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Last week's Impact was incredibly entertaining and left a lot for fans to be excited about tonight. Tonight's main event featured an Impact World Championship bout featuring Killer Kross and the champion Johnny Impact.
Aside from that, we got to see the company's up-and-coming team the Rascalz dominate in two matches, and AAA's Hijo del Vikingo challenged the company's X-Division Champion, Rich Swann. The latter was a great way to open a show that was full of...well...Total Nonstop Action. Well...almost.
Seriously, though, overall this week's show was great. Even if I had a few things to nitpick about, we continued to see why Impact has become can't miss television.
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#1 Best: The opening match between Swann and Vikingo
Since the company's inception, Impact has always claimed to have the greatest and most diverse cruiserweight division in all of professional wrestling. Tonight's match helped prove that, as Impact opened this week's show with the X-Division Champion Rich Swann against Hijo del Vikingo, one of AAA's best and brightest stars.
Vikingo managed to hold the upper hand over Swann tonight. Considering the situation Swann is in, having to choose between two friends, Willie Mack and Sami Callihan, the champ seemed a little distracted, and Vikingo took advantage.
We saw some incredible aerial manoeuvres from Vikingo throughout the match and definitely had the crowd behind him. Swann, interestingly enough, opted to change his game up a bit, deciding to slow down the pace of the match and keep his opponent off his feet with various impressive submission manoeuvres.
It was a story of the distracted veteran taking on a young upstart looking to make his name with a huge victory, and it was a great way to open the show.
Swann eventually put Vikingo away with the 450 Splash from the second rope, and I really hope we get to see Hijo del Vikingo again.
#1 Worst: Segment reviews during commercials
This is really just a minor nitpick here. I'm not saying that bringing Don Callis in during commercials on Twitch is a terrible idea. Interacting with the fans is great, and seeing what Callis thinks of each segment is interesting.
The thing is, thanking each and every person for following, subscribing, or donating ended up cutting Callis off multiple times, and since each break is only three minutes long, you kind of need to allow whoever is featured each week to get their thoughts out quickly. Not to mention the technical difficulties that took place between all of these segments.
Sometimes these breaks feel completely pointless as well. One of them saw Callis and... whoever he was talking to, rate names of viewers. Not exactly what you'd call captivating.
That being said, one of the best things about using Twitch is interacting with those who love your product. It's a great way to get in touch with your fanbase, and this isn't the worst way to try that. They'll work out the kinks eventually, but at this point, it was just a little distracting...as was that painting of Callis in the background...but that could have earned its own "Best" slide.
#2 Best: oVe and Sami Callihan try to recruit Rich Swann
Over the past few weeks, we've seen the strange relationship between Rich Swann and Sami Callihan come out on Impact TV. Swann has prevented Willie Mack from beating down Callihan on more than one occasion, and Callihan is now attempting to bring the X-Division Champion into the fold of oVe.
Just like last week, Callihan, accompanied by the rest of oVe, came down to the ring following Swann's match and attempted to get him to join.
For the moment, Swann hasn't joined the group. Callihan brought up the fact that he helped Swann when he was homeless and believed that if it weren't for him, Swann wouldn't be here, and definitely wouldn't be wrestling.
Callihan gave Swann the shirt hoping to bring the man he considers a brother into his group. Swann said that, while the shirt was the right size, he didn't think it was the right fit. As he left the ring, Callihan smiled and said that "wasn't a no."
#2 Worst: No Rosemary or Dark Allie
For years now, Impact has really stepped it up in regards to the Knockouts Division, giving us instant classics featuring past and present stars like Jade, Sienna, Gail Kim, Taya Valkyrie, and Rosemary, just to name a few.
In what's probably Impact's most interesting story, we've seen Rosemary's former friend, Allie, turn to the dark side, abandoning Kiera Hogan to join Su Yung as Dark Allie. Last week, Dark Allie was squashed by Jordynne Grace. Afterwards, she was confronted by Rosemary, who recently returned at Impact Wrestling's Homecoming event back on January 6th.
After Allie again turned away from Rosemary last week, we were anticipating something big between the two this week. Sadly, that's not what we got. We saw Grace and Hogan interviewed backstage by Melissa Santos talking about the upcoming rematch from Homecoming.
Grace and Hogan will take on Dark Allie and Su Yung next week, but when Santos brought up Rosemary, the screens behind the three flickered, revealing a message from Rosemary stating "The Darkness Will Take you Too. This Is Not Your Fight. -R"
Considering how long we've been building to the eventual explosive showdown between Rosemary and Dark Allie, it's not surprising that Impact would want to drag it out and tease the fans more. Still, it was a letdown to not see Su Yung, Dark Allie, or Rosemary on TV.
#3 Best: The Rascalz vs Desi Hit Squad
If you're not always excited to watch Des, Wentz, and Trey each week on Impact, I really don't know why you're watching this show. Fast-paced action, incredible high-flying offensive manoeuvres, and great tag team work.
I also think the Desi Hit Squad get a bad rap. Sure they're not as flashy as the Rascalz or as dominant as the Lucha Bros and LAX, but they're great in their own right. Just like we saw when they interrupted Scarlett Bourdeaux's strip tease, they work as a great foil for whatever the Impact crowd is wanting to see.
While the Hit Squad kept the Rascalz off their feet for the majority of the matchup, when Dez and Wentz got their time to shine, they didn't squander the opportunity. This was a great way to get those watching at home back into the show, especially considering what it followed.
Impact Wrestling has always had a pretty impressive tag team division, but when the team at the bottom of the division is as good as the Hit Squad, it's hard not to say that the company may have one of the best tag divisions around.
#3 Worst: Missing a decent chunk of Ethan Page vs Trey
Ethan Page and Trey are definitely two of Impact Wrestling's top rising stars. Page is an incredibly athletic big man, who is able to match Trey's speed with his overwhelming power.
Trey sped around the ring, looking to catch Page with high impact kicks, but Page was able to shrug off most of his opponent's offense with ease, and eventually locked him down on the ground. It was a fun David vs Goliath match, really highlighting Mr All Ego himself.
Trey eventually overcame Ethan Page after connecting with Fresh 2 Death. Still, both men came out looking strong here. It's too bad we missed a pretty good bit of it.
After seeing Page and Trey make their way to the ring, the stream immediately cut to a break, only this time Scott and Callis were muted, so the chat couldn't hear whatever they were saying for about two minutes. When the break was finally over, the match had already started, and it looked like we'd missed something important.
The first thing we saw was Page standing over Trey who seemed to have taken some serious damage. Luckily we were able to catch the majority of the match, but considering another company has started giving us a picture in picture during ad breaks, it definitely feels like a step backwards.
#4 Best: Impact World Championship Match - Killer Kross vs Johnny Impact (c)
What a main event. Since the loss of Austin Aries, Killer Kross has really stepped up as the company's next top heel. Not many people seem as psychotic and dangerous as Kross does on the mic, and he's even more terrifying once he's beating down an opponent in the ring.
Kross had to chase Impact throughout the opening of the match, but once Moose caught Impact's ankle, it allowed the Devil of Monterrey (thanks Mr Callis) to really take over.
It was an uphill battle for the champion, who continued to have any shred of building momentum cut off by Killer Kross. Even after an Impact Kick, Kross managed to easily stop him dead in his tracks and get right back on top.
Kross went for the KrossJacket but would swap into a kneebar after Impact escaped. He eventually locked in the Kross Jacket, but Impact made it to the ropes. After nearly twenty minutes of being on the defensive, Impact finally took the big man down, playing all of his greatest hits, the sliding German Suplex, the springboard spear.
However, Kross would eventually put Impact in the Kross Jacket again. Before he could get the win, the match was broken up by Brian Cage, who took down both champion and challenger. All three men, along with Moose, began to brawl, but Impact and Cage would stand tall to close out the show.
