Impact Wrestling 2/15/18 – Aries vs. Eli for the World Title

Reviews, Top Story

The show starts off with a recap of Aries giving Eli a shot tonight, and Sami comes out to face Lashley. We get a walk and brawl on the floor for quite a while, but Lashley regains control with a crossbody. Sami sloppily counters the spear with a front choke and then does an uprights superkick and a powerbomb for 2. Lashley hits the spear, but the Crist brothers come in for a DQ. Eddie Edwards comes in to make a save for Lashley. Eli mocks Aries for carrying bananas around and says he’s still the true champion. Konnan and LAX cut promos from their Canadian HQ and the GWN clip is LVN and Braxton’s “wedding”. Backstage, Allie is tormented by cackling and gets another message from her admirer.

Aries is interviewed with lighting shining under his chin making him look older than he should look and he says he’ll beat him again. Alberto beats up Moose backstage. Hania comes down to face Rosemary while Sonjay talks about some of his favorite Bollywood love stories. Sonjay guesses that Richard Justice is the admirer. Hania lands the most awkward corner face plant ever and Rosemary wins by rolling through a flying crossbody off the top. They brawl on the floor before Hania leaves. Allie gets a message, and LVN jumps her from a giant box before Allie beats her up and yells “get back in the box!” Okay, that was great.

EC3 and a returning Tyrus come out to face Matt Sydal and Johnny Impact. EC3 and Impact have good chemistry, and Johnny flips around a bit. Sydal faces EC3 and Sonjay talks about Sydal’s new spiritual advisor. Tyrus bowls over the small guys while Josh talks about LAX’s clubhouse. We get some fun David vs. Goliath stuff with Tyrus and Sydal before he gets wishboned by the heels. Tyrus misses a Vader bomb and Sydal tags Johnny in and he runs amok. EC3 wins when Tyrus trips up Johnny and EC3 puts his feet on the ropes to win. Jimmy Jacobs and Kongo Kong threaten a photo of Grandma Jenny and destroy some Ikea furniture in an office.

Brian Cage comes in to face John Cruise, and destroys him with a discus lariat and a Steiner screwdriver. The Cult of Lee finds Fallah Bah eating candy while trying to find LAX. They find and beat up the Mumbai Cats. El Hijo Del Fantasma is out to face Ishimori for the X Title. A pump kick sends Ishimori down for 2. Fantasma hits a GTS with a side kick before hitting the Arrow dive. Ishimori hits a step-up rana and hits the tombstone codebreaker and the 450 to win it.

Eli comes out to face Aries and bullies him around for a bit. A rope-hanging neckbreaker gets 2.  Eli knocks him down and goes for a springboard moonsault, but it misses. They go back and forth with punches for a bit before Aries hits left elbows and chops and gets 2 off an O’Connor roll. Aries goes for a super chancery, but it’s turned into a super DDT and then death valley driver. Aries lands a pair of running dropkicks and hits the tope to Adonis, but Eli catches him and throws his back into the apron. Aries cradles him and gets a last chancery, but Adonis comes up and eats a discus elbow. A sneaky cradle gets 2, but the brainbuster hits and wins it.