After a strong January, does Impact continue the quality in February, as we move towards Uncaged?

If you’ve been reading these article, you know Impact has continued to be solid. This could be a down episode since it’s the week before the ‘Go Home’ to Uncaged. Not sure if we get some filler here, or more hard hitting action.

Let’s get around to the show.

Note* Just look at Rosemary from this episode, she’s inviting you to watch the show, do it, dammit.

.@WeAreRosemary APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE!

The Demon Assassin continues to haunt The Undead Bride and @AllieImpact! #IMPACT

WATCH NOW – https://t.co/jyZYT6QL46 pic.twitter.com/qbkmjj7Eal

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) February 2, 2019

Ratings:

• Pentagon Jr, Fenix & Taurus vs LAX & Daga: Pentagon wins via Spike Fear Factor Combo Move – *** 1/4
• Su Yung & Dark Allie vs Kiera Hogan & Jordynne Grace: Kiera wins via Face the Music on Allie – **
• Eli Drake & Eddie Edwards vs Wentz & Dez: Eli wins via Gravy Train – ***
• Fallah Bah vs Psycho Clown: Psycho Clown wins via La Magistral – ** 1/4
• Johnny Impact & Brian Cage vs Killer Kross & Moose: Moose wins via Spear – ** 1/2

Review Notes:

• • • We get insane, quick, lucha libre 6 man action. Everyone shines nicely, Daga and Taurus tend to square off against each other as a way to showcase the two newer names. We come back from the break to see Daga and Ortiz draped through the ropes, Fenix walks the ropes and steps on Daga to hit Ortiz with a Knee Strike. Taurus hits a Tornado Driver and then the Fear Factor/Footstomp combo wins the match for the Lucha Bros team.

  Stereo kicks by @PENTAELZEROM and @ReyFenixMx. #IMPACT

  WATCH NOW – https://t.co/jyZYT6QL46 pic.twitter.com/D4dI6fev6F

  — IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) February 2, 2019

  • After the win, Pentagon challenges LAX to a title match next week.
  • Interview segment with Melissa Santos, Moose and Killer Kross. Kross remains screamy and unhinged, which is beautiful and Melissa reacts well to the promo. She jumps and looks concerned at the right times. Kross even has a comment like ” maybe you’ve heard of Brian Cage”, and Melissa just deadpans at the camera like “is he fucking serious”. Moose eventually keeps up this playboy, arrogant douchebag thing, which he does well. Good interview.
  • Josh Matthews, Don Callis are the commercial break personalities, and our favorite Zombie Princess shows up on Don’s Skype as well. It’s been a while since Jimmy Jacobs has been seen during Impact stuff.
  • LAX hype segment for next week’s match, followed by the Flashback match that was voted on by Twitch Chat. Choices were Eddie Edwars winning the Title, Brian Cage’s debut or Rosemary vs Su Yung. The Rosemary match won, cause the hivelings are strong and dedicated.
  • This Knockouts match is definitely more story driven than in-ring action. Su and Aliie kept Jordynne double teamed more often than not, until the power goes out and Rosemary changes places with Su. She offers the hand to Allie to be tagged in with the big smile on her face, Allie is confused and scared, Kiera takes advantage of it and hits Face the Music for the win. Rosemary disappears, Su never reappears and we’re left wondering where else this can go.
  • Off the commercial, Bobo is kicking his feet in the pool, Scarlett gets mad and spars with him. Punches his hands a few times, and then kicks him in the legs sending him into the pool. She complains that he got her wet and stomps off. Not really sexy, more emasculating, so it shows another aspect of her persona.
  • Fun match with Eli, Eddie and The Rascalz. Dez and Wentz continue to be athletic freaks, and the story with Eli and Eddie continues. Eli takes a few short cuts to give the team opportunities, but the big hypocritical moment is when Eddie tries to bring in the kendo stick, the ref stops him, Eli snatches the stick, hits Dez with it, hits a Gravy Train, and the 1,2,3 happens. Eli tries to say the stick wasn’t necessary, after using it. So…interesting.
  • Jimmy Jacobs takes over for Don, scarf, no shirt and leaning at the counter looking all enticing.  Jimmy actually adds funny discourse, makes Josh more palatable. More Zombie Princess please.
  • Tessa has a video challenge for Taya, on the Uncaged show, since that’s when her suspension is lifted.
  • Taya responds by upping the risks and making it a Street Fight as well as a championship match.
  • Psycho Clown has a well documented Roman Reigns level of popularity. So it’s usually split and the crowd even cheered a bit for Fallah Bah during the match. The match was a little awkward at times, but Clown showed off his athleticism. A few nice dives, a couple counter moves and then the use of the La Magistral cradle to use Fallah’s weight against him was a smart finish. Match did seem a little sluggish all things considered though.

🤘🔥#IMPACT @Psychooriginal

WATCH NOW – https://t.co/jyZYT6QL46 pic.twitter.com/8a0UmInWPQ

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) February 2, 2019

• A celebratory segment in the back with Psycho Clown, Hijo de Vikingo, Aerostar and Puma King. Lots of hype and basically saying AAA is better and they can’t lose in Mexico.
• Not a bad match, that moves the storyline forward decently. A few messy spots hurt the quality, especially Johnny’s really awful Tiger Feint/619. Killer Kross had a lot of nice dialogue during the match which showcased his nature, and Cage looked like a Machine. The finish got messy, Johnny accidentally hits Cage, so things fall apart, and before Cage can kill Johnny, Moose hits the Spear and Cage just watches it happen. This might be leading to a Fatal 4-Way since everyone involved in this match has a pinned the champion, so we’ll see.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

So the big reveal for this show was their PPV in April being called Rebellion. I like that they are rebranding most of the show names, keeping the two big ones the same is fine though. When it comes down to this show, it really felt like it was just treading water.

A few stories did get moved forward, but it suffered from a lack of real surprise and nothing overly provocative to spike interest. The show also marked the worst Twitch viewership it’s had in the four weeks so far. Viewers spiked at about 7,100 during the opening match, and then hovered between 5.300 -6,000 people.

Viewership: 

• Week 1: High – 10,350 / Low – 8,500
• Week 2: High – 8,000 / Low – 6,500 
• Week 3: High – 8,500 / Low – 7,900  
• Week 4: High – 7,100 / Low – 5,300

So the low end dropped roughly 33% from last week, and this was the weakest show so far, so maybe that’s indicative of quality. Either way, the worst episode of Impact this year is still on the higher end of an average Raw lately, so no need to make jokes or run for the fire extinguisher after one week. Next week needs to bring things to a head for Uncaged, so that should insure a better show.