Top 10 Impact Wrestling Moments in 2019 By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: 2019 is almost over and what a year this has been for Impact Wrestling; Following a meteoric 2018, the company had to do a lot of things to surpass a year that got Impact back in the headlines for all the right reasons.

While moments like Impact moving and "Technically" owning AXS TV and co promoting an event with Triple A in Madison Square Garden are truly memorable... what about the in ring moments? Those moments that took place both in and outside of the ring that made us laugh, cry, and angry in equal measure. Well I'm here to tell you what I think were some of the best and memorable moments that the Impact roster manage to do in the last 52 weeks.

Honorable Mention
Joey Ryan Flips Ken Shamrock
Shera's Return To Impact
Josh Alexander Signs With Impact
Killer Kross Water Boards "The Sandman"
Tessa Blanchard vs. Gail Kim Aftermath
Havok Tombstones Su Yung Off The Top Rope Into Thumbtacks
Legless Referee Hits A 450 Splash
Killer Kross' Cryptic Serum In Church
Joey Ryan's Return At Bound For Glory
Tully Blanchard Gives His Daughter Advice Before Match
The North Defeat LAX For The Tag Team Titles
Alisha Edwards Goes Crazy On Moose and Ace Austin
Rosemary's Return
Cody Deaner Returns/ The Debut of The Deaners
Acey Romero Signs With Impact Wrestling
Everything that was IPWF
ODB Returns To Impact
The Trial of Joey Ryan aka Wrestler's Court

10. Jessicka Havok Hangs Su Yung

During the September 20th episode of Impact, former knockouts champions Jessicka Havok and Su Yung fought in a match in front a large crowd of fans in Mexico; While the match itself was nothing special it's the event that took place backstage that gets the most buzz.

Not contend with how their match turned out, both Havok and Su brawled into the backstage area eventually making their way into a stairway when the Kaiju Queen manage to get the upper hand on Su and then grabbed a rope (which was conveniently left lying around) and lynched Su Yung off the stairway, leaving her lifeless.

In the final moments of the show, It's revealed that Su has been transported to a hospital where the doctors attempt revive her unfortunately they are unsuccessful and pronounced her dead.

However, because this is wrestling where talking about...no ever dies on screen, so just mere moments after being pronounced dead by the medical experts, a good long shot of Su's body on the gurney is shown before the Su opens her eyes and breaths her first breath after "sudden death".

Su Yung would return to Impact months later as Susie, a human like doll wearing a white dress with no face paint, ring attire and especially no memory of her previous life and actions.

As of the writing of this article, this storyline is still progressing forward on TV with the most likelihood that this will lead to a match at first pay per view of the year for Impact Wrestling, Hard To Kill .

9. Kylie Rae's Impact Wrestling Debut

The "Call Your Shot" gauntlet match that officially started Bound For Glory 2019 could probably be best described as Impact's version of the gimmick battle royal from WrestleMania 17 only with a future championship opportunity on the line.

Still the number of colorful and outlandish characters that took part in the battle royal were fun to see however this match is best remembered for three things: Joey Ryan hitting an conga line dick-plex on one third of the participants, Eddie Edwards winning the match and the trophy that came along with it and of course the debut of Indie darling and smiling enthusiast, Kylie Rae.

The Chicago crowd exploded with cheers as Rae walked her way down to the ring before sliding in and delivering superkicks to Raj Singh and Tommy Dreamer; She won't last for too long in this match as she would be one of the many wrestlers who were eliminated by OvE's Madman Fulton.

The idea that one of the best unsigned talents appearing unannounced at one of Impact's biggest events of the year was an amazing sight to be hold...unless you're an All Elite Wrestling fan, as Rae appearing on Impact months after leaving AEW following Double or Nothing left fans feeling...well I think a paraphrased version of Obi-Wan Kenobi's words from Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope could best describe it.

"I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out of pure pettiness and sudden became salty on social media."

Regardless, it was an awesome moment and will just have to wait and see what happens next for Ms. Rae, however this wasn't the only memorable moment from a indie wrestler on this event because...

8. Acey Romero Gets Thrown Off A Ladder

Ace or Acey Romero wrestled his first match at Bound For Glory after taking Rohit Raju's spot in the five person ladder match for the Impact X Division Championship.

This match, like many X Division style match saw crazy spots like Daga hitting a Canadian Destroyer on Jake Crist onto a ladder, the amount of diamond cutters being used by almost everyone, Tessa's numerous dives on Jake Crist and Romero sending Daga flying half way cross the ring.

The moment that people really remember this match for was when the near 400 pound Romero set up two ladders in the ring and attempted to climb for the championship only Tessa Blanchard to come in a shove the ladder over sending Romero crashing outside of the ring into a previously set up table with the ladder falling as well almost hitting fans in the front row...Welcome to Impact Wrestling, where we sign new talent and find ways to nearly kill them (just kidding).

That's spot was crazy but that wasn't the only insane ladder spot that happened in 2019 because earlier this year Impact fans bared witness to...

7. Rey Fenix's Spanish Fly Off A Ladder

In what would be The Lucha Brothers last match with Impact Wrestling (To this point), Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr. defended their tag team titles against LAX in a full metal mayhem match.

The action throughout felt more like brawl of a street fight then a wrestling match but injuries and risks both teams took in this match is nothing to rolling your eyes at.

An example of this comes in the beginning of the final act of the match when Fenix and Ortiz are set up on a ladder, where continue to exchange punches with one another.

Fenix would manage to turn things around and in a moment that certain pained both men (mostly Fenix), the brother of Pentagon Jr. hits a Spanish Fly off the ladder into a table when causes Ortiz to demonstrate his ability to sell but if you watch it back a few times you'll see that Fenix landed on his head and neck and was permanently taken out of the rest of the match.

Amazing, cringe inducing upon landing and holy shit worthy...just another day in Pro Wrestling.

6. Ken Shamrock Returns To Impact Wrestling

The World's Most Dangerous Man was and still is seen as one of the most respected names to take part in both wrestling and mix martial arts with his time as Intercontinental Champion and feud with The Rock leaving an indelible mark in the WWF (now WWE) and his brief time with Impact (then NWA TNA) between 2002 and 2004 becoming a big hallmark in his and the company's reputation.

So imagine someone a few years ago telling you that Ken Shamrock was not only going to return to professional wrestling but he would also being stepping back into the ring, wrestling for Impact in 2019; It's safe bet your response would have been: "How drugs or drinks did you have today?"

Well as fortune would have, that's exactly what happened. During a Twitter conversation involving Shamrock and then world champion Brian Cage, Moose found his way into the discussion and began heckling the former King of The Ring winner so much so that Ken told everyone that he would in Las Vegas during the Impact tapings and promised to show up.

This of course, led to Moose and Ken Shamrock facing off against each other in one of the most disappointing matches on the entire Bound For Glory card. When it was revealed that Shamrock would be given time to speak on the first episode of Impact on AXS TV, many believed that the former Pancrase world champion was set to retire but instead announce to the world that he isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Aside from his "match" with Joey Ryan, it's unclear what the future holds for Ken Shamrock in Impact Wrestling but, just like with Kylie Rae, will have to wait and see.

5. Taya Valkyrie Becomes The Largest Reigning Knockouts Champion

If you go back and listen to Taya Valkrie's promo in 2017 after squashing Ava Storie in a match, you will hear her telling the fans that she's in Impact Wrestling for one thing and that's the knockouts championship.

Fast forward two years later and Taya achieved this goal after defeating Tessa Blanchard in a match for the title at the Homecoming PPV, this would mark Taya's first run with the gold and she didn't waste time on making this reign as knockouts champion be one of the most memorable in company history as she is currently still the champion and has held the gold for more that 310 days which is longer than Taryn Terrell's reign of 291 days.

To make things even more interesting Taya is not only the longest reigning knockouts champion but the longest reign champion in any division within the company's history and no title reign before Taya's have exceed 310 days making her championship reign not only an important moment in 2019 but an important moment in both Taya Valkyrie's career and Impact Wrestling's History.

4. Santana and Ortiz's Farewell From Impact

Despite what Jim Ross, AEW and most wrestling journalists will have you believe, Santana and Ortiz didn't spend the majority of their career's in the independent scene only to appear and become famous in AEW by joining Chris Jericho's 'Inner Circle' faction. Instead, the duo now known as Proud-N-Powerful went into their own during their three years with Impact Wrestling from 2017-2019.

The duo became the new LAX and they certainly lived up to the hype as Santana and Ortiz would win the tag team titles four different times and battled teams like Decay, Jake and Dave Crist, Rich Swann and Willie Mack and The Rascalz just to name a few.

In mid 2019, rumors about Santana and Ortiz's contracts with Impact Wrestling started to make the rounds and were eventually confirmed through spoilers as well as both men thanking the fans, wrestlers and everyone else in the back who helped and supported them through their three years with Impact.

During the Mexico tapings LAX put their careers with Impact on the line in a tag team title match against Josh Alexander and Ethan Page of 'The North' and in predictable fashion LAX lost their match and just like that their careers with Impact were over.

However, Impact gave Santana and Ortiz the opportunity to wrestling Rich Swann and Willie Mack in the main event of a tag team match which saw Swann and Mack defeat the former tag team champions in front of a ruckus Mexico crowd before the entire locker room cleared out to celebrate and send off arguably the best tag team in modern Impact history in spectacular if not heartbreaking fashion.

3. Brian Cage and Melissa Santo's Wedding/ Wedding Reception

The argument could be made that the wedding between Brian Cage and Melissa Santo was one of best wrestling segments in all of 2019 and it definitely could stake a claim to that title as the wedding and reception itself was filled with moments that'll make you feel a multitude of emotions.

From Reno Scum pulling a Bill Crosby by spiking Eddie Edwards' drink, to Ethan Page's shoot on the Dirt Sheets about wrestlers being paid royalties to Father James Mitchell coming in at the last minute to officiate the wedding to Tommy Dreamer's fourth wall breaking comedy the segment is filled with some much stuff that you have to go back and watch over and over again in case you missed something during the previous viewing.

But it's action involving the wedding reception that turns this segment from something fun and lovely into utter shock. While having a dance in the middle of the ring, Sami Callihan comes to the ring with an empty bottle of bubbly and proceeds to congratulate the happy couple before referring to Cage as a bitch.

Not to happy with this Cage grabs Callihan only for Sami use the bottle he had in his hand as weapon but instead of hitting Cage with the bottle Sami nailed Melissa with the bottle knocking her out unconscious to shock of fans, wrestlers and even Callihan himself.

This would begin the build between Cage and Callihan's match at Bound For Glory which of course leads us into...

2. The Draw Becomes The World Champion

Following a build that includes the aforementioned wedding/bottle shot the match was set for Brian Cage to defend his world heavyweight championship against Sami Callihan at Bound For Glory, the action throughout the match was similar to that of last year's Bound for Glory main event involving Johnny Impact and Austin Aries (minus the controversial ending);.

The match saw Cage getting his redemption by defeating Callihan and embracing his wife Melissa as show comes to an end but this victory would be short lived as Callihan manage to threaten Cage into giving him another shot at the time by threatening to kidnap his and Melissa Santo's child from their home.

So on the very first episode of Impact on AXS TV the main event saw Sami Callihan face 'The Machine' Brian Cage for the world title in a steel cage match.

The violence and intensity both men still had for one another way is still prevalent through out the cage match and in the closing moments of the match Sami hits Cage not one, not two, not three, not four, not seven...but five piledrivers with the last one being a top rope piledriver leading to referee counting 1...2...3! and with the bell sounding the end of match it marked the beginning of the world title reign of 'The Draw', Sami Callihan.

The moment felt well deserved for Sami who had put the company on his back in order to get Impact Wrestling to where it is, so to see Callihan become world champion after everything his done up to this point makes you happy for the man former known as Solomon Crowe in WWE.

1. Allie's Death

We started this list talking about Su Yung nearly meeting her maker at the hands of Jessicka Havok so, were going to end with a moment that led to wrestler's onscreen demise at the hands ...or rather glove of the undead bride.

During Undead Realm storyline that started back in early 2018, Allie sold her soul to the devil in order to rescue her friend Rosemary and this goes about as well as you would expect.

Allie became a more darker soulless version of the happy go lucky bunny many fans have come to know.

In attempt to get her back Rosemary and Allie's friend Kiera Hogan go into the undead realm in order to get Allie's soul back and make her whole again.

Both Kiera and Rosemary are met with animosity from Father James Mitchell, Su Yung and her bridesmaids and a dark hooded figure later revealed to be Kevin Sullivan as the man who runs the undead realm (and also is rosemary's father).

Kiera gets captured by James Mitchell leaving Rosemary all by herself; Su Yung, seizing her opportunity attempts to kill Rosemary after turning her filthy blood soaked glove into Freddy Kruger's razor sharped glove (How Impact didn't get sued over that is a mystery), she charges at Rosemary only for Dark Allie to shove the demon assassin out of the way and get stabbed in the neck by razor glove instead.

To the shock of almost everyone including the fans, Rosemary grabs her friends body in angry and saddest as soft music begins to play a bleeding Allie says to both Kiera and Rosemary in a softly spoken voice that's it's okay and that she's whole again before vanishing into thin air and becoming one with the force (and eventually resurfacing with black hair in AEW).

To see one of your favorite wrestler leave the company you watch on a weekly basis is sad enough but to watch them "die" is something else, especially when you get invested into their character as well as seeing their highs and lows throughout their journey.

Emotional, tear jerking and one heck of a way to right to write off a wrestler from the company is why I say Allie's Death is one of the most best moments for Impact Wrestling in 2019...RIP Allie aka The Bunny (2016-19).