Impact: Homecoming 2019 Results and Review

Last night, on the 6th January 2019, Impact Wrestling presented their first PPV of 2019; Homecoming - called so as the show was hailing from the asylum in Nashville, Tennessee where Impact's original weekly PPVs took place. This review is going to take a slightly different format to my previous pay-per-view reviews, in the sense that I would usually grade a match out of 5 and select a match of the night but I'm not going to do that with this one. The reason being, I felt that every match delivered. Every match had enough time to get going, there was nothing that felt like a "filler" match. The event was a constant success from start to finish. I'm going to try to not go into too much detail for these matches as I would genuinely recommend everyone check this show out via the replays available on fite.tv - You may also remember that we put out a roundtable preview before the PPV between myself, David Burston and Sarah Dennis, so it will be interesting to see who got closest to predicting the outcomes of the show.

Match 1: Ultimate X Match for the vacant X-Division Championship

Rich Swann vs. Ethan Page vs. Jake Christ vs. Trey Miguel

These four guys made a statement with this match. The match-type and championship have long been a staple of what makes Impact unique but all of these four competitors are relatively new faces to the division - Swann debuted last year, Christ is a former tag team champion but hadn't had a singles run and Trey and Ethan are fairly new faces to Impact - so I was fully expecting these four guys to go all out in this match and I was not disappointed.

Winner and New X-Division Champion: Rich Swan

Match 2: Su Yung and Allie vs. Kiera Hogan and Jordynne Grace

This match was fantastic. We saw Yung and Allie dominate for the most part until Grace got the hot tag but the mist and manible claw both came into play to finish this match off.

Winners: Su Yung and Allie

Post-Match the bridesmades brought out a coffin only for ROSEMARY to return and fight them (and Yung) off before facing off with Allie who looked terrified and bailed!

Match 3: Falls Count Anywhere Match

Eddie Edwards vs. Moose

This was everything I was expecting and more, given the personal nature of their rivalry. The match started during Moose's entrance as Eddie didn't want to waste any time. We saw a beautiful apron powerbomb from Moose to Edwards in the opening minutes to set the tone for this match. Thankfully, Alisha Edwards put in an appearance to get some revenge on Moose too so hopefully that's that chapter of Eddie's career at a close.

Winner: Eddie Edwards

Match 4: Sami Callihan vs. Willie Mack

Callihan has been on fire since his Impact debut, as has Mack, so this is a very tough match to call. Dave Christ caused a lot of distraction in this match, which ultimately handed the victory to the oVe leader.

Winner: Sami Callihan

Match 5: Monster's Ball Match

Abyss vs. Eli Drake

After being inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame at the Bound for Glory weekend, everyone expected Abyss' career to be over. We didn't expect him to start up a rivalry with Eli Drake that became one of the best matches of the night on the first PPV of 2019. This was everything you'd hope to see from Abyss in a hardcore setting and Eli had no problem hanging in this type of match. This was as brutal as they come and came to a close when Eli Drake smashed a paddle over Abyss' head for the three count.

Winner: Eli Drake

Match 6: Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Championship

LAX (Santana and Ortiz - Champions) vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon and Rey Fenix)

This was every bit as fast-paced as you would have imagined, given the styles of the two teams involved. LAX and the Lucha Bros continued to show their excellent levels of teamwork with some beautiful double teams from both sides throughout. In the end though, the titles stayed with the champs to cement their legacy as the longest reigning tag team champions in Impact history.

Winners and still champions: LAX

Match 7: Impact Knouckouts Championship Match

Tessa Blanchard (Champion) vs. Taya Valkryrie

Special Guest Referee: Gail Kim

This was a brilliant, back and forth match until Tessa accidentally knocked Kim down with the forearm. From that point on it became more of a triple threat with Kim getting in on the action until Taya was able to pick up the win and become your NEW Knockouts Champion.

Winner: Taya Valkryrie

Match 8: Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship Match

Johnny Impact (Champion) vs. Brian Cage

This was every bit as intense as everyone hoped for. Johnny put his all into this to show everyone why he's champ and Cage did the same to show everyone that he's ready to be the champ. After a fantastic 20 minute match, Johnny Impact picked up the win after countering a superplex into a cradle.

Winner and Still Impact World Champion: Johnny Impact

Post-Homecoming thoughts and predictions: It looks like Johnny Impact and Brian Cage will be facing off again, following that finish, and I'm more than happy to see that. Swann as the face of the X-Division makes a lot of sense. Taya winning the Knockouts title means that Taya and Johnny are the first married couple to win hold their respective titles at the same time in Impact. LAX are still the top team in the tag division and it looks like Abyss has had his swansong before settling into retirement. The knockouts tag match seems to have set up Rosemary as "Dark" Allie's saviour so it'll be interesting to see where Impact goes from here.