Impact Wrestling Under Pressure


Under Pressure was a special episode of Impact! produced by Impact Wrestling, which was taped on April 24, 2018 and April 25, 2018 at the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida and aired on May 31, 2018.
Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Austin Aries defeated defending champion Pentagón Jr. to win the Impact World Championship. On the undercard, Su Yung defeated Allie in a Last Rites match to win the Knockouts Championship and Brian Cage defeated Dezmond Xavier to become the #1 contender for the X Division Championship while Eli Drake took on Scott Steiner and Madison Rayne faced Tessa Blanchard.

Event

Preliminary matches

The event kicked off with a match between Scott Steiner and Eli Drake. Steiner applied a Steiner Recliner to Drake but Drake powered out of the move and bailed out to the ring. Drake then hit Steiner with a chair while the referee was thrown away by Steiner and then Drake pinned Steiner for the win.
Next, Madison Rayne took on Tessa Blanchard. Rayne countered a hammerlock DDT by Blanchard into a cradle for the win.
Later, Brian Cage took on Dezmond Xavier to determine the #1 contender for the X Division Championship. Xavier nailed a Final Flash to Cage but Cage kicked out at one count and then delivered a Drill Claw to Xavier for the win.
The penultimate match of the event was a Last Rites match, in which Su Yung defended the Knockouts Championship against Allie. Near the end of the match, Allie delivered a Best Superkick Ever to Yung into the coffin and tried to close the coffin but Yung prevented it from being closed and applied a mandible claw to knock her out and closed her into the coffin.

Main event match

In the main event, Pentagón Jr. defended the World Championship against Austin Aries. The match ended in a double count-out after Aries countered a plancha into a hurricanrana attempt by Pentagón into a Last Chancery outside the ring. Aries demanded the match to be restarted to get a decisive winner and Pentagón agreed. Pentagón executed a Fear Factor to Aries on the apron knocking both men onto the floor and the match ended in a double count-out again. Pentagón demanded the match to be resumed and then Aries hit a low blow and a brainbuster to Pentagón to win the title.

Reception

Larry Csonka of 411 Mania rated Under Pressure 7.5 and wrote "The show started off badly with the Drake vs. Steiner match, but once you get past that, we have a good wrestling show overall. Drake hopefully has a new direction, Madison Rayne appears to be a player again in the knockouts division, Cage continues to roll and will challenge for the X-Division title, Su Yung is the undead queen of the knockouts, and heel Aries sits atop the mountain once again as world champion." He criticized the opening match and wrote "the rest of the show is well worth your time."

Results