Impact Wrestling Archives: The Forgotten Member of Aces & Eights By Hakeem Fullerton
Intro: A lot of factions in pro wrestling have always had a group member or members that have faded into the background while others have become completely forgotten only to be remembered as nothing more but a factoid for list or articles like these.
A prime example of the latter would have to be the forgotten member of one of TNA Wrestling's most notorious factions...Aces & Eights.
What Are The Aces & Eights?
From 2012-13, a leather clad biker gang known as Aces & Eights invaded the Impact Zone and began taking out wrestlers from Sting, Kurt Angle, Magnus, Eric Young, Austin Aries and more.
The group would also wear masks to disguise their identities leaving wrestlers and fans alike confused as to who these gang members were but also creating a sense of distrust among the locker room.
While they entire storyline itself wasn't completely perfect, the Ace & Eights feud with TNA Wrestling became one of the biggest and most talked about angles in the company's history at that time.
Some of the groups biggest highlights include numerous brawls and attacks on the Impact Roster, Brother Devon being revealed to a member of the group at Bound For Glory 2012, group members interrupting Brooke Hogan and Bully Ray's wedding (complete with Brooke's breast popping out of her dress), Bully Ray revealing himself to be the president of Aces & Eights after turning heel and winning the world title, Mr. Anderson defeating Bully to end the groups existence and of course the iconic funeral commemorating the end of the wrestling biker gang.
When it came time to reveal the identities of the biker gang many of the reveals were truly shocking like Devon, Taz, D.O.C/ Luke Gallows and Bully Ray to reveals that were just disappointing like D'lo Brown, Garrett Bischoff, Wes Brisco and Knux and of course then their were members who were added in just because like Tito Ortiz (The Dennis Rodman to Aces & Eights' NWO) and former TNA Knockouts Champion, Brooke Tessmacher.
Speaking of Miss Tessmacher, she was revealed to be the mistress of Bully Ray, after Brooke Hogan filed for divorce from Bully after his shocking heel turn at Lockdown 2013; For a long time many have called Brooke the first female member of the Aces & Eights group, however that's not exactly true as there was another woman who joined the group before Brooke did and her name...is Ivelisse Velez.
Who Is Ivelisse Velez?
Ivelisse is a Puerto Rican wrestler who shot to fame in the early 2010's after appearing on an episode of Impact Wrestling as a participate on the mishandled "Gut Check" segments which ran from 2012-13 on Impact programming.
Fun Fact: Gut Check also introduced mainstream audiences to names like Wes Brisco, Brian Cage, Joey Ryan, Taeler Hendrix, and Samuel Shaw before they became famous for wrestling in other promotions like Ring of Honor, MLW and NXT.
Ivelisse has also wrestled in other promotions like Lucha Underground, Florida Championship Wrestling before appearing in Impact Wrestling in 2012.
Despite having a small number of appearances on the brand and failing to win a contract with the promotion during the Gut Check period, Ivelisse's time with Impact has been seen almost as similarly to that of Randy Savage's time in TNA (in that they both had a quick run with the company that's still fondly remembered by wrestling fans to this day).
More recently, Ivelisse's name has been brought back up when it comes to Impact Wrestling as she was suppose to make her return to the company in 2018 until those plans got axed at the last minute with some speculating that it may have something to do with the issues involving herself and Tessa Blanchard... for more on that be sure to read my article "Eight TNA/Impact Stars Who Hated Each Other", I'll leave a link down below.
Why is She Forgotten When Talking About The Group?
So you all might be wondering, if Aces & Eights was one of the biggest factions and angles going on within the company and Ivelisse had a short but memorable run in Impact, Why is her involvement with the group so forgotten?
Well the reason for this is because she was only a member of Aces & Eight for one night but she did wrestle under the Ace & Eights banner in 2013 at TNA's One Night Only: World Cup Event.
The event was a one night only show which saw wrestlers from different nationalities both on and off the roster competing in a kayfabe tournament for global supremacy and one of those names was Ivelisse who wrestled as a member of Team Aces & Eights and defeated former Women's, Divas, and Knockouts Champion Mickie James to advance to the finals.
Sadly, Ivelisse and the rest of Team Aces and Eight failed to win the tournament as they were defeated by Team USA which included names like Mickie James, Christopher Daniels, Kenny King, Frankie Kazarian, and James Storm in a five-on-five elimination tag team main event.
Interesting fact, Ivelisse was the first lady to join Aces and Eights because this show was taped on March 19th, 2013 but, it aired on November 1st of the same year; Brooke Tessmacher would join the group on August 22nd 2013 which technically makes Ivelisse the first woman to going the biker gang.
Since this event and the cancellation of her return to Impact in 2018, Ivelisse has been busy as she among many other talents have filed a class action lawsuit against Lucha Underground in 2019, due to the belief that their contracts were not legal under California law and it prevented them from working in other promotions.
As a result Ivelisse and other stars have been let go from their contracts with Lucha Underground and she's most recently resurfaced thanks to her appearances at All Elite Wrestling.
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And for more Wrestling Related Lists like this one, here are the links to some of them down below:
Top 10 WWE Mae Young Classic Participants You Forgot Wrestled In Impact Wrestling:
Impact Wrestling Archives [Taya Valkyrie Held Both The Triple A Women's and Impact Knockouts Championships]:
10 Amazing Wrestlers Whose Contributions Have Been Forgotten In TNA/Impact Wrestling:
Impact Wrestling Archives [Lacey Von Erich Rips Into A Coworker During A Radio Interview]:
Ten Best Face Turns In TNA/Impact Wrestling History:
Eight TNA/Impact Wrestling Stars Who Hated Each Other:
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