An Impactful Two Part 1,000th Episode

Over the last two weeks, Impact Wrestling has been celebrating its 1000th episode. There were many callbacks from the history of Impact such as surprise appearances, Ultimate X, Feast or Fired, and a women’s main event to cap it all off. As someone whose wrestling fandom started with Impact 13 years ago, I was not only excited to attend the event but also to celebrate the rich  of the organization.

​

Night One:

​

Scott D’Amore kicks the show off thanking everyone for attending the event and says that we are in for a jam-packed evening. He talks about a lot of the things that made Impact different from all the different wrestling companies, including the Knockouts Division. He introduces Gail Kim and that sets up our Knockouts segment for the night. This was a build-up to the huge 10 Knockouts tag match that would happen on Night Two. We would see the return of The Beautiful People, Awesome Kong, Raisha Saeed, Mickie James, and Tasha Steelz. This segment had both the past and the present of the Knockouts Division.

 

However, the segment was a little too long. The other issue was during the live taping there were audio issues in which you could not hear what Mickie James or Tasha Steelz were talking about. The match more than made up for the segment though.

 

Feast or Fired: Moose vs Heath vs Steve Maclin vs Laredo Kid vs Johnny Swinger vs Crazzy Steve vs Joe Hendry vs Yuya Uemura vs Jonathan Gresham vs Black Taurus vs PCO vs Sami Callihan vs John Skyler vs Chris Bey vs Kushida vs Brian Myers vs Kevin Knight vs Bhupinder Gujjar vs Jai Vidal vs John E. Bravo 

​

Within the history of Impact Wrestling, there have been several gimmick matches in which some things made sense and some things did not. This is one of those times where this did not make sense. Although Feast or Fired is used for great storytelling purposes, there's so much going on in the match that it is hard to keep up. Now this was my first time seeing a Feast or Fired match live, so my expectations were not very high, but wow. I understand why they did this, but would rather have seen a King of the Mountain match instead.

Briefcase One: Crazy Steve

Briefcase Two: Moose

Briefcase Three: Chris Bey

Briefcase Four: Yuya Uemura

​

Team 3D vs. Desi Hit Squad (Rohit Raju and Raj Singh):

​

Team 3D is two of the many wrestlers who reinvented themselves within the Impact Brand. This was the first time in seven years that the WWE Hall of Fame duo were reuniting in the ring, and the live fans gave them the ovation they deserved. This was a quick match just to have Team 3D show their dominance within Impact, and show that they still got it. After the match, the fans wanted to see them put someone through a table and unfortunately, Raj Singh became the victim of that fate.

Winners: Team 3D

​

Josh Alexander Promo:

Alexander says he is so proud to be a part of the history of Impact Wrestling and that as someone who was once a fan of the show, it is surreal to him to be standing in the ring on the 1000th episode. However, he wants a rematch for the title he never lost, the Impact World Heavyweight Championship. Alex Shelley comes out next and he says that Alexander is no longer the champion and he has to realize that Shelley is the new face of Impact Wrestling. Alexander goes on to say that he respects Shelley, but the more he gets involved in the business, he learns that as the saying goes to never meet your heroes or you will be disappointed. Alexander challenges Shelley to a title rematch at Bound For Glory, but they get interrupted by The Rascalz. They beat down both Shelley and Alexander before they got the upper hand. The two exchange glares as The Rascalz come back to beat down Alexander and Shelley leaves the ring. This was a fantastic segment for the veteran in Shelley to face the newly proclaimed face of Impact in Alexander in the main event of Bound For Glory. Hopefully, Alexander will reclaim the title he never lost in Chicago on October 21st.

​

Frankie Kazarian and Traci Brooks vs Eddie and Alisha Edwards:

This match was really fun. Brooks is one of the original Knockouts that was given a chance to show the world what the Knockouts Division was made of and she proved that not only back then, but also in this match. Alisha has also definitely improved in the ring throughout the last couple of months. Kazarian and Eddie also have really good chemistry which made the match even more entertaining. Kazarian and Brooks get the win in a fun one. After the match was over Kazarian said he had a surprise for Brooks as it was revealed that she was going to get inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame this year alongside Don West and Mike Tenay. Rightfully deserved.

Winners: Traci Brooks and Frankie Kazarian

​

X Division Championship: Lio Rush vs Chris Sabin:

For starters, since attending this event, Lio Rush’s theme song has been my most listened-to song on Spotify, that song is really good and so was this match. Sabin is one of the few wrestlers that have been in Impact from episode one all the way to episode 1000 which is why he deserved the main event spot on Night One. Unfortunately for the X Division Champion, nothing was enough to stop the record-breaking nine-time X Division Champion from becoming a 10-time champ! The rest of the locker room came out to celebrate as Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin embraced. Motor City Machine Guns are back running the Impact Zone!

Winner: “And New” Chris Sabin 

​

Night Two:

​

Ultimate X Match: Zachary Wentz vs Rich Swann vs“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Alan Angels vs Samuray del Sol vs Ace Austin vs Zachary Wentz:

​

My favorite gimmick match of all time the Ultimate X! Now this match takes the skills of strength, strategy, and overall grip to climb across the cabletoto retrieve the X, which all seven men possess.  Bodies were flying all over the place in this one and so many close finishes where people were so close to grabbing the X but came up short. In the end, former Dark Order Member, Alan Angels gets the big win! This makes him the number-one contender for the X Division Championship as he looks to cash in his opportunity on next week's episode of Impact.

Winner: Alan Angels

​

Jake Something vs. Dirty Dango:

The return of the Fox Box! Now the Fox Box was something that was on Impact before I started watching in 2010, but I would not mind if they brought this back every once in a while. There is a timer on top of the screen counting down the 10-minute time limit and Impact news on the bottom of the screen. As far as the match goes, it did what it needed to do. Nothing special here but Jake Something picks up the big win!

Winner: Jake Something

​

Eric Young vs. Kenny King:

Eric Young is another Impact Wrestler who was there from the first episode to the 1000th episode, which was cool to see. Unfortunately, this did not remain a typical one-on-one match for much longer. As soon as the match got underway Sheldon Jean attacked Young to lead to the disqualification. Then Young’s former Team Canada partner Scott D’Amore made the save to turn this into a standard tag team match. However, that did not last long either. This time Deaner and Kon from the design attack Team Canada for the disqualification when America’s Most Wanted returns and Shark Boy makes the huge eight-man tag official. There were a lot of moving parts and truthfully would have been a lot better if you just announced the regular eight-man tag beforehand. However, to see America’s Most Wanted not only return but also get the win was exciting to see in person.  The Impact Originals get the win here in a fun but chaotic eight-man tag.

Winners: Scott D’Amore, Eric Young, America's Most Wanted (James Storm, and Chris Harris)

 

Feast or Fired Briefcase Results: They did not show this in the live arena and waited till the episode aired on 9/21 to reveal which was smart. 

Crazzy Steve gets a Digital Media Title Shot

Moose gets a future World Heavyweight Championship Shot

Chris Bey gets a future Tag Team Championship Shot with his partner Ace Austin

Sadly Yuya Uemera draws the short end of the stick and gets fired, there will be a goodbye ceremony for him on next week's episode of Impact.

​

Josh Alexander vs. Trey Miguel:

Alexander never truly missed a step from returning from injury and this match proved that. Ever since losing the X Division Championship, it seems that they do not know what to do with Miguel but he proved himself as one of the top names in Impact as he held his own in this match. Alexander gets the big win as they make the match for Bound for Glory official. Alexander gets his rematch for the Impact World Heavyweight Championship.

Winner: Josh Alexander

​

Trinity, Jordynne Grace, Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, & Mickie James vs. Angelina Love, Deonna Purrazzo, Savannah Evans, Gisele Shaw, & Tasha Steelz:

​

This is women’s wrestling. First off, to see Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, and Angelina Love back in the Impact Zone after so long was so cool to see. Especially with them locking up with some of the top names in Impact today. As far as the match goes like I said, it was better than the segment that led us to this match. Every woman got their chance to shine and got an equal amount of time needed throughout the match. Awesome Kong picks up the huge win for the faces here as Angelina Love hits Jai Vidal with Botox Injection and puts a bag over his face as we go off the air. Classic Beautiful People. It is also worth noting that as all the faces were celebrating their huge win Mickie James kept looking up at the Impact Knockouts title. This may be a little foreshadow for what is to come at Bound For Glory.

​

Winners: Trinity, Jordynne Grace, Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, & Mickie James