Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: August 12, 2021
BTI featured a good match with Sam Adonis and “The Infamous” Joeasa that let both men shine. There was a great interview with Knockouts champion “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo by Josh Matthews, leading into Impact Wrestling on AXS, still doing a great job of building to multiple big events for multiple companies.
Tenile Dashwood defeated Taylor Wilde
Tenille Dashwood got the upper hand in their feud with Taylor Wilde, beating her this week with help from the shocking return of former KO champion Madison Rayne. That’s a big return and this might be the tag partner Dashwood has been searching for. Good back and forth match.
I don’t really care for battle royals but I loved the video package they put together for this week’s main event. Can someone tell me what garden Johnny Swinger threw what giant over the top? Where? When? Who? My Google machine ain’t working right.
Josh Alexander defeated Shawn Daivari
As he’s cashing checks from Impact Wrestling (as a wrestler) and WWE (as a producer), Shawn Daivari looks great. He still got whooped by reigning X Division champion “The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander in a non-title match. Alexander’s challenger at the August 20th Emergence Impact Plus special, Jake Something, makes his presence known during the match and faces off with the champion after. Great intensity. That match should (but won’t) dead the talk that the X Division title is their “light heavyweight title”.
Great video package on the Impact World title match on AEW Rampage featuring both Impact and AEW voices (Jim Ross is always pitch-perfect in these). Purrazzo and Ace Austin and Madman Fulton were probably the best of the bunch.
World tag champs, the Good Brothers–Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson–were confronted backstage by one of their Emergence opponents, Eric Young’s Violent By Design. Gallows books himself into a match next week with Joe Doering. Well damn.
The Final Nail in the Fire ‘N Flava Coffin
The final nail in the coffin of Fire ‘N Flava was hammered in this week and my heart broke a little bit. The best Kiera Hogan promo of her entire run.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans who came out to face her but “The Undead Bride” Su Yung and Kimber Lee, making her in-ring debut with her new look.
I loved the callback to Hogan’s feud with Yung from a few years ago as Hogan kept screaming “I ain’t going back!”, clearly referencing the Undead Realm, which she did go back to. I tuned into a wrestling show and a horror movie broke out.
Impressive backstage promo from Impact World champion Kenny Omega and Don Callis.
FinJuice defeated Bullet Club
By DQ
Very good “Check this out on New Japan World too” tag match with FinJuice–David Finlay and Juice Robinson–getting a disqualification win over the Bullet Club’s “The Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey and New Japan NEVER Openweight champion “Switchblade” Jay White. The work was high quality, but I liked the story they were telling with White being the ring general of his team with them having so rarely teamed. White leveled Finlay, his title challenger at New Japan’s Resurgence with a Blade Runner into a steel chair.
I loved the backstage interview Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans had with Gia Miller. Tasha looks like a superstar and Evans looks menacing AF.
Melina Perez has a nice interview with Miller and got sonned a bit by Purrazzo, who showed footage of her training with Invicta FC atomweight champion Alesha Zappitella. A good segment in preparation for Perez challenging Purrazzo at the NWA EmPowerrr pay-per-view on August 28 in St. Louis.
Christan Cage Returns to IMPACT TV
Christian Cage makes his Impact TV return in a locker room interview with Alex Marvez. Good interview. He announces he’ll be in the Impact Zone next episode.
John Skyler defeated Matt Cardona
“The Southern Savior” John Skyler made his Impact Wrestling debut with the biggest win of his career, upsetting Matt Cardona when Cardona made the classic Dumb Babyface 101 move of being distracted by Rohit Raju and Shera outside the ring. Did not see that coming.
Main Event: Brian Myers Wins the Battle Royal
I’m still not a fan of battle royals but they did what they should have done: told a lot of smaller stories with the big guys doing big shit and the fast guys doing fast shit. They got in conflicts with Emergence foes Steve Maclin and Petey Williams and heated rivals Chris Sabin and Moose too focused on each other and setting up the finish. Capping off a night of upsets, “The Most Professional Wrestler” Brian Myers won, earning a shot at the champ at Emergence.
Just a good show throughout.
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