Impact Wrestling results: AEW’s Kenny Omega appears

Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for this week’s historic episode, where the newly crowned AEW World Champion Kenny Omega will have his first interview after capturing the title. Furthermore, this is the last stop before the Impact+ special Final Resolution, taking place Saturday on Impact+. 

The opening video was a full recap of AEW Dynamite’s World title main event from last week, where Kenny Omega, with the aid of Don Callis, defeated Jon Moxley to capture the AEW World title. 

The show opened with Callis and Omega’s bus arriving at the Impact venue, where Josh Mathews will personally interview them both later.

Chris Sabin (with Alex Shelley) defeated Josh Alexander (with Ethan Page)

Alex Shelley made his return two weeks ago and ever since, Sabin and Shelley set their sights on the Tag Team titles, but before that, he’d take revenge on XXXL and The North. On the other side of the ring, The North has been on a downward spiral ever since losing the titles to Anderson and Gallows. They are hoping to earn a title shot at Final Resolution, but before Saturday, Alexander has to take on Sabin.

This was power vs. speed. Alexander dominated about half of the match until Sabin managed to escape Alexander. Towards the end, Alexander regained control but got distracted by his own tag partner, who pushed for Alexander to take Sabin out of action. The distraction was enough for Sabin to recover and roll up Alexander for the win. 

With all the buzz around Impact this week, you couldn’t start with a better match. Two of the best wrestlers in the promotion went at it, even if the finish was somewhat weak.

The North is still likely to earn a tag title match at Final Resolution, but given that the MCMGs have gained a win over Alexander, we may be looking into a three-way feud.

– Josh Mathews and Madison Rayne ran down tonight’s card and talked about the upcoming interview with Kenny Omega and Don Callis. They’re really hyping up that the AEW Champion is at Impact.

– Backstage, Chris Bey approached Moose about the main event tonight, where they’re teaming against Rich Swan and Willie Mack. Moose completely ignored Bey but told him that they’ll be talking on Saturday if Bey manages to win the Impact World title.

– We got an old school NWA-style paid ad with AEW President Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone promoting Dynamite. It was also a promo from Khan, talking about how he’s not going to reprimand Omega for breach of contract. Instead, he bought some time from Impact’s programming to invite Don Callis to tomorrow’s Dynamite, where he’ll accommodate him and Omega. Khan even dropped the rumor that he was buying Impact Wrestling.

Brian Myers defeated TJP

This match came from TJP challenging Myers last week after Myers had been bullying himself, Crazzy Steve, and Suicide.. 

Good match, it got a bit more time than I would have expected. Match started with an arrogant Myers dominating. Soon after, TJP turned things around. The rest of the match was back and forth, with TJP chasing the mamba splash, and Myers mostly hitting big moves. Finish saw TJP land the mamba splash, only to get reversed into a pin for a near fall, followed by a lariat for the win by Myers. 

Wasn’t expecting for Myers to win, but I’m sure this will add some fire between the TJP and Rohit Raju story, and hopefully push Myers to a bigger feud.

– Backstage, Cody Deaner told Cousin Jake that he was gonna go out there alone, but Cousin Jake told him that he’d be there to counter Joe Doering. Cody Deaner told him to not get involved no matter what happened.

– Rohit Raju saw TJP backstage and made fun of him for losing yet again. Raju said that at Final Resolution, he is having his final Defeat Rohit Challenge, opened to anyone except TJP. Raju left, but not before TJP wished him good luck in his challenge.

Eric Young (with Joe Doering) defeated Cody Deaner (with Cousin Jake)

For the last couple of weeks, Eric Young and Doering have been attacking random people, Deaner included. So Deaner challenged EY to a match, so he can prove to Young that he isn’t a nobody.

Match saw a fired-up Cody Deaner start strong, but after accidentally going shoulder-first into the ring post, EY turned things around and worked over his shoulder for a while. Cody Deaner managed to make a strong comeback, coming close to hitting a top rope headbutt on Young, but unfortunately for him, he distracted himself with Doering and Cousin Jake, giving Young time to counter by hitting a piledriver to pick up the win. 

This was arguably the best we’ve seen from Cody Deaner ever on Impact, even if the match was short and he lost.

After the match, Rhino came for the save before Doering and EY took out both Deaners with piledrivers. 

At this point, it seems we’re getting a Rhino vs. Doering match soon, but no real direction for the EY/Doering team.

– Tommy Dreamer confronted Larry D about the whole John E. Bravo shooting. Larry D challenged Dreamer to a match at Final Resolution: if he wins, he gets off scot-free, but if he loses, he goes to prison. Hopefully, Final Resolution is the end to this terrible storyline.

– Afterwards, Dreamer approached Scott D’Amore, who told him that he hated wrestlers making matches. Dreamer wanted to talk about Kenny Omega and Don Callis because he knew these situations tend to send the wrong messages to the locker room. D’Amore was happy about Omega and Callis being there. There you go, seeds for the inter-promotion rivalry being planted.

Taya & Rosemary defeated Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee in a Knockouts Tag Team Championship tournament first-round match

This is the last of the four first-round matches in the Knockouts Tag Team Championship Tournament. Winners of this match advance to face Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz in the semifinals. 

This was one of the better first-round matches we got, both teams meshed nicely together and all went all out. Purrazzo and Lee cut off Taya early on, but once Rosemary came in with the hot tag, all hell broke loose between the four women. Finish saw Purrazzo accidentally kick Lee, giving Rosemary the opening to spear Purrazzo. Taya took Purrazzo out of the ring, leaving Lee for Rosemary to pin.

The semi-finals are set, with Taya and Rosemary facing Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz, and the team of Jordynne Grace and Jazz taking on Havok and Nevaeh.

– Backstage, Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K approached Alisha Edwards about matching outfits. Edwards said that she had bigger problems to deal with right now and berated Dashwood as she needs to focus on her husband. Dashwood was insulted that Alisha didn’t have time for her and told her that she would teach her a lesson. 

– Purrazzo and Lee complained to D’Amore that she was being forced to deal with a zombie and the tag team tournament. D’Amore told her that she now had to defend the title against Rosemary at Final Resolution.

– Sami Callihan cut a promo in the ring about being the best since day one. He said that Impact needed Callihan more than he needed Impact. He replayed footage when he took out Edwards’ eye, saying that it meant a lot of ratings, and thus he had done it again two weeks ago. 

Alisha Edwards came out. Callihan told her to not even think about it, because she’d break her neck if she got in the ring. With the distraction, Eddie Edwards snuck behind Callihan and got into a brawl until he sent Callihan running with a bat in hand.

Eddie Edwards was all fired up about being back backstage. Alisha told him that they needed to deal with her problem now, so we’re likely getting Dashwood & Kaleb with a K vs. Eddie & Alisha Edwards soon.

Moose & Chris Bey defeated Impact World champion Rich Swann & Willie Mack

There are several stories between these four men. Moose and Bey have been making advances at Swann’s championship by going after Willie Mack. So far, Moose has defeated Mack, but hasn’t earned a title shot yet. Meanwhile, Bey lost to Willie Mack last week but managed to enrage Swann into putting his title on the line at Final Resolution.

Match saw Moose and Bey cut off Mack early on and work over him for about half of the match until Mack hit two desperation stunners on Moose so he could tag out. Swann came in like fire, running wild on both Moose and Bey, Mack joined in a couple of minutes later, but was caught by Moose’s lights out, and beaten up for Bey to simply come in and pin him, getting his win back. Good main event, everyone looked great and it helped build Chris Bey for saturday’s title shot.

At this point, Chris Bey is likely losing his title shot at Final Resolution, but Moose has not a straight path to the title going into 2021.

– After Mathews and Rayne hyped the Omega and Callis interview one last time, we saw Rich Swann all packed up, heading out of the arena. He was stopped by security because ‘the world champion’ had the whole parking lot blocked off. Swann said HE was the champion.  The security guard told him that it was Kenny Omega doing so, by order of ‘the world champion’. Swann angrily walked away. More seeds being planted!

Finally, it was time for the Kenny Omega and Don Callis interview. We saw Josh Mathews enter the tour bus where he met Callis and Omega. They started with the ceremonial nameplate change from Jon Moxley to Kenny Omega’s. 

Mathew’s first question was to Callis, asking when this whole plan had started. Callis said that this went back 27 years, back when he was trained as a wrestler under the Golden Sheik. They became family, and that is where he met the Sheik’s nephew, Kenny Omega. Callis said he didn’t make a comeback to start a podcast or be a commentator for NJPW, but it was all part of the plan of joining Omega to make history. He said that he already made history by booking Omega vs. Jericho, which subsequently led to the birth of AEW. 

Callis said that last week, they made history for a second time by crowning Omega the AEW World Champion, and setting the course of history on the right path. He and Omega are not there to make matches, nor make memories, but make history.

Mathews asked Omega if what happened last week could tarnish his legacy. Omega put it in perspective, saying that if Mathews had a father figure and he saw someone attacking this given father figure, he’d also go after revenge. He tried to adhere to the gentlemen’s agreement but Moxley broke that when he attacked Callis. That is why he did what he did on Wednesday.

Omega said that he has the top matches on AEW, in Mexico, in Japan, in the UK, everywhere, and so he is now here in Impact Wrestling. Omega said that he is a collector, and while he already has the most coveted item in his collection, he was not opposed to adding other coveted items. 

Kenny Omega teased having a big surprise for tomorrow’s Dynamite before closing with his signature phrase of goodbye, good night, and BANG! All three men were perfect.

Final Thoughts:

Great show by Impact. They showcased a lot of their best talent with good matches, they kept the comedy and weirdness to a minimum, and played the AEW angle perfectly subtle, though not ambiguous.