Impact Wrestling 5.31: Elgin & Johnny vs Swann & Mack

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Impact Wrestling 5.31: Elgin & Johnny vs Swann & Mack

Post by cero2k » May 31st, '19, 22:27

Impact Wrestling
May 31st, 2019
2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA

Full Recap: https://www.f4wonline.com/news/impact-w ... ack-285036

Opening video recapped Taya defending her championship over Madison Rayne, Elgin and Johnny Impact agreeing to tag tonight, the meeting of Rosemary and Father James Mitchell, Tessa running off Disco Inferno, a recap of LAX defending their titles against The North, and the main event of RVD vs Tommy Dreamer, that ended with the return of Sabu to Impact Wrestling.

Twitch stream was hosted by Melissa Santos. She ran the show and gave a small update on Brian Cage. They also showed an Impact Plus Flashback from Jeff Hardy’s debut for TNA, challenging AJ Styles for the X-Division title.

Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer & Sabu w/Super Genie vs Moose & The North -
RVD hits the Five Star Frog Splash on Page for the win. Not exactly a great match, but it was a nostalgia showcase for the ECW originals doing fan service in the old ECW arena.

Brian Cage Update - He gave an update from his house. He told us that he feels better, he’s been cleared to train again, but not to wrestle. He cut a promo on Elgin bragging about sending him and his friends to the hospital. He claimed that no matter what, he’ll be at Slammiversary defending his championship. On Twitch, Melissa Santos unofficially said that as of today, Cage has been cleared to wrestle again and is currently in Germany.

Moose Promo - Backstage, Moose cut a promo saying that he has thought about this all wrong. He misjudged Kross and The North as help, and so now he’s going in solo.

Tessa Blanchard vs Glenn Gilbertti - Squash
Total squash. Glenn started the match cutting a promo telling Tessa that he gave her credit for being one of the most talented women out there, but then she brought her down saying it doesn’t really count for much. He made fun of women drivers and the women’s revolution. He then brought up that Tessa had daddy issues, and so tonight, he was going to be her daddy. Tessa took him down with strikes and pinned him after an elbow about 30 seconds in.

LAX vs Rascalz Meeting - LAX cut a promo from their clubhouse. They’re talking about going back to New York when they get smoked out, but it’s not Scarlet Bordeaux, it’s the Rascalz, who tell LAX that they’re ready for a title shot. LAX deny giving offering them a title shot, but as it happened in the Treehouse, no one can remember. They all agree and Konnan confirms it.

Swann and Mack Interview - Melissa Santos interviewed Rich Swann and Willie Mack about their match with Elgin and Johnny Impact. Swann said that as much as Elgin has tried to injured them, they’re still standing, and Johnny has only been taking credit. They said that tonight, they win.

The Deaners vs Desi Hit Squad w/Gama Singh - 6/10
Ok match. Desi Hit Squad have really grown as a team, but they're still the quintessential heel enhancement team. Deaners also looked good, I especially like Cousin Jake, he's just a tank of a guy. Cody won via School Boy on Rohit after taking out Raj.

Killer Kross Promo - Kross cut a promo on Eddie Edwards. He pretty much said that tonight, he’ll punish Eddie in their street fight. Awesome promo by Kross.

Michael Elgin Interview - Santos interviewed Michael Elgin about teaming with Johnny Impact, but instead, Elgin addressed Brian Cage about returning. Johnny interrupted and said that on Slammimversary, he may cash in his X for a shot at Rich Swann’s title. They agree that tonight they send Swann and Mack to the hospital.

A Night You Can't Mist Card Rundown - Elgin and Johnny are also taking on Tommy Dreamer and The Great Muta at Impact’s A Night You Can’t Mist. Other matches announced are Eddie Edwards vs Sami Callihan, Teddy Hart vs Rich Swann vs Willie Mack, Taya Valkyrie vs Jordynne Grace, and Billy Gunn vs Joey Ryan.

Street Fight
Eddie Edwards vs Killer Kross - 7.5/10
This was a great and really violent match. Kross was just slamming Eddie all over the place, especially those two handed chokeslam spots. The weapon spots were a lot, but also really basic and they all looked great just out of the intensity of Kross. Finish saw Kross go for the kill, but suddenly Sandman hit the ring, hit Kross with a kendo stick, giving Eddie the opening for the Boston Knee Party and pin. This was a great and really violent match. Sandman gave Eddie a new kendo stick. Don’t enable this man! Fans went crazy for Sandman tho.

Post-match - During the commercial, there was a special Twitch post-match celebration with Sandman and Eddie Edwards. They played Enter Sandman by Metallica and did the beer can gimmick.

Somewhere in the Undead Realm - James Mitchell met with Rosemary. Mitchell told her he was tired of her and reminded her that everything that has happened was all Allie’s fault for not following on his warnings. Then it was Allie that went looking for him. He even gave her back as they agreed, but it was still Rosemary that kept making things wrong and blaming him. Mitchell kept saying the truth until Rosemary got tired of him and attacked him. This really made Rosemary seem like the heel since Mitchell was making a really good point there.

Impact Plus Flashback of the Week - Raven vs Rhino in a Raven’s Rules match from TNA Unbreakable 2005.

oVe Promo - Sami Callihan addressed Fallah Bahh and Scarlet Bordeaux. He talked trash to the knockouts like if they’ve been hanging out with Glenn Gilbertti. Please tell me we’re not doing Sami Callihan vs Tessa Blanchard. Bahh and Scarlet vs Jake and Dave Crist next week.

Also next week, Taya Valkyrie vs Rosemary in a non-title, and LAX vs The Rascalz for the Impact Tag Team Championships.

Rich Swann & Willie Mack vs Michael Elgin & Johnny Impact w/Johnny Bravo - 8.5/10
Swann and Mack surprised Elgin and Johnny with Topes con giro to start the match. This was an awesome match, it was back and forward for pretty much all of the match, and in a way, was more of a PWG style tag match towards the end, but I'll have to say it, they actually were able to follow who was legal and not. Most of the match told the story that Swann and Mack were so much better tag team than Elgin and Johnny who are to huge egos.

Finish saw Elgin go for the Elgin Bomb, but Swann ram Johnny into Elgin, who decided to walk out on Johnny. In the ring, Swann caught Johnny with a cutter and a 450 for the win. I found Swann pinning Johnny interesting when Mack was there and could have taken the pin. Swann vs Impact for the X-Division seems inevitable. Really interesting too that the former champ moves on to an X-Division feud that I'm sure a lot of people would see as a demotion, but here, Swann winning the main events makes him rise instead.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A great show inside the ring thanks to the main event and the street fight. Storyline developments are still in a weird place with the nostalgia stuff, but it does feel like things are moving forward.
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Re: Impact Wrestling 5.31: Elgin & Johnny vs Swann & Mack

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '19, 02:37

Here's my issue with the whole Disco thing: What was actually gained from this? It's basically just a bunch of cheap heat, with no real obstacle for Tessa to overcome because Disco is a pushover. Tessa doesn't gain anything from it, no money was drawn, and it's not like they used it to buy time while they were building up some other challenger for Tessa in the background. It was ultimately just a waste of time for some cheap pops.
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Re: Impact Wrestling 5.31: Elgin & Johnny vs Swann & Mack

Post by cero2k » Jun 2nd, '19, 09:56

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '19, 02:37 Here's my issue with the whole Disco thing: What was actually gained from this? It's basically just a bunch of cheap heat, with no real obstacle for Tessa to overcome because Disco is a pushover. Tessa doesn't gain anything from it, no money was drawn, and it's not like they used it to buy time while they were building up some other challenger for Tessa in the background. It was ultimately just a waste of time for some cheap pops.
It's part of Tessa's babyface turn. After her match with Gail she had a promo praising Gail and then she cut a promo on Taya being champion, but it had been all talk. She hadn't actually done much in term of actions.
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Re: Impact Wrestling 5.31: Elgin & Johnny vs Swann & Mack

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '19, 11:01

cero2k wrote: Jun 2nd, '19, 09:56
Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '19, 02:37 Here's my issue with the whole Disco thing: What was actually gained from this? It's basically just a bunch of cheap heat, with no real obstacle for Tessa to overcome because Disco is a pushover. Tessa doesn't gain anything from it, no money was drawn, and it's not like they used it to buy time while they were building up some other challenger for Tessa in the background. It was ultimately just a waste of time for some cheap pops.
It's part of Tessa's babyface turn. After her match with Gail she had a promo praising Gail and then she cut a promo on Taya being champion, but it had been all talk. She hadn't actually done much in term of actions.
That rings kind of hollow to me. It contributes to the turn in that it gets fans used to cheering her, but it's not something that feels like it helps the character turn babyface because one assumes she'd be standing up to the sexist insulting her even if she were a heel.
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Re: Impact Wrestling 5.31: Elgin & Johnny vs Swann & Mack

Post by cero2k » Jun 2nd, '19, 11:20

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '19, 11:01
That rings kind of hollow to me. It contributes to the turn in that it gets fans used to cheering her, but it's not something that feels like it helps the character turn babyface because one assumes she'd be standing up to the sexist insulting her even if she were a heel.
it's hollow in the sense that it doesn't really build anything right now, it's kinda like a way to keep her on TV as a babyface. I think it gives her this thing right now of being a defender of the division, which is not bad since she wouldn't really have anyone else to feud with since Taya is feuding with Rayne, Jordynne vs Hogan, and Rosemary vs Yung.

I have to imagine this 30 second TKO is the end of Disco for the time being, so I don't really know where she goes from here. Like I mentioned in the review, I sure as hell hope it's not Knockouts vs oVe unless Callihan has someone ready to add to the team, in which case I wouldn't mind.

These set of tapings from Philly have felt like a lot of time filler to me. This, the ecw nostalgia feud, and Cage being injured is just way too many things going on that I can't imagine will build to anything at all for Slammiversary.
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