Matt Sydal stretches backstage while Austin Aries talks to him about being Grand Champion. Brian Cage’s World Tour of Destruction is recapped and we see the X-Men-inspired attacker logo. Sami’s beating of Callis is shown as well before Eddie’s beatings of Sami are recapped. DJZ and Andrew Everett come down to face Eli and Scott Steiner, the new team that’s already not getting along, for the titles. Eli works quickly with Everett, while DJZ works with Steiner. Scott is great at moving around as much as possible while still standing. Steiner lobs chops at DJZ, but he gets a DDT and tags in Everett. Steiner accidentally hits Eli with a chair and Everett hits a standing SSP to win the titles. Z and E talk about doing the umthinkable tonight.
Josh and Madison are on-screen and she’ll be a knockouts commentator. Kiera Hogan comes out to face Tessa Blanchard. Tessa hits a corner flatliner, but Kiera lands a series of forearms. Tessa hits a cutter and then wins with the hammerlock DDT. She goes to keep attacking Hogan, but Madison makes a save. Jimmy Jacobs talks to Grado and we get a hint that Kongo might be the attacker. Katarina tells Grado to stand up to Kong, who desperately needs to be in better shape. We get another recap of Eddie Edwards’ slow burn towards being a heel. Pentagon Jr promises a surprise tonight and also he has zero fear while Fantasma is pure chocolate.
Kongo dominates Grado, who eats a long beating until Katarina helps him up top for a shoulder block off the top. That sends him down, but Kong still slams him and hits a giant splash off the top to win. Kong beats him up some more before Moose comes down to make a save. The Cult of Lee of Lee and Caleb insult LAX and I guess we’ll get that match next week. Eddie Edwards chats with Tommy about tonight’s House of Hardcore match. They have an HOH match in HOH and everything is overdubbed to start with Impact commentary instead of HOH. They fight in the crowd with signs before they face off with pipes and Eddie hits him to win that battle. Sami low blows him and gets 2 off the Get Outta Here shoulderbreaker. Sami falcon arrows him into a pair of chairs for 2. Eddie hits the knee party to win.
The post-match sees Eddie choke him out with a bat. Cage faces Facade at Destiny, who was great at Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2. Cage destroys him and gets 2 off a pumphandle facebuster. Cage gets a sitout Alabama slam for 2.5 before tossing him into the ropes to bounce him back into a Weapon X win. Kendrick faces Aries in a GWN match. KM and Fallah Bahh meet at the hotel and KM opts to give him a makeover to go with his new “slimmer” physique. He starts by making his hair over himself horribly, then adding a wacky purple tie to his regular getup while they saunter backstage and hit on Kiera Hogan. Okay, this is fantastic.
Allie faces Su Yung at Under Pressure, while Rayne faces Tessa. Su and her bridesmaids go to a graveyard and prepare to bury Rosemary. Instead of doing that, they burn the casket. Fantasma comes out to team with Pentagon Jr against Aries and Sydal. Sydal is out and then Aries comes down actually wearing the Grand Title, which looks even worse when compared to the revamped belts. They’ll face off at Under Pressure. Sydal and Fantasma evade each other and counter constantly. Aries and Pentagon tag in and they tease an arm snapper quickly, before Aries escapes. Aries eats a dropkick to the back and goes to the floor where he eats an apron superkick while Fantasma hits Sydal with the dive as much as he can because he caught his feet on the top rope.
Aries eats a wazzup dropkick to the nuts and sells it in as silly a manner as possible. He takes two bumps for it before walking like an Egyptian and shimmying. Sydal hits a sunset split on Fantsma along with a jawjacker to Pentagon for 2. Aries hits a hop step elbow over the top onto a Sydal backbreaker for 2. Pentagon comes in and slingblades Aries and Germans him for 2. Fantasma cutters Sydal Sydal hits a second rope rana and does the SSP to Fantasma, but Pentagon meets him with a superkick and the Thrill of the Kill ends it.
