IMPACT Emergence: Night 1 Review - August 18, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rohit Raju def. Chris Bey and TJP in a Three-Way Match to Win the Impact X-Division Champion

Bey and Raju formed an alliance coming into this contest, so it was basically a two-on-one Handicap match at certain points. Raju ended up betraying Bey (which would have meant more had they been aligned for a little longer) to score the title. This was an excellent, all-action opener and these three guys deserve credit for kicking off the show on a high note, 

Moose def. Trey

This was for Moose's TNA World Heavyweight Championship. I didn't think Trey had a shot of winning this just because it's clear Moose is being built up for a feud with EC3 over said "title," but I applaud them for telling a hell of a story with Trey taking a beating and still battling back. He came close to picking up the win on a few different occasions, but in the end, he came up short. This was a very well-worked match and the post-match angle with EC3 laying out Moose and stealing his belt was a good way of progressing that storyline.

The Good Brothers def. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows have come across well since showing up at Slammiversary last month and this has been a solid feud. This continued that trend as it was exactly what it needed to be and featured strong showings from everyone involved. The Good Brothers going over was the correct outcome, but Austin and Fulton didn't lose much in defeat with the effort they put forth.

Impact World Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns def. The North

I can see some people preferring the first match these teams had over this one because that had the drama of The North's year-long title reign being in jeopardy, but this was still an outstanding encounter and you can't go wrong with either of them. The North showed just why they're one of the best teams in all of wrestling today while Machine Guns proved they haven't lost a step. This was tag team wrestling at its finest and had me hooked from bell to bell. I'm happy Machine Guns are holding onto the gold for a little longer because the matches they can have with the rest of the division have the potential to be very exciting.

Overall Show

The Wrestle House stuff was a bit more bearable this week, so I appreciated that, and the backstage segments that took place in between the matches were effective as well. The wrestling on Night 1 of Emergence was another level and arguably better than what we got at Slammiversary. I wasn't super high on the X-Division title changing hands, but that opener was a blast and the other three matches were equally entertaining. Kudos to IMPACT for making this special edition of IMPACT! Wrestling just that, special, and leaving me looking forward to Night 2 next week.