Hello Impact fans and curious rubberneckers! I’m Elle Collins, and this is the Knockout Report. I’ll fill you in on everything that happens in Impact Wrestling, but I’m always going to lead with the Knockouts Division, because they deserve it. You can follow me on Twitter here, With Spandex here, and Uproxx here. You can watch Impact Wrestling on Pop every Thursday at 10 p.m. Then on Fridays, read this column and share it with everyone you know.
Last weekend was the Bound for Glory PPV in New York City, where Johnny Impact won the World Championship from Austin Aries, and Allie rescued Kiera Hogan from the Undead Realm, but left her soul (and Rosemary) behind.
Without further ado, here’s the Knockout Report for October 18, 2018.
Taya Valkyrie Defeated Katarina
Back in the States with no Murder Clown by her side, Katarina is just another heel Knockout (non-beast-from-hell division). The important thing here is that she’s substantial enough an opponent to make Taya’s victory seem impressive, as she comes off her PPV loss to Tessa Blanchard. Taya’s always fun to watch, and I’m excited to finally have her around for weekly Impact TV.
After the match, Taya opened up about her lack of respect for Tessa Blanchard. Considering Tessa’s behavior since arriving in Impact, the subtext here would seem to be that Taya used to respect Tessa because they were both heels, but now Taya’s a good guy (pigtails and all), so her outlook has changed. Blanchard’s not in this episode, but you can bet she’s going to be here next week to say what she thinks about Taya’s lack of respect. It looks like there’s another match or two in their future, and I’m definitely here for that.
Scarlett Bordeaux Isn’t Satisfied With Petey Williams
Set the “What is Impact doing with Scarlett Bordeaux?” clock back again, because it seems she won’t be managing Petey Williams, at least not yet. He won the fatal fourway to impress her last week, but now she’s decided to throw open her talent search to fans as well as wrestlers. I genuinely have no idea where this leads, nor do I envy whoever has to sort through the wide variety videos that wrestling fans are going to send to Scarlett Bordeaux. Apparently next week there’s a “viewing part,” so we’ll see how that goes. And yeah, I’ve let go of worrying about when Scarlett will get in the ring. Jordynne Grace is on her way, and Impact most likely hired her to wrestle. It’s clear at this point that whatever the long-term plan is, they hired Scarlett Bordeaux for something else.
Allie Defeated Alisha Edwards
When Kiera first found Allie backstage, it was obvious something was wrong. Allie’s hair had gotten darker, but her personality seemed more chipper than it’s been since Rosemary died. In fact, she seemed so upbeat and unworried about their recent experience in the Undead Realm that it obviously worried Kiera.
That worry was paid off in the ring when Allie went full psychopath on poor Alisha Edwards. She seemed like the old Allie at first, but after escaping from a hold something vicious took hold of her and she went after Alisha like a wild animal. She also repeatedly hit herself in the face and twitched unnaturally. Even after she got the pin, she literally tried to strangle her opponent. We already knew Allie doesn’t have a soul, but this was new. Did something evil take the place of her soul in the Undead Realm, or did she mess something up by touching her soul when she saw it, despite Father James Mitchell warning her not to?
Whatever’s going on, Allie’s doing a great job playing it, and I’m excited to see where it goes. Her storyline for months has been about saving her friends, so if they now have to fight her, that’s a perfect sequel to this particular horror movie. If Rosemary returns and has to fight an evil Allie in order to give her back her soul, that’s even better.
Meanwhile, In Guyville
Johnny Impact Has a New Challenger
We still don’t have any hard facts, but at this point I genuinely don’t think Austin Aries’ petulant behavior after losing at Bound For Glory was any kind of work. Johnny did call him out on it, but indirectly and without saying his name. There was no sense of an impending rematch during this segment. None of that necessarily means that we won’t see Aries again (Impact loves to bring people back), but I don’t get the impression it’ll be in the next few weeks, to say the least.
So next week Johnny Impact faces Fenix for the belt. Obviously it’s just a showy face-vs-face match between two good friends to put in between real feuds, but I’m excited to watch it. I’ve been saying Fenix deserves to be elevated, and fighting for the top belt in the main event (even if it’s just a one-shot for now) is a hell of a step toward the goal.
Ethan Page Defeated Trevor Lee
Trevor Lee is still on a losing streak (and at least for this week seems to have lost Caleb Konley as well), but at least in this match commentary was talking about his losing streak like it’s a storyline rather than just an unfortunate fact of booking. Hopefully that means something better is coming for Lee, and not that he’s just become Impact’s Curt Hawkins
Killer Kross Defeated Tommy Dreamer
If Aries really is gone, what does that mean for his henchmen, Kross and Moose? It’s a little hard to buy them as best buddies without AA to triangulate around, but I’m sure they’ll either adjust to the new reality or have a violent falling out soon. They are both huge bald men who love violence, so they do have potential as partners. Speaking of partners, I was surprised Eddie Edwards didn’t show up to save Uncle Tommy from his beatdown. Come to think of it, it was a bad week all around for people Eddie Edwards loves. Maybe he’ll show up next week to react to that.
Eli Drake Is Planning Legal Action
Given more than a few real-life stories (most recently involving Jeff Jarrett), it’s really quite a choice for Impact to do a storyline about one of their performers suing them. If you’re going to do it though, Eli Drake is the guy to do it with. If this ends 0n a fake courtroom set with Eli Drake calling the judge a dummy, I can’t say I’ll be sad.
Brian Cage Defeated Rich Swann to Retain the X-Division Championship
Obviously these two had a solid match, but there was never any doubt that Cage was retaining. Rich Swann seems destined for this belt, but his time hasn’t come yet. As predicted, the Machine’s next real opponent is Sami Callihan, who proudly showed off the footage of himself pinning the champ in Sunday’s six-man tag match. oVe have a way of elevating whoever they feud with, and I have a feeling Cage is going to come out of this looking great.
That’s all for this week’s Knockout Report. Join me next week when Fenix faces Johnny Impact for the Impact Wrestling World Championship, and we hopefully figure out what’s up with Allie.
