OGK versus The Good Brothers kicks off the show tonight! There’s other stuff, but that’s the big wrestling headline. Also, I would be a jackass to ignore the news that came out a few days ago about Joe Doering needing to go back to have surgery for recurring brain cancer. He came back from this once and won the AJPW Triple Crown Championship, time to do it again!

So we here at The Chairshot wish him safety, success and continued resilience in battling cancer.

Check out what @TheEricYoung had to say to @bigjoedoering and @CodyDeaner about the future of Violent By Design backstage on #IMPACTonAXSTV!#IMPACTWRESTLING pic.twitter.com/uQwwEO6JNf

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 2, 2022

Let’s get the show review started!

Ratings:

• IMPACT World Tag Team Championships: The Good Brothers (c) vs OGK: OGK wins via Proton Pack – *** 1/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• X Division Championship: Kenny King w/Maria Kanellis vs Speedball Mike Bailey (c): Speedball retains via Hurricanrana – ** 3/4
• Alex Zayne vs Mascara Dorada: Dorada wins via Dorada Driver – ** 1/4
• Number 1 Contender for Knockouts Championship: Deonna Purrazzo w/Chelsea Green vs Masha Slamovich: Masha wins via Russian Death Device – *** 1/2

Results:

IMPACT World Tag Team Championships: The Good Brothers (c) vs OGK

Karl and Mike start off, but then all four are in mere seconds into the match and it’s more of a slugfest early on. Big LG Lariats Taven back out of the ring and we get the starting two back to a normal pace. LG tags himself back in and starts running Mike from corner to corner with big Overhand Chops before going into his goofy Corner Punches and tags Karl back in. OGK is looking bad until Mike counters a double team attempt and rushes to tag in Taven.

Thanks to Taven, OGK works over Karl, a Swinging Neckbreaker, and solid tandem work is giving Karl tons of problems. Machine Gun tries to fight back, but a series of kicks, Stereo Enzuigiri’s and a Superkick lay Karl out for a 2 count. Karl finally connects with a Spinebuster and Brainbuster to eventually get the big man in.

LG is rolling, Good Brother rock OGK, Mike eats an Assisted Neckbreaker, look to set up the Magic Killer, but Mike manages to take advantage of the referee being out of position, they send LG into the steps, Proton Pack on Karl…OGK WIN!

Killer Kelly vignette reminds us that she wants to murder Tasha, and I’m all here for it. 

Check out what happened with Honor No More met up in the back after OGK became The IMPACT World Tag Team Championships!@TheEddieEdwards @TheHorrorKingVM @MattTaven @RealMikeBennett @KennyKingPb2 #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/mPraDexXFF

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 2, 2022

X Division Championship: Kenny King w/Maria Kanellis vs Speedball Mike Bailey (c)

Early on King is muscling Bailey around. Slows him down in the corner, follows the up and over, and tries to wear out the champ. Bailey tries to pick up the speed, but King keeps up with him, Bailey hits the ropes, King catches him in a Dustin Rhodes style snapping Powerslam for 2. Kenny has a ton of control, until Bailey kicks it into another gear, and starts…well…kicking more.

Bailey manages to maintain a lot of control, until King reverses an attempted throw back into the ring, Kenny catches Bailey and pulls of a Release Capture Suplex into the apron as we go to commercial. Kenny still have control, Eddy Gordo Kick into the Spinebuster for 2. Kenny has his moments where he’s full of himself, they go back and forth but Bailey gets the best of things. Tornado Kicks, but Kenny pulls the referee in the way, then wipes out the referee with an errant Spinning Leg Lariat.

Kenny gets the visual pinfall but no referee. They have to wait for the new ref, Bailey kicks out. Speedball is looking for an opening, goes for a Springboard Sunset Flip pinfall, Kenny sits down for the Double Leg Cradle and Kenny grabs Maria’s hands and gets the pinfall! KENNY WINS!

-Oh Wait- the original ref sees the interference, causes the match to get restarted, Honor No More is banned from ringside and Bailey goes right after Kenny with the Golden Triangle Moonsault, Tornado Kicks into the corner, Ultima Weapon, but Kenny catches him with a Knee Lift. Royal Flush attempt, but Bailey counters it into a real Hurricanrana for the pinfall!

IMPACTPlus Flashback Moment: IMPACT 10.29.19, IMPACT Championship, Brian Cage (c) vs Sami Callihan

.@FearHavok is GOOD TO GO! @WeAreRosemary @thetayavalkyrie #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/VbRyp13l0P

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 2, 2022

Aussie Open shows up. Definitely never been impressed with them, a bit on the generic side – oh but the fun is Moose and Maclin can be heard arguing and Gia kinda gets a sneak scoop at the end of a potential plan for Victory Road.

Mickie James comes out to make some kind of announcement looking like straight fire. Things are definitely starting out like a retirement speech. The crowd is reacting and supporting what she says well, and she acknowledged the Alexis Laree gimmick she started in IMPACT with. SWERVE BRO! She sets things up like she’s unsure and ready to be done, but no she wants to prove that she can still hang with the locker room. So Mickie is setting up an Open Challenge to reset her motivation. Catch is – if she loses during this Last Rodeo, is it gonna be a 10 second ride, or a 5th Knockouts title reign?

.@MeanGiaMiller stopped @MickieJames during the break! If @MickieJames loses another match she's "going home" for good!

😮#IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/eRPNYV8zzI

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 2, 2022

Alex Zayne vs Mascara Dorada

The Sauce and the main reason I enjoyed any of the early days of NJPW Strong against Gran Metallik. Let’s see how the styles and wrestlers work together and if Dorada will look better than his final few WWE days.

A lot of counters, rolling through, typical lucha, but it doesn’t look great. Things look too careful and slow to start with, even Dorada’s little spin around Corner Frankensteiner is super slow. Until Zayne has a unique counter to the Baseball Slide, this whole match feels sluggish.

I’m really waiting for this match to pick up the pace a little. Zayne has a deliberate offensive attack, but coming off of unimpressive psuedo-lucha to start with, I am straight up zoning during this match. We get a commercial, and Zayne is still in control, but I don’t care. Dorada should start a comeback -there we go, fighting out of the corner. A few lariats, low bridge, and now Dorada goes for a slight rope walk Senton. Overhand Chop makes a good noise, but this is still a lame match so far. Two steps on the ropes into a Senton Atomico for 2.

Zayne slips out of a Driver, and starts swinging with a few different attempts at offense. Pushes Dorada into the corner, Dorada pushes him back, flips back, Flipping Frankensteiner into Baja Blast for 2. Zayne goes for the Crunch Wrap, but misses, Dorada Driver and he wins. Dorada is next in line for the X Division title. Very meh match. 

Yuya Uemura gets a video package that he’s debuting next week. They hype up Yuya? Really…sheesh. At least they pretend he’s a big deal instead of just debuting him with no context. So it’s something. 

Number 1 Contender for Knockouts Championship: Deonna Purrazzo w/Chelsea Green vs Masha Slamovich

This is really Masha’s first real challenge in IMPACT. Will she run through Deonna, or will the Virtuosa end the streak? 

Masha likes to goad a little early, so they play a little before Masha gets annoyed. However Deonna, dodges a corner move and starts out wrestling Masha before Masha gets pissed and Snapmares by the hair. Deonna is thrown around a little, Russian Death Device attempt, but Deonna slips out and powders.

Chelsea gets involved a little, big Knee Lift from Deonna actually rocks Masha. We go to commercial and Deonna is stomping a mudhole into Masha when we’re back. So Deonna is dominating Masha for now, pinfall attempt and then a Headlock while grounded, well more of a Neck Crank just to try and keep Masha grounded.

Masha has a cute Wrecking Ball Drop Kick counter, turned into a Jacknife Pin attempt and then Deonna counters back to a cradle and we see a little bit of cradle trading. This match has done great to get across Masha isn’t one dimensional. Her style seems to be very well into the Russian gimmick since it looks like Russian Sambo. Masha has to dig deep for moves and using the ropes, while Deonna tries to catch her with a Fujiwara and a few other wonderful opportunistic attempts.

Deonna goes for the Kurt Angle Triple Germans, calls for a finish like Chris Benoit and goes for Queen’s Gambit; but Masha fights back. Masha counters it into an Air Raid crash that the rotates and drives Deonna into the corner. Chelsea distracts Masha during the Russian Death Device attempt, Queen’s Gambit…but Masha kicks out and looks happy. Aja Kong Spinning Backfist from Masha misses, Deonna tries the Fujiwara but Masha fights it off, hits the Backfist, takes out Chelsea and Russian Death Device! Masha wins in a pretty damn good match!

Overall Score: 8.25/10

This episode fit a ton of stuff in. A logical way to write off Joe and also showing a little humanity from Eric Young. OGK finally getting the tag titles they deserved is great, shenanigans with Kenny and Speedball are prolly hinting at Speedball losing legitimately in a couple challengers. Mickie James’ Last Rodeo is a cool way to work off the usual retirement tour idea mixed with a bit of the Michael Jordan Last Dance vibe.

They even kept the Brian Myers/Bhupinder angle relevant, HEATH mugging Eddie Edwards again during his talk with Josh is great to keep him going strong and plant potential seeds of a Josh heel turn. Josh seems to be buying into the Honor No More narrative little by little, so that’s a nice slow burn to see where it goes. Also, it goes without saying but for as much as I liked Zayne in Strong, he has been a bit of a dud in IMPACT and Dorada really looked slow during the entire match. This isn’t a gymnastics routine, you don’t get more points from me for proper execution, you get points for putting together a match that flows and makes sense.

The Main Event did everything it was meant to do. Masha got more time to show her skills and that she’s not just a Goldberg-esque wrecking ball. She fought from underneath, had some close calls and single handedly took out one of the best wrestlers in the game today, male or female. So her versus Jordynne has more of the Unstoppable Force v Immovable Object aura. So it did its job.

Damn good show with a lot to like and a lot of story stuff packed into 2 hours.