Andrew’s Ratings & Analysis: Impact Wrestling 1.14.2020

Impact Wrestling’s post PPV recap show! Yeah…I don’t care too much, but maybe something interesting might happen.

Well we’ve reached the show after the PPV. As we’ve seen with Impact as of late, they do a recap show with a few “newer” matches to break up the clips and interviews.

So definitely a skippable show, but something interesting might get said during interviews…who knows.

Let’s find out.

Ratings:

• TJP & Daga vs Dez & Wentz vs Reno Scum vs Rohit Raju & Mahabali Shera: Shera wins via Sky High – ***
• Joey Ryan vs Johnny Swinger: Ryan wins via Sweet Tooth Music – *
• X Division 4 Way Match: Moose vs Fallah Bahh vs Eddie Edwards vs Ace Austin(c) : Ace retains via Avalanche Fold – ** 1/2

Analysis:

TJP & Daga vs Dez & Wentz vs Reno Scum vs Rohit Raju & Mahabali Shera – We get a tornado style 4 team match. Since The North retained at Hard to Kill, to have to expect that this will have to do something when it comes to positioning for the next contender. Some decent action comes out of this, but Reno Scum is definitely the ones that drew the short straw. Dez and Wentz had some impressive tandem moves and high risk spots. Daga took a lot of visible punishment, but he put together enough offense to actually start looking credible. Shera and Rohit show up to slow down the Rascalz duo and hit a combination Knee Lift/Sky High for the finish. It was a fun enough match, and might start leading to stuff for the Desi Hit Squad as long as Shera is involved.

Moose with some words after his Hard to Kill match against Rhino

.@TheMooseNation conquered the Gore at #HardToKill, and he's ready to conquer the four way later tonight. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/ZMgsTZfbYI

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 15, 2020

Recap of Trey vs Ace Austin from Hard to Kill followed by an interview.

Eddie Edwards reflects on his Hard to Kill match and hypes up the House of Hardcore match we will be seeing later in the night.

.@TheEddieEdwards proved he was #HardToKill against @MichaelElgin25 and he plans to do it again tonight in the four way. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/CF6PWuy11Q

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 15, 2020

Rob Van Dam has his celebration video, which seems to be coming from his hotel room. Katie Forbes is there, her girlfriend Jennifer is there…and…well…wow. This is a great segment in the Attitude Era/ECW vein, all while bashing us over the head that he’s a giant douchebag. But it’s still damn entertaining. Watch for yourself.

"Don't be mad at me because you don't have my life." @TherealRVD and @TheKatieForbes have a spectacular #HardToKill celebration. pic.twitter.com/nGoCqesR5D

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 15, 2020

ImpactPlus Flashback Moment: Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarret, NoDQ Genesis 1/11/2009

Joey Ryan vs Johnny Swinger – It’s a sad day in Hell when Joey Ryan is a highlight of the show just because it breaks up recaps and flashbacks. Sad day in hand, and…well other things in hand since it’s a Joey Ryan match. I suppose I chuckled on occasion, but this was all rough. Josh Mathews didn’t roll with Callis’ set ups, the match was clunky and I found myself wondering if there was a way to run an angle where a manager finds “penis kryptonite” to make Joey Ryan lose his penis power and go back to Magnum PI. Yeah…it was one of those matches.

X Division 4 Way Match: Moose vs Fallah Bahh vs Eddie Edwards vs Ace Austin(c) – It’s hard to say this match was bad, but given the fact we saw Ace Austin with the belt at Hard to Kill, and this was before then…it wasn’t really surprising to see who won. The match was fine, though slower paced and telegraphed out a little more like an Indy match since it was done at House of Hardcore, but it was fun. It was nice to see Fallah still around a title scene and Eddie was the glue that kept it all together. Decent, but fell super flat during a rather uninspiring recap show.

.@Tess_Blanchard made HISTORY Sunday at #HardToKill but @TheSamiCallihan isn't done with her yet. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/LB4e6CpuO1

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 15, 2020

Overall Score: 4.5/10

Well as you could probably gather from my lack of real energy during this review, this show was lame. Granted, the finish of the show did shoot a little life into a rather cookie cutter, generic, and boring interview with Tessa.

Sami pulling the horror movie mislead and saying that she won’t see him coming is interesting. Especially with the announcement that Lockdown will be returning in March, that could be a nice way to blow off this feud depending on which direction the whole thing takes.

Since Impact has set a precedent that the first show after PPVs will be worthless, we can’t be surprised at how this played out. At least Sami sent us home with some intrigue and RVD was entertaining in a purely debauchery laden way. But hot damn this was skippable to be nice.