Impact Wrestling
Rebellion 2020 – Night 2
April 28, 2020
Skyway Studios
Nashville, Tennessee
Watch: AXS TV
Impact Wrestling returns this week with part two of their Rebellion special, filmed in a TV studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Night One saw Willie Mack claim the X-Division title, Crazzy Steve return to the promotion, Kylie Rae keep rolling and Ken Shamrock defeat Sami Callihan in a cinematic main event.
Night Two currently only has three matches set, even if I expect at least one more on the night, with the future of the World Title picture also set to be cleared up with Tessa Blanchard and Eddie Edwards absent from the shows but Michael Elgin still in attendance.
Joseph Ryan (5-5) vs Cousin Jake (3-2)
This is certainly a match. The crux of the story is that Joey Ryan, now going by the more formal Joseph Ryan, joined Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes in a new team known as Cancel Culture. It’s as on the nose as you’d expect, with the trio bemoaning keyboard warriors and the new social media ‘cancel culture’. Since starting the team, Ryan has wrestled in a jumper and three-quarter length trousers and he’s avoided all of his usual dick-based offense. The Deaners and their ‘toxic masculinity’ were the first targets of Cancel Culture’s ire but the ‘rona led to Ryan facing both Cody Deaner and Cousin Jake already (with the latter on Xplosion) in losing efforts.
The feud here is odd and my biggest takeaway from the whole thing is that Jake should be in title feuds in Impact and not stuff like this. I’ve not got the pencil though, so that’s moot. I was not a big Ryan guy before, but his work since changing gimmick has just been dull, which doesn’t leave me particularly enthused about this match. Hopefully Jake wins and we can all move swiftly on. Prediction: Cousin Jake.
Full Metal Mayhem
Havok (4-2) vs. Rosemary (0-3-1)
We were originally scheduled to have a Full Metal Mayhem match at Rebellion, but it should have been between Jordynne Grace and Taya for the Knockouts title. However, this isn’t a bad replacement.
While I could do without Rosemary sucking people’s souls, James Mitchell leaving has given me the hope that the hokey stuff that’s dominated the women’s division for so long could now be in the rear view. The stipulation here should ensure a decent match and help mitigate any movement issues Rosemary still has with her knee. Havok appears to have a more upward trajectory at the moment and a feud with Kylie Rae could well be on the cards, so I’d expect her to win here. Prediction: Havok.
Chris Bey (2-1) vs Suicide (2-0) vs Trey Miguel (4-7) vs Rohit Raju (5-4)
Fun X-Division action! While multi-man matches are not everyone’s cup of tea, I suspect that these four will combine well to deliver something full of energy and highly entertaining. Interestingly, I feel that they could go in a couple of different directions with the booking and push forward a new challenger for Willie Mack.
Suicide (which is almost certainly Ace Austin) returned to the promotion last month to confront Moose and it seemed as though a bout between the two could have been on the cards for this show, but that’s obviously not the case. However, they may still opt to go in that direction, which could see Suicide pick up the win here to keep him looking strong.
Rohit Raju seems the obvious pin-eater here, especially as there seems to be a story developing with Gama Singh and the Desi Hit Squad. Trey Miguel is a former challenger for the title but I’m not sure what he gains from winning, whereas it makes all the sense in the world for Chris Bey to go over. They’ve allowed the newcomer to look good in his first few appearances, so it could be that sneaks out another win here to set up a clash with Mack down the line. Prediction: Chris Bey.
Future of the World Title
I personally have no idea what they’re going to do here. My suspicion would be that we get some form of an explanation of what they’re going to do, a Michael Elgin promo and then someone’s music hits. Elgin then has a match with said person, proclaiming himself the rightful champion, the determined warrior who continued to compete, before we then get the originally planned triple threat once things are back to some kind of normal.