BTI pre-show: Gisele Shaw defeated Hyan
**
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Shaw defeated Hyan in a decent pre-show match while Mickie James was on commentary discussing Friday's match against Shaw. If James loses, she will retire. Shaw won with a crucifix bomb and a knee to the face.
Impact opened with a recap of the chaos Honor No More has been causing and Scott D’Amore trying to settle it with Rich Swann, Heath, and Josh Alexander.
Digital Media Champion Brian Myers defeated Bhupinder Gujjar in a ladder match to retain the title
**1/2
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Gujjar started the match going directly after Myers with bodyslams and strikes. Gujjar went for a spear, but Myers responded with a knee to the face. As Myers grabbed a ladder, Gujjar hit a dropkick on it to drop Myers. Myers hit a back suplex on the apron and set up a ladder and began climbing, but was cut off by Gujjar, hitting a cutter off the ladder. Gujjar speared Myers into the ladder.
Myers sent Gujjar into the ladder after pulling him off and the ladder followed him down, crashing on Gujjar. It looks like Gujjar may have broken his nose at some point, as it started bleeding. Maybe after the knee to counter the spear. Two ladders got set up in the middle of the ring, and Myers hit a back suplex off the ladders in probably the biggest bump of the match. Myers powerbombed Gujjar onto a ladder on the floor. It sounded brutal, and got a huge reaction from the crowd.
Gujjar managed to hit a superkick on Myers after pulling him off the ladder, and Myers fell to the floor. Gujjar climbed both ladders, but got hit with a low blow from Myers and Myers tapped Gujjar to the ladder. Gujjar’s broken nose seemed to help get him sympathy as the crowd started getting into this, but Myers pulled the title down, retaining. May have been time to call an audible here and make Gujjar, but alas. Started slow, but this was a decent match
- Heath was backstage with Josh Alexander and Rich Swann. Heath owned up to his causing Swann his match last week and then said they need to get on the same page to defeat Honor No More. Alexander and Swann offered to have Heath’s back, but Heath refused.
Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace defeated Zicky Dice in a non-title match
**
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Grace German suplexed Dice right away and hit Made in Japan for a three count in a squash.
"The Sinister Minister" James Mitchell cut a promo for the opponent Masha Slamovich picked to face Grace at Victory Road: Max the Impaler. They included a lot of footage from NWA Power, which was neat to see.
Mia Yim defeated Black Taurus, Alex Zayne, Laredo Kid & Trey Miguel in a five-way
**1/2
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This broke down to everyone attacking everyone else very quickly, until Miguel and Zayne were left in the ring. Miguel and Zayne exchanged some spectacular offence before Yim came back into the ring and hit a double dropkick on both of them. Black Taurus hit Yim with a headbutt and Kid hit a flying hurricanrana on Taurus.
Yim hit a flip dive off the top rope onto everyone on the floor, dropping everyone after a series of dives from everyone else. Zayne ate a double superkick from Laredo Kid and Miguel, and Taurus hit a huge crucifix bomb on Laredo Kid before Miguel hit a handspring kick on Taurus. Yim hit a powerbomb on Zayne and hit Protect Ya Neck but Kid and Miguel broke it up. Taurus hit a huge spear on Laredo Kid and hit Destination Hellhole on Zayne for the pinfall.
- Eric Young and Deaner were recruiting members for their Violent by Design cult/stable, asking if they were violent. They said yes. He then beat them all up as Amazing Grace played and they all kept their hands up in a pose Young asked for. This was weird.
Another Joe Hendry video aired with a couple arguing and the woman saying the child wasn’t her husband's. He asked her to say the name. Then Hendry showed up and they rocked out. I love Hendry, so this worked for me.
Heath defeated PCO (w/ Vincent) in a street fight
**
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Heath was in the ring for his open challenge to a street fight with anyone from Honor no More. Of course, the person who answered was PCO, but Honor no More cut him off, saying the match wasn’t going to happen. Heath said that the fans wanted PCO, and he should listen to them, continuing the never ending storyline of PCO being in conflict with Honor no More.
Heath said PCO was Edwards’ lapdog, and PCO did not like that. He came down to the ring, and it seemed PCO couldn’t be contained.
PCO and Heath brawled all over the arena, into the crowd and around the stage. PCO grabbed a cart with chairs on it and started throwing them around, piling them all over the place near the stage, including the back row where many fans were sitting. Heath hit a DDT on the stage on PCO.
Heath threw PCO off the stage into the back 3 or 4 rows of chairs, and all the chairs that were thrown on the floor. That was brutal. Honor no More came down to help PCO at this point, but Rich Swann and Josh Alexander ran down to make it an even fight. Alexander briefly got hold of Edwards with an ankle lock, but he was pulled to safety over a guardrail. Vincent attacked Heath in the ring, but Heath hit a Wake Up Call before resuming his fight with PCO.
PCO threw a ton of chairs into the ring and chokeslammed Heath in the ring. PCO did a mandible claw on Heath and went for a senton bomb, but Heath moved and PCO crashed into the chairs again. Heath hit the Wake Up Call on PCO for the pinfall.
Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defeated Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) in a no. 1 contenders' match
***1/2
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This match was fantastic with the Machine Guns advancing to face The OGK for the Impact Tag Team titles at Bound for Glory. Excellent stuff here.
Fletcher and Shelley started the match, with Shelley and Sabin using their experience to keep Fletcher on the back foot. Fletcher tagged out to Davis, who looked to overpower Sabin. Davis caught Sabin on a crossbody attempt, but Sabin was able to hit a hurricanrana. Shelley and Sabin hit double kicks on Fletcher and the cannonballs off the apron on both men.
Aussie Open was able to catch both men and ram them into their own backs in the middle of the ring before getting some heat on Alex Shelley. Sabin hit a dropkick on Fletcher and then a tope on Davis. Fletcher hit a cutter off the shoulders of Davis on Sabin, but Shelley made the save. Aussie Open hit a double team Black Out on Sabin for a 2-count.
Sabin fought out of the Coriolis and hit some classic MCMG offense on both men before hitting Skull & Bones on Davis for the pinfall.
Tasha Steelz talked about her upcoming match at Victory Road against Killer Kelly. Kelly was there, asking if she wanted to play.
- Gisele Shaw was backstage talking about Friday's match with Mickie James, saying that James was going to pass the torch to her.
Contract signing
Scott D’Amore was in the ring for the hold harmless contract signing for Friday's Barbed Wire Massacre match with Sami Callihan, Moose, and Steve Maclin.
Callihan’s music hit, but he did not come out. Moose said that regardless of Sami not being there, he was signing the contract anyway. Moose said that Maclin’s experience as a soldier was nothing compared to what he was going to bring.
Maclin said that Moose didn’t understand what he went through and that if he thought Moose could scare him, he had something else coming. After Maclin signed the contract, Callihan’s music hit again and he came out. I don’t know why he didn’t come out the first time. Callihan said he was late because he couldn’t find his favorite chair. That was weird.
Callihan claimed that he had them both where he wanted them and that he was going to carve them ear to ear. Callihan seems to think screaming means his promos are good. He said he had his own pen, which was wrapped in barbed wire for some reason. He went to sign it, but Maclin stabbed Callihan with a pen and busted him open.
Maclin and Moose briefly double teamed Callihan, but Moose speared Maclin. Moose went for a spear through the table on Callihan, but Callihan moved and hit a Cactus Driver on Moose. Callihan then signed the contract with his own blood. Callihan screamed into the camera that he was going to make them bleed tomorrow at Victory Road.
Final Thoughts
I couldn't wait for this show to be over and was disappointed after the MCMG/Aussie Open match to see it wasn't the ending. That was the one good thing on the show by far. A very good match that didn't get enough time to be great.
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