So the general reception of Slammiversary was positive, but I’m still in a haze about the direction things are going. Omega is still the champ, Deonna is untouchable but arrogant and Moose resigns just to lose in a way that feels like purely a fill in the gaps angle.

At least Impact is doing decently enough to keep their bigger stars relevant amongst the AEW and NJPW involvement (more than I can say when ROH & NJPW were going strong). But let’s hope that continues, and it would be nice to see Moose or even Massive Cassidy get on a real track to winning that title.

Hey it looks like we’ve got an upcoming debut soon!

Long live the drama king. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/NgikAQxOcH

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 23, 2021

Ratings:

• Chris Bey vs Rohit Raju w/Shera: Bey wins via Art of Finesse – *** 1/4
• Same Beale, Brian Myers & Tenille Dashwood w/Kaleb vs Jake Something, Matt Cardona & Chelsea Green: Green wins via Unprettier – ** 1/2
• Ace Austin & Madman Fulton vs FinJuice: Juice wins via Double Legged Cradle – **
• Knockouts Tag Team Titles: Fire N Flava vs Havok & Rosemary (c): Havok wins via Leg Swep/Spear Combo – ***

Results:

Chris Bey vs Rohit Raju w/Shera

We saw a few early heel shenanigans with the double foot catch and the “you put it down, okay, we put it down at the same time” spot. After that point, we get a really solid match. Rohit continues to impress with his mat wrestling to counter the aerial attacks of most of the X Division. Bey goes for a few rope assisted moves, Rohit dodges into backslides or takedowns to work on a submission.

Shera’s involvement wasn’t too much in this match, and Rohit had a good amount of time to just try and win on his own merits. Bey’s quickness does end up catching Rohit with a quick kick, into an Art of Finesse; and that’s all she wrote for Rohit.

Solid match, nice way to open Impact after Slammiversary, good stuff.

.@JayWhiteNZ is always looking for the best talent for The Bullet Club – but his offer to @DashingChrisBey will expire… #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/HpnbSiaf33

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 23, 2021

The next segment is Mickie James trying to clear the air from Slammiversary. She calls Deonna to the ring, and really tries to placate to Deonna and prove that she just lost her cool but she wasn’t trying to upstage her. Deonna still doesn’t buy it, talks about getting even by kicking Mickie in the face, but Gail Kim comes down to the ring. Between Mickie and Gail, it seems like they finally convince Deonna it would be best for her brand to agree to be on Empowerrr. 

Same Beale, Brian Myers & Tenille Dashwood w/Kaleb vs Jake Something, Matt Cardona & Chelsea Green

Myers and Cardona push most of the narrative in this match. Cardona shows himself to be a little gullible getting distracted a few different ways. Tenille and Chelsea get tagged in and Chelsea dominates early. A quick Backstabber, Curb Stomp into the low turnbuckle, but Myers pulls Chelsea off. Cardona charges but gets dumped, Something wipes out Myers, and then Tenille tries to go for the Flash win with the Inside Cradle, but Chelsea kicks out.

Tenille rolls out, Taylor Wilde resurfaces, beats on Kaleb and Tenille, feeds her into Chelsea for the Unprettier and the faces win! Probably continuing to set up for Tenille versus Taylor.

We cut to the parking lot around the tv trucks and Eddie Edwards is brawling with Massive Cassidy. It’s a good way to continue their feud after Cassidy technically won by cheating. Can Eddie be the first person to beat Cassidy?

.@TheEddieEdwards dual wielding Kenny has sent @TheCaZXL running for the hills. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/y8z6FG9oNO

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 23, 2021

Jay White hits the ring, plays with crowd masterfully and soaks in the adulation that he’s not really used to. Claims that he’s here for David Finlay and Finlay is a disgrace to the family name. Speaking of names, he’s also here for the Bullet Club’s biggest fans, the crowd cheers and he tempers that. He explains that he doesn’t mean them, he means the imposters playing at something they aren’t a part of anymore like it’s 2013. 

Jay’s part was pretty damn good, but when The Elite showed up to respond, the promo got a little lame. Trying to insert joking “hold me back” and dumb founded idiot sentence stalls just made me zone out. Jay handled the awkwardness well, popped the crowd multiple times, and he’s proving he really is the best thing not named Roman Reigns, in wrestling right now. 

After mouthing off to the Good Brothers, Jay gets in a scuffle, the numbers catch up to him and he’s about to eat a Magic Killer. Chris Bey rethought the offer, makes the save and we might be seeing the first step to the picture most of us saw swimming around the IWC. 

Ace Austin & Madman Fulton vs FinJuice

Finlay gets isolated and thrown around a bit, but does manage to fight back and bring in Juice. Ace and Madman looked dominant, but Juice managed to counter the Blackhole Slam into a Double Leg Cradle and steal a win!

Ace and Fulton attack since they’re mad they lost, FinJuice manage to get the upperhand, and then Shera & Rohit hit the ring. So we get the two heel teams, hitting finishing moves on one of the members each. It’s a solid set up to give FinJuice clear targets.

Knockouts Tag Team Titles: Fire N Flava vs Havok & Rosemary (c)

Well let’s preface this with, even if you didn’t read spoilers, Kiera kinda let the cat out of the bag. She admitted that this was her last set of tapings, so the writing was on the wall.

The surprising part was just, this was a decent match. Everyone played their part, Rosemary took the brunt of the assault from Fire N Flava, but we started seeing the seeds of the story toward the end of the match. Havok was doing Bootwashes, but Tasha rolled out, jawed back and forth and tried to distract Havok. Kiera climbed on Havok’s back, and then got backpack smashed.

So they really set up the dynamic where Tasha wasn’t the one screwing up, and Kiera ate the tandem finish; so we should be seeing the team fall apart a little as how they write off Kiera.

Overall Score: 6/10

This show was interesting. I definitely appreciate they aren’t doing the weird clip show post PPV fallout episodes, so that’s a plus. But the way the stories are building or continuing did feel a little disjointed at times.

Jay White was great, Chris Bey coming around to Jay’s offer is great, but the Elite guys made that whole thing awkward. Moose and Sabin setting up next week to run it back seemed fine, just generally filler. Tenille and Myers being done with the alliance, and Myers blaming Sam Beale was okay. But the need to make him awkward and just “excited to talk to girls” was…fucking awkward bud. Also as much as I enjoy Mickie and Gail, that segment felt like it dragged a little.

All in all, nothing really awful, just a lot of wait and see. So…maybe next week something will capture my imagination.