IMPACT! Wrestling Review - August 4, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Deonna Purrazzo def. Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champion Rosemary

It's already been established that Purrazzo and Chelsea Green will challenge Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie for the Impact Knockout Tag Team Championship at Emergence, so this gave VXT some more momentum before then. Surprisingly, this wasn't as strong of a match as I was expecting from these two. They've had at least one well-wrestled outing in the past, and while this wasn't bad, I figured it'd be better and the finish didn't seem to come off well.

Impact Digital Media Champion Brian Myers def. Black Taurus

This feels like the perfect role for Myers in the absence of his partner Matt Cardona. Hell, I'd keep the title on Myers even when Cardona is ready to return. He can work with the young undercard talent and rack up wins so it means something when he's eventually beaten for the belt. I enjoy Taurus' work, so I liked this match and thought they made the most of the time they had. Bhupinder Gujjar emerged afterward, so he appears to be next in line for a title shot.

Masha Slamovich def. Gisele Shaw

Slamovich previously beat Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne in quick and decisive fashion, leaving Shaw as the only member of The Influence she had yet to beat. Shockingly, this was much more competitive than either of those two matches with Shaw scoring much more offense than I thought she would. Shaw gave Slamovich her toughest test to date before Slamovich went over in the end. This exceeded my expectations and both women benefited.

The Motor City Machine Guns def. Violent By Design (Deaner and Joe Doering)

There's been some dissension in the ranks of Violent By Design for about a month now, so this latest loss of theirs plays into that. Alex Shelley is set to challenge Josh Alexander for the Impact World Championship at Emergence, so it made sense for him to win here (even though it was Chris Sabin who scored the winning fall). This was a very entertaining encounter between two talented teams. 

Sami Callihan def. Raj Singh

Callihan attacked Singh last week and that was what set this up. You had to know this would be a total squash and that's exactly what it was. Singh doesn't do much for me, so I had no problem with him getting beaten so easily. The focus was on what happened afterward with Moose and Steve Maclin laying out Callihan. Apparently they're not aligned, so I don't know what Maclin's reasoning was for attacking Callihan at Against All Odds (and perhaps that's the point).

PCO def. Impact World Tag Team Champion Doc Gallows in a Derby City Street Fight

This reminded me of the Monster's Ball match PCO had with JONAH on IMPACT! Wrestling a few months ago, so while it feels like they do this sort of match quite a bit on the show and on their monthly events, at least they're always entertaining. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this since a majority of Gallows' singles matches at this point tend to be slow and plodding, but this held my interest, the crowd was into it and the finish looked cool with Gallows getting buried beneath the ring. PCO basically proved his worth as part of Honor No More with the win.

Overall Show

If you like hardcore plunder, then that main event is probably for you. I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but it definitely made PCO vs. Gallows better than it would have been otherwise. The rest of the show was rock solid as always and effectively built toward Emergence coming up next Friday night (why not save the specials for Saturdays so they don't conflict with WWE SmackDown?). The in-ring action on this episode was slightly below what it normally is, but there was enough quality stuff to make it worthwhile.

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