With Slammiversary this Sunday, this was the last show before the big event. At the PPV we will see two knockout division matches. Allie will take on her most recent foe Tessa Blanchard, and Madison Rayne will try to become a 6-time knockout champion by dethroning the corpse bride, Su Yung.
Our first Knockout sighting comes from Katarina Leigh, who along with Grado, walk-in during Joe Hendry’s photoshoot. Here Joe offers bits of advice to Grado which is to brush whatever seemed to be going on with Katarina and Eli Drake last week. In an attempt to cheer Grado up, Joe says he is going to bring a “prestigious” surprise to IMPACT Wrestling.
Katarina and Grado are later seen accompanying Joe in his match against Eli Drake which Joe wins via roll-up. After the match, Hendry and Katarina are hugging and dancing and Grado looked somewhat left out.
The Knockouts match on Impact this week saw Allie team up with Kiera Hogan to face Tessa Blanchard and Shotzi Blackheart. The match saw a turning point when Allie executed the Best Superkick ever to Blanchard. Blanchard was able to roll outside the ring. Blackheart then produces massive hits to Allie. The ruthless hits from Blackheart is a great showing of how aggressive she can be.
After a near fall on Allie, Blackheart gets her opponent in a headlock, however, she did not keep the hold for long. Allie was able to step out of the headlock and counter with the Best Superkick ever. Allie did not capitalize however and did not go right for the cover. Blackheart crawled to her corner only to have Blanchard jump down from the ring apron and back away. Blanchard exclaimed that this was not what she signed up for and this is not her problem. With the distraction of Blanchard walking away, Allie was able to hit a codebreaker on Blackheart and win the match for her team. Could this foreshadow a win for Allie against Blanchard this Sunday, or does this give Blanchard the upper hand by playing mind games?
Speaking of playing mind games, Knockout champion Su Yung has been in the mind of Madison Rayne ever since the latter returned to Impact wrestling. This video promo shows Rayne stuck in a nightmare that she is unable to escape. Yung torments Rayne throughout with the saying, “your time has come”. Rayne wakes up in a dream at a funeral home where no one is present. She sees all the chairs set up, and pictures of her younger self throughout the room. She makes her way to the coffin at the front. After she opens the coffin she sees herself, in the same clothes she currently has on, laying in the casket.
Obviously scared and shocked, Rayne falls back and lands on a couch. A man then approaches her and asks if she is okay. After a moment he then is shown with his face painted like the dead bride herself, Yung. He then exclaimed, “your time has come” to her. After this, Rayne, full of fear, gets up and runs out of the room only to stumble on the ground after she escapes the room. She then sees a young girl who asks her if she knows where her mommy is. Rayne’s lets her know that she hasn’t, and as she turns around the little girl is now in Yung face paint and yells out, ”your time has come”.
After this chilling moment, Rayne wakes up in a field outside. After she stands up she is then covered in blood (just like in Carrie). As Rays is screaming in horror, Yung and her dead bridesmaids show up behind Rayne. The video ends with Rayne screaming in fear and Yung yelling ”your time has come”.
Allie and Tessa Blanchard share a few choice words ahead of their match Sunday:
And finally, Scarlett Bordeaux will make her Impact debut next week:
Thoughts: Checking in with Impact this week for my fellow colleague Josue was fun. I normally do the SmackDown redux, so being able to write about a different group of talented women was enjoyable.
The match was pretty good. I felt that the storyline was a perfect set up for the upcoming PPV. It showed the feud between Tessa and Allie reach a breaking point as Tessa played up the heel role perfectly. I am pretty excited for that match. I love the codebreaker finisher as Chris Jericho is one of my favorite wrestlers and it is awesome to see a woman use it.
As far as Su Yung, she doesn’t give me that much excitement as champion, however, that video promo was amazing. Madison did a wonderful job of acting throughout and Yung did give the creepy/horror movie villain vibe. I give big kudos to this video and I hope that it plays out well in the ring on Sunday. I would love Madison to become a 6 time knockout champion, but I don’t think they are ready to take the belt from Yung just yet.
What did you think of this weeks Impact? Did you like the Madison nightmare video? Who are your predictions to win this Sunday at Slammiversary? Let us know in the comment section!!
