IMPACT! Wrestling Review - July 28, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact World Champion Eddie Edwards def. Trey

I wouldn't want Impact World Championship matches kicking off the show every week, but this was a great to open the night coming off last week's newsworthy episode. Sure, Trey was the first man eliminated from the Slammiversary main event, but he's been in enough high-profile matches in IMPACT this year that I thought he was the perfect first challenger to Edwards' newly-won title. They had a fun match, even though I never bought into the possibility of Trey winning. Eric Young emerged afterward, so I'm sure Edwards vs. Young is inevitable.

Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo def. Kimber Lee (Non-Title)

Purrazzo has been the complete package since returning to IMPACT and she showed here that she thrives in the role as champion. I hope Jordynne Grace doesn't beat her to get the belt back in their eventual rematch, but I'm looking forward  to it nonetheless because of how well they worked together at Slammiversary. As for this, it served as a good showcase for Purrazzo and didn't overstay its welcome. Lee impressed more than she has in other matches she's had in IMPACT thus far.

Sami Callihan Sabotaged Katie Forbes' Photos

As refreshing as Rob Van Dam has been as a heel since Bound for Glory, I don't think Forbes adds anything to his act at all. In fact, I feel like she takes away from it. Anything she's involved in is almost always automatically awful to me, including this stupid segment. Callihan photo-shopped his face onto Forbes' in her pictures and that was it. She acted angry at what happened and didn't come across as believable whatsoever. The less said about this, the better.

The Good Brothers def. Reno Scum

Although the outcome was never in doubt, I thought this was a solid first match for Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows in IMPACT. Reno Scum's matches are usually below-average, but they were fine and weren't on offense too much, anyway. The Good Brothers went over clean and thankfully this wasn't longer than it needed to be. I liked the brawl between The Good Brothers and Ace Austin and Madman Fulton as the show went off the air, setting the stage for their eventual encounter.

Overall Show

The "Wrestle House" skits didn't do much for me personally and lasted a little longer than I would have liked, but they were passable (even though some of the acting was atrocious). I appreciate the attempt to film content outside of where they usually tape the show, but I can see people skipping over it because none of it meant anything. My biggest problem with this show was that it was very light on in-ring action and didn't feature any matches in the first hour outside of the Impact World Championship defense. What we did get in the building was enjoyable except for the trash with Forbes and it was smart for IMPACT to advertise plenty of matches and segments for next week's episode.