10 Ups & 4 Downs From IMPACT Wrestling (20 May)
2. It's All By Design
FinJuice’s defence of the World Tag Team Championships vs. Ace Austin and Madman Fulton was solid. David Finlay and Juice Robinson knew what they were doing by focusing on Fulton. He’s obviously the bigger threat, and so they focused the majority of their offence in his direction. Austin, while a keen high-flyer, is easier to handle.
The real story of their bout is how tremendously Ace and Madman have gelled together. In doing some research, they officially aligned in IMPACT on 16 June 2020. That’s about eleven months, give or take, but you wouldn’t be mistaken to assume they’ve been aligned for years. That Chokeslam/ Fold hybrid was fine evidence for that.
A Pulp Friction – or an Unprettier to you and me – on the former Sawyer Fulton ended he and Ace’s title quest, as FinJuice remained the champions. For about five more minutes.
Their celebration was cut short by Violent By Design entering, cashing in Rhino’s Call Your Shot trophy, and claiming the titles. They made short work of Finlay and Robinson, which only further cemented their right to be champions, capping it off with a stiff Lariat from Joe Doering.
Putting the straps on Violent By Design is needed right now. They were barely scraping a need to be on IMPACT programming, with their rivalry vs. Jake Something, Beer Guns, et al going on for about five months. That wasn’t needed; this is. There are now endless possibilities for VBD as champions. Fantastic stuff.