IMPACT’s Wrestle House 2: Hit or Miss?
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Impact Wrestling editor for #Wrestlebuddy
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Impact Wrestling 1 year ago debuted a show called Wrestle House. It was a reality based show which segmented over multiple Impact weekly episodes where multiple wrestlers were all placed into one house and you just simply see what happens. Wrestle House is always going to be something that splits opinions, you will have many fans who prefer a more old school wrestling, seriousness to the show and feel that this is too off the wall. However you will also have your fans who like a little more freedom in what they watch and enjoy this. Impact realise it’s going to split audiences, but they’re not afraid to go full steam ahead with what they believe in.
Wrestle House 2 had a very different feel than Wrestle House 1, even though it still managed to keep many of the same aspects as it’s predecessor. I myself will admit that I felt on the pessimistic side going into Wrestle House 2, simply due to the changes that they had made. Originally they ran Wrestle House over a period of months with each episode of Impact getting a segment of Wrestle House. We got multiple storylines as well as matches in Wrestle House over these segments. Every wrestler developed their own character and many also came out with more character than they went in with, It was very refreshing and also very progressive.
With Impact changing the way that they would air Wrestle House, from segments on every Impact over a couple of months to one single Impact Wrestling being devoted to Wrestle House 2. I wondered if they’d be able to get as much content into a single 2 hour episode, but my god they managed to. They held just as many matches, some great character development, some incredibly unique and deep stories plus some fantastic production work was put into this from everyone involved. From top to bottom it felt special and was treated that way.
Wrestle House 2 to began in pretty much the perfect way, we had the return of The Minister Father James Mitchell who acted as the voice over for the introduction (Mitchell was surely built to do introductions). This introduction was beautiful also as it took you back 1 year ago to Wrestle House 1 and a few key points that went down during everyone’s time in the house (like The Deaners beer getting stole and many various love relationships). It was here that you really saw the long term story play out.
Wrestle House originally began with Rosemary and John E Bravo, this was another case of love (to a demonic point) until Taya joined the party. With Rosemary disgruntled, she summoned others to create the origins of Wrestle House 1. After all the everything we saw at Wrestle House 1, many relationships, feuds as well as many fights. It all ended with Rosemary and Bravo at the alter on Impact Wrestling for a marriage, but with the black hearted Minister Father James Mitchell in charge, this wouldn’t end clean, and it didn’t. At the wedding we had a lights out and a single gun shot. Bravo, the victim laid there in Dreamers arms with everyone in shock.
After this nightmare, we had some hilarious segments with Dreamer and Acey Romero who investigated the attempted murder. Swinger was suspected however the case was dropped after finding him too stupid to commit the crime, Lawrence D (Larry D) was then questioned and was very close to be acquitted until they found Taya guilty. Since this we saw Impact continue the Wrestle House vibe through Swingers Palace. It was used as a place where matches would again often be set up and the comedy factor would often be incredibly high (with Swinger that’s always a given).
When Impact Wrestling went to Los Angeles however Scott D’Amore announced that he would have to shut down Swingers Palace as Swinger didn’t have legal gambling rites to remain open. At the time this was a shame but this really led into the next chapter and what we saw next. It’s amazing to think that in 1 year we have seen 4 segments that have all now beautifully tied into each other. Wrestle House 1 began it with a love triangle and jealousy with Taya, Rosemary and Bravo. That then led us into the wedding and murder angle, Swinger getting questioned leads to Swingers Palace which then gets closed down to bleed into the story of Wrestle House 2. If you want long term story telling, you have it here.
With all of this happening going into Wrestle House 2 there was certainly a lot a storylines that were set up before the show. The main story was with Johnny Swinger and how he was obviously distressed after loosing Swingers Palace, this also gave him the mind set that maybe a lot of the past choices he’d made were wrong and that now maybe they’re all coming back to bite him. The idea of finding a way to cheer up Swinger and get the old Johnny Swinger back that we all know and love was the main story this time around.
This played into many different angles also as well as many different characters who entered Wrestle House 2 such as The Demon, the returning Larry D as well as Downtown Daddy Brown. Wrestle House 1 did a fantastic job of developing characters and bringing the character out of those wrestlers who seemingly struggled to produce it. Even though Wrestle House 2 was only 2 hours (compared to what the first culminated to), it really had so much colour to it and so many faces managed to jump off the screen in a crowded environment. Everyone got their moment to shine here, the never ending slow motion with Sabin was brilliant, Kalab pretending that he hates Wrestle Hous (when he loved it) was funny and Madison acting as the sensible voice made for a good back down to earth moment.
Another part of Wrestle House is of course the matches, while there was likely more in the first Wrestle House, Impact placed just enough matches into the sequel to make it feel like you got your fix (in fairness their was probably the same number of matches as there are on a regular Impact show). Impact also did well to make the matches have the same feel to the Wrestle House 1 with a goofiness to them, however they kept it fresh by still having a unique looking venue for the ring (reminded me a lot of the Moose EC3 match from BFG 2020), especially for Wrestle House with it being very dark and lifeless. They also added commentary which was a very nice touch and added the smallest detail to the match Nice to see Sinn Bodhi again).
This new format is something that Impact Wrestling should definitely look into keeping, while the original was very entertaining and I myself was a huge fan of it, they have now taken it to that next level. Wrestle House is all about letting yourself go and having a laugh and a bit of fun, there are so many segments in this where you can’t help but chuckle. While it’s a good laugh though it’s also deep and serious at the same time, the segment where the Demon speaks to Swinger hit home hard and that’s a touching moment. Balance is key and I think they found the right balance here.
Plus what’s amazing is while it can seem slightly ridiculous it can also be very subtle at setting things up, It’s what Swingers Palace was always incredible at doing. Who’s to say we don’t see some of these faces go into a feud down the line? Could this be the beginning of the Swingerellas in action? Kaleb vs Sabin is something I’d personally love to see more of, those 2 in the ring and on the mic can flat out go.
Final thing Impact need to be noted on when it comes to Wrestle House 2 is how good the production was. When you look at the constant Chris Sabin entrances, they look brilliant, then the rest of the production around the set, the lighting to make the house look as good as it did. Absolutely fantastic work. You could even go one further and say great work on making the ring look as dark as it did, the team did a great job to make sure there was as little lighting as possible to give it that eerie feel. I’ve been critical of the production team at times, but here they killed it.
All in all Impact are on to something here. Lets see where they go with it next? Previously we got 2 more segments (The Wedding and Swingers Palace) to lead into Wrestle House 2, so lets see what leads us into Wrestle House 3? We could have a very mad 2022 if Impact keep up what we saw at Wrestle House 2. All round thumbs up here.
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Watching it again tonight while I await for Friday’s viewing of this week’s IMPACT. I absolutely loved the return of Wrestle House, it bounced off it’s predecessor brilliantly, especially with Rosemary, Havok, Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus getting that extra kick of character development into some of the funniest moments of Impact Wrestling since Susie & The Deaners vs XXXL last year at the previous Wrestle House.
Johnny Swinger, Bravo, Alisha Edwards returning giving frequent references to previous events, swirling around the Swinger’s Palace aftermath alongside subtle nods to Taya Valkyrie (as Easter Eggs) throughout was just the icing on this packed cake of infinite laughs from start to finish. If you loved Swinger’s Palace, you’ll love this match *Ring bell rings* 😉