Impact Wrestling live results: Bullet Club in eight-man tag action
The Guerrillas of Destiny will make their Impact Wrestling in-ring debut Thursday, teaming up with Jay White and Chris Bey as the Bullet Club faces Jake Something, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Ace Austin and Madman Fulton.
After his title defense over Steve Maclin in a Pure rules match, Ring of Honor World Champion Jonathan Gresham will rematch Maclin in non-title action after the latter complained about the rules in their first meeting.
In a title match, Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace will defend against Matt Cardona after Cardona challenged her the week prior.
Josh Alexander will take on Vincent in a preview of the No Surrender 10-man tag where Team Impact will face Honor No More with the rogue ROH faction’s status in Impact on the line.
The rest of Thursday’s lineup includes JONAH vs. Crazzy Steve; John Skyler vs. Bhupinder Gujjar; and a BTI pre-show bout of Raj Singh vs. Black Taurus.
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Black Taurus defeated Raj Singh on BTI
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Matt Cardona defeated Impact Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace to win the title.
Cardona challenged Grace to a title match a couple of weeks ago, claiming he is the original Internet Champion, which would later on inspire the DM title. Commentary told us that this is indeed Matt Cardona’s first ever intergender match in his career.
Story of the match was that while Grace is one of the strongest members of the roster, Cardona was still too big and strong for her, so she had to work smarter.
Early on, Grace kept going for Cardona, but she just couldn’t bring him down with shoulder tackles or slams. Cardona however, would, and we could see in both wrestler’s faces, that Cardona felt uncomfortable hurting Grace, while Grace started to get frustrated.
Eventually, Cardona had enough control of the match and slammed Grace just enough to keep her down, but he kept losing his concentration until Grace would hit something and Cardona would retaliate strongly, only to feel bad again.
Grace made a comeback with a big spinebuster that caught Cardona by surprise, enough to bring Cardona down and allow Grace to get some offense. Grace at this point started targeting Cardona’s leg to keep him down and follow with a running boot and a Vader bomb for a two count.
Grace attempted the Grace driver, but couldn’t lock it in, so Cardona just took her down with a big boot and after thinking about it, he hit the re-boot for a two count.
Cardona was sent to the floor and he landed next to the title belt, he tried to bring it to the ring, but the referee took it away, when the referee had his back to Cardona, he hit Grace with a chair and Radio Silence to win the title. Ok wrestling, but the story told in the ring was well done.
Cardona’s hunger for gold has led him to cheat and turn heel.
– We suddenly went backstage, where Morrissey attacked most of the Learning Tree, on his path to find Myers, VSK, and Dice. He found and destroyed the latter, but Myers managed to run away as security stopped Morrissey. This was kinda cool.
Morrissey complained to D’Amore about being stopped by security. D’Amore told him he can get Myers next week in a No DQ match, but he had to chill. D’Amore made the mistake of telling him that Moose had been sent to his hotel to avoid problems at the arena.
JONAH defeated Crazzy Steve (with Decay)
After JONAH defeated Johnny Swinger, Decay came out to save Swinger from a further beatdown at the hands of JONAH. As a result, Crazzy Steve steps up against JONAH.
This was a power vs speed squash. Steve got some offense early on, running circles around JONAH, managing to get on top of JONAH and go for strikes, but as JONAH got his hands on Steve, he slammed him, hit the senton, and finished Steve with the Tsunami.
After the match, JONAH went for a second Tsunami, but Black Taurus stepped up against JONAH and called out to fight, but JONAH backed out.
– Backstage, Gia Miller interviewed Matt Cardona about him attacking Grace. Cardona said it was his biggest day for winning the title. When Miller asked him about what Chelsea Green would think about his actions, he instead told her to ask Jonathan Gresham what it was like to be married to a loser.
– Madison Rayne told Kaleb that she will soon be a tag team champion when Dashwood returns. Jessie McKay and Cassie Lee approached them and gave Kaleb a gift. The implication being that the IInspiration may be trying to recruit Kaleb to join them and drop the Influence after Rayne’s mistreatment.
ROH Champion Jonathan Gresham defeated Steve Maclin by DQ in a non-title match
After losing in a Pure Rules match, Maclin got himself a second match with Gresham after the latter challenged him to deal with him in the ring if Maclin had problems with him.
Maclin tried to rush Gresham at the start of the match, but Gresham quickly turned it around and started going for the leg. Maclin used his size advantage to get some offense, but Gresham kept him down, outwrestling him.
Gresham locked in a headlock, that not even a backdrop slam broke it. Maclin tried to flip Gresham over, or to get a rope break, but Gresham kept finding his way into the headlock, now forcing him to pins to work Maclin into frustration. Eventually, Maclin snapped Gresham into the ropes after a rope break, which Gresham was respectfully releasing.
Maclin, now in control, worked over Gresham’s back. He had most offense when slamming Gresham, but as soon as he tried to lock in a crab, Gresham easily reversed it and regained some momentum. Maclin had to rely on a back elbow to bring down Gresham again.
Both men got into a striking battle, where Gresham had more offense, but couldn’t bring down Maclin, who eventually managed to catch Gresham’s moonsault and drop him with a power slam.
The fight continued with Maclin getting a hold of Gresham on the ropes and striking him beyond the 5 second count, getting himself disqualified.
After the bell, Maclin kept attacking Gresham, hit the crosshair and locked in a crab until Honor No More ran down to save Gresham, who at this point, had not sided with his other ROH compatriots. Gresham didn’t join the group, and instead walked up the ramp to the back in disgust. As he walked to the back, Josh Alexander came out and they had a staredown.
Josh Alexander defeated Vincent (with Honor No More)
These two men will be part of the Honor No More versus Team Impact match at No Surrender
Alexander had started with some momentum, but with the rest of HNM at ringside, they quickly made their presence known when they distracted the referee, allowing for Vincent to cut off Alexander.
Vincent worked over Alexander for most of the match, the latter had a couple of comebacks, but Vincent would regain control one way or another, yet he couldn’t keep Alexander down, even after a Redrum.
Alexander managed to lock in the ankle lock, but had to release it to take down Bennet and Taven. At the end, all of Honor No More surrounded the ring, but Team Impact ran down to even the odds and let Alexander focus on Vincent.
Alexander locked in the ankle lock and tapped out Vincent for the win. Good match if you don’t mind the interference.
After the match, Kenny King returned to Impact and became the fifth man of Honor No More, who had been lacking a man headed to No Surrender. He took out Alexander.
– Morrissey arrived at Moose’s hotel room, barged in, and attacked Moose. They brawled around the room until Morrissey took out the cameraman and we lost sight of the fight.
– Backstage, Honor No More talked that they will win the war in the end. Kenny King cut a promo that they were all tricked into thinking that honor existed in wrestling, but they like what Impact had created in the last year, and they wanted to take over.
Bhupinder Gujjar defeated John Skyler
Last week, Raj Singh teased that he was bringing Bhupinder Gujjar to Impact, and John Skyler had the opportunity to wrestle him on his debut.
Gujjar had some height on Skyler, but not the experience that gave Skyler the upper hand for most of the match. Gujjar had some flurries of offense with strikes and clotheslines.
Gujjar eventually made a comeback with a powerslam and a springboard elbow, but only got a two count. Gujjar hit a corner splash, followed with a second rope spear and got the win. Gujjar with a win on his debut, he has a good look, but needs to experience in the ring.
After the match, Raj Singh came down to celebrate with Gujjar, but Gujjar rejected Singh.
– We got a recap of Mickie James’ performance at the WWE Royal Rumble. They actually showed the footage of her entrance, elimination of Michelle McCool, and James’ elimination at the hand of Lita.
Afterwards, Miller interviewed James about her participation. James said she was happy to be able to represent Impact and the Knockouts title. Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans interrupted her to make fun that she lost, mocked James with a prepared statement for once she wins the title at No Surrender. James told Steelz that she can’t wrestle as good as she talks.
Chelsea Green backed up James and challenged Steelz and Evans to a tag match. James thanked Green for helping her, and offered Green a match for next week.
– We got a new vignette for Gisele Shaw.
Masha Slamovich defeated Kaci Lennox
This was yet another squash at the hands of Slamovich. She took down Lennox early on, dropped her with a running boot, a backfist, and her Russian Death Device driver for the win.
– Miller interviewed Deonna Purrazzo about last week, when she stormed out of Mickie James’ speech. Purrazzo said that she has no respect for James or what she had to say, it was Purrazzo who raised the division to a point that would warrant a state of the Knockouts speech to begin with.
She made an open challenge for either of her titles next week.
– Also next week, Mickie James vs Chelsea Green, The OGK vs Rich Swann and Rhino, and Brian Myers vs W. Morrissey.
Bullet Club (Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, & Chris Bey) defeated Ace Austin, Madman Fulton, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, & Jake Something
Last week, White and the Guerrillas of Destiny made their appearance, helping Chris Bey take out Jake Something and Mikey Bailey. Ace Austin and Fulton were dragged into the match, as they had been trying to recruit Bailey to join them, so Bailey asked them to help him if they really wanted to help him.
Even before the match, we saw that Jake Something didn’t trust Austin or Fulton.
Match was to start with White and Bailey, but White backed up and tagged in Bey instead. Bailey had started with some control, but Bey quickly went for the eye rake, tagged in White, and along with the rest of the Bullet Club, got some offense until things came back to Bey, when Bailey once again regained control.
Something tagged in, but Fulton blind tagged himself. The distraction allowed for the rest of the Bullet Club to run in and take them down, but Fulton regained himself quickly and caught Bey’s dive and instead dropped him on the apron.
Austin and Fulton kept Bey in their corner, constantly denying the tag to Jake Something. Austin kept showing off to Bailey and Something, and it eventually led to Bey landing a desperation Superman punch, but he wasn’t able to make it to his corner.
Fulton tagged in and continued working over Bey, who managed to dodge Fulton, but instead of tagging in the fresh Something, tagged in Austin, who got taken out quickly.
White and Bailey tagged in for a great exchange that ended with Speedball taking down White with kicks and a standing tornillo. White would return with a big Uranage for a two count. Speedball broke out of the Bladerunner and went to tag out, but Austin jumped over Something and tagged himself in.
Tama Tonga took down Austin, but Fulton jumped in and took him and Loa out at first, only for GoD to take control, hit Magic Killer on Fulton, get a two count on Austin, hit another Magic Killer on Bailey, and finally, set up Austin for Bey’s Frog Splash. Unfortunately, Austin blocked the Splash, but rather than tag in the fresh Something, he let himself open for Bey to take him out. Something finally tagged himself in the hard way and took down Bey and the Guerrillas, but the numbers game was too much and he lost to White’s exploder and Bey’s Art of Finesse. Good match, someone really wanted to pair up Bailey and White above all.
After the match, the Good Brothers and Violent By Design jumped the Bullet Club. Both parties brawled until the Bullet Club was taken down.