Impact Wrestling Sacrifice comes to us from the home of OVW; the Davis Arena, in Louisville, Kentucky tonight! The show name that will live in infamy with Steiner Math, may not be an official PPV; but it should be fun to see if these ImpactPlus shows get any better.
Let’s just get to the action and see if these events have gotten better!
Sacrifice Ratings:
- Rohit Raju vs Corey Storm: Rohit wins via Double Footstomp @ – **
- Impact Tag Team Titles: The Rascalz (Trey & Wentz) vs The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page) (c): The North retain via combo Argentine Backbreaker/Assisted Spinebuster @20:20 – ****
- Kiera Hogan vs Ray Lyn: Kiera wins via Face the Music @11:10 – ***
- Willie Mack vs Jay Bradley: Mack wins via 6 Star Frog Splash @6:35 – ** 1/2
- Larry D & Acey Romero vs Madman Fulton & Dave Crist: Larry D wins via Pounce @13:55 – **
- Jake Crist vs Daga: Daga wins via Double Underhook Gutbuster @16:40 – *** 1/2
- Joey Ryan vs Johnny Swinger: Ryan wins via Sweet Tooth Music @8:10 – *
- Knockouts Championship: Havok vs Jordynne Grace (c): Jordynne retains via Rear Naked Choke @5:45 – * 1/2
- Moose vs Rhino: Rhino wins by DQ @2:45 – N/A
- NO DQ: Rhino vs Moose: Moose wins via No Jackhammer Needed @11:55 – ** 3/4
- Tessa Blanchard vs Ace Austin: Tessa wins via Modified Buzzsaw DDT @18:35 – ***
Sacrifice Results:
Josh Mathew and D’Lo Brown are on commentary tonight. A little unexpected, but let’s see.
Rohit Raju vs Corey Storm
So my assumption is that Corey Storm is an OVW prospect, and someone needs to help him get new gear. Storm was actually decent in the ring, but his look has jobber written all over it. Raju was more of the grounded and technical attacker, while also taking a few heel short cuts. Not a ton of highlights, but nothing terrible honestly.
Impact Tag Team Titles: The Rascalz (Trey & Wentz) vs The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page) (c)
Well The Rascalz weren’t thinking early on in this match. Each of them tried to actually wrestle with Josh Alexander; and he put on a clinic. They tried to utilize quick tags for some kind of momentum, but it just wasn’t working. Josh dominated, and it wasn’t until Trey finally found an opening to get Wentz back in the match, and speed kills.
Great spinning back kicks, dives, and Cruiserweight offense. Trey hit the Cheeky Nandos and the corner stuck Tiger Feint Kick. Wentz pulled off a Running Canadian Destroyer and tried to get something going when he countered the Tandem Mat Slam with a Double Frankensteiner. Trey came off the top to try and Meteora both members down, but instead they caught him.
Rohit Raju showed up to push The Rascalz off the ropes, allowing The North to pull off their Backbreaker/Spinebuster combo. Though most of the match was really The North dominating with size and power; Raju’s interference helps the Rascalz and the heel nature of The North. Really good match.
Good save from the ICU gimmick when there were early problems with the backstage audio:
@The_Ace_Austin tried to rip off the legendary Steiner Math promo.
Not on my watch.
I was sick of hearing his voice in this promo…
So I cut the Audio.#RealityIsLost@IMPACTWRESTLING #Sacrafice pic.twitter.com/URURIQGuPE
— ICU (@RealityIsLost) February 23, 2020
Kiera Hogan vs Ray Lyn
Interesting matchup here. Ray Lyn is another OVW prospect, and she’s actually pretty good; granted she looks like she shops at the same place as Candice LeRae; but still a good wrestler.
Both women mirrored a lot of moves, and we even got a small dance off; which made sense because they were just being snarky and it turned into dancing. Kiera eventually got the advantage after kicking Ray Lyn in the knee and hitting the Sliding Facewash Kick. Competitive and fairly equal, not a bad match. Kiera managed to pull off her finish out of desperation, so she comes out on top.
A pretty fun and competitive match. Makes me want to see more of Ray Lyn; maybe partnered with Kiera and Madison.
Willie Mack vs Jay Bradley
Bradley attacks Mack early, but then this turns into a solid Hoss battle. Bradley throws some big haymakers and suplexes; but Mack is resilient. Mack turns things around a little on the outside, he then brings it back in for some of his signature moments. Scoop Slam and a standing Moonsault; then it takes two Stunners to knock down Bradley for the Splash. Nothing flashy or fancy, just a solid big boy match.
Larry D & Acey Romero vs Madman Fulton & Dave Crist
This was kinda rough. Unlike the previous Hoss battle, this was just slow and sloppy. Fulton held his own against the two other big guys, which still kept him strong. Dave Crist took advantage of certain moments, but this was a tough sell. Slow rope running, awkward selling because Acey is so big…just…meh.
Jake Crist vs Daga
This was actually a decent match, just injured by a dead crowd. Jake and Daga pulled out a lot of offense, but didn’t really get any audible interaction. We saw Daga hit an Avalanche Death Valley Driver, Jake caught Daga with a Cutter and it was pretty good. This was spurred on after oVe had issues with Daga and Dr Wagner Jr during the tapings in Mexico; but not a ton of story to sink teeth into. Either way, pretty good match, would’ve come across better if not in a graveyard.
Joey Ryan vs Johnny Swinger
So Swinger tried to offer Joey his VHS tape of his top matches; as payment for Joey just laying down. Joey considers it, but suckers him in for the Small Package; surprisingly, Swinger kicks out. We’ve seen this match before, there is an audience for it I suppose, but it ain’t me. Bad comedy, telegraphed spots for the sake of attempted comedy; just ugh.
Knockouts Championship: Havok vs Jordynne Grace (c)
I honestly had low expectations for this match; so I wasn’t surprised. Havok used her size and power to dominate Jordynne most of the time. Jordynne’s injured arm was the focus of a lot of offense, and Jodynne kept trying to utilize Sleepers and chokes to bring Havok down. At the end, Jordynne had the choke in with the bodyscissors; but Havok dropped back on the mat to try and break the choke. Jordynne just say back up and sank it back in; referee calls it since it looks like Havok is out.
I would’ve liked to see Susie/Su Yung get involved here; but I guess a clean win helps Jordynne.
Moose vs Rhino
So initially Moose was just being a punk, low blow to Rhino in front of the referee; so the match ended in disqualification. Rhino says he didn’t come to Louisiana for a DQ, so he makes the match No DQ.
From here we get a decent match, the crowd actually seemed awake for this match as well. Highlight spot of course was when Moose introduced the Staple Gun, Rhino takes it; then applies the staple gun to…erhm…Little Moose. Commentary and the crowd pop, Moose sells it well; so it was pretty funny. Then Rhino grabs a table, so of course the crowd is fully behind that. Moose moves out of the way of the Gore, hits No Jackhammer Needed; so Mr Impact Wrestling gets his win. Pretty good all things considered.
Tessa Blanchard vs Ace Austin
So early on Ace is playing the sleazeball well where he tries to pull her in close by the hips, like a dance, instead of wrestling; along with generally implicit body language. Tessa’s body language throughout the whole match was awkward, and didn’t really go along with the story.
This match also demonstrated they have no chemistry. Multiple missed or awkward moves; but instead of rolling with it, they redo the spot. An attempted Pulling Up Magnum off the second turnbuckle was the first culprit; along with the botched finish. Calling this a comedy of errors is too mean, since there were pieces that worked; but it was mostly Ace Austin’s character work.
Tessa overreacting to kick outs and just never seeming to get in rhythm; made most of her offense look bad. Did it have spurts where it came together? Yes. Not quite enough to redeem anything; still fell very short of the mark.
Overall Score: 6/10
These ImpactPlus shows really keeping proving to be ALMOST a waste of time. Usually clocking in just above or just below average, really isn’t a good look. I guess using that particular sliding scale; at least this was just above average. Jake and Daga was solid, Kiera Hogan and Ray Lyn was more fun than expected, the tag title match was great; hell, even Moose and Rhino wasn’t awful.
Mostly just hampered by a mess of a main event; Sacrifice would’ve been pretty good if the last match delivered better. I find it personally amusing that most of their PPVs the last few years have been high quality; but these specials are basically house shows with spotty effort.
It remains to be seen if any of this will matter in the long run of story telling. But I really wish this show was better.
