Impact Wrestling live results: Ace Austin vs. Tommy Dreamer
The Impact World title match between champion Christian Cage and number one contender Ace Austin for this month’s Victory Road may get an addition following Thursday’s Impact Wrestling.
Austin will face Tommy Dreamer on tonight’s show and if Dreamer wins, he will be added to the title match. This was set up on last week’s show as Dreamer was congratulating Cage for being champion and Austin came out to verbally run down both men before a brawl ensued. After complaining to Scott D’Amore, the Impact VP made the match and the stipulation.
X-Division Champion Josh Alexander will defend his title in an open challenge against any former champion of the division.
Thursday’s show will also see Taylor Wilde, Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering taking on The Influence (Madison Rayne, Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K); Matt Cardona and Chelsea Green vs. Rohit Raju and Shera; and Decay (Crazzy Steve and Black Taurus) against Fallah Bahh and No Way.
The BTI pre-show will feature Jake Something vs. John Skyler.
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Jake Something defeated John Skylar on BTI
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Show opened with a graphic for Daffney (Shannon Spruill).
Opening video recapped the story of Cage winning the title and being confronted by Ace Austin, the number one contender to the Impact World Championship, that led to Tommy Dreamer and Austin setting up a match tonight, for a spot in the main event at Victory Road.
Taylor Wilde, Jordynne Grace, & Rachael Ellering defeated The Influence (Tenille Dashwood, Madison Rayne, & Kaleb with a K)
Wilde has been feuding with The Influence since her return to the promotion, she risked taking on all three at the same time, but of course, the numbers game was too much for her. Grace and Ellering came out to the save to even things out and thus we have this far fairer match.
Match started with the babyfaces dominating the match over Kaleb. It was until Grace got in the ring with him and was running through him, that Rayne attacked Grace from behind and allowed Kaleb to cut her off and tag out.
The Influence kept control for some minutes until Kaleb once again became the legal person, and ended up losing control of the match and Grace tagged out.
Wilde got the hot tag, Ellering and Grace took out Dashwood and Rayne outside the ring, allowing Wilde to hit a German bridge on Kaleb for the win.
– We got highlights of Deonna Purrazzo defeating Melina Perez at the NWA Empower show, successfully defending the Knockouts Championship. We also saw what happened on the following night, during NWA73, where Purrazzo attacked Mickie James after James’ match.
– Gia Miller interviewed Purrazzo about her actions on NWA73. She said that Purrazzo showed that she just showed that she had everything under control and put James in her place. Rehwoldt called out Trey Miguel since Miguel had decided to inject himself in their and Melina’s problems.
– We got a promo by Tommy Dreamer, talking about the chance at winning tonight and being added to the title match at Victory Road. Dreamer brought up that he became ECW champion in a triple threat match with Cage and Jack Swagger.
Cage walked up to him and told him that he did indeed win, but he didn’t pin him. Cage told him he hoped he would win because he would love to get in the ring with him again.
Dreamer told Cage he didn’t want Cage to get involved tonight in the match, which Cage hadn’t really implied.
– D’lo Brown & Matt Striker ran down tonight’s card.
Decay (Black Taurus & Crazzy Steve) (w/Rosemary & Havok) defeated Fallah Bahh & No Way
Fallah Bahh has been feuding with Decay since Homecoming where he and Steelz got eliminated from the tournament, but as the story went on, Bahh became more of a vehicle to further the feud between Rosemary & Havok versus Tasha Steelz & Savannah Evans.
Before the match, one of the conga line members attacked Rosemary, revealing to be Tasha Steelz. When Havok went on the pursuit, she got jumped by Savannah Evans. Havok and Rosemary would end up leaving, chasing after Steelz and Evans.
Back in the ring, Bahh and Steve started the match with some comedy about Steve trying to bite Bahh. The crowd even turned on Bahh for not wanting to get bitten.
Taurus and No Way tagged in with the former getting the better of the latter until Bahh blind tagged himself and cut off Taurus with a plancha while Taurus was distracted with a sunset flip on No Way. They managed to keep Taurus down with constant tags and a couple of double team moves in between. Taurus eventually made a comeback, ending with him and No Way taking each other out with clotheslines.
Steve and Bahh tagged in and played around with Steve not being able to bring down Bahh until he hit the deep impact for the win. Not sure how much of this match was called in the ring, but they properly reacted to the crowd being completely behind Decay.
– Miller interviewed W. Morrissey about going forward after Sami Callihan attacked him with a bat when Callihan saved Edwards from a beat down. He said he respected Callihan and Edwards for being able to work together when they hate each other.
Suddenly, Moose interrupted him and told him he agreed with what Morrissey preached, and he accepted he would stab Morrissey in the back if he needed to. He said he and Morrissey have issues with Edwards and Callihan, and suggested a temporary alliance.
– Steve Maclin cut a promo addressed to Petey Williams. He said that he didn’t know what else he needed to do for Williams to go away. He said that Williams calls himself the Destroyer, but he knows nothing of destruction, so he challenged Williams to a match next week. Guy is intense.
– Moose, looking dapper as always, came out to the ring. Moose talked about being angry that every wrestler in this era wants to be a hero and that Edwards wants to be the hero of Impact. Moose told Edwards that he is not the same Moose that before and called him out to the ring. Edwards came out with his kendo stick and brawled with Moose. Morrissey ran down and attacked Edwards from behind, setting him up for a lights out from Moose. Morrissey then hit a big boot, and finally finished off Edwards with a double powerbomb. This is a team I could get behind.
– Miller interviewed Bahh and No Way about Steelz attacking Decay. They said that they were not aware that Steelz had hidden in the conga line. TJP walked up to them and after meeting No Way, proposed they go to Swinger’s Palace next week. Seems like they could be moving away from feuding with Decay.
– We got a vignette with Violent By Design, with Eric Young berating Rhino for failing them over and over again. They said that they could cure Rhino again, but he’d need to suffer.
X Division Champion Josh Alexander defeated Jake Crist to retain the title
This was an open challenge to any former X Division champion, the man to answer was Jake Crist, who won the title during his time with oVe. Crist left the company last year after oVe was disbanded.
Match was a technical versus speed match, with Crist getting the early advantage when he used his speed advantage to cut off Alexander on the top rope and bring him down the hard way. Crist focused his attacks on Alexander’s leg and mixed it up with a couple of heel tactics to keep Alexander down.
Alexander eventually started to strike his way back to his feet. He started to slam Crist left and right until he hit the C4 for the win. Not the greatest match in Alexander’s run, nor the best surprise return.
After the match, Miller congratulated Alexander for the win and asked why he made an open challenge. Alexander said that it was necessary if he wanted to leave a legacy on Impact and what it took was to be able to defend every newcomer and every other man that has held that championship before. He wants to be in the conversation of the greatest X Division champions ever.
Out came Chris Sabin. He said he is a fan, but Alexander is only a one time champion. Sabin said he is an 8-time X Division champion, so if he wants to prove himself, then Alexander must beat THE greatest X Division champion ever. Sabin challenged Alexander at Victory Road for the title. Sabin and Alexander shook hands to make it official. The number of times Sabin has won the title is a weird argument against the man that is not losing the title at all.
– We got a second commercial from Sam Beale trying to recruit a trainee for Brian Myers. We saw some of the entries that have already come in, and they’re all terrible. I hope they all lose.
After that, we saw all those geeks make a line to meet up with Myers. Myers went through the list and cut them out until two men were left. One of them was Manny Lemons, the other was Zicky Dice. Dice was close to being eliminated and talking back to Myers, but Beale told Myers that if he cut Dice, the only one left would be Lemons, and so Myers decided to let it go and called them back next week.
Rohit Raju & Mahabali Shera defeated Matt Cardona & Chelsea Green
Cardona and Raju have been feuding for some weeks, with the story that it was Green who saved Cardona from a beat down at the hands of Shera, but Shera respects Green and won’t attack a woman.
Match started with Shera beating up Cardona, being disrespectful and dominant, but when Raju tagged in, Cardona easily turned things around. Green tagged in and got a couple of shots in, Raju and Green exchanged some takedowns and mocked each other, but it was Green that got the last laugh.
Shera tried to confront Cardona, but once again Green stopped him. Shera carried Green out of the way, only to get slapped on the face in return, leaving him open for a radio silence from Cardona.
While Cardona distracted himself with Shera, Raju capitalized and knocked out Green with a jumping knee and pinned her for the win. Not much of a match, but a good segment to add fuel to this feud.
– We got a vignette with Su Yung and Kimber Lee, revealing that they’ve converted Brandi Lauren into Undead Brandi Lauren.
– The Good Brothers came out to the ring. They said that Mack and Swann getting a roll up on them was an argument for a title shot, but at the end, it was Mack that went through a table and now found himself in a hospital bed.
Rich Swann ran down with a chair and attacked the Brothers, who were about to beat him up if not for referees and security coming out to break up the fight. Good stuff, Swann looked brave, but it didn’t make the Brothers weak for being overtaken by one person.
– After the commercial, security held back Swann until Scott D’Amore came up and told Swann to calm down and booked Swann vs Anderson in a Bunkhouse Brawl for next week.
Also next week, Steve Maclin vs Petey Williams, Chris Bey vs David Finlay rematch, Rosemary vs Tasha Steelz, and Moose vs Eddie Edwards.
Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) defeated Tommy Dreamer
Stipulation of the match was that if Tommy Dreamer can defeat Ace Austin tonight, he would be added to the Impact World title match at Victory Road.
Dreamer started the match showing off some chain wrestling and hitting the bionic elbow before clotheslining Austin to the floor. Dreamer was chopping Austin around the ring until he whipped him into the rail, only for Fulton to run in and protect Austin by putting his body in between. This ended up cutting off Dreamer’s momentum.
Back in the ring, Austin worked over Dreamer for a couple of minutes, but Dreamer would end up dropping Austin with a neckbreaker from the third turnbuckle. Dreamer and Austin went back and forth, Dreamer started to chase the DDT, but Austin blocked it. Dreamer landed an enzuigiri, but Austin quickly recovered. Austin went for the fold, but Dreamer countered into a cutter for a near fall after Fulton placed Austin’s foot on the ropes. Dreamer took out Fulton on the floor, but the distraction was enough for Austin to catch Dreamer with the fold and the win. Ok match all things considered.