Carmella Can Be A ‘Diva’, But She Can’t Win At WWE SummerSlam 2018

Carmella Can Be A ‘Diva’, But She Can’t Win At WWE SummerSlam 2018 by Christopher Jeter

Too much wrestling on the tele-box to keep up? Here’s The Bullet Point Review of Impact Wrestling to keep you in the loop. Is Impact worth your time this week? Let’s take a look….

1. Last week’s events and happenings were ably presented in a smart video package that saw Austin Aries retain his World Title (with a little help from Killer Kross), The OGZ lay a Streetfight challenge for LAX, and Tessa Blanchard delivered a warning to Allie and Su Yung. Impact’s video production is stella, week in, week out. These visual storytelling devices are an easy starting point for new viewers – the production team don’t get anywhere near enough credit.

2. Sami Callihan versus Fenix was the opening match. Hands down, this was the match of the week. When your first contest is this good, you know Impact is doing something right. What Fenix can do on, and in the ropes, is awe-inspiring. Watching the luchadour today, reminds me of Rey Mysterio, circa 1996.

Sami, not to be outdone, works such a stiff and physical style, that he counteracts the high-flying magic with a fist to the face! A DDT/Suplex combination from Sami, looked spectacular. Everything Fenix does is great, but an entrance ramp handspring cutter is a personal highlight.

Fenix wins with a twisting, muscle buster driver variant! That was AMAZING!!

3. Fenix shows good fire in his post-match promo. Fenix gets an X-division title shot against Brian Cage in 2 weeks time at IMPACT REDEFINED. Cage silently held up the title to Fenix – that match has huge potential.

4. The GWN flashback is from 2010. This was an Impact Zone “riot” from the EX-WWE era. This was a Vince Russo concept/storyline that showed that he could make compelling television. I seem to remember Mick Foley being a big fan of this episode. I am too.

5. Allie cut a solid babyface promo as she prepared to take on, and take down, Su Yung. I kinda miss the ditzy, sweet Allie of 2016 though. Just my preference.

6. Jimmy Jacobs versus Johnny Impact, disappointingly, didn’t happen. Jacobs proclaimed himself, “a good guy, capable of bad things”. Well that’s true; Jimmy had Kongo Kong attack pre-bell. The heels attempted to obliterate The Mayor of Slamtown. Impact fought his way out using his cool-looking parkour skills.

My issues with Johnny were all on display here. Everything he does, looks cool. But in a revenge angle, Johnny needs to show fire, intensity and blood lust, not his acrobatic skills. Johnny Impact is entertaining to watch, but fails to make me root for him. Creative need to work with Johnny to develop an edge, a personality or something to make him feel significant.

7. Scarlett Bordeaux debuted her “Smoke Show” segment. The 2018 Sable-esque knockout had fun interactions with KM and Fallah Bahh and, as ever, the mis-matched tag team, were good value for comedy relief. The sultry siren either inspired the team with her revealing attire or drove a wedge between the odd couple – we’ll see how it all plays out.

It’s worth noting, this was a backstage talk show. While entertaining, the ‘better than you’ heel, would surely be more effective as an in-arena, live studio audience participation show. Scarlett’s character is perfectly suited for audience-baiting. This seemed like a missed opportunity.

8. Austin Aries introduced Killer Kross as his ‘insurance policy’. Aries has been gold in his latest World Championship run. A great talker, wrestler and a natural prick, I question whether Kross adds anything to the champs repertoire. Kross is a unique performer and his psychopathic character doesn’t need the addition of AA. This pairing confuses me. I can get on board with Aries hiring a bodyguard, but why take one of the companies most compelling new characters? They could just hire Big Cass.

Eddie Edwards bought the segment to a close with a Singapore Cane attack. Kross choked Eddie out and left looking strong.

9. Joe Hendry lost to Eli Drake following inadvertent interference from Grado. The match was good, the love triangle between Joe/Grado/Katerina is funny and all played their parts well. But, Drake needs to move on to bigger and better things soon. I’m sure he didn’t sign a long-term contract extension to be a mid card comedy act.

Hendry’s personalized entrance video, mocking Drake was the highlight of a fun little match. Hendry looks to be a good investment.

10. Sami Callihan has challenged Pentagon to a Mexican Death Match next week. Following their stupendous Hair versus Mask collision at Slammiversary, this guarantees my interest for next week’s show.

11. With only 15 minutes remaining and two matches still advertised, I was pretty sure of some pro wrestling shenanigans to close out the show.

Cue Tessa Blanchard interfering in Allie versus Su Yung. The ‘match’ is thrown out as Tessa attacks Allie, Yung attacks Tessa and the build to a three-way dance is put in motion. More simple storytelling from the Knockouts division.

12. The main event saw The OGZ take on LAX in a literal streetfight. Taking to the streets of Toronto, tyres, metal fencing, shanks and wrestling moves on concrete made this an interesting visual spectacle.

With the cityscape reflecting off the water, as it’s background, this was a well shot, movie-esque close to the show. Fun, violent and corny in equal measure, Impact Wrestling continue to try new and different ideas – no two weeks are the same.

The show concluded with LAX running off the OGZ and Konnan screaming obscenities at a prone Eddie Kingston. The screen faded to black as K-Dawg caved The King’s head in.

Now you don’t see that on Monday nights!!

13. A fun show. Good wrestling, crazy angles and plenty of reasons to check in next week.

And with the promised violence and crazed antics of a Mexican Death Match to look forward to, Impact continues to rebuild its brand of blood, sweat and sacrifice every Thursday night.