Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo will defend against Taylor Wilde in the first match of her third title reign.

Purrazzo regained the vacant title at this month's Rebellion by defeating Jordynne Grace. Wilde will be looking to become a multi-time Knockouts Champion while also holding the Knockouts Tag Team titles with KiLynn King.

Former Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace will rematch with her rival Masha Slamovich in another high-profile bout. This will be their fourth meeting in Impact with Grace undefeated in the previous three. Their last meeting was for Grace's then-Knockouts title in a last woman standing match at November 2022's Over Drive.

In a non-title match, Impact Tag Team Champions ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) will take on The Design's Angels & Kon. ABC is coming off a successful title defense at Rebellion while Sami Callihan turned on The Design at the PPV.

The BTI pre-show will see Kenny King battle Channing Decker.

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BTI pre-show: Kenny King defeated Channing Decker

This was a good match that saw Decker show why he is one of the up and coming indie talents in Canada.

Main Show:

Impact opened with a big match.

Jordynne Grace defeated Masha Slamovich

I think it is time to start getting behind Slamovich, but I can’t deny that this match was awesome. Grace winning is a sign she must be around for at least a little more. Absolutely fantastic performance between both wrestlers.

Slamovich spent the early part of the match hitting hard strikes and keeping the pace of the match slow. Grace eventually fired up and hit a muscle buster for a 2-count, the same move that finished Slamovich a few months ago. Grace hit a hard bodyslam and then hit an awesome Michinoku driver for a 2-count.

Slamovich countered a German suplex into an O’Connor roll, but Grace pulled her back into a rear naked choke. Slamovich floated backwards like when Bret Hart pinned Roddy Piper, and transitioned into a choke of her own. Slamovich hit a pumphandle German suplex on Grace as Grace fought out of the choke for a 2-count.

Slamovich blocked a muscle buster, and a series of near falls exchanged between them until Grace finally sat down after a nearfall in a sunset flip and pinned Slamovich.

Steve Maclin segment

The new Impact World Champion came out and talked about his strategic retreat from PCO last week. PCO’s music hit, followed by Champagne Singh and Shera attacking PCO from behind as Maclin retreated again. PCO took out Singh and Shera before Santino Marella came out. Singh tried to pay off Santino. He took the money, banned Shera from ringside and sent Singh to his death against PCO.

PCO defeated Champagne Singh

This went too long for a squash, but it was effective in showing PCO as a monster.

Singh got more offense than I expected, but made the foolish mistake of shoving money into the mouth of PCO after a flatliner. I don’t think that is how one normally attempts to pay off their opponents. PCO spit the money out and proceeded to hit code breaker and guillotine leg drop on Singh. PCO got the win after a moonsault, crushing Singh.

– The Impact Plus throwback involved Nick Aldis (as Magnus) getting a win against Christopher Daniels.

– The Design were backstage and Deaner cut a promo about Sami Callihan turning on them. This was actually a good delivery by Deaner, but he talked about how he was created by The Designer (Eric Young) to eliminate weakness. He confessed he ripped Young’s heart out and fed it to the wolves. Well then. Guess we know he’s dead now.

– Oh good, we got another creepy promo from The Coven. Taylor Wilde and KiLynn King were trying to cast spells on Deonna Purrazzo to rip her limb from limb. King turned over the Eight of Swords tarot card. It sucked.

Johnny Swinger defeated El Dineroco

The luchador that Swinger and Dice paid to bring into face Swinger was Zicky Dice under a mask,. Swinger won with a La Magistral cradle.

Dineroco and Swinger went back behind the curtain and the camera saw Dineroco take off the mask to reveal it was Dice. Santino walked up and said the match didn’t count since it was supposed to be someone not contracted. Dice asked for a contract anyway. Swinger walked away upset at Dice, saying he knew it wasn’t going to work. Swinger is back to zero wins.

– Kenny King was backstage and Channing Decker thanked him for the match on BTI. King said he was thankful Decker let King beat him in his hometown. Decker walked away offended. King then sat down next to Sheldon Jean and offered to help mentor him so he could help him climb the ladder in Impact, doing what needs to be done.

Impact Tag Team Champions Ace & Bey Connection (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) defeated The Design (Angels & Kon) (w/ Deaner) in a non-title match

I was worried Kon broke Bey’s ankle by accident in a botch, but he recovered. Kon could have also severely hurt himself, and then nearly killed Angels too. Not a good night for Kon. Match was pretty good otherwise, honestly.

Kon hit the ropes with Bey on his back and hit a shoulder tackle on Austin before tripping and face planting right into the middle rope in a botch, leading Bey to scream “My ankle!” Kon threw Bey from the ring, and he was grabbing at his ankle. I hope he didn’t hurt himself, as that didn’t look good.

As the match went on, we saw an update from backstage and Santino was taken out by someone. Bey made it back to the apron. The heat continued on Austin for a bit, but the tag was made to Bey, who looked okay. Bey went for the art of finesse, but Angels and Kon stopped him, and Angels hit a Russian leg sweep off the middle ropes.

Austin low bridged Kon to send him to the floor and hit a back body drop on Angels that sent him over the ropes onto Kon. Instead of catching Angels, Kon just stood there, and Angels bounced off him and nearly landed on his head on the floor. Kon’s second botch of the night. As Bey and Austin were hitting dives on Kon, Callihan ran out and dropped Deaner on the floor and brawled backstage with him. ABC hit the art if finesse and the fold on Angels for the pinfall soon thereafter.

– Santino said he tried to fight back against who hit him, but he had no idea who it was. The doctor said he was recommending Santino take time off. Dango then appointed himself the Detective of Authority and offered to investigate what happened.

– The Death Dollz were backstage discussing how they needed the Knockout Tag Team titles to use magic powerful enough to see who was blocking them from the Undead Realm. Crazzy Steve walked up and Rosemary smiled at her mutual Decay friend. Steve said she needed to go talk to James Mitchell, and Rosemary was reluctant. A third weird supernatural promo. Rosemary, Steve, and Jessica were all great in their performances, but I really don’t like this kind of thing in my wrestling. If this wasn’t wrestling, I’d be intrigued.

Jody Threat defeated Seleziya Sparx

The fans chanted “She’s a threat!” which Threat should adapt as her catchphrase immediately. Threat controlled most of the match, outside of a brief heat segment. This was a pretty standard squash. Threat hit a seated senton and a series of corner lariats before hitting a pump kick and a German suplex and the F416 for the pinfall.

Frankie Kazarian sit-down interview

Gia Miller sat down with Kazarian to discuss his career and his original signing with Impact, saying Scott D’Amore and Jeff Jarrett were why he got a shot in TNA. He talked about his world title match with AJ Styles a month into being there, but also talked about the business where the old mentality was still active with older veteran wrestlers holding back younger talent for years.

Kazarian talked about why he left TNA with Daniels and went to ROH in 2014 because of the turmoil backstage in TNA at the time, and he decided he needed out because he was never going to get the chances he wanted there. This was accompanied by highlights of Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan, and Jeff Jarrett all shown in negative light, including Dixie Carter being dragged backstage holding onto the foot of Hogan as he left the company. 

I appreciate the honesty of how bad a state Impact was in then, but I’m not sure if it was wise to show this on TV, but I can’t deny it was compelling as Kaz told a very honest story about his journey in the company.

Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defeated Taylor Wilde (w/ KiLynn King) to retain

Solid match between these two, with Purrazzo looking absolutely fantastic and helping Wilde look good. It’s interesting that Grace saved Purrazzo, clearly setting up a tag match. Maybe Grace and Purrazzo will challenge for the tag titles at some point.

Deonna was not ripped limb from limb, so I don’t think the spell from earlier worked. Purrazzo immediately started trying to work over the arm, getting a cross armbar quickly, and every time Wilde tried to counter out, Purrazzo transitioned right back to some sort of arm lock. Wilde had a few moments of looking lost, but recovered fast enough that you probably wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for it. Purrazzo helped cover for it well too.

Wilde went to the floor and King gave her a Priestess tarot card, she smiled and they went to break. They came back and Purrazzo sent Wilde to the floor again. These cards really aren’t working for her. Purrazzo hit King with a forearm by accident, leading Wilde to attack Purrazzo from behind.

Wilde got the heat for the next while, including a headscissors into a crossface. Wilde tried to match Purrazzo with forearms, but was unable. Purrazzo hit a running knee and Russian leg sweep before floating over into a Fujiwara armbar. Purrazzo tried to tie Wilde up wit the Venus de Milo, but Wilde made the ropes. Wilde avoided the Queen’s Gambit and hit the Wilde ride for a 2-count, and went for the witch’s wrath, but Purrazzo immediately countered into Venus del Milo for the submission.

King and Wilde attacked Purrazzo after the bell, but Jordynne Grace made the save and both of them cleared the ring. Grace then faced off with Purrazzo, shook hands, and pointed at the Knockouts title. This was good.

Final Thoughts

A fair bit of squash matches, but there were 3 good matches on this show tonight with Slamovich/Grace, and Purrazzo/Wilde being quite good, and ABC/The Design being decent despite the botches of Kon. Not a lot of major angles, but they are clearly setting up stuff to slow burn, which I am okay with. Hopefully the seeds they are planting actually sprout, as there are some interesting stories they could try to tell.

Next week:

Major surprise debutSteve Maclin, Champagne Singh & Shera vs. PCO and two partners of his choosingJody Threat vs. AlishaMoose & Brian Myers vs. Yuya Uemura & Bhupinder GujjarFrankie Kazarian sit-down interview, part two

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