IMPACT! Wrestling Review - March 8, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact X-Division Champion Rich Swann def. Ethan Page (Non-title)

Another week, another solid showing from a completely directionless Ethan Page. His "All Ego" persona has potential, but it's hard to care about his character when it's barely being developed. He and Swann had a good, lengthy match, but it was merely a backdrop for what happened afterward with Swann teasing joining oVe only to turn on them moments later. It was basically a rehash of what Diamond Dallas Page did to nWo back in the day, but the crowd ate it up.

Ace Austin def. Jake Atlas

Austin's arrival in IMPACT has been hyped up for a few weeks via vignettes and I thought he delivered in his debut. He's a really talented athlete and he made the most of his opportunity here to showcase his skills. My only gripe with this was Atlas getting in more offense than he should have. This should have been all about Austin. Other than that, Austin impressed me and he'll have a high ceiling for success in IMPACT.

Eli Drake Saved Eddie Edwards From Desi Hit Squad

Alisha Edwards' big announcement was that she wants to start a family, but she was interrupted by Desi Hit Squad, who acted misogynistic by saying she belonged at home and whatnot. They're heels, so I guess it's logical for them to say stupid stuff like that, but I had more of a problem with Alisha, who really isn't that great on the mic at all. Eddie came to Alisha's rescue as well as Drake, setting up another tag team match with them next week taking on Desi Hit Squad.

Rosemary, Kiera Hogan and Jordynne Grace def. Su Yung, Allie and Undead Maid of Honor in The Dark War

By and large, I haven't minded this "Dark War" storyline, despite how silly it's been at times, but this was fairly disappointing. Sure, the lights were dimmed, but there wasn't anything else about it that felt like a true war. Rather, it was just your average six-woman tag team match. It's hard to believe it was 11 minutes long because I don't remember much of it at all. At this point, I'm ready for this angle to be over, and it looks like it might be now that Rosemary has Allie again.

Scarlet Bordeaux Challenged Glenn Gilbertti

IMPACT has been making a big deal over Bordeaux's in-ring debut for quite a while, and we found out here that her first-ever opponent will be Gilberrti a.k.a. Disco Inferno. They've devoted more television time to Gilbertti than I'd personally prefer to establish him as a nuisance, but I suppose it'll pay off in the end when Bordeaux embarrasses him. Apparently she's a face now, too. Between this and the Desi Hit Squad stuff from earlier, there's no coincidence this episode fell on International Women's Day, right?

Impact World Tag Team Champions The Lucha Brothers def. The Rascalz (Non-title)

I've been anxiously awaiting these two teams to face off for weeks and they finally did on this show. Granted, it didn't really receive much build and was instead thrown out there as a random television main event, but I enjoyed it immediately, nonetheless. It was far too short, though, and I believe they'd benefit from several more minutes. That way, they can go all out and tear the damn roof off. It was still a fun main event and at least this made me look forward to an eventual rematch.

Overall Show

While no must-see matches took place on this show, there was enough quality wrestling and angle advancement to make the two hours worth watching. We finally have a date for Bordeaux's in-ring debut, Austin has potential and The Lucha Brothers continue to roll. I wasn't a fan of "The Dark War," but it wasn't offensively terrible and could have been worse. As for next week, Edwards and Drake will team up again and Swann will clash with oVe in six-man tag team action.