Here’s some quick Rebellion thoughts as I review the pay-per-view.
Full disclosure from me is that I haven’t been following the Impact product as closely in recent months. There are reasons for that which I may explain in the future. As a loyal fan of the company for over 15 years, I thought it would be an interesting point of view to share my observations on a Rebellion review after a little hiatus.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty good show. Most of the matches were quality bouts and there were some exciting things that happened. There were also some flat parts of the PPV, which happens over the course of three plus hours. Other than the stellar main event, a good portion of the show felt like just another episode of Impact. An event like this shouldn’t be mostly forgettable.
TOP 3 MOMENTS:
#3 Maclin was very impressive. I’ve been thinking that Maclin should have been getting more of a push since he first came into the company. He’s got charisma and he is good in the ring. It seems like now that he scored a nice victory over Sabin and Jay White that a push is about to happen.
#2 Ace Austin winning the X-Division Title back was absolutely the right move. Not that Trey was a bad champion, I just see a higher ceiling for Ace. I wrote a couple years ago about how I thought Ace Austin was World Champion material and I still maintain that position. This match with Trey and Mike Bailey kind of stole the show. Ace Austin was a big reason why that was the case.
#1 Moose Vs Josh Alexander had the best build up of any of the matches on the card. For six months, Impact told a story that had emotions and all sorts of intrigue attached to it. This World Title match delivered on every level possible. These are two of the best workers in the world and they put on a hell of a fight. Unpredictability and edge of your seat action throughout. I give this match a ten out of ten and Josh Alexander is the correct choice as World Champion.
BOTTOM 3 MOMENTS:
#3 The confusion surrounding the actual main card versus the pre-show matches was a head scratcher. Initially they had the X-Division match on the pre-show which would have been a big mistake given how good it ended up being. Having any title matches on the pre-show sends a message that those titles aren’t as important. I understand that Gresham not being able to compete made things complicated. I would hope that the X-Division will be included on the main PPV shows moving forward and not treated as ”less than”.
#2 The KnockOuts Championship match was a bit sloppy and I was surprised at how little chemistry that the two wrestlers had with each other. I’m a huge Rosemary fan but she wasn’t outstanding here. I really liked Fire N’ Flava in the past as a tag team but Tasha Steelz as KnockOuts Champion is starting to look suspect. Maybe she isn’t ready for that big of a spotlight yet. Her in-ring work isn’t as crisp as it needs to be and her pre-match promo wasn’t great. I honestly don’t expect her to be the champ much longer.
#1 The Eight Team Elimination Challenge was long and drawn out and just kind of blah. I like some of the teams that were involved here but it went on and on. The live crowd kind of died for a while during this. Some parts of it were ok, but overall it was uneven. It was just not something to put on a pay-per-view where it eats up a big chunk of the show. It went almost 33 minutes long. Maybe they could have had one of the pre-show matches on the main show instead of such a long challenge affair.
In closing, I was happy to pay the money for this show. There wasn’t a lot that got me super excited to tune into Impact in order to see each and every minute. There’s still a need for Impact to be more captivating with storylines. They 100% have it with the Josh Alexander and Moose feud but there needs to be something else that really hooks the audience. Maybe Sami Callihan’s potential return will help? There could be some new talent coming in soon and that could also be interesting. We shall see.