PPV Review // Impact Wrestling Slammiversary XVIII //

I don't know about you, but I can't remember an Impact Wrestling PPV having this much buzz in a long time. Now, a lot of that buzz came from a number of rumoured returns and debuts, as well as the card having to be reshuffled after a number of high profile firings, but Impact has done a brilliant job of building the hype around their promotion being shaken up at the PPV with some great hype packages and a well worked social media campaign over the last few months. On paper, the card wasn't all that great, but still looked like it had the potential to be a sleeper hit if things went the right way and the surprises were nailed. Our main event featured a scrap over the vacant Impact World title with Eddie Edwards, Ace Austin and Trey being joined by the returning Eric Young and Rich Swann, whilst the odd ball tandem of Sami Callihan and Ken Shamrock challenged Ethan Page & Josh Alexander of The North for the Impact World Tag Team straps and The Rascalz's Dez & Wentz had their open challenge answered by the Motor City Machine Guns as well action featuring Tommy Dreamer, Madison Rayne, Willie Mack, Moose and Kimber Lee...but was it any good? 

// Impact World Championship // 

// Five Way Elimination Match //

// Eddie Edwards def. Ace Austin, Rich Swann, Eric Young and Trey //

Eddie Edwards captured his second Impact World Championship reign, three and a half years after his first, when he pinned Ace Austin at the end of an exhilarating five way elimination match, but before we get into that, lets talk about our surprise returns. After six months on the shelf, Rich Swann made his return to Impact in what was, if we're being brutally honest, a bit of a letdown. After the build-up Impact had given this mystery spot in the match, it was hard not to be disappointing when it was a guy already on their roster and, for someone who doesn't watch their programming on a regular basis, a guy I didn't even know had been out for such a long time. Some of that is on me! BUT Impact knew what they were doing and they got me with the big swerve when Eric Young's music hit and the World Class Maniac entered for his first match in an Impact ring since March 2016. To be fair, having Swann come out before EY meant that I gave much more of a shit about Young, than I would have done if Young had come out as the surprise entrant on his own. That's because after some of the guys Impact had teased, Young is clearly not the biggest name, but after the initial disappointment of Swann (not a comment on either man's abilities in the ring), the swerve with Young felt like a much bigger deal. I like to think Impact knew exactly what they were doing, especially considering their were three more returns/debuts still to come! 

After the initial buzz for big mad EY turning up, the match did not disappoint as five high quality workers unsurprisingly put on a high quality match. In the early stages, Trey Miguel was completely stealing the match for me. Trey absolutely killed everything he did here, looking almost effortless in the ring with crisp and clean wrestling, strong babyface fire and exciting highspots. Opposite Rich Swann he produced high-paced, intricate, flippy fun shit that was joy to watch, with Ace Austin he showed off thunderous aggression that really got across the personal issue that's been brewing between the pair for sometime and then pulled off a ridiculous, difficult-to-describe-how-fucking-sweet-it-was spot that saw him duck an Eddie Edwards clothesline and simultaneously fly under the second rope to nail Swann with a sick as fuck Canadian Destroyer on the floor. Lads, I really like Trey. Even being the first eliminated from the match, following a well-worked high spot with Austin and Edwards that saw him stumble into an EY piledriver, Miguel shone brightly. Here's hoping Trey continues to get big opportunities like this, because he's gone under the radar for too long. 

The rest of the match continued to produce at a high level with a spectacular high spot, some strong storytelling beats and number of convincing near falls once we got down to our final two. Lets begin with that spot! Edwards and Austin battled on the top rope for some time with one guy either side of the turnbuckle, at the same time Young had set Swann up for a powerbomb, before having second thoughts and using Swann as a battering ram to knock Edwards and Austin off the top rope and through the time keepers table below. It was creative and looked great with good timing from all involved, with the build creating a real sense of intrigue as I wondered what exactly was about to happen. The storytelling was most focused around Rich Swann and came after he managed to get an upset pin to eliminate Young. EY was vicious in his post-elimination assault, embodying his World Class Maniac gimmick as he went absolute bat shit mental, targeting the leg that kept Swann out of action for six months with a steel chair. This set-up two interesting storylines for the future, one where Swann looks for revenge on Young (and judging by their interactions in the match the pair have promising chemistry) and another more immediate story, where Swann had to battle with a major injury against Ace Austin. Swann sold the injury for everything it was worth, creating a number of dramatic moments as he managed to grab a couple of near falls, all whilst keeping that leg injury at the forefront of his performance. Once, Swann had succumbed to Austin's The Fold (Running Blockbuster) finish it was down to old rivals Edwards and Austin to battle it out for the vacant World title. Crisp, physical and with plenty of twists and turns this was a more than solid finish to the match with both men coming close to sealing the victory (Edwards with the Boston Knee Party and Austin with The Fold) but it was a second Boston Knee Party and a Diehard Flowsion that were enough to see Edwards walk out of Skyway Studios with the Impact World Title. 

The after-the-bell action was as notable as the match, as Good Brothers made good on their midnight promise and made their presence felt at the close of the show. The returning Doc Gallows and the debuting Karl Anderson have collected tag gold in WWE and NJPW and the pair initially teased a partnership with Austin and Madman Fulton, only to join forces with Edwards to wipe out the villains and give us a feel good finish to the show. Gallows & Anderson join a growing tag team roster, that offers a number of interesting match-ups against the likes of The North, Motor City Machine Guns, The Rascalz, XXXL, Reno Scum, even Heath & Rhino, so there's a lot of potential for the Good Brothers, whilst a partnership with Edwards opens up more intriguing options. Who knows where this is going to go?! 

Then as the show looked to be heading off the air, we got what, for me, was the biggest return of the night. Three slashed lines appeared on the screen, before a hooded figure appeared on screen. The hooded figure turned round, removed the hood and revealed himself to be...Ethan Carter III. Carter smashed a glass against a wall and left and the show faded to black. Saving this rumoured surprise until the very last moment, when many had decided that we were getting no EC3 appearance was a great bit of business. There's now a mystery around what EC3 is going to do next, we have no idea who is going to be coming after or exactly how he's going to fit back into the promotion, but whilst we didn't get any answers, we did get one big reason to tune into Impact Wrestling on Tuesday night. 

// Impact World Tag Team Championship //

// Tag Team Match // 

// Ethan Page & Josh Alexander def. Sami Callihan & Ken Shamrock //

I have mixed feelings on the show's Tag team title match, because it was for the most part a 
very entertaining match, but the booking of Ken Shamrock as an indestructible machine throughout the bout did bug me. This is for two reasons, one being that this is a man in his mid-fifties who basically shrugged off anything that was thrown at him by Page & Alexander and at points looked genuinely unstoppable. The second was that the booking of Shamrock disrupted the flow of the match on numerous occasions, leading to a very stop-start narrative, that wasn't always to the benefit of the match. Of course, Shamrock would end up taking the pin off The Monster Mash, but this was only after Ken being a mad bastard lead to him deciding to attempt a dive over the top rope. Another problem this match was faced was that the latter stages completely disregarded the concept of the legal man, with one awkward spot that saw Shamrock and Alexander lock in Ankle locks on their respective opponents making this stand out even further. 


Now, let's get to the positives, because as I said this was an entertaining match and despite moaning in the previous paragraph I think I did actually enjoy it. In many ways, this match managed to be a four-man clusterfuck, with a lot going on and a lot of what was going on performed well. The North have got some lovely tandem offence, Callihan and Page worked a nice back and forth sequence with some intensity, Shamrock hit an overhead belly to belly suplex that sent Alexander out of the ring, there was a lot of cool spots to enjoy for sure. Both Shamrock and Callihan got decent near falls, that would have been even better in front of a crowd, even if there was little to no regard to who was supposed to be the legal man. I think, if I'd had a couple of pints and could have been less bothered by the booking of Shamrock, then I would've enjoyed this much more, but the action was always interesting and despite going over 15 minutes it didn't outstay it's welcome. 


Post-match, The Motor City Machine Guns continued to make their presence felt, informing The North that they'd be facing each other on Tuesday's Impact Wrestling. Impact clearly knew they had a lot of eyes on them with this PPV and the build up that they'd done and the company making an effort to build future match-ups and storylines to get people to tune in on Tuesday was a good bit of business.

// Tag Team Match // 

// Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin def. Dez & Wentz //

Lets talk about those MCMGs a bit more, because Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin are back as a team in Impact for the first in over eight years! The Detroiters answered The Rascalz open challenge at the top of the show and I popped huge for it. The obvious money was on The Good Brothers and MCMGs hadn't even crossed my mind. As a massive fan of both teams, this was one of those dream matches that I hadn't even considered a possibility, so to get it out of nowhere was pretty damn cool. There's an argument to be made that the buzz could've been even higher for this match had Motor City Machine Guns actually been announced for it and not having a live crowd robbed us of the pop they could've got from the surprise appearance, but honestly I don't care. It provided a nice moment, that hooked me straight into the PPV from the very beginning and I got to watch a super cool match that I wasn't expecting. That's all good with me. 

However, both teams still had to deliver the goods and considering their paths have never crossed before this could've ended up being a letdown, but man, did Shelley, Sabin, Dez and Wentz deliver the goods here. The action was as speedy as you'd want it to be, with the Machine Guns more than keeping up their end of the bargain against the younger team, full of beautifully smooth wrestling, physical strikes and double team manoeuvres. Often I'd forget that I was supposed to be writing notes about this, because I was simply just enjoying how fluid the wrestling. Dez in particular moves like water and his hot tag was an absolute delight. There was a little bit of narrative here and there, with MCMG's working more aggressive and taking the defacto heel role in the match, with their being elements of the classic veteran team vs. up and coming team trope, but this was definitely not explored as much as it could have been. The finish did however use this, as Dez went for a Poetry in Motion-esque move that he'd used to knock Shelley apron earlier in the match, but the veteran team had it scouted and countered, using the space to pull out a number of their greatest hits double teams. It was a nice little touch, that lead to MCMG's getting the pin on Dez with the Dirt Bomb, and with just a little bit more of this the match could have been better than it was. I'm definitely looking forward to these four going toe to toe again at some point in the future.

// Knockout's Championship // 

// Deonna Purrazzo def. Jordynne Grace (C) // 

This was an absolute belter. Just a really good professional wrestling match, which told a story and kept things simple. There were no bells and whistle here, no crazy booking decisions, just Deanna Purrazzo and Jordynne Grace wrestling each other for 15 minutes. It was a classic power vs. technique style match, playing into the size differential between the pair, as Grace looked to plough her way to retain the Knockout's title, whilst Purrazzo quickly zoned in on the champions arm to set up her numerous armbar style submissions. Grace seemed intent on hitting her Grace Driver finish, but this would often leave her open for another attack on the arm as the pair weaved their offensive moves together in a number of cute sequences, performed with finesse. In fact, there were couple of really couple of downright clever sequences, including a strong near fall for Grace after blocked an O'Connor roll attempt by locking in a Coquina Clutch, whilst moments later Purazzo had to relinquish a guillotine armbar thing after Grace was able to pin the challenger's shoulder to the mat. 

Purrazzo's work on the arm was lovely stuff, locking in a number of submissions after targeting the body part early, whilst, for the most part, Grace's selling was spot-on. In numerous breaks in the action, Grace would be trying to shake life back into the arm, keeping the injury in the mind of the viewer, whilst the commentary team did their best work (of a disappointing night). I think the match could have benefited from having seen Grace struggle with a few of her power moves or strikes, as more often than not Grace appeared to be having no trouble at all during the action. Grace was even throwing strikes with the supposedly injured, including multiple forearms at one point, which was a little frustrating to see. Chucking in a few spots where Grace was struggling to hit her big moves would have lifted this to the next level. 

All in all, this was a cracking clash between two well suited opponents. I wouldn't argue with anyone if they wanted to give it the nod for match of the night.

// Knockout's Championship Number One Contendership // 

// Gauntlet Match // 

// Kylie Rae def. Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, Kimber Lee, Kiera Hogan, Neveah, Alisha Edwards, Madison Rayne, Rosemary [John E. Bravo], Havok, Susie, Katie Forbes, Tasha Steelz and Taya Valkyrie [John E. Bravo] // 

Oh my christ. This was easily the worst match on the show and very well could end being the worst worked match of the year. There's some talent in this match for sure, but unfortunately very little of it was on display here. I don't even know where to begin. Okay, I'm lying, I do. Who the fuck is John E. Bravo? And what the fuck is he doing in this gauntlet? Him dressing up as Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary may have been in funny in...no, it would never have been funny. Even if it was funny, the reason for his appearance given by the commentary team made absolutely no sense whatsoever. They explained that Bravo had entered a #3 because his mate Valkyrie didn't like her number so sent him instead. Okay, I can deal with that, I suppose. That is until Valkyrie herself turned up at #10. How the fuck does that work? Then Bravo was back out as fourteenth and final entrant dressed as Rosemary, who was already in the ring! In kayfabe, what happened here? Why was Bravo allowed to enter the match? Outside of kayfabe, why on earth was Bravo booked eliminate Havok? This was awful. 

The shithousery doesn't stop there however, as this match was rammed with stupid shit. Katie Forbes and Susie both got eliminated during entrances, which is dumb because it means we miss the elimination and it ends up meaning very little. Susie's palm strikes seemed to be socially distancing from her opponents, Kylie Rae seemed to miss her cue for Tasha Steelz elimination, Madison Rayne started doing a little jig at ringside to pop Josh Mathews when she thought she was off-camera, the booking of Rae and Kimber Lee in the closing stages was nonsensical, only Havok looked remotely interested in getting a shine when she entered the ring and most importantly there was absolutely no story or thread running through the match. Nothing. The highlight ended up being a fun comedy spot where Rae attempted to gorilla press Alisha Edwards, eventually getting some help from Havok who then lobbed Edwards at Rae. By the time the match finished with an awfully overworked and awkward looking sequence between Rae and Valkyrie, I was more than happy it was over.

// TNA World Heavyweight Championship // 

// Moose (C) def. Tommy Dreamer // 

This was much better than it had any right to be. I wouldn't go as far as to call it good, but as an undercard plunder brawl it worked well. It was brawly, it had a couple of weapons and a handful of decent spots and a solid near fall for Dreamer. There was also a nice intensity throughout from both men, with a sprinkling of comedy thrown in as well. Moose was saying all kinds of mad shit and I actually sort of like this character that he's developed lately. Dreamer taking all kind of verbal abuse as Moose pushed his face towards some thumbtacks only to be able to find a second wind when Moose claimed he'd never watched ECW was genuinely funny and quite sweet moment of the match. I'm honestly not sure why Tommy Dreamer is still getting a run out in 2020, even if he is trying to emulate his mentor Terry Funk, for me "The Innovator of Violence" doesn't quite have the same appeal, but fuck it, this wasn't bad.

// X Division Championship // 

// Chris Bey def. Willie Mack (C) // 

Tucked away at the bottom here, we had Chris Bey becoming the 45th X-Division Champion in a very fun match with Willie Mack. This was ten minutes of action-packed wrestling, in the style that you'd expect from the X-Division. Not a whole lot of substance, but an exciting fireworks display non-the-less. The two went back and forth for the majority of the match, with both men putting together some lovely combinations, with slick movements, include the build to Mack hitting a standing moonsault and Bey hitting the slingbeyed out of the corner. The ref bump for the finish didn't feel particularly necessary, but maybe I've missed something by not watching Impact for a while, plus considering this was the only mildly screwy finish of the night, I'll let it slide. An eye rake and brand new finish, The Art of Finesse (a funky springboard cutter type deal) gave Bey the victory in a match that reminded me I liked wrestling following directly on from the gauntlet match. 

// Promo // 

// Heath's debut //

Heath is here and he's got kids! It was a cool to see Heath Slater in Impact, he's a fun character that could become even more of a joy to watch given the extra freedom he should be afforded in Impact. However, his segment with Rohit Raju was hard to watch, because it was clear that neither man's mic was working. At one point, the commentary team were audibly heard talking to each other in the background. A real shame. Slater would quickly rebuff Raju, hitting him with a variant of the Zig Zag. We'd later see Slater reuniting with his former WWE tag partner Rhino backstage, only for Scott D'Amore to break up the chat, informing Slater that this was a closed set and seeing as he was a free agent he had to leave immediately. Impact might be rehashing the storyline from a few years ago when Slater ended up being undrafted by either RAW or SmackDown, but I really don't care, if done properly it still has entertainment potential. The segment closed with Rhino telling Slater to turn up on Tuesday anyway, setting up another point of intrigue for Tuesday night.

// ATPW Rating // 

// 5.97 out of 10 // 

Oh man, without the Knockout's Gauntlet this would have been a really high scoring PPV. Even with the horrendous amount of production errors throughout the show (certainly this was the most poorly produced PPV in TNA/Impact history), the wrestling on display was of a really high quality. The main event and Deonna Purazzo vs. Jordynne Grace both delivered in spades for different reasons and I'd find it hard to separate them for my match of the night, whilst MCMGs vs. The Rascalz wasn't far behind either. Even matches like Tommy Dreamer vs. Moose, which one paper had no right be anything resembling a watchable match, ended up being just that. That's without getting into the company seriously beefing up it's roster in a number of areas with EC3, Eric Young, The Good Brothers, The Motor City Machine Guns and Heath Slater all making appearances throughout the show. Impact put themselves out there with ambitious promotion around returns and debuts, but their regular roster made sure that Scott D'Amore and Don Callis have more than a few headaches when it comes to the booking heading into the next PPV, October's Bound for Glory...

All the best xoxo

James 

NXT TakeOver: New Orleans Preview

On 7th April, NXT is set to take over the Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LO, as part of the WWE's Wrestlemania weekend, however, in a confusing reversal of situations, the pre-Mania TakeOver is more like NXT's SummerSlam than it is their WrestleMania, their WrestleMania, of course, being the annual Brooklyn show, which takes place the day before Summerslam. Anyway, we here at ATPW sure do love our previews, so here's one for this show, think of it like a pre-show but with no Peter Rosenberg so much better. Talking of pre-shows, why not tune in for the KickOff at Midnight (if you're in America, please check your local listings) with an all-star panel including NFL All-Pro Punter Pat McAfee (whatever that means) giving us all the chat and discussion required for an hour before the actual show at 1am (once again, check your listings, US). Till then, why not enjoy this preview with the sounds of our themes for this show courtesy of New Orleans own, Cane Hill...

NXT North American Championship Ladder Match:     EC3 vs Adam Cole Velveteen Dream vs Ricochet vs Lars Sullivan vs Killian Dain

I would imagine there's a strong chance this match opens the show as its a match with little build, little in the way of emotional attachment but with six men and a whole load of ladders set to be in the ring, has the potential to set the stage with some good and crazy action. This match, and indeed, title, have been mostly made to accommodate the expanding ranks of the NXT Men's Single's division making it so that everyone going after one title is getting ridiculous. What about the United Kingdom Championship I hear you ask, surely that title could have been expanded in its focus in order to accommodate such a position? Well, the answer is fuck off, we don't need your kind of logic around here. Also, with UK Champion Pete Dunne in the Tag Title match later, it's not like they could have a non-full time talent working double duty. Still, what works well here is that there is no way to predict which of these six men will be taking the title with a strong mix of indie darlings like the debuting EC3 & Ricochet through to Velveteen Dream & Lars Sullivan, two men who've cut their teeth here in NXT and really made themselves cornerstones of their division. 

What to expect from this one is an interesting thought as beyond Ricochet, we don't really have many flippy boys in this so traditional WWE ladder match booking would suggest he'll do the really cool spot that everyone talks about but not win it, Dain & Sullivan still feel like even after this week's NXT, they still have some unresolved issues so likelihood is, the feuding between those two might distract them from climbing that ladder which leaves Cole who might not even be in the match as he might be helping O'Reilly defend the tag-team titles, Dream who is just wonderful in every way & EC3, a man who by the end of the night, everyone will realise he is what Bobby Roode pretended to be, if they don't know, now they'll know. This is my long-winded way of saying I don't know, spoiler alert though, it's probably going to be at least a little bit good.

NXT Tag Team Championship & Dusty Classic Cup: Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) (c) vs Strong x Bitter & Authors of Pain

You may notice that Adam Cole is in the photo above as well. This is because over the past month/s, NXT has been running the third Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic, an eight-team tournament for the prestigious title, previously won by Finn Balor & Samoa Joe and Authors of Pain, but also a shot at the Tag-Team Championships. On the one side of the finals, we had the previous winners Authors of Pain who smashed through TM-61 and Street Profits to get here and on the other side, Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong, a make-shift team formed after Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) were forced to bow out when Tyler aggravated an angle injury while at Brighton's Riptide Wrestling, who fought past Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan and SAnitY to make it here. With poor Bobby Fish out on injury, Kyle O'Reilly and Cole decided to crash the final and cause a double disqualification, no winners, no challengers, smart eh? so O'Reilly was given three choices: wrestle alone, Cole does double-duty or Cole drops out of the Ladder Match.

Unsurprisingly, it seems he's chosen to work double duty, so one of the major factors of this match in play is card order as Cole or Cole & O'Reilly are at a significant disadvantage depending on which match goes on last of the two, though if this is the first of the two, it puts all three teams on a roughly equal-footing as Undisputed Era have beaten Authors of Pain before (twice if you count War Games), Authors of Pain have won tag gold, dusty cups and tag three-way dances before and the team we here like to call Strong x Bitter have tag-team success written through their DNA with former PROGRESS, Ring of Honor & PWG reigns between them, a UK title still in their team's grasp and the knowledge that the first Dusty Classic was won by a makeshift team like them. If it's not clear, as a Midlands boy myself, I'm calling a win for Strong x Bitter and rooting for them but mostly, I'm just looking forward to watching some good, solid tag action. Expect lots of big strikes, big moves and at one point, if we're lucky, Pete Dunne will punch Adam Cole out of the air. Won't that be a treat?

NXT Women's Championship: Ember Moon (c) vs Shayna Baszler

If you're getting a sense of deja vu, yes, we did only recently see this match at the last TakeOver and also once more in between, as well as frequent attacks on each other. The dispute between these revolves around Baszler thinking Moon isn't fit to lead as she couldn't defeat Asuka, she couldn't hit the Eclipse on Baszler who kept her grounded having to use a roll-up to get victory and when Baszler was given another match, she won but via disqualification after an angry Kairi Sane returned and attacked her, only for Baszler to make reasonably easy work of Sane. Much like last time, expect this match to come down to a David-Goliath type match-up with Moon once again seeking that Eclipse top-rope stunner while Baszler will want to lock in and preferably never let go of the Kirifuda Clutch. As to whom shall walk out of that arena with the title, it's hard to call, it feels like Ember is only ever one Eclipse away from retaining but especially with her friend Ronda Rousey making her pro-wres debut the next night, it seems like maybe Baszler is being set up to take the title and run with it for a while, especially as there's still some unsolved animosity between Baszler, Sane and Dakota Kai to sort out if Moon were to make the move Main Roster-wards...

Unsanctioned Match: Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa

This has been a long time coming, almost a year in fact. Let me take you back to Chicago as after they'd just lost their last shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles, Ciampa would turn viciously on Gargano, knowing that he was going to be out for a while on injury time, he wanted to make a statement before he did, one that for a long time, broke Gargano, forcing him to try and exorcise the monkey on his back that is Ciampa because that's what you do to monkey. Eventually Gargano started winning again, earning a shot at the NXT title but even then, wasn't quite enough and just as he was at his lowest, having lost his shot, there was Ciampa again because exorcising doesn't work on back monkeys, especially when they get involved in your Title vs Career rematch and force you to lose your job. It's at this point, the waters get muddied as Ciampa spent a few weeks struggling to get a word in edgeways as he simultaneously continued to be the best heel in NXT and also it's greatest hero for standing up to the awful sturmundrang of the NXT audience till he got tired of their caterwauling and Gargano's hounding of him and agreed to a match, unsanctioned of course because let's not forget, Gargano is fired but if he wins, he gets his job back, loses, he's gone forever.

There's almost too much history behind this match to cover but regardless, this is going to be one of the most emotional matches of the weekend, just as much, maybe more important to the wrestling scene as a whole than Kenny Omega vs Cody as every single second has the entire heart of NXT hanging in the balance, this is for something more important than the actual title, this is a match for the philosophical centre of the developmental brand, is this a place of good or evil? Also, most importantly, can this top Gargano v Almas because that shit was tight? As it's unsanctioned, expect this one to be more of a brawl than a technical classic. Ultimately, this seems like it's Gargano's match to win as he needs his job and assuming they get enough time for this, it's unlikely Ciampa looks any weaker in loss, especially coming back from a lengthy spell on the injured list but never count out the Sicilian psychopath as he might well pull it out of the bag, setting up his own chance at going after that big slice of NXT gold (and who amongst us doesn't see money in Black v Ciampa?) while Gargano, surely the bright post-mania lights of RAW or Smackdown could be a' callin'.

NXT Championship: Andrade Almas (c) vs Aleister Black

Cast your mind back to NXT TakeOver: Orlando last year, Tommy End, now going by the name Aleister Black made his official NXT debut (having competed against Neville at the United Kingdom Championship tournament) against Andrade 'Cien' Almas. It was a well-fought match but in the end, Black came out on top with reasonable ease. That was, however, a different Almas, that was Almas before he met Zelina Vega, that was Almas before his five-star classic with Johnny Gargano, that was the Almas that I usually dismissed by just calling him a 'lad'. He was floundering, now he's at the very top of the NXT pyramid of greatness and the man who calls himself 'The Idol' and '100' is a far more motivated and more dangerous man than he was this time last year, for proof of that, see how he dragged Black from car park to the ring, destroying and nearly drowning him along the way. Though in the other corner, somewhere between good and evil, sits Aleister Black, a man with only two losses to this particular name in NXT and one of those he wasn't even in or around the ring for, he's someone who's been on a tear and seemed like he's been destined for the NXT title since he stepped into Full Sail but no one should expect Almas and definitely not Vega to go down without one heck of a fight.

Pardon the innuendo but expect this one to go long and stiff as even with their differing backgrounds, both men are known as much for their technical expertise as the swift, hard-hitting nature of their strikes. They are both also known to bust out a moonsault or two every so often so that'll be fun. As much as Gargano-Ciampa is the biggest story going into the show, I'd still expect this one to go on last as it's the main title, it really should and I don't see any world in which if Gargano and Ciampa haven't tore the entire house down, that these two don't tear down the rest. As to who's walking out with that lovely golden belt, as much as I'd love to see Almas hold on to it forever, I think that Black is walking out with his first WWE prize slung over his shoulder and you know what, if the crowd chant 'you deserve it' at him, yeah, he bloody well does.

Any Other Predictions...

So with Pete Dunne in the Tag match, it's unlikely there'll be a separate UK Championship match, as a result, I'm going to assume the card is just these five matches and I'm fine with that as I can't see any of them not being at least good. This being a TakeOver, this is really the bit where I mostly speculate about what 'hottest free agent' will be in the crowd, this time around, I will keep saying that it could be Christopher (Donovan) Dijak but really it could be anyone. I mean, as part of the deal with PROGRESS and EVOLVE, Keith Lee, WALTER, Zack Gibson and others will be participating in Axxess so who knows? If it turns out to be Jason Kincaid, I don't really know anything about him so you'll have to come up with your own thoughts. Of course, the big question we all have is will Triple H appear and do a big crowd warm-up 'we are NXT' speech? I hope so, who doesn't pop for those every, damn, time?

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJoeRaczka)

WWE NXT Review // 28th March 2018

On 28th March 2018, WWE aired its 293rd episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 7th March. Our main event was a Dusty Classic semi-final as the newly formed team of Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne took on former NXT Tag Team Champions, SaNitY. The show also featured another Dusty Classic Semi in the form of Authors of Pain vs Street Profits as well as action from Lars Sullivan, Dakota Kai, Andrade Almas & Aleister Black. As always, I do ask you, dear audience, was it any good?

On his way to the arena, Tommaso Ciampa is hounded by fans and the press, he complains to William Regal that Gargano has been attacking him in the ring, stalking him at his physiotherapy sessions and at his house. Regal tells him it is becoming a spot of bother and books a match for TakeOver: New Orleans, but as Gargano doesn't work here anymore, it has to be an Unsanctioned Match. If Gargano wins, he gets his job back, if not, he's gone forever.

William Regal Has An Announcement

William Regal welcomes everyone to the arena and then announces that the announcement he announced last week was that NXT is introducing a new secondary men's championship, something to determine who is the best competitor in North America, the NXT North American Championship. As he's talking about this, up turns the man who's won practically everything there is to win in Impact and is now here in NXT, EC3. He talks about how good it is to be here and how he looks forward to making a shit-ton of money for the company and how he has a banger of a theme (he does). He then thanks William Regal for knowing that the best in North America was coming so making a title just for him. Regal tells him that while he has a chance at the title off the bat, he doesn't get anything without earning it, so he'll be competing in a Ladder Match at TakeOver to crown the first champion. EC3 responds it doesn't matter how many men you put in his way, he's still leaving with that champion. This was a really good opening, already cementing EC3 as someone who is going to be important in the yellow brand going forward as well as making another big match for TakeOver.

Charly Caruso is in the NXT Control Centre, giving us a recap of what we've missed so far in the Dusty Classic.

TM-61 are being interviewed back at the Performance Centre about their loss in the first round and how they need to change their attitude as this has halted their returning momentum but they're not down and out because they're the Mighty and the Mighty... get interrupted by a fight breaking out behind them between Shayna Baszler & Ember Moon because Baszler was bullying someone or just generally standing around waiting for Moon to punch her. This was more fun than I've made it sound.

Dusty Classic Semi-Final // Authors of Pain def. Street Profits // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. Ford came in first but quickly bailed when he felt a slap to the face from an Author, Dawkins actually fared a little better, out-striking his opponent and clearing house with a spinebuster to the other, sadly the loss for the team came when Ford, on the outside, got distracted offering his solo cup to Ellering who slapped it away, causing Ford to stalk him up the entrance ramp, opening up a distracted Dawkins to be hit with The Last Chapter legsweep-clotheslin combo. I don't know what they were going for but if the plan was to make Street Profits look like fucking idiots, they achieved it.

We go back to Charly in the Control Centre for an update. Thank you, Charly.

Cathy Kelly is interviewing William Regal about whether any other competitors are officially announced for the North American Title Ladder Match, he confirms Adam Cole will be in it. Velveteen Dream turns up and demands a spot, Regal agrees. This is shaping up nicely, isn't it?

Lars Sullivan def. John Silver // Pinfall

Quicker squash m8. In the battle of Long vs John SIlver, Long won, I think the closest Silver got to any offence was successfully locking-up with Sullivan at the beginning before he realised he had no reversals and Sullivan repeatedly hit murder. Lars eating tiny men is always fun and this did exactly what it had to. Sullivan won with a big diving headbutt and the Freak Accident modified side slam for the pin.

Cathy Kelly is interviewing Regal again when Sullivan walks by, just in time for Regal to offer him a spot in the NXT North American Championship Ladder Match. Lars looks forward to this but before he gets there, he wants Killian Dain . Regal tells him Dain is in the Ladder Match as well but because Regal likes booking matches, Sullivan goes tete-a-tete with Dain next week.

Dakota Kai def...Hey What's That Going On Over There?

Dakota Kai made her way to the ring but before a match could start the cameras cuts to Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega attacking Aleister Black in the car park. Almas battered Black through the arena, nearly drowning him at one point and beating him all the way to the ring, walking away, hoisting his title having got his own back on the Dutch shitkicker for what he said about him at the Contract Signing he never turned up to. This was a great, little segment to build to the TakeOver main event but I have to say, my favourite thing was watching Kai try and sneak away unnoticed in the back of the shot. 

Dusty Classic Semi-Final: Strong X Bitter def. SaNitY // Pinfall

In a move that will surprise no one, this was a really good main event. What was clever was how it played off Strong's past, having feuded along with Tye Dillinger, Kassius Ohno, No Way Jose and Ruby Riott with SaNitY, to build an intensity and animosity as well as a desperation from both teams to succeed, this helped frame the face v face action with some stakes and storytelling to stop it being just a split-support from the crowd. They worked a good, exciting finale to the episode, with all four men looking good and getting in a lot of their signature stuff with Alexander Wolfe getting in another reminder of how overlooked he is considering his incredibly fun performances. It wasn't a match without its problems though, as it lacked a certain sense of drama down the home-stretch that could have done perhaps with a little more in the way of tag work as it felt far more like four singles competitors than two teams though that does play well into the fragile truce between Strong and Dunne, this also felt more like the exhibition 'spotfest' style of tag match at times which while entertaining, did feel a little unnecessary. The finish came as Strong hit End of Heartache on Young before Dunne tagged in and they hit a double team Bitter End. Fun stuff, but still not quite essential. Much like the rest of this Dusty Classic so far, it's had good moments but it's all felt a little too rushed to seem, well, classic.

Cathy Kelly is backstage hoping to hear from William Regal who the sixth competitor is for the ladder match. Regal says she's in luck and he goes to fetch him. Trevor 'Ricochet' Mann would emerge from Regal's office to canned applause, looking like he was buttoning up his suit so what he had to do to get that spot, I don't know. The pre-recorded crowd chant his nickname to end the show.

Finally...

Considering the amount of heavy-lifting this show had to do with setting up the North American Title, the Ladder Match for it, Gargano vs Ciampa, continuing to build to the Tag Title match and also continuing the builds for Black v Almas and Baszler v Moon, it's impressive that the show managed to do all of it without collapsing under its own weight. The problem of this is that so much of it ended up being enjoyable but passable as beyond the opening segment, nothing felt like it got quite enough time to properly build. That said, with four very good sounding matches confirmed and two very good teams in the Dusty Classic final, we could be set for an all-time great TakeOver special.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka

Impact Wrestling Review // 8th February 2018

This week's Impact Wrestling was main event by a Four-Way bout to earn a shot at the Impact World Championship, as Johnny Impact, Alberto El Patron, EC3 and Moose collided in the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida, whilst following Austin Aries' World title victory over Eli Drake last week Impact aired a replay of Aries winning the TNA World Heavyweight title from Bobby Roode at Destination X 2012. But how did it all go down? Lets take a look! 

Impact World Championship #1 Contendership // Johnny Impact def. Alberto El Patron and EC3 and Moose // Pinfall

Johnny Impact earned himself another shot at the Impact World Championship, pinning EC3 after escaping the One Percenter and using a Bridging O'Connor roll to get the three count, at the conclusion of a sprawling Four way match also involving Alberto El Patron and Moose. This was an exciting and varied main event, featuring four of the companies top heavyweights, featuring some good storytelling, fun brawling in the crowd and an exciting stretch of action that saw all four guys working hard. The story of El Patron and EC3 teaming up and doing anything they could to get an upperhand, using the steels and ringpost to keep Impact and Moose down was the driving force throughout the first ten minutes or so, with the action spilling into the crowd and culminating with Moose appearing to suffer a knee injury after being rammed into a wall. The scrap in the audience also featured some fun spots involving a wheelie bin and Impact wailing away on El Patron with a pair of crutches. 

Of course, the second act of the match included Moose coming back into the match to even the odds for the good guys, aiding Impact in hitting a pair of powerbombs to El Patron & EC3. Moose sold spectacularly here, limping for the rest of the match and varying his offence because of the injury, whilst Josh Mathews and Sonjay Dutt on commentary did a good job of pointing out the differences in Moose's movements and attacks. It would be the knee that would eventually take Moose out of the match after the OMG missed a baseball slide and El Patron kicked the injured leg from underneath him, before nailing a superkick to his kneeling opponent. The finishing stretch was full of big moves and near falls, making the most of the bodies to keep the momentum swinging as Impact came close with a Moonlight Drive and Moose made the save for EC3, nailing a senton on El Patron to break up a Cross Armbreaker. This was a great way to close the show, whilst also setting up a potential showdown between Impact and Austin Aries, which has the potential to be a real barn-burner in the right setting.

TNA World Heavyweight Championship // Austin Aries def. Bobby Roode (C) // Pinfall [TNA Destination X 2012]

I'm usually not a fan of Impact airing old matches on their first-run programming, because it seems like a cheap way to fill time without the effort of having to advance stories and to be quite honest, the match choices can often be baffling. However, I'm not going to complain about the company pulling out one its best matches of the last decade, especially when it actually served a purpose. After Aries had won the Impact World Championship last week, this week we were treated to Aries winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship from Bobby Roode back at Destination X in 2012. Oh man, if you've never seen this match its well worth seeking out, because it features one of the most electric TNA audiences in history, desperate for the valiant babyface challenger to take the companies top prize for the over-bearing champion. The in-ring action matches the crowd's enthusiasm, with tonnes of twists and turns, near falls and dramatic devices to create a compelling main event and one of the best TNA title matches in history. Back in 2018, we saw Aries fielding a press conference which included the revelation that he isn't signed with Impact and will be continuing in his attempt to win championships all over the World. Aries defends the Impact World Championship against Eli Drake next week. 

Taiji Ishimori & Matt Sydal def. El Hijo del Fantasma & Rojit Raju // Pinfall

This week's X-Division action kicked off the show, with Impact Grand Champion Matt Sydal pinning Rohit Raju (the repackaged Hakim Zane) after a Shooting Star Press, giving Sydal and X-Division Champion Taiji Ishimori the victory over El Hijo del Fantasma & Raju. Just like the main event was a great showcase for the heavyweights in Impact at the moment, this was the same for the X-Division as the foursome put on a fast-paced tag jaunt, full of exciting back and forth sequences, flips and just generally good wrestling stuff. Raju impressed with a couple of lovely sequences with Sydal, where the two traded a series of near misses, whilst also combining well with Fantasma for an impressive near fall off a double team GTS situation. However, it was Fantasma who ended up really shining in this one, with a lovely opening exchange with Ishimori, as well as a fiery hot tag after a period of dominance from Sydal & Ishimori. Oooh, Ishimori hit a delicious Superstar Quebrada as well. More shows should open like this.

Impact Knockout's Championship // Laurel Van Ness (C) def. Kiera Hogan // Pinfall 

After picking up a surprise victory over Knockout's Champion Laurel Van Ness last week, Kiera Hogan received her shot at the belt this week, coming up short as Van Ness got the win with a sloppy looking Unprettier to make it two defences of the title. Beyond the sloppiness of the Unprettier, the match was alright for the most, highlighted by some strong character work by Van Ness and a call back to the finish of last week's match. Van Ness seems to have put some real work in when creating this crazed version of the character and I enjoyed the different in-ring style that she employs as shes varies her offence to suit the character, whilst some of her facial expressions when unable to get the pin were brilliant here. I would've liked to have seen more from Hogan as the match felt more one-sided than it perhaps needed to be and a little more fire from the newcomer would've lifted the contest to the next level. After the match, Allie made the save for Hogan, sending Van Ness packing after she attempted to attack Hogan further. We also found out earlier on the episode that Allie has a secret admirer and we'd be meeting them next week.

Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley def. Monroe & Read // Pinfall

One area of Impact that's needed improvement for a while is the tag team division and therefore it's pleasing to see The Cult of Lee, consisting of Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley getting put into the ranks and entering a feud with Impact Tag Team Champions Santana & Ortiz, LAX. This week we saw Lee & Konley in a surprisingly competitive match with the debuting Monroe (FEST Wrestling) & Read (REAL Pro Wrestling), known collectively as TECH, before Lee pinned Read after a Spike Piledriver. I wasn't massively into the gimmick that Lee & Konley had stolen LAX's bandannas and therefore now say stereotypical Mexican things, but the wrestling in the tag match was solid, with both of TECH impressing with some nice strikes as they bumped well for the Cult of Lee. The highlight came from a cute double team Gutwrench Powerbomb from Lee and Konley, that involved Konley hitting a running punt to the head just as Lee brought the opponent up into the air for the powerbomb. After the match, LAX's Homicide, Konnan, Ortiz & Santana appeared on the screen, with Konnan cutting one his trademark energetic promos threatening the Cult of Lee that they would not tolerate the impersonation. A Tag title match with Ortiz & Santana against Lee & Konley could be wonderful if given the right time. 

Hania the Huntress def. Amber Nova // Pinfall 

Hania the Huntress made her Impact debut this week, picking up a victory over Amber Nova with a weak reverse DDT. It was a shame that the finish ended up looking so lame, because the rest of the match had been a fun extended squash, that saw Nova get a good opportunity to show off some of her pacier offence, whilst Huntress was able to showcase some of her power game. Whilst Nova's headscissors into the top turnbuckle looked cool, it was Nova leaping up for a rana only to be caught by a get-the-fuck-down powerbomb from Huntress that stands out as the strongest part of the match and worked as a microcosm of the match as a whole. Following the match, Rosemary attacked Huntress, attempting to get some revenge for an attack last week, but Huntress was able to escape before Rosemary could hit Red Wedding. 

Also this week

- In a weird hand-held video, it appeared that oVe's Sami Callihan, Jake Crist & Dave Crist had kidnapped Lashley.

- Dark promo from Jimmy Jacobs alongside Kongo Kong, threatening to bring the monster out of Joseph Park.

- Pluto TV rewind of the week was Chris Harris diving off a steel cage to nail Death Sentence with America's Most Wanted partner James Storm on Elix Skipper (teaming with Christopher Daniels as Triple X) from NWA Total Nonstop Action from June 2003.

- Pro Wrestling NOAH star Brian Cage returns to Impact next week, after last being seen in July 2014.

ATPW Scale Rating // 6.00/10 

Written by James Marston // @IAmNotAlanDale