‘Impact Wrestling’ Review (August 9th 2018)

Welcome to this week’s Impact Wrestling review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have Santa Claus and one of his reindeer, Sticky. You don’t wanna know why the reindeer is named Sticky or how he got that way… thanks to Santa.

Match #1: Taiji Ishimori and Petey Williams beat Desi Hit Squad – Tag Team Match

This was a fun match that gave Petey Williams a nice moment in his home country of Canada. I like the Desi Hit Squad, but having them go over Williams in his native land is one of those bad ideas that only Vince McMahon would go for (I pick on Vince because he does so many dumb things… go watch RAW and find out). Williams is one of my constant picks for the most under-valued athletes in the sport and while he gets an occasional shot at glory, he ultimately gets little for his efforts. I hate seeing a good team like the Desi Hit Squad get their momentum paused while it was starting to get good, but since the finish isn’t the only way to get some-one over, I would just hope that this loss leads to some-thing, rather than just being a fact of life. By the way, Taiji was excellent here as well.

Match #2: Tessa Blanchard beat Alisha Edwards – Knockout’s Match

This was a fine match that gave Tessa another victory. Tessa is just more and more impressive each time I see her. I would love to have her wrestle Austin Aries for the title, but who knows if that will ever happen. It was nice to see Alisha actually wrestle. Maybe we’ll get to see Eddie and Alisha wrestle as a team later in the year… if they don’t get a divorce.

Match #3: Pentagon Jr. beat Matt Sydal

This was an excellent match that had two of wrestling’s best battling like the ice cream truck was about to run out. Sydal’s weird gimmick may not be doing much for his personality, but it isn’t ruining his wrestling ability, so who cares? Sydal’s kicks are the stuff of every young kid’s fantasies and it is a bit surprising that Sydal and the other X-Division fighters aren’t booked as being some-thing that teens can live vicariously through, rather than as a simple alternative to the traditional style… that has become the X-Division method anyway. Pentagon has become a force of nature that no one could have completely predicted. The entry of Pentagon to Impact has been one of the best elements of the league in quite a few years and has brought them a complete main event star that can get any-one’s attention. Having these two wrestlers in a match at any point in their careers would be exciting, but having them fight at their current states yields a more intricate bout than it would have been as recent a just three years ago. The action in this match was a great mix of chain and catch combined with aerial stunts that never went too far from what they were meant to do. I hope these guys get put together again, very soon.

Match #4: Main Event – Austin Aries beat Eddie Edwards – Impact World Championship Match

Well, this match was infinitely better than last week’s Impact World Title match, which will be regarded by many as one of the worst matches of the year for Impact and possibly all of wrestling. This was a strong match between two of professional wrestling’s best fighters. The idea here was that Aries was trying to fend off the bizarre offense of a now crazy Edwards. I don’t like this ECW-lite stuff they’re doing with Eddie, as it gets in the way of his wrestling talent. A technical master for many years, Edwards feels like he is on his last legs in a bingo hall with this Tommy Dreamer rip-off thing he’s been booked to do. For all I know, Eddie may like this change of pace, but it just feels like a personality trait that is woefully out of character for him. This seems to be the answer to all of Don Callis’s problems, with that answer being to just model numerous wrestlers on what Callis’s peers did in ECW, but without the mind of Paul Heyman to give it any drawing potential. I get why they took the chance on the change, but it just isn’t working. Aries, on the other hand, has made great strides as this title collector character. Any time Aries gets in the ring, it feels like he is breaking all the rules just being there, which gives him a notoriety that so few can use to draw in a crowd these days. As I watched this match, it made me wonder if there was a plan in place for Aries as champion, as far as if he is meant to re-establish the value of the title or for him to be the one to prepare to the title to be bestowed to the athlete meant to become the next focal point for Impact. I wouldn’t mind seeing Eddie get a shot at being a real champion, but it can’t be as this Brutus Beefcake in sweat-pants thug he’s been booked to be as of late. As far as action, this was still awesome and in as many ways as you’d expect, except for the kendo stick spots, which just ruined the momentum once they were implemented. Over-all, this was an excellent main event and one of the better Impact matches of the year.

News Of The Night:

1. Killer Kross helped Austin Aries retain the title and is now his body-guard.
2. LAX and the OGz had a brawl in the back of the arena.
3. Allie fights Su Yung next week.
4. Sami Callahan made Jake Crist shave Dave Crist.
5. Tessa Blanchard promised to destroy Allie.
6. Scarlett Bordeaux will debut a new talk show called The Smoke Show, next week. I wonder how long it will take the #MeToo Movement to shut that down. Also, I wonder if any-one at Impact is aware that talk show segments don’t draw in wrestling… ask Eli Drake.
7. Joe Hendry is still convincing Grado into letting him stick around with Grado’s girl-friend Katarina.
8. KM and Fallah Bahh are being teased to feud at some point.
9. The OGz challenged LAX to fight in the streets. Apparently, they don’t want to be paid any-more, so they’re going to do their jobs for free. Dumb-asses.
10. The Johnny Impact/Kongo Kong feud is slowly becoming more about Johnny Impact versus Jimmy Jacobs… which would draw a lot more.

Final Verdict: Impact is much better than it has been in the past, but there are still so many problems that make Impact feel like it is going to be minor league forever. I wish they would top with the storylines and just focus on booking matches that people would pay to see. We don’t need hundreds of vignettes and promos to be interested in a match. The wrestlers are intriguing all on their own and when they do have an angle of story to their match, it should be because it happens naturally as a result of the athlete’s television personalities, rather than a bookers random idea for what they think might be exciting.