IMPACT! Wrestling Review - August 2, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Aiden Price def. Rohit Raju, Wentz, Cody Deaner, Petey Williams and Chuck Mambo in an Impact X-Division Championship No. 1 Contender's Six-Man Mayhem Match

Jake Crist captured the X-Division title just last week, so I liked how IMPACT wasted no time in crowning a new number one contender. This was all action, a ton of fun, and the right match to kick off the show with. I figured Williams was the easy choice to win considering he's Canadian and this episode emanated from Ontario, but so is Prince, so him pulling out the upset victory was a pleasant surprise. I know nothing about the dude, but at least he's a fresh face in the title picture.

Havok def. John E. Bravo

Bravo is the former referee/current stooge for Johnny Impact and Taya Valkyrie and clearly had no chance against Havok here. I'm glad this was booked like a quick showcase for Havok instead of a competitive contest. Bravo tried to endear himself to Havok but ultimately to no avail. Su Yung popped up on the big screen afterward to taunt Havok, so I guess that'll be the next feud in the Knockouts division. Am I the only one not looking forward to that whatsoever?

Ace Austin def. Stone Rockwell

Austin and Rockwell unsuccessfully teamed up in the Mash-Up Tournament two weeks ago, so it was logical for Austin to want to face Rockwell seeing as how he probably blamed him for their loss. Rockwell is an entertaining comedy character, but there was no need for this to last longer than a few minutes, so I'm glad it was kept on the shorter side and saw Austin go over in decisive fashion. Eddie Edwards attacked Austin post-match, and if you can recall, Austin was trying to hit on Edwards' wife Alisha last week on the show. You had to know Edwards would go after him eventually.

Fallah Bahh def. Moose

Moose attacked Rockwell during the commercial break and began ranting about how he deserved better competition. That brought out Bahh, who proceeded to beat Moose in under a minute. For all intents and purposes, this was a squash. Bahh has come a long way from where he was in IMPACT two years ago and is over with the audience, but I would not have done that coming off Moose's clean win over Rob Van Dam at Slammiversary. I'm sure Moose will beat Bahh in the rematch, but this felt like it did more to hurt Moose than help Bahh in my opinion.

Madman Fulton def. Tessa Blanchard by Disqualification

I love the push Blanchard is getting at the moment and I realize that this was designed to further her feud with oVe, but this is where I draw the line with intergender wrestling. Blanchard vs. Sami Callihan can be considered even, but while I'm not the biggest fan of Fulton, even I will admit that this was a total mismatch. Realistically, Fulton would have demolished her in a matter of minutes. Fulton was on offense for a majority of the match, but it was very difficult to buy into the idea that Blanchard could win. Worse yet, Tommy Dreamer is back and is still going at it with oVe. My god, when will IMPACT stop trotting him out there?

Impact World Tag Team Champions The North def. The Rascalz

I would have preferred to see this bout built up over the course of a few weeks, but I can't complain about a great main event. This was perfectly paced, featured strong showings from both tandems, and the crowd was into everything they did. The Rascalz came oh so close to becoming the champions down the stretch but narrowly fell short of defeat. It was really cool to see tag team wrestling spotlighted like this and I'd be all for more matches between them (especially since there aren't many other teams in the division to challenge The North, anyway). The finish came off great and based off what happened backstage afterward, it looks like Daga will be stepping in for Santana when The LAX faces The North next week.

Overall Show

That Six-Man Mayhem match opened the night on a high note, but I wasn't a fan of where things went from there. Havok vs. Bravo, Austin vs. Rockwell, and Bahh vs. Moose were all squashes, though each of them served a different purpose. As noted, Blanchard vs. Fulton didn't do a ton for me, but they made it work. The main event was excellent and earned this show a thumbs-up rating in my book (along with the hype for next week's episode). It was weird for IMPACT to be running another event (Unbreakable) at the same time as this show, though. That's like if WWE aired Smackville head-to-head with SmackDown Live.