Mickie James has dangerous match ahead of Knockouts title defense at Sacrifice

Impact is less than one week away until the Sacrifice special event on Friday, March 24 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The card is official stands at:

• Josh Alexander, Rich Swann, & Frankie Kazarian vs. Kushida, Chris Sabin, & Alex Shelley
• Knockouts Championship: Mickie James (c) vs. Jordynne Grace
• X-Division Championship: Trey Miguel (c) vs. Santino Marella’s handpicked opponent
• Impact World Tag Team Championship: Ace Austin & Chris Bey (c) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito)
• Impact Digital Media Championship: Joe Hendry (c) vs. Brian Myers
• Busted Open match: Tommy Dreamer vs. Bully Ray
• Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw
• ”Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham
• PCO vs. Kenny King

The biggest match for Sacrifice is Mickie James defending the Knockouts Championship against Jordynne Grace, but James may be making a sacrifice by helping Tommy Dreamer in his feud with Bully Ray. James will be teaming with Dreamer to wrestle Bully and Masha Slamovich on Thursday night’s Impact Wrestling, which happens to be one night before Sacrifice in the television timeline.

Grace correctly pointed out that this is a foolish move by James. Mickie has shown she can beat Slamovich, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be pain. Slamovich is a wrecking machine. She beat Nick Gage to win the GCW World Championship. If that doesn’t cement Slamovich’s credentials as a badass, then nothing will. Not to mention Bully is a scumbag with a devious mind for pain. James is taking a big risk to enter as damaged goods against Grace at Sacrifice.

Josh Alexander has opponents lined up for a crack at the Impact World Championship. Kushida is next at Multiverse United: Only the STRONG Survive on March 30, then Steve Maclin gets the winner (which will obviously be Alexander) at Rebellion on April 16. Both challengers are in the champion’s head, specifically Maclin.

Alexander is getting a taste of Kushida in trios action at Sacrifice. Alexander wanted to work on his team’s chemistry, so they had a warm-up match against the Bullet Club trio of Kenta, Ace Austin, & Chris Bey. Alexander acted the dumbass leading to defeat in that match. As he was preparing for a C4 piledriver, Maclin (after beating Heath earlier in the evening) stepped on stage in the far corner. Alexander lost focus, even though, Maclin was so far away and posed no physical threat. That led to the Bullet Club pinning Rich Swann. Maclin could play the same game at Sacrifice to distract Alexander.

The Ace & Bey Connection has momentum after beating Alexander’s team. Their next task is defending the Impact tag titles against Shane Haste (fka Slapjack) & Bad Dude Tito from NJPW.

Joe Hendry invoked Brian Myers’ rematch clause for the Impact Digital Media Championship. Hendry was tired of the attacks and wanted revenge. And yes, that is Vladimir Kozlov with Santino Marella at the start of this scene.

Deonna Purrazzo and Gisele Shaw are at it again. Shaw beat Purrazzo at No Surrender with the help of interference from Savannah Evans. Purrazzo got payback by costing Shaw in a Knockouts Championship match against Mickie James. Purrazzo reversed a roll-up to help Mickie win. Purrazzo went on the attack again, and poor Johnny Swinger was screwed. The Swingman was in dire need of a chump, so he could earn his first win on the road to fifty wins to earn a world title shot. He picked the wrong person in Jai Vidal. Swinger thought Vidal was cheap meat as Shaw’s stylist, but Vidal is actually a wrestler too.

During that match, Purrazzo ran in to fight with Shaw. Swinger was distracted, and Vidal took advantage to win.

Swinger doesn’t pal with Purrazzo, but maybe that can change after Sacrifice. Even if Purrazzo evens the score by beating Shaw, she’ll still be outnumbered. Swinger might be able to turn this to his benefit to team with Purrazzo in trios action. I can’t think of a better way for Swinger to finally get his first win.

Jonathan Gresham wanted to test himself, so he challenged “Speedball” Mike Bailey to a match at No Surrender. Gresham was victorious. The duo teamed together to defeat Crazy Steve & Black Taurus in tag team action. They demonstrated good chemistry as partners, but Bailey wanted a rematch at Sacrifice. Gresham obliged. Bring on round two.

Last week, Eddie Edwards went out to the desert to fight PCO again. PCO was going to bury Edwards in the dirt until a car drove in to hit the French-Canadian Frankenstein. This week, PCO walked from the desert to the Las Vegas venue while dragging a shovel. Edwards thought he was done with his Honor No More past. Just as Edwards declared the story with PCO was over, PCO arrived ready to fight. Things took a twist when Kenny King ran in to help Edwards against PCO for a 2-on-1 attack. That brings into question if King was the mystery driver. Since Impact has not confirmed this as fact and continues to ask questions, it leads me to believe a different person was behind the wheel. Whatever the case, King has date to fight PCO at Sacrifice.

The Sacrifice card could expand with matches for new Knockouts tag team champions Taylor Wilde & KiLynn King and Sami Callihan. The Coven defeated Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie for the belts, and surely a rematch will be in order soon. The question is if Taya will be out (in AEW) and Jessicka slides in.

Callihan is in the process of joining the Design. After accidentally hitting Kon with a chair to cause a loss to Frankie Kazarian, Kon hit Callihan with a chair on purpose causing a loss to Rhino. That was step 6 of Deaner’s plan. Callihan had to take his punishment like a man. No word on what step 7 is yet. That will be the final step, so it better be a doozy.

What’s your take on the card for Sacrifice?