Coming off of Final Resolution we had some really good matches, feuds building, another Kenny Omega cameo and possibly the demise of The North.

Rohit also got played by TJP donning the old Manik gimmick and Deonna picked up a solid title defense during the special event.

Now we get to build towards Hard to Kill. Let’s see what Impact’s got simmering to get us to January!

"There's only room for two machine guns in this company and you ain't one them." @SuperChrisSabin is ready for @MachineGunKA in our MAIN EVENT! #IMPACTonAXSTV @fakekinkade pic.twitter.com/YGsA7m4uuQ

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 16, 2020

Ratings:

• Tenille Dashwood w/Kaleb with a K vs Alisha w/ Eddie Edwards: Tenille wins via Spotlight Kick – **
• Chris Bey w/Rohit Raju vs Manik: Bey wins via DQ – ** ¼
• Knockouts Tag Tournament: Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz vs Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie: Kiera wins via Face the Music – ***
• Brian Myers vs Josh Alexander: Myers wins via DQ – ** ½
• Karl Anderson vs Chris Sabin w/Alex Shelley: Karl wins via School Boy w/tights – *** ½

Results:

Tenille Dashwood w/Kaleb with a K vs Alisha w/ Eddie Edwards

Tenille starts off the match trying to mess with Alisha giving the ole “Oh no Sami Callihan!” to get Lish to turn and then Tenille catches her with an elbow. A Thesz Press from Lish gives her a nice flurry and we have been seeing Alisha actually wrestling a bit better since wrestle house. Tenille takes advantage shortly after, but as soon as Tenille is in trouble Kaleb interferes and pulls Tenille out of the ring. He clocks Eddie, which pisses off Alisha so she dives to the outside, but Tenille throws Kaleb into the move.

Tenille catches Alisha coming back into the ring with a Spotlight Kick.

Quick promo from Sami Callihan afterwards wanting one more match to end their little games. So it feels like he’s allowing him a nice holiday season and then apparently culminating at the January 5th Impact!.

.@MachineGunKA wanted none of @SuperChrisSabin when he was backed up by @GottaGetSwann and @fakekinkade. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/r0IL8cSzuc

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 16, 2020

Well they wouldn’t show Rich Swann and The Guns standing together unless they were alluding to a 6 man match. My guess is Omega & Good Bros vs Swann & Guns.

Moose and Willie Mack have a segment where Willie challenges Moose to an I Quit Match at…Genesis? Oh I guess we’re having an Impact Special the week before Hard to Kill. That’s interesting.

.@HakimZane has hatched a plan with @DashingChrisBey to unmask Manik and reveal @MegaTJP TONIGHT! #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/IFW7YSJFrJ

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 16, 2020

Again TNT (Tony Khan N Tony Schiavone) do a “paid” advertisement and it’s still awful. Schiavone opens with a great line of calling AXS Cable Access TV and saying there’s a City Council meeting afterward. That was gold. The little shot that Kaz and Christopher Daniels apparently took was fine, but Khan is painful to listen to. He has one line about not paying for free publicity, but is paying for these ads. Does…I mean I guess he’s so rich he has no concept of what pay means.

Chris Bey w/Rohit Raju vs Manik

We get a solid X Division back and forth match, which saw Manik doing great work, dipping under the mat, just a bunch of fun action. Bey’s plan came to fruition though, when Rohit entered the ring to try and tear the mask off of Manik, but the referee and Bey tried to get him out of the ring, Rohit got angry and goes after Bey. So Bey wins by disqualification.

Rohit got finessed.

ImpactPlus Moment: Final Resolution 2006, Sting TNA Debut

Knockouts Tag Tournament: Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz vs Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie

Tasha and Taya started off, with Taya having an early advantage. Taya imposed her size and strength advantage, tagging in Rosemary, whose Fall Away Slam allowed Tasha to get to Kiera for the tag. Kiera comes in and is on the receiving end early, but they eventually figure out a way to keep Rosemary isolated.

Quick tags, picking Taya’s leg on the outside, nice tag team work until Rosemary drills Tasha with a Spear and tags happen on both sides. As it looks like Taya is establishing the momentum to win the match, Deonna Purrazzo and Kimber Lee come down to grab Rosemary off the apron and drive her into the ramp.

Interference does enough to cost Taya the match as she eats the pin, with Fire and Flava moving on to the finals!

.@swinger_johnny found the cash! #IMPACTonAXSTV @RealTSteelz @HoganKnowsBest3 pic.twitter.com/tMPw2Q31qx

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 16, 2020

Kayfabe Compartment Daddy!

Brian Myers vs Josh Alexander

Myers and Alexander start off with a basic match, that after Myers does his unique leg pick, Ethan Page runs down and tries to rally Josh stating ‘That’s my partner!’, so Myers slams him into the ring post, and the rub to this match is a little obvious.

We get a really decent match, nothing flashy, just solid wrestling. When Myers sets up in the corner for his Charging Lariat, the Karate Man pops up instead of Ethan. He slides in, kicks the crap out of Myers, which causes Josh to get disqualified.

Josh has a stare down with Karate Man, tells him he needs help, and just storms off.

.@TheEricYoung has baptized @CodyDeaner in the holy water of change to reveal his purest form. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/nqTlLe08AV

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 16, 2020

Acey thinks Larry was set up, Dreamer inspires Cousin Jake and Rhino to team up to go after Doering and Eric Young.

Karl Anderson vs Chris Sabin w/Alex Shelley

This was a very nice television main event match. Sabin tried to utilize his speed early, but Anderson caught him at times and leaned into him a bit with the power. Anderson never stopped jawing with Shelley on the outside, so that makes for an interesting dynamic.

Sabin went for a nice comeback off of a Fireman’s Carry Manhattan Drop, a few nicely placed elbows, ducks the line from Karl and goes for a Backslide, but Karl kicked out. We see a lot of Japanese elements with the Fighting Spirit spot of goading the opponent back to their feet and standing up and swinging with them. But you know, a tiger doesn’t change their stripes. So just like in Japan, Bullet Club would take shortcuts, we get a Roll-Up with a handful of tights from Karl for the dirty victory!

Post-Match has Swann come out to verbally berate Karl and then they walk to the back. That looks awkward since they have heat so making up for obvious late editing is obvious. Rich goes to the back, gets a few words out before Karl clocks him, Big LG apparently isn’t hurt anymore so he shows up when the Guns come back to help Rich and then Kenny Omega cracks Rich with a wet floor sign. 

They do the “real world champion” gimmick, then Kenny sets up the Bullet Club vs Swann & MCMG at Impact’s Hard to Kill. Welp, I guess this proves anyone wrong who thought AEW talent wouldn’t be wrestling on Impact programming (though it IS a PPV…so mild cop out). 

Overall Score: 6.25/10

Whereas I’m not a huge fan of having a ImpactPlus special the week before a PPV, it does allow for more story time and more characters to get utilized. My only real fear is that it will feel rushed since there’s only 1 more real Impact before Genesis because Impact has done Holiday clip shows the last few years. So with this most likely being the last real IMPACT! of 2020, it set things in motion, it left people with a cliffhanger to tune in next year since Kenny got physically involved and the Sami/Eddie match tease is a nice treat for long time fans, or at least fans of this resurgence era.

I still don’t love portraying the company as inferior on their product, from their EVP, but the fact that they found a few people to try and mock the “bigger company” and take them head on, makes the awful wording and bad promo of last week…slightly more palatable. So I’m not gonna rant and rave since it was still a building block episode, just had an ending that will keep the IWC busy until January 16th, and inquiring minds guessing on if MCMG or Rich might try and attack Omega during AEW television. Is this the first move of a full out cross over/invasion? Or is it a one off with a bunch of friends?

2021 should bring us a lot of fun answers!