Impact Wrestling live results: 20-man battle royal for World title shot
Preview by Josh Nason
20 men will compete in a battle royal on Thursday’s Impact Wrestling with the winner earning a title shot against Impact World Champion Kenny Omega at August 20th’s Emergence.
While the full field hasn’t been announced, Moose, Chris Sabin, Brian Myers, Sami Callihan, Eddie Edwards and some of the other stars of the promotion were shown in the preview video.
Thursday’s show will also see NEVER Openweight Champion Jay White and Chris Bey take on FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) ahead of Finlay’s challenge of White at New Japan’s Resurgence show Saturday in Los Angeles. White inducted Bey into the Bullet Club on last week’s show following a multi-week storyline.
The show will also see Tenille Dashwood take on Taylor Wilde and X-Division Champion Josh Alexander against Daivari in non-title action with a future title shot on the line if Daivari pulls off a win.
The BTI pre-show will feature Sam Adonis against Joeasa.
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Sam Adonis defeated Joeasa on BTI
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Opening video was a recap of yesterday’s AEW Dynamite angle where Christian Cage announced that he is challenging for the Impact World Championship at AEW’s first ever Rampage.
Tenille Dashwood (with Kaleb with a K) defeated Taylor Wilde
After months, Wilde finally gets her revenge on Dashwood. A couple of months ago, Kaleb with a K got Wilde in trouble at the US border and wasn’t able to be at Impact . She finally returned, got her revenge on Kaleb, and now she aims for Dashwood.
Ok match, it was a bit of a longer version of most Dashwood matches. Wilde started with the upper hand, she was even doing some lucha spots, but as usual, Kaleb started to get involved to turn the match around. Wilde was able to counter Kaleb for a bit, but the distractions were enough that Dashwood eventually cut off Wilde.
Dashwood worked over Wilde for some time until Dashwood got a bit too cocky for her own good and allowed Wilde to recover and slowly start a comeback. Dashwood hit the diving crossbody to the corner for a near fall, followed by a rear naked, and that’s when Wilde managed to escape and take down Dashwood with a couple of clotheslines.
Kaleb got involved again and went to spray Wilde, only for the referee to get involved and take the spray to the face. Wilde decided to take out Kaleb, but with the distraction, Madison Rayne made his return, attacked Wilde, and set her up for Dashwood to pin.
After the match, Dashwood and Rayne embraced.
– We got a promo for tonight’s #1 Contender’s Battle Royale match, with a couple of comments from Johnny Swinger, Petey Williams, Ace Austin, Trey Miguel, Brian Myers, Rich Swann, Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin, Moose, and more.
– D’lo Brown & Matt Striker ran down tonight’s card, plus a reminder for the Jay White vs David Finlay match at NJPW’s Resurgence.
X Division Champion Josh Alexander defeated Daivari in a non-title match
Last week, Daivari complained that he deserved to be the #1 contender to Alexander’s title, and so Alexander offered him a non-title match and if he could defeat him, he’d gladly put the title on the line.
Match started with both men trying to show to another that they had the ability to counter their submissions, with Alexander mostly getting the upper hand. At this point, Jake Something, the actual #1 contender to the X Division title, came out to the ramp to watch the match closely.
The match continued back and forth for a bit before Daivari cut off Alexander, worked on him a bit more before Alexander made a comeback and won with divine intervention.
After the match, Something and Alexander got face to face.
– We got a promo for Christian Cage versus Kenny Omega for the Impact title, with a Schiavone, Callihan, Ace Austin, Jim Ross, Deonna Purrazzo, and others having some comments.
– The Good Brothers cut a promo on their opponents for Emergence. They were confronted by Violent By Design, which ended with Gallows and Doering challenging each other to a battle of the hosses.
– Kiera Hogan came out to the ring. She addressed Tasha Steelz, who betrayed her last week, and told her that if she had a problem, then come down to the ring, bring out her new goofy friend, and get an ass whooping. Great short babyface promo by Hogan.
Instead, what Kiera Hogan got was Su Yung and her new minion, Undead Kimber Lee. Hogan and Lee brawled with the former getting the upper hand until Su Yung distracted Hogan and allowed Lee to lock in the mandible claw. They made it seem like Su Yung’s movements directly controlled Kimber Lee.
Lee dragged Kiera Hogan to the back by the hair before they both disappeared.
– We got promo by Kenny Omega and Don Callis, recorded after yesterday’s AEW match. They talked about being sabotaged, for having him defend all his titles in every show. Callis said that they won’t get one-upped by Tony Khan or Scott D’Amore, they’re always ready and they will never lose the Impact title.
Omega said that he is not afraid of hard work, that he is made different, and perfectly happy carrying Christian Cage’s legacy.
FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) defeated Bullet Club (Jay White & Chris Bey) by DQ.
This is Chris Bey’s first official Bullet Club match and he didn’t get the memo to wear the t-shirt. Last week, he was officially admitted into the Bullet Club as he has been aiding Jay White’s stalking of his Resurgence opponent — David Finlay.
Finlay and White started the match hot, going at each other, pushing each other around the ring until Finlay dropkicked him to the floor, but as he chased after him, White cut him off. Control didn’t last long as Bey tagged in and Finlay quickly escaped and tagged in Robinson.
It would be Robinson that White and Bey would cut off after the former distracted Robinson and allowed Bey to cut him off in the ropes.
Bey and White maintained control for some time while White was in the ring, but as soon as Bey tagged in, he slowly lost control until Robinson made a comeback with a suplex and tagged in Finlay.
We got a tease of White versus Finlay, but since Finlay was running wild, White dodged out of the way. Bey and Robison tagged back into the match only for Robinson to hit the Dusty jabs, block the art of finesse, and after a doomsday device, FinJuice had the win, if not for White that jumped in with a chair, taking out both Robinson and Finlay.
White hit the blade runner on Finlay on top of the chair before calling it a day.
– Gia Miller interviewed Tasha Steelz about why she attacked Kiera Hogan. Steelz explained that it was Hogan that asked her to tag, and a year later, it was Steelz that brought the flavor to Impact and Hogan’s run was done. She introduced Savannah Evans as her backup.
Fallah Bahh approached Steelz to see if they were still cool with each other and asked Steelz if she was still down to tag and take on Decay. Steelz agreed since she wants the tag titles back.
– Miller interviewed Melina Perez about coming to Impact and challenging Deonna Purrazzo for the title. She said that even after 20 years in the promotion, she was glad and surprised to see promotions coming together for an all women’s show. Purrazzo confronted her and told her she had been training with Invicta FC’s Atomweight champion Alesha Zappitella.
We got a video package of Purrazzo’s training with Zappitella, with both women saying some comments on what they’re learning and improving on. This was really good, but it just makes the heel look like she’s putting more work into the craft than the babyfaces.
After the package, Melina told Purrazzo that since she likes to show off, then next week, Melina gets to show Purrazzo what she has, as she has her Impact in-ring debut.
– Alex Marvez interviewed Christian Cage about his match with Omega at Rampage. Cage talked about winning the Impact title and coming back to the promotion after so many years and he wants to pay for what Impact did for his career years ago. He wished everyone in the battle royale luck, but they better know they will be challenging him, and not Omega.
John Skyler defeated Matt Cardona
This was going to be a squash match, but at the last second, Rohit Raju and Shera came out and distracted Cardona as he was about to hit radio silence, allowing Skyler to roll up Cardona for the upset win.
The match had been all Cardona sans the small hope spots that Skyler had with a slingshot spear for a 2 count.
Brian Myers won the #1 Contender’s Battle Royale
Participants in the match were Eddie Edwards, Moose, Chris Sabin, Brian Myers, Sam Beale, Sami Callihan, Hernandez, Johnny Swinger, Rich Swann, Willie Mack, No Way, Petey Williams, Trey Miguel, Ace Austin, Madman Fulton, W. Morrissey, Deaner, Rhino, Fallah Bahh, and Suicide.
Suicide was the first eliminated by Morrissey, followed by Swinger and Hernandez. After that, half of the match ganged up on Morrissey for a roar spot. Everyone chanted for Moose to take on Morrissey, who along with the other hosses like Fulton, Bahh, and No Way, eliminated Morrissey.
The match slowed down for a while for some elimination teases until Callihan tried to reunite with Fulton. Williams tried to hit a destroyer on the apron on Beale, only for Maclin to run down and eliminate him from the match. These two have been feuding for some weeks.
Swann eliminated Deaner after fighting in the apron, but Rhino was there ready to gore Swann off the apron. Mack jumped Rhino from behind and eliminated him, only for Fulton to eliminate Mack too.
Fulton eliminated No Way. Fulton was later eliminated by Bahh, trying to save Ace Austin from elimination. Moose eliminated Bahh.
Trey Miguel was eliminated by Myers pushing Beale into him as Miguel went for a springboard move. That was more on Miguel. Edwards tried to eliminate Myers, but Beale saved him.
Moose eliminated Edwards with an Okada corner dropkick. Sabin and Moose started brawling outside the ring, while Myers eliminated his protege Beale. Callihan hit the cactus special on Myers, but Austin was there to take on Callihan. Both men ended in the apron exchanging strikes, but Fultno was there to save Austin from elimination. Callihan still hit a lariat and dropped Austin from Fulton’s shoulders. Moose dropkicked Callihan to eliminate him.
Down to Sabin, Moose, and Myers. Sabin had a sleeper on Moose when Myers jumped in from behind and eliminated both of them by surprise.
Brian Myers is the #1 contender for the Impact World championship, to challenge at Emergence. About time Myers got a shot for the big one.