IMPACT! Wrestling Review - April 12, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Eli Drake Revealed Scott Steiner as His Tag Team Partner

After Steiner's poor performance at that IMPACT vs. Lucha Underground event last week, I can't I'm optimistic about him being involved in this storyline from an in-ring standpoint. That said, him and Drake are a great pairing because they're similar in a lot of ways on the mic and I actually enjoyed their exchange with LAX here. It was one of those segments I probably shouldn't have liked but I did anyway. Basically, it was a fun train wreck.

Moose def. Sami Callihan by Disqualification

Moose has been established as a close friend of Eddie Edwards, and Callihan cost him his Feast or Fired briefcase last week, so that was the reasoning behind this bout. They worked very well together and produced an enjoyable outing. I was glad it wasn't riddled with interference, either, and even the non-finish didn't bother me because it protected both men. In addition to Edwards, Tommy Dreamer surfaced afterward and set the stage for a six-man tag team match with House of Hardcore rules for Redemption. Dreamer's involvement is pretty random, but oh well.

Impact X-Division Champion Petey Williams def. Josh Mathews by Disqualification (Non-title)

As you could probably guess, this was less of a match and more of an angle. I personally had no interest in seeing Mathews attempt to compete, but thankfully, this was kept short and relatively sweet. We were never able to see Mathews get his comeuppance, sadly, but this did further the feud between Williams and Matt Sydal, who will meet for the X-Division Championship at Redemption.

Fallah Bahh, Tyrus and Richard Justice def. K.M. and Cult of Lee

Last week's segment featuring these six stars made it fairly clear that this match was going to be designed to be comedic filler and nothing too memorable, so I didn't mind it at all. Everyone played their roles well and it served its purpose in giving the babyfaces a feel-good victory. I don't where this angle goes from here, mind you, but for what this was, it was perfectly fine.

Rosemary def. Taya Valkyrie in a Demon's Dance Match

This was essentially to the equivalent to Monster's Ball except without the thumbtacks, so automatically it was an improvement. In all seriousness, this was a very good match between two elite athletes and the incorporation of the weapons was well done. They didn't go over-the-top with the violence and it came across like a ruthless rivalry, not to mention that the finish looked fantastic with Rosemary piledriving Taya through a table off the top rope. This certainly felt the payoff to the program, so I'm not sure whether we'll see a rematch at Redemption and how they'd be able to top this.

Overall Show

Alberto El Patron's legitimate release from the promotion I'm sure threw the original lineup for this show into disarray, as highlights from the IMPACT vs. Lucha Underground event aired at the end and a replay of the main event from that show will air next week to kill time before Redemption. The rest of this episode, though, was solid and with several storylines progressing nicely. The Demon's Dance is especially worth going out of your way to check out.