10 Best Impact Face/Heel Turns Vol.1
Photo Credit: IMPACT Wrestling
Outside Impact Wrestling. A long time "Jerichoholic", Mick Foley, Kurt Angle & Hardys fan, pop open a little bit of the Bubbly, read what's being written by me with an open perspective & enjoy.
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6. Austin Aries (The Greatest No Sell That Ever Lived)
6 time X-Division champion, 3 time Impact World champion. Austin Aries returned under the GFW era at a time when former World champion & soon to be rival Alberto El Patron was still serving suspension. Aries returned & beat current champion Eli Drake after winding him up, forcing Eli to make the snap decision to put the belt on the line only to receive a Brainbuster & lose the belt after a failed attempt to take advantage of a blindsided attack, Aries returned as a no nonsense Face with a huge chip & 4 world titles from other promotions on his shoulders.
Not long afterwards Matt Sydal would lose the Impact Grand Championship to Aries, giving the Belt Collector an astonishing 6 titles from 5 individual companies across the globe. After taking care of any further matches between Sydal or Eli Drake, Alberto El Patron returned & Impact’s biggest clash of egos began. Exchanging pathetic tit for tat promos & insults between each other, Aries & El Patron rarely faced off, building towards a tag team match at Impact vs. Lucha Underground (El Patron & Aries vs. Pentagon & Fenix). But, Alberto El Patron would once again end up falling out with Ed Norton, Don Callis & Scott D’More, through his own actions in & outside of Impact Wrestling. No showing at the Impact vs. Lucha Underground special, Austin Aries would challenge Pentagon & Fenix to a triple threat match at Rebellion after the show stealing match between all 3 as Impact vs. LU’s new main event. Rebellion had finally returned as a quarterly pay per view in 2018.
Austin Aries would turn Heel on May 31st delivering a low blow to Pentagon in order to regain the World Title. He would then go onto unify the Grand Championship & head into Slammiversary to beat Moose, followed shortly by Eddie Edwards this time with assistance from Killer Kross. Moose would turn on Eddie Edwards shortly afterwards & the trio of Kross, Moose & Aries would turn their attention to Johnny Impact at Bound For Glory.
Aries’ Heel role would shine through by now, for better & for worse. What started as kayfabe, “work” insults between the two quickly escalated into Aries getting nastier & more personal, turning the focus onto Taya Valkyrie which would end in Johnny Impact attacking Aries at Abyss’ Hall of Fame ceremony. On the night of Bound For Glory after a very heated contest, Aries would no sell Impact’s finish to the match, standing up, walking straight up the ramp & giving everyone the middle finger along the way out. Aries would arrive at the next set of tapings only to be turned away by Petey Williams (who is also one of the members of Impact’s production team). Austin Aries’ contract expired soon afterwards. And in all honesty, he’s not missed in my eyes, I know others think otherwise.
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