Impact Wrestling Under Pressure 2018 Results, Highlights, and Grades

https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/1002351546791792641

Brian Cage vs. Dezmond Xavier (Winner Gets A Shot At Matt Sydal’s X Division Championship)

Result: Brian Cage beats Dezmond Xavier with the Drill Claw

Before the match, LAX are in good spirits with “The King” backstage. He says that he has given LAX a rematch with Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley so that they can get “revenge”, and I wonder if we’ll see a dark, heelish side from Santana and Ortiz as a result of “The King’s” leadership.

Xavier smartly starts taking the fight to Cage early in the match, using his speed advantage. He flew off the steel steps to deliver a dropkick to the outside to Cage, but he still couldn’t find a way to ground “The Machine”.

Cage had a must-see counter of a Tornado DDT into a butterfly suplex, and it’s astounding how good he is in the ring. After this move, he earned a “Terminator Clap” from the crowd. But Xavier finally laid out Cage, hitting him with an enziguiri and a seated dropkick to the back of the head before nailing Cage with an insane dive to the outside. This earned “This is awesome!” chants from the Impact Wrestling crowd.

Although Xavier hung in there, he just wasn’t good enough to beat Cage, who won the match with a “Drill Claw” after kicking out of an athletic dive from the top rope at 1. Mathews asked, “What is it going to take to defeat Brian Cage?”

That will be a big question on Impact throughout 2018.

After the match, Cage showed good sportsmanship to Xavier, who was somewhat of a challenge for Cage tonight, even if it never seemed like he would win.

Grade: B, this was a solid match, and it will be interesting to see what Cage does in his apparent pursuit of the X Division Title.