Impact Wrestling United We Stand- Best and Worst- RVD and Sabu return

Impact Wrestling has one of the best rosters in the world at the moment. Throw in a few legends and a handful of talents from other promotions, and you have the recipe for a great show. The only thing that lets them down is their production. Or the lack of production, truth be told.

WrestleMania 35 weekend kicked off with United We Stand, a show that I was honestly quite pumped about. But there was quite a lot that I did not like during the match and that just ruined what could have been a fantastic show. Josh Mathews and Don Callis tried to do their best to cover the production mishaps, but they could only do so much.

But that said, I don't regret purchasing the pay-per-view. I just wish that the quality of the experience was at least as good as regular Impact pay-per-views.

Impact Wrestling: United We Stand - Results, Highlights| RVD returns to the ring, Callihan bloodies Havoc

Having concluded this prelude, I begin my assessment...

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#1 Best: The Ultimate X match

Going into the match, not many people would have been excited about a young upstart named Ace Austin. Sure, he has been working good matches on Impact Wrestling on a weekly basis, but there has been little hype around him, hasn't there? But then, at United We Stand, Austin earned himself a place in the history books. His dive was absolutely mental!

Even though the lineup that finally worked the match was different from what was advertised, the match turned out to be a pretty solid affair. The Ultimate X match has always been a great visual and this was certainly the case during this match too.

Jake Crist from oVe is certainly extremely underrated. He delivered a fantastic cutter midway through the match.

This was a spot-fest, but sometimes that's all you need.

#1 Worst: Audio issues

Impact Wrestling kept advertising the fact that they had a sold-out crowd at United We Stand with standing room only. There is no reason to dispute this claim at all because a WrestleMania crowd is guaranteed to attend all of the festivities over the week.

But the issue with this whole affair is the fact that this did not feel like a sold-out crowd because the audience wasn't mic-ed at all. You could see the audience losing its mind in the stands, but that did not come across and this led to the whole audience experience being severely impacted.

The Fite stream also had a variety of audio issues through its duration and there would be points where nothing was audible at all. I could see many other users complain about the same too.

These are strange production issues, because Impact's TV product is usually top notch.

#2 Best: Havoc vs. Callihan

Because I review WWE on a weekly basis and the product has changed so very much over the years, it's easy to forget how good a simple hardcore match can potentially be. This is the kind of match that Impact Wrestling would never be able to show on TV due to its barbaric nature. But Sami Callihan and Jimmy Havoc worked a complete winner.

There were staplers, trash cans, and even lemons. At one point, a whole bunch of salt was pulled out and rubbed on the wounds, bringing a figure of speech to life on camera. And the match ended with a whole bunch of Legos replacing thumbtacks.

Sami Callihan picked up the win and it must be mentioned that there's probably nobody better in the world at this kind of match. I hope that he can become Impact Wrestling World Champion someday in the near future.

#2 Worst: Katie Forbes

Look, Katie Forbes is by no means the worst worker on the planet by a long shot. But when you're in the ring with three incredibly gifted women like Jordynne Grace, Rosemary, and Taya Valkyrie, you stand out. And Forbes is nowhere as gifted as the three other women that I've mentioned.

The women of Impact Wrestling have gone from strength to strength, thanks to the foundation laid by the Impact Wrestling Hall of Famer herself, Gail Kim. Katie Forbes tried to lift two competitors at once on her shoulders and could not. I don't know if that was a planned spot or not, but whatever it was, it looked ugly.

Su Yung interfered during the course of the match and truth be told, I wouldn't have had a problem with Yung being in the match. But maybe they want to set up a future feud between her and Rosemary.

#3 Best: The main event

I had a chance to speak to Rob Van Dam last night and I'll be posting the link to the interview shortly after this feature. He seemed rather thrilled to be back in an Impact Wrestling ring and it was great to see Sabu return to action as well.

Pentagon Jr. and Fenix are arguably the two best wrestlers in the world right now and these two men showed no clemency in a match that went back and forth. The audience participation was immense but it could not be appreciated fully because of the audio issues that I mentioned.

There was a very ECW feel to the proceedings with Tommy Dreamer also competing earlier during the night. ECW chants rang out through the course of this contest as the two teams slugged it out.

Can't wait for the Lucha Bros vs. LAX match that is planned for sometime in the future.

#3 Worst: World Champion gets an X Division Championship opportunity as well?

I've mentioned the Ultimate X match and just how cool it was at the start of this article. Now, let me point out the one thing that I did not like about the match in this section.

I personally thought that Impact Wrestling had a chance to create a brand new superstar who could go on to challenge Rich Swann and make the X-Division exciting again. But they had Johnny Impact win the match and it just felt quite underwhelming.

Someone like Jake Crist could have really benefitted from such an opportunity because he's such an underrated talent who never gets his due. But I'm guessing that Impact Wrestling only sees his ceiling as a tag team superstar and little more.

Ace Austin could also have benefitted from a win although some may feel it's far too soon for him.

#4 Best: Tessa Blanchard vs. Joey Ryan

You never know what to expect in an inter-gender match because it can always go either way. Tessa Blanchard vs. Joey Ryan was a lot more fun than I actually expected it to be. Sure, it was no Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles mat classic, but the goofiness of the match actually made it work, I felt. I daresay it was even better than the Scarlett Bordeaux match from Against All Odds.

Tess Blanchard has an intensity in the ring that is just unmatched. She is so gifted and at the same time, so young, that it's scary to think how good she'll be when she's just a little older. One hope Impact Wrestling manages to retain her because she's a total star.

Did you guys manage to catch the show at all? What did you think of it?

Do you think it'll be better than NXT TakeOver?