It’s safe to say the road to get to this year’s Rebellion pay-per-view has certainly been filled with ups and downs; Now at first glance the card going into Rebellion this year looks really great and nothing on there looks like it has a chance of being terrible.
Next week will be doing a list on the best matches to take place at Rebellion, but today will be looking at those matches which not only happened at Rebellion but also stick out like a sore thumb due to them being medicore compared to the rest of the show or they were just awful even without the ability of hindsight…So let’s talk about them.
#10. The Design vs. Joe Hendry, Dirty Dango & Santino Marella (Rebellion 2023)
IMPACT’s attempt at continuing Violent By Design now called The Design went over like a lead balloon as Deaner (the guy who got beaten the most in VBD) took over the group, Big Kon who less we forget had his first match in the company losing to Josh Alexander in a matter of seconds also joined the group…oh yeah and Alan Angels was part of it too.
Anyway, Callihan would be in the crosshairs of Violent By Design since Bound For Glory 2022 and eventually joined the group in early 2023 even though most could already see what Sami’s endgame was.
After Santino Marella (The Director of Authority) was found attacked in the backstage area, most of the suspicions fell onto Callihan and the Design leading to Joe Hendry, Dirty Dango and Marella taking on the bald headed faction at Rebellion.
The action in this match was fine but that’s not saying much, plus the idea of Callihan a former IMPACT World Champion less we forget was now a member of a water down version of a group that had already lost it’s appeal only helped in bringing down Sami’s stock.
Though if you were watching the producting leading up to the event then you probably felt a sense of relief upon seeing Sami Callihan turn on The Design…And Santino along with his green sock puppet pinned Deaner for the win, need I say more.
#9. Eddie Edwards vs. PCO (Rebellion 2023)
Minutes after Callihan thankfully dropped The Design like a bad habit, the fans inside the Rebel Complex in Toronto Canada bared witness to PCO and Eddie Edwards blowing off their months long feud except their final battle would been a Last Rites Match.
First of all, there had only been two Last Rites Matches in IMPACT/TNA before this one with the inaugural bout happening in 2007 which was terrible and the second happening in 2018 and it was actually good…this third outing was somewhere in the middle of the pact.
To honest, outside of PCO repeatedly ramming his shoulder into the ring post in order to put it back into place following a scary looking bump there isn’t really much to say about this match other than PCO puts Eddie in the coffin in order to secure the victory.
While PCO would get involved in another underwelming feud this time with Bully Ray, Eddie Edwards would soon move on to have a more memorable and exciting feud with Frankie Kazarian throughout the rest of the year.
#8. Rosemary vs. Havok (Rebellion 2020: Part 2)
Now it’s not the company’s fault that the COVID-19 Pandemic came to the U.S. and screwed over their initial plans and so therefore had to work with what they had, but what they did work with wasn’t all great.
The only time an IMPACT PPV was broken into two nights and instead turned into taped episodes, Rebellion 2020 Night Two is often seen as the worst of the two night event with this match between future Knockouts Tag Team Champions happening for no apparent reason other than we need a women’s match on the card.
Much like the previous entries the action itself wasn’t the main focus here but rather an individual moment which saw the IMPACT/TNA debut Neveah Crist towards the end of the match.
Both Havok and Rosemary do their best but the fact there’s no stakes or story going into this match and the fact it’s happening to absolute silence makes it almost tough to watch.
#7. Deonna Purrazzo vs. Taya Valkyrie (Rebellion 2022)
From one Knockouts match with no story attached to a Knockouts title match that does have a story yet somehow falls flat.
After systemically tearing apart Taya Valkyrie a year earlier at Hard To Kill 2021, the Queen of Slamtown returned after an underwelming run in the WWE and looked set on having her revenge against ‘The Virtusoa’ who also was the Triple A Reina De Reinas Champion at the time.
Unfortunately the match never really got into third gear and had this match been given five more minutes it would have been a classic, instead it felt rushed and really lacked those final few moments that could’ve hooked you in right before the finish.
The two ladies would have a much better match just few weeks later at Under Siege, but this one wasn’t so good.
#6. Michael Elgin vs. Moose vs. Hernandez (Rebellion 2020: Part 2)
When your match is remembered (if it’s remembered at all) for being that bout where the TNA World Title made it’s first appearance since 2017 and nothing else then that’s generally considering not a good thing.
The original main event was to see Tessa Blanchard defend the IMPACT World Championship against Eddie Edwards and Michael Elgin, except the pandemic prevented many wrestlers from traveling so fans got instead was Elgin wanting a match which led to Moose for some reason coming out with the TNA World Championship and promised to “defend” the gold and then Hernandez also came out…again for some reason and it became a three way match.
All three men hit their signature moves, but the lack of a crowd and the randomness of this match being thrown together couldn’t save it from capping off one of the worst Rebellion events in company history.
#5. Joseph P. Ryan vs. Cousin Jake (Rebellion 2020: Part 2)
The #SpeakingOut Movement exposed a seedy side of the wrestling world that most fans probably believed died out by the 90’s or 2000’s; Many wrestlers from various promotions had their sinister transactions exposed but the biggest name had to be indie wrestler, Joey Ryan who had made his way back to IMPACT at Bound For Glory 2019 this time with a gimmick that saw him flipping people with a certain part of his body.
Needless when Ryan was implicated, his time in TNA was done and his basically been blackballed from all major wrestling promotions, which makes this match between Ryan (dressed like a sleazy substitute teacher) and the future Jake Something all the more difficult to watch.
The action was by the numbers and lasted almost eleven minutes not to mention it saw Ryan picking up the win…moving on.
#4. The Eight Team Elimination Challenge (Rebellion 2022)
The 2020’s have been on and off for IMPACT/TNA’s tag team division with several teams like The ABC, The North, Subculture, The Motor City Machine Guns and The Grizzled Young Vets being highlights in the division.
On the other hand, there were teams who never became champions but fans wanted them to like Rich Swann and Willie Mack, then there were those who had underwelming tag title reigns like The Kingdom, Violent By Design plus Heath and Rhino and then there were teams no one watched to see as champions again case in point The Good Brothers.
So with all that said, the company decided to thrown those teams and few others into the first and only eight team elimination challenge with The Major Players eliminating the thrown together team of Jordynne Grace and W. Morrissey, The Good Bros eliminating most the competitors in the match…because that’s what fans wanted to see and the final two teams ended up being Heath and Rhino versus Violent By Design with VBD retaining their titles.
The match took an ludicrous 32 minutes but if felt like an hour and it only showed how lackluster the tag division was at the time despite all the talent that were involved.
#3. Johnny Impact vs. Brian Cage (Rebellion 2019)
Well this fell apart really quick…
Brian Cage and Johnny Impact’s second outing for the IMPACT world Championship was going great with the fans enjoying every bit of the action but then things got terrifying when Impact hit a spanish fly off the entrance ramp onto the floor, seriously injuring Brian Cage’s back.
This led to the wrestlers and special guest referee, Lance Storm having to rush to the finish as Cage could barely be able to hit any of his moves without exacerbating the injury and this led to a lot for run-ins and a ref bump being added into the mix.
Cage was able to secure the win and become the new world champion only to have Big Mike Elgin come in and hit him with an Elgin…Because apparently Cage’s back didn’t go through enough punishment.
#2. Ken Shamrock vs. Sami Callihan (Rebellion 2020: Part 1)
Poor Sami Callihan could buy himself at win at Rebellion as his suffered loss after loss at TNA’s annual April event, but this might be the worse.
Callihan battled former NWA and Intercontinental Champion, Ken Shamrock who was still riding high from his shocking 2019 return to wrestling.
The main event of Rebellion 2020 Night One, wasn’t the worse Cinematic match to happen at the time but it also wasn’t great as seeing 50 something year old Ken Shamrock get the better of Sami Callihan borders on disbelief even for pro wrestling standards, plus Sami also turns on his boys in oVe for some unknown reasons in the middle of the match.
Then the audio gets cut out, “great stuff” before the match takes place in a parking lot where Shamrock beats Sami via technical knockout; It’s easily one of the worst main events in the show’s history, but it’s not the worst match to place at Rebellion that would be….
#1. Scarlett Bordeaux vs. Rohit Raju (Rebellion 2019)
The first Rebellion event also gave us two of the worst matches in the show’s history; While the Cage/Impact match was bad due to the injury, this match was bad in general.
First off, the storyline going into this was very outdated with the male wrestler being misogynistic to the female wrestler which seems completely out of place in IMPACT even in 2019.
The second, the match nearly didn’t happen because Rohit was almost fired by the higher ups at Anthem Sports and Entertainment because Raju and Scarlett were engaging in a war of words on Twitter but no one explained to Anthem that: “It was a work, bro”.
And third, the match itself was nothing special which made it all the more worse when you consider that this was Scarlett’s only pay-per-view match in the company (not including any Knockouts Knockdown shows) as she and her boyfriend, Killer Kross would be gone before the end of the year.
Thank god, Rohit was able to salvage his career with an incredible run as X Division champion during the pandemic because this match and the stop/start booking of the Desi Hit Squad could’ve left him becoming getting his walking papers sooner than he did.
And that’s my list, what do you think is the worst match to take place at Rebellion? Leave your thoughts down below in the comment section.
Be sure to follow Lace ‘Em Up on Twitter @laceemupoffice You can follow me also on Twitter @hakeemfullerton and I’ll see you in the next article.
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