Impact recap: Bully Ray powerbombed Scott D’Amore through a table

Oops, Bully Ray did it again. His scumbag nature reared its ugly head once more to powerbomb Scott D’Amore through a table in the main event segment of Impact Wrestling.

Bully is no stranger to powerbombing the boss of Impact through a table. He did it before to Dixie Carter when she was in charge.

Now, it was D’Amore’s turn to bite the dust.

The scene unfolded when Bully hijacked the end of the show. He punked announcer Tom Hannifan, who cowered in the corner avoiding eye contact. Bully went in to the ring to call out Josh Alexander or else he would crack skulls, except the whole world knew Alexander was not in the building. Bully wasn’t even supposed to be there either. D’Amore had ordered both to stay home until their Full Metal Mayhem fight for the Impact World Championship at Hard to Kill on January 13. The intent was to prevent chaos between the two.

Since Alexander obviously wasn’t going to appear, D’Amore stepped up in an effort to restore order. The Impact head honcho mocked Bully’s tough guy routine. Banter was exchanged with D’Amore pointing out how Bully will end up as a sad, pathetic, lonely man after driving everybody away in an obsession to win the world title. Bully countered that he won’t feel sad, pathetic, or lonely when after he becomes a three-time Impact world champion. The respect and opinions of others mean nothing to Bully.

Bully goaded D’Amore to punch him in the face. D’Amore obliged.

Bully’s trap was sprung. John Skyler and Jason Hotch ran in to hold D’Amore as Bully kicked the boss in the gut. Bully added a piledriver and then a powerbomb through a table.

Medical personnel arrived to place a neck brace on D’Amore and assist him to safety.

In other action from Impact Wrestling:

• Taylor Wilde defeated Masha Slamovich. Down the stretch, Slamovich was in control. She lost focus to spit at Deonna Purrazzo, who was on commentary. Back in the ring, Wilde faked a suplex to go for an inside cradle to win. Slamovich was livid at defeat and grabbed ring announcer David Penzer. When security intervened, she Snow Plowed a guard on the floor.

• Sami Callihan wanted an answer from the Design by the end of the night about joining their crew. Deaner responded later in the broadcast. To join the Design, one’s identity must be stripped away to reach their purest form. It is a long, difficult, and violent process. If Callihan is interested, then cutting off every hair on his head next week in the ring would be the first step.

• Rich Swann challenged Steve Maclin to Falls Count Anywhere at Hard to Kill. Maclin can try to bag Swann, but he’ll have to fight all night long to do it.
• Black Taurus defeated Anthony Greene. Competitive bout for Greene’s Impact debut. Taurus turned the tide to crush Greene with a backbreaker and Destination Hellhole piledriver. Afterward, Greene was helped to the back by an official. Trey Miguel clobbered Greene and spray painted him as a scary message to Taurus prior to the X-Division title defense at Hard to Kill.

• Kenny King visited Montreal, Quebec in search of Mike Bailey to expose the real Speedball. King entered Bailey’s dojo and beat up his students. Back in the Impact Zone, Bailey was angry and challenged King to a Pit Fight. No ropes, win by KO or submission. (Full details here.)

• Jonathan Gresham defeated Ernest R. Anthony. Comedy squash with Gresham picking Anthony apart. The Octopus used a sort of octopus pin to put Anthony out of his misery.
• Tasha Steelz lamented the tag team loss with Savannah Evans to the Death Dollz. Gisele Shaw and Jai Vidal approached looking for a partnership. Numbers would be in their favor 4 to 3. Steelz wasn’t interested in Shaw’s attempts to ruin another tag team, but Evans was curious to hear Shaw’s strategy.

• Josh Alexander broke the record as longest reigning Impact world champion at 257 days and counting. (Full details here.)

• Moose believes the reason why Joe Hendry is always happy is that he has never faced adversity. Moose plans to take Hendry to hell and back and enjoy doing it in the Impact Digital Media Championship contest at Hard to Kill. Moose called out Hendry to get started early. Hendry entered with a new theme song for Moose. It was a joke mocking Moose dancing.

• Mickie James spoke about her career in a retrospective. Interesting video to watch for insight on her journey. (Full details here.)

• Impact aired a tribute package for Don West. (Full details here.)

• Chris Sabin defeated Matt Cardona. Alex Shelley had enough of Brian Myers trifling and chased him around the ring. Sabin hit a suicide dive onto the Major Players. The contest progressed with Cardona landing a dropkick. Sabin ate the contact and fired up for the Cradle Shock finisher to win.

Bully Ray powerbombing Scott D’Amore was a long time coming. D’Amore has been feeling froggy with bravado for a few weeks. He just never acted on it. That was until now. D’Amore threw the first punch and paid the price. This adds another log on the fire of desire to see Josh Alexander punish Bully in Full Metal Mayhem. Bully has left a line of bodies laying in his wake in the quest for gold, and comeuppance will come calling.

The one thing that crossed my mind to make this segment fall flat a little was nobody coming to the defense of D’Amore. He spoke about cultivating the locker room, and yet not one wrestler tried to save him. I understand it’s for story reasons to portray Alexander as the ultimate savior. It’s just that there was plenty of time for someone to arrive between Bully’s piledriver and powerbomb. It makes me call into question the promo material. D’Amore spoke about being respected and loved. Bully spoke about not caring, and he was kind of proven right when D’Amore was left alone to fend for himself.

Impact has dropped the ball so far on the Taylor Wilde reinvention. The Wilde Witch vignette was kind of cool, but that aspect has not been expanded at all since then. It’s basically Wilde in a different outfit. She did pick up a strong win over Masha Slamovich though, which was surprising. My initial reaction was the result being a questionable booking decision considering how dominant Slamovich has been, however, Impact flipped it well enough with Slamovich’s violent outburst in the aftermath. That keeps intrigue and mystery abound about Slamovich in the future.

Comedy was ripe with Jai Vidal and Ernest R. Anthony. Vidal’s facial expressions made me laugh. The joy in his grin is contagious. Anthony was on the goofy side as a greenhorn, but I was impressed at how well he sold pain on his knee. That was the type of jobber performance that stands out.

The video packages for Mickie James, Josh Alexander, and Don West were the peak highlights of this episode. The emotion of the James piece was so effective that it swayed me back into her corner. I was firmly on Jordynne Grace’s side to retire James. After that video, I wouldn’t mind seeing James win the Knockouts Championship and continue wrestling for a little while longer.

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