Emergence is the next pay per view for Impact Wrestling, but it’s clear that recent developments will reverberate beyond the confines of the Impact Zone. On August 14, New Japan’s Resurgence in Los Angeles will feature the Good Brothers taking on AEW’s Jon Moxley with a mystery partner, as well as Moose vs. former NEVER Openweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii.
Speaking of the NEVER Openweight title, Bullet Club leader Jay White will be defending it against David Finlay in Los Angeles. The bad blood from this rivalry has spilled over onto Impact, when White made a shocking appearance at Slammiversary and subsequently has targeted Finlay, who has also returned to Impact alongside his partner Juice Robinson. White is not alone, and has recently recruited “the Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey into Bullet Club
Chris Bey is Bullet Club
After a backstage ambush last week on FinJuice by White and Bey, who had come off a loss to the Good Brothers, Bey had a chance of redemption when he took on Robinson in a one-on-one match. As Finlay and White began brawling on the entrance ramp, Bey hit the Art of Finesse on Juice to win the match. Afterwards, White handed Bey a Bullet Club shirt and officially welcomed the former X Division Champion into one of the most dominant groups in wrestling and pop culture.
What is Bullet Club in the year 2021? I am not as versed in the history of BC, but after watching some official videos from NJPW, BC has expanded beyond its original collection of ‘gaijin’ wrestlers to include Japanese talent and more. Obviously with this ‘Forbidden Door’ theme happening, it was only natural for BC to start recruiting members from promotions such as Impact.
I think Bey may have hit a ceiling in the X Division. While he is a former champion, I don’t think he is dethroning Josh Alexander and the Walking Weapon has another contender in Jake Something at Emergence, Impact’s next pay per view. Bey’s not anywhere near the world title picture at this point, so what else could he do? With this Forbidden Door concept, the options have opened up now that Bey is Bullet Club; I wouldn’t be surprised if he shows up at New Japan’s Resurgence to help out his new boss.
Tag Team Triple Threat at Emergence
Backstage there is another Gia Miller interview with the Good Brothers and Kenny Omega, talking about how they’re the greatest ever…again, but Violent By Design comes in and enacts their rematch clause for Emergence. But when VBD goes to Scott D’Amore’s office to get the match booked, Rich Swann and Willie Mack were also talking to Scott and a triple threat tag team title match was booked with the GB, VBD and Swann and Mack, as the latter team recently defeated the former champions.
This might be the first time I’ve seen VBD outside the weird dark room where they conduct their vignettes backstage, as in engaging in a normal interaction with others backstage…even going to D’Amore’s office to ask for a match akin to the way other roster members regularly make that request. To be, it somewhat dilutes the mystique that VBD has built into their group since inception.
Of course, the Good Brothers’ involvement in this title match is contingent on them successfully defending those belts on AEW Dynamite this coming Wednesday in Pittsburgh as they face Dark Order’s Evil Uno and Stu Grayson. The outcome is likely a GB win, but what a swerve it would be if Dark Order end up victorious and end up going into Emergence as the defending champions.
Deonna Purrazzo’s next opponent…is MELINA
The Virtuosa is nearly the one year mark in her second reign as Impact Knockouts Champion, and after she and the newly signed Matthew Rehwoldt the Drama King won the Homecoming tournament last Saturday there’s little reason she will stop reminding us all of how great she is. Mickie James comes out during Deonna’s promo (again) to get the champion to officially sign a contract for NWA’s all female show, EmPowerrr.
Before Deonna signs she wanted to know who her opponent is at the NWA show, as she wasn’t going to do another Slammiversary situation when she got Thunder Rosa as her surprise opponent. James replies that said opponent was in the Impact Zone and out comes…MELINA. At 42, Melina looks even more gorgeous and amazing as ever, complete with the split entrance into the ring. There was zero hesitation as soon as Deonna saw her, and the champion and challenger immediately signed the contract.
With matches upcoming in AAA and now NWA, who knows where the Virtuosa will end up now that she has basically cleaned up in the Impact women’s division? Challenging Britt Baker in AEW is now even a possibility. With the recent roster cuts announced in WWE, it really is baffling to think Deonna was cut because they didn’t know what to do with her, but yet a company like Impact, which gets a less than a fraction of the viewership that WWE gets per week, is blowing the doors open with her booking.
Josh Alexander has next challenger for X Division Championship
The next challenger for Josh Alexander’s X Division Championship for Emergence has been determined, as Jake Something won a fatal four way match against Rohit Raju, Trey and Daivari. Something did an amazing cross body outside the ring on the three other men against the ring ropes, and ended the match by hitting Daivari with the Black Hole Slam for the three count.
Backstage, Rohit is throwing a temper tantrum and threw a bag offside the camera shot, but apparently he almost hit Chelsea Green as Matt Cardona comes in to confront the former X Division Champion. They’ll probably have a match later on. Later, as Josh is getting interviewed about his title match with Jake, Daivari comes in to challenge the champion. So a non title match is booked next week, and I guess if Daivari wins he gets a title shot.
I like seeing Daivari, he’s now a solid worker compared to when I first saw him years ago in WWE as more in a manager role and I definitely would prefer seeing veterans like him wrestle than Goldberg. My only confusion is Daivari’s on Impact, he’s in the Contra Unit on MLW and I’ve seen him as a road agent in WWE…I didn’t even know you could do that. On the other hand, he just ate the pinfall in that fatal four way, then goes up and gets a match with the champion….doesn’t exactly make sense in terms of booking.
Fire N Flava Fizzle Out
What happened after with this team after losing to Jordynne Grace and Rachel Ellering, who came out in matching ring gear and a cool new finisher, was not that unexpected given the news that leaked out that Kiera Hogan has finished up her time with Impact Wrestling. As one team, Grace and Ellering, find their stride another team loses the chemistry and fizzles out. Hogan and Tasha Steelz looked uncoordinated and timing was off, as Hogan ate the pinfall.
After the match, the camera shot of Hogan and Steelz arguing made it almost like Savannah Evans, an indy wrestling talent who has made appearances at Evolve, come out of nowhere to flatten Hogan as Tasha folded her arms and looked on as Evans Samoan dropped Hogan into the canvas.
Many have said that either Hogan or Steelz would have great singles runs, and now that Hogan has decided to go elsewhere to pursue that run, Steelz looks like she might be a force to reckon with in the Knockouts division if she basically has her own Shera or Fulton watching her back. At this point, not sure if a Hogan vs. Steelz match will officially cement the former’s departure; Impact finds creative ways to write talent off television when they decide to leave. Taya Valkyrie, now known as Franky Monet on NXT, got one when she left.
Various storyline developments
Some of the other backstage segments delved into various storylines, including:
- Tenille Dashwood and Taylor Wilde will face each other next week on Impact, stemming from allegations that Wilde was prevented from crossing the border from Canada because Kaleb reported her as a ‘suspicious person’.
- Chris Sabin has entered the battle royale to crown a new No. 1 contender for the Impact Championship and he looks forward to eliminating Moose and preventing HIM from becoming a first time world champion.
- Steve Maclin destroyed an enhancement talent and was about to do further damage before Petey Williams intervened.
- Kimber Lee continues to be enthralled by Su Yung
Even if these are minor stories, there is intrigue in some of them which makes me as a fan want to know what’s coming next. Are Yung and Kimber going to become a tag team, but this time with a darker bent? Maclin said he was gunning for the X Division title but looks like he has to go through Petey Williams to do so. What’s going to happen in that battle royale?
Impact Faithful hold the line against Kenny Omega and the Good Brothers
The main event saw Omega, the AEW and Impact World Champion, teaming with Gallows and Anderson to take on the team of Sami Callihan, Eddie Edwards and former Impact veteran Frankie Kazarian, now on AEW and has been attacking the Elite for months as “The Elite Hunter”.
The match had a lot of good and strong back and forth, innovative triple teaming by the Elite, but in the end Karl Anderson ate the pin via the Blue Thunderbomb then a Boston Knee Party from Edwards. Omega could have intervened, but was piledriven by Callihan on the ring apron. Kazarian took out Gallows earlier over the top rope and they basically disappeared for the duration of the match.
As Edwards celebrated in the ring, he was blindsided by W. Morrissey, who then took down the former champion with a vicious powerbomb as Impact went off the air. Suffice it to say, the issues between Edwards and Morrissey are far from over, so we’ll see what happens next week.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
Recent Comments