IMPACT Wrestling: Rebellion (April 24, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Rebellion (2021) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on April 25, 2021 at the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the third event under the Rebellion chronology.

Nine matches were contested at the event, with one match contested on the pre-show. In the main event, which was a cross-promotional match between Impact and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), AEW World Champion Kenny Omega defeated Impact World Champion Rich Swann in a Winner Takes All match, thus retaining the AEW World Championship and winning the Impact World Championship. In other prominent matches, Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering defeated Fire N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) to win the Knockouts Tag Team Championship, and Josh Alexander defeated TJP and defending champion Ace Austin to win the X Division Championship in the opening bout. The event also marked the Impact debut of W. Morrissey and the return of Taylor Wilde, since 2010.

Match Results:

Pre-Show: Tag Team Match

Rosemary and Havok def. Kimber Lee and Susan

Three-way Match for the Impact X Division Championship

Josh Alexander def. Ace Austin (c) (with Madman Fulton) and TJP

I tweeted it four days after this event while watching the fallout episode of IMPACT Wrestling where Alexander and Austin had a rematch one-on-one and I'll repeat myself in this write-up of the PPV too. Josh Alexander and Ace Austin will be the ones main eventing and carrying this company on their backs in another 3-5 years. They are that damn good. I can easily see those guys having a slow burn to the top. Austin isn't even 30 years old yet and he's still got plenty left in the tank in terms of what he can offer in the ring. Splitting up from Ethan Page may have been the biggest blessing in disguise for Josh Alexander's career at this point. Even though I selfishly wanted to see The North against FTR among all of this "forbidden door" talk at some point, I much rather see Josh Alexander continue to showcase his technical ability in matches like this as a singles star. This was easily my favorite match of the night and they could not have started this show stronger than with a match like this. TJP, Ace Austin, and Josh Alexander should all be proud of their body of work in this match from bell to bell.

Alexander said it himself on Twitter this week, "The X-Division is the work rate division."

I dunno about you guys and gals, but I can't argue with facts.

Eight Man Tag Team Match

Violent By Design (Deaner, Joe Doering and Rhino) and W. Morrissey (with Eric Young) def. Chris Sabin, Eddie Edwards, James Storm, and Willie Mack

This was short and quick and right to the point with Violent By Design going over in a dominating fashion, much thanks to the debuting Big Cass now W. Morrissey. I'm surprised he didn't debut in NWA instead since him and Melina have been working together on a few independent shows lately.

Singles Match

Brian Myers def. Matt Cardona

The two former Edgeheads were gunning for the highest work rate match of the night, but I'm afraid that they were pretty low on the rankings in that regard. That being said, this wasn't a bad match. They beat the hell out of each other and Myers got the win. He's definitely on a career renaissance in this company in comparison to his jobber fodder days in WWE.

Tag Team Match for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship

Jordynne Grace and Rachael Ellering (with Jazz) def. Fire N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) (c)

Rachael Ellering came in as a new addition to the KOs roster on the go-home episode of IMPACT Wrestling a few nights prior and was named Jordynne's partner for this match. I will give her credit for showing up in much better shape than she did for last year's Deadly Draw tournament for AEW. I was shocked that Fire N Flava dropped the titles here tonight to Jordynne and Rachael, but I could understand the reasoning of it. Jazz finally found Jordynne the "right" partner to lead her championship victory on her way out to her retirement tour on the indies, while simultaneously Jordynne desperately needed a big win. She's been on a losing streak in almost every major feud she has been in since losing the Knockouts Championship to Deonna. This is one way for her to bounce back from those losses last year. As for this match, Jordynne and Rachael come across as a competent team, but you can tell that they need a bit more time in-ring working together before they sync things up properly. There were a few spots in this match where they were slightly off cue to each other, but it wasn't bad enough to take anything away from this match.

Last Man Standing Match

Trey Miguel def. Sami Callihan

After feuding for the weeks since Trey Miguel showed back up in the company following the rest of the Rascalz' departures and debuts in WWE NXT as the current NXT Tag Team Champions, MSK, Trey definitely needed to get one over Sami here. I can't really fault this match too much. It's pretty much the norm from what I have come to expect from Sami Callihan in these types of matches and it didn't really disappoint, despite Sami not really being the same since losing the IMPACT World title to Tessa Blanchard prior to her departure. He seems to have settled into this role of putting over the new talents on the rise as of late and that's not a bad thing. I'm just anxious to see where Trey goes from here on his own.

FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) (c) def. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) Tag team match for the Impact World Tag Team Championship

I was SOOOO relieved when FinJuice retained here. I thought the Good Brothers were going to win the titles back just to give The Elite more to brag about over on AEW Dynamite the following week. I don't know what it is, but the Good Brothers haven't done jack shit for me since leaving New Japan. They were bland in WWE and they come off even blander here in IMPACT. The only good thing to come about their IMPACT signings were this open line of communication with both AEW and New Japan - moreso the latter now that we've see FinJuice on their programming a few times now before taking off for their obligations back overseas in New Japan.

Singles Match for the Impact Knockouts Championship

Deonna Purrazzo (c) (with Kimber Lee and Susan) defeated Tenille Dashwood (with Kaleb with a K)

This wasn't a bad match, but I have seen much better performances from both of these women in that regard. This match did what it set to accomplish and continue establishing Deonna Purrazzo as the woman to beat in IMPACT Wrestling. Beating Tenille Dashwood adds another marquee woman on that roster that adds the already impressive list of opponents that Deonna has defeated to retain that title. Even though I knew it was coming from regularly listening to her "Wilde On" podcast PRIOR to the vignettes starting to air on IMPACT, I popped huge for Taylor Wilde's return during the post-match celebration.

Winner Takes All match for the Impact World Championship and the AEW World Championship

Kenny Omega (AEW) (with Don Callis, Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson) def. Rich Swann (Impact) (with Eddie Edwards and Willie Mack)

This was the main event that honestly was the only reason a lot of people were watching this show for. In that regard, it definitely had a lot riding on it to deliver. I thought Kenny Omega and Rich Swann delivered in that aspect, but there wasn't a single instance where I doubted that Kenny Omega was walking away with TNA World Heavyweight and IMPACT World Championships. Swann put up a great fight, but Omega ultimately went over - unceremoniously if I may add - in the end. He beat Swann clean at that, despite trying to inject some foul play into this match, but Referee Aubrey Edwards (from AEW) wasn't having any of it.

I think the icing on the cake that was this match was the inclusion of Mauro Ranallo joining Matt Striker and D'Lo Brown on commentary for this main event. It definitely gave this match the big match feel and made me happy to hear Mauro calling wrestling again. If he's willing to come back and do more events, I hope IMPACT and/or AEW take advantage of his talents and toss however amount of money needed to bring him back on. It doesn't even have to be a full-time gig, just something like this on PPV or special events.

There was a point towards the end of the match where several people commenting online have stated where it looked like Swann was either "gassed" or exhausted, but apparently he got his bell rung at some point (possibly from all of the V-Trigger knee lifts) in the match, which caused Omega to take control of the steering wheel and drive this match to its inevitable conclusion. I'm not going to fault them for something like that out of their control, but I will say that they should have stopped going for those moves on the top rope that they constantly kept fucking up at every opportunity when they were trying to steady themselves up there. After the second attempt, it was just goddamn stupid to me that they were even still trying to get that spot in.

At the end of the day, Kenny Omega continues being the belt collector, but I ask this question: So now what?

Does Kenny Omega appear on IMPACT Wrestling more frequently and starts defending the World title more often or will we won't see him until the next PPV? How long will IMPACT go without a champion from within their own roster? I get that AEW is doing them the favor for even working with them period, but at the same time, I don't see how this situation is beneficial to either of them. They aren't getting much of (if any) of a ratings increase week to week from their partnership with AEW, who didn't bother to do any tie-ins nor promotion for this match on their own programming last week. There was a commercial for the PPV that aired during the show, but IMPACT/Anthem had to pay for that out of their own pockets to air on TNT during Dynamite. Hell, AEW didn't even bother to have Rich Swann on their show for any sort of face-to-face to hype up the match either last week. That aspect of this promotion for this match felt like a complete slap to the face of IMPACT, which gave fans even more incentive to believe that Kenny Omega was not losing this match - in which he should not have anyway.

I hope this story leads to Moose challenging Kenny Omega and bringing both IMPACT World titles back home. It's now or never to pull the trigger on that guy. If it's not happening this year in 2021, then I don't know what the hell these people are thinking.