Impact Wrestling live results: Emergence go-home show
Impact World Champion Alex Shelley will look to follow up on his big win at last Sunday’s Multiverse United 2 event with another title defense on tonight’s Impact on AXS TV.
The show will be the final stop before Sunday’s Emergence streaming special from Toronto, Canada.
After defending against NJPW legend Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shelley will move on to defend against Brian Myers. Both men will be part of an eight-man tag team match Sunday.
Ahead of her title defense against Deonna Purrazzo Sunday, Knockouts Champion Trinity will face Jody Threat in non-title action.
For the first time ever, Chris Sabin will take on Samuray Del Sol with everyone banned from ringside.
Former Impact Tag Team Champions ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) will take on The Good Hands (Jason Hotch & John Skyler).
Deaner will face Laredo Kid while the BTI pre-show bout will see Champagne Singh vs. Russ Jones.
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Champagne Singh defeated Russ Jones
The crowd liked Jones a lot, but Singh defeated him relatively quickly.
–After the match, Singh cut a promo saying he was the best wrestler Chicago has ever seen before PCO’s music hit, and BFI went off the air as PCO was making his entrance.
Impact Wrestling Main Show
–PCO finished his entrance beat up Singh, ending when he put him through a table. Bully Ray showed up on the video screen and said that he wasn’t in the building, as Impact Wrestling couldn’t guarantee his safety, but he promised he would take out PCO for good.
Impact Knockout’s World Champion Trinity defeated Jody Threat to retain
Threat looked good in the early stages of the match, hitting a Michinoku driver on Trintiy for a 2-count. Threat went for the F-416 but Trinity countered out into a face buster. Not to be deterred, Threat tried for a second F-416, but Trinity countered it again into a full nelson bomb and then a roll into a pinfall.
–Jake Something was in a pretaped video talking about his match with SANADA at Impact Wrestling Emergence for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
–Jake Something was in a pretaped video talking about his match with SANADA at Impact Wrestling Emergence.
–Impact put up a very nice graphic for Terry Funk after this.
–A recap video aired about Impact x NJPW Multiverse United 2. The show was excellent, and highlighted Gulia asking “Who is next?” about defending her NJPW Strong title. It ended with Alex Shelley and Hiroshi Tanahashi highlights, in what was an excellent match.
–Josh Alexander was backstage with Gia Miller and talked about his return to the ring, and how after Emergence, he was going to go after the Impact World Championship again.
Deaner (w/ Kon) defeated Laredo Kid
Kon’s distractions were funny. That’s about all I can say about this match.
Laredo Kid was doing well in the first minute or two of this match before Kon furiously waved his arms and screamed while Kid was on the floor. This distracted Kid. Deaner then hit a clothesline on Kid and got the heat. I can’t say that was the best distraction spot I have ever seen, but it definitely made me laugh. I don’t think that was the goal.
Deaner slapped Kid when the fans chanted for him, and ate a boot from Kid in response. Kid hit a missile dropkick and a Michinoku driver for a 2-count. Laredo Kid went to the top rope, and as Kon was waving his hands again, Kid hit a flip dive off the top rope onto the floor on Kon. Unfortunately, Kons hand waving tactics proved effective because Kid came back into the ring and got hit with an antidote from Deaner for the win.
–Deaner grabbed a mic and the fans chanted “Please, don’t talk.” Deaner said some weird stuff about Young being the designer, and Deaner put a knife in his heart, but he rose again to finish his story. Deaner claimed that Young was no longer the author of the story, and he was in control. This was not good.
–Johnny Swinger made hype video for his Impact Digital Media Championship match at Emergence. It was edited to look badly edited, but was actually well edited because it is difficult to make it look like it came from 1993. I laughed.
ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) (Bullet Club) defeated the Good Hands (Jason Hotch & John Skylar)
Really good tag match from these folks here. ABC looked good, and they even had me convinced the Good Hands were going to win.
Austin had an answer for everything Hotch and Skylar tried in the early parts of the match, bouncing all over the place as they tried to stop him. Austin and Bey exchanged a few quick tags and double team moves to isolate Hotch. Skylar managed to get in the face of Chris Bey, which drew the attention of the referee, allowing Hotch and Skylar to turn it around and drive Austin into the turnbuckle before working him over for the next few minutes.
Bey managed to take down Hotch and Skylar at the same time with a DDT and flatliner before hitting a slingshot DDT on Skylar. ABC was going to hit the 1-2-sweet, but Austin couldn’t launch Bey into the air due to the damage done to his arm earlier by the Good Hands. Bey hit the ropes but was low bridged.
Hotch and Skylar hit the favour on Austin, but Bey managed to break it up. ABC managed to hit The Fold soon thereafter, but the Good Hands gave them a run for their money. This was excellent.
–Subculture had a pretaped video where they talked about how they were going to prove their supremacy at Emergence, continuing their Impact World Tag Team title reign.
–A cinematic movie trailer aired like a buddy cop movie for Joe Hendry and Yuya Uemura. It was fantastic.
–A hype video aired for Trinity vs. Deonna Purrazzo at Impact Emergence.
Chris Sabin defeated Samuray del Sol
This was a great match from Sabin and Sol. If Impact was to keep booking Sol, it would be great.
Debuting against Chris Sabin is a good place to start, as it doesn’t get much better than him to showcase high flying and fast paced wrestling with. Sabin had trouble keeping up with Sol’s fast paced start, but managed to move out of the way of a potential dive, but Sol bounced backwards with his shoulders off the top rope rather than hitting a suicide dive.
Sabin rethought his strategy when he came back in the ring, and started to work on submissions on the leg of Sol in an attempt to ground him. Every time Sol tried to speed things up, Sabin was there to take out the knee or lock on a submission. Sabin locked on an octopus stretch that looked brutal. Sabin butterflied the arms of Sol and tried to bend him forwards while seated.
Sol managed to hit a rolling kick and then a short hurricanrana to plant Sabin right on the mat before trying to get the fans to chant “lucha!” to a minimal reaction. That’s unfortunate, as this match has been quite good. A Salina del Sol attempt by Sol was blocked, and Sabin hit a DDT. Sabin hit a powerbomb and like Samoa Joe, transitioned into an STF after Sol kicked out. Sabin hit a Tiger suplex for a 2-count.
Sabin went to pick Sol up, and Sol managed to hit Salina del Sol as Sabin was lifting him, but Sabin rolled to the floor. Sol managed to slingshot himself over the top rope, land on the middle rope, and launch into a springboard flip onto Sabin on the floor. Sol went for an attack off the top rope, but Sabin rolled under and Sol landed on his injured leg, allowing Sabin to recover and hit the cradle shock for the pinfall.
–Crazzy Steve’s sit down interview with Tom Hannifan continued, and Steve asked Hannifan to deliver a message for him. He said he was tired of being abandoned and forgotten, and on the receiving end of evil. Steve said that he was going to become a plague if he couldn’t be the antidote to evil, and he screamed that Tom was going to tell everyone his message. Security tried to separate him from Tom, so Steve attacked them and said that he was going to be the psychopath in everyone’s story.
–Killer Kelly and Masha Slamovich cut a promo about how they were going to take on all comers at Emergence, and it will be their next experiment in violence.
–A hype video aired for Eddie Edwards and Frankie Kazarian, and their upcoming fight at Killer Kowalski’s wrestling school.
–PCO was wandering around through a hotel lobby looking for Bully Ray. He found the place where Ray was sitting for his promo, screaming for Ray to fight to him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Impact World Champion Alex Shelley (c) defeated Brian Myers to retain
This was a really good match, with Shelley making Myers look better than he has in a long time. Myers has always been solid, and Shelley made him look great here.
Shelley outwrestled Myers on the mat in the early part of the match, almost getting a pinfall with the same move he did a few weeks ago against Myers. Myers learned from it though, kicking out and getting away, but he made the mistake of trying to outwrestle Shelley again. Shelley tied him up by his arms in the ropes and kicked the ropes to hurt Myers’ arm.
Myers ate a kick from a corner charge and grabbed the ropes to stay standing. Shelley made him pay for this, flying in with a knee attack off the middle ropes onto the arm of Myers. Shelley continued this assault, working the arm over as the announcers noted how Shelley had become far more focused and deliberate in his attacks on limbs since becoming champion.
Myers managed to drive Shelley into the apron. Myers got some heat on Shelley here, managing to get the crowd into a comeback by Shelley that saw him almost get the Border City stretch in, but Myers managed to fight out and hit a spear for a 2-count. Myers went for a second spear, but ate a superkick and a sliced bread #2 for a 2-count that Shelley immediately transitioned into a Border City stretch for the submission.
–Bully Ray ran in and attacked Shelley after the match, and Moose joined in as well. Apparently Ray lured PCO to the hotel so he could come to the Impact Zone to attack Shelley without his interference. Josh Alexander and KUSHIDA ran down, but soon fell to the larger numbers, and we saw Chris Sabin laid out backstage by Lio Rush, so he couldn’t make the save either.
The fans where chanting for PCO as Ray continued to beat on Alexander, biting him and gouging his eyes. Alexander fired up though, and turned it around and stomped on Ray and suddenly the babyfaces were fighting back in an equal brawl as the show went off the air.
Final Thoughts
Not a bad go home episode for Emergence from Impact here. They have the misfortune of running the same day as AEW All In, so it will likely be lost in the shuffle, though it airs later than All In does, starting at 8 PM ET, where All In starts at 12 PM ET. There is plenty of time for both, but I’m sure if fans had to pick which one to buy, most would end up choosing All In.
That said, the matches on the card were well built tonight, with everything being given time to breathe along with delivering two really good matches in Sabin and Myers and ABC vs. The Good Hands. This episode was definitely a thumbs up.
Impact Wrestling Emergence Card
- SANADA vs. Jake Something
- Impact Konkouts World Tag Team Championship: MK Ultra (c) vs. Gisele Shaw & Savannah Evans vs. The Coven vs. Death Dollz
- Impact Digital Media Championship: Kenny King (c) vs. Johnny Swinger
- Deaner vs. Eric Young
- Impact World Tag Team Championship: Subculture (c) vs. The Rascalz
- Eddie Edwards vs. Frankie Kazarian
- Time Machine & Josh Alexander vs. Bully Ray, Moose, Brian Myers, & Lio Rush
- Impact Knockouts World Championship: Trinty (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo