Tommy Dreamer is the Executive in Charge of Wrestling! E-C-Dub! Hardcore Justice kicks off! Does Deonna Purrazzo end Jazz’s career?

We have the major story of Jazz putting her career up, but the rest of the card is a bunch of ECW style throwbacks. Charily Legal is one of my favorite dumb names for a Chairs match. Blind Games had an amusing set up, and the whole X Division mystery tag could be fun.

I’m curious if we’ll get any old school ECW performers on this PPV aside from Dreamer and Jazz. So let’s see where Impact’s WrestleMania week show goes!

Ratings:

• Mystery Partner Triple Threat Tag Match: Ace Austin & Madman Fulton vs TJP & Fallah Bahh vs Josh Alexander & Petey Williams: Alexander wins via Ankle Lock w/Grapevine – *** ¾
• Chairly Legal: Shera vs Hernandez: Shera wins via Rohit Chairshot – **
• Doc Gallows w/Karl Anderson vs Black Taurus w/Rosemary & Crazzy Steve: Gallows wins via Double Hand Sitout Chokeslam – ***
• Crate American Bash: Johnny Swinger vs Matt Cardona: Cardona wins via Radio Silence – ***
• Open Challenge: Sami Callihan vs Sam Beale: Callihan via Package Piledriver – N/A
• Blind Games Match: Brian Myers vs Jake Something: Jakes wins via Blackhole Slam – ** ½
• Number 1 Contender: Knockouts Hardcore Gauntlet: Rosemary vs Tenille Dashwood vs Jordynne Grace vs Alisha Edwards vs Havok vs Su-Yung: Tenille wins – ***
• Title vs Career: Knockouts Championship: Jazz vs Deonna Purrazzo (c): Purrazzo retains via Cosa Nostra – *** ¼
• Hardcore Wars: Team Dreamer (Tommy Dreamer, Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann & Willie Mack) vs Team VBD (Eric Young, Rhino, Joe Doering & Deaner): EY wins via Piledriver – *** ½

Results:

Mystery Partner Triple Threat Tag Match: Ace Austin & Madman Fulton vs TJP & Fallah Bahh vs Josh Alexander & Petey Williams

This was a crazy fun match where TJP and Fallah faced the Canadians for a good bit of the match, which is perfect strategy from the heel team to let the others try to gas themselves out. Fulton gets to put on a little bit of a show, as he does more athletic set ups for charges and corner attacks than we’ve really seen from the big man.

TJP and Petey had some fun interactions, as did most of the X Division sized wrestlers. Fallah and Fulton took turns taking each other out, and allowing the X Division guys to shine against one another. Fulton had some fun displays of power where TJP was on his back and he still Chokeslammed TJP and Alexander at the same time. Just a lot of fun crazy action that rarely stopped moving.

TJP went for the Mamba Splash on Josh Alexander, but Alexander got the knees up. Petey hits a Canadian Destroyer on TJP. Attempts one on Fallah, but that’s not really smart. Petey moves before the big man drops down on him, which allows to Alexander to take advantage and lock in the Ankle Lock for the win over Fallah.

Chairly Legal: Shera vs Hernandez

This was the usual power guys with weapons kind of match. Chairshots, chairs in the corners, suplexes on piles of chairs. Just the usual fun things in a hardcore match, but it wasn’t exactly captivating. The rub came in when Rohit slides into the ring, lays out Hernandez with a chairshot and then tells Shera to pin him.

Shera and Rohit seems to have an understanding now.

Doc Gallows w/Karl Anderson vs Black Taurus w/Rosemary & Crazzy Steve

Taurus is reeling for a lot of this match. Gallows tosses him around, hits a few Big Boots and Anderson makes his presence felt a bit through the match. Black Taurus manages to comeback a little bit using his agility mixed with the fact he’s not a small guy.

A 619 and Crossbody give Taurus an opening, but due to Karl’s general interference, Crazzy Steve not being overly effective; Gallows catches Taurus after a distraction, Double Handed Choke Bomb and Taurus is done!

The Good Brothers try to gain some traction before the FinJuice rematch.

Crate American Bash: Johnny Swinger vs Matt Cardona

A mystery crate match with a fun reference of name! Given that Swinger is involved there’s a solid bit of gimmick. Swinger goes to some of the crates to find toys. A Scott Hall picture gets pulled out, a Rat Trap is in the second crate (which yeah, that’s funny as hell given that he uses older lingo and has talked about rats before), the third one Cardona opens and doesn’t reveal, while Swinger finds knuckles in the last crate. When Swinger tries to use them, Cardona hits Radio Silence and we’re done!

The match was entertaining just a lot of gimmicks and references. After winning the Swinger-ellas look shocked and Cardona walks away with the third crate, just smiling and never revealing what’s in it. IF it’s the damn wad of money again…sheesh they need to end that.

ImpactPlus Flashback Moment: Hardcore Justice 2010: Sabu vs RVD w/Bill Alfonzo

Good use of acknowledgment since nWo and RVD got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this week. Impact tends to use their old footage fairly well.

Open Challenge: Sami Callihan vs Sam Beale

Let’s be aware, this whole match was to enhance the story between Sami and Trey. Beale was abused, bitten and had joints stretched. He nearly pulled off the upset with a flash Small Package, but we knew where this was all going.

He fought hard, but this match wasn’t about him. Sami eats his lunch and the match is over. Nice to see Sami got a workout in.

Blind Games Match: Brian Myers vs Jake Something

The match was amusing watching them stumble about trying to find each other. Some random stuff and few weapon strikes make things odd. Myers bumps the referee, lifts the blindfold, beats on Jake a bit and then drops the blindfold to make it seem like he didn’t cheat.

Before Myers can finish things, Cardona’s music hits, and he walks out with the crate. Cardona distracts Myers a little, slides the crate to Something, Something cracks the crate over Myers’ head and action figures spill out. Blackhole Slam, and then Jake wins.

While the match was awkward, the finish was great. This should kick off Myers finally accepting Cardona’s challenge.

Number 1 Contender: Knockouts Hardcore: Rosemary vs Tenille Dashwood vs Jordynne Grace vs Alisha Edwards vs Havok vs Su-Yung

Okay so let’s work with the abridged version since this was a cluster. Susan comes out first, and then gets demon attacked and become Su Yung. Tenille NOPES out of the entire ring early as Havok and Rosemary look elated to get Su back.

Alisha tried at multiple different times in this match and wasn’t terrible, she even pulled out her own Kendo Stick, Kendra, Kenny’s wife. As she goes off with stick, Su Yung grabs her and takes her to the back. So maybe Alisha will succumb to darkness or something.

Havok and Jordynne go back and forth in a solid exchange, then as Havok goes to the top rope, Nevaeh appears, throws some pocket sand at Havok and Havok crashes to the mat. Kaleb pulls out Jordynne Grace, hits a Superkick and Tenille pins Havok for the win! Pocket Sand and Superkicks!

An INTENSE game of Beer Pong broke out in Swinger's Palace. #HardcoreJustice @swinger_johnny @SuperChrisSabin @JamesStormBrand @JohnEBravo1st @THEACEYROMERO @legendoflarryd pic.twitter.com/6sCMPbZbTc

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) April 10, 2021

Title vs Career: Knockouts Championship: Jazz vs Deonna Purrazzo (c)

Jazz opens up quickly with a Spinning Back Kick, drops Deonna but only for an early 2 count. Deonna retreats to the ropes, manages to grab Jazz’s arm and starts working in the technical heel shortcuts. Arm Wringers, Stun Guns, Launchers into the ropes, and just staying on top of working Jazz over on the mat.

Jazz eventually fights out of the corner, and puts a few moves together. An X Factor gets Jazz a near fall, and Deonna finally starts getting frustrated. Some timely strikes open up Deonna’s defenses, but Deonna stems the tide. Paradise Lock in the ropes gave Deonna an edge guarding advantage. She caught Jazz with a few shots, forcing Jazz to come back in through a flurry of kicks and stomps.

Jazz fights through one last time, hits a few strikes, a Samoan Drop and looks to finish things, but Deonna catches her, floats through and attempts the Fujiwara. Jazz fights out to the ropes and Deonna gets mad and says she’s ending this, Deonna sets up her Gotch Style Piledriver known as Cosa Nostra, lands the move and ends Jazz’s career!

Hardcore Wars: Team Dreamer (Tommy Dreamer, Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann & Willie Mack) vs Team VBD (Eric Young, Rhino, Joe Doering & Deaner)

So with Dreamer getting jumped in the back and the doctor says he’s not cleared, we all get to go into the tank and think of fun replacements. Deaner and Eddie start off, and we continue where the IMPACT! match left off, since Deaner has done a great job reinventing himself.

Rhino is next in typical team fashion where the heels keep the early advantage. Willie Mack evens things up, Doering dominates a few people, Rich makes a big push actually equalizing Doering even though he’s smaller to help get across his ability leading towards the Omega match. Then we get to the end, where EY gets the troops together to take over, and the final for Dream Team is…Trey Miguel…vomits in my mouth, of all the things, it could’ve been Sabu or anything else…ugh.

Trey does some things that looks stupid, then we get to a Tower of Doom variation. I don’t like Tower of Dooms, but the fact we have Willie, Rich and Eddie trying to suplex EY, then Doering Triple Powerbombs them, taking EY over as well. So it makes Doering look great. Doering puts Eddie on a table, looks to drop an Elbow from the apron, but Trey hits a Meteora into Doering, as they crash through Eddie and the table.

VBD triple team Willie, Willie fights the good fight for a moment, but then the numbers catch up EY Piledrivers Willie and VBD win.

So Trey continues to underwhelm, which is nice for the Sami story. Maybe Sami can make him stop sucking. It’s a tall task…but who knows.

Overall Score: 6.75/10

Well we knew the only really big aspect to this was if it was going to be Jazz’s career or the crowning of a new Knockouts Champion, but the rest of the show was definitely entertaining. Though some of the in-ring action was lacking at times, finishes were fun, the way the stories fed into each other worked well and I was generally amused by how the show went off.

Jazz’s career coming to an end is a little bittersweet, but the fact she was going to retire a little unceremoniously a few months ago, lends a little importance to this run since she got a tad bit more exposure than just peacing out in obscurity after dropping the NWA World Women’s title.

So there we go, fun show, people that needed to be protected were, a new number 1 contender for the Knockouts title and VBD got a much needed win.