The year 2020 was a polarizing time, not only was it a election year but there was a global health crisis by way of the COVID-19 Pandemic which led numerous deaths and forced many events and businesses to close up.
As you can imagine, this greatly affected the world of professional wrestling with one of those company’s being IMPACT Wrestling who were looking to have another big show on PPV until those plans were drastically changed.
From planned matches being scrapped to new stars joining the promotion to a proposed idea for a certain world title…IMPACT’s second annual Rebellion event had a lot of things going on, so let’s talk about it.
Welcome to Distortion Media and here are 10 Interesting Facts About Rebellion 2020.
10. The Original Venue For Rebellion
One day after their rather tumultuous Hard To Kill PPV, IMPACT Wrestling announced via it’s Twitter account that Rebellion 2020 would be taking place in New York which would’ve been a first for the company since Bound For Glory 2018.
Tickets were soon being advertised for Terminal 5 which was set to be the venue for the event, however when COVID-19 made it’s way stateside that idea was shelved with the company offering refunds to those who had bought a ticket.
Instead, the show would be taking place in Skyway Studios located in Nashville, Tennessee which was just one of a few states that allowed events to still operate albeit under a handful of restrictions.
IMPACT would not return to New York for a major event until 2022.
9. First Two Night Event in Company History
Due to plans being changed, wrestlers not wanting to work for health concerns and international travel being almost impossible it’s no surprise that wrestling companies had to shake up their original ideas.
An example of this is the WWE, who had Wrestlemania 36 broken up into two shows which has become the norm for the company for their biggest event of the year. IMPACT decided to follow suit and booked Rebellion to be a two night event with both shows airing as episodes rather than pay-per-views and they would air an episode one week with the next one the following week.
Rebellion 2020 marks the first time a major IMPACT/TNA event was broken into two nights…or weeks which wouldn’t happen again until Emergence the following month.
8. No Tag Team or Knockouts Title Matches on the Card
One of bigger odyssey of this event is that it’s only one to not have the tag team or Knockouts titles at stake with reigning champions, Ethan Page and Josh Alexander aka The North being forced to stay home due to travel restrictions.
Jordynne Grace was the Knockout Champion at the time and had gotten into a feud with Madison Rayne which was leading up to a Knockouts Lethal Lockdown match at the ironically named ‘Lockdown’ event which was set to air not long before Rebellion…But you guessed it, plans changed.
While Page and Alexander had to stay in Canada due to travel restrictions, it’s unclear why Grace wasn’t able to compete, but regardless the Knockouts Lethal Lockdown match and any proposed matches for Grace at Rebellion never came to light with two hastily thrown together knockouts matches being put on the show.
7. Crazzy Steve Re-Signed During the Event
Steven Scott better known as Crazzy Steve was a mainstay on TNA programming from 2014-17 which saw him play a stereotypical silent clown before joining Rosemary and Abyss to form Decay in 2016 and winning the tag team titles before departing the company in April of 2017.
Fast forward three years and one day later, Crazzy Steve would re-emerged as a mystery partner for Rhino and Tommy Dreamer during Rebellion Night One’s opening six man tag team match.
Not long after this match, it was revealed by the company that Steve had re-signed with them and despite some stop/start booking over the next several years, Steve would go on to have success by winning his first singles title in a major promotion in early 2024 at the Hard To Kill pre show.
6. Kylie & Bey Signed with IMPACT in Advance
IMPACT’s resident psycho clown wasn’t the only person to appear for the company around this time as names like Tasha Steelz, Kimber Lee and Neveah Crist also became fixtures on IMPACT programming during the pandemic.
Two other names that became a part of the company during the pandemic era were Kylie Rae and Chris Bey; Kylie Rae, had previously debuted in IMPACT as part of the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at Bound For Glory 2019 with many unclear if she had signed with the company or not.
It wouldn’t be until March of 2020 when fans got their answer as ‘Smiley Kylie’ announced during a backstage segment that she had signed a long term deal with IMPACT Wrestling.
Las Vegas native and independent wrestler, Chris Bey also appeared in IMPACT prior to his signing in February of 2020 as he exclusively took part in matches on Xplosion where he stepping in the ring with the Rascalz, Jakes Crist and Daga and even competed against future AEW star Peter Avalon and Luchasasurus also on Xplosion.
At Rebellion 2020 Night Two Chris Bey (much like Kylie Rae) competed in the opening contest (and like Kylie) Bey came out with the win; While Kylie Rae’s run in the company was short lived, Chris Bey stuck around and won the X Division title, become a member of the Bullet Club and become a two time Tag Team champion with Ace Austin.
5. Rebellion’s First X Division Title Change
Speaking of Ace Austin, Rebellion 2020 had only one title match and that was ‘The One True Ace’ Ace Austin putting his X Division title on the line against Willie Mack.
It ended up being the longest match across both shows with the bout lasting 13 minutes and 25 seconds with the finish seeing Willie Mack win his first X Division Championship.
Despite the X Division title being defending at every Rebellion event going forward, Mack’s victory over Ace currently remains the only time the X Division title changed hands at the PPV.
4. Tessa vs. Elgin vs. Edwards
Tessa Blanchard’s win over Sami Callihan at Hard To Kill 2020 was shall we say was…divisive among the wrestling community with the outrage only intensifying a day earlier over alleged issues between Tessa and a female wrestler called La Rosa Negra turned nasty.
IMPACT pressed on and made Tessa the first every female world champion in their history, but the allegations were still in the headlines until the pandemic became the biggest talking point in wrestling not named WWE and AEW.
In the lead up to Rebellion all signs pointed to Tessa defending her title against Eddie Edwards and Michael Elgin in a triple threat main event match, but as we’ve already discussed throughout this article plans were changed with both Edwards and Blanchard being unable to appear for the event.
3. Tessa Blanchard’s Final “Appearance”
Although she couldn’t be at the event in person, the company allowed former broadcaster Josh Matthews to conducted online interviews with both Eddie Edwards and Tessa Blanchard.
While the interviews went on without a hitch, Tessa’s zoom like chat with Josh ended up being the last time, IMPACT fans got to see the Third Generation star appeared on their screens.
While it hasn’t been confirmed by either the company or Tessa, the story has it that Blanchard was suppose to return to help make promotional content that would be used to hype up Slammiversary, but this didn’t happen either due to Tessa refusing to return as her contract was almost up or due to the fact she was set to get married to fellow wrestler, Daga in Mexico.
In the end, the company terminated their business with Tessa and the outside of her work in CMLL and a failed attempt at a comeback with Women of Wrestling…Ms. Blanchard has fallen off the radar when it comes to mainstream wrestling.
2. Ken Shamrock’s First IMPACT PPV Win
The weekly PPV’s which ran from 2002-04 in the early days of TNA don’t count for this entry…besides many of those shows aren’t exactly what you would call pay-per-view quality.
Ken Shamrock’s return to professional wrestling in 2019 was quite a surprise to many as the former MMA and WWE star had left the wrestling business behind him following his short return to TNA in 2004. While his in-ring work at this time was terrible, it certainly wasn’t going to named match of the night by any fans.
Still, Shamrock committed and wrestled a number of IMPACT’s well known stars including Sami Callihan, who Shamrock defeated via technical knockout in the main event of Rebellion 2020 Night One and also was his first win on an IMPACT Wrestling PPV…again if you don’t count those weekly PPV’s.
1. Moose and the TNA World Championship
The main event of Rebellion 2020 Night Two saw Michael Elgin taking on Shawn Hernandez and Moose who dressed like the Ultimate Warrior and come out the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a three way match which was won by the former Ring Of Honor and NFL superstar.
Confusion arose when Moose randomly came out with the old TNA title even though the belt had been defunct following Slammiversary 2017 as part of the GFW/Anthem takeover.
It wouldn’t be until several years later when it was revealed that the company was planning to do a king of the mountain match for the vacant TNA world title at the company’s one night only ‘TNA: There’s No Place Like Home’ which would’ve happened around WrestleMania weekend.
Once the pandemic entered the United States, all prior plans were cut and the company decided to have Moose just show up onscreen with the belt whilst proclaiming himself the TNA World Champion and “defending” the title over the next several months; The belt wouldn’t officially be recognized as a legitimate title again until February 23rd 2021, just in time for Moose to lose the belt to Rich Swann at Sacrifice in a winner takes all match.
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