Is Impact* the best wrestling promotion in history? *(Now TNA again, 2024)

[El-P]

Masha & Grace had another killer match at the last IMPACT + special. Kaz vs Alexander was excellent too. The post-match angle was super well executed, although the "hostage taking" at the very end was a bit much. I mean, where was the security ? Bully Ray is fine for a short time. Not sure I want him as the next champ though, although a shorter reign with him losing at Slammiversary could work. Still one hell of a promo/angle worker.

Also, I'm so glad they are bringing Throwback Throwdown back. A good fun way to end the year. I honestly look forward to to this more than anything else until the Tokyo Dome.

[Log]

There's a Josh Alexander/Mike Bailey match that was taped the day after the Impact+ special that you won't want to miss, @El-P.

[El-P]

On 11/30/2022 at 5:12 PM, Log said:

There's a Josh Alexander/Mike Bailey match that was taped the day after the Impact+ special that you won't want to miss, @El-P.

Sounds awesome indeed.

Gotta love that IMPACT actually murderer Eric Young on his way out. That they carry the spirit of Lucha Underground is one thing I really enjoy about IMPACT. You just don't leave the territory doing jobs, you get fucking murdered. That's the spirit.

Deonna vs Mickie this week. Holy hell. That Mickie Last Rodeo angle is maybe my favorite thing going on. 

[El-P]

Mike Bailey is just awesome. If you go stereotypical, go for broke.

Gotta love the nice effort hiding his Quebec accent too when he spoke French. And unlike pretty much every American trying to do the French speaking English with a terrible accent and failing (see : Inspecteur Clouseau), he showed exactly how it's done. 

And yes, he cheated his way to the win using a baguette shot.

The entire show was a hoot. We even got the Dynamic Dude Shane Douglas making a babyface run-in.

[SirEdger]

It's our favorite activity in Quebec to imitate Frenchmen.

 

With that said, this match cruelly missed a cameo of Dan Béret. I mean, we still got a Pelvis Wesley & Frank the Butcher appearance.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, SirEdger said:

It's our favorite activity in Quebec to imitate Frenchmen.

From what I've heard, you're on average a whole lot better imitating the French from France way of speaking than we are imitating the Quebec accent (I know, there are a bunch of different ones, like in France).

[SirEdger]

It also depends on certain areas from Quebec (like in my region, Beauce, we have a particular way of speech, especially in rural areas that is hard to reproduce - but apparently, very useful for us when we learn Spanish - people in Saguenay or in Gaspésie also have specific speech patterns). But in general, the words that you Frenchmen kinda trip on trying to pronounce are usually words that all of us pronounce the same way - especially curse words 

[Blehschmidt]

17 hours ago, El-P said:

Mike Bailey is just awesome. If you go stereotypical, go for broke.

Gotta love the nice effort hiding his Quebec accent too when he spoke French. And unlike pretty much every American trying to do the French speaking English with a terrible accent and failing (see : Inspecteur Clouseau), he showed exactly how it's done. 

And yes, he cheated his way to the win using a baguette shot.

The entire show was a hoot. We even got the Dynamic Dude Shane Douglas making a babyface run-in.

Shane actually did this?

[El-P]

39 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

Shane actually did this?

Yep. No skateboard though. Can still do a decent belly-to-belly.

Ricky Morton was there also, but he's been pretty active anyway. And Babydoll.

Rare occurence of Gia Miller working too, she's doing the backstage announcing on the regular shows. Very fun show, as always. 

It's also interesting how most of the current guys *could* work exactly like it's 1985 if they wanted to. Mike Bailey was pretty awesome at doing early 80's mid-level "flying" spots and moving/bumping like a guy from this era. Trey Miguel (who was working the infamous Bill Ding the Evil Architect gimmick) was excellent at it too. 

[SirEdger]

I love that Impact somehow saw those Southpaw Regional Wrestling tapes and said "Hold my beer, we're gonna go one step further" and do the real thing. Talents seem to have a blast doing those and it shows.

[El-P]

On 11/30/2022 at 5:12 PM, Log said:

There's a Josh Alexander/Mike Bailey match that was taped the day after the Impact+ special that you won't want to miss, @El-P.

I expected a great TV match. I did not expect *that* kind of match (thanks for not spoiling any of it btw). Easy MOTYC. These two are just two of the best workers anywhere in the world today. Both had an incredible year and this capped off in a very classic way. The more I watch Bailey, the more I'm convinced he is one of those rare pro-wrestling "genius" (I don't like the term, which is also overused, but there you go). Alexander is one awesome worker too. Just wonderful pro-wrestling, that will go unnoticed because it happened in IMPACT, but it's not exactly a rare thing nowadays.

On a totally different topic, I enjoy the fact Deaner is taking a totally different approach with the cult gimmick, while keeping it in line with what EY did. He totally looks like a creepy guy on Youtube trying to convince people that he can heal cancer with vegetable juices.

[El-P]

I sure hope they don't put the title on Bully Ray, that one would be a hard pill to swallow, even if it would only be transitional obviously. Actually, the real main event should be Jordynne Grace vs Mickie James in what will either be James retirement, either her last ride as a champ before retiring, maybe at Slammiversary. This storyline has been masterfully done.

Rest of the card has some really strong stuff (Miguel vs Taurus; Swann vs Maclin, Edwards vs Gresham, the women four way) and some that should be "pretty ok" like the four way tag team match.

Gotta love the new Taylor Wilde character too.

[El-P]

That being said, as I'm catching up, Bully Ray remains a terrific promo and angle guy, and it's really amazing he never got to do it in WWE when they were bringing him back for nostalgia purpose only. Also, during that whole closing segment from last week, and judging from what he's been doing with the promotion since 2018, Scott D'Amore is actually what everybody *think* Paul Heyman is.

Also, IMPACT are masters at producing packages like these :

 

Take notes AEW. This is just perfect, and Mickie James is just wonderful in this. Great job from the little promotion that could and would never go away.

[Alucard]

On 1/11/2023 at 2:40 PM, El-P said:

I sure hope they don't put the title on Bully Ray, that one would be a hard pill to swallow, even if it would only be transitional obviously. Actually, the real main event should be Jordynne Grace vs Mickie James in what will either be James retirement, either her last ride as a champ before retiring, maybe at Slammiversary. This storyline has been masterfully done.

Seems they've confirmed via Twitter that Mickie/Jordynne is indeed being called the main event of the show.

[El-P]

3 hours ago, Alucard said:

Seems they've confirmed via Twitter that Mickie/Jordynne is indeed being called the main event of the show.

Yep, since Bully vs Josh opens the show. Well, as it should then. They really are doing a tremendous job with all of this.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

I went to Hard To Kill, which was good; the crowd was super hot, so I hope it came through on television. The Full Metal Mayhem match was good, with brutality and melodrama; also glad they kept the belt on Josh and didn't go for THE HEAT. With Bully being done, I hope that more is seen of Skyler/Hatch as a tag team because they need more bodies in that division. I'm flirting with putting Edwards/Gresham and Mickie/Jordynne in my notebook. I have to rewatch those two again. I was shocked about Mickie winning, but it was the right move if it led to Marsha retiring Mickie, heating her back significantly for 2023. Speaking of 2023 now is the time to put the rocket on Steve Macin and see where it goes. Maybe he'll dethrone Josh after completing a year-long reign. 

[Embrodak]

I can’t compliment everything I saw, but I caught Impact over the holidays with my dad and must say, the women’s division is presented far better in Impact than it is in AEW, despite having worse workers overall. 

[TheDuke]

I had hoped that Tommy Dreamer would have also turned heel and teamed up with Bully Ray. They could have been used to put over some younger tag teams. Since The Kingdom and The Good Brothers had left they could use some more star power (relative to other Impact wrestlers) in their tag division.

[Alucard]

18 hours ago, Tenese Sarwieh said:

With Bully being done, I hope that more is seen of Skyler/Hatch as a tag team because they need more bodies in that division. I'm flirting with putting Edwards/Gresham and Mickie/Jordynne in my notebook. I have to rewatch those two again. I was shocked about Mickie winning, but it was the right move if it led to Marsha retiring Mickie, heating her back significantly for 2023. Speaking of 2023 now is the time to put the rocket on Steve Macin and see where it goes. Maybe he'll dethrone Josh after completing a year-long reign. 

Bully's still sticking around for the time being. Agreed on Maclin, been feeling him as the next champ since mid-late last year at least.

I'm not sure I like the booking of Mickie beating Jordynne after Masha could never beat Jordynne in multiple attempts, only for Masha to then beat Mickie right away but I'm interested to see how it plays out.

[El-P]

Because of how they built the angle, whatever the result was would work (cool to see Raven pop up to acknowledge Mickie, as he brought up in his stable when she debuted in TNA). Just a tremendous booking work from them. Terrific match too, super cool presentation. Mickie has one hell of a last run. I'm guessing either Masha or Deonna will dethrone her eventually (depending on whom they trust the most, Deonna having resigned lately too I believe). Grace really had a star making year in 2022 too.

Same for Bully vs Josh. At this point it's safe to say Alexander had been one of the best thing in pro-wrestling for these last two years. And whatever one thinks about Bully, he was A to Z perfect from start to the end, and the consummate pro. Put over the Alexander couple without getting anything for his character, perfect pay-off.

Maclin may be the one to beat Alexander. This guy is such a great worker, he has been killing it since the very day he showed up. He has some pretty strong Austin/Cactus 1996 vibe in his work. Great falls count anywhere match against Swann, who can do anything and be great at it.

Edwards vs Gresham was excellent too, with the very logical post-match and the return of PCO too.

Kaz asking of his release from AEW after he resigned last year to come back to IMPACT to actually do some interesting stuff says a lot about the confidence the company has built. Hey, more Kaz the better.

Lots of fun stuff on the card. I kinda expected the Bullet Club to win the tag titles, but I'm guessing a basic tag match will happen against the MCMG, which on paper is gonna be awesome.

Center stage had a cool atmosphere. Undercard was mostly quite fun too. 

[Tenese Sarwieh]

It really was a cool atmosphere, very intimate. They're coming back on June 23 & 24 and I'm going. 

 

[SirEdger]

There's always been something special about any TV tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta. It has that vibe that you don't find anywhere else.

[El-P]

This is tremendous

"Calm down Yeti". Raven is still the best. 

[KawadaSmile]

I thought about this for a long time, but it needs to be said. IMPACT is truly the best promotion in wrestling history because they have Killer Kelly. 

[El-P]

IMPACT & NJPW are doing a joint PPV March 30th. Forbidden Doors II before the fact.

And as if Josh Alexander vs KUSHIDA and Moose vs Jeff Cobb don't look great enough (it does), Will Ospreay vs Mike Bailey. Jaw drops.