Posted in: Sports, TV | Tagged: impact, impact wrestling, recap, sports, tv, wrestling

Impact Wrestling 6/16/2020 Report Part 2 – A Softcore Street Fight

In Part 1 of our Impact Wrestling report, The North defends their titles against The Rascalz, Neveah made her in-ring debut, and Rhino got paid for doing nothing! But that was the past, and now we're moving on to the future as Impact enters its second hour.

Hernandez comes out for a TNA Championship match against Moose. Moose comes out with the belt. Josh Matthews is still hung up on the fact that Moose didn't win the title and isn't a real champion. But if we're being perfectly honest, this has been the only World Championship belt on Impact for months.

Moose tries to start a "You Deserve It" chant for himself with the empty building. It's no less pathetic than the fake cheers during THE GREATEST WRESTLING MATCH EVER at Backlash on Sunday. The match starts, and Hernandez comes out of the gate swinging, dropkicking Moose and clotheslining him out of the ring. Outside Hernandez throws Moose into the ring post and tosses him back in the ring.

Moose takes control by tripping Hernandez into the bottom turnbuckle, then stomps a mudhole. Moose lands some strikes on Hernandez and tosses him hard into the corner a couple of times. Hernandez blocks a charge and hops to the top rope, and Moose dropkicks him to the floor. Hernandez climbs back in but Moose hits some clubbing blows and a snapmare, then rakes his eyes. Moose hits a big boot and lays in punishment on Hernandez on the ground.

Moose spends too much time pandering to the nonexistent crowd and Hernandez makes a comeback. Hernandez takes his shirt off and all the girls in the audience scream. He hits a splash. Hernandez looks to finish it with a backbreaker, but Moose kicks out at two. Moose reverses a suplex and then hits a slick behind-the-back low blow kick-off of a Hernandez leapfrog. No Jackhammer Needed and a pinfall.

After the match, EC3's theme music plays briefly. Backstage, The Rascalz accuses Reno Scum of being behind the attack on Trey. Reno Scum say TJP And Fallah Bahh are the more likely suspects.

After some commercials, we get a Deaners segment where they're hanging out with Willie Mack. I pay it zero attention because it involves the Deaners. Reno Scum vs. Acey Romero and Larry D is next. Matthews is so into this match he starts talking about his microbrawlers again. The mall punks get the win over the fat dudes. Look, as a fat dude myself, I have to say it's insulting to all of us to minimize big and tall clothing sizes. There's no way XXXL is wearing anything less than XXXXXXL ring gear.

Chris Bey talks to Johnny Swinger about something that happened during the Deaners segment that I didn't pay attention to. But Bey doesn't care about that. He wants to win the X-Division Championship. Swinger calls up a former WWE wrestler for help ("you're done with Vinnie Jr., right?). Unfortunately, Swinger's friend has a 90-day no-compete cause. Swinger says he has another guy in mind to take care of Willie Mack. Impact goes to commercials again.

We get a video package for Deonna Purrazzo telling her life story. Jordynne Grace thinks it's a nice story, and Purrazzo came to the right place if she wants competition. But Grace says Deonna didn't need to attack her last week. All she had to do was find her face to face. Purrazzo disagrees, because she attacks Grace from behind again and puts her in an armbar as Impact heads to more commercials.

Matches for next week: Suzie vs. Taya Valkyrie, #CancelCulture vs. Crazzy Steve, and two mystery partners, Willie Mack and the Deaners vs. Chris Bey, Johnny Swinger, and a mystery partner.

Now it's time for the main event, a street fight between Ace Austin and Eddie Edwards. Edwards attacks Austin as he walks to the ring and the match gets started. After some brawling at ringside, Edwards heads backstage. Austin gets a chair from under the ring, but Edwards comes out with a garbage can full of weapons. Well, a garbage can with maybe six mediocre weapons in it. He uses the garbage can first. Then he crotches Austin on the guardrail. Austin hits Edwards with a stick and oh, look at the time, it's commercials again already.

When we come back, Austin is using the garbage can on Edwards in the ring. He puts on Eddie's head and kicks it repeatedly. Then he attacks him with a vicious… headlock? Austin hits Edwards with a handicap sign. They trade chops. Austin kicks Edwards in the back and suplexes him on the sign. Edwards leaves the ring and obtains some cookie sheets. He hits Edwards in the ears with them. Austin goes for the Fold but Edwards fights back and smacks him in the head with the cookie sheet. He dumps Austin outside the ring and goes for a dive, but Austin hits him in the face with the garbage can lid.

Austin jams a stick in Edwards' eye, picks up a section of guardrail, and props it up against the ring. Then he jams a sharp object in Edwards' eye again. He tries to throw Edwards into the guardrail but gets backdropped onto it himself. It doesn't give an inch.

Back in the ring, Edwards hits Austin with the handicap sign again and then a blue thunder bomb. He hits Austin with the cookie sheet and then tries to hit him with a steel chair, but misses. Austin hits a Van Daminator off the ropes. Austin beats on Edwards a bit then brings a table into the ring. He sets it up near the corner as Edwards struggles to his feet.

Austin places Edwards on the table and hits him with the sign to keep him there. Austin heads to the top but Edwards crotches him. Edwards tries to put Edwards through the table but Austin slices his eyes with a playing card. Austin hits a crossbody on Edwards over the table and a spin kick for a two-count. Edwards uses the cookie sheet again and hits a tiger bomb for two. Edwards tries to hit Austin with a Singapore cane but Austin trips him into a chair. Austin tries the cane and misses, but Edwards gets it and succeeds.

Edwards turns the table upside down and hits a backbreaker over the table leg on Austin, which is easily the best move of the match. As Edwards gets ready to finish Austin, Madman Fulton shows up and chokeslams Edwards. Twice. Then he picks up Edwards so Austin can hit the Fold and get the pinfall.

Madison Rayne theorizes that Austin had Madman Fulton attack Trey. Josh Matthews agrees and says Impact Wrestling may never be the same again. The show ends with a newly fired WWE Superstar Slammiversary ad claiming a former World Champion will appear at the PPV in July.

This was a so-so episode of Impact. The main event was decent though it could have used a better weapon selection and the opening tag team match was also okay, but slow in the first half. A lot of the rest felt like filler, and for filler matches, they're given a little too much time. Of course Impact is limited in what it can do in the pandemic era. Impact has been doing a good job of building to Slammiversary though. We're still a few weeks out and it already feels like all of the storylines are converging on it, with the added tease of a possible influx of former Impact talent showing up after being fired from WWE. Impact is also doing a good job of teasing that, for better or worse.

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