On Tuesday, August 18 and Tuesday, August 25, IMPACT Wrestling’s Emergence took over AXS TV for a two-week special event. Personal rivalries will be settled and championships will be on the line.

Emergence Night 1 (Aug. 18, 2020) Results:



X-Division Championship
 Rohit Raju def. Chris Bey (c) and TJP
Winner: Rohit Raju pins Chris Bey after a double foot stomp to become the NEW Champion!

Rohit Raju picking up the win and stealing the title away from Chris Bey was the upset win of the evening. I thought TJP had this thing pegged to win from how he was dominating this match from bell to bell.

One hell of way to get you pumped for this show in terms of action. The X-Division never seems to disappoint in that regard, despite the fact that almost EVERYONE in modern wrestling works this style nowadays. It's a constant struggle for those guys to continue being innovative and still find ways to stand out in this environment.

Instead of the tagline being "You'll Never See It Coming" for Summerslam, it should have been for Night 1 of this show. Like who seriously saw Rohit winning this match?



TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Moose (c) def. Trey
Winner: Moose retains with the Lights Out Spear

Trey TRIED to put up a good fight against Moose, but the tale of this match was that despite the fact that Trey gave it his best shot, it was ultimately not enough to take Mr. Impact Wrestling down.

EC3 showed up post-match and laid out Moose again, only to take the TNA World Championship into his own hands.



The Good Brothers, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows def. Ace Austin & Madman Fulton
Winners: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows with the Magic Killer

Decent match, but I can't say that I wanted to see these two teams fight each other again.



WrestleHouse
Kylie Rae def. Taya Valkyrie (w/ Rosemary as Special Guest Referee)


I get what they are trying to do with Kylie Rae. They want to present her as their "bubbly" babyface like Bayley that has an "edge" about her when the going gets tough. I like that, but her matches tend to be a very hit or miss. The right woman went over here as Kylie Rae is still technically the next number #1 contender for the IMPACT Knockouts Championship before everyone was "trapped" in WrestleHouse

I haven't talked about the Wrestle House concept much if not at all, but I actually really like it. A lot of modern wrestling has a lot of "stupid" things on these shows whether it comes from AEW or WWE that simply insults my intelligence for even tolerating it. This is "stupid" too, but it's not presented as serious. It's a sitcom of sorts presented as a sidebar to the rest of the actual wrestling show, so I don't mind it in that regard. Besides, this makes for a lot of hilarious interactions with a lot of IMPACT's current personalities that wouldn't happen normally otherwise, so I'm all for this in that regard.

As much as I like WrestleHouse as a concept/diversion to what is usually going on the main program of sorts, even I have to admit that a lot of these matches are easily forgettable. I can't knock them too much as these matches never seem to overstay their welcome.


World Tag Team Championship
Motor City Machine Guns (c), Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley def. The North, Ethan Page & Josh Alexander to retain


There were a ton of points in this match where I could have seen this going either way, but I was glad to see the Guns retain. The North can bounce back from this loss and climb back up the tag team ladder that got them to the tag titles in the first place. I doubt they are done with the Guns - not by a long shot. My fear going into this match was that the Guns' victory was just a one-off for the Guns to simply drop the titles back to The North in another month or two at the next PPV.

The Guns can bring some more eyeballs and lapsed fans back to the current product who are curious to see them back with the company. Nothing against The North, but it wouldn't hurt them to work a few non-title feuds in the meantime. Those guys have proven time and time again that they are one of the best tag teams in modern day wrestling right now.




Emergence Night 2 (Aug. 25, 2020) Results:




Impact World Championship
Eddie Edwards (c) def. Rob Van Dam (w/ Katie Forbes)


I wasn't feeling the idea of putting the title onto Edwards following Tessa Blanchard's impromptu departure from the company, but I can't deny the guy is a work horse. These open challenges are already starting to feel stale, despite the fact that RVD can still go like time has stood still for the guy at times. That just can't be helped when AEW already dragged that concept into the ground with the TNT title open challenges with Cody.


I did get a laugh at Katie Forbes' porn star-esque antics at ringside for distractions, but I am more intrigued with what they are going to do with Eric Young's heel run this time around. It makes perfect sense to have him jump Edwards after the match and shoehorn himself into the World title conversation after putting Rich Swann on the bench - seemingly for good.


WrestleHouse
Loser Has To Dress Like The Winner Next Week
Crazzy Steve def. Johnny Swinger
(w/ Cousin Jake as a special guest referee)


Can't say that I have ever have been a fan of these blindfold matches as they tend to be a clusterfuck instead of good in any capacity - no matter what company it is. I didn't care who won this one in either capacity.


Locker Room Talk
Madison Rayne w/ her co-hosts Wentz and Dez.



I would pop to see Rayne in the Clubhouse and she's TOTALLY a Karen.


EC3 vows to destroy the TNA World Heavyweight Championship


Can you blame the guy for wanting to destroy his past? His entire 2nd run of WWE was defined by hype and anticipation of people expecting him to be the same as he was at the height of his popularity in IMPACT, but it never happened - neither in NXT nor on the main roster.


If EC3 truly wants to reinvent the wheel then he has to burn the book and start over anew.


Brian Myers def. Willie Mack


After seeing him job out for so long on WWE programming, I tend to forget that Myers is actually a decent worker. I totally didn't see him going over Mack here at all. I wonder where they are going with this, especially with Myers taking the Brodie Lee approach to his arrival in terms of referencing the "senile old man" who held him down.


WrestleHouse
Larry D def. John E Bravo
(w/Acey Romero as their guest referee)


This was over QUICK. Larry D dropped Bravo like ton of bricks.

This was ultimately just to get to the icing on the cake where Bravo has the balls to confess his feelings for Rosemary, much to the ire of Taya.


Rosemary made an interesting post on social media shortly afterwards though. In either case, I'm anxious to see Taya and Rosemary rekindle their old rivalry next week. Maybe this will bring an end to WrestleHouse as it was a nice diversion, but everyone here should be moving onto other things sooner more than later instead of wearing out the welcome of this unique concept.





30-Minute Ironman Match for the Knockouts Championship
Deonna Purrazzo (c) def. Jordynne Grace with the score of 2-1 to retain

Nice pair of info cards/tale of tape that they made for this match. 

This was easily the best thing on Night 2 of Emergence and rightfully topped off this show. I can't say that this was a full 30 minutes because this match started roughly 9:32PM after the introductions and I'm sure there was some sweetening and clever editing throughout the commercial breaks to make this fit within the remaining time on this broadcast.

Going into this match, I was convinced that Deonna was dropping the title right back to Jordynne since she's working "per appearance" and hasn't signed an actual contract with IMPACT at the moment. With that being said, I was genuinely shocked to see her retain the gold here. I'm guessing this means that she is set to defend the title against Kylie Rae at Bound for Glory in October.

I wouldn't mind another match between these two women as they have been doing some great stuff here in this feud so far. Jordynne's new ring gear looked great as well. Thicc Momma Thicc (or is it Pump in homage to the jokes that she's Scott Steiner's unofficial daughter?) always lookin' good.


Given the way that Deonna won the match, I'm sure Jordynne could argue that Deonna didn't beat her clean and had to cheat to win, but at the same time, Deonna has the bragging rights to claim that she's bested Jordynne not once but twice now since her debut in IMPACT Wrestling. They could easily go to a third set in this series.

My only knock on this match is that it would have benefited with an uninterrupted format on a PPV instead of on free television, but the Knockouts rarely disappoint and I was definitely pleased with what we got here.
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