Once again, Impact delivers a very enjoyable night of action. The opening segment, and tag match, were done very well. As much as I’m not a massive fan of how they’ve built towards the Trinity vs Deonna matches, the tag match was very good, and the opening promo was pretty enjoyable. As much as it’s unfortunate to see Angels lose, Heath’s potential push with his current character does intrigue me, and I don’t hate the idea of a Heath singles push. The Jake Something squash was great for a squash, and made me further see how much money is in Jake Something. The triple threat was also really fun, although I believe it’s time for every one of the men involved to move onto something new (although I wouldn’t mind more Yuya and Joe tag stuff). The main event was enjoyable, but nothing crazy great. The finish made sense obviously, with this furthering Gresham’s story of him wanting more rules in Impact (as the spray paint was vital in the finish). The main event was a piece of cinema, it was what Impact does best, and they need to do more of. EY came out’ve it looking like the coolest man alive, and now I’m insanely hyped for the rest of the Design feud.
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6
On the road to Emergence, the tag team title number one contenders tournament kicks off, as Mike Bailey & Jonathan Gresham take on Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz, of the Rascalz. The show will also be kicked off with Impact Knockouts World Champion Trinity. Along with this, the Digital Media Championship is on the line, as new champions, Kenny King, takes on Yuya Uemura and, former champion, Joe Hendry in a three way match. We will also see Alan Angels take on Heath and Eric Young respond to the Design, after their brutal attack last week.
GOOD Trinity/Deonna Purrazzo/The Coven Promo
Trinity is back in the building where she made her Impact debut. Deonna interrupts a wholesome Trinity promo, and warns her that nobody beats Deonna Purrazzo twice. We then get the Coven, who are evidently upset from their loss last week, address Trinity, before attacking her, causing a chaotic brawl between all four women. Santino comes out, and is pressured to make the tag match for right then and there, and now Trinity & Deonna face the Coven, while not even in their ring gear. Fun promo, got crazy in the end when they brought security into the ring. Deonna also hesitates before helping Trinity, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.
Bailey Higham WR Star Rating – 3.00 Stars
GREAT Trinity and Deonna Purrazzo vs The Coven
While I have enjoyed the Trinity and Deonna matches, aspects of the feud itself have been underwhelming, as they’ve mostly been “can they co-exist” tag matches. We get our first “can they co-exist” trope, when Deonna stops Trinity from punching Wilde in the corner. The Coven are a very underrated tag team, and show it with tons of great offence on Trin and Deonna here. We get “this is awesome” chants, after everyone is left down, from a great exchange. The Coven are able to get the win after Trinity accidentally hits Deonna in all the chaos, and King gets a big win after hitting Deonna with the King’s Curse.
Result: KiLynn King by Pinfall via. King’s Curse
Bailey Higham WR Star Rating – 3.50 Stars
The Rascalz hype up their match later in the night, as it’s their first match in Impact in three years. Scott D’Amore has to spoil the fun however, as he reveals to them that he’s fined them 2 weeks pay, for re-entering the arena last week (which makes sense professionally, but he is killing the vibe).
Jody Threat comes to the defence of Tracy Brooks, as Alisha is bragging about running her out’ve impact. Jody vs Alisha is made for next week, which is good, assuming it builds to Kaz & Tracy vs Alisha and Eddie.
AVERAGE Heath vs Alan Angels
This match was worked well, no prevalent botches. Just a decent match here. Heath’s new direction as a vigilante character is very interesting to see, and I really like what they planned for him. Angels sold the wake-up call great at the end, hoping he gets involved back in the X-Division soon.
Result: Heath by Pinfall via. Wake-Up Call
Bailey Higham WR Star Rating – 2.75 Stars
In an interview with Gia Miller, Eric Young tells us that the world will see what truly happened, between him and Deaner. This is their attempt in covering up a murder, very weird storyline direction.
SQUASH: Jake Something vs Davey Vega
This is what you’d expect, the jobber gets cocky straight away, which leads to Jake Something eating him alive. Very fun squash match, there is money in Jake Something.
Result: Jake Something by Pinfall via. Into The Void
Moose, Myers & Bully congratulation Lio for his decision last week, but Lio is still cagey on the alliance. I’m liking this aspect to the story, adds something for the 8-Man tag at Emergence.
The usual Joe Hendry pre-match promo, is as entertaining as always. He is clearly frustrated at Yuya Uemura, for injecting himself in this match. Yuya then comes down with a mic and says “I’m Yuya Uemura…CHAMPION!”, in a parody of Hendry’s usual schtick, which I found pretty funny.
GOOD Yuya Uemura vs Kenny King vs Joe Hendry – Digital Media Championship
Yuya and Joe attempt to be friendly, but as triple threat matches are, that friendliness fades away. We get a memorable spot here, as Joe Hendry sings his theme, while slapping the other guys’ chests to the beat. Yuya is seemingly very over in the Impact Zone, as he gets frequent chants throughout the night. Yuya gets a big kickout out’ve a cutter from Joe Hendry, before being put down by a royal flush from King, in a finish that keeps everyone strong. Really fun match.
Result: Kenny King by Pinfall via. Royal Flush
Bailey Higham WR Star Rating – 3.25 Stars
In a backstage interview with Bailey & Gresham, Gresham once again complains about the lack of rules, and how he’s sick of people like the Rascalz cheating. This Gresham storyline is very interesting, and there’s quite a few ways it could play out (Grand Championship return potentially?).
Crazzy Steve attempts to talk to Death Dollz (who want to be involved in the knockouts tag title match), but they avoid him and say they’ll talk later. I hope this means the full return of DeCay. Death Dollz have really staled for me recently.
GOOD The Rascalz vs Jonathan Gresham and Mike Bailey
Great tag team action from four great workers. Gresham does well in showing his anger against the lack of rules, as he chases Trey Miguel, after being hit by him whilst he wasn’t the legal man. Bailey and Wentz revisit their animosity at one point in this matchc, as they have a great exchange, before Bailey is able to manage the hot tag. Unsurprisingly, the Rascalz win again using the spraypaint, in a predictable, but understandable finish.
Result: Trey Miguel by Pinfall via. Spray Paint
Bailey Higham WR Star Rating – 3.00 Stars
We then get the anticipated vignette of Eric Young managing to get himself back to life, after Deaner seemingly killed him all those months ago. He coughs up blood and rides on a motorcycle, while delivering an awesome monologue, reminding everyone that he’s not dead yet. This was genuinely one of the best segments I’ve seen from Impact Wrestling in a long time. I can not stress how great they are at their cinematic stuff, it makes them stand out more and they do it really well.
Overall…
Once again, Impact delivers a very enjoyable night of action. The opening segment, and tag match, were done very well. As much as I’m not a massive fan of how they’ve built towards the Trinity vs Deonna matches, the tag match was very good, and the opening promo was pretty enjoyable. As much as it’s unfortunate to see Angels lose, Heath’s potential push with his current character does intrigue me, and I don’t hate the idea of a Heath singles push. The Jake Something squash was great for a squash, and made me further see how much money is in Jake Something. The triple threat was also really fun, although I believe it’s time for every one of the men involved to move onto something new (although I wouldn’t mind more Yuya and Joe tag stuff). The main event was enjoyable, but nothing crazy great. The finish made sense obviously, with this furthering Gresham’s story of him wanting more rules in Impact (as the spray paint was vital in the finish). The main event was a piece of cinema, it was what Impact does best, and they need to do more of. EY came out’ve it looking like the coolest man alive, and now I’m insanely hyped for the rest of the Design feud.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.5/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.25/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 1/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3/5 Stars
Photo Credit: Impact Wrestling – August 3rd 2023
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