On August 30, 2018, Impact Wrestling featured their television special, ReDefined, in the place of their usual television episode/taping to feature several title matches and marquee matches, highlighting and focusing on various feuds up to this point in preparation for the road to their next PPV event, Bound for Glory.

I've been meaning to do a write-up on Impact Wrestling's PPV event, Slammiversary XVI, from July 22, 2018 for about two months now, but keep getting sidetracked. Ultimately, the opinions all around are unanimous about that event though - amazing show from top to bottom. I can't put this event over more. Even if you haven't checked out Impact Wrestling in a long time or even just new to their product, this show is a great spot to start before checking out ReDefined.

Quick Results from Slammiversary XVI:


Johnny Impact defeated Fenix, Taiji Ishimori and Petey Williams in a barn-burner to kick off this show in style. -  Definitely go out of your way to watch this match. 

 Tessa Blanchard defeated Allie - Continuing to show off why Tessa Blanchard belongs at the top spot of the Knockouts division going forward

 Eddie Edwards defeated Tommy Dreamer - House of Hardcore rules match - First of many hardcore themed matches on this show. Wasn't too crazy about this but they got the point across. 

 Brian Cage defeated Matt Sydal (c) - Singles match for the Impact X Division Championship - Wasn't expecting anything less than a win for Cage here. Solid performance from both men, even though Sydal botched the Shooting Star Press towards the end. 

 Su Yung (c) defeated Madison Rayne - Singles match for the Impact Knockouts Championship - Even though they did some great storytelling in the build to this match, I can't admit that this match lived up to the hype. Another decisive win for Su Yung in her reign as champion, but I have to say that Rayne might have to step aside when it comes to all of these title shots she's been getting in not only Impact Wrestling but in Ring of Honor and other promotions as of late as she's on her road to appearing in WWE's Mae Young Classic II. 

 The Latin American Xchange (Santana and Ortiz) (with Konnan) (c) defeated The OGz (Hernandez and Homicide) (with King) - 5150 Street Fight for the Impact World Tag Team Championship - Crazy match right here. Only thing that held this back is that this was the second hardcore match on this card and there was a lot of "been there, done that" in terms of hardcore spots when you've seen LAX kill it with oVe earlier this year. 

 Pentagon Jr. (mask) defeated Sami Callihan (hair) - Mask vs. Hair match - Match of the Night IMHO. Pentagon Jr. is the king of these hardcore deathmatches in the modern day landscape of professional wrestling. Just do your favor and watch this match if you want to see the pure insanity that both Pentagon and Sami put their bodies through in this match. I wouldn't be surprised to see either of these men going for the Impact World title come Bound for Glory. 

 Austin Aries (c) defeated Moose - Singles match for the Impact World Championship - After that excellent video package to highlight and promote this match, I thought Moose was a shoe-in to pick up the title here. Boy was I wrong. Moose took one good Brainbuster from Aries and that's all she wrote. Too bad though as I thought this was a solid affair for both men. 


Why Are These Events Important Going Forward?


Between Slammiversary XVI back in July and ReDefined last week, both shows creates a sense of new and fresh that the new, current regime running the company needed going forward once the mistakes of Dixie Carter and her entourage left the minds of fans that they turned away to show them, "Look we got our shit together now. Give us another chance."

Plus with all of the talent from House of Hardcore and more importantly, Lucha Underground, calling Impact Wrestling their home as of late, you can't really go wrong from the in-ring product. Seriously speaking though, TNA/Impact Wrestling's problem has NEVER been the actual in-ring wrestling part. Almost every wrestler who has stepped into one of their rings has held it down when push came to shove.

Before someone brings it up, I'm not talking about that Jenny Morasca versus Sharmell clusterfuck or that Rebel vs. Shelly Martinez botchfest either...

I mean that statement as their talent has more consistent standout performances than flops is all that I'm saying. You cannot deny that Impact Wrestling as a whole are beating WWE (as a whole as we can't just look at NXT on it's own as it's only measuring stick of match quality) in terms of their in-ring product on a consistent regular basis.

Currently, both their in-ring product and behind the scenes work is really shining. I was just talking with a friend the other day, discussing about how well that they have been building up Su Yung as this monstrous force of nature with her horde of zombie brides doing her dirty work. Her feuds with Allie, Rosemary, and recently with Madison Rayne have been great to see unfold on Impact TV tapings over the past few months. If that's not enough, Tessa Blanchard hasn't been in the Knockouts title hunt yet, but she's been having her presence felt throughout this division as a constant reminder that she has that title in her crosshairs. I'm wondering who is going to be that one Knockout who is going to give her the standout performance in-ring that she really needs to get up to the next level in Impact Wrestling. A lot of people are calling her ascension on the indies, similar to how Charlotte Flair rose to dominance in WWE and I can easily see why on that comparison. Both women are second/third generation wrestlers with relatives who hold an impressive pedigree to live up to. It's either come out guns blazing or sink to the bottom of the talent pool like a brick.

Moose was diagnosed with a concussion after this event and haven't seen at the Impact TV tapings that took places that following week. Even though I was shocked that Austin Aries didn't drop the title to Moose there, especially after that great build and video package that preceded the match on PPV to sell Moose up as the next big thing and flag bearer for the company going forward. The other news coming out of this event after recent weeks is that Austin Aries is going to be one of many featured talent on the upcoming wrestling show that WGN America is set to air this fall season. I'm guessing Impact had a change of heart and saw it as the opportunity to have Aries continue to carry the championship with even more exposure on another network as Aries has been making rounds popping up to challenge for Ring of Honor's Television Championship as well. I'm not saying that he's bad at the role in the least. I'm just surprised that they haven't taken the title off him by now, that's all.

Enough going off-topic on Slammiversary XVI coverage though, let's switch gears and focus on what you're really here to get my thoughts upon and that's ReDefined.


X-Division Championship Match - Brian Cage (c) def. Fenix





Really scary moment here as Cage almost botched the Jumping Powerbomb from the top rope during the finish. Fenix was able to get his neck up in time before the landing but damn that was scary to look at. Other than that spot, this was a solid opener.



Best spot of the entire match was Cage catching Fenix out of the suicide dive and suplexing him to the floor. Man, I wish more big guys would do that to all of these cruiserweights and lightweights throwing themselves around recklessly.



Eli Drake def. Brandon Tidwell


I have no idea what this was about but it ended up being a complete waste of time. Complete squash here. I don't understand why they are wasting Drake in a spot like this on this card, but whatever.



Knockouts Championship Match - Tessa Blanchard def. Allie and Su Yung (c) to become the NEW Knockouts Champion





Kinda sloppy starting off, but once they got on the same page, this wasn't a bad match at all. My favorite spots were the three way submission holds and the Military Press Tessa performed to toss Su Yung out of the ring and into the crowd of Undead Brides standing at ringside. Allie had Su Yung laid out in the finish, but Tessa rolled her up to steal the win.



I wouldn't call this a win in dominant fashion (that's why her post-match promo seemed a bit off to me when she was acting like it was afterwards), but that Knockouts title belongs on Tessa right now. She's their biggest female star on the rise and it would make more sense to have everyone chasing and challenging her going forward.



The Smoke Show w/ Scarlett Bordeaux, featuring Grado, Catalina, and Joe Hendry




I couldn't help but crack up laughing at Grado here in this. Catalina has a right to fear Scarlett as she's better at "manipulating" her boys more than she is. Can I mention that this whole storyline is a clever call back to Katie Lea's previous Impact Wrestling gimmick as Winter who was manipulating Angelina Love to do her bidding? Here, she's playing Joe Hendry and Grado potentially against each other. I wonder how many people caught the vulgar references on the walls of the scene/studio where they were having this segment.

Crazy how well Scarlett's gimmick is getting over to say she hasn't wrestled a single match in Impact Wrestling and it's all been just mere segments and vignettes for her since she made her debut. I think Impact Wrestling are sitting on a potential goldmine with this character if they continue to play this up properly.



Rich Swann def. Petey Williams

The whole story to this match was that Swann had the Canadian Destroyer scouted and had a counter to it every time that Petey went for it. This made for a fun match here. Too bad it was over pretty fast, but there was a lot of great spots here to look out for. My personal favorite was the counter to the Destroyer to a powerbomb followed by a pin. From the annoyed look on Petey's face, this isn't over by a long shot.




After all of the hot water Swann found himself in last year, I'm glad to see him enjoying wrestling again. He's definitely right at home in the X-Division.



Update following Little Richie getting run over by the OGs




I had a few friends ask me what I thought about this last week, but I didn't see it live at the time and didn't catch up on the past two weeks worth of Impact Wrestling until earlier this week, so I'll give my thoughts now. The kid getting run over was a little in bad taste BUT it's entertainment. I've lost track of the death toll on Lucha Underground this season and you don't see anyone moaning about that. Glad to hear that the kid is okay, but watching it at the time didn't bother me in the least. As long as we're not doing stupid shit like 12 year old Izzy taking chokeslams on the indies then I'm fine with this for the sake of the storyline.



Austin Aries and Killer Kross def. Eddie Edwards





Moose allegedly assaulted backstage before the start of this match, so this match was started as a handicap match instead. Surprisingly enough, "crazy" Eddie Edwards was able to hold his own for most of this match until the numbers game caught up to him. Moose raced down to the rescue, only to turn on his alleged best friend Eddie Edwards.



I'm sorry but this didn't make a lick of damn sense to me. Aries was the one who gave Moose a concussion at Slammiversary and prevented him from becoming the new Impact World Champion. Did that Brainbuster scramble his brains or something? It makes no sense to me on why Moose would align with Aries and Kross. At this rate, I honestly can't see who is going to overthrow Aries unless they pull the Pentagon/Sami Calihan stuff into the main event picture. You could have Eli Drake somehow find his way back into the title picture, but I think that ship has sailed at this point. I wasn't crazy about this finish at all, but I won't pass final judgment on this until I see how they follow up with this on tonight's episode of Impact. From a narrative standpoint, I did like the final shot of Alisha Edwards coming out and slapping the taste out of Moose's mouth for his betrayal though. Shows that no matter how far off the deep end her husband has gone, she's still standing by his side.
Tags

Post a Comment

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post