IMPACT HITS & MISSES 8/25: Emergence Part 2, Edwards vs. RVD, Wrestle House, Callihan, EC3 must destroy his past, Purrazzo vs. Grace

Final impact – HIT: If you slap both Emergence specials together, you’d get a solid second tier PPV. While not a rousing success, it is still a success in my book. Surprisingly, next week’s episode seems to have even bigger things in store with Carter inviting Moose to witness the destruction of the TNA belt, what may be the final chapter in Wrestle House (though don’t hold me to it, haters) , and Eric Young vs. Eddie Edwards finally happening. Unfortunately for the latter, I think the promos for Bound for Glory tipped their hand, revealing the eventual victor of the match considering the promo was centered around Eric Young.

Eddie Edwards (c) vs. Rob Van Dam, Impact World Championship match – HIT: Eddie Edwards continues his efforts to revitalize the Impact World Championship as he defended it today against Rob Van Dam. We got a solid match between these two, with Katie Forbes doing Katie Forbes things at ringside. I was fully expecting Sami Callihan to be involved in the finish since RVD had cost him in Sami’s match with Eddie but instead, after Eddie beat RVD with the Boston Knee Party, Eric Young blindsided Eddie and beat him down, and claimed that he was his opponent next week. Later, Eddie went looking for Eric in the back, eventually returning to the ring and demanding to have their match right there and then. Eric came out and reiterated that things were on his timetable. Eddie ran at Eric and they brawled for a bit before being separated. I’m looking forward to next week’s match, so this is working for me.

Wrestle House: Crazzy Steve vs. Johnny Swinger – HIT:  To commiserate in her own loss to Kylie Rae last week, Taya Valkyrie threw a toga party as an excuse to drink herself into a stupor. A lot of the jokes in the segment fell flat but was buoyed by Alisha Edwards (who finally seems to have found a role that works for her) and Tommy Dreamer’s interaction, and the overall plot that led to the match. Johnny Swinger (wearing an ostentatious leopard print toga) had been pulling a “Fuji” “prank” where you throw powder into people’s eyes to blind them (not a nice thing to do). Crazzy Steve “accidentally” got hit by Swinger’s attempt to blind an arriving Lawrence D (“accidentally” since it was actually part of Crazzy Steve’s plan). Tommy Dreamer called for Match Time but Crazzy Steve claimed he was “blinded” by the powder and demanded the match be a blindfold match to “even” things out. Why so many quotes? Well the joke (which is on Swinger) is that Steven Scott, a.k.a. Crazzy Steve, is legally blind. As such he did not have to deal with the “handicap” of a blindfold match and swiftly defeated Swinger. There was also some furtherance of the Rosemary/Taya/Bravo/Laurence D love-ish quadrangle with Bravo not there as he was avoiding Laurence D and Rosemary.

Rhino calls out Reno Scum, #Heath4Impact – HIT: Rhino wants revenge on Reno Scum for attacking him and demanded a tag match, one where he wants Heath as his partner and requested for fans to let Impact management know how much they want Heath and Rhino back together. I like the Heath and Rhino pairing, so I’m cool with this.

Rohit Raju graces us – HIT: Fresh off of his emergence as the new X Division champion, the deserving, delightful, dauntless, “Desi Hitman” Rohit Raju addressed his millions of fans, admitting to manipulating events to put himself in a position to win the X Division champion after being denied the opportunity since he wasn’t well connected backstage. Once he made himself an opening, he made himself a champion and now, in a showing of magnanimity, Rohit will give those that have been thought as undeserving a shot at his championship. What a guy.

Locker Room Talk w/guest cohosts The Rascalz: Ace Austin and Madman Fulton – HIT: If you didn’t realize that having the Rascalz (Dez and Wentz in this case) cohost a Locker Room Talk that Ace Austin and Madman Fulton were going to be on was going to lead to a match, well I welcome you, new wrestling fan. Setting up that match and possible feud was the whole purpose of the segment. There was some weed humor, Madison played the straight man role well, and the camera work seemed unprofessional as hell as the Rascalz ignored their marks and sat out of frame which made the whole thing come across as a cluster frak which is the intent. There was entertainment to be found in this segment and it’s leading to a match next week so no complaints from me.

ICU hack – HIT: I really miss these Sami Callihan promos. He’s made me hang on to his every word as he discusses the current situation between RVD, Katie Forbes, and himself, despite having no interest in this feud. He even gave RVD the excuse that his clean loss to Eddie Edwards at the start of the show was because RVD was forced to look over his shoulder.

Carter must destroy his past – HIT: And Sami’s promo is followed up by another great promo by Carter. Now in possession of the TNA belt, Carter confesses that the day he defeated Kurt Angle for the championship was the happiest day of his life, but every moment since has been one full of hate and pain for him. He wants to destroy the belt in order to “kill his past” (I cannot emphasize exactly how corrupt that ideal is for me but I’m on this journey with Carter, regardless). However, being reunited with the belt made him remember the importance of what it represents so he seeks a fitting destruction for it. He invited Moose to participate so that Moose too, can be free of its influence and become the wrestler he is meant to be. I see this ending up as a cinematic match and a part of me hopes it will include having to scale the slopes of Mount Doom into the Sammath Naur to be destroyed as the One Ring was.

Brian Meyers vs. Willie Mack – PUSH: There was really very little to set this up with even Josh Mathews getting the precipitating event from last week wrong, saying that Brian Myers attacked Willie Mach last week when it was the other way around with Willie attacking Myers after Myers disrespected an already worked up Willie. Despite the lack luster set up, I was interested in seeing how Myers was presented, and whether he can get the WWE stink off of him. Sadly, this match did little to settle my thoughts about Myers one way or the other. The match was fine, so he gets no points for exceptional ring work, and he won via a roll up and two handful of tights which doesn’t really tell me where on the card he’ll eventually end up. I’m not ready to buy nor sell Myers’s stock yet.

Wrestle House: Larry D vs. John E. Bravo – HIT: John E. Bravo was finally at the party, looking miserable when Rosemary teleported in to go on a dinner date with Laurence. Alisha interjected and chastised Rosemary for using Larry to make Bravo jealous, Alisha knowing full well what is going on. Rosemary seemed to blow her off, but Alisha’s words apparently got through to her. Tommy then got into Bravo’s ear convincing Bravo that he needed to step up and stand up for himself. Rosemary went to break things with Laurence and admit that she was using him when Bravo showed up and got into Laurence’s face who, angered, reverted to Larry D (complete with music change which is a nice touch). It’s Match Time and Bravo got killed by Larry D. Rosemary went to apologize to Bravo, but Bravo cut her off explaining that he should have not been afraid of Taya. He admitted to a drunk Taya that he has feelings for Rosemary and that those feeling might be reciprocated. Taya blamed Rosemary for being jealous of her and being the cause of everything that’s gone wrong for her. Taya angrily challenged Rosemary to a match next week, winner take all. Rosemary asked what she meant by “all” and Taya said “everything, all of it. Including Bravo.” (This so reminds me of my high school/college days.)

What I find interesting about this statement is that “all” can technically include Rosemary’s powers. I can imagine that the next chapter is one with Taya recklessly wielding Rosemary’s powers while a depowered, human Rosemary finally finds freedom and peace, but ultimately needs give that up to take her powers back from a crazed Taya and set things right.

Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. Jordynne Grace, Impact Knockouts Championship iron man match – HIT: I am not a huge fan of iron man matches that aren’t an hour, and even an hourlong ironman match better rank four or more stars else I feel I just wasted my time, so the thirty-minute iron man stipulation did end up hurting the match a bit for me. It was still a good match with Deonna Purrazzo working over Jordynne Grace’s hands and arms, but despite that, Grace got the first fall when she put Purrazzo to sleep. One ref bump later and Grace got a second, visual only, fall after hitting the Grace Driver. As she went to check on the ref, Purrazzo recovered and hit Grace with the belt to officially tie things up. Then, Purrazzo applied the Fujiwara armbar and Grace tapped seconds before time elapsed. Purrazzo retained. I’m interested to see what is next for Grace, whether she is going to have to climb her way back into contention, or if she’s off to other pastures.

RECOMMENDED: 8/25 IMPACT WRESTLING TV REPORT: Edwards vs. Rob Van Dam for Impact World Title, Purrazzo vs. Grave for Impact Knockouts Title, EC3, Wrestle House, Sami