Hola Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s Impact Recap – the Under Pressure edition!
After witnessing her best friend Rosemary vanished away in a coffin at the hands of Su Yung, Allie is looking to avenge her Demon! To do so, she has undergone a dark transformation, despite Rosemary’s warning, ahead of a Last Rites match against the Undead Bride.
Elsewhere, we are also treated to an “Old School” versus “New School” style match as Madison Rayne takes on Tessa Blanchard after the latter suggested that Rayne return to her “stay-at-home mom” job and not stick her nose in the current Knockouts division.
Before we dive into any action, the entire Impact roster is still looking over their shoulders after yet another backstage attack from the mysterious “X” attacker(s). Sonja Dutt addresses the roster and tries to reassure everyone that management is getting to the bottom of this to have and will have things taken care of.
When Caleb Konley points the finger at Dutt, making note that no one in the office has been taken out until later in the evening, the locker room seems to be in agreement. Petey Williams comes to Dutt’s defense, saying that all this finger pointing is exactly what the attacker(s) want. Who is the culprit!?
Let’s jump to our first of two Knockouts matches:
Things start off with a shouting contest but Blanchard makes the first move when she shoves Rayne’s face away. Blanchard eats a few punches and knee strikes Rayne in the midsection. She whips the decorative Knockouts Champion to the ropes but Rayne counters with a head scissors takedown.
Rayne runs the ropes but Blanchard is ready, catching Rayne and slowing her down after a body slam. More power plays from Blanchard, hauling Rayne across the ring while landing in offense attacks that include a clothesline, shoulder block, face crusher and grounded chin lock.
A window of opportunity opens for Rayne and she connects a standing enziguri, stunning Blanchard. Rayne begins to build some momentum with chops and forearms to the chest before going for the cover via Northern Lights Suplex. Blanchard kicks out at two.
The Knockouts battle at a corner that ends with Blanchard delivering a flatliner on Rayne from the second rope for a two count. An intense Blanchard isn’t too pleased with the referee’s call and gets in his face. She turns her attention back to Rayne, setting up for a hammerlock DDT but Rayne reverses into a roll-up to steal the win!
As already mentioned, despite channeling in her inner-darkness, Allie came up her short in her battle with Su Yung and in the process, lost her Knockouts Championship. Let us now enter the Era that is Su Yung!
And finally, we close out this week’s Impact recap with a check on in Eddie and Alisha Edwards. After a hype video highlighting his history with Sami Callihan, Eddie meets his wife to let her know that they are good to go. Next week he will take on Callihan in an unsanctioned fight, which means no rules, no refs, no ring, and after that it’s “back to us”. Alisha disagrees!
Thoughts: I’m really surprised to see Rayne pick up the win over Blanchard. With Blanchard, in my opinion, considered to be one of the more better signings from Impact, giving her a big win over an established name like Rayne seemed like a route they would go for. This sort of reminded me of that Rayne vs. Brittany match, in the sense that the veteran was going over the new name. However, unlike in that one-sided feud, Blanchard dominated most of the match and only lost due to a roll-up and yelling at the referee. With Blanchard confirmed for the next set of tapings, I’m more at ease to see where she’ll go from here.
The Last Rites match was more about storytelling than the actual wrestling match itself. I loved the homage to Rosemary and think it was a great way to connect all of the women involved in this storyline. As much as I love Allie, her reign needed to end in this Knockouts title match to give Yung some fire as she is now at the of the Knockouts pedestal. Where does Allie go from here? We’ve seen some of the backstage promos in the weeks leading up to this Last Rites match/dark makeover, so I’m hoping we see more to get some answers. With Yung now ridding of Rosemary and Allie, she is in need of a new challenger.
What did you think of this week’s Impact? Did you enjoy the Madison Rayne vs. Tessa Blanchard match? Where would you like the Knockouts Title picture go from here? Let us know in the comments below!
