MCMAHON’S IMPACT WRESTLING REPORT 6/15: Low Ki vs. Sonjay Dutt headlines for the X-Division Title in Mumbai

MCMAHON’S IMPACT WRESTLING REPORT
June 15, 2017
From Mumbai, India (Film City)
Aired on Pop TV

Announcers: Josh Mathews & Jeremy Borash

Immediately following tonight’s Impact Wrestling, tune in to the PWTorch Livecast. Mike McMahon and Andrew Soucek will discuss tonight’s show with callers. Listen at www.pwtorchlivecast.com and call the show at 515-605-9345

— Impact opened with a video package on Sonjay Dutt, talking about how he will challenge for the X-Division Title later tonight in the main event. Interview clips with Dutt, Low Ki and highlights are shown as part of the package.

— Jeremy Borash welcomed the audience to the show, and it was then announced that the show will start with the Sony Six Gauntlet Battle Royal. Josh Mathews said that he and Borash were given direct orders not to touch or provoke each other on the show tonight.

(1) Sony Six 10-man Gauntlet Battle Royal for the Sony Six Invitational Tropy

Matt Sydal and Suicide enter the match first. Borash said new wrestlers will enter every 90 seconds. Borash and Mathews praised Sony Six as a partner. Borash plugged the X-Division Title main event, calling it “a match 10 years in the making.”

ENTRY: Davey Richards

Richards attacked Suicide in the corner right away upon entering the ring. Mathews said Pope was on assignment back in the U.S.

ENTRY: KM

KM jawed with the crowd on his way to the ring and went nose-to-nose with Richards, but they backed off each other and attacked Suicide and Sydal in the corners.

ENTRY: Swoggle

ELIMINATION: Suicide (by Davey Richards)

KM and Richards stalked Swoggle, who began to chop Richards. Sydal was recovering in the corner when Swoggle chopped KM. KM shoved Swoggle’s face into the mat. Sydal hit knees to KM’s chest.

ENTRY: Eddie Edwards

Edwards charged Richards and they brawled in the middle of the ring. Edwards eliminated himself and Richards with a clothesline, and they continued to brawl on the outside.

ELIMINATION: Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards

[c]

Back from the break, Rockstar Spud is in the ring attacking Swoggle and Kongo Kong was coming to the ring, jumping on Matt Sydal with KM recovering in the corner.

ELIMINATION: Matt Sydal (by Kongo Kong)

Kong stared at Spud from behind and then tossed him out of the ring when he turned around.

ELIMINATION: Rockstar Spud (by Kongo Kong)

Moose’s music hit, and Kongo Kong eliminated Swoggle.

ELIMINATION: Swoggle (by Kongo Kong)

ENTRY: Moose

Moose immediately charged Kongo Kong. KM and Kong tried to double team Moose, but he hit a flying crossbody and then a splash on KM in the corner. Kong threw quick right hands at Moose on the ropes. KM and Kong eliminated Moose together.

ELIMINATION: Moose (by Kongo Kong & KM)

ENTRY: Mahabali Shera

Borash said that Mahabali Shera was the last entrant. They showed Shera’s dad and brother at ringside. The crowd was chanting loudly for Shera, as he was whipped into the corner by Kong. Shera catches Kong with an elimination.

ELIMINATION: Kongo Kong (by Mahabali Shera)

[c]

Back from the break, the match will come down to Shera and KM. It’s now a traditional one-on-one match, with a referee in the ring and the match ending by pinfall or submission.

Mathews announced that Eddie Edwards & Alisha Edwards vs. Davey Richards & Angelina Love in a Full Metal Mayhem match will take place at Slammiversary. Shera picked up KM and planted him with an Attitude Adjustment. Shera played to the crowd after hitting KM with a clothesline. Shera hit a Sky High for the win.

WINNER: Mahabali Shera via pin in about 24:00.

After the match, Shera celebrated with the crowd, which was providing a lot of energy. Borash threw to a replay and then Shera celebrated with his family at ringside. Scott D’Amore, Bruce Prichard and N.P. Singh, from Sony Six, were brought to the ring to present Shera with the trophy. Shera clutched the trophy and was getting emotional in the ring, dropping to his knees.

(McMahon’s Analysis: The match itself was nothing special, but that was a really cool moment for Shera and the live crowd ate it up. At the end of the day, pro wrestling is about evoking emotion, and Shera was on his knees legitimately emotional after winning the match in his home country. That’s a cool moment).

— Borash and Mathews talked about the match in front of an Impact and Sony Six logo. Mathews, who was wearing a cutoff shirt because of his sparring session later tonight, said Borash wouldn’t come home after Slammiversary. Borash plugged the main event. Borash threw to another vignette on Dutt, where he talked about his journey to the main event tonight, including his past changes for the X Division Title, and how he fell short.

[c]

— Borash plugged DeAngelo Williams coming to Slammiversary. Highlights of Williams training at Scott D’Amore’s school were shown.

(McMahon’s Analysis: Williams looked pretty good, considering he’s never wrestled before. I’m sure those clips were edited to make him look as favorable as possible, but he’s also a pro athlete, so you would think he would be able to catch on pretty quickly).

— A Jeremy Borash training vignette with Joseph Park aired. They ate some Chinese food and then went to watch film.

— An LAX vignette aired. They said they weren’t in India because they have prior convictions. They said that they were going to go to some other promotions and drop them.

— ECIII entered the arena for a promo. Borash said that ECIII had a spiritual awakening, and he is now E-Singh-III. ECIII came to the ring with a man wearing a pink shirt. ECIII dropped to the mat and began to meditate. ECIII had a translator, and said that he looked up his history and found out his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was Indian. ECIII said India is full of history, and India and Impact are making history. ECIII said he’s rich, and that’s something 99.99999 percent of those people would never be. ECIII said he has seen no culture “in this hell hole,” and he said he was there not to create history, but to destroy it. ECIII said that Impact and India deserve each other. ECIII said he was the best guy in all of India. He shoved the microphone into the chest of the translator, and the translator refused to say it, after ECIII ran down India. The translator again refused. ECIII said like Impact Wrestling, the translator has been insubordinate, and he needs to be punished. ECIII then attacked the translator, whipping him with his belt.

James Storm walked out to make the save. Storm front kicked the belt out of ECIII’s hand and then picked it up himself. He chased ECIII out of the ring and he ran up the ramp.

[c]

— Borash threw to a clip from earlier today. Spud and Swoggle had a run-in at catering. Spud said that tonight it was a 10-man gauntlet, not a 9-1/2 man gauntlet. Spud yelled that he didn’t mean to pull his pants down. Spud called Swoggle “little man” and said he hated short people. Swoggle stood on the table, walked over to Spud, and shoved his own face in his food.

— Josh Mathews came to the ring for his public workout. Borash mentioned that Mathews started as a wrestler on the show Tough Enough. Mathews said in two weeks, he would abolish Jeremy Borash and Joseph Park forever. Mathews said that he hand-picked his opponent. Mathews said his opponent was on the 2008 Olympic Team, and he’s a huge star in Bollywood. The crowd was drowning out Mathews with a “you can’t wrestle!” chant. Mathews brought out Sandeep Takahn.

(2) JOSH MATHEWS vs. SANDEEP TAKAHN

Takahn is an overweight wrestler who came to the ring dancing to the crowd. Borash said he looked up Takahn, and there’s no mention of him on the olympic team. Takahn suddenly hit two arm drags and a dropkick. Mathews landed a low-blow kick and then a knee lift. Mathews went to the top rope and hit a swanton bomb. Mathews applied a Steiner Recliner for the win.

WINNER: Josh Mathews via submission.

After the match, Mathews refused to let go of the hold. So, Mahabali Shera came back out to the ring and Mathews untaped his wrist and dropped to his knees, begging Shera not to hit him. Shera picked up Mathews but Lashley ran in and saved Mathews, clotheslining Shera. Lashley continued the attack and told Mathews to put Shera back in the Steiner Recliner. Alberto El Patron sprinted to the ring to make the save, running off Lashley and Mathews and helping Shera back to his feet.

(McMahon’s Analysis: It looked like Impact was giving El Patron the rub of being in the ring with Shera — chalk that up as something never said before. The crowd was really hot for Shera in the battle royal, and they were again here. Impact made sure to show a wide angle of the crowd going nuts while El Patron was on the second rope. Also, it pains me to say this, but Mathews’ swanton wasn’t bad).

[c]

— Back from the break, Mathews said he wasn’t even out of breath. He then threw to another training session between Park and Borash. They watched video of Steiner’s old promos and interviews. As Park was trying to pump up Borash, FaceTime began to ring. Apparently, Scott Steiner was calling them.

(3) TREVOR LEE vs. BRAXTON SUTTER (w/Allie)

Lee hit a German suplex and a bridge for a two count early in the match. Borash plugged the VIP experience for Slammiversary. Sutter won a quick match with a pin in the second minute.

WINNER: Braxton Sutter.

After the match, Sienna and Laurel Van Ness came to the stage and challenged Allie to a tag team match next week, if Rosemary would show up to be her partner.

(McMahon’s Analysis: What are they doing to Trevor Lee? Talk about wasted talent. They don’t know what they have in this guy, and they continue to underutilize him).

— Another vignette aired to hype the main event tonight.

[c]

— A vignette aired on Slammiversary, with talents talking about the importance of the show. Magnus said it would be a huge night for the company to show what it had. Karen Jarrett said they were thrilled to be back. Adonis said that they need to make Impact great. El Patron said that him and Lashley want to take the company to a place it deserves.

(McMahon’s Analysis: It would have been better to have guys like El Patron and others talk about how important it was going to be to win a match at Slammiversary, instead of putting on a show. This felt like a bad WWE promo, where wrestlers talk about the most important thing being that “we entertain you” instead of winning matches).

— Moose came to the ring for a promo. He was quickly interrupted by Eli Drake and Chris Adonis. Drake said that Moose doesn’t deserve the Grand Championship, because everyone knows that Drake should have won the title two weeks ago. Moose said he wasn’t big on going back and forth, so he was going to make it easy. He asked the crowd if they wanted to see him whoop Drake’s ass at Slammiversary? Adonis said that he has Drake, and Drake has him, but Moose has no one. Drake and Adonis then attacked Moose but Moose was able to get the upper hand and run off Drake and Adonis. Moose said that his partner for Slammiversary would be revealed next week.

— Back to the Park-Borash vignettes, they argue over who is going to pick up Steiner’s phone call. Steiner did a lot of yelling (it was hard to understand him) and some swearing. Steiner called Park a lawyer with a fat ass, “and everyone knows how much I hate fat asses!”

[c]

(4) SONJAY DUTT vs. LOW KI — X-Division Title match

The match began with the crowd loudly behind Sonjay Dutt. In the first few minutes of the match, the offense was back and forth with Dutt beginning to take some control about three minutes into the match, landing a kick to Low Ki on the outside.

[c]

Back from the break, Low Ki has Dutt in a waistlock but Dutt powers out with elbows. Dutt hit a dropkick for a two count. Low Ki went to the corner and hits a cartwheel kick on Dutt. Low Ki went to the corner again but Dutt cut him off before he could hit a top-rope move. Dutt climbed to the second rope and tried a superplex but Low Ki blocked the attempt. Dutt then hit a superplex off the top rope. After a two count, Low Ki was back in control and hit a double stomp for a two count. Dutt hit a DDT off the ropes. Dutt hit a splash off the top rope for the win.

WINNER: Sonjay Dutt wins the X-Division Title in 17:00.

After the match, Dutt, like Shera earlier in the show, was genuinely emotional in the ring. The crowd was very into the match and the win, as Dutt got his hand raised. The locker room (babyfaces) then came out from the back and came to the ring to celebrate with Dutt. Shera was one of the first people in the ring, picking up Dutt on his shoulders. Eddie Edwards sprayed Dutt with champagne.