Cero Reviews Impact Wrestling Slammiversary XVI

[cero2k]

Impact Wrestling Slammiversary XVI
July 22, 2018
Rebel Entertainment Complex, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Show started with the cold open video, good stuff, but we saw way too much of the voice dude. Venue looks amazing!

"Bone Soldier" Taiji Ishimori vs Johnny Impact vs Petey Williams vs Fenix - 8/10
This was all action. Imagine old school X-Division with these guys. Fenix and Impact were the top guys in the match, with Fenix being the one that got the show off the most. Everyone got to hit their signature moves, ending with Impact hitting the Starship Pain on Fenix to win. Best way to start the show.

Tessa Blanchard vs Allie - 6.5/10
Good solid match. Tessa's ring presence is something to behold, and her wrestling style just looks like it hurts. Match was mostly back and forward, they fought both in and out the ring. Almost from the start, both women were chasing their finishing stuff, Allie with the BSE and the Death Allie Driver, but it was Tessa who hit her Hammerlock DDT for the win.

House of Hardcore Rules Match
Eddie Edwards vs Tommy Dreamer - 6.5/10
This was hardcore, old school hardcore (as opposed to what you'll see in Pentagon vs Callihan). Kendo sticks and staple guns, tables that never got used. Match was pretty much a hardcore fight, tons of weapons here and there, they traded momentum on several occasions. Arguably the big spots here were Dreamer hitting the Spicolli Driver from the top rope onto chairs. Later in the match we saw Dreamer bring out of table and lighter fluid, which they teased, because Eddie took out Dreamer with a BKP to a chair for the win. Fans didn't like that the table went unused even after the post match stuff.

Post-match - Eddie starts having a mental breakdown and he is crying, asking Dreamer for forgiveness. Dreamer doesn't trust him until Alisha comes out and tells Eddie that this is it. Eddie and Dreamer kinda embrace and Dreamer gives Eddie the kendo stick, as in passing the "Innovator of Violence" torch on to Eddie. Alisha didn't stay with Eddie tho

Impact Wrestling X-Division Championship
"Reborn" Matt Sydal (C) vs "The Machine" Brian Cage - 7/10
Good PWG style match. We saw a lot of Sydal working on Cage's legs and hitting cool looking spots, while Cage was being strong and athletic. Cage seemed heavier than usual, if that is even possible, but he still did great. Finish was kind of ugly, not sure if intentional, since it was Sydal botching a SSP when he hit his feet on the way down, missing Cage, and the Cage followed with a Drill Claw for the pin as he crowned himself the new champion.

Rayne vs Yung Build-up video - Great, it was all the stuff we saw in the last month, but putting it all together, it all made sense. I loved putting the 'I tell my daughter Monsters don't exist" part and cutting it with the scenes of Rayne being terrified by Su Yung.

Impact Wrestling Knockout's Championship Match
"The Undead Bride" Su Yung (C) w/The Bridesmaids vs "Queen Bee" Madison Rayne - 6.5/10
A pretty good match that didn't last long and had a finish that felt from out of nowhere. Rayne brought a lot of fight, she had to fight off some undead brides that slowly approached the ring one by one. Finish came when Yung locked in the Mandible Claw and choked out Rayne. I figured that Rayne would at least get out of it at least once, but she didn't. If anything else, Su Yung locked in the Claw in a really cool looking way.

Post-match - Su Yung puts Madison Rayne in the coffin. Su Yung celebrates on top of the coffin. Josh was perfectly ok with his wife being buried alive.

LAX Promo - Konna hypes up their boys with an awesome promo.

LAX vs OGs Build-up Video - Awesome! Not really a summary of what has happened, because there really was a lot more going on week to week, but a great hype video.

5150 Street Fight for the Impact Wrestling Tag Team Championships
Latin American Xchange w/Konnan vs Original Gs w/King - 8/10
Remember that time long long time ago when Homicide had facepaint of a skill ghost? Really iconic look for LAX Homicide, well now it's Santana and Ortiz sporting the look. Ortiz also shaved his beard and has braids tonight, so he actually looks a LOT like Homicide. Hernandez, the once Mexican Superman looks in bad shape at least considering how he used to look, dude can still move tho.

Match quickly went hardcore, within minutes, we had two tables in the ring and they were hitting each other with open head shots using those cooking trays, Hernandez and Ortiz bleeding early on. OGs had control of LAX for a long while until Homicide hinted using drain-o on Santana like the old Cabana feud. LAX made their comeback and brought in a ladder to the match and hit a double team move on Hernandez on it.

LAX hit the 5150 but Hernandez dragged the ref out of the ring to stop the pin. We saw Homicide take out Santana with a tope con giro to the outside THROUGH a table. Then inside, Ortiz hit a DVD on Homicide on another table, then Hernandez hit the Border Toss on Ortiz on ANOTHER table, and finally, it was Santana that hit a big time rolling senton onto Hernandez who was in the corner.

Finish finally came between Santana and Cide when Homicide is going for the for the Cop Killah, but gets distracted with Konnan. Cide and Konnan get in a war of words, about to go at it, but behind Cide's eyes, Konnan throws some thumbtacks to Santana, who spreads them, slams Cide on them, and hits a huge Frog Splash for the win. This was what it needed to be, an all out violent brawl.

Post-match - King comes in with a soap in a sock and takes out LAX, Konnan makes a stand, but Hernandez takes him out from behind. King tags the titles with 'OG' as the stand on top of the body of Konnan.

Sami Callihan Promo - Great promo. He talks about putting your hair on the line makes no sense, he deals with violence instead (which tells me Callihan hasn't seen some of the Apuestas matches in Mexico). He says he'll win.

Callihan vs Pentagon Build-up Video - Good stuff. It had some new footage where we see Pentagon take out the Crist brothers by breaking their arms.

Hair vs Mask Relaxed Rules match
Sami Callihan vs Pentagon Jr - 9/10
This match was a lot of striking, lots of chops, lots of kicks, the only problem is that both men are heavily protected with vests, so when they got into chop-offs, I just couldn't take it seriously. After a bit, Callihan started to bring a ton of weapons to the ring, including a pair of spikes. Callihan tore up Pentagon's mask a bit while he's working on Pentagon, at this point Callihan busted Pentagon open with the spikes. Callihan teased using the bat again, but Pentagon started his own comeback, also spiking Callihan. Match at this point is quite bloody. There was a Frye v Takayama spot WITH THE FUCKING SPIKES! Do I need to mention the blood again?

They did slap-offs, they did chair-offs. Pentagon went for the arm breaker, but Pentagon wasted too much time and Callihan got out, I could totally hear Vampiro saying that Pentagon wastes too much time playing to the fans. Crists came out, but Pentagon took them out quickly, but it was enough for Callihan to throw powder on Pentagon's face, and a blind Pentagon ended up breaking the Ref's arm! Best ref bump ever! Pentagon hits the Penta Driver immediately, but the ref is a wimp that can't count with a broken arm. At least it was half and half as Callihan also had a visual pin after a piledriver.

Crazy near fall when Pentagon hit the Fear Factor on top of four chairs. Pentagon hits two superkicks and breaks Callihan's arm, follows with the Fear Factor again and Sami Callihan has lost his hair. It was ultraviolent, but fuck this was awesome, exactly what I expected from both these guys.

Post-match - As Pentagon is gonna shave him, the Crists attack Pentagon, but Pentagon fights them off. Callihan runs away unfortunately, but from behind, Fenix brings back Callihan and Pentagon finally shaves Callihan off. Securoty held off the Crists in the ring. Fans started to chant 'Shave his beard' and the visual of Callihan's reaction was awesome.

Bond For Glory Announcement - It is coming to NYC on October 14. Melrose Ballroom

Impact Wrestling World Championship Match
Austin Aries (C) vs Moose - 8/10
They brought out some dude Curtis Granderson, Blue Jays player, Aries is antagonizing him, so expect him to do something. No fancy entrance for Moose this time, he's here to win titles, not show off.

Moose worked over Aries' torso, while Aries worked over Moose's legs. Match saw Moose dominate Aries for a long while from the opening, even with Aries cheating, he even hit the Go To Hell for a near fall, and Aries hadn't gotten any heat on him yet. Every time Aries had some move, Moose would just overpower him. Aries finally had some offense when he countered a spear into the Last Chancery, but Moose reached the ropes quickly.

Moose's offense went on, he manhandled Aries outside. Aries low blowed him and Moose responded with a Brainbuster counter into his own Brainbuster and spear, but only for a near fall. Moose threw Aries over the ramp into some people over the guardrail, but he still couldn't get rid of Aries, and as they brawl outside the ring, Aries drops him with a Brainbuster for the count out near fall. Aries finally having Moose down, goes for the title, but this Granderson dude takes it away from him and Moose got a near fall with a school boy, but then out of nowhere, Aries landed a Brainbuster for the win.

Really surprised about the fiinsh, it was out of nowhere and truly, all last month, it felt like this was Moose's night. I'm guessing they'll keep Moose's win for BFG then, I'm not sure anymore. The match was great, but it was weird seeing Moose have soo much offense over Aries, yet not win it. I almost want a roll up win.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A truly great show for Impact Wrestling, great wrestling, great production, and all. While watching the show I was thinking, way too many blood matches, I felt that one was overshadowed the prior, but overall, I think they were all considerably different styles that by the end, I think they all had their 'thing'.