Impact Wrestling live results: Moose & Maclin vs. PCO & Morrissey
Thursday’s Impact Wrestling will continue the road to Slammiversary as former World Champion Moose will team with Steve Maclin to take on the unusual team of PCO and W. Morrissey.
Mia Yim will look to continue her hot streak in her early days as she takes on Savannah Evans.
Blake Christian will face Kenny King with King’s Ultimate X match spot at Slammiversary on the line.
Honor No More’s Matt Taven and Mike Bennett will face Heath and Rhino in a follow-up from a brawl last week.
New Digital Media Champion Rich Swann returns to singles action against commentator Matthew “Drama King” Rehwoldt to avenge Rehwoldt from costing him an Impact World title shot.
In the BTI pre-show match, Alisha will take on the returning Renee Michelle.
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Impact opened with a recap of the feud between Violent by Design facing Josh Alexander and the Briscoe Brothers last week, ending with Eric Young pinning Mark Briscoe with a piledriver.
Deonna Purrazzo joined the commentary desk.
Mia Yim defeated Savannah Evans (w/ Tasha Steelz)
This was an okay match, but it’s clear Evans is a bit green as she looked lost at a few points. That said, Yim helped keep it all together, and it was a good example of making Evans look strong in losing.
Yim got a nice reaction for her entrance, and being in Impact is a great fit for her. Evans used her power to keep Yim from getting a good start in the match, but Yim hit a hurricanrana on Evans and tripped her by going low and hitting a dropkick. Evans recovered quickly and hit a DDT for a two count.
Evans threw Yim across the ring and hit a tiger suplex for a two count. Evans missed a leg drop and Yim transitioned into some pinfall attempts for several nearfalls. Evans hit a slam for a two count. Evans went for a shoulderblock in the corner, but Yim moved and Evans crashed into the ring post. Yim hit three dropkicks to Evans before hitting a german suplex.
Yim hit a shotgun dropkick and a cannonball in the corner, but Evans kicked out. Yim slapped Evans and went for a tornado DDT, but Evans shoved her off and hit a Samoan drop for a 2-count. Evans hit a fisherman’s suplex for a two count. Evans missed a run at Yim and landed on the floor. Tasha Steelz attacked Yim behind the referee’s back, but Jordynne Grace made the save. Yim then hit Evans with the Eat Da Feet for the win.
– Shark Boy was backstage and confronted Eddie Edwards on his treatment of Impact Wrestling with Honor No More. Edwards threatened Shark Boy, saying he didn’t know what he was talking about. Chris Harris stepped in and talked about being willing to fight Edwards.
– Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Influence (Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood) walked up to Rosemary and tried to “comfort” Rosemary about how Havok, her partner, lost to Masha Slamovich. Rayne offered makeup to Rosemary, who gave it back and said that she would need it when she bites off her face. Decay then came out of the shadows and chased The Influence off.
Kenny King (w/ Honor No More) defeated Blake Christian to keep his Slammiversary Ultimate X match spot
This match was awesome. King is good and Christian is a fantastic wrestler. The pacing was great and Christian looked very good in losing this one.
Christian foolishly tried to shake hands with King, who punched him in the face for his trouble. King backed Christian up to the corner and hit several strikes, but Christian used his incredible speed to respond and hit a handspring kick. Christian missed a baseball slide and the two started exchanging strikes on the floor.
Christian hit a koppo kick on King as he tried to get back into the ring before hitting a tope con giro to the floor. Christian got hung up on the ropes during the break, which allowed King to start to get the heat on him. King hit a rolling elbow in the corner and hit a capture suplex that sent Christian across the ring for a two count.
Christian started a comeback that saw him do a low-1-9 and then a half and half suplex for a two count. Christian hit a standing frog splash for a two count and King hit a blockbuster on for a two count. King hit a spinebuster for a two count. Christian rolled King up with a cradle, but kicked up and kicked King in the head. Christian hit a kick that left King draped on the top rope facing the outside, so he did a frog splash off the corner onto King’s back and then crashed to the floor.
King grabbed the ropes on the pinfall, barely escaping. Christian missed a 450 splash, but rolled up King with several pinfall attempts. Christian went for the 450 splash again, but King got the knees up and hit a dragon suplex before hitting the Royal Flush for the pin and win.
– A video aired for the next competitor in Ultimate X: Jack Evans, formerly in AEW.
-W. Morrissey was backstage. Bhupinder Singh and Singh offered to help Morrissey, but Morrissey looked to his right and PCO was going nuts hitting equipment crates. Morrissey said he would be fine.
Rich Swann defeated Matt Rehwoldt to retain the Impact Digital Media Championship
This match was better than the short recap here would indicate as most of the early portions were Rehwoldt getting heat, but it was a very good and quick match that Swann won.
Rehwoldt spent the match trash talking Swann, saying that he wasn’t a real Digital Media Champion, hitting a stomp over the ropes and an inverted fireman’s carry slam for a two count. Swann refused to give up and hit a handspring cutter before going to the middle rope and hitting a middle rope phoenix splash.
– A recap aired of BTI with Alisha defeating Renee Michelle and Masha Slamovich coming out and handing her a piece of mail. Edwards showed what it was backstage afterward: a picture of Edwards with a red X on it. This baffled Edwards. who had no idea what it meant. Gisele Shaw informed her that it meant “Masha is going to kill you,” which I think was pretty evident.
Good Brothers/Briscoes brawl
The Good Brothers came to ringside and talked about how great they were and that they were going to beat the Briscoes at Slammiversary for the tag titles. They said the Briscoes were legitimate champions, but said that it didn’t add up to theirs. They called them hicks and said they won championships for greasing pigs. Gallows said that no other tag team had their lynn-age (because that is how he pronounced lineage).
They showed their top 10 moments in Impact and the first 4 were title wins, and then the last 6 were them beating the Briscoes with the same clip each time, but 1 ended with the Briscoes interrupting. Jay and Mark Briscoe were not impressed and went face to face with them. Jay Briscoe said that the difference between the two teams were that the Briscoes were on the road, working hard, winning championships, and running their farm while the Good Brothers got lazy. Both teams brawled, but the Good Brothers ran away before it could go too far.
– Impact World Champion Josh Alexander was backstage and talked about how Eric Young didn’t concern him as he wasn’t surprised he won last week. He is working hard to prepare to keep the Impact World Championship because Eric Young is a former champion and not a joke. Violent by Design came up to Alexander and attacked him before security pulled them apart.
Impact went to the Kevin Dunn school of production for this segment, as the camera was shaking so violently during the brawl that I felt dizzy and I don’t get motion sick. That said, it was only a few seconds, so it’s better than three hours of that.
Alexander was with Scott D’Amore and asked for a match next week against Joe Doering next week because he wanted to deal with the numbers game before Slammiversary. D’Amore granted his request.
Honor No More (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) (w/ Eddie Edwards) defeated Rhino & Heath
Heath was not very good in this match. He looked quite tired quickly, but Rhino carried the team throughout.
Edwards joined the commentary desk and claimed that Maria was not there due to it being an unsafe work environment despite it being Bennett who accidentally speared his own wife recently. Heath kept on top of both Taven and Bennett in the early parts of the match. Rhino continued by hitting a shoulderblock in the corner, but Taven rolled to the floor and Honor No More tried to recover.
Heath ate a rolling elbow from Bennett after a blind tag and they started to get the heat on Heath. Bennett hit a running eye poke, which made me chuckle. Taven and Bennett double teamed Health several times, keeping him from tagging Rhino in. Heath hit an enziguri on Taven but was unable to make the tag until he hit Taven with a clothesline. Rhino entered and got some offense for a bit, but Taven eventually cut him off and hit The Climax for the pinfall.
Honor No More attacked Rhino after the bell and Pillmanized the ankle of Rhino before the Motor City Machine Guns and Frankie Kazarian ran down to make the save. Rhino was left screaming in pain from the injury with everyone looking concerned and trying to help him to the back.
After the break, Rhino was loaded into an ambulance and Heath left with him. Kazarian and the Guns asked to fight Honor No More, and Scott D’Amore asked them to find two other people to join them in the fight to settle it at Slammiversary.
Tom Hannifan ran down the Slammiversary card which now includes Evans in the Ultimate X match and a ten-man tag team match with Honor No More vs. the Impact Originals (MCMG, Kazarian, two mystery partners).
Next week will include Tenille Dashwood vs. Rosemary; Impact World Champion Josh Alexander vs. Joe Doering; and Eddie Edwards, Matt Taven and Mike Bennett vs. Frankie Kazarian and the Motor City Machine Guns.
Moose & Steve Maclin defeated W. Morrissey & PCO
Maclin got a big win here and looked great in this match. Pinning Morrissey on the day it was announced he was leaving Impact only makes sense. This was a very good main event with Moose looking like the biggest star in the match, but it was clearly designed to elevate Maclin and absolutely achieved that.
Morrissey looked very unsure of his partner, but glad he wasn’t fighting him. PCO overpowered Maclin early on, using his size and power to drive Maclin to tag out to Moose. Morrissey and Moose faced off and locked up. Moose chopped Morrissey, and both men started exchanging hard chops back and forth.
Morrissey hit a pump kick on Moose and tagged out to PCO. Poor Maclin got crushed in the corner by PCO and Morrissey before Moose accidentally crushed him. PCO and Morrissey hit a double chokeslam on Maclin as both big men screamed with aggression at their enemies. Morrissey went for a big boot on Moose, but Maclin hit a knee to the back and Moose hit a chop block on Morrissey’s knee.
Maclin and Moose worked over the knee of Morrissey, chopping the big man down. Morrissey sold the pain in his knee well here as they were working on it, which some big men don’t do in wrestling. Morrissey drove Moose back to the corner with his legs, using primarily the good one, and tagged out to PCO who hit Moose with a DDT and a cannonball on Maclin.
PCO hit a flipping senton off the top rope onto the apron onto Maclin which was insane. PCO hit a belly-to-belly on Moose before hitting a diving headbutt off the middle rope. Maclin broke up the pinfall attempt and PCO hit a cannonball through the middle rope onto both men. PCO went for a moonsault on Moose, but Moose rolled out of the way. Moose and PCO leveled each other with clotheslines, but PCO sat right up and tagged out to Morrissey.
Moose and PCO ended up going over the top rope with a Cactus clothesline from PCO. Maclin hit a spear on Morrissey who was in the tree of woe and then hit a low shot on PCO before hitting Morrissey with a double-arm DDT for the pinfall.
Maclin and PCO brawled until Moose took him out with a spear. The lights went out and Sami Callihan was in the ring and nailed Moose with a baseball bat as he went for the Spear. The show closed with Callihan telling the camera that this will never be over between him and Moose.
Final Thoughts:
This was a really solid episode of Impact with Blake Christian vs. Kenny King being the best match. There was lots of work going into promoting Slammiversary on June 19th that balanced setting up next week’s go home show, and furthering stories for the PPV. All in all, this show was an easy thumbs up.