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Cero Reviews Impact Wrestling Unbreakable 2019

Posted: Aug 9th, '19, 18:20
by cero2k
Impact Wrestling Unbreakable 2019
August 2, 2019
Esports Arena, Santa Ana, CA.

PPray vs Chris Bey & Watts - 4.5/10
His name is just Watts, and I don't think it refers to the Watts family, but rather then measurement to how much evergy dissipates. I really can't remember the last time I saw PPray, it surely was whenever their last PWG show was. The match was spotty and fun, but nothing out of this world. Chris Bey has a lot of potential, but he needs to lose the generic So Cal indie wrestler aura about him. PPray won with a double team move that I don't know what it's called, but it was pretty much an assisted Suplex thingy.

oVe Promo - Sami and Jake argued about who's fault was it that Fulton and Dave were not here tonight and said that tonight, they will get things done. Meaning they'll win their matches. I really enjoy Jake Crist being a pain in Sami's butt.

Impact X-Division Championship Match
Jake Crist (C) vs Trey Miguel vs Ace Austin vs Danny Rivera vs Adrien Quest - 6/10
It was the usual spotty match, but it really showed how above guys like Crist and Miguel are over the local indie pools. Story was mostly Jake Crist doing everything to break up pins all over the place, trying to get a chance here and there to pin and retain, and it would be like this until the end when Crist dropped Rivera with a cutter, coming down down from a Tornado DDT.

Jake Crist has changed his look, he bleached his hair to go with the "Golden Draw" moniker.

Madison Rayne vs Aoka Muhara - 3/10
This was kinda horrendous. Muhara is as green as they come, total indie gear and all. Rayne is not exactly someone known for carrying matches, but she tried her best. This was sloppy and completely lacking chemistry. It was short tho, so at least I didn't have to sit through much.

Taya Valkyrie Interview - Jimmy Jacobs interviewed Taya, who said that she is pissed she once again, has to deal with Havok. She hasn't actually beaten Havok one-on-one.

Michael Elgin vs Eddie Edwards - 8/10
Wow, what a contrast. This was pretty great. This was Elgin and Eddie having a NOAH vs NJPW match, just hard hitting action bell-to-bell. You could see Eddie's head whiplash with every lariat clash/ in the middle of the ring. The match was all back and forward, competitive, and fast paced throughout. Elgin won using a backfist and Elgin Bomb for the win. Commentary sold the fact that Elgin didn't tried to break a single rule at all in terms of using chairs to do further damage.

For this match to hold after watching Shingo vs Ishii in the G1 Climax says a lot. I was surprised an Impact Plus Special got this level of match to be honest.

Post-match - Eddie offered Elgin a fist bump, Elgin thought about it, but denied him at the end. Commentary sold that Eddie giving him so much trouble and not sending him to the hospital was a defeat for Elgin.

Rhino Promo - Great promo with Rhino saying Moose's No Jackhammer Needed was nothing compared to the Gore, which he renamed No Fucks Given for tonight. Yes, he said fuck on two occasions.

Scott Steiner, Petey Wiliams, and Jordynne Grace vs "Gentleman" Jervis Cottonbelly, Ryan Taylor, & Dick Meyer - 5/10
Ugh, so before the match, Scott cut a promo kinda trying to re-create the magic of Steiner math, except he talked about pot and pussy. The promo was weak, you could tell he either couldn't remember the lines, or was gassed out from it. Here's the thing, dude slapped Jordynne's butt when he introduced her, and I don't know if they talked about it backstage, but it seemed improvised and I just felt disgusted.

Match was nothing special. Steiner can barely move now and so most of the match was Petey getting worked on until Scott made the hot tag, tossed some people around, and ended with a Grace Driver, Canadian Destroyer, and FrankenSteiner, which all led to a triple Steiner Recliner for the submission win. Jervis doing comedy with Grace was great, but not the best place to do it when you have Scott Steiner there. This would had been a far better match if Steiner wasn't there, because regardless of the talent in the ring, fans just wanted their nostalgia trip.

Post-match - Steiner slapped Jordynne's butt again. I'm surprised there wasn't any heat coming off from this. I get no one saw the show.

Swann/Mack and Reno Scum Altercation - Swann and Mack are playing video games when Reno Scum come in to mess with them. They come close to fighting, but leave it for tonight's match.

Impact Knockout's Championship Match
Taya Valkyrie (C) w/John E. Bravo vs Jessicka Havok - 5.5/10
Good match, but a terrible finish. The match was actually competitive, Havok ain't the best, but Taya was giving her a lot while also making sure she looked strong herself. 8 minutes with that wrestling and a normal finish would had been good, except they had to protect both women for the TV taped match, so the finish was just Bravo pulling Taya out of the ring when Havok closed in for the finish, and Taya and Bravo just walked out for the countout loss. Pretty underwhelming and bad booking, she should have just walked out at the start of the match instead.

Rematch, which was announced as a consequence of this finish, takes place at next week's Impact.

Moose Interview - Good little promo with Moose calling Rhino yet another has been trying to reclaim his fame. Moose said that he'll dispose of him like he did RVD.

Moose vs Rhino - 6/10
The match wasn't exactly bad, it was a perfectly good TV match, but the booking seemed counterproductive. Moose got momentum beating RVD, but now he lost to Rhino, and while I understand that Rhino should win his big return match, it really didn't have to be against Moose. There are better options for that. Rhino won with a nice looking Gore.

The North Interview - Page is annoyed for being interviewed right before his match (I agree). Alexander said he wants to fight the best competition that Impact can get them.

Impact Tag Team Championship 3-way Match
The North (C) vs Reno Scum vs Rich Swann & Willie Mack - 7/10
Don Callis had the perfect line to describe Reno Scum. Sometimes they're really impressive looking and imposing, sometimes they're a bunch of geeks.

The match was a good three team match, tons of actions, double team moves, stealing tags and pins. Reno Scum wasn't impressive tonight, but they did their part. North vs Swann and Mack was a nice little pairing, but I really hope they don't get in the way of the Rascalz getting the titles now that Swann has dropped the X-Division title. Finish saw Thornstowe make a pin while not having noticed that Alexander had blindly tagged in, so The North took out Lester and hit their finisher on Thornstowe for the win.

Tessa Blanchard Interview - She said that when she came to Impact, she aimed to be the top women wrestler in the company, but never really imagined that she'd get a shot at the world title. She said that she'd break barriers.

Impact World Championship No. 1 Contendership Match
Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan - 8/10
This was a great match, tons of drama. Not being live, I feel that this was a better match than Slammiversary, but the crowd feeling wasn't there.

Story was similar. Tessa came in strong, but Sami cut her off, worked on her legs with awesome offense, some moves I had never seen before. Tessa made a comeback and started getting some offense, landing one Magnum, but as she went for the second, Jake Crist came down to distract her. Tessa still landed a second Magnum, but Jake distracted the ref. Tessa took out Jake, but Sami got a hold of the X-Division belt, hit Tessa with it, followed with the Cactus Special and stole the win.

Yeah yeah, Tessa is now 0-2 against Sami, but i'm happy because my hopes for my idea is still alive. Sami should beat Cage for the title, but Tessa should beat Jake Crist now for the X-Division title, Option C that belt for Bound for Glory, and finally have Tessa defeat Sami when the stakes are at their highest. Boom, make history.

Post-match - Sami and Jake attacked Tessa again until Dreamer came for the save.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
It wasn't exactly a great show that you need to go out to see, to be real, I just watched it for the main event implications, but I ended up surprised by some of the matches. Production was shit tho, mainly the audio, which is something that Impact really needs to work with when they go and tape with indie partner's gear.