Best & worst of Impact Wrestling- Another character killed off, champion destroyed in main event

Tonight's Impact Wrestling was pretty much non-stop highs after a pretty rough low in the opening segment. Aside from that, it's probably one of the best two hours of wrestling we've gotten from the company this year.

As opposed to last week, almost every single match this week had purpose and moved things along. We got everything we needed as wrestling fans here. Hardcore wrestling, mat wrestling, high flying and massive power moves filled the card, making the show fly by.

With an episode that continued to build up to the final match of the night, where we were given one of the best matches of the year, it was great to hear Melissa Santos get excited about the fact that the Twitch stream had broken 10,000 viewers. Hopefully, those that decided to tune in this week get the urge to come back in weeks to come, because you're gonna be hardpressed to find a wrestling program like this anywhere else.

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#1 Best: The Demon Collar Match

Wrestling fans have seen several matches go south almost immediately due to odd gimmicks. Shark cages, blindfolds, prescription medication on a pole, Sometimes we're given something that, from the getgo, looks like a terrible idea.

I had lumped the Demon Collar Match on this week's Impact into that category. Even though Rosemary and Su Yung are two incredible performers, and they've been able to make weird stipulations work before, it just felt like this was dead on arrival.

How wrong I was, and how glad I am I was wrong. If like me, you saw this announcement and felt that these two rivals wouldn't be able to pull out a slobber knocker, you're gonna need to see this one in full. From the start, it was a vicious brawl between two supernatural beings. After a year of spilt blood, sweat, and the death of Allie, we finally saw the real Dark War play out tonight.

The match started off hot, with both competitors looking to spray each other with mist out the gate. After they missed, Rosemary jumped on Yung, tying her up in the chain and tossing her around by the neck.

At one point, Rosemary had Yung hanging from the steel ring post, with her feet hanging inches off the ground. Yung eventually turned it around, driving Rosemary shoulder first into the ring post and leaping onto her with a rolling senton from the apron.

From here on out, it was basically a one-sided brawl. Yung completely dominated Rosemary, stopping her every comeback with a chained up fist to the face. Rosemary seemed to be completely unconscious near the end of the bout, especially after the Mandible Claw. However, she was playing possum and yanked Yung off the top rope into a cloud of mist. A hard-hitting spear and the Red Wedding put Yung away in an incredible, yes, Demon Collar Match.

Rosemary dragged Yung away with the chain, Yung choking all the way up the ramp. Is this the end of their rivalry? No one knows, but if not, I don't know how they're going to top tonight.

Worst #1: Glenn Gilberti ruins everything

Look. We get it. We're supposed to boo Gilberti. He hates the women and has gotten his comeuppance thanks to Scarlett Bordeaux. However, for some reason that wasn't the end of this...stale angle that was, frankly, exhausting back in the 90s when we saw Jeff Jarrett and Chyna do it.

Yet, for some reason, we're continuing on with the Gilberti hate train and his campaign against women's wrestling. Tonight's Impact opened with a 10-person Knockouts Battle Royale that had a secret 11th competitor in Gilberti. The ring featured five of Impact's best Knockouts, including Tessa Blanchard, Jordynne Grace, and Kiera Hogan, along with several unknowns like Solo Darling and Tasha Steeles, who very well could be some big contenders when the time is right.

It's too bad that all the great action we got from this battle royale was marred by Gilberti's God awful commentary. After he entered the ring, he was immediately stomped out by the competitors, forcing him to roll out and sit at the announcer's desk. Not only was he killing the match, forcing Don Callis and Josh Mathews to ignore the action completely in order to argue with him, but he even ruined his own spot, revealing halfway through the thing that he was a competitor and he was going to wait until the right time to re-enter.

As obvious as it was that we were going to see Gilberti get back in the ring near the end and try to screw over one of the knockouts, it was ruined because we were basically told that the second someone thinks they've won, he's going to rush in real quick and take them out.

Lo and behold, Tessa Blanchard eliminated the ninth knockout, Kiera Hogan, but couldn't predict Gilberti, who levelled her with a clothesline before dumping her to the outside.

As great of a show as this week's Impact was, it started off on a pretty low note.

Best #2: Killer Kross kills Kenny!

A few weeks ago, Killer Kross stole Kenny the kendo stick from Eddie Edwards while he was in the middle of a match. Since then, Edwards has been trying to get his best friend back, allowing Kross to torment him as much as he wanted.

Tonight, Edwards had a chance to reclaim his friend in a one-on-one match with the Anti-Machine. Kross was as malevolent and vicious as ever tonight, and once he was in control, he absolutely crushed Edwards. It was like watching a classic martial arts film where the main villain beats the snot out of someone for a solid ten minutes. Edwards got some offence in, but there was never a point where you thought he would be able to overcome the menacing force that was Killer Kross.

Near the end, Kross kicked out quickly after a Boston Knee Party, leaving Edwards shocked, wondering what he had to do to put the behemoth away. Eventually, he found himself on the outside of the ring, where he happened upon Kenny. After picking up the weapon, he stared at Kross, pointed it at him, and rushed the ring. The ref, sadly for Edwards, tried to prevent the assault, allowing Kross to plant him with the Doomsday Saito for the win.

This wasn't the end of Edwards' suffering, however. Kross wasn't finished and was about to break Edwards' heart in front of the Impact crowd. He pulled out a bag of zip ties, leaving the former champion tied up in the middle rope. Then, after carefully putting on some gloves, he picked up Kenny. At this point anyone watching, and Edwards assumed he was about to get a beating courtesy of Kross and his best friend.

Unfortunately, Kross had a much more sadistic idea. He stopped before striking Edwards, then laughed in his face before breaking Kenny over his knee, killing the stick and leaving it broken in front of Edwards, who was trying his best to break free from the ropes.

Worst #2: No Tag Team Division?

Impact Wrestling has, arguably, one of the greatest tag team divisions in all of pro wrestling right now. The North, the Rascalz, LAX, the Desi Hit Squad, oVe and the Lucha Bros, it's hard to find a roster that can match it.

That being said, none of them were around this week. We saw The North and the Rascalz in some backstage segments, sure, but they weren't where they needed to be. We didn't get a single tag team match tonight, which is surprising considering Impact has time every week to feature a segment where they show classic matches from the past.

We see this with other companies where sometimes it seems like they have so much talent, they don't exactly know how to handle it all each week. I'm not saying we have to see the tag champs each and every Friday night. But give us some tag team action. The North hasn't wrestled as a unit since their first match together a month ago, where they were so impressive I couldn't wait to see what they'd do the next week. Instead, they're focused on a 3-on-1 feud with Rob Van Dam.

In fact, in the segment with The North, Moose and Ethan Page essentially told Josh Alexander that the money isn't in the tag team gold at the moment, but RVD. Why would a tag team not want to focus on becoming champions?

Thankfully, next week we'll get some fast paced high flying action when the Rascalz take on LAX for the Impact Tag Team Championship.

Best #3: Michael Elgin vs Rich Swann

It would be unfair for me to say that this is what every promotion should try to have in their main event because this was honestly a PPV quality match. When Rich Swann attacked Michael Elgin earlier in the night, I kind of assumed it would be a seven-minute showcase, giving us more of Elgin's freakish strength and athleticism while Swann tried to weather the storm.

Well, change seven to thirty, and turn it into a huge back and forth struggle between two of Impact Wrestling's top guys, and that's what we got tonight. Michael Elgin overpowered Swann early, as we all assumed he would. However, even though I thought I knew how this was going to play out, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what Swann would do to bring the fight to the Unbreakable One.

For a while there, Elgin looked unstoppable. However, Swann managed to rock him with a strong right hand and a kick, chipping away at the armor of the psychopath that stood before him. Slowly but surely, he wore down the stamina of Elgin, until he finally set him up where he wanted.

Swann played possum, seemingly out on his feet after three rough clotheslines. Elgin set up for a fourth, running off the ropes, only to be sent through the ropes when Swann leapfrogged over him. He hit the ground running, bouncing off the other side of the ring and delivering two pin-point dives on top of Big Mike, followed up by a Swanton Bomb from the top rope to the outside. Elgin was tossed back in, and, again, I expected to see him roll away and pick up the win quickly.

That's not what I got, and I feel like that's how most of this show played out. I expected to see something completely predictable, but what I got was one of the best David-vs-Goliath matchups that I've seen in months. It's early, but this is going in my list for possible match of the year contenders.

We never got a real finish to the match, though. Elgin was DQ'd after putting his hands on Kid Ref and powerbombing Swann into the ring post three times. And at this point, Josh Mathews said something along the lines of "Someone can tell Swann when he wakes up that he won, but Elgin has destroyed him tonight."

I hope that's not how we're going to have to look at this in the future, because Rich Swann took the fight to Elgin, even taking his biggest moves, and never got pinned. This was a huge match for him, as it showed he can hang with the biggest men on the roster.