Pay-per-view air date: July 18, 2021
Impact Wrestling presented their Slammiversary Sunday night and it continued the trend of them having strong, expertly built shows that start strong and still build to a headline-making finale.
Decay defeated Fire ‘N Flava (c)
for the IMPACT Knockouts Tag Team Championship
The kickoff show was a re-airing of the excellent “This is Slammiversary” and then a very good tag match with Decay–Rosemary and Havok with Crazzy Steve and Taurus ringside–winning their first Knockouts tag title, defeating Fire ‘N Flava–Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz. Good, fast-paced match and the first of a few matches with the “big, power wrestler vs smaller, faster wrestler” dynamic. Let me say early, Matt Striker and D’Lo Brown were very good in Striker’s return from hiatus.
Josh Alexander (c) defeated Ace Austin, Chris Bey, Trey Miguel, Rohit Raju, and Petey Williams
Ultimate X match for the Impact X Division Championship
“The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander successfully defended his X Division title against Trey Miguel, “The Inevitable” Ace Austin, Rohit Raju, Petey Wiliams, and “The Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey in the first Ultimate X match since April 2019 (United We Stand). If you expected a ton of innovative spots, you got them. Alexander won but I felt Raju and Bey were co-MVPs of the match.
Matt Cardona and Chelsea Green defeated Brian Myers and Tenille Dashwood
The first of the surprises was revealed as Matt Cardona’s mystery partner for his mixed tag match against “The Most Professional Wrestler” Brian Myers (with his young boy, Sam Beale) and Tenille Dashwood (with Kaleb with a K) was his fiance, “The Hot Mess” Chelsea Green. This was the least surprising move of the night with all the hints they dropped for two weeks and her own public talk of wanting to go back. Good for from commentary on giving background on the story of Cardona/Dashwood. Entertaining match that allowed Green to look good, despite a legit injury. Cardona and Green got the win.
W. Morrissey defeated Eddie Edwards
W. Morrissey continued to roll, with a huge win over Eddie Edwards in a hard-hitting match that saw him use his superior size to overcome a former world/world tag team/X Division champion. Whoever told Morrissey “Never leave your feet” saved him because a monster should work as a monster. He’s a contender for real now.
FinJuice defeated Shera and Madman Fulton
Shera and Madman Fulton came out, interrupting Gia Miller’s interview with the SuperFan contest winner Miguel Contreras, mad they were banned from ringside for the Ultimate X match. EVP Scott D’Amore got them a match: with former tag champs, New Japan’s FinJuice–David Finlay and Juice Robinson. Quick match with the former champs taking advantage of the much bigger men’s complete lack of chemistry and cooperation, picking up the win in a “Just trying to get something on New Japan World” moment. It won’t be the last.
Chris Sabin defeated Moose
Chris Sabin pulled off a huge upset over Moose, who was showing off last night. Sabin took a beating but snuck in the win after a series of attempted roll-ups. If he got it in the first, it would have just sucked. Good match and a big win for Sabin. Sabin should be trying to get in line for a title shot after this.
The Good Brother defeated Violent By Design (c), Rich Swann and Willie Mack, and Fallah Bahh and No Way
for the IMPACT World Tag Team Championshp
The Elite got a title back in their group when the Good Brothers beat Rich Swann and Willie Mack, Fallah Bahh with the surprise partner of No Way taking the place of TJ Perkins, and defending champions Joe Doering and Rhino of Violent by Design. Never noticed how big No Way is and even though he had moment he clearly looked rusty, he looked like a guy happy to be back in the ring. The match was solid with a good and smart ending as VBD looked to be about to secure it but the Bros working smarter not harder and pinning Rhino to win their second tag championship.
Deonna Purrazzo (c) defeated Thunder Rosa
for the IMPACT Knockouts Championship
“The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo defended her title against a huge shocker in former NWA World Women’s champion Thunder Rosa, making her Impact debut (to my knowledge), in the best pure match of the night. Impact Wrestling: Where Piledrivers Are Still Viable Finishers.
TNA Original “Hardcore Country” Mickie James (look it up) made her return after to invite Purrazzo to participate in the NWA Empowerrr pay-per-view in August. Big news moment there but Purrazzo didn’t take kindly to James stepping on her moment. I’m sure there will be more to this.
Main Event: Kenny Omega (c) defeated Sami Callihan
for the IMPACT World Championship
World champion Kenny Omega showed his versatility, beating back the strong, dangerous challenge of “The Draw” Sami Callihan in a bloody, brutal No Disqualification title match. The match went off crazy early when Callihan pulled out a pizza slicer. That dude must be hell going through an airport metal detector. It was the violent, everything-goes brawl it needed to be with them having Omega win, not with help (good move having Edwards and Sabin cut off the Good Brothers) but just by out-savaging a madman. I just love Impact Omega over any other version. They went deep into the match before he used his first V-Trigger kneestrike so it meant something when he hit it.
Like last year’s event, the show didn’t end after the final bell as they had one more surprise after the match and one more “For New Japan World” moment: the arrival of IWGP NEVER Openweight champion “Switchblade” Jay White. White didn’t respond to their Too Sweet salutes before Juice Robinson could be seen rushing to the ring and they cut the feed.
A huge “WTF?” finish to a strong pay-per-view.
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