Cero Reviews Impact Wrestling Sacrifice 2021

[cero2k]

Impact Wrestling Sacrifice 2021
March 13, 2021
Nashville, TN

Decay (w/ Rosemary) vs Reno Scum - 5/10
Not much story behind this match, both teams challenged each other on the Sacrifice go-home show. Match was ok, Reno Scum cut of Taurus of all people, which I found weird, but at the end Taurus got the win over Thornstowe. Steve's hot tag was somewhat good.

Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb with a K vs Havok & Nevaeh - 4.5/10
Dashwood and Kaleb have been trying to recruit partners for a while, and after seeing the issues that Havok and Nevaeh had after losing to Fire 'n Flava, they decided to try and pick them up, causing some dissension between the team, but at the end, they made Havok and Nevaeh a strong team, and now they're going to get their taste at them as a team.

This was pretty much every Tenille match we've seen, with her getting the upper hand because Kaleb helps her, but then she won't help Kaleb, and so the match gets turned around. At the end, Dashwood pinned Nevaeh after Kaleb reversed a roll up. This adds to the losing streak and frustration of Havok and Nevaeh.

Beer Guns (w/ Jake Something) vs Violent By Design (w/ Eric Young) - 6.5/10
As a result of losing to Jake Something, Deaner was punished by Young and Doering for the last weeks. Storm and Sabin confronted EY about his actions and abuse, only to get attacked by the trio. The match was booked, but with the number advantage on VBD, Jake Something offered to be out there for Sabin and Storm.

Good match. Story was similar to the previous match, but with the difference here being that Doering was always in control because he is just so awesome and dominant, while Deaner lost such control because he's tiny. Finish saw VBD control the ring and start circle around Sabin, but suddenly, Rhino, who had been previously taken out by VBD, come out, only for him to Gore Sabin instead and serve him up for Deaner to pin. Rhino has joined VBD, so I'm guessing Heath may not be coming back soon.

Hold Harmeless Match
Eddie Edwards vs Brian Myers - 7/10
The story between these two goes back a couple of months now. As of late, Myers has used lawyers and doctors in order to get out of wrestling Edwards, but after looking through the charade, D'Amore has booked Myers in a no rules match against Edwards so they can finally settle their differences. Hold Harmless is technically

Match was good by all means, but at this point I feel like I've seen this many times, and it always leaves me hoping they would just have a normal match, no weapons, with more time, and have better pacing. This really didn't need weapons at all, it had been perfectly ok without them. To a point, you start agreeing with Myers, Edwards is just a 'weapons' wrestler now a days.

Anyway, finish saw Eddie win with a loaded BKP after hitting a Tiger Bomb and a Backpack Stunner through a table. Hernandez and Cardona showed up, but didn't really do much.

Impact Knockouts Tag Team Title Match
Fire 'N Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz) (c) vs. Jazz & Jordynne Grace - 8/10
Grace and Jazz became the #1 contenders to the Knockouts tag team championships after defeating the team of Kimber Lee and Susan about a month ago. Ever since, they've feuded with Hogan and Steelz.

This was my favorite match up to this point. I really really love the work of Hogan and Steelz, especially as a team, and for that matter, hell of a late run that Jazz is having, she has looked good ever since debuting for Impact. The story was similar to the feud with Havok & Nevaeh, but with a far better performance. Grace and Jazz had the power and experience advantage, but they're not a tag team like Hogan and Steelz are, so when it came 1-vs-1, Grace and Jazz would control the ring, but if FnF managed to cut either up, they would dominate with their tag team work and quick tags. At the end, double team work prevailed and Hogan pinned Grace with her rolling Fisherman Suplex.

Impact X-Division Title Match
TJP (c) vs. Ace Austin (w/Madman Fulton) - 8.5/10
Ever since winning the Super X Cup, Austin has been asking for his well earned singles shot for the X Division championship, he has jumped every one of D'Amore's hoops and straight up defeated everyone in the division to finally get his match. It's a really backwards book if you think about it.

Great back and forward match. They would go from submission and chain wrestling, to high flying stuff, to great sequences of counters and pin reversals. TJP worked over the leg, while Austin worked over the head. It all came down to the end where TJP was chasing the kneebar, but Ace escaped, dropped TJP with a footstomp DDT and the Fold for the win. Ace Austin is the new X Division champion.

Impact Knockouts Title Match
Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. ODB - 6.5/10
ODB made her return to the promotion on February 2nd, saving Jordynne Grace and Jazz from the attacks of Purrazzo, Lee, and Susan. Weeks later, Purrazzo singled out ODB and attacked her backstage. After ODB got her retaliation a week later, the match was signed.

This wasn't the best match by all means, but I really enjoyed how it played out. It was a clash of style, ODB is a brawler, and Purrazzo a technician, so the match was a lot of back and forward with ODB landing some of her moves, and then Purrazzo countering the other half into some sort of arm submission. At the end, Purrazzo once again countered ODB into the Fujiwara Armbar, but then went and transitioned into the Venus de Milo and ODB had to submit. It was short and concise, and the right person won decisively.

Impact World Tag Team Title Match
The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) (c) vs. FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) - 8/10
The story between these teams could go all he way back to NJPW, but here on Impact, it's seniors trying to one up their younger counterparts, except Robinson and Finlay aren't Young Lions anymore and were ready to fire back. Their back and forward trash talk eventually led to FinJuice challenging for the titles, that the Good Brothers obliged.

Ok, so I didn't see this coming. FinJuice, who are already back in Japan in the New Japan Cup, won the tag team titles from the Good Brothers, who I honestly expected to feud with the Young Bucks for the titles at one point. I honestly find myself happier knowing the tag titles didn't go to AEW.

Match was basic, two teams mostly known for the Japan work, but working an American paced match. Good Brothers cut off Finlay, worked over him for a while, Juice had the hot tag. Things came down to Finlay saving Robinson from a Magic Killer, Juice hitting each brother with the Right Hand of God, FinJuice got rid of Gallows for enough time so that they could hit a Doomsday Device on Anderson for the win.

Impact World Title / TNA World Heavyweight Unification Match
Rich Swann (c) vs. Moose (c) - 8.5/10
A years worth of character build for both Moose and Swann finally reaches their climax. Moose, self-proclaimed TNA World Champion, that stole a title belt from a warehouse and actually managed to defend it over a year now seeks to win the Impact World Championship in order to finally get the recognition he deserves. Moose's whole 2020 and a bit of 2019 was all built to him getting this match, ever since he started his feud with TNA guys after that TNA nostalgia show had been announced. Rich Swann, who came back after a gruesome injury, only to fight and crawl to win and retain the championship, now faces a man that has been stalking him for months, that injured his best friend Willie Mack, and that has been on a rampage for months. After tonight, Impact will have just one World Champion, and that World Champion will have a second opportunity to win more gold as the winner will face off against AEW's Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at Rebellion.

Big match feels!

This was great. For some time now, most Swann matches have him be the small underdog fighting through the pain. Moose's matches have been him being a complete and utter monster heel, dominant, and the type of guy that has lost for not going for the win, as he just wants to hurt people to make a point. And so, their matches merged perfectly here, with a super dominant Moose, and a fired up Swann that just wouldn't give up. Swann kept having comebacks and Moose kept cutting him off, never losing a beat. Even with the finish, Moose looked super strong, just not smarter than Swann.

Finish saw Moose start to go for the Lights Out over and over, but Swann kept dodging him, and tricking him into the ring posts, but Moose just kept on coming, so Swann instead used the momentum of a Lights Out and rolled over Moose and pinned him for the win. Arguably an upset win.

Moose looked fantastic, it's a great tragedy to me that this whole Impact vs AEW thing is happening because to me, this should had been Moose's big win, but since the Rebellion match with Omega is coming up, and we KNOW Omega is winning, (1) they didn't want to have heel vs heel, and (2) for the benefit of Moose, they were not just going to have him be a champion for a month.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a really good show from Impact. All the early matches were somewhat weak since they didn't really had nothing going on for them, but once the title matches started, they all felt like bigger deals and while some were short, the wrestling was better.