By David E Houston II
Show air date: December 2, 2021
Before Impact Wrestling on AXS-TV returned from the holiday break with their follow-up to their Turning Point Impact Plus special, they gave us a battle of young bulls with Jake Something getting a nice win over the Bullet Club’s Hikuleo (with “The Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey). Entertaining match. Hikuleo has to be top 5 on any Most Improved list for 2021.
Quick video package to start to update the current main event scene with world champion Moose, his ally W. Morrissey and their ongoing rivalry with Matt Cardona and Eddie Edwards as well as the attack on Josh Alexander by the debuting JONAH.
Mid-Cardona!
Cardona and Moose get face to face and it was good. I’m not a big fan of work-shooty stuff so Moose calling him a “mid-carder” was not my favorite thing in the world but the nickname “Mid-Cardona” did make me laugh.
Morrissey came out and the two giants beat Cardona down until Edwards ran down to make the save. You already know, tag match set to the main event. Effective if basic.
Eric Young’s Violent By Design had a great, short promo. Of course, they did.
Chris Sabin defeated Matthew Rehwoldt
Chris Sabin answered the challenge of “The Drama King” Matthew Rehwoldt, accompanied by Deonna Purrazzo. A solid wrestling match. Probably a couple of minutes too long but some good wrestling that saw Purrazzo try to interfere, bringing out her heated rival and Knockouts World champion Mickie James. The two fought all the way to the back with Sabin beating Rehwoldt with his Cradleshock suplex.
Jonah defeated Jai Vidal
Jai Vidal was pretty funny in petitioning Executive Producer Scott D’amore for a match. D’Amore gave him JONAH. Damn son. JONAH dealt with Mr. Vidal pretty quickly. They’re starting JONAH off strong. Good promo from “The Top Dog”. He’s there to be the world champ and he plans on going through Alexander first.
X-Division champion Trey Miguel and Steve Maclin just like fighting each other. Very good brawl with them in the back. They’ve been great at making this very personal.
I do love me some Learning Tree segments.
Moose is terrible at reading body language. I learned that in his conversation with Morrissey before their match.
Rachael Ellering defeated Savannah Evans
Rachael Ellering got the best of “The Cannibal” Savannah Evans, avenging an earlier loss from several weeks ago. Tough slugfest with two of their more powerful KOs, continuing a good week of women’s in-ring action.
Tenille Dashwood is back with the Influence (Madison Rayne and Kaleb With a K) and had to let these new Australian girls know being Australian is her thing…until she saw it was Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay, reigning KO world tag champs–the IInspiration. If they can’t do anything else, they cut a funny segment.
Rich Swann and Willie Mack defeated Violent By Design
Rich Swann and Willie Mack beat VBD’s Deaner and Joe Doering in a very good and competitive tag match. Rhino and HEATH had to make the save. Looks like VBD needs one more member. Great line by Striker “Joe Doering is the only thing stopping a riot.”
Main Event: Matt Cardona and Eddie Edwards defeated Moose and W. Morrissey
Moose and Morrissey (who got a huge pop from the live crowd) lost to Cardona and Edwards in another good TV tag match. Knowing the match Edwards and Moose had at Turning Point, I was curious how much they would do. They went out there and put forth a good effort (highlighted by Edwards taking a sick bump from the top turnbuckle to the floor) while letting Cardona and Morrissey carry a lot.
Cardona pinned Moose and then Morrissey ends their alliance with a hard Timberland boot to the face. Great work by Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown on commentary, doing the customary sign-off before the Morrissey kick, adding to the surprise.
Good show to start the build to Hard To Kill in January.
Thanks for reading! Tell us what you thought about the December 2, 2021 episode of IMPACT on AXS TV in the comment section below or on our social media platforms. Use the hashtags #DDTDivas and #ReviewsByDave
