 El Phantasmo def. Rohit Raju and Willie Mack in an Impact X-Division Championship Three-Way QualifierI would have been content with any one of these three winning. They're all excellent and deserve to be challenging for the Impact X-Division Championship at Bound for Glory. This was along the same lines as the other qualifiers in that it was fast-paced and exciting. It was also perfectly positioned as the opener. Phantasmo has gotten the biggest push of the three lately as part of Bullet Club, so he made the most sense to advance. Savannah Evans def. Lady FrostFrost has made a handful of appearances for IMPACT this year and is fresh off her involvement in the Impact Knockouts Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament at Knockouts Knockdown. I was happy to see her brought back, but it was clear her sole role here was to put over Evans and make her look good. Evans has shown signs of potential but is still a work in progress. We found out afterward that Evans will be Mickie James' next opponent as picked by Deonna Purrazzo via Pick You Poison. Rich Swann def. VSKSwann and Mack have been feuding with Brian Myers and his pupils for weeks, but I have no idea what the endgame is supposed to be. I like Myers, but he feels like a downgrade for Swann, who won the Impact World Championship at this time one year ago. Swann is probably better off in the Call Your Shot Battle Royal as opposed to facing Myers one-on-one. This was fine while it lasted but too short to be anything out of the ordinary. Chris Sabin def. Chris BeyRight before this bout, Sabin was involved in the end of Swinger's Palace backstage. I haven't been the biggest fan of those segments this year, but its grand finale was well done. At any rate, these are two of the best X-Division wrestlers (and two of the best period) in IMPACT right now and thus it should have come as no surprise that this was as excellent as it was. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Sabin has lost quite a bit lately, so I had no problem with him winning here. W. Morrissey Won a Battle Royal to Earn the No. 20 Spot in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Battle RoyalIt's weird that IMPACT would use a Battle Royal to determine the first and final entrants in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match at Bound for Glory when that's also a Battle Royal. Nonetheless, this was decent albeit forgettable. It was basically every Battle Royal you've ever seen with minimal drama. Morrissey winning was logical and Sabin having to kick off the Battle Royal at Bound for Glory should be fun. Impact World Champion Christian Cage and Josh Alexander Exchanged WordsThis was billed as a "summit" with Josh Mathews serving as the moderator. It was filmed earlier in the day with no fans in the building and it came off a lot better as a result. I loved how this was done and thought the mic work from both guys was great. There isn't much of an issue between these two because they're both babyfaces, but they've still managed to generate excitement for their encounter at Bound for Glory. This was strong stuff. Overall ShowI keep forgetting that Bound for Glory is coming up next weekend, probably because we just had Knockouts Knockdown and I conditioned to think we have another few weeks until the next event. That said, IMPACT has done a damn good job of building up the card over the last month and this was another effective show as far as that goes. Seek out the opener and Sabin vs. Bey specifically because both were a blast.
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