Welcome Back for another edition of the ODPH’s pro-wrestling blog: Blogs Count Anywhere. This is gonna be a follow-up to discussions had on #607TWS this week. It’s a busy week with Impact Wrestling leading the charge this weekend with a big show: “Hard To Kill (Saturday, Jan. 16th -8PM EST -PPV /Fite TV). In case you’re not familiar on why this is a BIG deal, here’s a quick reminder:
Photo Credit to All Elite Wrestling
A few weeks back, Don Callis (Impact VP) came to AEW Dynamite as a guest of Kenny Omega for his match vs. Jon Moxley. After the match where Omega captured the title, Callis & Omega escaped with fans watching the next phase in this story moved to Impact.
An actual cross-over with promotions? And how has this worked.? For AEW, it’s been a smash. Omega & AEW have been given the spotlight each time they appear on Impact. Tony Khan is doing his best mic work via info-mercials. They also have had Impact tag champs Gallows and Anderson appear on AEW Dynamite to reunite a certain club?
On the other hand, Impact hasn’t benefited (imo) from this. There has been very little to no mention of what’s going on with Impact on AEW TV. In fact, this past week’s Dynamite had a guest appearance from Gallows & Anderson but only to push an AEW angle with the Young Bucks. No Impact mention, just a eird ending with AEW talent becoming involved. So where are we at with Hard To Kill?
The PPV card is actually good…..very good (on Paper). The main event: Omega/Gallows/Anderson vs. Impact Champ Rich Swann, Chris Sabin & Moose (replacing Alex Shelley). The AEW champ appearing & main eventing has fallen on deaf ears outside of the Impact faithful. It’s a shame too.
The rest of the card shapes up with some notable bouts: Sami Callihan vs. Eddie Edwards in a Barbed Wire match, Taya Valkyrie vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Title, the Knockout’s Tag Team champions get crowned & “KARATE MAN” vs. Ethan Page (in his last Impact Match). This should be a huge win for Impact, but, imo, lack of AEW promotion seriously hurt this card from growing a bigger audience.
Guess we’ll have to see what happens on Saturday….
In other AEW news, it has been announced the AEW Dynamite Awards will be handed out on Wednesday, January 27th 7pm EST on Bleacher Report live app Catergories can be found on www.aewawards.com
Photo Credit to All Elite Wrestling
As far as WWE went this week, it was…..something. Raw had to switch things up with Drew McIntyre announcing he has COVID symptoms & could not appear on the show. Triple H stepped in vs. Randy Orton but that wasn’t anything earth-shattering. Alexa Bliss throwing a HADOUKEN fireball at Orton was though…
But WWE’s saving grace was: Smackdown! When you have a show open with Nakamura vs. Jey Uso, give Cesaro a win after 20 mins with Daniel Bryan, Apollo Crews working with Paul Heyman? & Kevin Owens & Adam Pierce swerving Roman Reigns for the main event of the Royal Rumble card….you win!
That’s all for this week so hit me up on Twitter & check out the latest 607TWS to further the wrestling talk.
See ya next time