IMPACT! Wrestling Review - April 8, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rosemary, Jordynne Grace and Havok def. Alisha Edwards, Tenille Dashwood and Nevaeh

Everyone involved in this match, except for Nevaeh for some reason, will be taking part in a five-way Weapons match at Hardcore Justice to determine the number one contender to the Impact Knockouts Championship. Alisha always feels like the odd woman out in these matches because she isn't very good, but I applaud her effort, anyway. This was decent for the time given and served as a nice preview of what to expect at Hardcore Justice.

Matt Cardona vs. Jake Something Ended in a No Contest

Cardona again challenged Brian Myers to a match at Rebellion backstage beforehand, and it was only after Myers crashed this contest that he accepted. As I've said before, Jake has potential and I'm glad he's featured almost every week, but I'm waiting for him to find some real direction. There wasn't much to the match before it was interrupted, but at least it set the stage for Myers vs. Jake at Hardcore Justice.

Trey Miguel and Sami Callihan def. XXXL

Miguel and Callihan have beaten both members of XXXL in singles matches in recent weeks, so this was inevitable. It's not a face turn for Callihan but rather a way to further their feud before they have their likely rematch at Rebellion. XXXL's matches tend to be fairly hit or miss, but this was solid and it served its purpose. I was going to say that Miguel and Callihan would make for a fine team once their feud is over, but then I realized Miguel just got out of a team with The Rascalz and should be spotlighted as a singles competitor at this point.

Chris Sabin def. Deaner

These two will be on opposing teams in the main event of Hardcore Justice, so this was designed to give the babyface team a minor momentum boost before then. Sabin is a tremendous tag team wrestler, but I think fans forget he can be awesome on his own as well. This was evident of that, and to Deaner's credit, he had a strong showing as well. It was a well-wrestled match while it lasted and the post-match angle was also well done. Violent By Design going after Storm's former partner Chris Harris backstage was a nice touch, too.

Impact World Champion Rich Swann, Willie Mack and Eddie Edwards def. AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers

This was given plenty of time as it should have been. It was also the perfect main event for IMPACT's return to Thursday nights as this marked Omega's first match ever on an episode of IMPACT! Wrestling. It didn't reach the levels that Omega's last six-man tag team match in IMPACT did back at Hard to Kill but was still very entertaining with all six stars playing their roles well. I assumed this would be an easy win for Omega and Good Brothers, but I was pleasantly surprised that Team IMPACT went over instead. Swann needed something going into Rebellion since it's obvious that Omega will be walking out with both belts. I just wish they made a bigger deal over Omega losing because I'm almost positive that this was his first loss of any kind since the summer.

Overall Show

With with WWE NXT moving to Tuesdays next week, IMPACT is officially back on Thursdays. As noted, that main event was a great way to send the message that this was an important show. It helped that the rest of the show was enjoyable as well. There was also hype for Hardcore Justice on Saturday, though that feels slightly unnecessary with Rebellion fast approaching. As I've said time and time again, I hope IMPACT can keep the momentum going into and coming out of Rebellion. It's a consistently quality product that not enough people are talking about.