IMPACT! Wrestling Review - September 27, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rob Van Dam and Rhino def. Impact World Tag Team Champions The North (Non-Title)

The North came out to LAX's entrance music dressed as them, which was pretty funny. They proclaimed to be the best tag team in all of IMPACT, only to get interrupted by Konnan, who brought out RVD and Rhino. The match that followed was well wrestled with The North doing most of the work. I'm not a fan of The North losing the first match as champions to two guys past their prime, but I assume that sets up some sort of a multi-team match for the tag titles at Bound for Glory also involving Rich Swann and Willie Mack.

Mahabali Shera def. Cousin Jake

Shera defeated Cody Deaner in quick and decisive fashion on last week's show, so IMPACT apparently felt it was necessary to follow that up with Shera beating Jake here as well. The match was exactly what you'd expect it to be, but at least it didn't overstay its welcome. Gama Singh is teasing booting the other two members of Desi Hit Squad out of the group if they don't start proving themselves soon. IMPACT might as well disband the stable entirely because of how boring they are, but I realize that's probably not going to happen.

Tenille Dashwood def. Madison Rayne

I enjoyed Dashwood's debut match against Kiera Hogan and didn't have any issue with it being as competitive as it was, but I could understand why some people did. That said, there was no reason for this to be as one-sided as it was. Rayne dominated most of the matchup and Dashwood bounced back at the very end. This wasn't nearly as good as it had the potential to be given their respective skill sets, but despite that, Dashwood has earned herself a shot at the Impact Knockouts Championship at Bound for Glory.

Moose Interrupted Ken Shamrock

Even at 55-years-old, Shamrock still appears to be in tremendous shape. He ran down his recent exchanges with Moose on social media before Moose interrupted him on the big screen, showing that he was at the place where Shamrock trains. They went back and forth for a bit and effectively hyped up their upcoming encounter at Bound for Glory. Their promos have been decent enough, but it remains to be seen how well they'll gel in the ring together.

Tessa Blanchard def. Dave Crist to Qualify for the Impact X-Division Championship Ladder Match at Bound for Glory

As I've said before, I'm not the biggest fan of intergender wrestling, but it's totally believable with Blanchard because of how she's presented and the style she wrestles. Of course, it's difficult to take her as a serious threat against someone the size of Madman Fulton (which is why I appreciated that he got the better of her afterward), but she and Crist are perfectly logical opponents for each other. They had a nice match and Blanchard is currently my pick to walk out of Bound for Glory with the X-Division title.

Sami Callihan Crashed the Wedding of Brian cage and Melissa Santos

Wrestling weddings can get wild and this was no exception to that rule, but I mean that in the best way possible. The stuff that was taped for the wedding portion itself was entertaining and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun with it. When it came time for the reception in the ring, you had to know Callihan was going to make his presence felt somehow with his main event match against Cage at Bound for Glory coming up and he did not disappoint. It was a classic angle where Santos accidentally got hit in the crossfire and now Cage wants to rip Callihan's arms off.

Overall Show

IMPACT! Wrestling usually offers at least one or two above-average matches on any given episode, but I didn't find that to be the case this week. However, a ton of time was devoted to the wedding at the end and it ultimately paid off. I couldn't care less about the Desi Hit Squad vs. Deaners feud, but everything else on this show was solid and the build for Bound for Glory was well done.