The first episode from the Melrose Ballroom in New York! Let’s see how the first step to Impact Wrestling Slammiversary goes!

After some of the shenanigans from last week with Sandman bringing back Kenny, drunk Trey almost winning the tag titles for The Rascalz and Fulton and Sami Callihan trying to steal Melissa; this week has a lot of moving pieces.

Tessa also started a bit of an angle with oVe, which I’m curious about. It’s one thing to beat up on Disco, but a bunch of degenerates led by Sami Callihan could be dangerous.

If you’re still not sold on the Impact product, you need to learn respect like The Rascalz.

A huge BRAWL breaks out between LAX and The Rascalz! They want another shot at the Tag Team Championships! @SantanaLAX @Ortiz5150 @Konnan5150 @DezmondXavier @zachary_wentz @TheTreyMiguel #IMPACT

▶️ – https://t.co/sWu6SEAzEF pic.twitter.com/vQpZKUwBFl

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) June 15, 2019

Ratings:

• The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs RVD & Sabu w/Super Genie: The North win via Tandem Inverted Mat Slam – ** 1/2
• Jessica Havok vs Nasha Slammovich: Havok wins via Tombstone Piledriver – *
• Raj Singh vs Cody Deaner: Raj wins via Step Over Arm Wringer Driver – * 3/4
• Jordynne Grace vs Madison Rayne: Rayne wins via CrossRayne – ***
• Killer Kross vs The Sandman: Kross wins via Kross Jacket Choke – N/A
• Michael Elgin vs Willie Mack: Elgin wins via Elgin Bomb – *** 1/4

Analysis:

Kid Ref allowed a lot in this match. He takes a very Japanese referee mentality when it comes to these matches, like he expects chairs so he just allows them. Sabu and RVD had a lot of classic offense, but Moose interfering on behalf of the North, was too much. Alexander caught Sabu, threw him around a little and then used a Tandem Inverted Mat Slam to finish him off. Apparently this sets up The North for a title shot at Bash at the Brewery.

Moose and The North are no longer buddies after The North allowed the ECW Originals to get a little revenge on Moose.

This was just a job match of destruction. Masha, Nasha, Asha…why give the girl such a dumb name when she’s just jobbing. Sheesh. I do hope that was a bad name Impact just threw on her and it’s not her working name. Havok just demolished the poor girl. Afterwards James Mitchell hops on the stick and says Havok is going to be the next Knockouts Champion after she dismantles Rosemary. He also called her the Kaiju Queen…which I like as a nickname.

Gimmicky match. Raj broke his nose at some point, Cody did some Redneck Hulk Up thing, heel interference, Gama faked a heart attack…kind of paint by numbers gimmick match to get to what I’m assuming is a tag match between the two in a couple weeks.

Rosemary with a good promo, and she looked quite good as well. Just all Aces for Rosemary.

Impact Plus Flashback: Dixie Goes Through a Table, IMPACT, August 7,2014

.@TheSamiCallihan barges into the WOMEN'S LOCKER ROOM but @Tess_Blanchard is right there to answer the door!#IMPACT

▶️ – https://t.co/sWu6SEAzEF pic.twitter.com/GIdlwp3lFL

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) June 15, 2019

Solid match. Scary moment when Madison looked like she was supposed to float over the top rope and land on the apron, but she over shot and just fell into the barricade. Luckily it didn’t look to hurt too much and could be argued that Jordynne is so powerful it was meant to happen. Aside from that and a small slip in the corner, the match was pretty good. Kiera Hogan coming out with her new bad girl Blue Flame persona on commentary was great. She looked fantastic in her dress with her new personality.  A subtle distraction from Kiera costs Jordynne the match, but she didn’t physically interfere.

Sandman tried to jump Kross mid entrance, bit Kross was keen to the tactic. Sandman did get in a few shots with the fists and the cane, but Kross locks in the choke and as Josh Matthews said, ” Exit light”. Eddie Edwards makes the save when Kross won’t let go of the hold, so it’s continuing the build for their blow off.

A little Smoke Show backstage moment with Fallah, Scarlett, Taya and John E. Bravo. More comedy driven than Scarlett being sexy, and it’s actually really awesome. Scarlett comes off more adorable/endearing, but Taya’s bitchiness is a little forced. Watch this for Scarlett and Fallah.

.@Lady_Scarlett13 informs @TheTayaValkyrie that she has to defend her Knockouts Championship against @realsuyung NEXT WEEK or risk losing it! #IMPACT

▶️ – https://t.co/sWu6SEAzEF pic.twitter.com/8l1Qw2akCN

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) June 15, 2019

Solid match for what felt like an 8 minute match. Willie and Big Mike put in great work, and Willie getting distracted since Mike attacked Rich Swann protects him a little. Also Johnny Impact eating a German Suplex from Big Mike at least makes it obvious he’s not allied with Johnny.

Overall Score: 6.75/10

This was a good show, but some of the finer points didn’t seem as good as previous weeks. The fact it took Impact 1 hour to figure out the sound for the Twitch interaction was amusing yet dumb. Don Callis and Melissa were supposed to do it together, but Melissa loses against technology most weeks and this was such a big loss she just stopped trying to call in through Skype.

We had a few decent matches, but most of them felt like matches to get to the next story point. So a few short worthless matches, a few gimmicked matches, and we have an entertaining, yet a little flat episode. I’m just really amused by Scarlett being more charming and funny…hell Laredo Kid robbing the Rascalz after the bar fight was great too.

Twitch Views:

• 5/3/2019 – LOW: 4,000/HIGH 6,550
• 5/10/2019 – LOW: 3,800/HIGH: 7,130
• 5/17/2019 – LOW: 6,900/HIGH: 12,220
• 5/24/2019 – LOW: 5,200/HIGH: 10,070
• 5/31/2019 – LOW: 4,550/HIGH: 8,075
• 6/7/2019 – LOW: 7,100/HIGH: 13,606
• 6/14/2019 – LOW: 3,400/HIGH: 8,250

Okay so after so really solid weeks, this was one of those slow burn episodes. The show gradually built the viewership as the show went on, but didn’t really hold like most weeks. Most weeks I say ” It started off low but never dropped below 6,000 once it got there”. This week was just a slow increase and never had one of those obvious benchmarks. A little weird, but the numbers remain within that 6-8,000 consistent viewers.