IMPACT! Wrestling Review - July 7, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kylie Rae and Susie def. Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary

Rae and Susie have had an established alliance for a while now, whereas Rosemary and Valkyrie are still trying to find themselves as a team. I don't know if Valkyrie's going face or if Rosemary's going heel, but either way, it's been entertaining. Susie's matches aren't always the greatest, but considering she was kept limited here, this was pretty decent, especially whenever Rae was on offense.

The Deaners def. XXXL, Reno Scum, and TJP & Fallah Bahh in a Four-Way Tag Team Match

While not as strong as its Knockouts division, IMPACT's tag team division has been doing well in recent months. However, I feel like we've seen almost every combination of these teams against each other, so this wasn't anything new. TJP and Bahh were the only stars who stood out in my opinion, and The Deaners winning was a puzzling choice, just because I don't see them challenging for the Impact World Tag Team Championship at any point. This felt like it existed solely to kill television time.

Impact Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace def. Kimber Lee (Non-Title)

Lee hasn't blown me away at all since she signed with IMPACT, but this was probably her best outing to date. Having an opponent as skilled as Grace obviously helped her cause and the match turned out to be better than I thought it would be. They made the most of the time they had and it was action-packed from bell to bell. Meanwhile, Grace's rivalry with Deonna Purrazzo has been progressing nicely over the last month and I'm looking forward to their Slammiversary encounter.

Impact X-Division Champion Willie Mack def. "Suicide"

Johnny Swinger stole Suicide's costume from his bag backstage and put it on so he'd technically be the one getting the X-Division title shot instead. You could clearly tell it was Swinger under the mask just by looking at him and I'm sure that was supposed to be the point based on how he came across. While it wasn't the most competitive contest, it was designed to be quick comic relief and worked in that respect. Mack will defend the belt against Swinger's associate Chris Bey at Slammiversary, so this wasn't completely pointless.

Sami Callihan def. Impact World Tag Team Champion Josh Alexander (Non-Title)

Although The North have been Impact World Tag Team Champions for over a year now, I don't view them as being on to the same level as Callihan and Ken Shamrock, who aren't even a formal team. The goal going into Slammiversary should be to make them as much of a threat as possible, so Alexander losing to Callihan here was an odd choice. As a match, though, it was well-wrestled and ended the night on a high note.

Overall Show

As I've said before, IMPACT is doing an excellent job of building excitement for Slammiversary. It was teased in the closing minute of the show via another vignette that whoever the former world champion is returning for the event, they aren't coming alone. I assume they had to rework some things on the show with Michael Elgin footage being edited out, but the promos they aired instead from the three met set to compete for the Impact World Championship at the pay-per-view were terrific. The rest of the show was solid with some average wrestling. Here's hoping Slammiversary can live up to the hype.