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Huge Title Changes, World Titles Unified at IMPACT Wrestling Sacrifice

Rich Swann Moose IMPACT Wrestling Sacrifice card

St. Patrick’s Day weekend was highlighted by a big pay-per-view event hosted by IMPACT Wrestling. The main event of this show saw the official unification of the two top titles of the promotion. Also, while Fire N Flava and Deonna Purrazzo were able to successfully defend their Knockouts Tag Team and World Championships respectively,  TJP was not as lucky. In probably the most shocking title change of the night, The Good Brothers lost their IMPACT World Tag Team Championships to FinJuice. Here are the big title changes from IMPACT Wrestling Sacrifice 2021.

Ace Austin Wins X-Division Championship

Finally, after months of having to fight obstacles and climb the mountain, Ace Austin has truly done the inevitable at IMPACT Wrestling Sacrifice. TJP initially won the X-Division Championship last December as his masked alter-ego Manik, successfully getting in the head of his rival Rohit Raju to steal his title. He has truly taken on all comers, defeating the likes of Josh Alexander, Chris Bey, and Raju. However, the fate of the “Inevitable” Ace Austin was predestined. After a high-flying, technical masterpiece by both competitors, including a crafty act of playing possum by TJP at one point, Ace Austin used the Fold to defeat TJP and win the X-Division Championship for the second time in his career.

Austin won the IMPACT X-Division Championship for the first time in 2019 after winning a five-way ladder match at that year Bound for Glory. He would hold the title until losing to Willie Mack at Rebellion 2020. Following this, he challenged for the IMPACT World Championship on multiple occasions but was unsuccessful. Then, earlier this year, with the help of his powerhouse heavy Madman Fulton, Austin was able to regain momentum and win the Super X-Cup. In his climb to the top of the division, he managed to defeat Cousin Jake, Suicide, and Blake Christian. The era of Austin has begun once again.

FinJuice Win IMPACT World Tag Team Championship

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson debuted in the IMPACT Zone at Bound for Glory 2020 last summer, quickly becoming the top tag team in the tournament. After the Motor City Machine Guns ended the record-breaking IMPACT World Tag Team Championship run of The North, the latter team was able to regain their titles only to drop them shortly after to the former WWE Superstars, now officially christened The Good Brothers. They held the tag team titles for 120 days, even representing the company with their titles on AEW television.

This makes it all the more shocking that the team of David Finlay and Juice Robinson beat The Good Brothers to win their IMPACT World Tag Team Titles at Sacrifice. The duo had only just debuted in IMPACT last month, making the jump from Japan to represent NJPW in their blossoming partnership. They initially began teaming with and “buddying up” with Gallows and Anderson. However, tensions ran wild, and The Good Brothers decided to defend their IMPACT World Championships against the NJPW stars, a decision they would come to regret. Over a year after losing their IWGP World Tag Team Championships, FinJuice are once again tag team champions.

It will be interesting to see how the Good Brothers will react to this, as well as whether or not FinJuice will bring the titles to NJPW or even AEW.

Rich Swann Unifies IMPACT and TNA World Heavyweight Championships at Sacrifice, Will Move On to Defend Against Kenny Omega

The main promotion around this pay-per-view event, as of this past week on IMPACT, was the announcement by Vice President Scott D’Amore that the main event of Sacrifice would also be the unification of the companies two world championships. Rich Swann has been the main, reigning champion of the company, holding the IMPACT World Championship since the summer of last year. Moose, however, only just became a sanctioned world champion after a year of holding the physical TNA World Heavyweight Championship. This led to D’Amore finally proclaiming him champion.

Moose was not satisfied with this, however, and has been relentless over the last couple of months in his hunt to gain Swann’s world championship. After months of feuding but never fighting one-on-one, the match was finally signed for the main event of Sacrifice, with the biggest twist on the match yet to come. Not only would the winner of this main event hold both the IMPACT and TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but they would also be scheduled to challenge AEW World Champion Kenny Omega in a title versus title match at Rebellion 2021.

Moose went into this match as the favorite to win but was upset by the ever-resilient Rich Swann. The latter had been through many hardships over the past year, including almost retiring last summer due to brutal attacks by the returning Eric Young. However, Swann has overcome every obstacle and beaten every challenger on his journey to becoming the unified IMPACT/TNA World Heavyweight Champion. The match was brutal, to say the least, including an incredible cutter from Rich Swann to Moose as the latter performer jumped off the top rope.

Rich Swann does not have long to celebrate the biggest win of his career follow IMPACT Wrestling Sacrifice, as his sights must now be focused on arguably one of the most dominant champions in wrestling today. While Swann could be content holding two titles, he will look to win a third on April 24th in a match against Kenny Omega that is sure to be one of the most exciting main events all year.

IMPACT Wrestling Sacrifice 2021 is available for streaming on Fite TV and IMPACT Plus.

Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch IMPACT Wrestling on Tuesday nights on AXS TV and Twitch.TV as well as all the time on IMPACT Plus.

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Brady Terry

Brady Terry

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