[2019-04-28-Impact Wrestling-Rebellion] Gail Kim vs Tessa Blanchard

[Superstar Sleeze]

Gail Kim vs Tessa Blanchard - Impact Wrestling Rebellion 4/28/19

I have seen Tessa Blanchard once before at a SHIMMER event with PWO's own Jimmy Redman! For the entire card, Tessa was by far the stand out worker. Crisp, ferocious and engaging, she was the girl with It Factor. It seems like she can be her own worst enemy but AEW's anemic women's division could really use her. Also, Tessa vs Charlotte writes itself folks. Well they should really do Charlotte/Tessa as a tag team and then do the break-up angle for maximum effect. Anyways, I am not too surprised that she got pushed to the moon winning their Men's World Championship, she is a great wrestler. 

I enjoyed this match as a Greatest Hits/Nostalgia match for Gail Kim. You come away thinking Tessa Blanchard is a badass and you want to see more for her. The hook of the match is Gail Kim has come out of retirement specifically to wrestle the best of this generation, similar to the recent Trish vs Charlotte match. You get a lot of feel-good Gail Kim spots. There's a bit of miscommunication of the ringpost 619 but Gail looked great otherwise. Great movement and great execution. The shine where she overwhelms the hard-hitting, younger powerhouse Tessa was red hot. Good cutoff by Tessa in the corner and then hits a Codebreaker and this leads to the heat century. This is pretty 21st Century in the sense that they are just hitting spots (they look good) but nothing is all that consequential. They are just filling time, but whats the story? There is a little bit of scouting from Tessa that I liked where she was countering a lot of Gail's signature stuff. We do see the Figure-4 around the post and the Eat Defeat, which I never loved. The highspot of the match was Tessa throwing Gail off the stage in very insane fashion. Overly complicated and that looked dangerous. Gail Kim gets back in. Following All Japan logic, the finish is nigh. They treat as the playin field is level but Tessa should be in control. Tessa goes for the Slingshot Suplex, nice tribute to her father who is in attendance, but Gail knees the head in the suplex and Tessa Eats Defeat, well not really she kicks out you see. Tessa punches her while she climbs the ropes. Tessa bites Gail's arm and Tessa Press Slams off the top (didnt look as good as they wanted). Tessa hits Magnum which is a Jumping Codebreaker and when Kim kicks out, Tessa debuts a Boss Statement like finish. Tessa mean mugs in the ring and then immediately hugs her Dad and totally breaks down. Good for them. That seemed like a really nice Dad/Daughter moment. Tully tells her to shake Gail Kim's hand. Nice touch. 

I enjoyed the athleticism and the execution, but there was not much story to sink my teeth into. It did not have a strong hook other than the fact it was Gail Kim vs Tessa Blanchard. There was no real stickiness to the match. Enjoyable nonetheless. ***1/2