411’s Impact Slammiversary 2021 Preview

Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and everyone else! Welcome to 411’s Impact Slammiversary preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas, and Saturday brings live fans back to the Impact Zone for the first time with the company’s big summer PPV. Impact has used the opportunity provided by WWE’s April release the last couple of years to make Slammiversary a show of big surprises and major debuts, and this year appears to be no different. There are a lot of matches set for the show, including the now monthly question of who will try to take the World Championship home out of Kenny Omega’s hands and bring it home to Impact. Will it happen this weekend? Read on and you’ll see my prediction!

Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship Match
Fire N’ Flava vs. Havok and Rosemary

Our pre-show match will see Fire N’ Flava defend the Knockouts Tag Team Championships that they’ve more or less had a stranglehold on since they were reinstituted in October at Bound for Glory. Other than a brief run by Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering, Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz have been in control of the titles throughout the last nine months. Are Havok and Rosemary the women to take them from the champions? I don’t think so, at least not yet. The partnership between the two darker characters has allowed them to find a new direction after their partners both exited the company earlier this year, and I think this match has a lot of potential, but I feel like the championship has accomplished what it needed to in that respect. While a title change could certainly add some spice to the pre-show as an enticement to order the PPV, Impact is likely to have another tag team or two coming in to challenge for these titles and it would make more sense to have the established champions face them.

WINNER: Fire N Flava (STILL Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions)

Matt Cardona & TBA vs. Tenille Dashwood and Brian Myers

Speaking of incoming talent, Impact is heavily teasing who will join Matt Cardona in this newly-announced match as of Thursday against Tenille Dashwood and Brian Myers. The smart money is in Cardona’s fiancee Chelsea Green, and that’s who Impact is laying hints about pretty strongly. I’d never put it past Impact to pull a swerve here though, and she noted at ROH Best in the World that she wasn’t yet cleared. That could of course be a work, but whether she is the mystery person or not I don’t expect to see Cardona and his partner come out with a loss. Having an incoming talent lose doesn’t make a ton of sense, at least in a tag match like this.

WINNER: Matt Cardona & (probably) Chelsea Green

Eddie Edwards vs. W. Morrissey

W. Morrissey has had a pretty solid run in Impact Wrestling so far, though he has yet to really have a real rivalry in the company. Impact seems to be giving him a slow build, putting him over lesser talent in squash matches and then credible names like Rich Swann and Willie Mack to put him over. His feud with Eddie Edwards has seen Edwards seeking revenge for a parking lot attack that prevented Eddie from facing Satoshi Kojima, which adds a bit of heat to this match. Impact seems to have big hopes for Morrissey and has done a nice job building him up; I don’t see this match as doing anything different as now is not the time to hand him his first loss. Edwards always delivers and this match should be no different, but Morrissey’s going home with the win.

WINNER: W. Morrissey

Chris Sabin vs. Moose

Moose is on the comeback trail after he lost to Kenny Omega through nefarious means at Against All Odds. In order to get him some momentum, we have this match which sees Sabin looking for some payback after Moose put him out of action earlier this year. Much like the Morrissey vs. Edwards match, this is a match which has a lot of potential but also is somewhat of a foregone conclusion. Moose is a singles star who is looking to make his mark back to the top of the pack in Impact, while Sabin is always incredibly reliable but doesn’t need a win here. The clash of styles between these two guys should make for an enjoyable match, but this is clearly Moose’s match to win.

WINNER: Moose

Impact World Tag Team Championship Match
Violent By Design vs. The Good Brothers vs.
TBA & Fallah Bahh vs. Rich Swann & Willie Mack

The Impact World Tag Team Champions and their stable have been on a strong roll since they came together. While I was admittedly not the biggest fan of the very start of the group, Violent By Design has been on fire since they came together and that’s led to a solid run as tag team champions. Multi-team tag team matches are always fun for chaos and with the collection of talent we have here, I think we have plenty of potential for an entertainment mess of a match. The pulling of TJP could be to debut an incoming talent, which actually makes them a bit more likely to win in my eyes, while the Good Brothers and Swann & Mack are absolutely credible as possible champions. That said, I think it makes a lot of sense to keep the titles on the champs for now as they continue to roll through. Multi-team matches are always tricky to predict and I could easily be wrong here, but that’s where I’m staying.

WINNER: Violent By Design (STILL Impact World Tag Team Champions)

Impact Knockouts Championship Match
Deonna Purrazzo vs. TBD

Of all the matches where incoming talent could make a mark, this is of course the most obvious. Deonna Purrazzo’s reign as Knockouts Champion has been nothing short of dominant; outside of a brief run by Su Yung, Purrazzo for almost exactly one year since she defeated Jordynne Grace at last year’s Slammiversary just a month after her debut. The smart storyline scripting would seem to be having another debuting star come in to upend Purrazzo and claim the title, thus providing a little bit of karma. Purrazzo has run absolutely roughshod over the Knockouts division and there isn’t anyone on the roster who she hasn’t defeated at this point, so a title change really makes sense here. The question of course is who. It could be a WWE release like Mickie James (now working with NWA), Chelsea Green, one of the former IIconics, or even one of the NXT stars who may have been under 30-day non-competes like Jessamyn Duke or Santana Garrett. But Green is more likely to team with Cardona if she can wrestle, and Jessie McKay and Csssie Lee have said they want to be a tag team. My money is on James returning or Impact them pulling a surprise like an AEW star to come in and take the title. Either way, I do think we get a title change here.

WINNER: The Mystery Opponent (NEW Impact Knockouts Champion)

Ultimate X Impact X Division Championship Match
Josh Alexander vs. Ace Austin vs. Chris Bey vs.
Rohit Raju vs. Petey Williams vs. Trey Miguel

Josh Alexander has had a little while to settle into his title run and it’s nicely elevated him to a credible X-Division guy following Ethan Page’s exit. That said, the X-Division is notoriously fickle about changing its champions, and 83 days does seem to probably be enough time for a title switch. Ultimate X remains a signature of Impact and with these six guys in the mix, I have little doubt that we’ll have a lot of really great spots in this match. The question then comes to who takes home the title. Ace Austin is always a threat and is credible to take the title in any situation, while Trey Miguel would not surprise me at all either. I am less keen on the ideas of Rohit or Petey Williams taking home the belt. But really, if we do get the title switch as I expect, it feels like Chris Bey is the obvious choice. He’s been the focus of the storylines for this match and has delivered in his role. Now seems to be the moment to put the title on him once again so he gets a longer run than his previous, 27 day one.

WINNER: Chris Bey (NEW Impact X-Division Champion)

No DQ Impact Wrestling World Championship Match
Kenny Omega vs. Sami Callihan

With all due respect to the other matches on the card, this is clearly the match most will be coming into see. People will want to know who is making their debut and such, but this is the match that, if non-Impact fanatics watch the PPV, they will be tuning in for. Kenny Omega has had the Impact World Championship in his grasp for the better part of three months now, having claimed it at Impact Rebellion with a win over Rich Swann. Since then he has defended it against Moose at Against All Odds, a match he won with the help of his Elite cohorts. It could be a while before Omega has to defend the title again, and the question is whether Impact can be without its World Title for that much longer. Sami Callihan offers Omega an interesting challenge in that he has serious Jon Moxley energy, and we know how that feud went (the unfortunate Exploding Ring SNAFU aside). While there are tons of scenarios that could see Callihan win the title — most notably help from someone involved with Impact or even an AEW star who is none too fond of Omega — I don’t think Callihan is the guy to take the title off the Belt Collector. There’s every possibility that Impact is happy to wait to give Moose another shot at the title, perhaps at an Impact! Plus event yet to be announced or even waiting as long as Bound For Glory in October. It’s a long time to wait if the latter is the case, and maybe we get the arrival of someone who changes the game here, but for now I’m going with the champion retaining to end the show.

WINNER: Kenny Omega (STILL Impact World Champion)

And that’s all we have for Impact Slammiversary! It’s a packed show with a lot of potential to take Impact to the next level, and I’m hopeful for it to deliver. Thanks once again for reading, and remember that we will have live coverage of the show courtesy of Mr. Jack Irene right here on 411mania.com. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to jet on out of the Impact Zone because I don’t like the way Eric Young’s been looking at me…