Impact Wrestling live results: Alex Shelley vs. Jonathan Gresham title match

Impact World Champion Alex Shelley will defend his championship against Jonathan Gresham on tonight’s Impact Wrestling on AXS TV.

Shelley is gunning for his sixth title defense while Gresham, the former Ring of Honor World Champion, is searching for his first Impact title of any kind.

A feud that has built for weeks will finally come to fruition as Digital Media Champion Tommy Dreamer will defend against Crazzy Steve who earned the shot by grabbing a Feast or Fired briefcase at October’s Bound for Glory.

Two former Impact World Champions and rivals will square off as Eric Young takes on Eddie Edwards.

In a clash of former Knockouts Champions, Deonna Purrazzo battles Tasha Steelz. The two teamed up at Bound for Glory and were unsuccessful in defeating MK Ultra for the Knockouts Tag Team titles.

Two former Digital Media Champions will reignite their feud as Joe Hendry takes on Brian Myers.

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After last week’s sojourn to the October UK tour, Impact returns to Chicago for the post-Bound for Glory TV taping for this week’s episode.

Following an extensive look at last week’s show, we kick off with a battle of former Knockouts Champions who recently failed to in their effort to win the Knockouts Tag Team titles. Thus, they resume action against each other.

Tasha Steelz defeated Deonna Purrazzo

Tom Hannifan and Matthew Rehwoldt really drilled home that these two have been longtime friends, complete with still photos. That’s when you know it’s serious.

Because of their friendship, this was more of a friendly competition than a heated match. However, it did include twerking from both competitors so there’s that.

Things kicked up late when Steelz thought Purrazzo was trying to break her arm and fired up. After two straight cutters, Steelz got the pin and no doubt win. We’ll see about that friendship.

The result here, and in recent weeks, certainly won’t quell any rumors that Purrazzo may be on her way out as her deal is up at the end of the year. But, PCO also was thought to be gone and ended up re-signing so anything’s possible.

– Impact Tag Team Champions ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) were backstage having a conversation about how they will the TNA tag champs when the named change takes place when Santino Marella walked up to conversate.

That led to Kenny King and Sheldon Jean interrupting because King wants a Digital Media title rematch. ABC didn’t take kindly to it and you’ll never believe this: these two teams will meet next week for the titles.

Crazzy Steve defeated Digital Media Champion Tommy Dreamer by DQ

As part of the build to this, Steve stabbed Dreamer in the back with a fork, ending their friendship. Steve hasn’t been taken that seriously in Impact as he has lost, well, a lot through the years. He earned the shot here by taking one of the briefcases in last month’s Feast or Fired bout.

This was built around how sadistic Steve was being toward Dreamer, but when you saw some of the stuff Dreamer endured in ECW, getting his eyes raked seems rather tame.

Steve went into the briefcase late in the match and got a fork, saying he had to end Dreamer.

Dreamer stopped him by biting his hand and hitting a cutter, followed by him driving the fork into Steve’s head for the DQ that busted him open. Dreamer then snapped and said, “You wanna feel pain, Steve? Fork you!” and somewhat drove the fork into his head. Yes, this happened.

You can skip this.

– Jonathan Gresham cut his usual intense promo about how he is going to beat Alex Shelley for the title tonight. 

Brian Myers defeated Joe Hendry

Hendry is coming off a great run on the UK tour and all the fans in attendance waved their hands and told Hendry, “We believe.” I think I believe too.

Hendry said that the rebrand of TNA will actually begin tonight as Myers will no longer be known as “Edge’s bitch” but now will be known as “Adam’s bitch” which got a laugh from the fans. That was a good line.

This was a meeting of former Digital Media Champions and past opponents. I like Hendry, but there was nothing must-watch here. Even Hannifan and Rehwoldt were cracking jokes about wieners in apparent boredom. 

This went on for a lot longer than it needed to, especially on a Thursday when there’s been so much wrestling already this week. Myers poked Hendry’s eyes while the referee was tied up with both men and hit his Roster Cut clothesline for the pin and win. Given Hendry’s popularity, I find that to be a curious decision.

– The hype has begun for Josh Alexander vs. Will Ospreay has begun as we’ll see that match next week. 

Ospreay, with his NJPW UK title somehow completely intact, talked to Gia Scott. The tl;dr: he is ready for Alexander and wants to know if Alexander is ready to face the best.

Eric Young defeated Eddie Edwards (w/ Alisha Edwards)

Much like Hendry vs. Myers, this came out of the Bound for Glory Call Your Shot gauntlet match where Edwards eliminated Young. These two former Impact World Champions also have an extensive history against each other.

Alisha got involved on a few occasions, distracting Young at one point as he went to the top rope. Young eventually battled and hit his elbow drop for a nearfall. Alisha again distracted Young as he was going for his piledriver finisher, leading to an Edwards Blue Thunder Bomb for a nearfall of his own.

Alisha tossed in a chair to her husband who pulled it away and got distracted. Edwards then held Young for Alisha to nail him with a kendo stick, but Young ducked and Edwards got nailed. Young hit the piledriver and got the pin as Hannifan drove home the fact TNA is returning in January. Did you hear that yet?

This was a house show opener that was neither good nor bad. It just was.

– Brian Myers was wondering why Moose wasn’t out there to back him up earlier and Moose said it seemed like Myers was all set. As they started to grumble a bit, Heath walked in and challenged Moose to a match. Moose accepted, asked Myers, “How’s that for loyalty?” and walked away.

– Sonny Kiss caught up with Gia Miller. If you remember, Kiss made his surprise debut in the Call Your Shot gauntlet which feels like it was a year ago at this point. Knockouts Champion Trinity walked up  and was thrilled to see Kiss, saying she would talk to management to see if they could do a match next week. Well, that was quick.

Oleg Prudius & Dirty Dango (w/ Alpha Bravo) defeated Storm Grayson & Nick Diamond

This was a rare squash match on Impact and one that featured Prudius (the former Koslov in WWE) wrestling in his first match in 12 years. Dango joined the commentary team, essentially turning this into a handicap match.

After Prudius beat up both men, Dango jumped back on the apron, got a tag, hit a reverse DDT to get the win.

– Jordynne Grace, owner of the Call Your Shot gauntlet trophy, said she will make history at Hard to Kill and got interrupted by Bully Ray who wanted a handshake. KiLynn King then walked into the frame and said it was pure luck Grace won. Ray, who trained King, told her to “back it down a notch.” These two exchanged words and then Steve Maclin walked in and called Ray soft. Ray told him off, King walked away, and that was that. 

– The Rascalz cut a backstage promo after losing the Impact Tag Team titles and they weren’t too upset about losing them. Why? Because they now have former MLW Middleweight Champion Myron Reed in the group.

Impact World Champion Alex Shelley defeated Jonathan Gresham to retain the title

If you’re a time traveler, you would have to suspend your belief for the timeline on how this came to be. You see, this was taped the day after Bound for Glory and then, the crew headed to the UK for a tour. There, Shelley injured his calf in a tag team bout and had to pull out of the remaining matches so he could recover. However, that match aired before this one did. Got all that?

Gresham upped his latest heel mannerism, using his wrist tape to distract the referee so he could attack Shelley. He also decided to hold on a figure four for a few seconds longer even though Shelley grabbed the bottom rope because he was stuck. What a heel!

These two have shared the ring a lot through the years, both as opponents and as teammates. This was their sixth singles bout against each other and the first in Impact.

The story was Gresham working over Shelley’s knee with Shelley managing to do just enough to evade him temporarily before getting attacked again. In turn, Shelley focused on Gresham’s arm to set up for the Motor City Stretch.

As expected, this was very good. Gresham was fantastic as a heel with all these little shortcuts he would take out of nowhere to drive the fans crazy. The nearfalls were really good as well, especially a dizzying series of pin attempts in the closing minutes.

Shelley eventually got the pin after hitting a superkick and Shellshock for the win. This is worth going out of your way to see and honestly could have been a main event on one of their monthly specials.

Next Week:

  • Josh Alexander vs. Will Ospreay
  • Impact Tag Team Champions ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) defend against Kenny King & Sheldon Jean
  • The Rascalz (Myron Reed, Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) vs. Laredo Kid, Black Taurus & Juventud Guerrera
  • Moose vs. Heath
  • Trinity vs. Sonny Kiss
  • Bully Ray & Jordynne Grace vs. Steve Maclin & KiLynn King

New for Final Resolution (December):

  • Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. Josh Alexander & Zack Sabre Jr.

New for Hard to Kill (January):

  • Impact World Champion Alex Shelley defends against Moose