Impact Wrestling Under Pressure 2018 Results, Highlights, and Grades

Impact Wrestling caused the wrestling world to stir last month when they aired their Redemption PPV, and tonight they will have a television special called “Under Pressure” that will feature several huge matches, including an Impact World Title bout between Austin Aries and Pentagon Jr.

When Pentagon Jr. pinned Austin Aries to win the Impact World Championship at Redemption, Impact Wrestling made a huge statement to the rest of the wrestling world. Not only are they willing to work with any promotion to make the audience’s experience as enjoyable as possible, but they are willing to put their world title around the waist of a wrestler who isn’t even signed to their promotion.

After successfully defending his title against Eli Drake’s briefcase cash-in, Pentagon Jr. must defend the Impact World Championship against Grand Champion Austin Aries at tonight’s “Under Pressure” in a rematch. Aries will likely lose, but the question is, will it be a clean win for the man with “cero miedo”?

Brian Cage has been beyond brilliant week-in and week-out, and he’s been No. 1 in our Impact power rankings ever since we started up the feature. The man puts on some of the best showcase matches you’ll ever see, and tonight’s No. 1 contendership match for Matt Sydal’s X Division Title against Dezmond Xavier should be no exception. Xavier and Petey Williams tore the roof off the place last week, and it looks like Xavier will do the same tonight against Cage.

At Redemption, Allie turned aside a strong challenge for the Knockouts Division Championship from Su Yung, but The Undead Bride has stepped up her game lately. The sinister Yung will have another chance at the Knockouts Championship tonight at Under Pressure, but now that Allie has embraced the darkness in Rosemary’s absence, “The Bunny” has become the best version of herself. Yung will need a special effort to defeat Allie.

Since debuting at Redemption, Tessa Blanchard has lived up to her slogan, “Diamonds are forever”. Blanchard has been an absolute gem on Impact television these past few weeks, because her arrogance and stage presence have helped her immediately become a critical character in the stacked Knockouts Division. The returning Madison Rayne has taken exception to Blanchard’s sense of entitlement, and the two will settle their score tonight.

Check back here at 8 p.m. ET for the latest highlights, grades and analysis on Impact Wrestling’s “Under Pressure” show. You can watch the action on POP TV from 8 p.m. ET to 10 p.m. ET.

Eli Drake vs. Scott Steiner

Result: Eli Drake pins Scott Steiner after a chairshot to the head that mirrored exactly how they lost the tag titles.

You knew this match was coming after Eli Drake and Scott Steiner dropped the Impact World Tag Team Championships to DJZ and Andrew Everett after a fatal miscommunication. Drake and Steiner have two of the biggest egos in the business, so this match was always destined to come. The only question is, can Steiner upset Drake?

The crowd serenades both competitors with “You both suck!” chants before the first punch is even thrown. At one point, Drake wanted to nail Steiner with a chair to cause a disqualification, but Steiner blocked his attempt with a kick to the gut.

Drake went for a springboard moonsault and missed, opening up a huge opportunity for Steiner, but Drake countered brilliantly. After Steiner dumped Drake out of the ring, Drake grabbed the steel chair and bashed Steiner with a steel chair over the head. The referee wasn’t looking, so Drake picked up a very dubious victory. This chairshot, of course, was revenge for Steiner’s inadvertent chairshot, which costed Drake and Steiner the tag titles against DJZ and Everett a couple of weeks ago.

Grade: C+, this match was mildly entertaining and opens up plenty of questions as to how Steiner will respond after Drake’s “receipt” with the steel chair.

Tessa Blanchard vs. Madison Rayne

Result: Madison Rayne rolls up Tessa Blanchard for a surprise win

I am beyond excited for this match, and it goes beyond the fact that this is a huge return match for Madison Rayne. Tessa Blanchard has been on fire in promos since joining Impact Wrestling at Redemption, and the way this match has been built is exceptional. There’s no title on the line and nothing on the line besides pride, but that’s all we need here. These two will likely put on a show.

The opening exchanges and pinning sequences from Rayne were fantastic, and she really hasn’t missed a beat. Sometimes I forget how good Rayne is in the ring, and these two were on absolute fire from the get-go.

This match was violent as hell. All of Blanchard’s strikes and clotheslines looked super legit, so, naturally, I absolutely loved it. Rayne wasn’t going easy either, which made this match all the more heated.

Blanchard sinks a savage chinlock on Madison, who gets raucous cheers from the crowd, as they are desperately hoping for the five-time Knockouts Champion to make a big comeback against the dastardly former Mae Young Classic competitor.

Rayne showed incredible resiliency to kick out of a big Flatliner in the corner, getting out of a deep cover in the process. Blanchard was absolutely livid, and she completely lost her focus while arguing with the referee. So Rayne showed veteran savvy rolled Blanchard up for the win, scoring a nifty upset. As Josh Mathews noted on commentary, the fact that a five-time champ winning in an upset speaks volumes to how highly we all think of Blanchard.

Grade: A, great match, cool finish, and it’s definitely worth checking out.

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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.

Austin Aries Promo

Austin Aries says that until Pentagon Jr. beats him one-on-one, he can’t call himself the face of Impact Wrestling. He says that the belt makes the man, not the other way around, essentially stating that he’s better than Pentagon Jr. Aries adds that the fans remember what Impact was like before Aries came back to the company and won he Grand Championship and World Title.

I have a feeling Aries will apologize for saying, “We both know that you don’t have what it takes,” by the end of the night.

Allie (c) vs. Su Yung For The Knockouts Championship In A Last Rites Match

Result: Su Yung is your new Knockouts Champion, trapping Allie in a coffin after rendering her unconscious with the Mandible Claw. 

Earlier in the show, Don Callis spoke about how Allie should not have agreed to a stipulation that so clearly favors Su Yung, who would specialize in a match that involves trapping the opponent in a coffin. Yung, after all, already did this to Rosemary right in front of Allie, and she burned the coffin a couple of weeks ago with her red mist. But Allie is wearing Rosemary’s gear and has fully embraced “The Shadow”, so I wouldn’t bet against the Knockouts Champion.

Allie, however, might have the mental advantage, because she did the scream to the Decay theme that Rosemary uses. She has truly embraced the darkness, and now it seems like Yung is the one who has to be wary of the power within Allie.

This change translates into even more aggressiveness in the ring, as Allie shows some serious fire in the early going to savagely beat down Su. This early advantage is short-lived, though, because Yung turns the tide of the match and ends up using some nasty holds to ground Allie.

Yung brings out the blood-soaked rags on the her hand to attempt a Mandible Claw, and she ends up getting Allie into the coffin. But Allie fights out of a precarious position, and the referee closes the coffin up again.

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At one point, Allie channels Rosemary by screaming at Su Yung after she takes some big strikes, and Su was clearly shook before delivering another big blow. Su brought in a steel chair, but she ended up eating a Russian Legsweep and had to desperately avoid going into the coffin.

As Su steadies her glove hand for the Mandible Claw, Allie throws the chair at her. Su catches it and gets hit with a codebreaker, with the chair smashing into Yung’s face.

Allie stuffs Yung into the coffin and nearly closes it, but Yung barely avoids it, popping out of the coffin to slap Allie in the face. There’s an even closer call when Allie hits Yung with a superkick, but Yung somehow escapes. And then she finally locks in the Mandible Claw on “The Bunny”, who passes out.

Yung closes the lid, and we have a new Knockouts Champion. WOW.

Grade: A, this is the second-best feud in wrestling behind Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano, and it showed tonight. Allie and Yung have hit a new level, and this win by Yung was a surprise that I should have seen coming. Watch this match.

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Sonjay Dutt Attacked

Prior to the start of the match, we get a promo from Pentagon Jr.. We also get footage of Sonjay Dutt on the ground, as he ‘s been attacked by the mysterious backstage villain with the weird logo. I’m sure we’ll get the answer soon after the next tapings, which take place in Windsor on June 1 and 2.

Retro Moment: Sting vs. Abyss

The Impact Wrestling retro moment is the Last Rites match between Sting and Abyss, and I really, really need to re-watch that match. They showed the ending of the match, and it was absolutely brilliant. Sting is the man.

Eddie Edwards Is Insane (Still)

Delusional Eddie Edwards appears, as he tries to convince his wife that it’s a good idea for him to “murder” Sami Callihan with no ref and no rules in the middle of his woods. Yeah, and he thinks Alisha Edwards is going to be cool with this? Nah, bro. Nah.

There’s a serious strain in this relationship thanks to Edwards, who has totally lost it. I can’t wait to see what he and Callihan do next in this feud, especially in the woods, but I’m also a little bit nervous. Plus, the way he’s treating Alisha. Ugh. She needs to make a statement here, because she can’t stand for his fantasies of murdering some guy he’s already defeated in a brutal Street Fight.

Pentagon Jr. (c) vs. Austin Aries For The Impact World Championship

Austin Aries probably isn’t sure he can beat Pentagon Jr. in a one-on-one fight without gaining the advantage in some way, so he attacks Pentagon Jr. before the bell rings. Pentagon wants this match to start, so he gets back into the ring after picking up an early advantage. However, Aries wants to get a big advantage, so he keeps the fight outside the ring and severely damages Pentagon Jr.’s hand on the outside.

It doesn’t take long for Aries to lock in the “Last Chancery”, but the champion is able to get to the ropes quickly after Aries goes for the win. Aries continues to go heelish, as he tries to take the mask off of Pentagon Jr., who follows this up with a big superkick.

Pentagon Jr. tries to lock in a vicious arm submission, but Aries moves to the outside after realizing the severity of the situation, saying “No, no, no…” to himself.

Aries gets chopped so hard so many times that he falls out of the ring, lifeless. He gets hit with a vertical suplex right back into the ring by Pentagon Jr., and the back-and-forth action continues until the champion hits his double slingblades.

It seems like Aries has the match won after hitting a sunsetflip powerbomb in the corner and then locking in the Last Chancery, but Pentagon Jr. is able to crawl to the ropes. To put the match away, Aries goes for his brainbuster, but it is quickly countered.

Pentagon Jr. goes for his Pentagon Driver again, but it is countered by Aries for a second time. Aries’s brainbuster is then countered, but he gets hit with the Pentagon Driver. And Pentagon Jr. hits his finisher! However, by chance, Aries is close enough to the ropes to get his foot out, and he’s able to stay in the match.

The two tease big moves on the apron, but Pentagon Jr. gets sent to the outside with a neckbreaker on the ropes. Aries locks in the Last Chancery on the floor, as the ref counts to ten with the both of them on the outside. And it’s a double count-out.

Aries’s response? “No no no, that’s bulls**t. There needs to be a decisive winner. There’s only room for one champion in this place.”

He calls for this match to be restarted if Pentagon Jr. has the balls to do it. Pentagon Jr. says yes. Pentagon quickly goes for a roll up, but Aries kicks out to prevent the champ from stealing a win. And we get Aries hitting Pentagon Jr. with a DVD on the apron. And then we get Pentagon Jr. hitting Aries with a “Fear Factor”. This match is insane.

And then we get another double count-out. Pentagon Jr. gives a speech about how they need to have one more match to decide who is better between the two of them. He won’t settle for a double count-out either.

Aries hits Pentagon Jr. with a low blow and a brainbuster for the win. He is your new Impact World Champion (again), in addition to being the Grand Champion.

Next: Which Match Should Main Event Money in the Bank?

Grade: A+, the finish was a little weird, but the match itself was absolutely fantastic. This was an absolute roller-coaster of a match, and while I didn’t see this coming and am shocked Aries won the world title back, I’m not mad at it. This was thoroughly entertaining, and both double count-outs had me hook-line-and-sinker. And after winning with the help of a sudden low blow, Aries is a certified heel. There can be no ambiguity here.