Impact Wrestling live results: James Storm’s 1000th match
Preview by Josh Nason
James Storm’s long and winding wrestling road had led to the final Tuesday edition of Impact Wrestling as he will wrestle his 1000th match for the company, fittingly against a fellow Impact mainstay in Eric Young.
Storm started with then-TNA in 2002 with the promotion being a constant over his next 19 years with appearances for New Japan Pro Wrestling, ROH, MLW, NXT, and dozens of indie promotions sprinkled in.
In other action, Sami Callihan will take on Larry D (w/ Acey Romero) as a follow-up to Callihan sticking up for rival Trey Miguel against XXXL; X-Division Champion Ace Austin and Madman Fulton will take on Josh Alexander and former champion TJP; and Brian Myers will battle Suicide in one-on-one action.
Additionally, the build to Impact World Champion Rich Swann vs. AEW World Champion Kenny Omega at April’s Rebellion will continue.
On the Impact BTI preshow, Rohit Raju will team with Hernandez to take on Fallah Bahh and former ally Shera.
Our live coverage begins at 8 PM Eastern.
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Rohit Raju & Hernandez defeated Fallah Bahh & Mahabali Shera on BTI
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Opening video recapped last week’s main event, where Karl Anderson defeated Eddie Edwards with help of Gallows. Also, AEW’s Kenny Omega and Rich Swann’s promos, as they build to their Rebellion match.
Knockouts Tag Team Champions Fire ‘n Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz) defeated Havok & Nevaeh in a non-title match
This match came up after Hogan and Steelz offered a non-title match to Havok and Nevaeh, in order to prove that they had their number and couldn’t get a win over them.
Most of this match followed the usual layout of these team’s matches, with Havok and Nevaeh dominating early over Hogan with the power advantage, but quickly enough being cut off when Hogan and Steelz start using their tag team proficiency.
Havok was the babyface in peril until she finally used her power advantage to break out and tag in Nevaeh. Last couple of minutes saw all women hit their signature move before Hogan got the win over Havok after a frog splash from Steelz. Good match.
After the match, Nevaeh and Havok seemed to be on the same side, but Nevaeh finally snapped and took out Havok. Months of losses and frustration built up to today. Nevaeh kept saying that She thought she was the weak link and Havok made her doubt herself. All the writing was on the wall, this worked out as expected.
– D’lo Brown & Matt Striker ran down tonight’s card, including the announcements of Rebellion’s new date to April 25th, and Impact moving to Thursdays next week.
– Gia Miller interviewed James Storm, prior to his 1000th match on Impact Wrestling. Storm said that as much as this should be a celebration, this is about dedication. He talked about coming up with ‘Wildcat’ Chris Harris and how Bob Ryder got him his first deal, and the rest is history. Sabin and Something bought out Harris as a special surprise for Storm. They hugged, America’s Most Wanted reunited for one night.
– Miller interviewed Deonna Purrazzo and Susan. Purrazzo said that she was unstoppable and had been beating everyone, but Susan interrupted her to start talking trash about Jazz, who happened to run and attacked Susan before she could continue.
Sami Callihan defeated Larry D (with Acey Romero)
Last week, as Trey Miguel was wrestling Acey Romero, Callihan surprisingly saved Miguel from a beat up at the hands of XXXL. D requested for a match against Callihan.
Match was a bit of a hoss fight, with a lot of striking, a lot of clotheslines, a lot of slamming each other, both in and outside the ring.
The match was mostly back and forward, Callihan gave a lot to D, even a great discus lariat that could have led to a good near fall if not for the splash he went for. Callihan got one with a DVD. Finish came after both men brawled on the apron, ending with Callihan dropping D with a piledriver.
After the match, Acey Romero attacked Callihan, and commentary made notice that Trey Miguel didn’t return the favor and save Callihan.
– We got a big video package of FinJuice’s run throughout the New Japan Cup, and all the mentions of the Impac tag titles during the tour.
Omega, Callis, and the Good Brothers were watching the commercial and making comments about how FinJuice got better, but Anderson and Gallows were not impressed.
– Backstage, Callihan approached Miguel about helping him last week, but Miguel didn’t return the favor. Callihan told Miguel that he lacked passion and that was the reason why he was pushing him to his limit. Callihan told him that he needed to capitalize on all that anger, and offered to help him do it. Callihan told Miguel that he is going to go to D’Amore and ask for a tag match against XXXL. Miguel was reluctant, but Callihan gave him time to think about it.
Brian Myers defeated Suicide
No story here between these two, but Myers has yet to answer Matt Cardona’s challenge to settle their differences.
Match saw an early advantage by Suicide, using his speed to dodge around, have several counters to Myers’ attempts to cut him up, btu eventually, Myers caught him with a reverse STO and his big lariat for the win. This was like a reverse squash if there is such a thing, with Suicide having control throughout the match, and the Myers winning with one shot.
After the match, Myers addressed Cardona, saying he was trying to get the rub by wrestling Myers. He told him that Myers was the face of Impact and so he declined Cardona’s challenge.
– Backstage, Jazz went to Tommy Dreamer, who is booking Hardcore Justice. Dreamer proposed an ultimate opportunity match, that Jazz can get a shot at Purrazzo, if Jazz puts something up for grabs. Jazz put her career on the line. Interesting since she was days away from retiring before coming to Impact, so she could definitely just end it there, but also, she could get the title and keep on going for a few more months.
– We got our weekly AEW commercial with Khan and Schiavone. They talked about tomorrow’s Dynamite card. Khan did a total heel promo about how he controls wrestling and Omega’s bookings, and so once he wins the Impact title, they’ll lose control of their title.
– Over at Swinger’s Paradise, Bravo and Swinger talked about making a lot of money by opening bookings for Rebellion. Omega and Callis walked in, wondering what the odds for Omega vs Swann were, which were 1:1 until Callis showed Swinger their One Winged Angel video. Callis put down a 20K bet on Omega.
X Division Champion Ace Austin & Madman Fulton defeated TJP & Josh Alexander
The feud between these men, around the X Division title, continues. Last week, TJP defeated Austin by DQ after Fulton attacked TJP, only to get saved by Alexander, and so TJP and Alexander got their chance to take on Austin.
Story of the match was that both Alexander and TJP wanted to get their hands on Austin, so they kept trying to steal the spotlight on each other, blind tag each other, and so Austin and Fulton were able to easily gain the upper hand. As the match went on, both men started to work better together in order to counter the power of Fulton. It wasn’t until the end that they started fighting each other to be the legal man, giving Austin the opening to roll TJP for the pin.
Overall good match, that saw Austin and Fulton cut off TJP for a couple of minutes. TJP made a comeback and tagged out, leading to a short striking exchange between Alexander and Fulton. At the end, the match broke down with everyone in it, building to TJP and Alexander having the win over Austin, but TJP stole the tag from Alexander, and as they distracted themselves, Austin for the pin.
– Don Callis approached Willie Mack and told him he liked Mack a lot and had big plans for him. Callis showed Mack the One Winged Angel video, only to get interrupted by Swann himself. Callis told Swann and he and Omega loved Swann’s finisher and was looking forward to kicking out of it.
Swann told Callis that he won’t get in his head and that he should come to his friends, he told Callis that if he wasn’t his boss, he’d slap him right there and now. Callis told him that for the next five minutes, he wasn’t the VP and picked up a fight with Swann. Omega and the Good Brothers jumped Swann and Mack until Edwards made the save.
– We got a tease vignette for something that looks punk, to debut in April.
– Backstage, Rohit Raju tried to talk tag team plans with Hernandez after their win on BTI, but Hernandez told him their relation was based on him getting paid and nothing else.
– We got a promo by VBD, with EY talking about his match with James Storm tonight. He said that this company was built on men like them, and tonight, he was going to show him that this world belonged to him. Ok promo.
– Tommy Dreamer had a meeting with the Knockouts to announce the plans for Hardcore Justice. Purrazzo cut a promo on how she’ll retire Jazz and how she is hoping to get some competition from the roster soon. Dreamer tried to bring out Su Yung out of Susan, but he was unsuccessful.
Dreamer announced a #1 Contender women’s scramble match with anything goes rules. Winner gets her shot at Rebellion. Havok, Grace, and Havok were into the idea, but Dashwood wasn’t that happy about it.
– Brown and Striker announced Omega & the Good Brothers vs Swann, Mack, and Edwards in Omega’s Impact Wrestling TV debut, taking place next week.
James Storm (with Chris Sabin, Jake Something, & ‘Wildcat’ Chris Harris) defeated Eric Young (with Violent By Design)
Beyond celebrating Storm’s 1000th match on Impact Wrestling, this match is coming from the ongoing feud between Storm, Something, and Sabin against Violent By Design.
Really good match, but not as special as it could have been. Storm controlled the action early on, but after distracting himself, EY cut him off after ramming him head first into the ring post. EY worked over Storm’s head, but it wasn’t long for Storm to make a comeback.
Storm hit the eye of the storm of a near fall, EY hit the top rope elbow for one himself. Finish came down to both teams brawling outside after Storm had been tossed to the floor, Harris made sure EY couldn’t get his hands on his mask, setting him up for Storm to take him out with the last call for the win. No big celebration, Storm and his guys just posed on the ramp as the show went off the air.
I can see these two teams having a big match soon, it could be perfect for a Lethal Lockdown if and when Lockdown takes place.