IMPACT! Wrestling Review - January 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Eric Young def. Rhino

This felt like a match you would have seen in IMPACT 15 years ago. To their credit, however, Young has rejuvenated his career this past year and Rhino can always hold his own. I honestly completely forgot that Rhino had a guaranteed title shot because of his win back at Bound for Glory until he came out with the trophy during his entrance. This was a serviceable match designed to get more heat on Violent by Design, though I could have done without all of the outside interference. Hopefully Heath will be cleared soon and he can help out Rhino against the heels.

Chris Sabin, James Storm, Matt Hardy and Private Party Interrupted Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers

Woah! Storm returning to team with Sabin as a replacement for Alex Shelley was cool enough (especially given their history from a decade ago), but I would have never expected Hardy to show up with Private Party. They staked their claim at the Impact World Tag Team Championship, setting the stage for the night's number one contender's main event. This was a solid segment full of surprises.

Kimber Lee and Susan def. Jazz and Jordynne Grace

I applaud Su Yung's ability to reinvent herself with multiple personas, but this Susan character is easily the weakest of the three. She isn't bad in the ring, but I don't find her team with Lee very compelling. By the way, what's up with Jazz? She teased retiring after failing to win the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship and then lost to Grace at Genesis. It's awesome that she's sticking around, but I don't think it was explained why. The match itself was decent, but I have no idea what purpose this was supposed to serve unless it's leading to Grace turning on Jazz.

Impact World Champion Rich Swann Attacked Moose

Swann addressed his loss to Kenny Omega in the Hard to Kill main event and said that the issues between them likely weren't over. It's very possible we get Swann vs. Omega at Rebellion in April. At any rate, he called out Moose and proceeded to lay him out. We are getting an Impact World Championship match between them sooner rather than later, but I figured Moose would get the upper hand here. Maybe IMPACT felt Swann needed this after losing at Hard to Kill. Either way, I'm glad we're finally getting Swann vs. Moose. I would have Moose be the one to take the title from Swann, but I assume IMPACT would rather keep the belt on him until that Omega match happens.

Brian Myers def. Fallah Bahh

This came about after Myers and Bahh argued with each other in the back. In other words, there wasn't any reason behind this other than to kill television time. Don't get me wrong, there wasn't anything wrong with it, but it just sort of existed. Myers has been doing wonderful work in IMPACT and Bahh has improved over the years, but there wasn't anything to write home about this. I give it a few months before Myers is either teaming or feuding with Matt Cardona because I don't know what else you do with him right now.

Private Party def. Chris Sabin and James Storm in an Impact World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

As entertaining as this main event was, and no disrespect to Storm who I'm a big fan of, but imagine how much better this bout would have been with Sabin and Shelley against Private Party. Man, maybe someday. Like I said, though, this was still a tag team wrestling clinic with everyone putting in an excellent effort. Private Party won in heelish fashion when Jerry Lynn, who was sitting at ringside with Tony Khan the whole time, aided them to victory. Sabin and Storm brawled with Private Party and Good Brothers to close the show, which gives me hope that they'll remain in the hunt for the tag titles despite their loss.

Overall Show

In addition to everything above, Taya Valkyrie was written off by being "arrested" and Tommy Dreamer even joked that she could be Jacksonville (AEW) or Stamford (WWE) bound. My guess is the latter. Matt Cardona also appeared in two backstage segments and will be teaming with Josh Alexander next week against Ace Austin and Madman Fulton. Obviously, the stuff with Private Party, Hardy and Khan will be what gets everyone talking about this edition of IMPACT! Wrestling and rightfully so. This was a strong show that followed up on the Hard to Kill pay-per-view in a big way. It looks like Kenny Omega won't be around for a while, but there's plenty of other stuff to get excited about in his absence. Props to IMPACT for keeping the momentum rolling, even if not everything lit the world on fire. For example, Myers vs. Bahh felt like filler and the women's tag team match was whatever, but it wasn't enough to hurt the overall episode.