After stunning the professional wrestling world and helping Kenny Omega capture the AEW World Championship this past Wednesday, Don Callis has promised Omega will have an update this Tuesday on IMPACT! on AXS TV, and the wrestling world is buzzing. TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose joins forces with Chris Bey against IMPACT World Champion Rich Swann and his best friend Willie Mack. Josh Alexander of The North goes one-on-one with Chris Sabin of The Motor City Machine Guns. Cody Deaner will have Cousin Jake in his corner when he squares off with Eric Young, who has disciple Joe Doering by his side. The Knockouts Tag Team Championship tournament continues, as the team of Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo and Kimber Lee take on Taya & Rosemary. Plus Brian Myers meets TJP.

The show begins with footage from this past week’s AEW Dynamite where Kenny Omega dethroned Jon Moxley to become the AEW World Champion with help from IMPACT Executive Don Callis, who was there for commentary as a favor to Omega. 

Footage is shown of a tour bus outside as Josh Matthews reveals that he will have an exclusive sit-down interview in the bus with the new AEW World Champion Kenny Omega.

As always, our commentary duo is Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne.

Singles Match – Josh Alexander (with Ethan Page) vs. Chris Sabin (with Alex Shelley)

Result: Chris Sabin wins via pinfall with a jackknife pinfall counter.

Thoughts: A fantastic decision to start the match with two of the best talents in IMPACT knowing that they will have a huge number of new eyes on the show this week due to the AEW affiliation. Both men waste no time in getting to business as they go back and forth in a quick-paced beginning. Josh and Madison on commentary, unfortunately, suffer from the old WCW/NOW problem of not paying attention to the match in favor of discussing the bigger story, in this case, the appearance of Kenny Omega. As both men continue to tear it up they finally start discussing the match as they battle to the outside where Alex Shelley ensures that Ethan Page can’t interfere in any way. Alexander using a lot of submission holds to try and ground and slow down Sabin but a flurry of counters keeps the pace fast. Sabin goes for a hurricanrana but Alexander reverses it into a powerbomb on his knee in an interesting counter. Alexander seems to have everything in hand when Page starts yelling at him to drop Sabin on his head, which gives Sabin the opportunity to reverse into a jackknife pinfall for the win.

Josh and Madison discuss the Kenny Omega and Don Callis situation showing more footage from last week’s AEW Dynamite. 

Chris Bey tries to talk to Moose about tonight’s tag team match against IMPACT World Champion Rich Swann and Willie Mack. Bey wants to discuss strategy but Moose puts up his fists and says “these do the talking for me.” Bey tells Moose he will want to talk to him after he wins the IMPACT World Championship on Saturday at Final Resolution. Moose says they will talk then.

We get a paid advertisement from All Elite Wrestling with AEW President/CEO/GM Tony Khan and AEW Commentator Tony Schiavone (who I may remind you I recently wrote about here) in front of an AEW background based on the old Mid-Atlantic Wrestling background (a nice touch!). Tony introduces Tony Khan who says that he is happy to pay for this ad and help IMPACT Wrestling. He says that he could easily stop Kenny Omega from appearing tonight but he doesn’t want to do that as he is looking forward to seeing what Kenny and Don have to say tonight. He plugs tomorrow night’s AEW Dynamite and runs down the card. He says he has some investments in Nashville and even comments that there are rumors that he could be buying IMPACT Wrestling. They comment on Tony Schiavone spending one night in TNA back in 2002 and how he then quit the business for 18 years (not sure how that helps but what can ya do?) and then talks about how IMPACT has some great tag teams but the best team in the world are The Young Bucks (debatable at best) and that Tony will be talking with Sting tomorrow night. They wrap it up welcoming Don Callis to come with Kenny Omega tomorrow night on Dynamite.

Singles Match – Brian Myers vs. TJP

Result: Brian Myers wins via pinfall following a clothesline. 

Thoughts: Another fast-paced match with both men going back and forth. TJP goes to lock in a Sharpshooter but can’t keep the legs locked but smoothly turns it into an arched chokehold. TJP briefly holds control until Myers knocks him off the top rope as we head to break. We come back as TJP uses a tornado DDT to bounce back. Myers tries to end it with his patented clothesline but TJP counters into a kneebar. TJP goes for the Mamba Splash but Myers gets the knee up and rolls him up but only for a 2-count. TJP locks in another knee bar and Myers throws the referee onto TJP to break the hold, allowing him to nail a spinebuster and the clothesline for the win.

Cousin Jake asks Cody Deaner if he is ready. Jake tells him “we got this” but Cody tells him this is something he has to do alone. Jake tells him that he knows Joe Doering will be out there, so Cody allows him to come out but makes him promise that he will not get involved.

The X-Division Champion Rohit Raju mocks TJP for his loss against Brian Myers and tells him that 2020 has been his year. He announces that at Final Resolution it will be the last ‘Defeat Rohit Challenge’ of the year and it is open to anyone in the world, except TJP. TJP tells him good luck.

Singles Match – Eric Young (with Joe Doering) vs. Cody Deaner (with Cousin Jake)

Result: Eric Young wins via pinfall after a piledriver.

Thoughts: Cody starts the match like a house of fire, screaming “I’m not a nobody” into EY’s face. Deaner into the ring post and Young takes control of the match. Young with a huge almost brainbuster-style Death Valley Driver. Deaner misses a diving headbutt leading to EY nailing the piledriver for the pinfall.

After the match, Joe Doering gets in the ring bringing Cousin Jake in who lands a few hits before Doering lays him out. Young and Doering go for simultaneous piledrivers but Rhino enters with a lead pipe running them off.

Tommy Dreamer and John E. Bravo are backstage talking about the shooting. Dreamer approaches XXXL with a Kendo Stick. Larry D challenges Tommy Dreamer to a match at Final Resolution where if Dreamer wins Larry will willingly go with him to be arrested but if he wins he walks away a free man. Dreamer accepts the challenge leading to Larry asking if he can actually win his freedom from attempted murder by winning a wrestling match to which Tommy tells him he can do whatever the hell he wants.

Scott D’Amore is backstage when Tommy Dreamer comes in and tells him he is concerned about everything. D’Amore tells Tommy that he hates wrestlers making matches like Tommy just did but he is in a good mood and doesn’t care. Tommy says he is worried about Kenny Omega and Don Callis outside. Scott tells him that this is a good thing and has the whole wrestling world talking. Tommy says he knows that Callis is always out for himself and he is worried about what this will do to the locker room. Scott reassures him that everything is fine and will play out well for IMPACT.

Knockouts Tag Team Championship Quarter Finals: Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee vs. Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary

Result: Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary win via pinfall when Rosemary pins Kimber Lee.

Thoughts: The final match in the first round of the tournament pits the current Knockouts Champion and her sidekick against the arguable frontrunners for the tournament. Purrazzo immediately targets the arm of Rosemary. Taya enters the match only to get picked apart by both Lee and Purrazzo as they cut the ring in half. Rosemary gets the hot tag and is all over the current Knockouts Champion. A miscommunication leaves Deonna kicking Kimber Lee in the face and Rosemary hits a double underhook cradle slam to get the pinfall victory.

Alisha Edwards is backstage with Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb (with a K!) who are pitching their ideas. Alisha says if they were her real friends they would have noticed that her husband got his ass kicked by Sami Callihan & Ken Shamrock two weeks ago and she needs to worry about that. They tell Alisha she is out of the team and she walks off not caring.

Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee confront Scott D’Amore about him not helping them over the past few weeks and the Su Yung problem. He tells them off and tells Deonna she will defend the Knockouts Championship at Final Resolution against Rosemary and she should focus on the Knockouts Championship since they lost and were eliminated from the Knockouts Tag Team title tournament. 

Sami Callihan is in the ring with a baseball bat and a microphone. He claims he is the highest-rated wrestler in IMPACT Wrestling. He says he is the best in the ring and the best on the mic. That he is the best wrestler on this godforsaken planet. He talks about when he hit Eddie Edwards in the face with a baseball bat and how it blew up all over the internet and it set up IMPACT to become relevant since that moment. He says that Eddie never learns and that’s why he decided to hit him in the face with a bat again. He asks them to roll the footage but Alisha Edwards comes out. Sami threatens her and she tells him that she didn’t come alone as Eddie Edwards attacks Sami from behind. Sami goes for the bat but Eddie gets to it first. Sami runs off as Eddie stands tall in the ring.

Footage is shown of Omega’s bus outside and Josh Matthews does his best Schiavone impression proclaiming that it will be the biggest interview in the history of professional wrestling.

Eddie and Alisha are backstage with Eddie amped up. Alisha says that she helped him with his problem and now he has to help her with her problem.

Tag Team Match – Chris Bey & Moose vs. Rich Swann & Willie Mack

Result: Chris Bey & Moose win via pinfall when Bey pins Mack. 

Thoughts: A lot of dissension between Moose and Chris Bey while Mack & Swann show a united front. Some hoss fight between Moose and Mack with several Urinagis by Moose on the big Mack. Moose slaps Bey in and immediately powerbombs him on top of Mack. Absolute domination by Moose on Mack with him occasionally chopping his tag team partner in the chest as a tag and telling him to beat down Mack. Mack is finally able to land a stunner on Moose and get the hot tag to the IMPACT World Champion who cleans house before everything gets chaotic with everyone getting their moment to shine with signatures and finishers. Moose finally hits the Lights Out spear on Mack. Instead of the pin Moose starts smashing Mack with elbows aiming to knock him out but Swann comes in and breaks it up as they battle to the outside of the ring. This allows Bey to slide over Mack and get the pinfall.

Josh & Madison discuss the big interview up next with the AEW World Champion Kenny Omega & Don Callis.

We see Rich Swann going to leave but being advised by security that the parking lot has been blocked off by the Champion. Rich tells the guard that Moose isn’t really the World Champion but the guard advises it isn’t blocked off by Moose but rather Kenny Omega. Josh Matthews walks by and is told he needs to be on the list, which he is for the interview. Rich walks away angrily.

Josh Matthews enters the tour bus that is seemingly empty when AEW World Champion Kenny Omega & Don Callis walk in. Don Callis announces they are going to do the ceremonial changing of the nameplate from Jon Moxley to Kenny Omega. They show off the new nameplate and offer the old nameplate to Josh, saying “You were close with Ambrose right?” and calls them both Stamford stooges. Josh asks how long this whole ordeal has been in the works. Callis says this was all put into place 27 years ago when he was trained by The Golden Sheik, who is Kenny’s uncle. They produce a picture of The Golden Sheik, He says that he has looked after Kenny like the Sheik looked after him. He says that he didn’t come back to wrestling leaving a successful international business career to do a podcast or become a color commentator for New Japan. He says it was all part of the plan to be next to Kenny when he won the IWGP Heavyweight Title. It was part of the plan for him to come to IMPACT when he was there to call the tournament finals at AEW Full Gear when Omega beat Adam Page and for him to be there last Wednesday when Kenny defeated Jon Moxley to become the AEW World Champion.

Don says he and Kenny are family. They change history. He says that when he booked Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho in the Tokyo Dome it changed wrestling history. He says that match was what inspired Tony Khan to create All Elite Wrestling, which Omega confirms he has said several times. Callis says that some change history once but nobody changes history twice. He says that some are calling last Wednesday the biggest screwjob since Montreal, but what they did was set history right. He says some people make matches and some like to make memories, but Don Callis and Kenny Omega make history.

Josh asks Kenny if he feels that what happened last Wednesday tarnishes his legacy, causing both Callis and Omega to scoff and get angry. Omega tells him to repeat the question and then says he will assume the role of interviewer, asking Josh if he has a father or father figure in his life. He asks if someone hit that father if he would hit them back? He says he placed a gentleman’s agreement with Moxley but when he laid his hands on Callis he got pissed off. He says that when people talk about the greatest matches of all-time, it doesn’t matter what type or where, he has been in those matches. 

He asks why he is here in IMPACT Wrestling? He says because he can. He says he considered himself a hobbyist, a collector. He says he used to collect rare comics but he had to quit because he could never get certain ones. But now he has a new hobby, collecting Championships. He calls the bus the Lex Express and proclaims that tomorrow night on AEW Dynamite there is another huge announcement and hints that he will be arriving in style, giving another hint saying “think Lex Luger” (I’m guessing he’s showing up in a helicopter-like Lex did on the USS Intrepid to slam Yokozuna. He then does his old promo proclamation of “Goodbye and good night” before he and Callis walk off, leaving Josh dumbfounded.

A really good episode of IMPACT this week which will of course be only remembered for the Kenny Omega segment. Not sure where they will continue with this but it is undoubtedly the most exciting thing in wrestling right now so it should be interesting to see where it goes.

Kyle’s Pick Of The Week

Josh Alexander vs. Chris Sabin

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