Report by Stuart Carapola @ PWInsider.com
Impact Wrestling starts their first night on the road, live from the Sears Center in Chicago. They’ve got a pretty impressive-sized crowd who looks really happy to be there.
Tonight: Bully Ray’s first appearance as the TNA World Champion, Brooke Hogan’s reaction following Lockdown, and AJ Styles returns to Impact for the first time in months!
Chavo Guerrero, Jr & Hernandez come out to the ring to open the show with a shot at the World Tag Team Title, but Aces & Eights run in during their entrance and beat them both down. Aces & Eights easily flattens Chavo and Hernandez and toss them out of the ring, then Devon gets a microphone and says that this is the group he said would dominate TNA, and that’s what they’re going to do from now on. Devon then introduces our new TNA World Champion, his brother, Bully Ray! Bubba comes out and looks damn good with that belt over his shoulder, then high fives his brother as he enters the ring. The crowd chants for Jeff Hardy as Bubba asks the crowd if they know who he is, then introduces himself as Bully Ray, the President of Aces & Eights and the TNA World Champion. He’s the guy who used Sting, who screwed Brooke, and made a fool out of Hulk Hogan and every one of us. For nine months, they pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes while they bought it, and he can’t tell Devon how proud he is of him and the brothers as they came into the ring, and when he took that hammer and drilled Jeff Hardy in the back of the head, he felt even more proud. That wasn’t supposed to be the plan, he was supposed to leave the cage when Wes and Garett came into the ring, but that didn’t happen because Hulk sat him down before the match and gave him advice from Andre the Giant to do something memorable. He couldn’t give a damn about Hulk’s advice, but he did something in one night that the NWO couldn’t accomplish ever, and he knows Hulk is here somewhere, so if he has the balls, he wants Hulk to come out and fire them. Bubba says he knows it won’t happen, because they’re Aces & Eights, and when you ride with Aces & Eights, you’ll never walk alone.
Sting is backstage saying that Bubba screwed TNA and is in the fast lane, and it’s pissing him off. He needs to do something, and he’s going to start by talking to Hulk. An extremely angry Sting storms off, but the Knockouts are in tag action when we come back from commercial!
We look back at this past Sunday when Taryn Terrell “accidentally” cost Gail Kim the Knockouts Title match by attacking her, then we get comments from Gail Kim from earlier tonight. Her heart goes out to Brooke Hogan, but she made the right decision by putting Taryn Terrell on probation and tells Terrell she better not ever put her hands on her again.
Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky & Mickie James vs Tara & Gail Kim
Gail and Velvet start us off and trade takedowns, Velvet snaps Gail to the mat by the hair and nearly drags her over to Tara by accident before realizing her error and dragging her completely back across the ring to Mickie. Micie comes in and goes to town on Gail with punches and kicks, hits an enzigiuri, and covers for 2 as we go to commercial.
We’re back as a very patriotically-attired Tara is working Mickie over and tying her up in the ropes with a tarantula. Tara stops to argue with Taryn Terrell while Gail dishes out punishment on the DL, then Tara covers for 2. Gail and Tara hit a double slingshot suplex on Mickie and Gail covers for 2. Gail gets in Terrell’s face again, but wastes too much time on that side work and takes a flying headscissors from Mickie. Gail and Mickie wipe each other out with a double clothesline and make simultaneous tags, then Velvet starts running Tara over with clotheslines before jabbing a boot at Gail on the floor. Gail breaks a cover at 2, then goes back to arguing with Terrell and dares Terrell to hit her. Terrell doesn’t, so Gail piefaces her and shoves her down to the mat. Terrell really should disqualify her for that, but instead she opts to slap her, stunning her long enough for Mickie to hit a flying crotch off the top rope. Tara swoops in and hits Mickie with the Widow’s Peak, but Velvet comes in and hits In Your Face for the win.
Winners: Velvet Sky & Mickie James
OOOOOOOOOH, Taryn’s going to get in trouble for that one!
We go back to the Aces & Eights Satellite Clubhouse where Bubba tells everyone that Hulk doesn’t have the balls to do anything to them, but he wants to propose a toast to everyone who has stuck by him the last nine months, and they share a beer while Bubba says he hasn’t heard from his wife in a while. He tries calling her, but she sends him right to voicemail, so he asks why she’s not returning his calls. He says the boys want to say hi to her, so he holds the phone out and they all go “HI BROOKE!” and then he tells her to call him back and tell Dad he says hi.
The annoying cameraman catches up to Hulk Hogan backstage and asks about his daughter and whether he’s going to fire Aces & Eights tonight, and Hulk just says “not now” and slams the office door shut behind him.
Robbie E vs Rob Terry
Robbie E gets a microphone before the match and says Lockdown was a fluke, and he won’t get so lucky tonight, BRO. E sneaks in and suckerpunches T, but T no sells him, clotheslines his head off, hiptosses him clear across the ring, press slams him to the mat, then drills him with a charging clothesline in the corner. Robbie T picks E up in a suplex and converts it into a powerslam. T gets fired up, drags E to his feet, drills him with a spinebuster, and makes a very…um, dirty looking cover for 3.
Winner: Rob Terry
Rob’s dancing music hits, he dances and does one-handed pushups.
Sting is backstage and walks into Hulk Hogan’s office, which has an Impact Wrestling logo on the wall for some reason even though they’re only there for the night. Hulk looks at Sting unhappily as we go to commercial. I bet Hulk’s going to blame Sting for vouching for Bubba and ask him where he’s at, DUDE.
We go back to the Aces & Eights Satellite Clubhouse where Bubba is shocked that there’s no Aces & Eights merch in the TNA catalog. He says to open the catalog to a random page and whoever they find there will have to pay. They seem amused by who they land on, Bubba says it’ll be tough but they’ll take whoever it is out tonight.
We go to Hulk’s office where Sting says they need to Hulk, and Hogan asks if he’s there to get the last breath from him. He asks if Sting knows what he’s done by vouching for Bubba and swearing he’s a nice guy, and now Aces & Eights holds the company hostage and Bubba has the title. It may not mean anything to Sting, but Bubba’s married to his daughter. Sting says it does matter and not to fire Aces & Eights, because they need to set this right. Hulk says he knows how this movie ends, they have the title, his daughter’s in a marriage she doesn’t want to be in, and they’ve ruined the company. Hulk’s in a place he doesn’t want to be in, then kicks Sting out of the office and says he makes him sick. Wow, that’s a bit harsh, now isn’t it?
We look back at the recent history of AJ Styles, and we’ll see his return to TNA next!
Bobby Roode and Austin Aries find Sting backstage and say it must be a tough night since he ruined everything. All the boys in the locker room are talking about how he screwed the company and blame him for letting Bubba get the TNA World Title. Now Aries and Roode have nobody to wrestle tonight, even though they were going to give Hogan and Sting a title shot after that. Sting says he’s had enough, and he wants to fight tonight. Aries gets in Sting’s face and asks if he wants to fight them, Sting says yeah, and Aries says Roode is happy to fight him any day of the week. Aries doesn’t realize that Roode snuck away, so Sting says he’s going to fight Aries tonight instead.
AJ Styles comes out to the ring for the first time in months, but his music stops and Bad Influence’s music hits instead. Kazarian and Daniels come out dressed and face painted like the Road Warriors, Kazarian says that tonight isn’t just the first live Impact on the road, and it’s definitely not hte first time AJ Styles has disappointed his fans since he’s gotten quite good at that, but Bad Influence is bringing back Throwback Thursday! Since they’re in the Second City, they’re paying homage to the second best tag team in wrestling history. Kazarian says TELL ‘EM, CHRIS, and Daniels goes WELLLLLLL, those legends of the past were fake tough guys, just like AJ Styles and every one of the fans. They’re real tough guys, real ring warriors, and they’re the Legion of BOOM! Daniels goes OHHHHHHHHHH WHAT A TUSH while pointing at his ass, then tells the fans they have permission to worship them now. James Storm comes out to the ring and says he was backstage listening to themn run their mouth about AJ Styles and one of the greatest tag teams in history while claiming to be tough guys. Storm’s sure that AJ will come out and say what he thinks of them, but that greatest tag team is a little bit taller and a little more over than they’ll ever be, and they’re actually from Chicago (they’re actually not). Storm says he’ll let them decide which one of them gets the crap kicked out of them right now, and since a referee is already in the ring, Storm grabs Daniels and we’re off with an impromptu match!
James Storm vs Christopher Daniels
Storm just destroys Daniels, rams him into Kazarian on the apron, and rolls him up for 2. Kazarian grabs Storm’s ankle and trips him from the outside, allowing Daniels to sneak in and nail Storm and put the boots to him. Daniels gets some kneestrikes to the chest and gets a rear bearhug, but Storm comes back with a series of clotheslines and a bulldog. Daniels escapes the Eye of the Storm and hits a uranage, but Storm dodges the BME and hits Closing Time. Storm gets distracted by Kazarian and Daniels tries a rollup, but Storm hits something I didn’t catch and cradles Daniels for the win.
Winner: James Storm
Daniels and Kazarian jump Storm after the match and put the boots to him, but AJ Styles finally comes out in his “sleeping on a park bench” outfit and punches Kazarian in the face before going after Daniels, who rolls out of the ring to avoid another beating. Storm gets to his feet to stand with his buddy AJ, who turns around and clotheslines his head off. AJ pulls his hood back up, then pulls it back off, then leaves.
We look back at Sunday when Wes Brisco beat Kurt Angle, then we go backstage where Brisco is conveniently goading Angle into a fight so Aces & Eights can beat him down. Angle’s left in a heap as Aces & Eights strolls off laughing.
Joseph Park comes out to the ring and says it’s been a big year for him: he got his first big win on Impact over in the UK and he even won again last weekend at Lockdown. All this success made him take a step back and reflect on his life and accomplishments, like graduating first in his class at law school, and making partner at Park, Park & Park (by the way, he apologizes to his colleagues in the crowd, who got crappy seats because he doesn’t have much clout around here). But he’s most happy about being here in Chicago because he’s a Cubs fan (the crowd boos), and sitting behind the goal at all the Blackhawks games, but nothing has been as exciting as being at Impact Wrestling and he can’t wait for what’s next. He finds out what’s next when Matt Morgan’s music hits, and the big man comes out to go face to face with our severely educated friend. Morgan comes out to cut a promo on Hulk Hogan, asking if the Bubba thing turned out like he hoped, and says that Hulk never made a bigger mistake than the joke standing in front of him right now. Park looks indignant as Morgan says the fact that Hogan signed this clown to a wrestling contract is an abortion to the sport of wrestling. He calls Park a fat oaf, then tells Hogan that he’ll start eliminating his mistakes one by one, starting…with Park. Morgan says that unless Park wants him to knock every one of his teeth down his throat, Park better get out of HIS ring right now. Park looks unsure, but Morgan tells him to leave and never come back. That does it for Park, who angrily steps back into the ring and tells Morgan that people from Chicago never back down from a fight, so if he wants to fight, let’s do it right now. Morgan looks surprised, then smiles at Park as he takes his jacket off. Morgan asks if he’s serious and says that he’s got to be kidding, because we don’t do things how Park wants, they do them on Morgan’s time. Morgan turns to leave, but Park makes the amateur mistake of turning his back and catches a Carbon Footprint in the grill. Morgan picks the microphone back up, crouches over Park, and says that his time is next week.
Back to the Aces & Eights Satellite Clubhouse, where Bubba gloats about taking out Chavo, Hernandez, and Angle, then dares Hogan again to fire them, and says that if he won’t come to them, they might just come to him. He already destroyed his family, now they’re going to destroy the show, and the entire group gets up to head out to cause a little damage.
We see a video package looking back at this past weekend when Bubba betrayed the Hogan’s, and we see Brooke, one of the only three people in the world who didn’t see this coming a mile away, freaking out over being used by Bubba.
It’s main event time!
Sting vs Austin Aries
Feeling out process to start, crowd is way behind Aries as he chain wrestles around Sting and brushes his hands off in the corner. Sting picks Aries up out of a headlock and places him on the top rope where he starts unloading with punches and kicks. Aries dodges a Stinger Splash and rolls out to the floor as Bobby Roode comes out to ringside to “support” his partner. He gives Aries a pep talk and sends him back inside, Sting winds up on the floor beating Roode up and gives him a Stinger Splash against the rail, and sees Aries coming off the top rope with a double axhandle. Aries nails his own partner, Sting rams Aries into the barricage, and the main event continues after this commercial break.
We’re back and Sting is still beating Aries up. Aries nails Sting from behind when Roode creates a distraction, but that doesn’t last long as Sting clotheslines Aries to the floor and goes back to yelling at Roode. The referee finally ejects Roode, but Roode keeps arguing long enough to give Aries the opportunity to slip in and clips Sting’s knee from behind, then take him out with a dive when he rolls out to the floor. Aries makes a cover for 2, then chokes Sting with his boot. Aries snapmares Sting and dropkicks him in the back of the head, but only gets a 2 count as a result. Sting tries to fight back until Aries dropkicks his knees out from under him and rams his knee into the mat. Aries holds the ropes to dodge a dropkick and goes for the Scorpion Deathlock, but can’t quite seem to figure the move out and gets kicked off. Sting starts comeback #36 and takes Aries out with a clothesline, but Aries squirms out to the apron when Sting goes for the Scorpion Deathlock. Aries nails Sting with a missile dropkick and mocks his howling, but Sting pops right back up and waits for Aries to turn around so he can press slam him, Aries dodges a Stinger Splash and connects with the IED and a Stinger Splash, but Sting slips out of a brainbuster attempt and hits the Scorpion Deathdrop. Aries becomes the first person to kick out of that in like a decade, but Sting hits the Stinger Splash and gets the Deathlock right in the middle of the ring. Aries nearly taps, but Aces & Eights runs in and beat Sting down 547-on-1.
Winner: Sting by DQ
Bubba has a microphone and tells Aces & Eights to hold him up, then says he used Sting and asks if Hogan is gonna remember Aces & Eights now. Bubba asks where “dad” is, and we’ll see what happens after this commercial break!
We’re back and Bubba is still calling Hogan out, and Hulk finally gets the cue that they’re back from commercial and comes out to the top of the ramp on his crutches. Wow, he looks PISSED. Hogan says that firing Bubba would be the easy way out after everything he did to him, his family, and the company, and he’s going to get his. He’s giving everyone in TNA clearance to go after Aces & Eights, and suddenly the locker room empties as just about everybody runs in to attack them. It doesn’t go well for TNA, as Aces & Eights proceeds to kick the entire roster’s asses. The beatdown goes for several minutes, and the TNA guys keep trying to fight back, but Aces & Eights ends up winning the fight, and as Bubba stands over the fallen TNA wrestlers and whips them with his chain, he asks Hogan if this is what he meant by doing something memorable. Bubba tells Hogan that that was his cavalry, and his cavalry just got taken out by Aces & Eights, then asks Hogan what he’s going to do…DAD? Bubba and Aces & Eights stares Hogan down as we call it a night.
