It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a single match review as a post, but I can’t quite stomach a full episode of Impact, even with the newfound AEW partnership. However, I happened to see on Twitter as I was scrolling that Private Party and Matt Hardy showed up and it peaked my interest. This a #1 Contender’s Match to determine who will challenge Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows for the Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Titles. I was interested what was going to happen following the six man tag at Hard to Kill and I can honestly say I couldn’t have predicted this being the next move. It’s not monumental, but I feel like we will get more out of it in the long run than the Omega/Good Brothers stuff as Private Party is a team that needs this outside experience. It comes at perfect timing too because there’s nothing really going for them in AEW right now so having the opportunity to send them over to another televised company with plenty of seasoned stars is such a great thing. It's almost reminiscent of the days where promoters would send certain wrestlers to certain other territories or overseas to Japan or England to do a tour and get new experience. This, as crazy as it may sound, makes me feel more positive about the AEW/Impact Wrestling relationship than the Omega/Good Brothers stuff, simply for the fact that Omega and his associates are already made stars. So, to me, bringing your big star to a company that is arguably not anywhere near as popular than him doesn't really do much for AEW. BUT doing this? It can do a lot for AEW as Private Party can come back after a few months or however long this tenure is and be more ready to take that next step up as a team and possibly get a chance at being tag team champions.
That, along with the different ways you can incorporate them jumping ship into a storyline on Dynamite makes this something I'm pretty stoked about. Now comes this match. And to me, it's the perfect example of why this works. Chris Sabin and James Storm are two of the most decorated tag team wrestlers from the mid-2000's who both still have plenty to offer as competitors. Storm, in particular here, really stood out to me. I haven't seen him wrestle nor being excited about him wrestling in quite some time, but he looked awesome and very agile here. As I was saying, though, the knowledge that Private Party can get from working two guys of this caliber in tag team wrestling goes without saying. The match itself is simple, but because of all these reasons, I really enjoyed. Private Party got their stuff in and Sabin & Storm more than kept up with the speedy up & comers in a contest that was pretty competitive. They didn't burn the house down, but it was a super fun match that also probably benefited from two things:
1) the new commentary team of D-Lo Brown & Matt Striker, because god knows Josh Matthews made this show so hard to watch without feeling like a complete dork. Striker isn't THAT much better, but it's still better than what they had before.
2) AEW Owner Tony Khan showing up at ringside with the legend Jerry Lynn, who sported an AEW collared shirt. This added some suspense to the contest - why are they here? Did they know Private Party & Matt Hardy were showing up tonight? Are they going to get involved?
And to answer that question, they did. It looked like Private Party was done for, when all of a sudden, Jerry Lynn jumps the rail and holds the foot of Sabin who was on the top rope, this allows Private Party to hit GIN AND JUICE for the three count and to become the new #1 contenders for the Impact Wrestling Tag Team Titles.
Post match, the champions, the Good Brothers - Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows come out and we get a decent staredown before it breaks into a sort of weak brawl to close the show involving all three teams. I get what they were going for, but closing the show in the middle of this didn't come across very well.
Match Rating - ***
