IMPACT Emergence: Night 2 Review - August 25, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact World Champion Eddie Edwards def. Rob Van Dam; Edwards and Eric Young Brawled

I enjoy heel RVD, but I find Katie Forbes to be completely insufferable, and not in a good "heel heat" way, either. On the bright side, the match itself was well wrestled and RVD held his own despite looking slow at various points. Edwards carried him to a competent contest and I was glad it didn't last too long. Edwards came back out later on in the show (after some backstage vignettes and Wrestle House) to cut a promo on Young, which led to a heated brawl between them. It was solid setup for a title match next week, though I would have had their encounter take place immediately after the opener instead of saving it for later on.

Brian Myers def. Willie Mack

Myers lost in his heavily-touted debut match a few weeks ago to Edwards, and while Mack also lost recently to Young, it was more important for Myers to win here so fans could take him seriously as a threat on the roster. Back-to-back losses would have sent the message he's the same enhancement talent he was booked as in WWE for so many years, even if he looked good in defeat. They put together a super solid match here as both guys had standout showings.

Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo def. Jordynne Grace in a 30-Minute Iron Man Match

Grace and Purrazzo were the perfect people to put in IMPACT's first-ever women's Iron Man match (I'm shocked IMPACT had never done one with the ladies before) and they knocked it out of the park. It didn't dragged during the 30 minutes, they kept things interesting throughout, and the final stretch was strong. I could have done without the referee bump, but I realize it was done to establish Purrazzo as an opportunistic heel. My only other nitpick was that Grace could have held a few more seconds and let it go to sudden death, as that's one of those played-out Iron Man matchup tropes. Otherwise, this was a top-notch main event, and although Grace came close to regaining the title (and it truly felt like it was in jeopardy by the end), Purrazzo retaining was the right result.

Overall Show

While it may not look like there was a ton to Night 2 of Emergence on paper, there was plenty more stuff that didn't happen in the ring. That included an exceptional EC3 promo talking about his first Impact World Championship victory over Kurt Angle five years ago (which he said was the last time he was happy), Locker Room Talk (which I've never been able to get into personally), Wrestle House (see: Locker Room Talk), a handful of backstage segments, and hype for next week. This show was all about that Iron Man main event and it definitely delivered. Kudos to IMPACT for taking the less-is-more approach with this episode as I thought it paid off wonderfully.