IMPACT! Wrestling Review - November 19, 2019

​By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Rascalz def. The Deaners, Reno Scum and Desi Hit Squad in a Four-Way Tag Team Match

The Rascalz are the only team out of this bunch that I genuinely care about and thus I was glad they won. As a match, this was perfectly fine and at least they managed to keep things interesting throughout. Following The Rascalz' victory, they were ambushed by Reno Scum and Ace Austin (who's feuding with Trey at the moment). I still find the storyline with Trey and his "mom" to be insanely stupid.

Jordynne Grace def. Impact Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie and John E. Bravo in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

I have no desire to see Bravo wrestle unless he's getting his ass kicked by someone. Thankfully, that was exactly what happened here. Valkyrie predictably left him hanging high and dry halfway through so he could be decimated by Grace. After pinning Valkyrie in tag team action a few weeks ago, Grace has earned herself a shot at the Impact Knockouts Championship, though it has yet to be announced when that match will take place.

Johnny Swinger def. Buck Gunderson

The less said about this, the better. That isn't to say it was bad per se, but johnny Swinger working squash matches in 2019 does nothing for me. On the bright side, I assume the only purpose this served was to set up a match between him and Ken Shamrock for an upcoming episode. Then again, they may not have even have to wrestle each other considering Shamrock destroyed him with ease here.

Tessa Blanchard def. Brian Cage, Rich Swann, Michael Elgin, Moose and Daga in an Impact World Championship No. 1 Contender's Six-Person elimination Match

I really loved how this took up the entire second hour of the show. It was referred to as a "six-person challenge," but in reality, it was a Gauntlet match. I'm not sure why they didn't just call it that. Nonetheless, this had a strong layout and everyone came out of it looking stellar, but especially Swann. Blanchard winning was absolutely the right call and it came off like a huge deal, but Swann had a hell of a performance in the middle there and the visual of the blood streaming down his face and chest added to it. Blanchard pinning Cage may seem slightly unrealistic to some, but I personally didn't mind it because Cage had already wrestled against Swann, so he was groggy. Plus, Blanchard has been built up to be a believable threat and I'm looking forward to her challenging Sami Callihan for the Impact World Championship at Hard to Kill.

Overall Show

Needless to say, that main event alone makes this edition of IMPACT! Wrestling worth watching. The stakes were high, each mini match was excellent, and it lived up to the hype. The first hour wasn't too shabby, but it didn't feature anything overly exciting. On the whole, I'm happy they're starting to plant the seeds for what we'll likely be seeing at January's Hard to Kill pay-per-view as opposed to waiting until the last minute to build up the card. Next week's "throwback" show will be insignificant from a storyline standpoint, but it should still be fun, nonetheless.