Andrew’s IMPACT Results & Match Ratings: 8.26.2021

Coming out of Emergence and moving toward Victory Road, as well as NWA Empowerrr, what does tonight’s episode have in store?

The card looks to be a few promos involving Deonna and Christian, an Emergence grudge match with Chris Sabin facing Sami Callihan, main evented with the team that wasn’t pinned from the triple threat seeing if they can earn an official shot at the tag titles.

So it’s definitely more of a fill in the blanks episode, but we could get something interesting!

.@sambeale23 thought this week's lesson would be about losing World Championship matches but @Myers_Wrestling doesn't seem to want to talk about that. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/WKp7EPdMwE

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) August 27, 2021

Ratings:

• Chris Sabin vs Sami Callihan: Sabin wins via Cradle Shock – ** ¾
• Chris Bey vs David Finlay: Bey wins via Dirty Pin – ***
• Taylor Wilde vs The Influence (Kaleb, Tenille Dashwood & Madison Rayne): Tenille wins via Spotlight Kick – ** ¼
• The Good Brothers vs Willie Mack & Rich Swann: Swann wins via Roll-Up – ** ½

Results:

Chris Sabin vs Sami Callihan

Everything about this match starts quick aside from the IMPACT YouTube’s buffering speed. We go from Sabin and Callihan on the outside, Sabin over rotating on an Apron Senton (but it still looks cool) and then we go into a lot of freezing and buffering wheel of death.

We saw Sami pull off a few nice wrestling transitions, an Indian Deathlock and solid work, when the stream was working. Frame skips are annoying but amusingly it went from one decent spot to another. It looks like the match ends off of a Victory Roll near fall, then Sabin hits Cradle Shock to put Sami down. Given the participants I can assume it wasn’t awful.

Moose hits the ring afterwards, dumping Sabin and attacking Callihan (prolly cause Callihan’s chair shot cost Moose the match at Emergence). Eddie makes the save before Moose takes things a little too far, and Sami and Eddie sortuv hold the ring.

After a few backstage segments with Taylor Wilde, Sami and Sabin, we get Mickie James coming out to the ring.

Is @DeonnaPurrazzo underestimating @RealMelina at @nwa #EMPOWERRR? #IMPACTonAXSTV @MickieJames pic.twitter.com/rAu0OxCF4S

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) August 27, 2021

Mickie points out that Rehwoldt beat Melina, not Deonna, Deonna gives her a point, but then attacks. Trey comes in for the save, then Melina makes an appearance. Melina runs off Deonna and Rehwoldt, and we’ll see how this ends up at Empowerrr.

Chris Bey vs David Finlay

Bey started off quickly, but he lets the over excited aspect of being in the BEY-let Club make him a little sloppy to start with. A few quick spots, then a few big missteps. Finlay counter wrestles until he hits a quick Blue Thunder Bomb. Everything is looking like Finlay will put away Bey, but Bey manages to be just crafty enough to get out of the way of Finlay then pins him with the feet on the ropes and steals the win!

So in true Bullet Club fashion, Bey wins by cheating.

It should be noted that the stream literally stopped for a few minutes and this entire stream has been a freezing and buffering pile of crap. Given all of the wrestling that has been on YouTube the last few years without technical difficulties, it’s just soo TNA that Impact would be the ones that can’t run a clean stream.

With all that said, it’s Christian Cage promo time.

Christian comes out, looks like he might put Ace Austin over, someone in the crowd says Ace sucks and Christian pivots and just turns it into an E&C skit with “Ace ain’t beating me for this belt”. Then Tommy Dreamer comes out, so we continue the E&C skit.

A quick zinger about Dreamer’s hair, but then Tommy makes it all sappy and heartfelt for Christian. I mean…Dreamer needs to stop with the Dusty Rhodes style promos. Dreamer asks for one more match with Christian, says he hasn’t earned it yet, but he will, and it doesn’t matter the stipulation. Now Ace’s music hits so Madman and Ace come out.

Ace does the typical “he’s inevitable” keeping a very cocky even temperament, Christian pokes fun at the inevitable name and then makes a short joke. Small scuffle, Dreamer and Christian clear the ring and stand tall.

Overall, solid enough promo, but God damn Dreamer needs to stop with the long winded emotional promo. Like can he just fart in the mic and punch someone. Every time he talks, it’s like one of those stories your Grandpa tells you about the good ole days and walking to school uphill both ways in the snow.

.@ScottDAmore has made @The_Ace_Austin vs. @THETOMMYDREAMER for NEXT WEEK and if Dreamer wins he gets added to the #VictoryRoad World Championship match! #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/CUauCSi3rC

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) August 27, 2021

Taylor Wilde vs The Influence (Kaleb, Tenille Dashwood & Madison Rayne)

Taylor starts while The Influence is posing by flying from the ring to the outside with a big Crossbody. Kaleb is the first in with his neck brace, Taylor tries for a quick pin, but Kaleb kicks out and powders. Tenille and Madison attack.

Let’s all remember, Taylor asked for the handicap match, and she stacked everyone in the corner, hit a big sandwiched Dropkick followed by a Tornado DDT on Kaleb, but Tenille makes the save. Still fighting through it, Taylor shoved Madison into Kaleb, O’Connor Roll on Madison, but Tenille breaks up the pin with a Spotlight Kick. Tenille then pins Taylor for the win!

The Influence continue the beatdown, Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering make the save for Taylor.

.@brandilauren_'s time has come… #IMPACTonAXSTV @realsuyung @Kimber_Lee90 pic.twitter.com/sRbnrH90gs

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) August 27, 2021

The Good Brothers vs Willie Mack & Rich Swann

Well this match does a good job at reminding us that Rich is quite decorated in Impact. Karl and Willie start, with Karl having his way until Willie catches him with a Pop-Up Forearm. As Gallows and Rich come in, Rich cuts Gallows down to side real quick. A few strikes, a back fist, a kick or two, and the big man gets dropped faster than you can say Festus.

At that point the pace picks up a bit with the Good Brothers trying to pick spots to slow stuff down with power moves or a timely Spinebuster from Anderson. Even after Rich and Willie put together some nice tandem offense, it looks like Anderson is setting up the Gun Stun, but Rich shoves it off, and rolls Karl up. Rich wins!

Post match beatdown to keep their heat, but Rich and Willie will most likely be getting a title shot at Victory Road.

Overall Score: 2/10

Why a 2 you may ask? Because I’m being generous. The technical issues were so embarrassing I had to wait for the show to be loaded and no longer streamed just to see clean outcomes of matches. As a show it did a decent job setting the stage for Empowerrr, making Melina seem like more than a Divas gimmick, made things sortuv interesting for Ace Austin and gave us tag team number one contenders. ALSO, let’s not overlook the fact that Josh Alexander put out an open challenge to any former X Division champions. So that leaves the door open for possible interesting appearances. But the fact the stream couldn’t go 90 seconds without skipping or buffering or freezing…IS EMBARRASSING!

MLW, NWA, A capella groups doing covers and people in their basement have cleaner live streams than a supposed multi-million dollar company (Yes I purposefully named things smaller than Impact, I’m also aware AEW shows tend to run smooth).

If I was watching this uninhibited, then it probably would’ve been more like a 6.5; but their YouTube membership looked sad. Big TNA energy tonight boys, big TNA energy.