Impact Wrestling live results: Golden Six Shooter match
A six-way no. 1 contender's match involving all former Impact World Champions will headline Thursday's Impact on AXS TV.
Moose, Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann, Callihan, Rhino and Chris Sabin will all compete in the first-ever Golden Six Shooter match with the winner moving on to face champion Josh Alexander at next month's No Surrender.
The X-Division title will be on the line as Trey Miguel defends against 73-year-old Mike Jackson while the Knockouts Tag Team titles will be on the line as the Death Dollz defend against Gisele Shaw & a mystery partner determined by Santino Marella.
KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight will team up against The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch) while The Major Players will face Bullet Club's Ace Austin & Chris Bey.
Jonathan Gresham will look to rebound from his Hard to Kill loss to Edwards as he faces the debuting Sheldon Jean.
The BTI pre-show will see AEW Dark veteran Carlie Bravo against Zicky Dice.
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Zicky Dice (w/Johnny Swinger) defeated Carlie Bravo on the BTI pre-show
It was a great back and forth match between the current hosts of The Bad Taste Show podcast with Dice picking up the victory after nailing Bravo with the High Roller.
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The opening video highlighted Santino Marella talking to Ernest Miller about the debut of the Golden Six Shooter and Mike Bailey picking up the victory against Kenny King in the Fight Pit match last week.
Trey Miguel defeated Mike Jackson to retain the X-Division title
There was 45 year difference between 73-year-old Mike Jackson and 28-year-old Trey Miguel but Jackson held his own in the opening moments of the match before Miguel landed a cheap shot as Jackson was looking to shake his hand.
Miguel attempted a springboard moonsault but Jackson rolled out of the way and the straps of Jackson came down and it was now fight time. Miguel attempted a comeback but was soon met with some "old school" rope walking from Jackson.
Unfortunately for Jackson, he failed to make it around the entire ring as Miguel was too powerful for the 73-year-old and pulled him off the ropes. Miguel then followed it up with the lightning spiral to get the win and retain the X-Division championship.
After the match, Miguel went to the outside to look for something under the ring but was met by Crazzy Steve instead. Miguel thought about standing his ground but took off from the ringside area quickly instead.
- Backstage Gia Miller was with Impact world champion Josh Alexander. As Alexander was talking about the main event and his potential challenger, Steve Maclin interrupted. Maclin informed Alexander he was a target as Scott D'Amore was no longer around to protect him.
- Backstage, Chris Sabin was seen preparing for the main event match as Alex Shelley watched on.
- Backstage, Rich Swann was seen preparing for the main event.
KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight defeated The Good Hands (Jason Hotch & John Skyler)
Knight and Skyler started the match and it was referenced that Knight was from New Japan Pro-Wrestling's L.A. Dojo. After some back and forth offense by both teams, Skyler and Hotch soon had the momentum.
KUSHIDA finally managed a comeback after nailing double back elbows on Skyler and Hotch. Knight re-entered the ring and hit Skyler with a massive dropkick from the ground as he was sitting on top of KUSHIDA's shoulders. KUSHIDA followed it up with the Hoverboard lock for the victory.
- Backstage, Gisele Shaw and Jai Vidal confronted Santino Marella about who her partner was tonight. Marella introduced someone in the room that was not seen on camera but both Shaw and Vidal were impressed.
- Backstage, Mickie James met up with Jordynne Grace and congratulated her on their match at Hard To Kill. Grace stated that she wasn't helping James last week but merely protecting her investment referencing the Knockouts world title and her pending rematch.
Death Dollz (Jessicka & Taya Valkyrie w/Rosemary) defeated Gisele Shaw (w/Jai Vidal) & Tara to retain the Knockouts world tag team titles
After Valkyrie and Tara started the match, Shaw tagged herself in looking disgusted at Tara's performance mere seconds into the match.
Valkyrie used her power to keep Shaw grounded before tagging Jessicka in. Jessicka failed to land a leg drop and Shaw managed to finally gain the momentum but wouldn't tag Tara back into the match as fans were going crazy and chanting Tara's name.
Shaw followed up by landing more offense on Valkyrie before finally looking like she was going to tag Tara but blew her off once again instead. Tara finally had enough however and entered the ring and the two women soon got into a heated argument.
After Shaw continued to disrespect Tara even further, Shaw soon found herself on the receiving end of the Window's Peak as Jessicka watched on with popcorn at this point and Tara left the ring.
Valkyrie saw the opportunity and tagged Jessicka in who then followed it up with a sit-out piledriver to pickup the easy victory and retain the tag team titles.
- Backstage, Rhino was getting ready for the main event alongside Heath.
- A video promo showed Taylor Wilde performing witchcraft and stated that it looked like her feud with Killer Kelly was going to continue.
- Backstage, Santino Marella was with Dave LaGreca of Busted Open. The two were interrupted by Bully Ray and Bully confronted Marella and questioned him on why he wasn't in the main event. After Marella gave his response, Bully wasn't satisfied and warned Marella about what happened to the last guy that was in charge.
- Backstage, Sami Callihan was getting ready for the main event as The Design watched on.
- Backstage, Gia Miller was with Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans. Miller referenced Steelz loss last week and stated that she's been having problems with Evans as of late. Evans stated that it wasn't working anymore and when Miller asked for clarification, Steelz stated "all of it" before walking off.
Bullet Club (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) defeated The Major Players (Brian Myers & Matt Cardona)
Cardona and Bey started things off and this match was definitely going to feature power vs. speed. After some showboating by Cardona, Bey gained the upper hand and tagged in Austin and the Bullet Club members began showing why they had a very successful showing for NJPW last year.
Cardona landed a cheap shot on Austin to gain momentum for his team and it was soon all Major Players before some miscommunication between Cardona and Myers which allowed Austin to make the hot tag to a fired up Bey.
Bey wouldn't last long though as he was soon outpowered and met with a running boot in the corner by Cardona and a diving elbow drop by Myers but was able to kickout at two.
After some further miscommunication by Cardona and Myers in the corner, Austin was able to get back into the match and after some quick offense and a wild rollup, Austin got the pin on Cardona for a massive upset.
- After the match, Impact Digital Media champion Joe Hendry made his way out to the entrance ramp. Hendry stated that he's heard that Cardona wants a shot at the title and presented him with a new world premiere video seemingly titled "Edge's B***h". Cardona and Myers were not happy.
- Backstage, Eddie Edwards was seen getting ready for the main event alongside his wife Alisha.
- Backstage, Moose was getting ready for the main event before being interrupted by The Major Players. Cardona and Myers were heated and stated that they were going to take care of Hendry.
Jonathan Gresham defeated Sheldon Jean
As Jean began the match arrogantly disrespecting Gresham, Gresham made him pay by landing early offense and locking him in an ankle lock but Jean made it to the ropes for the break.
Jean gained a bit of offense but continued to be arrogant and Gresham made him pay again by landing a shot to his neck, knocking him out and landing an aggressive Gresham an easy victory.
Rich Swann defeated Chris Sabin, Eddie Edwards, Moose, Rhino & Sami Callihan in Golden Six Shooter Elimination #1 Contender's Match
Elimination occurred by pinfall, submission and disqualification with all six men competing in the match at the same time. All six competitors are former world champions and the winner will challenge Josh Alexander for the Impact world title at No Surrender.
The opening moments saw Moose and Rhino attempt to outpower one another before Chris Sabin got involved. Sabin used his quickness to gain some early momentum but with all six men competing at once, momentum in the match wasn't going to last.
Rhino had Callihan lined up for the gore but Moose entered the ring and instead of landing his finisher, Rhino was soon on the receiving end of a spear by Moose. Before he could make the cover, Callihan tossed Moose out of the ring and pinned Rhino giving us our first elimination of the night before we headed to commercial.
We're back from commercial and Moose is dominating Swann and Sabin before Edwards attempted to get involved but got nailed too for his troubles. Sabin saw an opportunity and nailed a tornado ddt on Moose to switch momentum of the match up once again.
Edwards managed to capitalize but before he could do much damage, the fans started chanting PCO and Edwards couldn't stay focused on Sabin. Sure enough, PCO's music hit and the "French Canadian Frankenstein" soon appeared on the entrance ramp but was stopped by security. Unfortunately for Edwards, his focus on the match was completely gone at this point and Sabin capitalized and rolled him up for the 1-2-3.
With four competitors left, Moose played up his power game and soon after Sabin had eliminated Edwards, he soon found himself in the same boat as Moose was able to land a spear and eliminate Sabin as we headed into another commercial break.
We're back again from commercial and it was down to Callihan, Moose and Swann looking to challenge Josh Alexander at No Surrender as all three men were on their knees beating the hell out of one another. After all three reached their feet, Swann nailed Callihan with a spinning kick before landing a cutter. Before Swann could do anything further, Moose kicked out Swann's leg and started focusing on damaging Swann's right knee.
After Moose felt he was unbeatable at this point, he shouted to the crowd that he could do this "all damn day". Before he could continue his attack on Swann, Swann caught him with a surprise rollup and Moose was now done for the night as well.
The Design made their way down to the ring and Deaner looked at Callihan and told him to finish Swann and Callihan applied a stretch muffler but a resilient Swann wouldn't give up.
After some back and forth exchanges between Swann and Callihan, Swann finally was able to gain momentum. Swann nailed Callihan with a 450 splash off the second rope and scored the victory to earn a title match with Josh Alexander at No Surrender.
After the match, The Design entered the ring and it was soon a 4-on-1 assault on Swann. Yuya Uemura came down to the ring to make the save followed by Frankie Kazarian and Josh Alexander. The Design was sent packing as Swann celebrated his victory as Impact came to a close.
Final Thoughts:
Very surprised to see Rich Swann get the victory in the main event as my guess would have been Sami Callihan and the direction Impact is going with him and The Design but Alexander battling Swann should be amazing.
The tag team division is heating up with teams like Bullet Club and KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight and we'll see just how much when the two teams face each other next week.
Finally, Jonathan Gresham is an absolutely amazing talent and one of the most gifted technical wrestlers we'll ever have the honour of watching and now with his new attitude, I think Josh Alexander and the Impact world title may be in jeopardy sometime later this year.
Next Week:
- Bullet Club (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) vs. KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight
- Gisele Shaw (w/Jai Vidal) vs. Savannah Evans