Reviews by Dave
Show air date: November 24, 2020
Impact Wrestling on AXS-TV should have been a throwaway show with the holiday and all. Nope. The return of a popular comedy segment, heavy focus on the Knockouts, and a world title main event.
Matt Striker filled in for Madison Rayne on color commentary with her defending Johnny Swinger (the self-proclaimed OJ Simpson of Pro Wrestling) in Wrestler’s Court. He was Striker with all the positives and negatives that come with him: knowledgeable as anyone but still hasn’t figured out exactly how the color spot works. You’re not the lead guy, Matthew. I can’t go over everything that happened in Wrestler’s Court. It’s great. The real culprit turned out to be…Lawrence D and that made perfect sense if you saw WRESTLEHOUSE.
Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz defeated The Sea Stars
IMPACT Wrestling starts with a first-round match in the Knockouts Tag Title tournament with Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz fending off newcomers, the Sea Stars-Ashley Vox, and Delmi Exo. Solid outing by both. A few awkward moments and exchanges in there but when it came to the end, Hogan and Steelz went into another gear and put the sister team away, advancing to the second round.
Jordynne Grace was watching in the hallway backstage with her partner: former NWA Women’s World champion and WWE champion, Jazz. Huge surprise.
Suicide (Crazzzy Steve) defeated Rohit Raju
X Division champion “The Desi Hit Man” Rohit Raju came out, cut a good heel promo (just being a dick, not trying to be funny or cute) for the “Defeat Rohit Challenge”, that he changed to a non-title match when his opponent was Suicide. Clever. It shows that Rohit knows wrestling history in general so he knows a Dusty/Midnight Rider set up when he sees it and he know his old foe TJ Perkins used to be Suicide.
The match was a good TV match with Raju nearly winning but getting caught up in unmasking his foe. The camera work was perfect here as it didn’t give away the punchline when TJP came out on the stage, showing he wasn’t Suicide. It was Crazzy Steve, who got a pin on Raju, most likely earning him a title shot. Credit to Steve for being able to work in that mask and he being legally blind and not working as we normally see him work as “Crazzy Steve”.
Kimber Lee defeated Killer Kelly
Kimber Lee beat the debuting Killer Kelly in a good TV match with a swanton bomb. IMPACT commentators aren’t afraid to note a women wrestler has a…low center of gravity so the swanton is a great finish for her.
This leads to the best moment of the show as Lee and her friend/tag partner, KO champ Deonna Purrazzo stand in the ring, they confronted by the returning Susie (😱) who brings out her friend, “The Undead Bride” Su Yung. That’s how you use being pre-taped to your advantage.
“The Phenomenal One” AJ Swoggle defeated Ethan Page
Finally, someone uses the long-running joke that Swoggle looks like AJ Styles as the tiny “Phenomenal One” beat Ethan Page. All shenanigans as Page is going out doing business the right way.
Fallah Bah vs Shawn Daivari
“The World Class Mania” Eric Young and Joe Doering have no patience for Fallah Bah vs Shawn Daivari and beat the hell out of both. Rhino looks for payback for the beating he took last week and just got a second helping. Leave that kind of Stupid in the E, Rhinoceros.
Brian Myers was good, talking trash to Swoggle, Steve, and TJP backstage.
Main Event: Rich Swann (c) defeated Ken Shamrock for the IMPACT World Championship
Impact World champion Rich Swann successfully defended his title against former NWA World champion and UFC/IMPACT Hall of Famer, “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” Ken Shamrock.
Well worked match with the larger but older Shamrock taking lead and not having to do too much and Swann playing his best role: underdog fighting from underneath (ala Sting vs Vader, Starrcade 92).
Swann wins, countering a Shamrock choke with a roll-up but this is IMPACT so the heels have to eat as Callihan comes back and he and Shamrock layout Swann, then take out Eddie Edwards (Callihan +Edwards+ bat never ends well for Eddie) and even knock out IMPACT exec, D’Lo “De Lorian” Brown.
A red hot ending to a really good show where they did a lot in less than 2 hours.
