Andrew’s Impact Wrestling Ratings & Analysis: 12/17/2019

Impact has seen a nice resurgence in 2019. Moving towards the holiday do we get more build to Hard to Kill or Christmas phoning it in?

Sami Callihan is supposed to expose Tessa Blanchard, Tenille Dashwood returns, Joey Ryan faces Acey Romero as his Wrestler’s Court punishment and RVD continues to act like the douchey college jock.

I don’t have anything else cute to say. and no real clever promos tonight.

Well…umm…take a look? It’s in a book? Reading Rainbow?

I got nothing, continue on.

Ratings:

• Jordynne Grace vs Tenille Dashwood: Jordynne wins via Head and Leg Cradle – ** 1/2
• TJP w/Fallah Bahh vs Daga: TJP wins via Iron Maiden – *** 1/2
• Ethan Page w/Josh Alexander vs Rich Swann w/Willie Mack: Page wins via DQ – ***
• Acey Romero vs Joey Ryan: Joey Ryan wins via Sweet Tooth Music – ** 
• Petey Williams vs Ace Austin: Ace wins via The Fold – ** 1/2

Analysis:

Jordynne Grace vs Tenille Dashwood – We haven’t seen Tenille in a hot minute since her loss at Bound for Glory, but it’s nice to see her return to Impact. The match was pretty competitive, Tenille had Jordynne on the backfoot most of the match, especially after a Hanging Neck Breaker. Tenille hits her Taste of Tenille, and then goes for a Butterfly Suplex instead of a finisher. SO that’s kinda awkward, La Magistral attempt turns into Jordynne stopping the momentum and turning the pin attempt in her favor. Jordynne picks up a surprising win after a decent match, Taya attacks Jordynne and Tenille makes the save.

Moose confronts Rhino in the back teasing him that Moose’s Spear beat RVD, something the Gore couldn’t do. So Rhino Gores Moose for his trouble. I guess this is building to an eventual match.

TJP w/Fallah Bahh vs Daga – TJP and Daga come out to put on a hell of a match. TJP’s first match in a few weeks for Impact and Daga doing the damn thing. This went through the commercial break and got a good amount of time. Daga had a few opportunities, but TJP kept his head above water most of this match. For a random match with no build up, this was still pretty damn good.

Desi Hit Squad attack Fallah and TJP, Daga helps out and Shera returns from his spiritual journey. Maybe we get a 6 man in the future. 

RVD comes out basically to continue saying he’s been ripped off by every current wrestler, in between making out with Katie Forbes. He’s doing a great job being the douchey guy from college that we all hate. 

.@TherealRVD got the better but @MrGMSI_BCage but he had no interest in delivering his signature Van Terminator. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/PhW24wagqf

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 18, 2019

ImpactPlus Flashback Moment: Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me, Tag Team Championship Full Metal Mayhem, Final Resolution, December 5, 2010

This clueless mortal Suzie gimmick has been amusing, and it looks like we’re creeping closer to the pay off.

.@realsuyung is ready to explode as the power struggle between @WeAreRosemary and Father James Mitchell is beginning to escalate. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/XRaakeukoi

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 18, 2019

We see Taya ask Madison Rayne and Keira Hogan for help, and like any smart wrestlers, they want something if they decide to help Taya. Taya says if she’s still champ after Hard to Kill, she’ll give both of them title shots.

Ethan Page w/Josh Alexander vs Rich Swann w/Willie Mack – Page and Alexander start their mind games against the number one contenders,and for some reason Page thought a singles match would be a good time. Page shows he’s more than just a loud mouth by keeping up with Swann. Alexander interferes a little on the obvious side to distract the referee, so when Willie Mack tries to say something, it costs Swann in the form of a tandem DDT. Page then follows that up with a nice Gotch Neutralizer before the twist came in. Alexander eats a dive from Swann and Page takes a swing at Mack, causing him to get in the ring and fire back, which gets Swann disqualified. Will The North succeed in breaking apart Willie and Rich?

Acey Romero vs Joey Ryan – Johnny Swinger comes out for commentary and starts making tons of references. Heenanisms, How Much Does This Guy Weigh, just good winks to general idiocy. Acey dominated most of the match until the lollipop went into Kid Ref’s mouth and I guess that counts as a ref bump. Touch it, Swinger interferes to try and do a Fanny Pack version of the Dick Flip, but fails. We get a Dick Flip, second lollipop and Sweet Tooth Music for Joey Ryan to overcome his Wrestler’s Court sentence.

Petey Williams vs Ace Austin – Ace gets a random X Division match just so he can make some comments towards Trey’s mom after the match. The match itself was alright, nothing crazy, but Petey this year has just been trying super hard to pull off Canadian Destroyers even when he could do…anything else…makes the matches a little bland. Not a bad match, but it definitely didn’t stand out that much. Just solid work.

.@TheTreyMiguel is SICK of @The_Ace_Austin talking about his mom. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/8RsP83IGdC

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 18, 2019

The show ends with Sami Callihan talking about how he’s actually the good guy because he treats Tessa like an equal. Which is effectively an extension of the same stuff he said leading up to Slammiversary but now he’s champion. Tessa comes out, we get a brawl, Fulton jumps Tessa but Shamrock comes out to equalize the numbers. Sami and Tessa brawl to the back and then outside.

Overall Score: 6.25/10

There was a lot of good in ring action in this show, but none of it really had repercussions. Ethan Page versus Rich Swann played into their coming title match, but everything else was more of a stepping stone in the respective storylines. Tenille might find a way into the Hard to Kill match depending on what her level of involvement ends up being, Daga might help Fallah and TJP against the Desi Hit Squad, Ace Austin used the Petey Williams win to get in Trey’s head and Joey Ryan…well that’s some comedy or something.

We get good ring work, not a lot of story build and the show ends on a fade to black during the Tessa and Sami brawl. The episode didn’t bother me, but it felt lackluster and a lot of X Division style matches started to make the episode bleed together. It could’ve been better served with change of pace matches instead of just back to back vignettes, but it wasn’t awful. Just not their best work this year.