20 Minutes of Impact Easily Worth Watching

Kongo Kong vs. Brian Cage Impact Wrestling 6/2 (Aired 7/5/18)

ER: Hot damn, these two go out there and perfectly capture that WCW syndicated lost classic vibe, a tall fat guy against a guy with a classic Power Plant physique, both breaking out their craziest shit. There were some once in a lifetime spots here, the most wonderful use of 5 total wrestling minutes this year. We get two large tough dudes crashing into each other, hard lariats no sold, and a crazy pace. Cage hits a gorgeous flipping dropkick and a 619 as good as anybody 100 lb. less has done and hits a tope con hilo even better because of his added size. Cage looked like a human wrecking ball crashing off of Kong. Kong makes me leap out of my chair when Cage is about to powerbomb him out of the corner and Kong hits a picture perfect rana. That has to be the largest man I've ever seen do a huracanrana this pretty, or at all. Because for it to even be done this well, you would need a dude like Cage who is strong enough to carry Kong in powerbomb position for 3 steps to pick up rana momentum. Just an impossible spot due to the rarity of guys this big these days. Awesome spot. Kong also eats a crazy German suplex, really a huge bump for a guy his size. Every thing in this match was big, all the slams felt ring shaking, just a total blast. Cage is like the best possible Johnny Stamboli and Kong is basically the only guy today who does an actual good One Man Gang. This match was so fun that - immediately after this match, in a show closing segment - Eddie Kingston doing his best unhinged Bobby Cannavale promo, and then bringing back Homicide/Hernandez to do a classic ambush beatdown with anonymous ring crew taking big bumps, did not overshadow the match. This may have been as good Sick Boy vs. Renegade from '98. Or it might just merely be awesome.


LAX promo segment

PAS: I totally loved this. The idea that Konnan was some sort of Proposition Joe to Eddie Kingston's Marlo in the New York City drug trade is pretty goofy on it's surface, (and the recent video segment where the OGz do a drive by and run over a kid went all the way into Lucha Underground stupidity for me)  but both guys sell it so well that I buy in. Kingston giving his version of the "Yes I ordered the Code Red" speech seemed a little implausible, but I loved it as a set up for the return of Homicide and Hernandez, Cide especially is so good at unhinged, and I was waiting for him to pull out a fork or bleach.