Impact Wrestling preview (Jan. 3, 2019): Where have all the good go-home shows gone?

Impact Wrestling returns tonight (Jan. 3) from the Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the final episode from the most recent set of tapings and the last show prior to their Homecoming pay-per-view (PPV) this Sunday.

Here is what is advertised tonight:

• Brian Cage & Johnny Impact vs. the Lucha Bros
• Allie vs. Kiera Hogan
• Eli Drake’s Homecoming address
• Rich Swann, Willie Mack, & the Radicalz vs. oVe, Matt Sydal, & Ethan Page
• KM & Fallah Bahh vs. the Desi Hit Squad

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

1) Will the go home show add anything to Sunday?

For years now, go home shows have been disappointing. And this isn’t an Impact issue. This is a problem in most promotions. WWE hasn’t had great go home shows in a long while either.

I recall growing up watching wrestling, promotions would try to amp up the stakes going into a big PPV. Maybe there’s some misremembering going on, but I’m not expecting tonight to really ramp up the excitement for a solid Homecoming card.

The main event is represented by the world champion and challenger teaming up for reasons unknown against the two men who will be challenging for the tag team titles. Surely, there will be some issues between Cage and Johnny Impact ahead of their title match, but I can’t imagine skipping this episode and tuning into Homecoming would really hinder your PPV watching experience.

Impact also will have to use this episode as a reminder of what’s going on since they’ve been on a break from the regular episodes for the last two weeks. Did they take that into account during this last taping?

2) Has Konnan completely washed his hands of the LAX/Lucha Bros match?

Konnan did not want his boys LAX to face another set of proteges in the Lucha Bros for the tag championships. He has seen this type of friendly competition devolve into a blood feud.

Pentagon Jr. and Fenix are tuning up against Cage & Johnny in the main event. LAX will surely be watching. Will Konnan? Will he even be in the corner of Santana and Ortiz in Tennessee this Sunday? Or is he going to let them go it alone so he doesn’t have a front row seat to two friendly teams becoming enemies?

LAX better hope Konnan is in their corner because their W-L record when he isn’t is rather poor.

3) What is Allie doing at the pay-per-view?

Dark Allie is facing Kiera Hogan tonight, but we don’t know what the plan is for her and this long story at Homecoming.

Every pay-per-view has a chance for Rosemary to finally return, and I’m really hoping that it’s going to happen on Sunday. But for it to happen, they need to have a segment for it to happen in. Hopefully, this will be a live segment in front of a crowd and not some pre-taped dark realm nonsense.

Perhaps tonight’s match will not have a clean finish and Kiera will demand another go around on Sunday to set this all up. Or perhaps we’ll have to wait until Redemption (or whatever their April show will be called) to see the Demon Assassin again.

4) What’s the last stop for Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie?

One match that isn’t yet represented on this show is the Knockouts title match between champion Tessa Blanchard and challenger Taya Valkyrie.

It is possible they don’t have anything but a backstage interview series or a video package to remind us of this feud. Which normally would be fine but with the two weeks off, they’ll really need to carry a punch to serve as the go home angle.

That all being said, they’ve already done the in-ring talking segment weeks back and have been in the ring on opposing tag teams. So maybe a very good video package is all that’s left.

5) Will we hear a bunch about Pursuit?

This is the last episode of Impact on Pop TV. Next week, after the PPV, they’ll be moving to the Pursuit channel. The move also consists of a move to Friday at 10 pm.

What is unfortunate for the promotion, outside the move itself to a lesser channel in a worse time slot, is the news came while they were showing their year end clip shows. While they still pulled in about the same viewership, these were shows people could half watch. I didn’t watch them so I don’t know how often the move was even mentioned.

But with this as the go home show for their PPV, they’re going to need to lay it on thick to get it across to the crowds who don’t follow Impact news on the internet. They have this episode and the pay-per-view to remind folks that things will be changing and it’s time to check your carrier.

Impact returns tonight at 10 PM on Pop TV (for the last time). Who’s watching?