With the new Impact pay per view, Under Siege, fast approaching, the final three spots of the six way scramble to crown a new No. 1 contender to the Impact World Championship took place. The final matches were Rhyno vs. Chris Sabin, Trey Miguel vs. Rohit Raju and Moose vs. James Storm.
As for the Impact and AEW Champion, Kenny Omega, as per his contractual obligations he was on the show but did not display the Impact Unified Championships. We saw them being worn by Michael Nakazawa on AEW Blood and Guts the night before, but not on the title’s actual show. Omega looked more like backstage visitor than the top champion in the company, so they’re really playing into this whole angle of “Impact being under siege”.
The first qualifier featured two of Impact’s long standing veterans: Rhyno, the former ECW champion and and Chris Sabin, the former tag team champ as well as being a former Impact Champion himself. Sabin, the smaller man, got some good shots in but Rhyno countered with a superplex. But the Motor City Machine Gun member pulled off a Magitral Cradle on the War Machine to get a surprise win to advance.
During BTI, George Iceman revealed that one of the participants in the qualifier was upset at losing his spot, to the point where that person was willing to take out someone who’s already qualified to get to Under Siege. Considering that Rhyno still has the Call Your Shot Gauntlet trophy, which allows the War Machine to get a title match whenever he wants, could he use it to take a potential open spot so Violent By Design will be represented in this No. 1 contenders match?
Last week, the returned Taylor Wilde defeated Kimber Lee, and this week she faced the other Deonna Purrazzo acolyte: Susan. Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb came out to ringside to watch the match; Dashwood is still apparently trying to get Taylor to team with her. At one point Wilde hit an outside hurricarana on Susan which brought both combatants outside the ring.
As Wilde tried getting back in the ring, Kimber tried to interfere but was blocked by Kaleb who then picked her up to prevent any more distraction. This actually allowed Tenille to hit a neckbreaker on Susan which allowed Wilde to get the pin after a German suplex.
Again, I don’t think this is leading to Wilde teaming up with Tenille, but maybe foreshadowing instead Dashwood feuding with Wilde when a certain pair of…iconic ladies are available around July?
The second last qualifer match is up, with Rohit Raju taking on Trey Miguel. Earlier on BTI, Rohit’s friend Shera faced off against Jake Something in a losing effort, when the former X Division Champion’s interference backfired and caused Shera to lose the match. The week before, Rohit caused Something’s own qualifying match against Chris Bey.
This match was quite a technical affair as Miguel and Rohit were of similar size and build, hence Trey was able to out wrestle Rohit in several sequences and execute seemingly impossible human motions. Rohit fell victim to Trey’s modified submission hold and tapped out, allowing Miguel to qualify. Afterwards, Jake Something came down to exact some revenge for last week and took out Rohit and Shera.
I’m not sure where this is leading to, possibly Rohit and Shera taking on Something and a tag team partner of his choosing…whoever that might be; it could be an existing Impact talent or someone being brought in from another promotion like New Japan…or even a free agent.
Earlier in the back, we see AEW and Impact Champion Kenny Omega offering some coaching advice to his buddies the Good Brothers, as Doc Gallows has a one on one match with one half of the Impact Tag Champions, New Japan’s Juice Robinson. The match ends when Gallows hits a sit down powerbomb on Juice for the win, but almost immediately Omega and the GB start ganging up on Juice and Dave Finlay.
Of course, this match was a minor preview of the big six man tag at Under Siege, as FinJuice’s partner in that match Eddie Edwards comes down to try making a save, only to be beaten down himself. Another beat-down by Omega and his posse, it seems like this repetition has run its course and established the idea that Omega is here to stay and run amok on Impact. I’m ready for something new to develop.
Next up is another inter-promotional match, as New Japan Bullet Club member, El Phantasmo (ELP), originally from British Columbia, Canada, debuts against a guy named VSK, who actually can be seen occasionally on AEW Dark. ELP has a very unique style and unconventional methods, such as twisting his opponent’s nipples and allegedly wearing a loaded boot which he uses to kick opponents. That’s how this match ended when ELP kicked VSK, pinned him cross armed a la Undertaker style, and made the referee hold his boot up in victory instead of his hand.
Almost as soon as this match ended, it was announced, next week on Impact there will be an X Division 6 way scramble to crown a number one contender to Josh Alexander’s title. El Phantasmo was announced to be in it, along with Rohit, Petey Williams, Ace Austin, TJP and Acey Romero from XXXL. My guess is Acey is there to be the token heavyweight guy for the X Division, as the other five are high flyers who can complement each other during the match.
This was probably the original plan for AEW’s Sammy Guevara before Guevara decided to introduce his own booking ideas during a delicate time in the All Elite – Impact relationship.
Backstage segments
This weeks’ backstage segments were minuscule and served to set up future matches, such as building on the Knockouts tag team title rematch between Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering vs. Fire N Flava at Under Siege. Since Ellering pinned Kiera Hogan this week, next week will see Grace facing Tasha Steelz, which is a very familar pattern.
Decay’s Rosemary will also face Havok to crown a No. 1 Contender to Deonna Purrazzo, which was actually the champion’s idea. Speaking of Decay, Black Taurus will face Brian Myers at Under Siege after a backstage altercation, with Rosemary doing some kind of Tarot card reading for Brian, who didn’t like it and was then gored by Taurus….because he’s a bull, remember?
But the main backstage clip that stood out was one about W. Morrissey, who alluded to his past as a duo with NZO and spoke about how he was ‘shattered’ before putting himself back together again. Morrissey spoke about how he ‘had no friends’ in the wrestling industry and rebuilt himself to be a badder, bigger man. He will face Willie Mack also at Under Siege. This was decent storytelling for a new player on the Impact scene.
We finally get to the main event this week, the final qualifier for the big 6 way scramble as Moose faced James Storm. Before the match began, Don Callis approached Moose, trying to manipulate him by saying Moose didn’t need to qualify, but Moose was having none of that. As for the match, it was a grueling affair and Storm sold an injured knee to the point where the referee looked like he was going to stop the match because Storm couldn’t continue.
There were a few spots where Storm looked like he might pull off the win, but this didn’t happen as Moose speared Storm while the Cowboy was busy with the referee pleading for the match’s continuation. Moose becomes the final entrant for Under Siege, but he wasn’t done. He wrapped Storm’s knee in a folding chair and stomped on the already injured knee before Sabin ran down as Moose left the ring.
I have to admit, at times I thought Storm would pull this off so they could see him and his partner Sabin fight each other in the 6 way match for the title shot, but the idea of holding off on Moose even longer didn’t make sense. I guess Sabin will be feuding with Moose down the road over what happened to his partner.
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