May 25, 2018
Orlando, Fl
Show started with a recap of Z&E's story into winning the titles. I really think they should be called E&Z and their catchphrase should be "We make it look EZ". Opening promo also covered the Rayne vs Tessa thing, Kongo vs Moose build up, and whatever chapter we're at of Eddie vs Callihan. Don Callis is back on commentary btw.
Talking about Moose vs Kong, Impact made an awesome looking poster for the match, there should be a "best graphics department" award to give it to Impact.
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OVE w/Sami Callihan vs Drago & Aerostar - No rating, meh segment.Aerostar and Drago dove into OVE during the entrances, but OVE quickly got control of the match and worked over Drago for a while.
Mid-match, we got a camera from the parking lot with Eddie Edwards arriving with a kendo stick and Alisha is chasing him telling him that it's over. Eddie makes it to the ring and attacks all three OVE guys for the DQ. Eddie chokes out Callihan with refs trying to stop him, Callihan at this point looks like the babyface, Eddie is completely deranged. If this needs to go somewhere next, it's ok, but let's get it on with. Eddie at the end took out security.
Backstage Alisha confronts Eddie. Alisha tells him to finish this, Eddie says that he needs Callihan in the woods, no refs, no rings, he just wants to kill him. Eddie says that he is doing it for Alisha, but Alisha says that he's becoming Callihan himself.
Cult of Lee vs LAX - 6.5/10
CoL worked over Ortiz for a while after a hot start of LAX. Santana came in with the hot tag and whatever school or club of kids that is in the crowd went crazy for it. Kids love their local cartel. Finish saw LAX set up Caleb for a Hart Attack, but Lee got rid of Ortiz and Santana got rolled up by Caleb for the win. LAX keeps losing
Jimmy Jacobs Interview - Jacobs says that he's a good guy, and that it's really Moose that is a bad guy. Tonight he wants Kong to break Moose and he always gets what he wants.
KM and Bahh Segment - They find Grado and Katarina, KM tells Bahh that if Grado can get a woman like Katarina, Bahh can get even better.
GWN match - This was a bad combination of a Ken Anderson match and a Bully Ray/Jeff Hardy/Hogans (yes plural) segment. Ken Anderson, Brooke Hogan, Aces and Eights, tons of things I had already forgotten about.
Madison Rayne Interview - Rayne is putting over the Knockouts when she is interrupted by Tessa that tells her to stay at home or meet her face-to-face in the ring. They're going at it at Under Pressure.
Z&E Interview - They're barely starting when Steiner and Drake interrupt them and Steiner is going crazy, but the dissension between Drake and Steiner continued with some hilarious lines.
X-Division Championship Match
El Hijo del Fantasma vs "Reborn" Matt Sydal (C) - 7/10
Sydal faked a back injury early in the match in order to have the ref block Fantasma to getting to him and Sydal took advantage to get the upper hand. Sydal worked over him with some submissions and some big spots, but Fantasma eventually made his comeback and went for Sydal's legs. Fantasma was going for the Thrill of the Kill, but Sydal turned it into a Chemical Imbalance II for the win. Good match, but the finish was kinda underwhelming as it was set up.
LAX Promo - They're in the clubhouse going crazy. King finally shows up, it's fucking EDDIE KINGSTON!! King explains that K-Dogg got jumped and that he is third in command, that he is getting everything back on normal, but Santana and Ortiz need to stop this losing streak. This was awesome!
Austin Aries Promo - Good, he talks about him being the chaser to Pentagon's title.
Winner has to be sacrificed to Cage
Petey Williams vs Dezmond Xavier - 8/10
This is actually the stipulation, that whoever wins is fighting Cage at Under Pressure. During this match, Callis compared Petey Williams to Minoru Suzuki always being predictable with their respective piledrivers since they always go for them early in the matches. Later he said that Xavier's dives were shades of Omega.
Great match with tons of great action, back and forward that could had gone to either man. Petey kept going for the Canadian Destroyer, but was never able to land it, meanwhile Xavier just kept hitting him with all his best moves until he finally got yet another counter on the Destroyer and hit a back flip for the win.
DARK Allie Vignette - Allie has gone into the dark side, she put on Rosemary's attire and face paint. The mirror she is looking at says 'Don't let the darkness consume you, love R. Good video with a really interesting development. The match will be a Last Rite's Match (AKA Casket Match).
Moose vs Kongo Kong
Kongo came out alone, even Kongo was confused that Jimmy wasn't there with him. This was an all out hoss fight, and it was better than I originally expected given the players. Match saw Kongo be dominant, but Kongo couldn't concentrate since he didn't have Jacobs there to tell him what to do and kept looking back at the ramp for him. Moose eventually made a comeback but as he was going for the Game Changer, Kongo turned it into an Ushigoroshi. After some kicks, Moose finally got the setup for the Spear, which he hit to win.
Post-match - We got a video from the X-Men showing that they had taken out Jacobs. So not even heels are safe!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show by itself, but not necessarily that good to build up towards what I think it's just a special. The wrestling was good overall and the storyline developments were good too with LAX, Allie, and the X-men.
