Show last night had subtle reminders of the weekly ppv Asylum days, but the throwbacks were minimal for sure. It was fun seeing another show back in the Asylum though, and I wonder if this will become a yearly tradition (granted, assuming Impact can financially keep going through the next year). Mostly nods to the past like Abyss and Gail Kim having roles but one match (Edwards/Moose) reminded me of back in the day with the brawling all over the old place, including the Raven's Nest area from back in 03-04. Speaking of.....I was kind of surprised Raven didn't have a part in this show since he was involved in the Drake/Abyss storyline. Oh well.
Handful of pretty good matches on the show, you could tell there was an effort for sure to work hard. The crowd was involved as well, which was always a staple of the smaller but enthusiastic fans at the Asylum back in the day. Best match was easily the tag title match which was a relentless action-filled spotfest for sure. The opener Ultimate X was also very well done and was close to best match of the night itself. All of those guys shined pretty well in that one. I'd put the falls count anywhere match with Edwards and Moose as the other match worth checking out.
The other stuff was also decent enough, certainly nothing glaringly bad really. HC match with Eli and Abyss was about what you would expect with Drake taking a rough looking couple of bumps as well as a fall onto tacks that looked painful. Both singles titles on top of the card delivered enough, as Tessa was protected in losing the belt by Gail Kim's offense on her at the end (I'm guessing they get Gail back in for a match with Tessa) and the main had pretty good stuff as well but a kind of out of nowhere somewhat botchy finish. There was a long stall after the finish and it felt like they were running long on time with Taya and Johnny killing time in the ring, signaling some kind of run-in. As it turned out, it was just Killer Kross attacking both of them once they got on the ramp to head to the back. Kross powerbombed Taya into a bunch of fan plants at ringside for the end spot. Not the kind of end to the ppv I was hoping (a surprise run-in by someone new would have been preferred, I had actually expected Aries to return) but still a pretty solid effort again on pay per view for Impact.
