Impact Wrestling results: Ken Shamrock’s career announcement

Impact Wrestling returns from Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas, NV for tonight’s episode. One of the only promotions lucky enough to have a set of taped shows pending to air.

Opening video focused on the final match in the Edwards vs Elgin series, where they went to a double count, but despite the controversy Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard decided to challenge them both to a 3-way title match at Rebellion.

Ken Shamrock was shown arriving at the arena, with Scott D’Amore making sure the building is secured.

Impact World Tag Team champions The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated TJP & Fallah Bahh to retain the titles

Match started with both teams going straight for blows in the ring. The North took out TJP, so Bahh went against both men, getting the upper hand by sending Page out and slamming Josh. 

TJP came in and hit a Poetry in Motion for a quick pin attempt. Similar to last week, TJP went for a springboard, but Page caught him. This time, TJP escaped and chased the ankle lock. Alexander blocked and thanks to Page, broke off TJP’s submission and cut him off.

The North worked over TJP for a couple of minutes, mostly going after the back with stomps and rest holds. Page hit a huge backbreaker, but when he tried to follow with the stalling suplex, TJP reversed, escaped, and tagged Bahh, all behind the referee’s back.

The North continued working over TJP with double team moves. Eventually, TJP dodged and escaped and tagged Bahh, who ran wild on both men, earning a two count on Alexander with a pop-up powerbomb. 

TJP tried to hit a double team with Bahh, but Page tossed TJP to the apron for Alexander to hit his Diving Crossbody. 

Back from commercial, The North have once again regained control of the ring, but not for long. Bahh and TJP hit a double team on Josh for a two count.

TJP and Alexander come to blows in the middle of the ring, TJP hits a kick combo and takes him out with a kick, but right there is Page to take him out. Bahh takes out Page, Alexander hits a German on Bahh, but Bahh fires up and takes out Alexander too. 

Bahh tried to hit a superplex on Page, but Alexander cut him off and hit an electric chair drop. A swanton by Page followed, then The North hit their finisher, but Bahh kicked out at 2.99.

The North go for their other finisher on Bahh, but he blocks it and hits a double lariat to get the tag to TJP, who came in with a Bomba Splash. He misses the swanton, but rolls over and locks in the Rings of Saturn on Page. Bahh locks in the Abdominal Stretch on Alexander. 

Alexander falls back on Bahh’s weight and pulls the ref down with him, so he doesn’t see when Page taps to TJP’s submission. 

After the distraction, Bahh hits a dive on Josh, but in the ring, Page takes out Bahh with a superkick. TJP goes for the Detonation Kick on Alexander, but Page blocks it. The North hit the Northern Assault then pin TJP to retain. 

Great opener, really action-packed, this could have been a PPV match. 

We got a promo by Eddie Edwards talking about his Lockdown team. Lockdown has been postponed, and thus they had a notice on the screen but they still ran the promo. Eddie said he wanted Dreamer, Daga, and Tessa Blanchard.

The Real Housewives of Slamtown with Taya, Heather Monroe, Holly, and Rosemary aired. Everyone was glamorous while Rosemary was, well, Rosemary. They were just drinking champagne and talking and arguing and happy until they were drunk. Then they went to a club where Rosemary sucked Holly’s soul until Taya stopped her, only because Holly was making mimosas next week. This was something alright.

Don Callis and Josh Matthews addressed the hacker, saying that they’re doing everything possible to secure the production trucks. In addition, they ran down tonight’s card and some of the matches that were scheduled for Lockdown. 

Chris Bey defeated Damien Drake

Not exactly his debut, but his first match as an official Impact roster member.

Headlock to start the match. They seem to start a sequence of reversals, but Bey quickly put down his opponent with a shoulder tackle. Bey took down Damien with a low kick, then a kick to the head to send him to the floor, followed by a tope con giro. 

Back in the ring, Bey hit a couple more impressive looking kicks, a jumping European uppercut and a snap neckbreaker. 

Drake tried to mount a comeback but Bey blocked, superkicked him, hit a rana to the corner then connected with a jumping knee that nearly knocked out Drake. Bey hit a springboard famouser for the win.

Good debut match. Bey has tons of charisma and potential.

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Shamrock winning the NWA title in the first NWA/TNA show.

Backstage, Alisha Edwards asked Jordynne Grace to be part of her Lockdown team. 

We got another vignette for Tenille Dashwood’s return. 

Gabbi Loren interviewed Chase Stevens. Wow, that’s a name I hadn’t heard off in a while. He is talking about the (now cancelled) TNA nostalgia show. Moose interrupted him and said he didn’t know who Chase was, but he should know him. They brawled for a bit. It sucks for all these guys hoping to make a comeback on that show. Moose’s coat was AMAZING!

We got to the final episode of Gut Check. The finalists are “Shogun” Jackson Stone and Tyler Tirva. Shogun is huge, but doesn’t look so good in the ring. Tirva is a pretty boy, he has a good look, but hasn’t been shown in the ring yet. Some of the talent talked about their Gut Check experience in the past. 

At the end, we got the match between the two, with Shogun taking the win. The match was cut to look awesome. “Shogun” Jackson Stone was the man to capture the Impact contract. He’ll fit right in with the Sheras, Willie Macks, and Elgins of Impact, as he has the size for it.

Jimmy Jacobs had a sit-down interview with Tessa Blanchard. He asked about Tessa’s reign and how it had been. She couldn’t put it into words because it’s a day-to-day run, dealing with Ace, Taya, and so on, so she’s not just riding the reign. Jacobs asked about her challenging both Elgin and Edwards at Rebellion. Tessa said that she is not scared and she’ll take on everyone and that she won’t hide from two of the best in the world, then she will prove she is the deserving champion. Good stuff. Jacobs is great.

Joey Ryan came out with new attire, new theme, and a huge banner that said Cancel Culture, which is the team name for Ryan and RVD. Forbes was completely covering herself.

Joey Ryan cut a promo to reintroduce himself as Joseph P. Ryan. He said they have extraordinary gifts. RVD is an innovator, Forbes has an amazing butt, and Ryan has a legendary penis. He said that they never asked for the fan’s opinions and thus they were objectified and thus they were taking it all away from the fans. 

Rob cut a promo on all those fans that talk trash about them showing too much skin and doing sexy antics.

Cancel Culture (Joseph P. Ryan & Rob Van Dam, with Katie Forbes) defeated The Deaners

Cousin Jake and Ryan started the match. Jake easily took down Ryan with straight punches, a kneelift by Cody, and a lariat by Jake for an early pin attempt. 

Cody, now in the ring, got taken out with a jawbreaker by Ryan and a kick by RVD. He teased the Rolling Thunder, but didn’t deliver. Likewise, Ryan teased the dong-plex, but didn’t deliver either. All that stalling gave Cody the opening to tag in Jake, who came in hot, earning a two count with a Scoop Slam.

Cousin Jake hit the corner spear on RVD and a body block on Ryan, but when they planned to hit the Giv’er Drop, Katie Forbes distracted them long enough for Ryan to hit the superkick on Jake, setting up the 5-Star Frog Splash by RVD for the win.

Gabbi Loren tried to interview Ken Shamrock about his announcement tonight. Ken just said that it was Impact’s management that called him in, so we’d all find out together.

Backstage, Ace Austin approached Willie Mack, who said he appreciated the help, but that he didn’t really need it. Ace said that he was impressed with Mack and said that he himself was interested in getting the tag team titles and he wanted to do it with him. Mack said that he only has one partner and that is Swann. Ace asked Mack if he was interested in being a champion, to which Mack said he was, and so he was in next weeks’ X-Division No. 1 conterndership match.

Kiera Hogan defeated Lacey Ryan

Hogan jumped Lacey to start the match, but after some shots, Lacey got a German on Hogan and a dropkick to get the upper hand. Lacey went for a springboard elbow, but Hogan dodged, kicked her, and hit a version of a leg drop on the apron for a two count.

Hogan worked a bit on Ryan, choking her against the ropes. When she tried to chop her, Lacey came back with a real chop. Kiera hit a running low kick for a two count.

Hogan countered a kick by Lacey and locked in some bodyscissors, then transitioned into a sleeper, forcing Lacey to break out. Lacey landed a heavy slap, followed with a trio of big clotheslines, then finally landed a springboard elbow. Lacey hit a modified GTS for a great near fall. 

Lacey went for a frog splash, but Hogan moved away, escaped a German, kicked Lacey, and hit a swinging neckbreaker to pick up the win. This may be Hogan’s first match in over a year. 

Somewhere backstage, Su Yung picked up a letter from James MItchell. The letter said that Havok vs. Su Yung should happen in the Undead Realm so Rosemary wouldn’t interfere and so they can put an end to this war.

Michael Elgin cut a promo introducing his team for Lethal Lockdown. He tried to create some dissension between Eddie and Tessa. He added Taya Valkyrie to his team, in addition to The North. This Team Canada looks fantastic!

Daga defeated Jake Crist

Collar and elbow lock up to start the match, but they quickly transition into a battle for wrist-control. Some mat wrestling follows until Jake makes the ropes to escape. 

Jake Crist decided to strike Daga, but he countered with lucha-style wrestling, then got into a fast-paced sequence with Jake until he went for the ropes as soon as Daga locked in a submission. 

They fought themselves to the apron where Jake dropped Daga knee-first, but it wasn’t enough until Jake blocked a tope suicida with a kick and hit a diving DDT to the floor.

Back from commercial, Jake was working on Daga with a side Russian leg sweep and a stump puller submission attempt. They exchange kicks and clotheslines until both are down. They went back at it, exchanging forearms in the middle of the ring that ended with Daga taking down Jake with a sequence of clotheslines. He followed with a dragon screw and a magistral cradle for a two count. 

Daga hit a sitdown powerbomb for a second two count. Jake came back with a kick combo to the face for another two count. Crist hit a German, but Daga fired up and landed a German bridge of his own for a two count. Daga went for a top rope move, but Jake caught him with a cutter. 

Daga then hit the dragon suplex and finished off Jake with Daga Driver. Fantastic match.

We went backstage, where security had supposedly found the hacker. They drag some dude outside. D’Amore is notified, and as it turns out it was Ryan Cage, the minister. He was still taken out when he asked to see his brother. 

Next week, Tessa & Eddie team up to take on Elgin & Taya. Also, an X-Division #1 Contender’s Scramble match, Havok vs. Su Yung in the Undead Realm, and Rhino & Sabu vs. Madman Fulton & Dave Crist.

Josh Matthews introduced Ken Shamrock and talked about the TNA nostalgia show. Matthews talked about Shamrock vs. Fulton and said that he showed he still had a lot in the tank. The fans chanted for another match. 

Shamrock said that Impact management invited him here for something special. Josh Matthews thanked him for all he’s done for MMA and pro wrestling and officially announced that Ken Shamrock is being inducted to the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. 

They played a great video of Shamrock’s career, but suddenly, the broadcast was interrupted by the hacker ICU. When the lights came back, Sami Callihan was in the ring and hit a fireball on Shamrock. He used his phone to turn the lights off and disappear. Finally, a non-magical excuse as to why lights go off. 

Doctors and referees checked on Shamrock as the show went off the air.

Final Thoughts — 

A really good show by Impact. Fantastic action inside the ring, and while a lot of the storylines were for shows that are already confirmed as postponed, they all in a way also build towards Rebellion, which is still on the schedule.