IMPACT! Wrestling Review - June 21, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

LAX def. Z & E to Win the Impact Tag Team Championship

Zema Ion and Andrew Everett have been a hell of a tandem since joining forces not too long ago and this was another extremely entertaining outing from them, wisely positioned as the opener to the show. LAX lost their edge recently and have been fighting to get it back, but they were in full form again here and had an A+ performance, as well as Z & E. Their reign as champions was short-lived yet fun, while LAX are back at the forefront of the tag team division where they belong.

Scott Steiner Attacked K.M.

This segment started out with K.M. calling out Fallah Bahh and attempting to "make amends" with him, before being denied and put in a match with Steiner instead. I was really hoping Steiner's match against Eli Drake recently would be his last in IMPACT for a while, but apparently not. This wasn't exactly pretty or good, but if nothing else, it was kept on the shorter side and didn't overstay its welcome.

Madison Rayne def. Taya Valyrie

The redemption story with Rayne since she returned to the company has been well told and it continued here as she took on the dominant Taya. Unfortunately, Taya has felt lost in the shuffle lately in the Knockouts division, but at least she's always having quality performances and this was a solid match. Following her victory, Rayne cut a promo announcing how this earned her the opportunity to vie for the Knockouts Championship at Slammiversary next month.

Pentagon Jr. and El Hijo del Fantasma def. oVe

Pentagon never ceases to put on a show every time he's in the ring and having competent opponents only helps his cause. Well, oVe have been killing it recently as heels, so sure enough, this was a treat of a tag team main event. There was a sense of urgency about everything they did, they had my attention the entire time, and the final few minutes were especially fantastic. oVe maintained their heat by attacking Pentagon post-match, so I assume Pentagon vs. Sami Callihan is the direction they're headed in for Slammiversary.

Overall Show

There wasn't a ton to this show, but I actually appreciated that because it caused the two hours to fly by quicker than usual. Other than the pointless Steiner vs. K.M. match, this was an enjoyable edition of IMPACT! Wrestling with an awesome opening match, a real nice effort from the ladies, and a superb tag team main event. The slow build to Slammiversary has been wisely executed so far and I'm excited for what the rest of the road to the event will hold.