IMPACT! Wrestling Review - July 21, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

VXT def. Impact Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace and Mia Yim

Chelsea Green and Deonna Purrazzo were known as VXT during their time in WWE NXT, so it's cool they're now using that team name in IMPACT. They won their tag team match against Yim and Mickie James at Against All Odds earlier this month and this victory was what earned them a shot at the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship at Emergence. The division could use another team or two, so that's a smart call, not to mention that neither of them have held that hardware yet. As a match, this was very good. It also furthered the feud between Grace and Yim heading into their championship clash at Emergence.

Impact X-Division Champion "Speedball" Mike Bailey def. Deaner

Deaner wanted to prove himself to his Violent By Design leader Eric Young by becoming X-Division champ here, but alas, he was unsuccessful. I don't think the outcome was ever in doubt, but Deaner gave it a good effort and likely turned a few heads with his hard-fought performance. As for Bailey, he's the perfect fit for that title right now and should continue to have fun matches with the rest of the roster. Violent By Design's demise feels inevitable at this point.

Masha Slamovich def. Madison Rayne

Rayne was the latest in a long list of victims for Slamovich, who previously knocked off Rayne's partner Tenille Dashwood in record time a few weeks ago. I'm surprised Dashwood was fed to Slamovich before Rayne, but that may have been because Rayne was hurt (assuming her nose injury was legitimate). This was pretty much what you'd expect with Slamovich making quick work of Rayne. Giselle Shaw appears to be next on her hit list.

Bullet Club (Ace Austin and Chris Bey) def. Honor No More (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett)

This stemmed from the issues Bullet Club and Honor No More have had in recent weeks. They trade wins so often that it's honestly hard to keep track which faction has the upper hand over the other or if it's been mostly even so far. Either way, this was a quality contest between two talented teams. I'm not high on either tandem losing, but at least Honor No More were protected in defeat with Heath costing them the victory.

Alex Shelley def. Chris Sabin in an Impact World Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

The commentators mentioned that the last time The Motor City Machine Guns went one-on-one in IMPACT was Genesis 2009. That was mere months after I started watching IMPACT on the regular, but I wasn't buying the pay-per-views back then, so I have yet to see it myself. Nonetheless, this was a fantastic piece of business. These guys are still stellar, so no one should have expected anything less. The action was exciting and I loved how they teased Sabin winning only for Shelley to win instead, earning his first-ever opportunity at the Impact World title in the process. Kushida making his surprise IMPACT debut afterward (he was advertised to appear next week) and reuniting with Shelley was awesome as well.

Overall Show

I honestly can't think of a wrestling show out there right now that has better wrestling week to week than IMPACT! Wrestling and this episode was a prime example of that. The main event was exceptional and well worth checking out, but the rest of this show was strong as well. IMPACT's production could always be better, but the matches consistently deliver and most of the storylines have my interest. We're a few weeks out from Emergence, but I'm already excited for it.

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