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Impact Wrestling Report: An AEW Crossover for Emergence Night 1

It's Tuesday night, which means it must be time for Impact Wrestling. This week is the first night of a two-night special event called Emergence, essentially a mini-PPV. There are quite a few big matches booked for tonight. Let's watch!

Impact Wrestling Report for 8/18/2020 – Emergence Night 1

Impact starts with a video package for Emergence. This PPV can't decide if it's a prestige sci-fi drama or a wrestling show. I'm watching on Twitch again, even though that didn't go well last week. We'll see if Impact has got their shit together this time.

The Impact theme plays and Josh Matthews welcomes us to Emergence, coming to us from that same industrial park Impact has been filming in for months. I'm not sure if Madison Rayne is not there, or just not talking to Matthews (and who could blame her?).

TJP heads to the ring with Fallah Bahh. Rohit Raju comes out next. Then X-Division Champion Chris Bey. The story here is that Raju convinced Bey to make a three-way under the idea that he'll help him beat TJP. But will Raju go into business for himself? Ah, Madison is there after all. TJP leaps over the ropes onto both his opponents so I guess the match is starting.

TJP vs. Rohit Raju vs. Chris Bey – Impact X-Division Championship Match

• TJP and Chris Bey go at it for a while as Raju sells outside the ring.
• Raju eventually gets in the ring and it's essentially two-on-one for TJP.
• He fares pretty well, all things considered.
• In fact, this is practically a squash match. TJP is getting all the offense. From high-flying stuff to double-submissions to turning a Doomsday Device into a superplex, TJP is virtually unstoppable.
• TJP is getting the single biggest push in the history of Impact Wrestling during this match.
• This is like one of those matches where the underdog babyface struggles to make brief comeback attempts throughout the match while the dominant heel brutalizes him… except, in this case, both Bey and Raju together are acting as the underdog babyfaces and TJP is the dominant heel.
• Bey is about to tap out at one point but Raju makes the save by catching his hand to prevent him from tapping.
• Raju spends half the match on the floor outside.
• But he was playing possum… because he takes the opportunity to screw Bey, hitting a double stomp off the top rope after Bey finally took out TJP. Raju gets the pin and he's the new X-Division Champion.

I liked this match. It was fun to watch. It had an unusual dynamic subverting the usual tropes of this sort of match. A heel actually succeeded in pulling off their plan. The action was nonstop. And the match didn't go too long. Time for Wrestle House. Ugh.

Wrestle House

John E. Bravo and Crazzy Steve put on a puppet show to kick of Wrestle House because why not? Then Larry D unveils his new signature fragrance, "ring rust." Acey Romero is upset, but Larry says the women love the new "Lawrence D." Impact goes to commercials. Well, actually, it's Melissa Santos chatting about the show from her bedroom since it's Twitch and there are no commercials. She reads comments from the chat. One of them claims Impact is booked better than Raw. True.

The Good Brothers cut a promo backstage on Ace Austin and Madman Fulton. Pretty standard stuff about how they're gonna kick their asses tonight. Matthews and Rayne… well, they said something, but the Twitch stream froze. Luckily, it doesn't go out permanently. They run through the card for tonight. Looks like Moose will be fighting Trey next. Trey comes out, and then Moose makes his long entrance. I'll never complain about Moose's entrance though. I love the lyrics to his theme music. David Penzer does the introductions and then the match gets underway.

Moose vs. Trey Miguel – TNA Championship Match

• The match starts with the Twitch stream freezing. Interesting choice.
• I restart the stream and it's Melissa Santos reading comments again. Well, that's better than nothing like last week.
• She asks the commenters where they're watching from and then reads off all the answers.
• Seriously, how hard is it for a company with millions of dollars like Anthem to successfully stream a show on Twitch without interruption? Random video gamers stream on this platform all the time from their homes.
• Okay, the stream is back and Moose is kicking Trey's ass.
• Trey tries some high-flying stuff, but Moose is too strong.
• He's also too agile, as he hits a dropkick from the floor to Trey on the turnbuckles, knocking him to the floor.
• Josh Matthews is such a hypocrite. He refuses to recognize Moose as TNA Champion, but he says that if Trey wins, he will because Trey will have done something to earn it. What about all the people Moose has successfully defended against?
• Moose is dominant in this match. I guess TJP used up all the scrappy underdog power for the rest of the night.
• At one point, Moose catches Trey in a dive to the outside, swings him head-first into the railing, then powerbombs him on the apron. I'm pretty sure Trey is dead after that, but he manages to make it back into the ring on a 9-count.
• Trey dodges a spear with a Sunset Flip attempt, but Moose no-sells it and hits Trey with another spear. It's apparently called the Lights Out spear now.

EC3 appears behind Moose and hits a Scorpion Death Drop on him. He steals the TNA Championship and leaves.

Reno Scum returns Hernandez's money that they took from Rhino last week. Hernandez tries to give them a tiny cut, but they squeeze him for more. Hernandez tells them to see him again later for more work. Commercials, or rather Melissa Santos. One of the commenters says that she's hot, and that causes Brian Cage to pop on the screen and act angry… but he's just joking and agrees with the commenter. More importantly, though, that was just the first crossover between Impact Wrestling and AEW!

Back from break, we see a video package for Eric Young, then the Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week, which is Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young in a stretcher match. Eric Young wins.

Jimmy Jacobs talks to Willie Mack. He wants to know where Willie's head is out after the stuff with Rich Swann. Mack starts trash-talking Eric Young, but Brian Myers interrupts and forces Jimmy to interview him instead. Jacobs doesn't have any questions, but Myers goes on a rant anyway. He talks about how he played by the rules and treated people with respect and he got fired with a pregnant wife. He shoots on Vince McMahon's booking. He puts Impact on notice. Willie Mack attacks him, and Impact takes another commercial break. On that note, it's been an hour (and only one brief Twitch outage, not bad). Time to take this to part two. Click down below.

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