wrestling / TV Reports
Cook’s Impact Wrestling Review 8.12.21
Hey kids! It’s the Cook Man here with you for this week’s episode of Impact Wrestling. We’ve got a battle royal to determine the next challenge for Kenny Omega’s Impact World Championship. FinJuice will take on Chris Bey & Jay White to further build White’s NEVER Openweight Championship defense against David Finlay at NJPW Resurgence. We’ve also got a match that caused me to agree to fill in this week here on the 411: Tenille Dashwood vs. Taylor Wilde.
Two of my favorites going at it? Let’s hook em up!
Cook’s Impact Wrestling Review 8.12.21
We open with clips from last night’s AEW Dynamite! Don Callis calls Christian Cage a hell of a ring general and says Kenny can’t wait to kick out of his finisher. Christian talked to Tony Khan, who happened to be with Scott D’Amore. Kenny has more than one championship, so he will be wrestling this Friday in the first match in AEW Rampage history. It’ll be Kenny defending the Impact Championship against Christian!
Matt Striker says we’ll hear from both men tonight. He & D’Lo Brown host this show. WE OWN THE NIGHT!
Tenille Dashwood (w/Kaleb With A K) vs. Taylor Wilde: Taylor is Canadian much like Kenny & Christian, and apparently somebody named Kelvin with a K got her held up at the border, keeping her from recent Impact appearances. Not sure what to make of that. Tenille & Taylor exchange some holds & Taylor gets the early advantage. Taylor evades the counters and arm drags Tenille into the corner. Tenille grabs a headlock & Taylor counters into a hammerlock. Headlock takeover, Tenille with a headscissors. Taylor back to the standing headlock. Shoulderblock by Taylor. Cartwheel into an arm drag by Taylor, then a headscissors takeover. Wilde dominating this thing early. Kaleb suggests taking the countout. Tenille’s ego won’t allow that. She grabs a fanny pack, leads to nothing, but then Kaleb tries to trip up Taylor. Tenille tries to take advantage of the shenanigans, which she eventually does with a neckbreaker on the ropes. Gets two. Sends Taylor head first into the mat for two. Wilde sent into the turnbuckle. TripleMania & NWA plugs in the bottom corner of the screen while Tenille works Taylor over. Taylor fights back, but runs into a clothesline for two. Vertical suplex gets two for Dashwood. The ol’ boot choke! Fans solidly behind Wilde here. She gets the push from the fans, but Tenille with some shots. Double underhook suplex into the turnbuckle, followed by the Emma Sandwich for two! Dashwood with the chinlock as the fans power Taylor up. Wilde fights out, big clotheslines and a dropkick. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, Dashwood into the corner, double stomp in the corner by Wilde gets two thanks to Kaleb. Taylor grabs Kaleb, who ends up hairspraying the referee! MADISON RAYNE INTERVENES! She sends Taylor into the corner, Dashwood hits the Spotlight and gets the three count!
Winner: Tenille Dashwood
Match Rating: **3/4
Madison hugs Tenille! Looks like Tenille finally has her perfect tag team partner! Taylor Wilde had more than her share of problems with the Beautiful People back in the day too, so there might still be some beef there.
Impact Emergence coming Friday, August 20.
Sami Callihan, Johnny Swinger, Petey Williams, Moose, Chris Sabin, Ace Austin, Brian Myers & others all think they’re winning the battle royal. Even Rich Swann, Eddie Edwards, Willie Mack & No Way. Sami & Eddie get two spots to talk.
D’Lo & Matt run down all sorts of things coming up.
Daivari vs. Impact X Division Champion Josh Alexander: Daivari is quite the veteran, but Alexander is quite the now. Daivari tries to get into Alexander’s head with some slaps, but Alexander quickly transitions to an ankle lock. Daivari reaches the ropes. Sends Alexander into the turnbuckle, big chop. Alexander just runs Daivari over with a boot. Jake Something (he’s challenging Alexander for the strap at Emergence) pops up on the stage as we go to commercial.
Backbreaker by Alexander gets two as we return. Sends Daivari to the outside as Something keeps staring. Alexander acknowledges him, which leads to a temporary downfall. Daivari beats Josh up on the outside. Back in the ring, a couple of near-falls for Daivari and a chinlock. alexander fights back, lands some big strikes. Splash in the corner and an explodah with a twist. Josh runs into an elbow, but trips up Daivari and goes to the anklelock, Daivari gets out, gets the ol’ schoolboy with the ropes, Alexander kicks out. DDT by Daivari gets two. Rolling Germans from Alexander to fight back! C-4 Spike gets the three count!
Winner: Josh Alexander
Match Rating: **1/2
Jake Something comes in to pose with the X Division Championship. He hands it over and we get a staredown.
Tony Schiavone doesn’t see anybody defeating Kenny Omega with the Elite behind him. Sami Callihan thinks Christian is going to win. Ace Austin & Madman Fulton agree it doesn’t matter who will win since there will be a target on their back. Deonna Purrazzo wants to defend her championship in AEW. JR says it doesn’t matter since the title is coming back to AEW either way.
NJPW Resurgence commercial!
The Good Brothers talk about how they’re running amock. At Emergence, they’ll defend against Eddie Edwards & Rich Swann & Violent by Design. VBD interrupts. Eric Young says this place doesn’t belong to them, it belongs to us. Gallows wants to know what combination it will be. He wants some of Joe Doering next week! He’ll get it!
Kiera Hogan makes her way to the ring. There were some issues last week she needs to touch on. Fire N Flava were always supposed to be better than that. She thought Tasha Steelz was a real one and understood her better than anybody. Instead, Tasha got a big goofy ass friend to do her dirty work. Kiera lays the challenge down to send her ass packing.
It’s SU YUNG! And she’s got a new, demented form of Kimber Lee with her! Kimber laying that smack down on Keira, but Kiera fights back. Su gets the pink glove out, and so does Kimber. Kimber with the mandible claw! Kimber subdues Kiera and kicks her out of the ring. Drags Kiera off by her hair! This seems to be heading in a bad direction for Kiera Hogan.
Don & Kenny aren’t too happy with what’s going on. A lot of people are jealous, but it goes beyond jealousy when they follow them to AEW, screwing them by making them wrestle Christian for the Impact title in AEW. Skullduggery & Dullskruggery. Tony Khan & Scott D’Amore have their egos bruised. Don Callis wrote the book on machinations. They’re bringing a knife to a gunfight. Don & Kenny will have that Impact title for the rest of their lives. Kenny says TK can buy as many names as he needs. He’s made of different stuff. He doesn’t want to hear a peep from anybody. Kenny isn’t afraid of hard work.
FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) vs. Chris Bey & Jay White: Finlay & White start. Two angry men going at it. Dropkick by Finlay gets a 1 count, but the man follows White outside and that’s a mistake. White takes over, stomps him down in the corner. Bey continues the proceedings, but gets elbow striked down. Juice tags in, hits a senton and tries to snatch the weave. White with the distraction, and Bey takes advantage with an elbowdrop off the top. White works Juice over on the outside. Even gets a pose in! Even tries to tag Finlay! Big neckbreaker to Juice gets two. Bey tags in. Keeps the advantage, tags Switchblade back in there. Big whip into the turnbuckle. Some double teaming. Bey with the ABDOMINAL STRETCH! Juice hip tosses out, tries to senton but gets knees in the back instead. Juice with a vertical suplex and both men need a tag. They get it. Finlay grabs the advantage, but misses in the corner. Finlay tags Bey, who eats a back suplex for two. Tag to Juice, atomic drop, kick into a Russian leg sweep gets two. Juice with some jabs to Bey, but White comes in to eat the big blow, and Finlay clotheslines White over the top. Doomsday Device to Bey! White interrupts the count with a chair, and that gets the disqualification.
Winners: FinJuice via DQ
Match Rating: ***
Jay White working Finlay over after the bell. Hits the Sister Abagail on a chair! Sits on Finlay while holding his belt.
Gia Miller interviews Tasha Steelz. After a year, the heat wave was winding down, so somebody had to go, and it wasn’t going to be Tasha. She needed to make some changes, so she brought the meanest, most baddest person she knew, Savannah Evans. Fallah Bahh comes in since he needs some help against Rosemary & Havok. Tasha has a problem with them as well, since they’re holding her titles. Good to know that Fallah N Flava is still a thing even if Fire N Flava isn’t.
Gia Miller talks to Melina, who never thought she would be part of something where so many promotions would be working together for something involving women. Deonna Purrazzo thinks her gratefulness is pathetic. She’s still training, and she’s been working with an Invicta FC champion. Some nice cross-promotion for the MMA brand here. Melina agrees that Deonna is amazing. She spoke to Impact officials, and next week Melina will have a match to show what Deonna is in store for at Empowerrr.
Alex Marvez talks to Christian Cage. Christian admits that Kenny has a nice collection of belts going, but he will beat Kenny for all of those belts. Next week, Christian will be back in the Impact Zone for the first time in ages! His history there runs deep. He became a better wrestler because of his time there. The right thing to do would be for him to take the title off of Kenny and come back as the Impact World Champion. The winner of the battle royal tonight will need to deal with him.
Matt Cardona vs. John Skyler: The Face of GCW in singles competition! Skyler trying to make some waves early, and Striker puts him over as one of wrestling’s best kept secrets. Cardona stomps him down in the corner, hits a faceplant. These fans are the opposite of the GCW fans, they love Cardona. Skyler gets rolled back into the ring and rolls out the other side, which throws Cardona off his game and Skyler takes advantage. Spear through the ropes gets 2. Skyler gets some offense before Cardona answers with a dropkick off the middle rope. Clothesline in the corner. Rohit Raju & Shera make their way to ringside, and Skyler taker advantage of the distraction with a rollup!
Winner: John Skyler
Match Rating: **1/4
John Skyler has placed himself in contention for a GCW title shot! And maybe an Impact roster spot too.
Matt & D’Lo run down upcoming events. Including mentioning that the Impact World Champion will be in the Impact Zone next week. So Christian might have false advertised himself!
Eddie Edwards enters before the commercial.
#1 Contenders Battle Royal: Moose enters as we return, and Sami Callihan enters after him. Thumbs up, Thumbs down, and the battle royal has begun. W. Morrisey tosses Suicide out. Swinger meets the same fate. Hernandez gets tossed over the top by Morrisey. And now a bunch of people try to get on Morrisey. Moose & Fulton join them, and Morrisey is gone. Smart idea as we go to commercial.
We roll on as we return. Petey Williams gets knocked out thanks to Steve Maclin. Deaner & Rich Swann end up on the apron, Swann kicks Deaner off. Rhino knocks Swann out, but he goes out as well thanks to Willie Mack! Fulton takes Mack out. The big boys, Fallah & Fulton go at it. No Way gets tossed out. Bahh smashes Ace in the corner. Fallah clotheslines Fulton out! Fulton did save Ace though, and Fallah gets put out by Moose. Myers & Edwards go at it. Trey Miguel tries to toss Sam Beale, but Myers makes the save. Miguel gets out thanks to Beale & Myers. Edwards wants to toss Myers, but Beale stops that. Moose eliminates Edwards. Sabin & Moose go after each other, exiting through the bottom rope. Myers eliminates Beale a little early, as Sami Callihan is still in there. Piledriver! Ace Austin attacks, and he & Callihan end up on the apron. Sami goes on the offensive, but Fulton saves Ace. For a second. He’s out. Moose knocks Sami out, and at the moment it’s Sabin & Moose. Brian Myers is laying on the side. Sabin with a sleeper on Moose. Moose powers up. The fans like it. But wait, Brian Myers lifts them both outta there!
Winner: Brian Myers
Match Rating: We don’t rate battle royals but this was fine.
So it’ll be the Most Professional Wrestler waiting for either Kenny Omega or Christian Cage. That’s certainly a choice.
More Trending Stories
- Jake Roberts Details Challenges Of Traveling With A Snake
- More Details on Injured Shoulder for Rhea Ripley, Relinquishing Title
- Kevin Nash Says Will Ospreay’s Comments on Triple H Prove He’s Not Smart to the Business
- Mark Henry & Bully Ray on What’s Next for The Rock, Roman Reigns & The Bloodline in WWE