On Sunday the 9th of September, Impact Wrestling held it’s first wrestling show in close to three years at Manchester’s B.E.C. arena as part of the UK’s first WrestleMediaCon. The show was touted as an “Impact vs. The UK” event and broadcast live on Impact’s Twitch channel. Anyhoo, myself, Dave Burston, Robin Constantinou and his wife Leanne Constantinou all headed to the event to check it out. Please note, these are primarily live notes and we got so into watching some matches that the notes aren’t very in-depth.
Matt Sydal vs. Trevor Lee vs. Rich Swann
This was instantly fast paced after a fun test of strength segment between the three. Sydal dominated the match early. The crowd was massively behind Lee. Swann and Sydal continued to show how much the ‘E missed a trick with them. Swann hit a beautiful cannonball dive on the others to the outside. Trevor Lee then hit a beautiful spinning back breaker which caused Lee to get a near fall on Sydal. Swann picked up the win via roll up
Winner: Rich Swann
Rory’s Rating: 3/5 Dave’s Rating: 3.5/5 Robin’s Rating: 3/5 Leanne’s Rating: 3/5
WoS Showcase Match: Jake McCluskey and Lucas Steel vs. Robbie X and Adam Maxted
Robbie and Lucas started things off in what looked to be a good traditional UK-Scene style tag match. McCluskey and Robbie always deliver, this was our introduction to Maxted and Steel and it was easy to see why they’d been selected to appear on this show. Robbie X showcased his fantastic high flying abilty with some rebound handstands. The crowd was firmly behind Robbie X. Another highlight was seeing McCluskey hit a beautiful diving dropkick through the bottom rope to the outside. Robbie X picked up the win following a perfect handstand rebound cutter followed by an instant standing shooting star.
Winners: Robbie X and Adam Maxted
Rory’s Rating: 4/5 Dave’s Rating: 4/5 Robin’s Rating: 4/5 Leanne’s Rating: 4/5
Lana Austin vs. Su Yung
As fans of both Yung and Austin we were expecting big things from this match. The entrances alone didn’t disappoint – Su Yung was in full Undead Bride Mode (in all it’s glory) and the two put on a surprisingly hard-hitting back and forth match. The crowd were firmly behind hometown hero Lana Austin throughout. There was a fantastic spot where Su sat Lana in a chair at ringside then hit a beautiful running senton from the ring apron. This was an incredibly back and forth contest and saw Lana hit some beautiful headbutts. Su Yung picked up the victory after spitting “blood/mist” in Lana’s face then hit a spinning death valley driver and a cover for the three count.
Winner: Su Yung
Rory’s Rating: 4.5/5 Dave’s Rating: 4.5/5 Robin’s Rating: 4.5/5 Leanne’s Rating: 4/5
Impact World Tag Team Championship Match: LAX (Champions) vs. Johnny Storm and Jodie Fleisch
There was an awesome start to this match as both team shook hands only for LAX to jump Johnny and Jodie the second their backs were turned. LAX went outside the ring only to eat an impressive suicide corkscrew dive from Storm. LAX have come on leaps and bounds over the last year and they wrestled a fantastic match with two of the UK’s most prolific legends. This match saw some fantastic double teams and finisjer when LAX hit the double team on Fleisch, leading to the Champions retaining.
Winners and still Tag Team Champions: L.A.X.
Rory’s Rating: 4/5 Dave’s Rating: 4/5 Robin’s Rating: 5/5 Leanne’s Rating: 5/5
Eli Drake vs. Joe Hendry
These two started off by cutting some awesome promos to sell how personal this match was then followed up by beating the hell out of each other in the ringside area. This was a brilliant back and forth contest that saw some beautiful high impact spots and saw Hendry pick up the win with a roll up
Winner: Joe Hendry
Rory’s Rating: 4/5 Dave’s Rating: 3.5/5 Robin’s Rating: 3.5/5 Leanne’s Rating: 3.5/5
Eddie Edwards and Justin “The Hammer” Sysum vs. Moose and Nathan Cruz
I’m a big fan of all four competitors and the match plays off the Moose and Edwards conflict from the past couple of weeks’ episodes of Impact. Edwards is one of Impact’s consistently top-tier performers and certainly brought his “A” game to this show. Moose continued to look strong and dominate – easily a future world champion – and the World of Sport guys (Cruz and Sysum) more than held up their side of things. Cruz and Edwards had some great chemistry and I’d be all for an Impact feud between the two of them. Eddie got some of the loudest pops of the night and this match was the MOTN. Edwards and Sysum picked up the win after a blue thunder driver from Edwards and then a frog splash from Sysum to get the 3
Winners: Eddie Edwards and Justin “The Hammer” Sysum
Rory’s Rating: 5/5 Dave’s Rating: 5/5 Robin’s Rating: 3.5/5 Leanne’s Rating: 4/5
Main Event: Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Deathmatch – Jimmy Havoc vs. Sami Callihan
Wow. What can I say about this match? It was bloody, barbaric and absolutely fantastic. Words can’t justify how glorious this match was. Havoc and Callihan tore each other to pieces in one of the best hardcore matches I’ve ever seen. I genuinely winced at multiple spots in this match – as did my colleagues – and there genuinely isn’t any fault we can pick with this match.
Winner: Sami Callihan
Rory’s Rating: 5/5 Dave’s Rating: 5/5 Robin’s Rating: 5/5 Leanne’s Rating: 5/5
Overall Show Rating and Match of the Night:
Rory: For me the show gets an easy 9/10 but the match of the night is a tough one as there were no weak matches. I’ll have to go with Eddie Edwards and Justin Sysum vs. Moose and Nathan Cruz.
Dave: The show was a solid 9.5 out of 10. There wasn’t a bad match on the card. My match of the night has to be Lana Austin vs. Su Yung as it was genuinely enjoyable seeing Su Yung live and it’s always enjoyable seeing Lana Austin. Even though it wasn’t my highest scoring match, it was the one I enjoyed the most.
Robin: I thought it was a really good show. I enjoyed every match and I’d give it a 9.5 out of 10. The match of the night has to be the Deathmatch main event between Havoc and Callihan. I’m not taking anything away from the rest of the card, but I enjoyed this match the most.
Leanne: The show was great. I’d give it a solid 9. I think Edwards and Sysum vs. Moose and Cruz was the match of the night for me as I really enjoyed this above all others.
As you can probably tell, we all enjoyed this show and so as a treat we’re also reblogging the link to watch the whole thing here.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section. If you were at WrestleMediaCon and watched this live, we’d love to hear what you thought of the atmosphere and the event as whole.
The IMPACT show at Wrestling MediaCon will air in full on Fight Network UK (Sky Channel 455) at 9pm on Thursday September 13.
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