A bunch of early morning Friday appointments left me without the real ability to cover this during air last few weeks; but Emergence is Sunday! We can’t just overlook the Go Home!

Number one contenders to the tag titles were decided last week, so Sunday the match will be; SUBculture versus The Rascalz, for the tag titles. Will The Rascalz finally get their hands on the title they should’ve won while Dez was in IMPACT? A little early action for Brian Myers and Alex Shelley tonight before their eight man match is on the way as well.

Let’s see what else this episode of IMPACT brings us, prior to Emergence!

IMPACT Wrestling presents #Emergence LIVE THIS SUNDAY, August 27th at 8pm ET on IMPACT Plus, YouTube for IMPACT Ultimate Insiders and FITE from the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto!

Be there LIVE: https://t.co/4AWVWRbpph

Get IMPACT Plus: https://t.co/0aHsukqG4g pic.twitter.com/rbN6NJ2BOI

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) August 22, 2023

Ratings:

• Trinity vs Jody Threat: Trinity wins via Booty Bridge Pin – ** 1/2
• Deaner w/Kon vs Laredo Kid: Deaner wins via Deaner DDT – * 1/2
• ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) vs The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch): ABC wins via 1-2-Sweet – ** 3/4
• Samuray del Sol vs Chris Sabin: Sabin wins via Cradle Shock – *** 1/4
• IMPACT World Championship: Alex Shelley (c) vs Brian Myers: Shelley wins via Border City Stretch – *** 1/2

Results:

Things open with PCO doing God’s work and beats the hell out of Champagne Singh and Shera after their Before the Impact match. PCO even beats up some security or sound guys, then Deanimates Singh through a table before Bully Ray comes on the tron. 

Bully says he’s not leaving his hotel room because IMPACT can’t guarantee his safety. So I wonder if we’ll get a vignette of PCO doing a hotel invasion like Rusev and Enzo. 

Trinity vs Jody Threat

So Trinity decides to do the same thing Deonna did before their first match, and that’s have a match with Jody Threat. 

Slow start with some headlocks and cute dodges before Trinity hits the Hip Toss into the Split Drop into a 2 count. Bit of a shoving battle next, which Jody wins by sending Trinity flying into the corner. Jody follows up with some short range hammer shots, and tries to over power Trinity. She eats a few shots before firing back with a strike exchange, but then Trinity loses the strike exchange. A desperation Enzuigiri finally gives Trinity the momentum back.

Trinity goes to the top rope, misses, but rolls through. As soon as she turns around, Jody charges through her with a Lariat. Trinity tries to get herself up with the ropes, but just opens herself up to Double Knees in the back. German Suplex is blocked by Trinity, but Jody hits a Michinoku Driver for a near fall. Pop Shove-It attempt, but Trinity counters it into an X Factor for 2.

Jody counters Trinity’s offense for a Cradle, Pop Shove-It attempt again, turned into a Bully Bomb that Trinity rolls into her Booty Bridge Pin.

Deaner w/Kon vs Laredo Kid

We can only pray that Deaner and the remnants of this sad Design are completely eradicated after Emergence. 

Things start pretty slow, Deaner tries a few Arm Wringers and advantageous boring moves until Laredo catches him a few Back Breakers. Deaner powders, Laredo follows, gets distracted by Kon and Deaner takes advantage. Deaner starts setting up for his Deaner DDT by working on Neck Twists, jamming the neck in the corner and a Rude Awakening. Even if this is old school heel work, its boring and not believable from Deaner anymore.

Laredo fires, catches Deaner with multiple strikes, Michinoku Driver, then he goes up…and hits a Senton on Kon for good measure. Laredo slingshot rolls back into the ring, but gets caught with the Deaner DDT and Deaner wins.

This is such a worthless group now. Eric Young needs to end this all before Bound for Glory, because no one wants more months of this garbage jobber faction.

ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) vs The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch)

Chain Wrestling 101 to start until Skyler finally shoves Ace into their corner, a little double team work, before Ace fires back. Ace rocks the dorks, tags in Bey for some tandem offense on both member of Job Hands (really wanted to say Hand Jobs there). Click Click Boom from ABC for 2.

What felt like 5 minutes of ABC just rocking members of The Good Hands, Skyler finally shoves Ace into the post and Hotch gets in a few cheap shots. Good Hands are definitely lasting longer…than anyone wants. Blind tag from Skyler as Hotch knocks Bey off the apron, so Ace is isolated. The worst thing here is much like the last match. Good Hands and Deaner work old school heel well, but the problem is they aren’t serious threats to anything. All of the old school heels have to stop being losers if there’s supposed to be any suspension of disbelief.

Good Hands actually hit their finish but Bey breaks it up. Springboard Fame-Asser from Bey, 1-2-Sweet on Hotch and the match is over!

While the match wasn’t bad, Good Hands can’t be taken seriously so their offense means nothing. 

Samuray del Sol vs Chris Sabin

A lot of quick back and forth early on here, as we all expected. Some flippy rope work from Sol, some quick strikes and takedowns from Sabin; which give Sabin an early advantage by keeping Sol grounded and working on the left knee. STF on the left knee is the first real pinfall attempt, but Sol gets to the ropes.

Sabin stays hyper focused on the left knee for the next few moves, Sol does manage to counter the Dragon Screw, but Sol gets too cute with a Hand Stand to counter to Baseball Slide and Sabin kicks him in the chest for it. Sabin again holds the momentum for a while, continuing the left knee focus, but Sol again finds a counter from the focused strikes.

A snapping Frankensteiner Driver from Sol, Springboard Crossbody connects for Sol, and before he can hit anything else, Sabin snaps off a DDT to neutralize everything. Sol collapses during a whip because of the leg, Powerbomb transition into the STF, but Sol is crawling to the ropes. Sabin sees the rope break coming so he hooks the arms, works them away from the ropes and hits a Tiger Suplex Hold for 2. Sabin tries to pick up Sol again, Salida del Sol out of desperation but Sabin powders.

Some quick back and forths, Sabin with a Busaiku Knee out of no where into Cradle Shock for the win.

IMPACT World Championship: Alex Shelley (c) vs Brian Myers

This probably won’t be a huge match in regard to quality, but I like the match up. Styles being totally different could be a fun match.

Myers tries to over power Shelley early, but Shelley references the tag match by coiling around Myers and going for a sneaky Cradle, the same way he did in the tag match, but Myers kicks out and retreats to the corner. A few quick positional moments from both men before Shelley goes for the Border City Stretch. Myers goes to the ropes, Shelley stops and gets up while holding the arm, back to back Elbow Breakers at the crowd’s behest.

Straight Jacket Back Stabber from Shelley. Myers powders, and thanks to the space, he drivers Shelley’s back into the apron and starts slowly taking control. Myers works over Shelley, gets him in the corner, charges in and misses with the shoulder hitting the post. A variant of the Fighting Spirit spot with using the ropes for momentum and bigger haymaker shots, but both go back and forth until Shelley connects with the Flying Forearm.

Shelley fires, big Field Goal kick, Shiranui, no, corner shot, Border City Stretch but Myers turns it into a Cradle for 2. Shelley tries to continue the offense, Gamengiri from Myers, Impact DDT, two count. Rope runs from both, countering each other, Spear connects from Myers for 2! Myers gets up for Roster Cut…Superkick, Shiranui, kick out, Border City Stretch immediately off the kick out. Rolls him away from the ropes, keeps the submission locked in, and Myers taps.

Moose and Bully Ray hit the ring after baiting PCO to the hotel. Beatdown on Alex, Josh Alexander and Kushida hit the ring to even things out. They cut backstage and Lio Rush attacked Sabin. Aside from Sabin getting Sneak Attacked, the face team does stand tall when the show fades out. 

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Some decent wrestling all in all, even if I didn’t buy into all of it. Swinger had a great retro vignette about his Digital Media challenge this Sunday, Yuya and Joe Hendry had a great little video package as well. There was solid action, decent storyline aspects were expanded on and they never missed on the comedy or the crazy weird stuff with the Crazzy Steve interview.

Thusly, a nice Go Home for Emergence. Strong wrestling, interesting story wrinkles and most of the matches should prove to be entertaining.

See you Sunday!