Impact Wrestling results: LAX & Laredo Kid vs. The Rascalz

Impact returns from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, NY, as they continue the build towards Slammiversary, just nine nights away. Opening video featured the build up to Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Calliahn at the pay-per-view, the backstage angle between Eddie Edwards and Killer Kross, the announcement of the Knockout’s Monster’s Ball match, and the return of TJP and Brian Cage. 

Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos. She hyped up all of the matches being built for Slammiversary. 

The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) defeated The Deaners (Cody Deaner & Cousin Jake)

Jake and Alexander start the match with the latter having the technical advantage, while Jake had the strength advantage, earning him control early on. Deaners kept control over both Page and Alexander with quick tags and a couple of tag team moves, earning a two count on Page. 

Page turned the match around on Cousin Jake. They went for a double piledriver, but Jake outpowered them, escaped, and got Cody the tag, who took out Page with a dive. Inside the ring, Josh Alexander took out Jake with a running crossbody. 

For a second time in the match, the North gained control, this time over Cody, cutting the ring in half on him with quick tags and power moves. Cody made a comeback with a desperation Swinging Neckbreaker to get the tag to Cousin Jake, who ran wild over both Page and Alexander. Deaner tagged in and hit a Flying Headbutt for a near fall. Jake hit the corner spear and the Dearners went for their finisher, but Page interrupted them. Alexander and Jake traded strikes, Alexander hit a deadlift German, but Jake stood up and hit a desperation lariat for a two count. Cody hit a Deaner DDT and went for top rope move, but Page blocked him, North hit the tag finisher, and picked up the win. Pretty good opener, the Deaners are better than they get credit for.

Josh Alexander got busted open over the nose early in the match, he already had the cut, so he just reopened the wound.

– Taya and Rosemary met in Rosemary’s lair to plan for tonight’s match. Taya is arguing that she doesn’t want to be there. Rosemary tells her to just keep her word that if Rosemary protects her, she’ll get a shot at the Knockout’s title. Really great interaction between the two. 

– Rolando Menendez interviewed Brian Cage’s doctor, who said that Cage’s actions last week were irresponsible as he is still not cleared to return to action. 

– We got footage from a House of Hardcore show where Moose attacked Tommy Dreamer, blaming RVD for the attack. 

– Commentary announced that Killer Kross will face Eddie Edwards at Slammiversary in a First Blood Match.

Knockout’s Champion Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary defeated Su Yung & Havok by DQ

Rosemary and Taya start arguing over who starts the match, but on the other side, Havok attacks them both. She took focus on Taya, making quick work of her with chokes and backbreakers before tagging in Su Yung. Taya made a small comeback, but failed to tag in Rosemary and kept getting worked on, eating the turnbuckle by a Spiderrana by Yung, who immediately went for the Mandible Claw, except Havok tagged herself in and shouted at Yung. 

Taya finally managed to escape from Havok, doding a Banzai Drop, and tagged in Rosemary. She went with lariats against Havok, but failed with each one, until she changed her offense into a Slingblade instead. Rosemary to Havok down with a dropkick to the knee and locked in a Last Chancery, but Yung broke it up. 

Rosemary sent Havok to the outside and went for a dive, but Havok blocked her with a forearm as she was coming down. Rosemary and Havok started brawling outside the ring. Havok grabbed a chair, but Rosemary dodged. Su Yung took down Rosemary with the chair for the DQ loss. 

Taya and Su Yung brawled inside the ring with Yung locking in the Claw on the champion, while Rosemary and Havok brawled outside. Rosemary took out Havok and speared Yung, keeping her promise to protect Taya, but she got distracted, leaving Havok to pick up chairs. Havok returned to the ring and went for Rosemary, but now it was Taya that made the save, and took out Havok with a chair. Rosemary brought out thumbtacks. Taya and Rosemary teased dropping Yung on the tacks, but Havok stopped them. There was some miscommunication with Havok and Yung and it led to Havok wanting to chokeslam Yung, but James Mitchell ran down to break up the fight. Match wasn’t much, but the post-match angle was good.

– Melissa Santos interviewed Ace Austin about his first loss. Austin said that he lost because he couldn’t prepare for someone he wasn’t even in the company prior to last week. TJP interrupted him, took some shots at 205 Live, and said that they can have another match next week so Ace has time to properly prepare.

– The Deaners recovered at a bar and talked about their loss. They were interrupted by the Desi Hit Squad, who made fun of them. 

– Impact Plus Moment of the Week was the Mixed Tag Monster’s Ball from Slammiversary 2009 between Taylor Wilde and Abyss vs Raven and Daffney. 

– Eddie Edwards was in a church in Boston, MA. He confesses that he has lost everything and he doesn’t care because the voice in his head keeps telling him to do bad things. Suddenly, Kross is there, who teases Eddie, but they agree to not fight inside the church. Kross’s wardrobe makes him look like part of the Deaners now. I miss black suit Killer Kross.

– Backstage, Johnny Bravo is showing off to the other refs and staff. The refs call him a stooge and make fun of him. He talks trash about Rich Swann, who shows up, along with Johnny Impact, as they get into a pull apart. Swann challenges Impact to a tag match between Swann and Mack vs Johnny Impact and Bravo, who accepts in behalf of Impact.

Sami Callihan (w/Madman Fulton) defeated Fallah Bahh (w/Scarlett Bordeaux)

Callihan tried to jump Bahh, but Fallah Bahh was ready for him and started the match hitting a flurry of strikes instead. Callihan tried to chop Bahh, but it didn’t work and Bahh kept the offense. It wasn’t until Fulton tripped Bahh, that Sami got the opening to drop Bahh with a Lariat. The referee ejected Fulton to the back.

Bahh had time to recover and get back in the offensive with some clotheslines, but Sami tricked Bahh and dropped him again. We got the visual of Callihan’s snot drooling out. 

Callihan kept control with stomps and sleepers. Bahh eventually powered up and made a comeback, dropped Sami with a Belly-to-belly and followed with a running splash and running hip attack on the corner. Bahh hit a Samoan Drop and went for the Banzai Drop, but Callihan got out of the ring. 

Bahh chased Callihan to the outside, bringing him back the hard way. Bahh went to suplex Sami to the outside, but Callihan bit him, got a couple of kicks in, and a rope assisted Cactus Special for the win. Decent match for the time it got. Bahh has improved a lot after losing weight. 

After the match, Callihan cut a promo. He said that the Knockouts are not created equal and tried to hijack the show until the fans would stay quiet. He called out Tessa, who took no time to come out. 

Callihan told Tessa that she won’t do anything to him because he is a man and he IS Impact Wrestling. Sami said that if Tessa wanted to be treated like an equal, he would oblige, and superkicked Tessa. Callihan kept talking, giving Tessa the time to recover, get up, and take down Callihan. The rest of oVe came out and held Tessa, allowing Callihan to take out Tessa with the bat and deliver the Cactus Special after Tessa spat on him. Pretty strong angle, this is going to be controversial. Even in defeat, Tessa looked incredibly strong. 

The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz, & Trey Miguel) defeated LAX (Santana & Ortiz) & Laredo Kid (w/Konnan) 

LAX and Rascalz face off in the center of the ring, allowing Laredo Kid to start the match hitting a flying crossbody on all of the Rascalz, sending them to the outside, set up for Santana to take them out with a tope con giro. Inside the ring, Kid and Trey exchanged a series of counters, with Kid getting the upper hand with a couple of kicks and ranas. With everyone outside, Laredo Kid hit a moonsault to the outside as he and LAX gain control of the match.

Back from commercial, Trey Miguel is being worked on with a series of team moves by all three men opposite his corner. After some chaos with all six men in the ring, Trey gets the tag to Dezmond, who gets a quick pin attempt on Ortiz after Wentz took out Kid and Santana with a huge dive. 

Santana came in and ran wild over Trey Miguel with a kick and a Death Valley Driver. Wentz takes him out, and followed one after the other taking each other down until they all laid on the mat to chants of ‘Fight Forever’. 

All six men traded strikes in the ring, ending with LAX getting the upper hand with super kicks. Laredo Kid hit a 450 over all three Rascalz stacked up for a two count. LAX and Kid went for a team move on Trey, but Dez and Wentz blocked them and hit a kick combo on Ortiz instead, setting him up for a Meterora by Trey for the win. 

Another incredible match between these two teams. Their Slammiversary match has a big change of stealing the show.

– Melissa Santos interviewed Madison Rayne about defeating Jordynne Grace. Madison said that win was soured by Kiera Hogan’s interference and offered Grace a rematch. Hogan interrupted her and said that all the Knockouts are ‘selfish bitches’, except she doesn’t mind accepting she is. Rayne challenged Hogan to a match. 

– Back at the Treehouse, Rascalz recovered, but argued that Trey won’t be at the tag match in Slammiversary, leading to a discussion about what the pair at the pay-per-view. They agree to a 3-way match next week with the loser being out of Slammiversary. This is going to be great.

Also for next week, we have the TJP vs Ace Austin rematch, Johnny Impact and Johnny Bravo vs Rich Swann and Willie Mack, and Madison Rayne vs Kiera Hogan. 

– Rolando Menendez tried to interview Cage as he came in to the building. Cage’s doctor told him that he wasn’t cleared, so Cage just picked him up and got him out of his way. 

Brian Cage came out to the ring and addressed Michael Elgin. He said that it’s taken him 14 years to claim his position as World Champion, but Elgin took away his biggest win from him and sent him to the hospital. He said that he was injured at that time, but he is ready and it won’t happen again. 

Impact’s team doctor came out and told Cage that he is not cleared to compete. Cage hit an F-5 on the doctor. Elgin then jumped Cage from behind, he hit the Buckle Bomb and Elgin Bomb combination for a visual 3-count. Elgin posed with the World title. Cage showed signs of not being done, so Elgin hit a second Elgin Bomb and went for a table this time around. Elgin hit a powerbomb from the ring to the table outside on the floor. Crazy spot given Cage’s real injury a couple of months ago. 

Don Callis told Elgin to leave, provoking Elgin to attack Callis with a forearm. Elgin went for an Elgin Bomb on Callis, but Cage stood up with a neck brace, ripped it off, got in the ring, and brawled with Elgin to close off the show. 

Final thoughts — 

This was a really packed show, both inside and outside the ring. Just like last weekend, this could have been a really strong go-home show, yet we still have one more week to go before the pay-per-view. If anything else, the angles tonight really escalated some of the ongoing feuds.