The road to Bound For Glory heats up as we see another exciting edition of IMPACT Wrestling.
Mickie James' long-awaited in-ring return has been announced for next week. The X-Division tournament reached the third round. We found out who the final participant is in the championship match at Bound For Glory.
The IInspiration sent a message to the Knockouts Tag Team champions ahead of their title clash. The number one contender's match for The Good Brothers' tag team titles was made official. IMPACT World Champion Christian and Josh Alexander came face-to-face in the Bound For Glory summit.
So, without further ado, let's go through five talking points from the latest edition of IMPACT Wrestling. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
#5 X-Division Tournament: Round III on IMPACT Wrestling
The X-Division tournament kicked off following the Victory Road pay-per-view when former champion Josh Alexander chose to relinquish his title and go for option C. We have seen two top-quality triple threat matches in the last couple of weeks which saw Trey Miguel and Steve Maclin advance to the finals.
IMPACT Wrestling kicked off this week with an incredible bout between El Phantasmo, Rohit Raju, and Willie Mack. All three men got a good amount of offense with each hitting some big moves. In the closing moments of the match, Willie countered a superkick from Phantasmo into a stunner. Before he could capitalize, he was distracted by the other members of the Bullet Club, whom he took out using an aerial move.
Rohit tried to use the situation to his advantage, but was countered by a punch from Phantasmo. The latter delivered a superkick to Willie, who was attempting to get back into the ring. He hit the CRII on Rohit for the pinfall and advanced to Bound For Glory to face Maclin and Miguel.
#4 IInspiration send a message
It was announced at Knockouts Knockdown that IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay) will be making their IMPACT Wrestling debut at Bound For Glory. They will challenge the current Knockouts Tag Team Champions, Rosemary and Havok.
The latter interrupted Gail Kim in the middle of an interview to address their challengers, but a staff member arrived with a package for Kim consisting of a letter from IInspiration addressing the IMPACT Zone:
"We're excited to come to IMPACT Wrestling at #BoundForGlory where we get our much deserved and hard-earned Knockouts Tag Team Championship opportunity."
#3 Number one contender's match announced for next week on IMPACT Wrestling
Ever since defeating Willie Mack and Rich Swann at Victory Road, The Good Brothers have been on vacation. However, a couple of weeks back, they proposed a match between Bullet Club and FinJuice, with the winners receiving a title shot at Bound For Glory.
The tag team champions expressed their frustration at not having an opponent and demanded an answer before the end of the show. The number one contender's match between Bullet Club and FinJuice was later made official.
#2 Christian and Josh Alexander meet face to face on IMPACT Wrestling
After Christian stole the pin from Alexander in their tag match last week on IMPACT Wrestling, the two ended up in a heated conversation. Ahead of their title clash, we had them face-to-face at a Bound For Glory summit with Josh Mathews as the host.
Alexander stated that he had no regrets in choosing option C. Christian referenced similarities between both their careers and went on to say that Alexander doesn't have as much big match experience as he does.
However, tension built up between the two when Mathews referenced a clip from AEW Fan Fest where Christian denied knowing who Alexander was, which led the latter to snap. The former X-Division champion said he no longer respected him and stormed off to the back. Christian stated that he proved his point that Alexander couldn't keep his emotions in check as the show went off-air.
#1 Mickie James' opponent announced on IMPACT Wrestling
Mickie James will be making her much anticipated in-ring return next week. The rivalry between herself and Deonna Purrazzo escalated when the latter attacked the former at her home.
Last week, Mickie attacked Deonna in D'Amore's office, which led him to establish a no-contact clause between the two. Gail Kim suggested a 'pick your poison' series where they picked one opponent for the other.
Deonna was victorious in her bout at Knockouts Knockdown, and chose Savannah Evans to face James in the go-home edition of IMPACT Wrestling ahead of Bound For Glory.