The final stop before Friday's Sacrifice special has arrived with Thursday's Impact on AXS TV.
Bully Ray and new GCW Champion Masha Slamovich will take on Tommy Dreamer and Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James ahead of Ray and Dreamer's first blood match and James' title defense vs. Jordynne Grace Friday.
In trios action, Time Machine (Motor City Machine Guns & KUSHIDA) will take on The Design (Deaner, Kon & Angels) ahead of Time Machine's clash with Josh Alexander, Rich Swann and Frankie Kazarian Friday.
Former Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo will take on Savannah Evans ahead of her rematch with Gisele Shaw Friday.
Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry and Dirty Dango will team up against Moose and Brian Myers. Hendry defends his title against Myers Friday.
The BTI pre-show will see X-Division Champion Trey Miguel take on NJPW's Kevin Knight in a non-title match. Miguel defends against the returning Lince Dorado Friday.
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BTI pre-show:
George Iceman said on BTI that Steve Maclin may have been stalking Josh Alexander because he watched the match last week, peeking out from behind the stage, which was enough to distract him and cause him to lose in the six-man main event. Apparently, Maclin was seen rummaging through Alexander’s car before the show this week. This is not how I would have booked this angle.
X-Division Champion Trey Miguel defeated Kevin Knight in a non-title match
This was a good match to showcase Knight as he works through the NJPW LA Dojo, and gets Miguel some more credibility in the win. Nothing overly exciting, but it was good if you get a chance to watch it.
Main show:
The show opened with The Design making their entrance for the six-man tag on this go home show for Impact Sacrifice.
Time Machine (Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) defeated The Design (Deaner, Kon & Angels) (w/ Callihan)
Angels got to show a bit of his skill keeping up with Time Machine, but it wasn’t long before Sabin and Shelley were targeting the arms of Angels and isolating him from his partners. KUSHIDA hit a baseball slide on Angels on the floor. As Kon was beating on Sabin in the corner, Matt Rehwoldt asked what the seventh deadly step could be for Callihan. I assume it is telling him to win, which he will then lose, and then they continue like he passed the test.
KUSHIDA hit a handspring kick on Kon and then hit a dive over the corner post to the floor on all of The Design. Impact has a poor WWE style thing they do where before the break, one team is winning and when they come back, the other team is winning, often with the heat switching from the babyfaces to the heels and they don’t show or tell us how. This can take you out of the match a bit.
Angels and Deaner hit a double clothesline in a doomsday device off the shoulders of Kon on KUSHIDA for a 2-count. Sabin came in with a missile dropkick that dropped Kon, and it resulted in every person hitting big moves until Angels was left in the ring with Time Machine alone. Callihan entered the ring to protect Deaner, but ate some kicks from Sabin and Shelley. Angels went for a dive to the floor, but KUSHIDA flew in out of nowhere to get the hoverboard lock on, and Angels tapped out.
As The Design went up the ramp, Callihan was assuring Deaner he tried to protect him.
– New Knockouts Tag Team Champions KiLynn King and Taylor Wilde were backstage and Wilde took great offense at Rosemary calling her a charlatan. This was very bad.
– Champagne Singh had a promo about his winnings at the casino.
– Eddie Edwards and Kenny King were backstage. They talked about how it was at Jay Briscoe’s funeral when they were at the Briscoe home, they reconciled after Honor No More fell apart. King claimed he was going to help Edwards put PCO on ice. I'm not a fan of bringing the real life tragedy into the storyline for why they are together here, but it does give a reason for them to be teaming up again. King said he was "Putting Carl Out," which was amusing.
Deonna Purrazzo defeated Savannah Evans (w/ Gisele Shaw & Jai Vidal)
Evans got the heat after a distraction by Shaw and Vidal. Purrazzo hit Evans, but it just made Evans mad, and she made Purrazzo pay with a big shoulder block in the corner. Evans toyed with Purrazzo a bit, so Purrazzo fired up with some hard forearms and a Yakuza kick, but Evans blocked an attempt at the Fujiwara armbar.
Purrazzo continued to try and chop away at Evans, countering a chokeslam with an armbar attempt, which Evans blocked again. Purrazzo hit two flying forearms and a side Russian leg sweep which she quickly rolled over into a Fujiwara armbar. Evans managed to get to the ropes to break the submission. Purrazzo blocked a full nelson slam but got distracted by Shaw when she went for a heat seeker piledriver. Vidal grabbed Purrazzo, but she dodged a kick from Evans and hit a crucifix driver for the pinfall.
Shaw and her crew attacked Purrazzo after the bell with Evans hitting the full nelson slam and Shaw hitting a running knee on Purrazzo.
– The Death Dollz were backstage and they talked about how upset they are about losing the Knockouts tag titles. Jessicka talked about how she was going to go after The Coven right now to get their magic. She found a casket, opened it and bright light came out of it. Valkyrie slammed the casket shut, saying it was dangerous to mess with magic (as it might make Jessicka remember being Havok). As they were talking, a hand reached out of the casket and pulled Valkyrie inside, writing her off the show since she went to AEW. This was bad.
Bully Ray & Masha Slamovich defeated Tommy Dreamer & Knockouts Champion Mickie James
Given what this was, it was fine but nothing special.
Ray challenged James to come in and fight. She did, and stood up to Bully trying to bully her. Slamovich asked for a tag, and Ray ran away and tagged out to Slamovich. Slamovich would get one up on Mickie James, and that is where he would tag in to try and hit James, but he would miss every time. Ray eventually hit a bodyslam and tagged out to Slamovich.
James was able to get ahead of Slamovich and tag out to Dreamer, who immediately went after Bully Ray. Dreamer hit a cutter on Ray for a 2-count that Slamovich broke up. James hit a Thesz press on Slamovich and both Dreamer and James hit stereo bionic elbows on both Slamovich and Ray.
Dreamer did a wishbone split and James hit the old Team 3D headbutt to the lower regions. Dreamer and James got a table out from under the ring, leading to Slamovich hitting a dive on James. Ray hit a low blow on Dreamer and then a piledriver for the 3-count.
Slamovich had ideas for further punishment for James, asking Ray to powerbomb her through a table. Jordynne Grace ran down and hit Ray with a kendo stick to break it up, but Ray dodged when Grace went for a spear, resulting in Grace hitting James by accident.
– Kazarian was giving advice to Rich Swann, saying that if it was bothering him, he needed to go talk to Alexander and clear the air because he didn’t want to be the friend that is underestimated.
– Steve Maclin was in Alexander’s locker room and Swann found him going through Alexander’s bag. Swann stopped him, and Maclin claimed that Alexander knew about it. This is not how I would have built this feud. I just want to see Alexander and Maclin fight because it’s two guys who are the best. We don’t need any of this WWE style nonsense for this feud.
Moose & Brian Myers defeated Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry & Dango
Hendry came down to the ring with Dango and they cut a promo with Dango talking over Hendry, which seemed off-putting for him. Hendry said there was only two words to say, implying “We believe” but Dango yelled “Suck it!” Hendry said he appreciated the enthusiasm.
Hendry hit a stalling vertical suplex on Myers. Dango tagged in and started to dance, leading Moose’s leg to start twitching as Dancing Moose almost emerged, but he slapped his leg and nailed Dango with a clothesline. This feud is beneath Moose given his rise to main event level talent, but man, his comedic timing is great.
Dango and Hendry sent Moose and Myers to the floor, and Dango tried to get Moose to do the DX sign, but Hendry just did the wave. Moose sent Dango into the corner and he and Myers got the heat on him for a few minutes. Dango managed to hit a European uppercut off the middle rope on Moose to make the tag to Hendry.
Hendry ran in and took out Myers with a series of clotheslines. Hendry hit a fall away slam on Myers followed by a running cutter for a 2-count. Myers ate a huge popup powerbomb from Hendry, but Moose broke it up. There was a weird camera cut and then Moose hit a spear on Hendry, letting Myers hit the roster cut for the 3-count.
– Rich Swann is the dumbest babyface in the history of wrestling as he believed Maclin about Alexander asking him to go through his stuff. Alexander had no idea what Swann was talking about, so he said he would handle it in the ring.
Josh Alexander/Steve Maclin segment
The Impact World Champion came out and said he respected Maclin for his ability and his service to the US. Alexander then claimed Maclin was afraid of him, waiting for others to wear him down, and that if he lost he would be a soldier without a mission, and a forgotten son. That was a good line.
Maclin came out and admitted that Alexander was right. He was afraid of failing, and he was waiting for the right opportunity to challenge Alexander for the title. He said he was obsessed with winning the title, and he showed Alexander footage of him watching and scouting Alexander for months since last year, even if Alexander didn’t realize he was watching.
Alexander said that he was a fighting champion, and he was willing to fight Maclin right now if he was ready. Maclin said no, saying that he was going to do this his way, and he was going to beat Alexander in his hometown at Rebellion. The show went off the air with Maclin and Alexander staring at each other.
Final Thoughts:
This was not a great episode overall with the angles largely being bad, especially how they wrote Valkyrie off by having a casket eat her. The closing segment with Maclin showing he has been scouting Alexander for nearly a year was actually really well done, but outside of that, this was a largely missable episode of Impact. The wrestling was fine but this was a mostly nothing show.
No new matches for Sacrifice were announced.
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