Impact Wrestling 1.18 Review: Barbwire Massacre III

[cero2k]

Impact Wrestling
January 18, 2017
Ottawa, ON, Canada

Impact X-Division Championship Match
Dezmond Xavier vs Taiji Ishimori (C) - 7.5/10
Xavier did a top con giro, over the top rope, over the barricade, landing in the fan's area. Fuck! This match was wrestled in a Japanese style, starting with slower methodical measuring up between both guys, but once Dezmond got a chance to apply some aerial offense, the match gor faster paced and slightly more brutal. They started striking each other, trading bigger moves, building up to the fighting spirit spots and the race to hit their finishers, which Xavier would hit, but Ishimori would kick out of. At the end Taiji retains by hitting the lungblower + 450 combination on Xavier for the win. Great match!

Post-match - Both men shake hands. Xavier puts Ishimori over.

OVE vs LAX Saga Video - Kinda long, but it was a long feud they've had, so there was a lot to cover. Good promos by everyone, interesting to see guys like Homicide and Ortiz talking.Awesome acting by Konnan and Callihan.

America's Top Talent Promo/Vignette - Just like the previous, it was a long recount of the whole ATT vs Impact feud. Good video, but shouldn't follow another video, especially because this was followed by one of those network back in time matches.

ECIII vs Matt Sydal Build Up Video - Good stuff, good promos.

Gail Kim Retirement/Allie's Quest Video - Good stuff too, but am I watching the 'best of the year' episode here?

Allie Interview - Next week, Allie vs Van Ness for the title. Great promo, I had completely forgotten this feud goes all the way back to Laurel's wedding.

Kongo Kong w/Jimmy Jacobs vs Chandler Park w/ Joseph Park - Squash
Finally a match, aaaannd it's a Kong Kong match...And there goes the one match undefeated streak for Park. Kong straight up killed Chandler. After the match, Kongo did a top rope plancha on Chandler. Jacobs kept teasing Joseph about what monsters look like, Abyss vs Kong imminent.

Patron vs Impact vs Drake Build Up Video - We saw promos from each guy at BCW, Patron couldn't remember Drake's name. Drake's promo was great.

From Border City Wrestling
Impact Global Championship "Motor City Mayhem" Match
Alberto El Patron vs Eli Drake (C) vs Johnny Impact - No Rating, Bad segment
If anything else, I really liked that they build up this match last week on Impact everyone claiming they were going to Detroit since Drake was going to be there. The ropes in this show are looser than Kongo Kong's manboobs, and we have Triple Threat rules (no DQs), so this is gonna be an ugly looking match.

The first half of the match all built to the three men superkicking the ref, they all broke pins by pulling the ref from the ring, and after a while the ref got tired and wanted to fight them all, and thus the superkick by all three. Second ref came out and pissed off Drake, so Drake killed him with a Gravy Train, and since there are no more refs in BCW, all the locker room came out to pulled the wrestlers apart since the match was thrown out. If you're trying to

Immediately announced afterwards, Patron vs Impact vs Drake in a Cage Match next week as the main event of the "GENESIS" show.

Rosemary vs KC Spinelli -
Josh and JB are really putting over Spinelli as how she has been getting better and better every time she gets in the ring and how she has been pushing the KOs to the limit more and more. Good match, Rosemary won with a Red Wedding after faking out Spinelli with the Red Mist she didn't hit.

Post-match - Rosemary cuts a promo. She says that she is coming for whoever wins between Allie and Van Ness next week on GENESIS. Great stuff. After she is done, from the crowd we see a girl attack Rosemary, It's Hania the Huntress! They brawl up the ramp. Ok brawl, Hania kicked Rosemary's ass.

Barbwire Massacre III Hype Video - This wasn't exactly focused on the OVE v LAX, it was focused on the history of the match, they interviewed Abyss about his matches with Sabu and Mesias. Great build up, I was actually watching those matches at the same time I was watching Impact. It has been about 10 yrs since BWM2, so I'm not gonna lie i'm getting some old school Hell in a Cell or Ladder War vibes as in this match that only happens when a rivalry gets to a certain level. You don't see this stuff anymore in wrestling.

GENESIS Promo - Good promo. Card includes Moose vs Lashley, Allie vs Laurel Van Ness (C), ECIII (C) vs Matt Sydal, Patron vs Impact vs Drake (C).

switches to Twitch Stream

Barbwire Massacre III, Impact Tag Team Championship Match
Ohio Versus Everything vs Latin American Xchange (C) w/Konnan - 8.5/10
This is 3-on-3 adding Callihan and Homicide to the match. Ropes are down, barbwire replacing them. Shit is gonna hit the fan!

This wasn't like previous BWM, this one included more weapons, we saw forks, chairs, tables, and toward the end of the match, wooden skewers, but overall, the match progressed like usual with teases and then slowly escalating the amount of skin that touches the barbwire until you're completely wrapped in it at the end. Some of the bigger spots we saw where Ortiz dropping Jake Crist with a suplex on a barbwire board table, a spear from the ring into a table outside from Jake on Ortiz. Finish saw Santana stick the skewers on Dave Crist on the top of a ladder, then suplex Dave into a chair at the bottom for the pin. As good as it was, this wasn't as violent as the Hell of War match from Lucha Underground, they managed to do this match with a really small amount of blood, or at least blading, all the blood in the match was legit.

It was really nice seeing Homicide get slightly hardcore again. The crowd was super hot for this match, constant 'This is Awesome' chants throughout the match. Twitch stream peaked at 10.7K, which I can't imagine is a bad number.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This show felt like it should had been presented as Genesis Night 1 since it had 2 really important matches and all the build up videos for next week. Given how the show went, i wish the X-Division match had more time, but I also can't complain. I'm not sure if it was the hype for the main event or what, but this show went fast.