Post by fifthhorseman on Apr 28, 2018 2:00:10 GMT -5
FRIDAY NIGHT IMPACT
EPISODE 1
EPISODE 1
Sixty seconds of stills from the various GIW house shows that have taken place over the last month… then it’s lasers and pyro galore in front of a sold-out and enthusiastic audience.
Lance Russell: Good evening, wrestling fans! Welcome to Friday Night Impact! I’ll be your host tonight, and I’m joined tonight at the broadcast table by GIW President and Chief Imagination Officer, Jeff Jarrett. We are live from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the permanent weekly home of Global Impact wrestling. Tonight, we have four great matches in store, and to start things off, semi-final action to determine the first-ever GIW Intercontinental Tag-Team champions.
TERRY GORDY/BARRY WINDHAM vs. OWEN HART/DAVEY BOY SMITH:
vs.
A grueling match that lasted over 27 minutes, scraping up against the 30-minute time limit. Windham and Gordy, renowned for their natural ability, used their superior size whenever they could, but “the Bulldog” was just as powerful as either one of them, and he was able to fend them off. The “King of Harts” used his high-flying and technical prowess to keep the two Southern vets off-balance as well. In what might be considered a slight upset, Windham pinned Smith after a flying lariat.
COMMERCIAL
A pre-taped interview was shown, with Russell speaking to the Main Event Machine, Eli Drake and Paul Orndorff. They hyped up their World title semi-final match against Edge and Christian – the “Namer of Dummies” was supremely confident that the Canadians would roll over at the mere sight of them, while “Mr. Wonderful” guaranteed that the multi-time WWE champs never faced any team as physically and mentally dominant as the MEM.
THE DESTRUCTION CREW vs. the USOS:
vs.
The only team to ever win the PWI Rookie of the Year award, the Crew, were coming off a big win a couple of weeks ago. They carried that momentum early on against the Samoan brothers, and used brute force to score several near-falls. However, the tide turned in the Usos’ favor, and it took about ten minutes for Jey to finish off Bloom with a top-rope splash.
After the match, Russell had questions for the man sitting beside him. “Jeff, I can’t help noticing that you scheduled Terry ‘Bamm Bamm’ Gordy in not one, but two matches tonight. There were various ways that you should have scheduled the semi-final matches – surely you could have given him a better break than that!”
Jarrett: “Well, um, I looked at the permutations and such, our building availability and all that, and honestly, Lance, this was the only way to accommodate all of the semi-final matches.”
Russell rolled his eyes. “I find that hard to believe, Mr. Jarrett, very hard to believe, and frankly, that wasn’t much of an explanation. There are several wrestlers doing double-duty at this point. Did you single out Gordy?”
Jarrett: “That’s ridiculous! Luck of the draw, that’s all it was.”
Russell: “…I see. Well, there have been rumors, reports, that various members of the GIW roster have been attacked and brutalized all over the state of Nevada. Ricky Morton, Johnny Gargano – both no longer here, by the way – then Edge and Christian’s car exploded, and then the Best Friends were beat up by not one, but two men! Any comment?”
Jarrett: “I have no idea who he, or they, are , Lance, but I don’t condone car sabotaging. Sounds like something Vince might have up his sleeve, but that’s not the way we do things here in Vegas.”
Russell: “Perhaps we’ll find out tonight, perhaps we’ll find out at our pay-per-view. Things like that tend to reveal themselves like that. We’ll be right back.”
COMMERCIAL
BEST FRIENDS vs. the REVIVAL:
vs.
This was Dawson and Wilder’s first match in GIW, and frankly, they couldn’t have picked a better time to debut. Barreta and Taylor tried their best, but they were still nursing injuries sustained from their hotel brouhaha. The Revival didn’t give them a chance to breathe, and wore them down quickly with their patented tandem offense before pinning Barreta after a Shatter Machine at 6:23.
After the match, Russell entered the ring to interview the victorious team. It was concise and to the point – they arrived too late to be entered in any of the tournaments, but they didn’t mean that they were going to wait at the back of the line.
Speaking of those tournaments, Russell and Jarrett discussed the brackets, and it was announced that not one, not two, but three matches were in store next Friday night!
COMMERCIAL
BULLY RAY DUDLEY vs. TERRY GORDY vs. PERRY SATURN:
vs. vs.
GIW King of the Ring rules, meaning that this was a three-way dance, something the ECW alumni were very familiar with. Gordy was their target, but the former UWF champ tried to end it fast, knowing that he only had a finite amount of gas in the tank after his grueling match earlier in the night. Clotheslines, slams, and kicks were unleashed by the Freebird, but eventually Saturn and Dudley started working together and it turned into a handicap match with no rules. After about nine minutes, they hit him with a spike piledriver that eliminated Gordy.
There was no rest for the wicked, and the match continued. Bully Ray kept looking at Jarrett, who sat ringside stoically. The next couple of minutes saw neither man inflict major - or really any - damage, and it was see-saw action. Finally, at 11:50, after Saturn missed a top-rope dropkick, the WWE Hall of Famer captured his foe in a simple small package, and took the victory. Dudley was the first man to move to the King of the Ring finals, and as the credits started to roll, he mockingly bowed in the direction of the announce table, where the championship belt was displayed.