Impact Wrestling 9/21/17 Recap – Eli Drake defends against Brance

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Bobby Heenan gets an in memoriam graphic to start the show off. We get a recap of Low-Ki vs. Johnny Impact, with the latter winning with starship pain and getting beaten up by Adonis and Eli Drake. Lashley’s brawl with Moose closes the video out. Johnny comes out to his shockingly generic theme before getting interrupted by KM, so we’ve got a match. Johnny actually wins with his countdown corkscrew splash in a couple of minutes – good to give him a win with that. Pagano talks to someone before they hype up his tag match with Fantasma against EC3 and Eddie Edwards.

Taya squashes Ava Storie and beats her with the glam slam. Taya cuts a promo on Rosemary, who comes down and slaps hands with fans in a new, more regular person outfit. They brawl for a bit before Sienna comes down to fight about who gets to beat Rosemary up. Allie runs down to rescue Rosemary in yoga pants, before Taryn takes her out. The babyfaces are stacked up, but Gail saves them too. This program really needs more people in it. OVE goes to LAX’s hideout and LAX just lets them go so they can face them at Victory Road next week. We get a video for Global Forge, which really doesn’t do much on TV because it’s just no-name guys that we aren’t going to remember, with Scott D’Amore doing narration.

The interview guy yells at the babyfaces, and Allie calls Rosemary her “demon friend” and Rosemary says they’ll chop them up. Trevor Lee’s X Title win is recapped before Petey does a video recapping how long he was champion before and it’s so weird seeing the company framing everything as the good old days.Grado is shown doing some indy stuff thanks to Joseph Park and says he’s making all the money from gimmicks. Fantasma vs. EC3 from last week is recapped before this week’s tag match. Eddie and Fantasma start things off and Eddie gets 2 off a wacky facebuster. EC3 tags in and dominates in the corner before Pagano gets rushed. Pagano eats a machine gun chop in the corner before landing a TK3.

Eddie comes in and runs wild on both guys with back elbows. He hits a backpack stunner before Pagano kicks him. EC3 hits a running snapmare driver before Eddie gets a blue thunder bomb, but EC3 brawls with Pagano and the ref doesn’t count. Texano Jr. runs in and powerbombs Eddie, giving Fantsasma the win. They whip the babyfaces with the bullwhip before James Storm comes down to make the save, even with EC3 being his most recent rival. Storm has a new badass looking vest, and shakes the hand of Eddie, but not EC3. The AAA guys led by Texano tell Johnny that they don’t like him in their country or company, and Johnny says he’ll defend his title shot against Texano tonight. Kongo Kong and Shera have a perfectly competent match. Kongo hits a corner cannonball before a flying splash ends it.

Eli cuts a promo in Mexico before talking about being a true global champion. Moose talks about never needing anyone in his corner, but it works for Lashley. Moose hypes up their match for Bound For Glory, before we get the reveal that they’ll be in the Aberdeen Pavilion. Johnny faces Texano and lands a trifecta of Moonlight Drives for 2. Well, that’s a great way to kill a former finish. Texano avoids the Countdown to Impact thanks to his sense of hearing telling him exactly when Johnny is going to jump and takes him down with a leg lariat. That gets 2, so he stomps away before attacking him on the floor and Nagata locking him mid-ring. Johnny breaks it up and superkicks him to the floor for a moonsault. Texano gets crotched and a flying Chuck kick gets 2. Texano cradles him for 2 and lands a sliding German suplex to set up starship pain to end it.

Laurel Van Ness is shown in the crowd with her makeup messed up, but in a regular dress. The knockouts brawl is shown before Sienna and the others come in and complain to Karen about the attack from Gail. The heels want a match with the babyfaces, and Karen grants it before talking down to all of them. Brance faces Eli Drake and JB talks about him being the future of AAA. Eli catches him off a corkscrew dive, but gets caught in a 619 position for a sliding kick. Eli catches him off a dive for a backwards-falling shouldermount powerslam. Eli hits the gravy train to win. Victory Road is recapped, and the show itself was definitely a showcase for Johnny Impact – who came off as the true biggest star around.