We’re now little over a week from Rebellion, and most of the top matches for the PPV are set. This meant that this edition of Impact was something of a bridge to the April 28 card, but that didn’t mean that there couldn’t be some worthwhile content here.
To open, we had a recap of the storyline involving Johnny Impact, Brian Cage and now-crooked referee Johnny Bravo.
Scarlett Bordeaux & Fallah Bahh vs. Desi Hit Squad
This continued the creation of an unlikely alliance between Bordeaux and Bahh, with their plans to team having been revealed last week. No idea where KM is, other than to note that Scarlett is certainly more appealing on the eye as a partner for Fallah. Raj Singh and Rohit Raju were the opponents here, accompanied by Gama Singh. Note that this was not a mixed tag match; instead, this match had three men and one woman, which meant that Scarlett was taking a fairly big risk by competing. But she had previously proved that she could handle male competitors when she defeated Glenn Gilberti, and she again demonstrated an aptitude for wrestling, regardless of the sex of her opponent. This did have a comedic feel to it, especially with Bahh spending much of the early going having the crowd chant her name. The Desi’s refused to wrestle Bordeaux initially, instead isolating Bahh until he made the hot tag. After a dive through the ropes by the mammoth yet agile Fallah and a top crossbody by Scarlett, Raj took a Stinkface from Bordeaux, which led to Rohit volunteering for one himself, only to end up tasting one from Fallah! A Bahh belly-to-belly led to a double team Banzai Drop and Scarlett pinning Raj.
Before the next segment, The Lucha Bros vowed to defeat Eddie Edwards and Eli Drake (they also discussed their match and potentially defeating the Tag Team Champions), and we saw a training vignette for The Deaners, who debut next week. Tommy Dreamer also discussed his match later on with Mad Man Fulton (while name-dropping “WWE Hall Of Famer Johnny Rodz”).
Moose vs. Dez
Well, Moose has fought Trey and Wentz lately (and beaten them both), so it was only right that he would complete the set and face the one remaining Rascal here. Moose was again aiming to exact retribution for what he deemed to be humiliation by the trio a little while back. As with Moose vs. Wentz, the other two Rascalz stayed at ringside for this one. This followed the same structure as previous Moose vs. Rascal matches, with Moose toying around with his opponent before becoming frustrated and delivering a beating, only to be cut off when Dez made a big comeback. The highlight of the match was Moose catching Dez as he hit a senton over the ropes, ramming him headfirst into the steel stairs and hurling him powerbomb-style into The Rascalz. The result was a surprise: a referee distraction by Trey allowed for a kick by Wentz to lead to a Dez pinfall via roll-up.
Backstage, Kiera Hogan and Rosemary argued over their problems in recent weeks involving Su Yung and The Undead Realm, which led to Rosemary assaulting Kiera. Bear in mind that Hogan wants to help Rosemary, not to be her enemy. Also, Moose demanded that his loss be cut from the TV production team, and vowed to gang up on The Rascalz.
This week’s vault match was the memorable Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong match under No Disqualification rules from TNA Final Resolution 2008.
This segued nicely into a promo with Tessa Blanchard, who after running down Gail Kim, causes havoc at Gail’s husband Robert’s restaurant as she vowed to tell him what kind of woman Kim really was, disrespecting staff and visitors. She couldn’t find Robert, but she did humiliate the head chef and manager who were present by pouring food over them, saying into the camera to Gail that “now it’s personal!”
In a subsequent interview, Gail Kim had already decided that she and Robert wouldn’t be pressing charges, but that she would make Tessa pay. She again noted how Blanchard reminded her of a younger version of herself, which could he a tease of a future union perhaps?
Mad Man Fulton vs. Tommy Dreamer
Sami Callihan accompanied his oVe colleague to the ring for this match against The Innovator Of Violence. Josh Matthews noted how Dreamer has been in the ring with some of the greatest of all-time, which is a polite way of saying that Dreamer himself does not belong in that category. Callihan tried to get involved early on, only to find himself ejected from ringside by the referee as a result. Though a regular wrestling match, this had Dreamer’s usual spots, such as breaking at ringside and spitting water into the face, although it was Fulton who dropped Tommy crotch-first onto a guard-rail. After no-selling a cutter like any monster should and surviving a DDT, Fulton avoided a kendo stick shot and hit an End Of Days for the win. Afterwards, he tried tearing at Tommy’s face and took a chair shot from Willie Mack; The Jackyls ran in, followed by Rich Swann and finally Callihan for a big brawl, which was won by oVe as Sami smashed Tommy’s chair-wrapped arm with his baseball bat (later speculated to be a fracture or break by a doctor on-site).
After videos promoting Rob Van Dam’s return and The Deaners’ upcoming debut, Killer Kross again tried to brainwash Willie Mack about his association with Rich Swann. It didn’t work, and instead a Mack vs. Kross match was made for next week.
Taya Valkyrie vs. Madison Rayne
Going into this match, Rayne was 0-2 in her comeback run, and here she was facing the Knockouts Champion in a non-title match, making this her toughest test yet since returning. After running down the Canada location, Taya stated that she wouldn’t be wrestling, instead saving herself for Jordynne Grace at Rebellion. Madison wasn’t having that and attacked her, and as Taya tried to leave, Jordynne came down and threw her back in, with the distraction of her presence leading to a quick roll-up victory for Madison over the champ.
A pre-taped promo at Johnny Impact’s home by Rolando Menendez aired, with Johnny refusing to explain his recent actions, as well as showing that senior referee Johnny Bravo is now essentially an errand boy for him, even cleaning his swimming pool. He finished by saying that he can get to anyone which would allow him to be creative and defeat Cage at Rebellion.
An angry Brian Cage confronted Don Callis at ringside, demanding that he make things right to prevent him being screwed again, and shoved him over at the announcers table. A flustered Callis called Scott D’Amore backstage, saying they needed a plan to resolve this. Cage then found D’Amore and planned to attack him, only for Lance Storm to randomly appear. Long story short: Lance was made the guest referee for Johnny vs. Cage at Rebellion. Well, that was unexpected.
Impact Tag Team Championship Match
The Lucha Bros (C) vs. Eddie Edwards & Eli Drake
The main event saw Pentagon Jr and Felix defend their titles against the rising team of Eddie and Eli, who recently bested LAX after a distraction by The Lucha Bros. Their entrance attires are pretty interesting, akin to costumes you would see in a superhero movie. The unusual alliance of Edwards and Drake have built up some significant momentum lately, but with The Luchas vs. LAX having been confirmed at Rebellion under Full Metal Mayhem Rules for weeks now, the odds of a title change seemed extremely low. And so it proved as, despite LAX interference and Eli attempting to use Kenny, a spike piledriver finished Drake off to end a fun yet rushed match. Afterwards, we had another Luchas/LAX brawl, and Eddie seemed to be upset at Eli for losing but tried to console him, and the two posed together, only for Drake to attack Edwards (abruptly finishing their team) and repeatedly whack him with Kenny (Eddie’s trusty kendo stick). Eli left, still in possession of Kenny, to close the show.
This was a pretty eventful episode of Impact. With one more edition prior to Rebellion, the company’s top storylines are reaching a peak point which should make the final Impact before the PPV worthwhile, along with the Rebellion card itself of course.
