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We are back In Pembroke Pines, Florida. This is the Go Home Show for Hard to Kill We get a recap of D’Amore going through the table last week. There was a recap last week to start the show off as well I should’ve wrote something about it as it set up D’Amore going through the table. First thing we get is Josh Matthews on Zoom interviewing both Champion Josh Alexander and Challenger Bully Ray one last time before the match at the PPV. It’s gonna be a Full Metal Mayhem Match. Josh seems annoyed by Bully, Bully had been targeting the people in Josh’s life. Bully seems interested in the fact that Bully is in Josh’s head. I appreciate Bully rationalizing his attack on Scott D’Amore, Scott punched him first. A great heel has a little bit of justification to their attacks. This is Josh’s first Metal Maybem Match but he seems ready to get Bully in the ring. Josh says when the bell rings all the talk is over and with that we are done. This segment had me interested in the match well this and Bully taking out Josh’s mentor with a power bomb through a table. On paper Bully Ray in the main event scene in 2023 seems eye rollingly bad but the build that I’ve seen I’m interested in the match and I also know the result so I’m not worried about any lolTNA happening. First match of the Night is Brian Myers vs Heath. Match starts off as matches start off they tie up have a bit of a back and fourth. Action spills to the outside there’s a dust up well the makings of a dust up on the outside between Myers Heath and their respected tag team partners Matt Cardona and Rhino leading to Cardona and Rhino being ejected to the back. Heath hits a cannonball dive off the apron onto Myers. Action goes back into the ring. Thru end up back outside this time with Myers in control. Back in the ring as we go to break. Back from break Myers is in control of the match putting in a head lock. Myers is control for a minute. Myers makes a comeback much to the crowds delight. Myers comes back hits a DDT but Heath kicks out. Myers gets a you suck chant. Myers hits Heath with a spear Heath kicks out again! This prompts a Heath’s got kids chant. Which got me thinking of when Heath had Kids and introduced them all on SmackDown. That was 6 1/2 years ago “Roscoe” has to be 18 or 19 now. I don’t believe that there isn’t a 18 or 19 year old red headed wrestler out there that Impact can find and have him come in to play Heath’s son Roscoe. Back to the match Myers goes to the top rope Heath runs over hits a power slam. Crowds fully behind Heath. New Japan smack each other on the mat all the way to your feet spot. They end up in the corner. Heath attempts a super plex Myer fights him off hits an elbow drop Heath kicks out for a third time. Heath hits a Wake Up Call which I can best describe as a running spinning Russian leg sweep without actually sweeping the leg for the 3. I liked this match a lot. Really good opening contest it was given time going two segments. These two guys spent a decade plus each in WWE they know how to put on an exciting TV match and that’s exactly what they did. And just for shits and giggles here’s Heath with his kids. Chris Bey and Ace Austin are outside the building. They are fresh off a tour of New Japan competing in the Super Jr Tag Team Tournament getting to the finals but not winning and they are in the four way for the Impact Tag Team Championship match at Hard to Kill also including Champions, The Motor City Machine Guns, Heath & Rhino and Matt Cardona & Brian Myers. BeyAce and I’m now calling them that from now on are confident they will walk out as Champions. JesSICka and Rosemary find Taya Valkyrie taken out backstage and it’s right before Rosemarys match with Savannah Evans. Taya alludes to it bring “the four of them”. This leads into Rosemary Vs Savannah Evans. Rosemary JesSICKa and Taya are the Death Dolls and the “four of them” are Evans Tasha Steelz Gisselle Shaw and Pony Tail Man. Savannah is a powerhouse and Rosemary is unhinged brawler type. The styles mesh well here. Lots of hard hitting fast action. Rosemary doves off the top rope to the outside onto Evans and Ponytail as we go to break. We come back from break Rosemary or in full control hitting strikes in the corner. Evans hits a devastating big boot on Rosemary. She gains offensive control of the match. Shaw gets involved as Evans distracts the ref. Evans hits a butterfly suplex. After some rag filling at the hands of Evans, Rosemary hits a reverse DDT and mounts a fiery comeback. Rosemary with a T Bone Suplex but Evans kicks out. That damn Evans. Evans with a spin buster followed by a fisherman’s suplex. Rosemary with a spear looks like she’s gonna win Pony Tail distracts the ref JesSICka shoves Pony Tail. Tasha gets on the apron distracts Rosemary. Evans attempts a full Nelson slam, as Giselle Shaw is on the ramp, Rosemary gets out of the move whips arcane towards Shaw Evans stops short Rosemary charges knocking Evans into Shaw who flys off the apron opening up a full nelson slam on Rosemary for the 3. After the match The Four of Them beat down the Death Dolls. Another good match. Our Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the night is Moose Vs Rhino from Hard to Kill 2020. Taylor Wilde is doing some super natural four elements gimmick and I’m all for it. We get another really good Mickie James video package which isn’t on YouTube but it explains Mickie James Last Rodeo angle where If she loses she’ll retire leading to the match with Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace who herself is on a tear. This is gonna be a challenge for James. The Design, Deaner Kon and Angels come out for Sami Callihans initiation into the group. They are gonna cut Sami’s hair. Deaners like a cult leader with this group. He’s in all white a speaking in a holier than thou style. I think this is a nice evolution from Eric Young’s Violent by Design group. The lights go out and come back on and Sabu is standing in the middle of the ring pointing towards the ceiling. In all actuality it’s Sami with his baseball bat. Deaner tells him to give his bat to Kon. Deaner says something about making the right choices along the way then he compares Sami to Sampson saying he has to cut his hair to become weak. Sami says don’t you break yourself down to see make yourself stronger. Alot of talk about seeing this until the end. Crowd doesn’t want Sami to join The Design. A traitor chant starts as Sami takes a seat to get his hair cut. A you sold out- cut it dueling chant starts. A louder you sold out chant briefly breaks out as Deaner tells Sami that the people don’t care about him. I think the crowd got bored cuz they are cutting Sami’s hair with scissors and a get the clippers chant starts. Deaner reveals clippers and it gets a pop. The clippers got a pop. Sami shaves his own head. Sami has patches on his head and Deaner makes him look at himself in the mirror. Sami doesn’t like it he’s about to fight he’s got the Scissors. But he hands them to Deaner. I don’t know if I liked this segment or not it may have gone on a little too long. I don’t know where they are going with all of this Callihan in The Design stuff but I’ll see it through I’ll see where it all goes. Gail Kim is backstage with the backstage interviewer whose name I don’t not know. Scott D’Amore was powerbombed through a table and everyone is dying to know if Gail Kim is going to step in as Director of Authority. Gail says it’s not her back at Hard to Kill the new DOA will be reveled. It’s now time for match number 3 as Speedball Mike Bailey takes on the returning Anthony Greene in different trunks than last week. Greene gets it. Bailey gets the advantage quick but adjusts his knee pad and Greene comes in with a flurry of strikes. They start slugging on each other until Bailey hits a succession of martial arts kicks on Greene. They end up on the outside and Bailey gets sent shoulder first into the steel steps. Greene hits a beautiful tope to the outside. Greene has the offensive control and a let’s go Speedball chant breaks out. Greene gets Bailey into a single leg crab but Bailey gets to the ropes. Bailey starts a comeback with a moonsault to the outside. Back in the ring and Bailey hits a top rope drop kick followed by a series of kicks. Bailey is in full control of this one standing twisting shooting star press well I lied Bailey got a running start but it was off the mat not the turnbuckle so still impressive. Greene fights back goes for a school boy roll up but Bailey goes head first into the bottom turnbuckle. Another Speedball chant. Some back and forth Greene hits a Power Bomb with Bailey coming off the ropes. Bailey kicks out. A this is awesome chant starts and I wouldn’t say a dueling chant starts but a speedball chant starts up almost trying to steamroll the this is awesome chant. Bailey hits this standing moonsault but his knees land on Greenes chest then he kicks the shit out of Greene a bunch hits the kneesault move off the middle rope which he calls The Ultimate Weapon for the 3. Yeah I dug this match. Anthony Greene got a lot of offense in during his two outings in Impact. I’d like to see him back. Impacts back in Florida taping TV January 20 & 21 maybe Greene comes back. It goes without saying that Mike Bailey is good, I’ve seen him wrestle before I know he’s good I’ve never seen nor heard of Anthony Greene until these last two weeks of Impact and I was impressed. We get Voiceover from Kevin Kelly hyping up New Japan on AXS featuring Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay from Wrestle Kingdom a really good match btw check it out if you haven’t already. Next up is a really good video package for Josh Alexander Vs Bully Ray at Hard to Kill. Match number 4 is Main Event Time as Moose Steve Macklin And Eddie Edwards Vs Rich Swann Johnathan Gresham and Joe Hendry. Each member from both teams is wrestler a member of the opposite team at the PPV. Macklin Vs Swann, Gresham Vs Edwards and Moose Vs Hendry. Hendry goes to speak and the crowd chants Dancing Moose. Hendry calls Macklin and Eddie Moose’s back up dancers. Back Up Dancers chant breaks up. Gresham and Edwards start this match off but Edwards who has been avoiding Gresham, tags in Macklin and Gresham and Macklin wrestle for a few moments then Gresham tags Hendry in and he wrestles with Macklin for awhile and then Rich Swann is tagged in. The first two Hard to Kill opponents to square off in this match. They barely go at it as Macklin tags Edwards in. The heel side seems to be avoiding their upcoming opponents so far in this match. Some back and forth between the two a faint This Is Awesome chant starts I don’t necessarily agree Swann did a couple of arm drags nothing to start a chant about. Gresham is tagged in so Eddie quickly tags in Macklin. Gresham ties up Macklin in his octopus stretch, heels run In Which leads to the babyface’s running in which in itself leads to a stare down and we get the Hard To Kill Opponents swinging on it each in the middle of the ring. A bunch of movez happen everyone hits everyone with shit. Swann dives to the outside onto Eddie and Moose then he’s a running big boot from Macklin as we go to break. Back from break we are back in the ring and Macklin chops the fuck outta Swanns chest. Edwards is tagged in and chokes Swann with his wrist tape as the ref is distracted with trying to keep the babyfaces out of the ring. Moose is tagged in and the crowd taunt him with a Dancing Moose chant. I really hope this catches on and they cried starts chanting Dancing Moose at the subsequent TV Tapings. Heels need taunt chants gives them something to play off the crowd with. Moose yells at the crowd while making quick work of Swann. Swann is getting the Ricky Morton, the heels are isolating him in their corner they are tagging in and out staying fresh as they wear down Swann. Macklin has Swann in a chinlifi Swann breaks free almost makes the tag but Edwards tags in and cuts Swann off before he can tag out. A Lets Go Swann chant breaks out. Swann fights back against Macklin both men down after simultaneous clotheslines. Macklin crawls to his corner Swann the sane Edwards tagged back in cuts Swanns tag attempt off again. Swann with an enzaguri to Edwards. Swann tags in Gresham who cleans house until Moose comes in tosses Gresham onto Edwards’s shoulder for a Blue Thunder Bomb. Moose drags Gresham to the heel corner and the Ricky Morton starts all over again but it’s short lived as Gresham breaks out tags in Hendry and Hendry cleans house. Moose and Hendry end up in the ring. everyone starts hitting shit on everyone else again. A cool spot Is Gresham sunset flips Macklin and springboards himself into a cutter on Edwards. Moose spears Hendry for the 3. After the match Eddie is in the ring alone the lights starts to flicker off as what I will describe as thunder and lightening sounds play over the PA and then everything goes back to normal and Eddie is very confused as we go off the air. Good match fun main event. Good way to hype up the PPV putting opponents from PPV matches across the ring from one another. Another solid episode of Impact doing a great job building up to the PPV one night away plus featuring good matches given time.

Impact uploaded this match to their YouTube page today.

Just to hypothetically book an angle I’d be all for Mark and FTR challenging The Elite for the Trios Championship.

They talked about that show on Cabanas podcast they were wrestling for ECWA for 6 months then MCW ran a show at their high school as they were attending so of course they wrestled the MCW show and got black balled from ECWA.

From 2015-19 I went to the ROH Anniversary shows in Las Vegas as Sam’s Town Casino well the first one was at the Orleans but they moved to Sam’s Town from there. Back to my story it’s 2016, the show just got over and there’s 1,000 ROH fans on the Casino floor. There’s a TGI Fridays at the Casino with seating that is essentially on the casino floor but is separated by a railing. Well they seated Jay and his wife at a table right on the railing so everyone who walks by sees Jay and his wife having dinner after the show. I saw a good amount of people as they walked by fist bumped Jay or get a picture with him and every time he’d engage with a fan then go back to dinner and it didn’t seem to bother him being interrupted from dinner with his wife. As I walked by I fist bumped Jay and he was in the main event so I commented on the match said thanks or something I can’t it was very brief but Jay was a gentleman. I think what I’m trying to say is I was impressed on how he handled the situation he took it in stride. He could’ve moved seats but he said fuck it sat there and interacted with the fans as he tired to have dinner with his wife.

This one hurts. I'm not excusing his comments in 2013, he shouldn't have said what he said but I was a fan of his as a wrestler I'm not gonna lie. Big fan of the Briscoes and of Jay as a solo. A buddy of mine once pointed out and i didn't realize until he said it Jay was a big guy who moved around the ring like a man half his size. The second ROH Title run was awesome. Dude could wrestle. And he could cut a hell of a promo too. Below is my favorite Briscoe Brothers promo

I decided I wanted to watch more Impact Wrestling in 2023 so I subscribed to the Ultimate Insiders on YouTube and I’m already two weeks behind. We are in Pembroke Pines, Florida. I really liked the opening bout between Taylor Wilde and Masha Slamovich. I remember Taylor Wilde from the Awesome Kong matches and from working at Sunglass Hut. It’s nice to see her back in Impact. This was the first time I believe that I’ve seen Masha and I’m a fan I like her look I like her style. Wilde and Slamovich have great chemistry together. Hard hitting match,That stomp on the apron to Slamoviches head was. I enjoyed Deonna Purrazzo on commentary she played into the finish as Slamovich came out of the ring to talk shit then she goes back in the ring and gets Rolled up for the 3 the Slam gets her heat back but beating up the ring crew. Sami Callihan has issues with Cody Deaners crew he wants to join but Deaner is making him job through hoops. Why join a club that doesn’t seem to want you to join? Two weeks ago Steve Macklin and Rich Swann had a pull apart and now Swann challenges Macklin to match at Hard to Kill. I’m sure that match will be good once I get to it. Crazzy Steve Is in the ring and there’s a neon light on the ring and Steve looks like he got into Jeff Hardy’s paint and they brings out Black Tarus who is like a wrestling Minotaur. So Black Tarus is wrestling Anthony Greene who is debuting in Impact tonight. Greene gets some offense in early on actually he holds his own for a while even sends Tarus over the top rope to the outside of the ring. Green got a lot more in than I thought he would. Two segment match and a lot of it was Greene. Tarus had the size advantage but Greene had the speed. Green walked across the top rope and hit a cross body followed by a super kick. Tarus makes a comeback with a couple sling blades and a pop up Damian Drop which perks up the crowd. Backbreaker followed by a piledriver which Tarus calls The Destination Hellhole for the 3. Good match. Impressive outing from Green I was expecting a squash truth be told but we got a competitive match instead. After the match Trey Miguel hits Anthony Greene with his X Division Championship belt and sorry paints his back as Crazzy Steve yells things. I haven’t been following but Miguel must be in a program with Steve and Tarus. Kenny King is at Speedball Mike Baileys school in Montreal, Quebec but Speedballs not there so Kenny attacks his students and calls out Mike Bailey we go to break. Back from break back in Florida Mike Bailey storms through the backstage area looks directly into the camera and challenges Kenny King to a pit fight. We go back to the ring for match 3 both men are in the ring it’s Jonathan Gresham Vs Ernest R Anthony who looks like a dweeb. He proves to be a dweeb as he crackles as he gets Gresham in a headlock. “Ah ha”. Gresham takes control focuses on Ernest’s leg and stretches him out. Gresham has Ernest in a pretzel and pins him. Quick match what I thought Tarus Vs Greene would’ve been. This was a showcase for Gresham. Backstage Tasha Steelz and Savanna Evans are backstage and Giselle Shaw and a dude with a pony tail show up and there’s some bickering going on. They all have a common enemy in the Death Dolls and it looks like they will all be on the same page to take them out. Now we get a video package for Cody Deaner and The Design. next week on Impact: The Design cuts Sami Callihan’s hair. Video Package on Josh Alexander and his record breaking World Title Reign. Thought it was really good really well done. Puts Alexander over as a big deal. He comes out looking like The Man as he should he’s the Impact World Heavyweight Champion. Moose is in the ring looking business casual in his suit and Jordan’s. He cuts a promo on Joe Henry. They are wrestling at Hard to Kill. Moose gets some What chants during his promo. Moose is saying that life has been easy for Joe and life has been hard for Moose had to earn everything Joe had had everything handed to him. Moose also says he’s found his true calling, being a total scumbag which made me chuckle. What a thing to be proud of. The camera cuts to a guy in the crowd dressed like Travis Bickle who is not impressed by Moose. Moose says His Name and Joe Henry shows up with his Digital Media Championship and he wants to show the real Moose, let the moose loose and he has a new entrance theme for Moose. Crowd is into it. Henry’s gimmick is he’s a song and dance man he does his own theme song. I’ve seen him a couple times in ROH and Henry was in Impact a few years ago with Grado. Moose wasn’t impressed. Moose goes to leave calls for his music and Henry’s song for him plays. All and all not a bad segment. What a really well done Mickie James career retrospective video. Great use of old Asylum Era footage, they talk about WWE without showing any footage of course. Spans her entire career Hardcore Country and all. She evens talks about meeting Nick Aldis. This was really well done. Mickie James has a storied history with TNA/Impact and I think it’s cool that she’s wrapping her career up in this promotion. It got a little dusty in the room when I watched the Don West tribute video. We now go to match 4 which is Matt Cardona vs Chris Sabin in their first ever one on one match up. Match starts off pretty unevenly match we end up on the outside, Cardona goes for a powerbomb on the ramp Sabin reverses it into a back body drop. Cardona eats up on the receiving end of the ramp bump. We then go to break back from break they are back in the ring and Cardona is in control. Anytime the smaller faster Sabin tried to start speeding up with the high flying the bigger stronger Cardona would slow it down with holds. And the occasional clothesline. Sabin gets a quick kick in on Cardona’s left knee and starts to control the match. There’s one women in the crowd who’s 100% behind Sabin on the offense. You can hear here. Cardona sends Sabin into the turnbuckle. Reboot attempt and Sabin tosses Cardona out of the ring as we take another break. It’s a 3 segment match! We are back from real both men back in the ring. Cardona almost decapitates Sabin with a knee strike. Sabin dives to the outside onto both Matt Cardona and Brian Myers. Some more back and forth in the ring until Sabin hits the Cradle Shock which looks like a falcon arrow for the 3. Really good match that was given time. That was fun. Bully Ray interrupts the run down of the Hard to Kill rundown threatens the commentators and demands a microphone. Crowd chants “Bully’s a Bitch”. Bully Ray calls out Josh Alexander. Scott D’Amore gave both Bully and Josh the night off. Scott D’Amore comes out and he is not happy. Scott gets on Bully’s aaa for showing up. Bully is being a dick cuz he’s a dick. Scott tells Bully this run in Impact could be a redemption story or a cautionary tale. And Says Devon won’t be in the same room with Bully unless someone gives him a big bag of money. Now I want to see a vignette of Bully cutting a promo with Devon in the background counting money out of a big bag. Anthem give Devon a big bag of money let’s get a Team 3D heel run. Motor City is right there, Motor City kicking out of the 3D led to the break up of 3D in TNA so reunite 3D to exact revenge on Motor City for breaking them up. Bully Ray now talks and says he’s winning the Impact World Championship for a 3rd time come Hard to Kill. Says he doesn’t need Scott’s respect. Scott and Bully get heated like hella heated. The earnest Canadian against the brash New York bully. Scott punches Bully in the face to goons come out and hold Scott as Bully lays him out. Bully Piledrives Scott. The goons grab a table and there’s a pop. The crowd chants we want tables as a defenseless Scott D’Amore withers in pain in the ring. What is with wrestling crowds and tables? Scott D’Amore is powerbombed through the table. Bully Ray grabs the mic. he asks Scott if he knows who he is? Bully answers his own question saying he’s Bully Ray the next Impact World Champion and with that we go off the air. I enjoyed that segment more than I thought I would. Wasn’t a bad show the matches were good the two in ring segments were fine. The video packages were really well done and they had a steady build to Hard to Kill.

It’s whatever you want it to be.

Should Battle in the Valley get its own thread?

Brian Cage Vs Schaff was awesome live. I made a point to rewatch it once Dark Elevation was available. It was the second match taped but the first match aired. Bollywood Boys Vs The Kingdom was the first match. But back to the match. Schaff was over in Seattle I’ve never seen him wrestler he’ll I thought his name was Shang but I really liked this match. Cage made Schaff look like a million bucks and Schaff looked like a star. I think Schaff is probably gonna get some Indy bookings after this match.

I think the shows are still good and it’s one of the better booker American Promotions

I just bought tickets for Battle in the Valley in San Jose next month. After the 2 tickets I bought there were 195 tickets left. It’s a 3,000 seat venue it’s gonna be packed in there I can’t wait. I’ve always wanted to go to a New Japan show and I have family in San Jose so I pulled the trigger. Mone Vs Kairi is gonna be crazy live.

Sal Y Limon

I ate at a Mexican restaurant down the street from that Metropolitan Market before the show an it was pretty pretty pretty good

So the man who I thought was Shang his name is Schaff watch Brian Cage vs Schaff it’s really good. The crowd was loud for the local guys. The Bollywood Boyz got a loud reaction throughout their match. Schaff got a loud response when he came out and got a “Defy” chant during his match. Defy is the local indie out here. Swerve got a “Defy” chant too and he seemed taken aback by it in a good way.

When Elevation drops I’d suggest everyone watches Brain Cage vs Shang

That crowd was loud I didn’t stay for the Dark tapings after Dynamite

The former instead of the latter I got tickets for the show I’ll be In Attendance.

“Go Red Go”

I didn’t like the omission of Dutch Savage from the Portland episode.

I’ve watched all the Tales of the Territories so far they’ve been really good. The Andy Kaufman one is my favorite episode, that angle just worked out as perfectly as it could possibly have. Lawler going on Letterman and slapping Andy out of his chair made that angle Immortal. On the Calgary episode, I’d only like to point out that Dave Shultz is a not in the best way possible, he’s from rural Tennessee he had never experienced a Canadian Winter before and he elected to drive his own car than ride in a bus driven by a Native Canadian who has driven in the winter time up there their whole lives.

Impact Machine is up and running and it’s 2008 IMPACT!’s on Wednesday’s so let’s go! This is the March 6th 2008 edition, the Destination X go home show. Show starts off with a cold open in Kurt Angles dressing room with Tomko and AJ Styles this is back when AJ was in love with Karen Angle and this furthers that. Jim Cornette is in the ring with Matt Morgan. Cornette puts over the show we are gonna get AJ Vs Kevin Nash, Tomko Vs Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle Vs Christian Cage all in gimmick matches. So Kurt set up the matches in his segments we had graphics after the opening and then Cornette announces the matches that 3 times in like 5 minutes. I guess they didn’t want anyone to forget. Cornette then Brings out Booker T, the week before Robert Roode whipped Booker T with a strap so at the PPV three days from broadcast. There’s more strips added involving Traci Brooks and Payton Banks but there’s too much to follow. Book is about to talk then Robert Roode comes out to the entrance. He says screw you a lot and the crowd taunts him to with “you suck” and “Bobby” chants. Book charges Robert and they slug it out on the ramp as security and Matt Morgan break them up. Didn’t these two feud like this for like 6 months? Just a never ending feud? That’s how I remember it. Backstage with Joe Nash and Cage. These 3 are facing Kurt and his boys at Destination X in 3 days time. So they are all wrestling each other tonight. Cage cuts the bulk of the promo but he should cut the bulk of the promo, he’s a good promo. Joe and Nash stand there looking scary which isn’t hard for them. Nash cuts a promo as Hulk Hogan to end it. “AJ Styles whatcha gonna do when Kevin Nash and his 17 time surgical repaired knee drops down on you?” AJ Styles Vs Kevin Nash in a street fight is next. Both men are dressed for a street fight both are rocking jeans and cut off tshirts. The channel started crapping out at the beginning of this match by the time it came back Pluto was at break doesn’t mean the match is over Pluto’s ad breaks don’t also match with the programs ad breaks. But I missed the beginning of the match but I saw fragments of the beginning and it looks like Nash was standing there and AJ bumped off him. Back from break, IMPACT! Was coming back from break as well and AJ has the offensive edge. A clip Is aired of what happened during the break, AI drove off the railing onto Kevin Nash into the crowd. That was during the break. The high spot of the night was during the break, on a taped show. Nash is back in control. Jack Knife and Nash’s knee gives out. AJ targets the knee. Phenomenal Forearm caught into a Choke Slam Kevin Bash gets the 3. I didn’t see much of this match but I don’t know how much of a match this was. Black Reign is backstage with Crystal and he cuts a promo on Eric Young in a spooky voice. Black Reign threatened to eat Kaz’s face off at Destination X. Crystal is backstage with Black Machismo Jay Lethal and So Cal Val. TNA should’ve went all the way with Black Mashimo and made him World Champion. Payton Banks and Traci Brooks are fighting backstage. I watched an IMPACT! From November 2007 and Payton Banks was an obsessive fan in the crowd. All this Bobby Roode shits been going on since November it’s now March. JB is backstage with Eric Young he’s afraid of the monsters in TNA, Judas Mesias Black Reign and Rellik, which is killer spelt backwards. I think this is the start of the Super Eric Angle as JB tells Eric he has to find an alter ego deep inside to face the monsters. Match number 2 is a Destination X Battle Royal everyone involved has a match at Destination X and the winner will be able to add a stipulation to their PPV match participants include; Curry Man Alex Shelley Black Regin Chris Sabin Eric Young Hernandez Homicide Jay Lethal Jimmy Rave Lance Hoyt Rellik and Sharkboy. Team 3D come out to participate but they don’t make weight so they said screw you guys and go home. I’m not gonna try to keep tabs on eliminates. So much is going on. SonJay Dutt comes out to get donations from the fans as he’s in his love guru gimmick and flirts with his boy Jay Lethals girl Val. Scott Steiner comes to ringside as Petey is his boy. Raka Khan is there too. Steiner helps Petey eliminate Eric Young so he served a purpose. The final 3 are Curry Man Rellik and Jimmy Rave. The smaller guys team up on Rellik but that doesn’t last long as Curry tosses Rave to the outside. Rellik tosses Curry Man to the outside but Curry MAn lands on Jimmy Rave his fight never touch the floor. Curry man comes back in and lariats Rellik over the top to win. Curry Man grabs the mic says Japanese Wrestlers names Stone Cold Sharkboy grabs the mic and cuts one hell of a promo and adds a stip to the match at destination X and that’s a fish market street fight. That’s the fishing line cuz Sharkboy said so. The Fish Market Street Fight rules so the battle Royal served a very important purpose JB with the Beautiful People and Roxxi and they are giving her a makeover next week. Next Match is Tomko vs Samoa Joe in a first blood match. He who bleeds first loses the match. So we cut to break but Pluto doesn’t cut to break so we are gonna have a random cut to break somewhere. This match starts off with both guys fucking each other up at ringside. Joe tosses Tomko into the commentators desk to start. Tomko power slams Joe on the ramp it gets a replay so I assume it’s the high spot of the match. Joe says hold my beer and piledrives Tomko on the ramp. That does not get a replay. We are now in the ring and Tomko clotheslines Joe that gets a replay. Tomko is in full control now. Tomko has Joe in a headlock and is punching him in the head. Smart strategy actually cut the circulation off open up the head blood comes pouring out. Joe gets out of it however. Tomko grabs a chair. Chair is wedged in ring post. Joe sends Tomko headfirst into chair. Joe also kicks the chair into Tomko’s face. Tomko swings the chair at Joes head Joe blocks it with his arm that gets a replay. Tomko got 3 replays in this match. Joe gets Tomko in a choke ref calls the match. Joe is bleeding from the arm and the ref calls the match in Tomkos favor. Finish deflated the crowd. I was let down as the match was fun up until the finish. We get an Elevation X match video package it’s a scaffold match. It’s Rhino Vs James Storm. They are playing up on Storm being afraid of heights. Here is the random Pluto ad break, Mike is setting up throwing to BG James and we go to break. We get a segment called Rough Cut it’s a look back at BG James and Kip James’ professional and personal relationship. This must’ve been when they broke up cuz they aren’t getting along in these segments taking jabs at each other. JB backstage with James Mitchell and Judas Mesias. Abyss is missing. Mitchell did the world of Abyss. This is when it was revealed that James Mitchell was Abyss’s father as well as being Mesiases father making Abyss and Judas brothers. Mesias is facing Rhino tonight. And with that we get Match Number 3 Rhino Vs Judas Mesias. Rhino stole James Storms drinking championship the week prior and Rhino cuts an intense promo where he calls the championship and piece of crap destroys the belt and claims he will drop Storm 15 feet head first into the ring. Rhino is the face in this angle btw. We get still photos of three weeks ago when Abyss took his mask off and left the IMPACT? Zone. Abyss is missing incase you forgot. Mesias has blood coming out of his mouth at the bell. He’d have lost the first blood match. This ends up outside the ring fast. The brawl around ringside for a while. Back in the ring, Rhino is in charge. Mesias with a boot to the face and he takes control of the match. Mesias gets in a good bit of offense. He goes to the top rope, frog splash attempt Rhino rolls out of the way. This sets up The Gore and Rhino gets the 3. Match was short and Sweet. James Storm runs in and lays Rhino out with a super kick yo end the segment. Crystal with Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeeed. Saeed cuts promos on the Knockouts division and it ends with Kong and Hernandez having a staredown. Match Number 5 is Awesome Kong vs Salinas. Salinas with side kicks to start. Salinas takes an ass whopping. She gets tossed around. Salinas starts throwing haymakers. Doesn’t work. King with a spinning back fist followed by an Awesome Bomb and Kong gets the 3. Crystal is backstage with ODB and Gail Kim they are facing Kong for the Knockouts Title at Destination X. ODB has a dip in. Mike Tenay and Don West run down the Destination X card. Main Event Time! It’s Christian Cage Vs Kurt Angle in a Six Sides of Steel Match. This starts off with chain wrestling then it starts to pick up and these guys beat the hell out of each other. A little more aggressive inside of the cage, shows what a cage does to how you prepare. Idk if that’s the approach they had going into the match but that’s how it comes off in exaction. Kurt Angle powerbombz Christian into the cage. We see a replay of that. Kurt hits a suplex in the middle of the ring. Kurt’s in control uses the cage to his advantage tosses Cage repeatedly into it. Headlock time! Christian fights out of it but no go Christian gets slingshotted into the cage. Kurt goes for the Angle Slam but Christian reverses into a DDT this gets a replay. Christian is now in full control of the match. Christian with a frog splash off the top. This too gets a replay. Angle sends Christian into the cage again. Christian with an arm drag, he’s got counters for that Angle Slam. Kurt on top of cage Christian pulls him down. Both men on top rope. They are battling it out. Christian goes up top Kurt Finally gets the Angle Slam from the top of the turnbuckle. Another replay. Kurt at the door Christian drags Kurt to the middle of the ring. Ankle lock Christian rolls out gets to the door so close another ankle lock Christian is drug back in. Unprettier countered and Christian goes face first into cage. Angle with the German Suplexes Christian gets out before the 3rd German attempt. Both men on cage again Kurt has an ankle lock in on top rope. Christian does like a tuck and roll and Kurt takes the biggest flat back bump I’ve seen in some time. Christian tied up in the ropes Kurt tries to go through door but he’s blocking Kurt from leaving so Kurt climbs the Cage. Christie. Chases after him both are on the outside of the cage elbowing each other in the head. They both go tumbling down and Earl Hebner gives the match to Christian. This match was a ton of fun. Angle Tomko and AJ lock Christian in the cage with them and soften him up for Sunday Joe Is at ring side trying to get in the cage he scales the cage Tomko stops him and we go off the air.

Been a while since I have fired up the old Pluto Machine and wrote a review of whats on Impact's Pluto Channel. This is the final Lockdown as of 2022, Lockdown was to come back in 2020 and well Covid happened. I wasn't watching TNA at this point in time in 2016 as I was in college and did't get Pop TV in the dorms. I'm watching this for the first time. Beer Money vs Bram and Eric Young was a good match, great way to open the show. Storm, Roode and Young were mainstays in TNA for a long time. Shit Storm and Young are back in Impact now. Bobby Roode could go back tomorrow and be welcomed with open arms. If Billy Corgan was still involved with the company Bram would be a main event player in the company right now. What I'm trying to say is this was a match between a bunch of guys that you could put anywhere on the card and they will deliver and they were seemingly getting Bram ready for a run by having in the ring with 3 guys as talented as Roode, Storm and Young are to have him under the learning tree, but Corgan left TNA/Impact for reasons and brought the NWA and now Bram is prominently featured in Corgans NWA. EC3 made it clear that he was a babyface now by thanking Rockstar Spud for saving his ass the week prior. EC3 is facing Matt Hardy in the Main Event for the TNA World Heavyweight Title, and from what i've been able to gather from this promo, as I didn't follow TNA regularly at the time and this is all new to me, is that the Hardy Feud has humbled him and now he is truly ready for the challenge. He gets Kurt Angle's blessing backstage later in the show so he's making amends with all past advisories throughout the night. I had internet connection problems during Shane Helms' promo with JB and i caught the tail end of Jimmy Havoc's promo. Jimmy Havoc was in TNA? That's new to me or maybe I did know that I can't remember. Trevor Lee vs Tigre Uno. This wasn't a bad match. I remember back in 14 I saw Tigre on an episode of IMPACT! on Spike in a multi man X Division bout so he was in TNA longer than I thought. Is trevor Lee still in NXT? This wasn't a bad match nothing really stands out but nothing pissed me off either it was just kinda there. At the top of the 2nd Hour we get the Lethal Lockdown match. The final Lethal Lockdown match was also the first Knockouts Lethal Lockdown so we have them to blame. I tease actually this wasn't a bad match even with Rebel involved (I tease again) but I don't know how I feel about it being a handicap match. Madison Rayne was taking out by The Dollhouse backstage before the match. They had Gail Kim go up to Maria and pretty much told her to step up and take Madison's place and well lets just say that Maria teases stepping up but then she locks the cage and starts the "match beyond, if you weel" so they set up the feud between Gail Kim and Maria with this but IDK it felt kinda idk anglely but Velvet and Kim did hit Rebel with Kendo Sticks so they got some revenge on The Dollhouse before the numbers advantage took over and The Dollhouse win. This wasn't the best Lethal Lockdown that may be EV2 vs Fortune and actually this may have been the worse just from being 3 on 2 and being hindered by TV restraints. We get a Decay video, TNA really got a lot out of of having the licensing rights to a Marylin Manson song. We get a flashback in saturated colors of Lashley vs Kurt Angle for the TNA World Title. IDK when this took place but from the highlights it looked pretty good. Kurt Angle now comes out to the ring. Kurt is on his farewell tour he brought this up the fans boo that then he says he's happy it's in the UK and the crowd pops he brings up beating Bobby Lashley for the World Title the year before in the UK which brings out Lashley. Lashley seems to think Kurt has become soft, he want's Kurt to light a fire inside so they can have one last epic but he doesn't think Kurt is there yet. Kurt seems fired up he want's Lashley right here right now this gets the crowd excited but Lashley leaves. Pretty good build towards Kurt's final TNA match. Grado is doing a Midnight Rider gimmick he's under the Hood and Odarg the Great and he's wrestling Eli Drake who is dead set on revealing to the world that Odarg and Grado are the same person. Drake cuts a promo before the match expressing just that. I love angles like this, It's so clearly Grado and the nonsense is just too much from Drake to entertain but he's such a dick that you enjoy him being annoyed and are in on the joke of Odarg and Grado being different people as it antagonizes Drake and that's just too much fun not to do. This was a fun match they did't try to reinvent the wheel or anything. Not Hector Garza came out to Ordargs aid, Odarg climbs the cage Drake follows grabs the mask and Odarg drops to the ground maskless and is revealed to be Grado. Abyss see's Jimmy Havoc backstage and tells him to stay away from Rosemary which leaves havoc in a pool of his own blood. There's a backstage segment where Drake gets Grado kicked out of the building, Billy Corgan is there and Ron and Don Harris escort Grado out of the building. Ron and Don Harris were still employed by TNA in 2016 and were flown to the UK. That's wild. of all the people I thought I'd see appear on this episode I was not expecting Ron and Don Harris to show up. Miracle Mike Bennett promo I wasn't really paying attention as I was writing about The Harris Brothers making a cameo on IMPACT! in 2016. But Mike Bennett is here in TNA and he's a miracle or something. Main Event time! EC3 gets along entrance from backstage to the ring so does Hardy. Match has a big fight feel. Hardy is wearing his Broken Make jacket but he's not Broken yet. Tyrus or Brodus Clay is his heavy. I do think this should have gotten boxing style intros with both men in the ring that is the TNA way for a world title match but TNA has always followed it's own rules very loosely. The match was good, EC3 looked like a million bucks. He kept up with Matt, he even the odds with the big man Tyrus by locking him to the turnbuckle and hitting him with a chair. The crowd was behind EC3 but i mean EC3 was built up all night lime this was going to be his night. EC3 kicked out of a Twist of fate with a chair on his neck. he lowblows Hardy this is his match to lose, Reby who I thought was Maria from a far, comes out with a hammer and Rockstar Spud runs out and stops Reby but Spud turns on EC3 by slamming the door on his head and Matt Hardy retains the Championship. Well in Keeping in TNA tradition they build a guy up to win the World Title and then do not deliver on the build. I liked this until the heel turn Spud hits EC3 in the head with a chair as we go off the air. A heel World Champion has a. stable of goons to do his bidding, sound familiar?