Impact Genesis live results: Super X-Cup tournament, Moose vs. Mack

Preview by Josh Nason

The road to Hard To Kill goes through Genesis, an event streaming Saturday on Impact Plus.

While there are no title matches or Kenny Omega appearances scheduled, it will feature the return of the Super X-Cup, a one-night tournament that has been on ice since 2017 that used to feature eight of the world’s top high flyers.

This year’s field is still an impressive one despite pandemic-related travel restrictions as the first round will feature Ace Austin vs. Suicide, Daivari vs. Cousin Jake, Crazzy Steve vs. Tre Lamar, and KC Navarro vs. Blake Christian. 

The event will also feature former Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace vs. Jazz in a clash of partners from the Knockouts Tag Team Title tournament. They lost in the semifinals last week and Grace challenged Jazz out of a show of respect.

Finally, in a grudge match, Moose will go up against Willie Mack under “I Quit” rules, meaning no countouts or DQs. 

Our coverage starts at 8 PM Eastern.

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Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne opened the show running down the card for tonight.

– We got a video package for Ace Austin and Suicide. D’Amore, Shelley, and Sabin talked about Suicide and who could be under the mask. Austin talked about himself and his greatness and reclaiming the X Division Championship in 2021.

Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) defeated Suicide in a Super X Cup First Round Match

Good opener. Suicide was quite dominant in this match, using a lot of submissions, and even after being cut off thanks to a distraction from Fulton, Suicide regained momentum over Austin. It wasn’t until the last minutes of the match that Austin gained control of the match, and even then, it was more of a back and forward match. 

Suicide got a couple of good near falls, one after a crazy deadlift suplex, but at the end, after another distraction from Fulton, Austin hit the fold for the win.

Austin waits for the winner of Daivari vs Cousin Jake.

– We got a video package for KC Navarro and Christian Blake. Navarro cut a great promo, he’s got a lot of charisma in his voice. Christian sounds down to earth, but not that appealing in the mic. Promos were a contract between looks vs heart for Navarro and Christian respectively.

Blake Christian defeated KC Navarro in a Super X Cup First Round Match

Story of the match was that Navarro was showing that he could do anything that the fan favorite Christian could do, and even more. Match started slow with some mat wrestling, Navarro showing off his superior submission work, constantly playing to the camera. After Christian tried to speed up the match, Navarro came back showing that he could go fast too. 

Nearing the end, Christian eventually made a comeback and ran wild for some minutes before hitting a twisting splash for the win. 

Christian waits for the winner of Tre Lamar vs Crazzy Steve.

– We got a video package for Daivari and Cousin Jake. Daivari talked about being all over the world and being experienced. Jake talked about his ongoing story with Eric Young, Cody Deaner, and Joe Doering, but also talked about being the biggest guy in the tournament, and using that to win the tournament. 

Cousin Jake defeated Daivari in a Super X Cup First Round Match

This was more of a hoss fight than a usual X Division match. A lot of clobbering, a lot of whipping each other from corner to corner, a lot of chops and clotheslines, but also a couple of dives from Jake. 

Match saw Jake dominate early thanks to his size advantage, but after missing a crossbody and going neck first into the ropes, Jake was cut off and worked on by Daivari, who focused on the legs. At the end, Jake powered up and made a comeback for a couple of near falls. Last couple of minutes were back and forward action, ending with a big blackhole slam from Jake.

Ace Austin vs Cousin Jake for the semifinal.

– We got video packages for Tre Lamar and Crazzy Steve. Lamar didn’t show much in terms of promo, but not bad either. Steve was actually really good, but just terrible content.

Crazzy Steve defeated Tre Lamar in a Super X Cup First Round Match

Story here is that Steve is too weird for Lamar, who kept getting freaked out by him, his antics, and just kept asking him to ‘act normal’. It wasn’t even just the unorthodox wrestling style, but just Steve trying to lick him during lockups. Eventually Lamar managed to cut him off and get a wrestling match out of Steve. 

Crazzy Steve hit a second rope Russian leg sweep to finally slow down Lamar. They traded strikes and near falls, but at the end Steve hit his second rope DDT for the win.

This was surprisingly good, but I feel like Lamar could have had a better match with anyone else. At least he got to show off his acting skills.

Crazzy Steve vs Blake Christian for the second semifinal.

– Gia Miller interviewed Moose about his match tonight. Moose said that Mack made a mistake by requesting an I Quit match against him. He did it out of anger, and this match just happened to make Moose angry too, and so tonight, he’ll send a message to Rich Swann via Willie Mack. Moose said he is not going out there to hear Mack quit, but he is looking into sending him to the hospital, and what of all things, will make Mack quit.

Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) defeated Cousin Jake in a Super X Cup Semifinal Match

They went for a speed vs size match, even if Austin is not exactly a small guy anymore. Early on, the match saw a lot of Austin running around the ring with quick shots, but once Jake had a hold of Austin, he’d  stop him dead on and plant him with one strike. 

At one point, Jake hit a dive on both Austin and Fulton, angering Fulton, and from there one, he’d kept getting in Jake’s face, distracting him for Austin to take out and finally cut off. Fulton smartly never laid a hand on Jake.

The action in the final minutes was great, Jake got good near fall with the same slam that he defeated Daivari. Finish saw Austin block a second rope gutwrench suplex from Jake, and follow with a springboard fold for the win. This match was great, Cousin Jake had a great showing this show.

Ace Austin awaits the winner of Crazzy Steve vs Blake Christian semifinal.

– Rich Swann and Willie Mack had a talk backstage. Swann told Mack that he knew Moose was a dangerous man, but he knew that Mack had no quit in him and that Mack wasn’t a stepping stone nor a messenger boy. 

Blake Christian defeated Crazzy Steve in a Super X Cup Semifinal Match

Christian is sporting a black eye from the first round match with KC Navarro. 

Story here was that early on, in between moves, Crazzy Steve kept talking to his pet monkey in his corner. It was all friendly competition until Christian accidentally kicked the monkey off the apron and Crazzy Steve snapped and went berserk on Christian. 

This was another great match for Crazzy Steve tonight. They traded momentum a couple of times, but once they went back and forward for the second half of the match, the action was great. At the end, Blake Christian caught Steve in the ropes and hit a springboard 450 for the win.

Not necessarily heel, but Steve did work a far more vicious style than normal, once again showing that he could be great in the ring if not for pet monkeys and Joker-impersonations. 

Super X Cup Finals are Ace Austin vs Blake Christian.

– Miller interviewed Jazz about her match tonight. Jazz said that she had already announced retirement, but she just couldn’t turn down Grace’s invitation to wrestle for Impact.

Jordynne Grace defeated Jazz

Jazz made her Impact debut as the tag team partner or Grace, for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament. They managed to defeat the team of Killer Kelly and Renee Michelle, but fell to the team of Havok and Nevaeh. Before Jazz could go and retire, Grace asked for a match.

They had a bit of a hoss fight, back and forward action all throughout, somewhat physical, with a lot of striking between the two, a lot of slamming each other. Jazz doesn’t have a fast paced match, but she can still pull off high impact moves, both in the offensive and defensive sides. It seemed like as the match went on, both women got more comfortable going all out and started pulling out bigger moves and putting some more weight into the match.

At the end, finish saw both women trade roll ups and reversals, ending with Grace picking up the win after reversing an O’Connor roll.

If this was indeed Jazz’s retirement match, she couldn’t ask for a better opponent and a better match, this was great.

– Miller interviewed Blake Christian about the finals. Christian said that his emotions were all over the place, but he was going after Ace Austin, who always has an ace under the sleeve.

Ace Austin defeated Blake Christian to win the 2021 Super X Cup.

Austin sent Madman Fulton to the back at the start of the match, saying he’d win this by himself.

This was really acrobatic, the most aerial match we had seen in the tournament; however, it never looked choreographed or like they were going through sequences. It just happened to be two wrestlers that were comfortable in the air and that happened to spin around while dodging each other.

Match started somewhat balanced between the two, but as it went on, Austin began to be more dominant, while Christian kept having small hope spots and comebacks that Austin would quickly shut down. As the match went on, Chistian’s offense started to pile up on Austin to the point that he had to run away from Christian, who still chased and got near falls after top rope splashes and double foot stomps. Christian even went for the 450 that he used to defeat Crazzy Steve, but Austin dodged it and hit his own senton for a near fall. 

Finish was a great sequence with Austin dodging the twisting splash, Christian dodging the fold, and going into pin attempts and reversals that ended with both men just trading strikes in the middle of the ring until Austin dropped Christian with a second fold for the win. Great match.

After the match, Fulton came out to celebrate with Ace Austin. Scott D’Amore came out to give Austin the winner’s trophy and congratulate him.

Willie Mack defeated Moose in an I Quit Match

These two have been feuding over a month now. It all started when Moose started to make moves towards challenging Swann for the world title, and he did it by attacking Mack. Moose and Mack have traded wins, the last one being by ref stoppage when Moose took out Mack, and the latter wasn’t able to defend himself.

This match really suffered from the referee, and the wrestlers for that matter, constantly asking for the I Quit. It wasn’t five minutes that the referee was asking after Moose would get whipped to the guardrail or slammed on the ramp. At one point Moose did start to tell the referee to stop asking. 

All that aside, the actual wrestling was good. They went back and forward from the start, trading attacks, some quite physical. They brawled outside the ring for a while before a table and chairs came in to play.

Mack had a good run in the offensive, hitting Moose with a chair over and over and landing a couple of frog splashes on Moose, but not enough to win. Moose would later recover and hit a huge go to hell from the top rope to the floor through a table, this spot turned the match around.

Moose came back with three book ends, Mack responded with a superplex onto a pile of chairs, but neither men would give up.

Finish saw Moose knockout Mack with straight elbows to the face, but he wasn’t done, he mocked Mack for not being able to quit anymore and went to Pillmanize Mack’s neck. Rich Swann came down and asked Moose to stop, he was going too far, Mack was already knocked out. Moose wasn’t stopping, and so Swann offered Moose the title shot he’d been chasing if he’d let Mack go. Moose said that he now had what he wanted and quit. 

It’s an interesting way to end the match and somewhat protect Mack from quitting. It’s an end that in any other long match, it would be somewhat infuriating, but the nature of the finish, especially in an I Quit match, does kinda force it go long before pulling the trigger on someone not being able to even quit for themselves. We’ll have to wait and see when Moose vs Swann takes place.

Final thoughts — 

A consistently good show inside the ring, just straight up good wrestling with little to no shenanigans.