Impact Wrestling live results: Tag Team title rematch

For the second straight week, Heath & Rhino will defend the Impact Tag Team titles against the Motor City Machine Guns but tonight’s match on Impact on AXS will have a stipulation.

After last weekend’s match ended in a no contest due to the interference of the Major Players, Matt Cardona & Brian Myers are now banned from ringside.

Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin are looking to become double promotion champions as they currently the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions.

In a match originally scheduled for last week, Eddie Edwards will take on Delirious in a battle of former tag team partners and also past opponents.

Sami Callihan will face The Design’s Angels as the new Deaner-led faction begins its reign in Impact.

Ahead of his challenge of World Champion Josh Alexander at January’s Hard to Kill, Bully Ray will face the returning John Skyler.

The BTI pre-show match will see Shera take on Jack Price.

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BTI Preshow

Josh Matthews and Gia Miller discussed the events of last week’s Impact, highlighting the 1-hour match between Josh Alexander and Mike Bailey last week.

Shera (w/ Raj Singh) defeated Jack Price

This was a very slow match, with nothing exciting happening for the first few minutes with Shera using slow paced, lumbering offence. Jack Price managed to hit a neckbreaker for a 2-count. Shera used power to get back in control, hitting a powerslam. The fans chanted for Price and he flew up off the mat into flatliner, but he missed a dive and Shera hit the lion’s roar for the win.

Main Show

A video recap of the Major Players ruining the tag team title match last week, along with Josh Alexander having an open challenge against Mike Bailey.

Eddie Edwards defeated Delirious

This marked Eddie Edwards’ first match back in Impact since losing to Josh Alexander at Bound for Glory. Edwards and Delirious showed they knew each other well as they exchanged holds. About three people chanted “Where are your shoes?” at Delirious, so they are clearly not familiar with his gimmick. Edwards and Delirious continued to exchange holds until Edwards hit a chop.

Edwards hit a few hard chops but Delirious fired up and hit a suplex. Delirious hit a flying clothesline and went for a cobra clutch, but Edwards rolled him out and hit a big boot. Edwards hit a superkick that dropped Delirious. Edwards hit a tiger driver, but Delirious transitioned into an armbar before floating over into a cobra stretch, but while in the hold, he shifted momentum and pinned Delirious.

This was merely fine. Thank goodness it didn’t main event the last episode of Impact.

The biggest part of this was Edwards shaking Delirious’ hand, but then he turned on him and hit the Die Hard Driver before continuing to beat on Delirious. Yuya Uemura ran down to make the save, but Edwards took him out and then went after the mask of Delirious. As he was trying to remove the mask, Jonathan Gresham re-debuted in Impact to make the save.

–Scott D’Amore was with Josh Alexander, and he talked about the great match last week. Both of them put over Mike Bailey, saying he was the real deal. Alexander said he was going to go out there and call out Bully Ray again, but D’Amore said he wasn’t going to do it.

Tommy Dreamer came into the locker room and apologized to Alexander for what happened with Bully Ray. Alexander refused, but D’Amore did insist that Dreamer was honest, but Alexander thought Dreamer was in on it.

Bully Ray defeated John Skylar

Ray won with a piledriver within two minutes.

I am really not into this Bully Ray story.

Tommy Dreamer came down to confront Bully Ray. Dreamer insisted that he was the only one to trust Bully Ray, and because he made him look like a fool, Dreamer said their friendship was over. Ray grabbed a mic and started to taunt Tommy Dreamer. Ray claimed that Dreamer was a coward. Ray admitted to taking out Ace Austin weeks ago, and that he used Dreamer to get exactly what he wanted – Dreamer going to bat for him.

Dreamer fired up, in tears, saying that he was going to be the innovator of violence again right now, and that while he didn’t want to fight, he was going to. Ray left the ring as Dreamer fired up and smiled, getting the reaction he wanted.

This was a good promo segment between the two, as you can tell Dreamer was drawing on real emotion. The only problem is that it will likely lead to a match between the two in 2022, and it is a long time away from ECW in 1997.

–The Major Players were backtage earlier complaining to Crazzy Steve about how they were banned from ringside in the tag team title match later. Steve informed them that they had something much bigger to worry about, and both Myers and Cardona looked down and said, “The bull is behind us, isn’t he?” Taurus then scared both of them off. This is how they setup the next match.

The Major Players (Matt Cardona & Brian Myers) defeated The Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus)

Before The Decay could get to the ring, Trey Miguel knocked Steve down with his spray paint can and tagged Steve. Steve insisted he could still wrestle, but Taurus came into the ring first to give Steve time to rest. Taurus hit a series of big moves on Myers and Cardona before tagging out to Steve, who was eager to take out his rage on both of the Major Players, biting them and viciously attacking. Cardona, however, hit Steve in the back of the head, causing him to stumble, and then the Major Players hit a combo Samoan drop and neckbreaker for the win.

–Mickie James and Jordynne Grace signed their contract for the Impact World Women’s Championship at Impact Hard to Kill. James said that Grace was presumptuous to think she could beat Mickie, and as James went to sign the contract, Tasha Steelz came in to say that James hadn’t beaten her yet. Mickie said she would take the challenge before the match with Grace, but Grace said that she needed Mickie to 100%. Scott D’Amore booked a match for next week, Grace & James against Evans & Steelz.

— Mike Bailey was with Gia Miller to discuss Kenny King spitting water into the face of Bailey after his match with Alexander last week, and Bailey said that if King wanted to play games, he wasn’t going to play along, but if he wanted to fight, they could.

Sami Callihan defeated Angels (w/ The Design (Kon & Deaner))

Angels attacked Callihan right away, but ate a suplex into the corner. Callihan went for the Cactus driver ’97, but Angels fought out. Callihan rolled to the floor and chopped Angels before getting face to face with Deaner. Callihan went for the Cactus driver on the apron, but wasted time saying “Thumbs up, thumbs down” and couldn’t hit it. Kon distracted Callihan which let Angels drop Callihan to the floor.

Angels hit a PK in the ring but missed a top rope dive. That didn’t stop him though, and he slammed Callihan down and went for the LaBell lock. Callihan fought out biting the hand of Angels and hit a brainbuster. Angels kicked out and Callihan and Angels exchanged chops in the ring until Angels hit a frog splash on Callihan for a 2-count.

Angels went for a second frog splash, so Callihan moved and hit a package piledriver for the pinfall.

Kon attacked Callihan after the match and started beating on him. Deaner called him off and leered at Callihan creepily. Deaner then instructed Kon to hold Callihan up and Angels hit a spin kick on him. Deaner then sat on the back of the fallen Callihan to little reaction from the audience.

–Gisele Shaw walked up to Deonna Purrazzo and wanted to reform their team to take on The Death Dollz. So, why did the Death Dollz lose to Evans and Steelz last week if they are not getting a title shot?

–Taylor Wilde was playing with tarot cards and apparently she is the wild witch now. The last thing we need is more supernatural characters on Impact.

Joe Hendry & Bhupinder Gujjar defeated Swinger’s Dungeon (Johnny Swinger & Zicky Dice)

Hendry grabbed the mic and said that he was greatly disturbed by Swinger’s Dungeon and that Hendry’s Dungeon was a place of people believing in him, which is significantly less creepy. As Hendry described the things he heard about Swinger’s Dungeon, Swinger nodded vigorously more and more, which was hilarious.

Hendry hit a stalling vertical suplex and kicked up, and Gujjar tagged in. As this happened, Moose ran in and attacked Hendry, but Hendry dodged the attack, grabbed a mic, and called Moose unprofessional before Moose chased him backstage. Gujjar, meanwhile, hit the gargoyle spear on Swinger for the pinfall.

This was not good, but Joe Hednry and Moose were great.

–Jason Hotch and John Skylar were backstage, and both of them were tired of being disrespected, so they decided to become a tag team.

–Steve Maclin was backstage and cut a promo about how Rich Swann made a big mistake being in his way on his journey to the Impact World Championship. He then said he was going to crush Rich Swann next week.

The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) defeated Heath & Rhino to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship

Rhino and Alex Shelley started the match, with Rhino using his superior power to throw Shelley across the ring. Shelley endured some heavy offence from Rhino until Rhino tagged out to Heath, allowing Shelley to drive Heath to the corner and tag out to Sabin. Sabin faced a power disadvantage here, and the fans chanted “He’s got kids!” Sabin then yelled, “I have nieces and nephews!” The fans then chanted “That’s my uncle!” which made me laugh.

Sabin hit a bulldog on Heath and it allowed Shelley and Sabin to hit a combo surfboard stretch and cutter. Shelley went for sliced bread on Heath, but he countered and hit Shelley with a powerslam. When they came back from break, Rhino was in control, so we missed the tag. Heath hit a hard chop on Shelley which made the crowd groan in pain.

Rhino tagged in and worked over the back of the Shelley. Heath put Shelley in the tree of woe and attacked him, but as Heath went to adjust his kneepad, Sabin rushed over and freed Shelley, allowing him to hit a flatliner into the corner. Rhino hot a bearhug on Shelley though, but Shelley fought out and tagged out to Sabin.

Sabin hit a DDT on Heath and then Sabin launched Shelley into a tornado DDT on Heath for a 2-count. MCMG hit a double superkick on Rhino before hitting a double team kick in the corner on Heath. Rhino hit Sabin with a gore as he turned around, but Sabin kicked out. Rhino went for another gore, but Sabin jumped over with a sunset flip and pinned Rhino.

This was a solid tag match, but it was hurt badly by a crowd that was largely quiet. They were quiet for most of the night outside of the funny “That’s my uncle!” chants.

Final Thoughts

Not a bad show overall, but quite lackluster in terms of the action in the ring. Most of the matches were short, and had little to no heat. The main event was a fine tag team match, but again, the lack of crowd heat really hurt it. Hopefully the audience at these tapings will pick it up over the next few weeks.

Here are the upcoming Impact cards thus far::

Impact Wrestling – December 20, 2022

Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship: The Death Dollz (c) vs. Deonna Purrazo & Gisele Shaw

Tasha Steelz & Savanah Evans vs. Jordynne Grace & Mickie James

Rich Swann vs. Steve Maclin

Impact Wrestling Hard to Kill – January 13, 2022

Title vs. Career: Jordynne Grace (c) vs. Mickie James

Jonathan Gresham vs. Eddie Edwards

Impact Wrestling World Championship: Josh Alexander (c) vs. Bully Ray