NJPW star KUSHIDA will make his in-ring debut for Impact Wrestling Thursday against former Impact World Champion Rich Swann in a first-time-ever match.

Swann asked for a World title match last week, but Impact VP Scott D'Amore offered the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion instead as a way for Swann to earn it. Swann also held the same title while in WWE.

Speaking of the World Champion, Josh Alexander will be in non-title action as he takes on Shera. Alexander will defend against Alex Shelley at next month's Emergence.

Honor No More and Bullet Club continue their recent feud as HNM leader and former World Champion Eddie Edwards battles new BC member and former X-Division Champion Ace Austin.

Former X-Division foes Laredo Kid & Rich Swann will team up to take on the unusual pair of Johnny Swinger & Zicky Dice.

Killer Kelly will make her return to Impact after a long absence against Tiffany Nieves while the BTI pre-show will see Vincent vs. Bhupinder Gujjar.

Bhupinder Gujjar defeated Vincent (w/Maria Kanellis) on the BTI pre-show

Digital Media champion Brian Meyers did commentary during the match. After the match, Heath came out of nowhere and laid Vincent out.

The opening video featured last week's main event featuring the #1 contender's match between Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin of the Motor City Machine Guns.

Eddie Edwards (w/Kenny King) defeated Ace Austin (w/Chris Bey)

On top of the long standing history between these two men, it was faction versus faction warfare in this match.

After both men attempted to gain the upper hand early on, Austin was quick to use his card between the fingers of Edwards to take control of the match. When the match spilled to the outside, King got involved and Edwards took control of the momentum of the match.

Austin stunned Edwards and sent him to the outside before landing a twisting moonsault over the top rope followed by a diving legdrop when Edwards was back on the inside. Edwards managed to follow up with the Backpack Stunner but couldn't land the Boston Knee Party.

King once again got involved in the match and Bey took exception and both men were booted from ringside. As King and Bey were brawling up the ramp, Austin nailed a spinning kick on Edwards but failed to land the Fold as Edwards caught him an overhead suplex into the turnbuckles as we headed into commercial.

We're back from commercial and Edwards is laying a beating on Austin in the middle of the ring. Edwards attempted multiple pin attempts but Austin continued to kick out and Edwards became frustrated. Austin attempted a comeback but Edwards was now in that zone to win at all costs and attempted another Boston Knee Party but missed once again.

Austin nailed a kick but missed the Fold and Edwards landed a Tiger Driver but only managed a two count. Edwards followed it up with the Die Hard Driver and that was all she wrote for Austin as the leader of Honor No More celebrated his hard fought victory.

- Backstage, Gia Miller confronted Heath and his actions on taking out every member of Honor No More. Heath stated that because HNM hurt his friends, he was going to do the same to every member of their group.

- Gia Miller is with Impact world champion Josh Alexander. Alexander reflected on his recent matches and his upcoming match against Shera later tonight before being interrupted by Alex Shelley. Shelley talked about their upcoming championship match at Emergence and wished him success tonight.

Laredo Kid & Trey Miguel defeated Johnny Swinger & Zicky Dice

Miguel and Dice started the match and commentary pointed out that Dice was still wearing his fanny pack. Kid was tagged in and after Dice and Swinger collected their thoughts outside of the ring, they dug into their fanny packs and both men were now wearing half-masks but who was who? Comedy at it's finest people!

The great plan by Swinger and Dice was completely unsuccessful as Dice was nailed with a Meteora by Miguel followed by a Frog Splash by Kid and Dice was on the wrong end of the 1-2-3.

- Backstage, Brian Myers was confronted once again by Bhupinder Gujjar. Before Gujjar could say too much, Crazzy Steve and Black Taurus of Decay interrupted. Steve noted that Myers was going to lose his title against Taurus next week as a puzzled Gujjar took it all in. Meyers concluded the segment by stating that he never says no to a challenge.

Tiffany Nieves defeated Jada Stone

Tasha Steelz, accompanied by Savannah Evans, joined commentary prior to the match. The announcers noted that Louisville was home to Ohio Valley Wrestling and both Nieves and Stone were part of OVW.

It was a quick match between Nieves and Stone with Nieves picking up the win using the ropes.

After the match, we finally saw the debut of Killer Kelly!

Kelly came down to the ring and laid out both Nieves and Stone, doing it with a smile on her face as Steelz was freaking out on commentary questioning who Killer Kelly was.

- A backstage promo aired featuring Violent By Design sitting in a stairwell. Eric Young stated that they needed to take out the Motor City Machine Guns followed by KUSHIDA.

- A video package aired focusing on the greatness of Alex Shelley leading into his world championship match at Emergence featuring comments from Chris Sabin, Johnny Gargano, KUSHIDA, Sami Callihan, Scott D'Amore and Trey Miguel.

Josh Alexander defeated Shera (w/Raj Singh) in a non-title match

It was like two bulls battling in the beginning as both men were looking to establish dominance with their power. After Alexander had Shera rocking on the ropes, it took three clothesline attempts to send him to the outside.

Alexander followed it up with a running crossbody as Shera was sitting on the ring apron. Singh attempted to get involved but it was all Alexander as he sent Shera back into the ring, locked in the ankle lock and picked up the submission victory looking strong going into Emergence against Alex Shelley next month.

- Backstage, Gia Miller was with Moose. Gia questioned Moose on whether he had an alliance with Steve Maclin and Moose told her that was ridiculous and denied any loyalty to Maclin before taking off.

- Backstage, Honor No More was upset about the continuous attacks by Heath and ran into Scott D'Amore. They asked D'Amore what he was going to do about it and also demanded a world tag team title match. Before D'Amore could properly respond, Maria started yelling from a distance. HNM took off to find out what happened but Edwards stayed behind. D'Amore looked at Edwards, wished him luck with this crew and went into his office as Edwards slammed his fist in the door and stated that this wasn't over.

- Backstage, VXT was planning a party before Jessicka interrupted. Jessicka stated that she liked to party before Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie arrived on scene. The Knockouts world tag team champions reminded Jessicka on who their enemy was coming up at Emergence before dragging her away.

- Raj Singh was in the ring complaining about Alexander's victory over Shera and stated he wasn't leaving and wanted justice. The lights then went out and when they came back on, Sami Callihan was in the ring. Callihan nailed Singh with his Cactus Driver '97 before grabbing the mic and stated that he was coming after Moose and Maclin.

- A promo aired for the Ric Flair "Moment of the Week" showcasing his promo against Jay Lethal on Impact Wrestling back in 2010.

- Backstage, Gia Miller was with Mia Yim. Yim stated that she was going to come out of Emergence as the new Knockouts world champion before the video went faulty.

- Commentary apologized for the faulty video and now they were off the air. When the feed continued seconds later, Scott D'Amore was seen running down the stairs to the outside of the building. D'Amore confronted Honor No More who at this point were attempting to rip apart the media trailer. D'Amore stated that enough was enough and stated that there would be a 5-on-5 match at Emergence featuring HNM against Bullet Club. If HNM wins, they would get their title shot. If they lose, they must disband forever.

We have a big time matchup coming up right here between two exceptional former cruiserweight champions with some major implications on the line.

As the bell rang, we saw a handshake between the two men. Facing off for the very first time and it was a technical stalemate between KUSHIDA and Swann as both men were looking for the other to make a mistake.

After Swann landed an elbow against the ropes, KUSHIDA countered with two palm strikes sending the former world champion to the outside. KUSHIDA looked like he was about to fly over the ropes but bounced off of them instead before striking a superhero pose in the middle of the ring as we headed to commercial.

We're back from commercial and the debuting KUSHIDA has Swann tied up in the middle of the ring. After Swann escaped, he managed to switch momentum by nailing a running dropkick off of the ropes before soccer kicking the back of KUSHIDA multiple times sending him to the outside.

KUSHIDA countered with chops and Swann missed with one of his own into the ring post. We're back inside the ring and after both men collided in the center of the ring with flying crossbodies, KUSHIDA recovered quickly and Swann soon found himself locked in a Kimura lock by KUSHIDA.

Swann got to the ropes and KUSHIDA continued to focus on the left arm of Swann before Swann was able to make a comeback. Swann missed the Phoenix Splash and KUSHIDA went right back to the left arm of Swann. Swann managed to hit KUSHIDA with a top rope hurricanrana but when we went to follow up by climbing the turnbuckles again, KUSHIDA recovered and caught Swann on the top rope.

KUSHIDA locked in the Hoverboard Lock and sent both himself and Swann crashing down to the mat. KUSHIDA sensing victory was right there, locked in as much pressure with the Hoverboard Lock as he could and Swann had no choice but to tap out giving KUSHIDA a win in his debut match for Impact Wrestling.

Great main event by Impact Wrestling and it'll be interesting to see what plans they have for KUSHIDA. As a Canadian, I would love to see a match featuring KUSHIDA and current X-Division champion Mike Bailey.

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