IMPACT! Wrestling Review - September 1, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sami Callihan def. Rob Van Dam

Obviously, RVD is significantly slower these days than he used to be, but I found this to be his best bout in recent memory. Then again, that may have been because he hasn't wrestled a ton lately, along with how Callihan was able to carry him to a competent contest. They kept things moving and had a much better opener than I was expecting. RVD's post-match attack on Callihan indicates their feud isn't over yet.

Rhino def. Reno Scum in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

Reno Scum are a total bore to me, so I appreciated that this wasn't dragged out and instead was kept on the shorter side. Rhino winning was the right call and even better was that he got to reunite with Heath for a brief bit. Slater disguising himself as a camera man before running off when security started chasing him was well done. I'm looking forward to that Slater and Rhino reunion as they were terrific together when they first joined forces four years ago in WWE.

The Rascalz (Trey and Wentz) def. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton

Austin and Fulton are coming off a loss to The Good Brothers, so I figured this was their match to win. Instead, it was The Rascalz going over in clean fashion. It was a fun match and both teams looked good, but I'm surprised Austin and Fulton aren't off to the strongest start together. Austin hasn't won anything of importance in some time. On the bright side, this did serve to set up The Rascalz as the number one contenders to The Motor City Machine Guns' Impact World Tag Team Championship.

​Jordynne Grace, Tenille Dashwood and Wrestle House Crashed Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo's Black Tie Affair

Purrazzo has played her role perfectly well since coming to IMPACT and has proven to be an awesome heel. Grace interrupting was expected, but Dashwood returning was a pleasant surprise. She's been gone for many months due to the current circumstances and is a fresh face in the title picture. Unfortunately, she didn't light the world on fire upon coming to the Knockouts division last year and wasn't being used much pre-pandemic, but hopefully she and Purrazzo can make some magic. I still think Dashwood is at her best when she's heel, but she'll clearly be the babyface in this program with Purrazzo.

Eric Young def. Eddie Edwards to Win the Impact World Championship

I rolled my eyes at Young coming back to IMPACT in the main event of Slammiversary for the Impact World Championship, but to his credit, he's been built up very well in the last month and has been delivering both in the ring and on the mic. The commentators told the story that Edwards defending his title every week caught up to him and Young was able to capitalize on that and score the victory. I didn't think Edwards would drop the belt so soon after winning it, but this puts him in chase mode and gives Young two ready-made challengers in Edwards and Rich Swann (who will inevitably return one of these days). This was easily the highlight of the night.

Overall Show

I'm sorry but the Wrestle House skits once again did nothing for me. I can see why some have enjoyed them and they were meant to be harmless entertainment, but the "matches" were meaningless and the skits took up too much television time for my liking. At least they led to John E. Bravo proposing to Rosemary (as silly as that sounds). Thankfully, Wrestle House is finally over as of this episode. Only the main event is worth seeking out in my opinion, but it was a perfectly fine show on the whole that featured solid storyline progression and build for next week.