Impact Wrestling live results: The fallout from Sacrifice
For the first time since being sent home by Scott D’Amore nearly a month ago, former Impact World Champion and X-Division Champion Josh Alexander will return to Impact on AXS Thursday.
Alexander made his surprise return at last Saturday’s Sacrifice and revealed that he will get his shot at current World Champion Moose at next month’s Rebellion pay-per-view. He will cut a promo on tonight’s show.
Following their losing the Tag Team titles at Sacrifice, The Good Brothers and fellow Bullet Club members Jay White and Chris Bey will be on the show to talk about their next moves.
New Knockouts Champion Tasha Steelz, Savannah Evans and new Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Influence will face former champion Mickie James, Chelsea Green and former champions The IInspiration.
In the first of two qualifying matches for an X-Division title match at Rebellion, John Skyler will face former champion Ace Austin and Crazzy Steve in a three-way.
The BTI pre-show match will see Jordynne Grace take on Havok.
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Jordynne Grace defeated Havok (with Rosemary) on BTI
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Opening video recapped Josh Alexander’s return to Impact wrestling at the end of the Moose versus Heath main event of Sacrifice.
Josh Alexander opened the show in the ring. He said that the only thing that has been on his mind for a while has been the World title and defeating Moose. While at home, he had to come to peace with the idea he may never get a chance at the title again, but the one thing he couldn’t ignore was his kid asking him about regaining the title, but now, he finally had a date, and that was the date of the Rebellion pay-per-view.
Honor No More interrupted Alexander. Edwards complained that Alexander has been handed everything since day one and that he hasn’t earned anything. Alexander countered by saying that Edwards only had excuses because he got lazy and couldn’t capitalize when Edwards had received shots.
Taven intervened and made fun of Alexander for having title reigns longer than his. Alexander had enough and challenged everyone to fight, and they were actually polite enough to take turns before they just ganged up on him. Team Impact eventually ran down for the save.
D’Amore came out and booked Edwards vs Rich Swann in the main event and Mack versus King right now. D’Amore banned everyone from ringside for the rest of the night.
Willie Mack defeated Kenny King
King began the match with the upper hand, mostly focused on strikes, but as he was starting to pick up some speed, Mack reversed him into a series of arm drags, baseball slide, and pescado to the floor.
Both men brawled around the ring for a bit before getting back to the ring, but once inside, King played possum to catch Mack’s neck against the ropes and drop him with a kick for a two count.
Mack fought back with some strikes and a powerslam, but King moved out of the moonsault, once again cutting off Mack.
King worked on Mack’s back, but then accidentally low blowed himself with a bad landing on Mack’s knees. Mack capitalized with the Samoan Drop and moonsault combo for a two count.
King and Mack traded strikes until King dropped Mack with a powerslam for a two count. King followed with a discus elbow and a T-bone suplex, but King couldn’t properly pin Mack, so he released and went for the top turnbuckle, only to crash and burn when Mack dodge. Mack hit the Stunner and six-star frog splash for the win. Ok match.
– Moose approached D’Amore and tried to get Alexander punished for getting a contract with Impact behind D’Amore’s back. D’Amore told Moose that he had known about it all and implied that it had been his plan. D’Amore asked Moose to sign the contract, and it better he do it in private, because Moose should stay away from Alexander. He threatened that if Moose doesn’t sign, he’ll strip him of the title.
Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) defeated John Skyler & Crazzy Steve in an X Division championship number one contendership match
Trey Miguel will defend the X Division championship against the winners of two 3-way contendership matches, with the title match happening at Rebellion on April 23.
Austin tried to start an alliance with Skyler, but Skyler quickly rejected the idea by taking down Austin, and allowing Steve and Skyler to pair up first. Austin came back, but was again taken out by Steve now, who started to gain enough momentum that prompted Fultont o straight up pull out Austin and save him.
Steve continued his dominance over Skyler, but then got distracted with Fulton, allowing Austin to finally cut off Steve’s momentum.
Back in the ring, Austin managed to control the ring against both men, but both men managed to recover and send Austin to the floor and once again pair up. Skyler hit a Tiger Bomb for a two count, but went he tried to follow up, he got cut off by Austin and Steve.
Finish came when Steve climbed on Skyler’s shoulders to bite him, but Austin was ready to catch him with the Fold from the top rope and get the pin.
– Gia Miller interviewed Bhupinder Gujjar about what he was going for. Gujjar said that he had earned everything in his life, so he wanted to keep getting wins and rank up to a title match. Raj Singh approached him and asked why he had been ignoring him, but suddenly, Larry D walked up to them. D complained that he was gone because they had no space for him, but instead hired Gujjar and Singh, so D punched Singh down and got in Gujjar’s face.
– Violent By Design cut a promo about winning the titles and having taken the power and control from the Good Brothers, claiming that the only reason they had the titles was because they watched their back, and picking their shot to take the titles had been by design.
Tasha Steelz, Savannah Evans, & The Influence (Madison Rayne & Tenille Dashwood) (with Kaleb)
Mickie James, Chelsea Green, & The IInspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessie McKay)
This is a match with a mix of the ongoing rivalries surrounding the Knockouts championships. Tasha Steelz won the singles title at Sacrifice, defeating Mickie James. The Influence also won their titles at Sacrifice, defeating Lee and McKay. Green also took a loss at Sacrifice against Deonna Purrazzo, who re-injured Green’s arm, who is back in a cast.
Prior to the match, Rayne and Dashwood instructed Kaleb to not interfere in their match.
Match had a heated start when Lee and McKay rushed Dashwood, but the latter was able to bring the match to her corner and cut off McKay when Evans took the tag. McKay managed to tag in Lee for some double team work on Evans, but the Influence were there to trip Lee and cut her off.
Quick tags from the heel team kept Lee isolated for some minutes, it was until Steelz distracted herself that Lee dropped her and tagged in James.
James cleared the ring from everyone, but Steelz still got her with a cutter, the same way she lost the title at Sacrifice. When James tried to tag in Green, Kaleb pulled her off the ring, only to get a low blow in return.
Back in the ring, James hit MickieDT on Steelz for the win, pinning the champion. Too many people and little time to build a good story.
– JONAH cut a promo about defeating PCO, who was supposed to be a monster, and instead, monsters feared JONAH and he showed the world that PCO was human after all.
– Bullet Club came down to the ring. Karl Anderson took the microphone first to introduce the team and address having lost the tag team titles to Violent By Design. Gallows said they were putting the tag team division on notice and even the Briscoe Brothers, their opponents for the Multiverse show. Gallows told VBD they were going for their titles.
White brought up that he defeated Alex Shelley at Sacrifice, the man that was his mentor and offered him to come down and too sweet him.
Alex Shelley walked out and told Jamie that he wasn’t bothered that he lost because he and White went to war and he acknowledged that White was indeed the best pro wrestler in the world. Nonetheless, he was disappointed that White was disrespectful towards him because of their history together.
White told him that it had never been personal for him, it was all business, but the White Shelley knew was gone, he had grown and Shelley didn’t know the “Switchblade” Jay White. Shelley told White that he can call himself King Switch, but it was Shelley’s fingerprints that were all over the business, in Okada being who he is, in the Young Bucks being who they are because of guys like him.
Chris Bey interrupted and talked trash to Shelley, saying he was there alone against the four of them, but of course Shelley shut him down quickly saying that Shelley is never alone on Impact. Chris Sabin joined him on the ramp. Sabin said that whenever they’re together they’re the best tag team, and so he challenged White and Bey to face them next week.
White accepted the challenge. Bullet Club vs Motor City Machine Guns next week!
– Backstage, Alexander asked D’Amore that it should be him to take on Edwards tonight. D’Amore told him that he wanted Alexander to focus on the world title, but since Alexander wanted a match, he’d give him Matt Taven next week.
– Miller interviewed Deonna Purrazzo and asked if she felt remorse about re-injuring Green’s arm. Purrazzo said she did for a second, but that will never happen and warned everyone that whoever wants to challenge her, they will suffer too.
Gisele Shaw and Lady Frost approached her and started bickering, so Purrazzo decided to put both titles on the line next week against them if they shut up.
Also for next week, Rhino vs Steve Maclin, Josh Alexander vs Matt Taven, and the Bullet Club vs MCMG.
Eddie Edwards defeated Rich Swann
These two have a long history as allies, but that all ended after Eddie Edwards turned on Team Impact at No Surrender and joined Honor No More.
While the rest of Honor No More was banned from ringside, Maria Kanellis-Bennet still joined commentary for the match.
Swann jumped Edwards with a dive during the latter’s entrance. They brawled around the ring before the match could officially start.
After a while, the match finally made it to the ring to officially start and Edwards quickly took control. Swann came back with a rana and a dropkick, but got cut off with an inverted Atomic drop and over-the-head throw. Edwards worked over Swann for a bit, with a couple of near falls achieved. Swann at one point caught Edwards with a 619, but was again cut off when Edwards dropped him on the outside.
Edwards continued working over Swann’s back before the latter tried another comeback with some quick pin attempts, only to get dropped again, but as the match spilled into the apron, Swann hit a desperation rana into the floor and finally dropped Edwards.
Back in the ring, both men traded strikes with Swann getting the better of Edwards with a jumping clothesline and a kick combo, followed by a neckbreaker and kick for a two count.
Swann hit a standing frankensteiner for another two count, but when he went for the Phoenix splash, Edwards cut him off and hit the backpack stunner and into the single leg Boston crab. Swann was able to reach the ropes to break it.
Edwards and Swann went back to strikes and kicks until both men collapsed. Edwards went for a Tiger Driver, but Swann reversed into a roll up for a two count. Swann turned a Blue Thunder into a headscissors takedown, but Edwards reversed a Poinsonrana into the Blue Thunder driver nonetheless. Edwards hit a Tiger Driver for near fall.
Swann caught Edwards with a cutter and a Lethal Injection for another near fall. Went for the Phoenix Splash, but Edwards moved, hit a running lariat, and finally finished Swann with the BKP and the Die Hard Driver for the win. Really good match.
Honor No More came out to celebrate with Edwards and close up the show.