Since a lot of fans have decided that Impact! Wrestling wasn't their cup of tea, I will take a chance on it and dished out some dough to witness this pay-per-view. Two years ago at this event, Tessa Blanchard became the Impact! World Champion.......and was fired from the company later that year. This should be a grand show. It is away from Sam's Town Live, which is better. This is taking place at The Bomb Factory, a music venue which explains the name of the building, in greater Dallas. This is also the second straight show that I've covered where it is emulating from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is cool. There are eight matches on the card. Hopefully. Impact! won't have the same issue as the last PPV in trying to rush matches due to time restrictions.
Tom Hannifan....or Tom Phillips is on commentary with D'Lo Brown. I didn't mind Matt Striker, but Tom Phillips or whatever, I'm going to call that throughout the night anyway, is an upgrade.
Reading the chats on the pre-show and someone posted the quote "Impact can take money, but WWE will never get it." I think they already did. The first match on the pre-show was competitive and that is Impact's! calling card.
The video package for the Triple Threat Championship match is AMAZING! The music and the buildup makes me want to watch this.
They interview Matt Cardona and Chelsea Green....or is it Cardona? They talk about what they want to accomplish tonight and point out for the 17 millionth time that they're married. No, I'm not salty.
A fatal-four match is on between Ace Austin, Chris Bey, Laredo Kid and Mike Bailey. They call Bailey "Speedball" and had these lightning kicks on Austin, which was impressive. This was a banger of a contest. I'm not a fan of Fatal-Four Way matches with nothing on the line, because you have four competitors fighting for nothing. Bailey gets the victory in his debut with an impressive shooting-star press with a combined double knee to the back of Austin's shoulder.
The opening package was again, AMAZING.
The first-ever Women's Ultimate X match starts the show. Chelsea Greedona (I combined her name), Tasha Steelz, Lady Frost, Jordynne Grace, Alisha Edwards, and Rosemary are set to compete in this historic contest. I'm surprised Stephanie McMahon didn't come to the ring and tell everyone how historic this is for women's wrestling. I also have Tasha Steelz's theme song in my head. Now, women who are not in the match interfere since this is NO DISQUALIFICATION. Grace was hanging on the rope for about a minute. Greedona tried the same thing and lasted about 10 seconds. Alisha clears the ring with a Kendo stick. Grace and Steelz are hanging on the rope and fall on their backs. Rosemary spears Edwards off the rope. Lady Frost does an impressive Spanish Fly off the pole onto the mat, eliminating everyone outside of the ring. The ending saw Greedona and Steelz fighting to get possession of the X. Steelz gets the X and falls to the mat in possession of it, making her the first ever Women's Ultimate X winner. And I get to hear her theme again.
The announcers plug a terror movie that I will not see.
Mickie James cuts a promo and mentions her being in the Royal Rumble. That must have been some apology WWE gave her.
Deonna Purrazzo is interviewed and Gail Kim comes in and tells her that Aiden English will be fired if he interferes. Purrazzo starts pouting about this. I realized that Deonna Purrazzo and Britt Baker are the same character. They are good friends in real lif.....NO! Outside of the ring, so it makes sense.
The X Division Championship match is next. Steve Maclin, who ironically is dating Deonna Purrazzo, is taking on Trey Miguel. They were going at each other for two minutes before the bell rang. This was a match which each wrestler countered each other. This was a great flow of a match. Miguel gets the win, pinning Maclin for the first time in his career.
They do an interview with Tenile Dashwood and Madison Rayne about the Iinspiration not being able to compete tonight. I'm not disappointed by this.
The ROH Title is next........and Ian Riccaboni joins the commentary and Bobby Cruise is the ring announcer. Gresham vs. Sabin is up. Riccaboni mentions that ROH is hoping to resume operations in April. Let us hope. They are also mentioning Samoa Joe's name, too. Ummmm, makes you wonder. Gresham and Sabin are putting on a wrestling clinic. It is under Pure Rules. I'm becoming a fan of Jonathan Gresham. He's small in stature, but he is a ring general. Chris Sabin hits a Cradle Shock, and apparently, pins Gresham for the title. Unfortunately, Gresham's foot was under the rope. Both men decided to WRESTLE the rest of the match. This is why I'm a wrestling fan. Gresham gets the pin on a beautiful bridge. What a match. Riccaboni thanks Phillips for having ROH represent the show.
The package hyping Josh Alexander vs. JONAH is next. D'Lo Brown needs to have a t-shirt that reads "DAMN YOU, MOOSE!" and make him some dough.
Josh Alexander and JONAH are in a hard-hitting match. Someone on the comment section compared JONAH to Bam Bam Bigelow. That is actually accurate. Alexander tried to clothesline JONAH over the rope, and the feed to the pay-per-view goes out. It comes back. Alexander executes a flying press off the top turnbuckle and over the barricade, thus hitting JONAH in the process. JONAH executes a picture-perfect suplex off the top rope. JONAH hits Alexander with repeated headbutts, busting him open. JONAH tries to attempt a moonsault, but misses. Alexander puts the Ankle Lock and makes JONAH tap.
At this point, I'm wondering, there hasn't been a bad match during this PPV. Impact! needs to have something to bring them to national recognition.
The Ten Man Hardcore Match is next. These guys were bringing out tables, axe handles, metal trash cans, wooden doors, GOLF CLUBS?.....Damn. The object is that all ten men have to be in the ring to score a pinfall. VBD is an underrated faction in the wrestling business. Eric Young is great in this role as the leader. Rhino is the last man out, and comes out with a chain. The crowd chants ECW! Great moment. Heath is busted open, so is Gallows. Hell, so is Young. Now, Young and Edwards go into a hitting each other with trash can lids. Edwards lights a Kendo stick, which he named Kenny, on fire. He hits Gallows with it. Joe Doering slams Rich Swann through a table with barbed wire and Swann screamed in pain. Rhino GORES one member of the Good Brothers and Heath scores the pin.
Then, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett and PCO come out to attack the babyfaces. PCO doing a flip at over 50 years old is amazing to me.
The interviewer asks Scott D'Amore what is going on. He tells her that he needs to make a call to Baltimore, the home offices of ROH. I'm intrigued now!
The Impact! World Title Match is next. All three men are going at it in this bout. Moose ran up to the top turnbuckle and did a Spanish Fly on Cardona, and hit the floor while doing a nip-up. Moose is a freak of nature. Chelsea Greedona interferes and does a splash off the ramp. Moose tried another Spanish Fly, but Cardona pushed him off onto a table. Morrissey comes in with a.....prosthetic leg? And hits Cardona for a pin, but kick out. I will give Cardona credit. His wrestling has improved. A ref bump occurs and chaos happens. Chelsea comes in to help, then a second ref bump happens with her involved. Moose hits the greatest spear in professional wrestling on Cardona for the pin. I wasn't disappointed from this match, but the run-in's were too much.
The main event is next. The Texas Deathmatch between Purrazzo and James. They show Rok-C, the ROH Woman of Honor Champion in the crowd. D'Lo Brown mentions that Hard To Kill is trending at #7 on social media. That's good. Purrazzo uses an audio cart on the ramp to nail James and Purrazzo gets a pinfall, but James gets up from the ten count. James is busted open. Purrazzo pulls out thumbtacks and Purrazzo lands a kick to James onto the tacks. Wow. Even in the ring, Mickie hits Purrazzo with a chair in the head while Purrazzo was on the top rope, and James still went into the tacks. Purrazzo is now busted open. Aiden English interferes, but to no avail. Purrazzo now goes into the tacks. James hits an appearing Aiden English with a chair, James hits a DDT and throws chairs and tables onto Purrazzo to get her the ten count for the victory. Before the show ends, Phillips says that James will be at the Royal Rumble.
Ok, if you have been a wrestling fan for a long time, you know that anyone from another wrestling organization is mentioning a WWE event on their show is considered taboo in the industry. Vince has a stranglehold on the business and can receive swift action because of it. They never mentioned WWE by name, but if both parties are in on this, then go forward with it. If this is an one-off and nothing progresses from this, you just killed a wrestling career and closed a gateway into an uprising for the business. Also, (bleep) both companies if that happens and they deserve the malice moving forward. It would be a waste of time.
I've seen three straight Impact! PPV's. This one was the best out of all of them. They moved the venue out of Las Vegas and went to an another great wrestling town in Dallas. The fans were there, supporting the product. Tom Phillips with D'Lo makes a good commentary team. I thought the Women's Ultimate X match seemed a little rushed, but they decided to push a young star. The matches were hard-working and made me as a fan, believe in professional wrestling again.
Impact! can be a player in the industry, again. Hopefully, if they are getting that from the people in the northeast, THAT'S A GOOD THING.
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