7/26 IMPACT WRESTLING RESULTS: McMahon’s report on Cage vs. Sydal for the X-Division Title, Ishimori vs. Williams, more

MCMAHON’S IMPACT WRESTLING REPORT
July 26, 2018
Taped from Toronto, Ontario (Rebel Complex)
Aired on Pop TV

Announcers: Josh Mathews & Don Callis

(McMahon: Just a heads up guys, I’m traveling while writing this report — again — and watching the show from my phone. So, you’ll get all the necessary info and analysis but not play-by-play of the matches. Sorry for the detour from our typical coverage! We’ll be back to normal next week (I think, my schedule’s been weird). And, don’t worry! I’ll be at my destination and on the air with Andrew Soucek on the Thursday Livecast immediately following Impact tonight!)

— A Slammiversary recap aired.

— The Impact opened graphic aired.

— Austin Aries opened the show with an in-ring promo. He talked about how he’s the best, and Moose isn’t. Aries then challenged anyone, from any company, to come after the Impact Title. Eddie Edwards slid in the ring from behind Aries and attacked him with a kendo stick.

(1) Taiji Ishimori def. Petey Williams

McMahon: Really good opener. I was a fan of Ishimori before his Bullet Club debut, and it seems like his game has been taken to a higher level since he joined the group. It’s good that Impact can get some Bullet Club rub as well. Ishimori’s new black look and attire is really sleek and cool. The match, as you’d expect from these two guys, was terrific. The crowd was behind Williams, in his home country, but also was cheering for Ishimori by the end of the match. Williams raised Ishimori’s hand after shaking hands post-match.

— After the match, the Desi Hit Squad hit the ring (with Gama Singh) and attacked Ishimori and Williams, leaving both guys laying in the ring.

— Backstage, Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) was interviewed with one of his top students. Carelli said he’s not medically cleared to wrestle due to his neck injury, but he talked up his student. Aries entered the interview and challenged Carelli, who said he couldn’t wrestle. Aries then challenged Carelli’s student, who accepted, and seemed excited about wrestling Aries for the Impact Title. Carelli said, “at least he paid his tuition in advance.”

(2) Tessa Blanchard beat Rebel

McMahon: Essentially a squash win for Tessa. A good win for her, too, over an established Impact name. It makes sense that Impact would want to elevate her after she signed a new contract recently. She’s easily one of the most unique women in the entire division. 

— Scarlett Bourdeaux made her official debut on television, coming to the stage in lingerie for an interview. Boudreaux said that she wants to be remembered as the greatest women’s advocate of all time, and she wants to fight for women’s rights. She said she wants to be like Marilyn Monroe, or Cardi B. Scarlett said people like to pretend to empower women, but not her. She will not be hot shamed. Scarlett told Alicia Atout to, “shut up you 5, a 10 is talking,” and then told her to get off the stage. Boudreaux said that she’s there to make wrestling sexy again.

McMahon: That’s a really brilliant idea. In an era when WWE has moved away from the “diva” prototype on their roster and moved to a more athletic, real women’s division, here is Impact bringing on a heel female character who is trying to regress that revolution and go back to the days of diva pillow fights, all while claiming to fight for women’s rights. Boudreaux played the character really well in her debut interview. 

(3) Johnny Impact def. Trevor Lee (w/ Caleb Konley)

McMahon: I’m usually against using Trevor Lee as a way to get someone like Impact over in his return to TV, but I’m making an exception here. Impact and Lee had a terrific match, and that’s what they needed to present here. I’m not sure that this is the same type of match if he’s just in there with a lower-card guy. 

— Impact cut a post-match promo. Impact said he’s back to win the Impact Title, but first he had something to address, and he needed to get redemption on Kongo Kong for putting him out of commission.

— GWN Moment aired. It was the MCMG vs. Young Bucks.

— Joe Hendry gave Grado a Joe Hendry t-shirt. Katarina seemed to really thank Hendry. Eli Drake walked in and said that he sees a bond within the trio. Drake brought the three of them a gift, and said it was for all three of them. Drake walked off. Grado opened the gift from Drake and it was a framed photo, with “love” on the frame … the photo was of Hendry and Katarina. Hendry and Katarina stormed off and said they would throw the photo in the trash right now.

— KM and Fallah Bahh were backstage and KM was trying to tell Bahh that they needed to find his mean streak.

— A vignette aired on Killer Kross.

— King was backstage with the OGz, talking about how he was a little depressed and angry. He said he expected more of out LAX and Konnan.

— An OVE video aired. Sami Callihan was cleaning up in the mirror and yelling at himself that he looked stupid with his head shaved. Jake and Dave Crist tried to convince him that he looked great. Callihan was also wearing a sling. OVE was then going to the bathroom at a urinal. There was someone between Jake and Callihan, and Callihan turned and began urinating on the man, asking if he was looking at his hair? Then OVE attacked the man. Callihan demanded the man tell Callihan he was pretty. OVE then shaved the guy’s head.

(4) Brian Cage def. Matt Sydal to retain the X Division Championship

McMahon: Cage vs. Sydal was an afterthought on the PPV, mainly due to the fact that Callihan-Pentagon and LAX-OGz delivered in such a big way to close out the night. It almost makes sense that the match was downplayed a bit, though. Tonight felt like the real spotlight match for these two guys, giving them the main-event slot and letting them go all out the way that they did. This match was much better than their Slammiversary match. The only downfall was that Cage didn’t win the title here. It almost would have been better (in my opinion) if they gave us a screwjob finish on Sunday, setting up a title rematch for tonight with Cage getting his big title win in this match here. It would have felt like more of an exclamation point and it wouldn’t have gotten lost among other big matches at the PPV. There was even an easy way to do it … Sydal has been paired with Jimmy Jacobs and Kongo Kong. If Kong interferes and gives Cage a DQ win on Sunday, he doesn’t even need to take a loss. Then he gets his rematch in a cage match (or something) on this show, and wins the title. That would have played better. But, you can’t argue that the main event of this show was really solid all the way through.