems a bit off character to me since his whole shtick includes how much he “hates fatasses.” But maybe he’s coming around to the times?
Press Conference
We saw brief clips of the Slammiversary conference featuring Austin Aries and Moose.
It didn’t do much to advance this story. However, Aries had some good lines. He opened saying he couldn’t pass up the chance to match wits with Moose. Austin told his challenger that he doesn’t have anything on his resume, which is why they had to introduce him as an “Ex-NFL player.” The champ ran down his own list of accolades in the business, saying that unlike Moose, this isn’t his second career after he failed the first.
This was all after Moose’s rather unenthusiastic statements which honestly I forgot as soon as he said them. I wonder if that was to help fuel Aries’ comments or if the challenger just isn’t that good on the mic.
This pretty much just served as a reminder that this match was going to happen.
Breakdown
This week we saw Eddie Edwards drive to his home only to find that his wife Alisha has cleared out, taking much of their stuff with her. Eddie then had a breakdown. He looked in the mirror and saw Sami Callihan looking back.
Then his memory went to the fallout from his forest beating of Callihan with Alisha and Tommy Dreamer. He breaks the mirror screaming “This is your fault” referring to Dreamer.
Eddie’s role was a bit uncomfortable this week, storming around screaming for his wife. But that’s the intent. He’s our fallen hero who has completely lost himself. His descent has made him a bit disturbing at times. Tommy Dreamer better be careful.
Pros of the Show:
- Good closing angle
- LAX story heating up
Cons of the Show:
- Tag titles not booked as important championships
- The KM/Bahh/Steiner stuff was all very whatever
Most of the show was solid, though none of the angles felt really big.
Grade: B-
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