Impact Wrestling live results: Steve Maclin vs. Rhino World title match
Tonight’s Impact on AXS TV will be headlined by World and Knockouts Tag Team title matches.
Impact World titleholder Steve Maclin will defend his gold for the first time against Rhino following the events of last Thursday’s trios match. The winner will defend against PCO at this month’s Under Siege.
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Coven (KiLynn King & Taylor Wilde) will defend against the star studded team of Jordynne Grace & Deonna Purrazzo. Grace and Purrazzo will square off at Under Siege for Purrazzo’s Knockouts Championship.
In a clash of would-be title contenders, Masha Slamovich will go one-on-one with Killer Kelly.
Nick Aldis will have his first singles match in the company in six years when he faces Sheldon Jean.
The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch) will face Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus) with both in search of a desperately needed win.
The show will also feature the third installment of an interview series with Frankie Kazarian.
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BTI pre-show: Ace Austin defeated Zicky Dice
In a good match, Austin got the win after The Fold. Gia Miller was hilarious on commentary during this match.
Main Show:
Impact opened with a recap of the much-hyped debut of Trinity, and a recap of Rhino’s career leading into his title match tonight. This was fantastic as a reminder of why Rhino was a main event guy outside of WWE for so long.
Masha Slamovich defeated Killer Kelly
Great opening match between Slamovich and Kelly. Despite the clean finish, there is more story to tell here with Kelly holding the submission on. This was a clever way to keep the feud going, and will hopefully lead to more great matches.
Kelly and Slamovich went to the floor quickly before returning to the ring so Kelly could hit a delayed fisherman’s buster for a two count. Slamovich slipped outside the ring and caught Kelly in an electric chair drop that drove Kelly into the apron. Slamovich hit a boot scrape kick to the face of Kelly as she was against the bottom turnbuckle.
Slamovich put a camel clutch on and then bit Kelly’s forehead instead. Slamovich hit a spinning backfist and a high kick. She went for a sleeper, but Kelly drove Slamovich backward and then hit a tiger suplex into the corner. Kelly hit a German suplex for a nearfall.
Kelly tried for a Killer Clutch, but Slamovich countered. Slamovich picked up Kelly and hit a sunset driver for a nearfall. Kelly countered a snow plow and hit a death valley driver for a 2-count. Kelly then locked on the Clutch, but Slamovich ran up the ropes and jumped backward into the Bret Hart/Roddy Piper pin finish. Kelly held the submission on despite being pinned while Slamovich passed out.
– Sheldon Jean was preparing for his match with Nick Aldis. Kenny King walked up and told him that he had to do what it took to win tonight, encouraging him to choose himself instead of doing the right thing.
– Trinity was with Gia Miller backstage, and talked about her debut last week. Jai Vidal walked up and marked out, asking for a selfie with her. Trinity obliged and then asked Miller, “Who was that?” Miller said, “That’s Jai. He works here.” I laughed.
Nick Aldis defeated Sheldon Jean
Aldis got the right match to show he was back to make an impact in Impact.
King joined the announce table for this match.
Aldis hit a series of shoulder tackles at the start, but as it went to the floor, Jean raked the eyes of Aldis and drove him into the ring post. It seems Jean took King’s advice to heart. Once they got back into the ring, Aldis was able to hit two hard clotheslines and a Michinoku driver for a 2-count. Jean tried to cut Aldis off as he went to the top rope, but Aldis shoved him off and hit a flying elbow before locking on the Kingsland Cloverleaf for the submission.
– Dango & Joe Hendry were backstage investigating who attacked Santino Marella recently and Hendry called for Zicky Dice & Johnny Swinger. Hendry said that they were here to answer for their crimes, and Swinger announced, “Hey! It wasn’t me doing gimmicks with Sheiky!” and I nearly died laughing.
Hendry accused Swinger and Dice of taking out Santino. Swinger was greatly offended. Dango called Santino and got him to book a match against Swinger tonight. Dango then invited Hendry to his birthday party and Hendry kindly said yes despite being the only guest and looking like he didn’t want to go.
– In the third part of Frankie Kazarian’s interview with Gia Miller, he talked about how the World title is his ultimate goal because his loss against Josh Alexander was eating away at him. But, if he saw a fight worth fighting, he was going to stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone that needed help.
The Good Hands (Jason Hotch & John Skylar) defeated The Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus)
The Good Hands got the heat on Steve almost immediately in this match. Steve bit the Good Hands’ good hands and hit a flatliner on Skylar before making a tag to Taurus. As Taurus was tagged in, Hotch tagged in and Brian Myers made his way down to ringside. Taurus hit an awesome pop-up Samoan drop on Hotch, but Skylar made the save.
Steve hit a plancha on Skylar and then started to argue with Myers. Myers attacked Steve on the floor, and Taurus went after him. This led Myers to hitting a stunner across the top rope and then a combo fireman’s carry blockbuster from The Good Hands for the three. Myers then posed with the Good Hands, apparently adopting them after Bully Ray’s defeat at the last PPV.
– Impact World Champion Steve Maclin was backstage with Shera and Champagne Singh, and Maclin said because they failed him last week, their business relationship is over. Singh said that he couldn’t let this slip through his fingers, so he had an idea to salvage the relationship. After they came back from break, Singh and Shera attacked Heath backstage and left him lying just before Rhino’s match with Maclin.
Impact World Champion Steve Maclin defeated Rhino to retain the title
There was nothing to this match, but it was actually went pretty much exactly as it should have with where both guys are on the roster right now. Maclin looked like a killer in this match, and this helped establish him as a serious threat to anyone he faces, along with showing how violent he can be with the post match angle.
Rhino and Maclin brawled all over the ringside area until Maclin started to focus on the left knee of Rhino. Rhino managed to cut Maclin off as he was on the ropes and hit a superplex for a nearfall. Maclin went for the KIA, but Rhino countered into a spinebuster for another nearfall. Rhino went for the gore, but was unable to run due to the attack on the knee. Maclin hit a chop block and a gore of his own for the win.
Maclin continued to attack the knee of Rhino, wrapping it in a chair and slamming a shovel into the knee repeatedly. Rhino was carried out on stretcher.
Later, Impact president Scott D’Amore went to see Rhino off, and Maclin walked up and said it was his fault. D’Amore then made his title defense against PCO at Under Siege a no DQ match. PCO then emerged from the ambulance and chased off Maclin as he went to do more damage to Rhino.
– Joe Hendry cut a promo about his broken nose (from his match with Sheldon Jean) and how Dango was going to win tonight as they got to the bottom of what happened to Santino.
Dirty Dango defeated Johnny Swinger (w/ Zicky Dice)
Dango caught a stomp from Swinger before standing up and hitting a falcon arrow for the pinfall.
– Deaner and The Design were backstage, and Deaner accused Sami Callihan of having no one to back him, not even Rich Swann, while his Army of Violence were there to defend him. Suddenly two people in the army started attacking everyone else and Deaner, Kon and Angels stepped aside. It was Swann and Callihan. For some reason, this promo had a soundtrack and turned from scary music to happy rock as the babyfaces attacked. This broke into an all out brawl with security trying break them up.
– Moose asked Brian Myers why he was taking on the Good Hands because he and Myers should be focusing on the tag titles. Myers said that Moose was focusing on both the World title and tag titles, so he could focus on the tag titles and mentoring the Good Hands before promising the Good Hands that he’d take them to the tag titles.
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Coven (Taylor Wilde & KiLynn King) defeated Deonna Purrazzo & Jordynne Grace to retain
This was fine, but not a great match. Wilde and King haven’t quite gelled as a team yet, but they are clearly trying to make it work in the ring. I think given time, they could become a good tag team. The gimmick isn’t great at all, but at least they’re trying to make the tag team work.
Purrazzo and Grace had the advantage early on, but The Coven were able to get some heat on Grace after a kick from King and an elbow drop from Wilde. Even with Purrazzo tagging in, the champs were able to continue to double team, maintaining their advantage. The announcers asked if Purrazzo and Grace could compete with the well oiled teamwork of King and Wilde, who have teamed together around 4 or 5 times.
I’m fairly certain that is not well oiled. Grace and Purrazzo may have actually teamed more already in Impact! The Coven continued to cheat, choking Purrazzo on the ropes, distracting the referee, and maintaining the offence. Purrazzo managed to twist the arms of Wilde and King and slammed them into each other face first, leading to tagging out to Grace. Grace hit a spinebuster on King and a jackhammer on Wilde for a 2-count.
Grace dumped Wilde to the floor, and Wilde crashed tailbone first to the floor. That had to suck. Wilde and King then hit caught Grace on a dropkick attempt and powerbombed Grace on the apron. Wilde went for a suplex, but Grace fought out and hit a muscle buster on Wilde for a 2-count that King broke up. King pulled Purrazzo to the floor and as Grace tried to hit the ropes, Purrazzo got knocked off the apron after just getting onto it. Grace then tried to hit the Grace driver, but King broke it up and Wilde and King hit a combo spinebuster and pump kick for the win.
The Coven continued to attack Grace and Purrazzo after the match, leading to Trinity running down to make the save. Trinity cleared the ring, hitting a rear view on King before eyeing both Grace and Purrazzo as the show went off the air.
Final Thoughts:
I thought this was a very good episode of Impact this week. The angles were good, the matches were good, and Under Siege was built quite well. I can’t ask for more than that.
Next Week:
- X-Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Laredo Kid in a non-title match
- Moose, Eddie Edwards & Frankie Kazarian vs. Jonathan Gresham, Yuya Uemura & Alex Shelley
New Under Siege additions:
- Nick Aldis vs. Kenny King
- No DQ stipulation added to Impact World Champion Steve Maclin vs. PCO