IMPACT! Wrestling Review - August 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sami Callihan and Chris Sabin def. Ace Austin and Moose

Sabin and Moose have been feuding for months, while Callihan and Austin teased having issues on last week's show during the Battle Royal main event. All four men will meet at Emergence on Friday night in a four-way to determine the Impact World Champion's challenger at next month's live special. Sabin and Callihan teaming together was cool and everyone had quality chemistry together. Callihan attacking Sabin following their win sent the message that it will be every man for themselves at Emergence.

Matt Cardona def. Shera

Cardona is facing Rohit Raju at Emergence, so this basically existed to give Cardona a bit of a warmup before then. Cardona did what he could and it was a passable match, but Shera just sucks. He's been with IMPACT on and off for years and has hardly improved, so I wouldn't put him in singles matches very often if I was IMPACT. It's cool that Raju has found direction again in the form of this feud with Cardona.

Brian Myers and Sam Beale Confronted Impact World Christian Cage

Cage officially retired the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt in this segment. Thank the lord. I realize IMPACT kept it around for as long as they did because of Moose's gimmick and because Kenny Omega's "Belt Collector" character, but it was high time that thing was put to rest. The rest of the segment was solid setup for Friday's Impact World Championship clash between Cage and Myers. The match kind of came together at the last minute, and there's no way Myers is winning, but at least the match should be well wrestled.

Melina def. Brandi Lauren

Lauren has competed in a number of promotions (including IMPACT) under a number of names over the years, but most recently she was under contract to WWE NXT. She was released within a year and was never given a chance. She's never been the best wrestler, but she definitely has a presence about her. However, she was only here to lose to Melina, who is challenging Deonna Purrazzo for the Impact Knockouts Championship at the NWA Empowerrr pay-per-view next weekend. Melina has certainly lost a step in the ring, but this was decent enough while it lasted.

Jake Something def. Kaleb with a K in a No Disqualification Match

This match was made earlier in the evening and was given the No Disqualification stipulation because, well, just because. It hardly mattered as Something killed Kaleb all the same as he should have. This essentially served as a showcase for Something ahead of his upcoming opportunity at Josh Alexander's X-Division Championship at Emergence. The two faced off afterward.

Joe Doering def. Impact World Tag Team Champion Doc Gallows

I was wondering why they positioned this as the main event when I assumed that it wouldn't be terribly exciting. Well, we found out why when they went through the stage and then wasted several minutes returning to the ring. The spot looked cool and I appreciated them selling it, but there was no reason to finish the match at that point. This was plodding and fairly boring otherwise. At least it furthered the feud between Violent By Design and The Good Brothers.

Overall Show

This edition of IMPACT! Wrestling did an effective job of hyping up Friday's Emergence card and adding some last-minute matches to the card. The highlight of the show for me was seeing Cage back in the Impact Zone for the first in nearly a decade and it's going to be fun to have him around as champion for a little while. The opening tag team match was entertaining as well. I just wish they went with a different main event that wasn't so slow for the most part.

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