Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling team up tonight for a much-hyped crossover PPV event, which looks great on paper but unfortunately has taken several major hits the last few weeks due to injuries. Impact lost now-former World Champion Josh Alexander & Knockouts Champion Mickie James, taking two title matches off the event, while New Japan lost Will Ospreay, delaying a dream match with Mike Bailey. But there is still a lot to look forward to and some of the matches, on the Impact side, will further set up matches for Rebellion on 4/16. The first-ever LIVE episode of Impact Wrestling previews tonight’s event and also features at least 2 previously non-televised matches: Josh Alexander vs. KENTA for the Impact World Championship and Miyu Yamashita vs. TBA in her Impact debut. The live Impact will simulcast on AXS TV and YouTube for Ultimate Insiders (no delays this week for YouTube).
Tonight’s event will be held at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA and can be watched LIVE on FITE in English for $24.99. You get the live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays, a good thing for those on the east coast because of the very late start time. It WILL NOT be available on Impact+ or New Japan World. There will be a FREE pre-show on FITE with one match 15-30 minutes before the PPV begins. Including the pre-show it’ll be a half-nighter for all but west coast fans who will be up well past late night to watch, as I expect the running time to be standard PPV length at just over 3 hours.
Tonight’s current lineup:
Pre-Show:
Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd
PPV:
Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihan & PCO vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos
Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club vs. Aussie Open, TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way for the titles
Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a Scramble Match for the title
Masha Slamovich vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamashita (Tokyo Joshi Pro) in a 4-way. The winner will either face Jordynne Grace for the vacant Impact Knockouts Championship at Rebellion or face Champion Mickie James and Grace in a 3-way for the title at Rebellion depending on if James is medically cleared
Lio Rush vs. KUSHIDA
Moose vs. Jeff Cobb
STRONG Openweight Champion KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki for the title
yHiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT. Also, the match order for tonight will not be revealed ahead of time. We won’t know until entrances happen.
10:25 PM ET UPDATE: FITE is showing the pre-show still beginning at 7:45 PM PT/10:45 PM ET despite reports from New Japan of an earlier start time. So the later time it probably is.
10:45 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
Mandatory FBI warning…
We’ll be starting momentarily.
The feed officially begins at 1):49 PM ET.
We are LIVE from the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA Your hosts are Thom Hannifan, Matt Rehwoldt & Ian Riccaboni..
The event is a legit advance sellout although it’s a small venue so attendance will probably be around 500. The venue’s capacity, depending on the layout, can be up to 1500..
Pre-show match: Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd
Result: Yuya Uemura beat Gabriel Kidd.
PPV:
We see the ring announcer getting the crowd warmed up…
Mandatory FBI Warning.
Opening video.
In addition to the English ring annoucner, we’ve got the NJPW STRONG Japanese announcer following, nice touch.
Match 1: Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a 6-way Scramble Match for the title
Result: Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel beat Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a 6-way Scramble by pinning Knight to retain the title.
Commentary reveals Bailey-Tanahashi will be the main event.
Match 2: Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihan & PCO vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos
Result: Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihn & PCO beat Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos. PCO pinned Kratos after PCOsault.
Match 3: Moose vs. Jeff Cobb. Audio issues with pre-match video package.
Result: Jeff Cobb beat Moose
Backstage interview segment cut away from due to technical issues. We go back to the hard camera at ringside.
Match 4: Masha Slamovich vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamashita (Tokyo Joshi Pro) in a 4-way. The winner will either face Jordynne Grace for the vacant Impact Knockouts Championship at Rebellion or face Champion Mickie James and Grace in a 3-way for the title at Rebellion depending on if James is medically cleared. Mickie James joins commentary for this match, replacing Riccaboni.
Result: Dronna Purrazzo beat Masha Slamovich, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamahita in a 4-way by pinning Shaw. As a result, Purrazzo will either face James & Jordynne Grace in a 3-way for the Impact Knockouts Championship OR face Grace for the vacant title if James can’t compete.
Match 5: Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club vs. Aussie Open, TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way for the titles
Result: Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club beat Aussie Open, TMDK and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way, when Chris Bey pinned Bad Dude Tito, to retain the titles.
Match 6: Lio Rush vs. KUSHIDA
Result: KUSHIDA beat Lio Rush by submission
Match 7: STRONG Openweight Champion KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki for the title
Result: STRING Openweight Champion KENTA beat Minoru Suzuki to regain the title
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey
Result: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Mike Bailey
End Show.
Quick post-show final thoughts: Unfortunately I got really tired late night and slept through parts of the last 2 matches but despite the injury losses this was a fantastic card top to bottom. Every match was between delivered and overdelivered and there were no bad matches. The only complaint was some technical difficulties early on with video packages and backstage interviews but that took nothing away from a crossover event that must happen again soon. Must-buy replay if you missed it.
Overall show grade: A
UPDATE: According to New Japan’s Japanese website, the announced paid attendance was 652.
