The 2020 Victory Road was a professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling. The event took place on October 3, 2020 at the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and aired exclusively on Impact Plus. It was the 11th event in the Victory Road chronology.
Nine matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Eric Young successfully defended the Impact World Championship against Eddie Edwards. In other prominent matches, Deonna Purrazzo successfully defended the Impact Knockouts Championship against Susie, while Rohit Raju lost by count out against Willie Mack to retain the Impact X Division Championship.
Production Background Victory Road is an annual professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling). The first one was held in November 2004, but was replaced by Unbreakable in 2005. Victory Road continued to be a regular monthly pay-per-view event for TNA until 2012, when the promotion discontinued most of its monthly pay-per-views in 2013 in favor of the new pre-recorded One Night Only events. It was revived in 2014 as a "One Night Only" event, a special episode of Impact's weekly television series in 2017, and in 2019 as a monthly special for Impact Plus. On September 23, 2020, Impact announced that Victory Road would return as an Impact Plus Monthly Special on October 3.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Impact had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set at Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee beginning in April.
Storylines
The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
On the September 15 episode of Impact!, Impact Executive Vice President Scott D'Amore announced that Eric Young, who defeated Eddie Edwards during the September 1 episode to win the Impact World Championship for a second time, would defend the title against Rich Swann, who Young severely injured during a Five-way elimination match for the title at Slammiversary and caused him to announce his (kayfabe) retirement, at Bound for Glory. During the following episode, an irate Young randomly attacked The Deaners (Cody Deaner and Cousin Jake) whilst they were making their way to the ring. During the attack, D'Amore came to the ring to plead with Young to stop, only to get pushed into a turnbuckle by Young. As Young had D'Amore pinned in the corner of the ring, Edwards, who was limping as a result of a submission move performed during his defeat, attacked Young, forcing him to flee the ring. After the attack, an angry Edwards confronted D'Amore backstage asking why Swann was getting a title shot over him. D'Amore then announced that Edwards would challenge Young for the title at Victory Road, meaning the winner would defend the title against Swann at Bound for Glory.
On August 18, during Night 1 of Emergence, Rohit Raju defeated Chris Bey and TJP in a three-way match to win the Impact X Division Championship. On the September 15 episode of Impact!, he had Bey, TJP and Trey compete in a three-way match next week to determine who will face him for the X Division Championship immediately afterwards, which Trey won but Raju quickly defeated him in his first title defense. On the September 29 episode of Impact!, Raju announced that he will start the Defeat Rohit Challenge at Victory Road, giving the opportunity to anyone he has not defeated before.
On July 18, at Slammiversary, Kylie Rae won a Gauntlet for the Gold match to become number one contender for the Impact Knockouts Championship, and on that same night, Deonna Purrazzo defeated Jordynne Grace to win said Knockouts title for the first time. On the September 22 episode of Impact!, Rae announced that she was challenging Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship at Bound for Glory. The following week, Purrazzo was told that she was going to defend her title against Susie at Victory Road. During that same episode, Susie was concerned that her friend Rae would be mad if she won the Knockouts Championship, but Rae said she would rather face her for the title at Bound for Glory than a bully like Purrazzo.
On the September 1 episode of Impact!, Jordynne Grace interrupted Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo's Black Tie Affair, congratulating her for pushing her to the limits during both of their title matches, but said that her reign would not last long. Tenille Dashwood made her return to Impact and announced that she was coming after Purrazzo's title. Grace told her that she was not in line for a title opportunity because she never shows up for work. The two would have a match on the September 22 episode of Impact!, with Dashwood winning after a distraction from her photographer Kaleb with a K. The following week, Grace would win the rematch after Kaleb's distraction failed and she made Dashwood submit. Afterwards, Kaleb challenged Grace to another match on behalf of Dashwood at Victory Road.
On the August 11 episode of Impact!, Brian Myers made his in-ring return for the company, answering Eddie Edwards' open challenge for the Impact World Championship but was defeated. He went on to face Willie Mack in a trio of matches during Night 2 of Emergence and the September 8 and 15 episodes of Impact!, winning 2-1. The following weeks saw Myers butting heads with Tommy Dreamer, leading to the latter to challenge him at Victory Road.
On the July 21 episode of Impact!, The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) defeated The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander), and won the Impact World Tag Team Championship for a second time. On August 18, during Night 1 of Emergence, they defeated them to retain their titles. On the September 8 episode of Impact!, after the Guns had another successful title defense against The Rascalz (Dez and Wentz), The North (along with Ace Austin and Madman Fulton) attacked them, before The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) came in to help out with the former. On September 30, Impact announced that The Motor City Machine Guns will defend their World Tag Team titles against The Good Brothers, The North, and Austin and Fulton in a four-way match at Bound for Glory. They added that a member from each team (Austin, Anderson, Shelley and Alexander) will face each other in a free-for-all at Victory Road.
Heath Miller, formerly known as Heath Slater in WWE, made his Impact debut at Slammiversary as simply "Heath", saying he was here for an open challenge. Rohit Raju interrupted him by saying it had already passed and that he won't be in the World Title match, resulting in Heath beating Raju up and throwing him outside the ring, revealing his "free agent" t-shirt towards the end. Later in the night, Heath caught up with his friend Rhino before being informed by Impact EVP Scott D'Amore that he doesn't work for them and must leave the premises. On the July 28 episode of Impact!, Heath accepted Moose's invitation to challenge him for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship next week, and was told by D'Amore that he will be added to the Impact roster if he won his match. The following week, Heath got hit with a low blow by Moose as the referee was down, and lost his match. Heath then started the "#Heath4IMPACT" campaign to gain support from social media who want to see him join the company, including celebrity endorsements from David Hasselhoff, Flava Flav, Nancy Kerrigan and Chuck Norris. On the September 29 episode of Impact!, after being jumped by Reno Scum (Adam Thornstowe and Luster the Legend) who retrieved the wad of cash they stole from Hernandez, Rhino went to D'Amore demanding a tag team match between him and Heath against Reno Scum, resulting in D'Amore making it an unsanctioned match because of Heath not being on the roster.
Event Other on-screen personnelCommentatorsJosh MathewsMadison RayneRing announcerDavid PenzerRefereesBrandon TolleDaniel SpencerInterviewerGia Miller
Preliminary matches The opening match of the event was a tag team bout between The Rascalz (Dez and Wentz) and XXXL (Acey Romero and Larry D). Wentz utilizes his speed to dodge Romero early in the match, managing to send him to the outside. Dez tags in and dives on Romero who takes him out, and continues to get demolished in the ring by Larry D, who lands a falcon arrow for a two count. Romero tags in to deliver a back suplex on Dez who kicks out at two, leaving him open for Larry D to tag in and grind his boot on Dez's neck that leads to a powerbomb. Dez makes the tag to Wentz, who gives Larry D numerous kicks and a standing moonsault for the cover, but Romero breaks up the pin. Dez tags back in but gets sandwiched by both Larry D and Romero, the former hitting a running splash on him, but Wentz interrupts the cover. Wentz hits the dive onto Romero on the outside, but gets taken out by Larry D with a clothesline in the ring, who in turn gets leveled by Dez who then hits the "Final Flash" on him to give the Rascalz the win.
The second match was Brian Myers versus Tommy Dreamer. The two go back-and-forth with arm drag takedowns into armbars onto each other, with Myers sending Dreamer shoulder first into the ring post, and hitting a suplex for one. Myers continuously drives his knee into Dreamer's back and applies the chin lock, loses control after getting caught in an inside cradle for a two count, but regains the hold afterwards. Dreamer fights back after avoiding Myers' leg sweep, hits him with a baseball slide to the outside, and lands a diving clothesline off the apron. Back in the ring, Dreamer gets an elbow shot on Myers and plants him with a sitout powerbomb for two, then Myers comes back with a double-underhook DDT for the cover, but Dreamer breaks it by reaching the ropes. Myers misses the charge and gets hit with a cutter by Dreamer who gets the near fall. Myers takes out Dreamer and heads to the top rope, only to get flipped off and onto the mat, leaving him open to a DDT by Dreamer but stops the cover by putting his foot on the ropes. Dreamer goes to the top, but Myers knocks the ropes to send him back down to the mat, and catches him with a running clothesline to win the match.
Next, X Division Champion Rohit Raju entered the ring to start the Defeat Rohit Challenge with his title on the line. Willie Mack appears to accept his challenge and makes his way to the ring. After a lockup and being pushed into the corner, Raju gets a side headlock on Mack, but gets knocked down after attempting a shoulder tackle. Mack hits Raju with a spinning arm drag and a hurricanrana that sends him to the outside, who then returns to the ring to trade shots with him, but goes outside again after taking a spinning heel kick. Raju fights back after sending Mack to the ropes and hitting him a neckbreaker and a series of elbow shots, but only gets consecutive two counts. Mack gets Raju with an inverted atomic drop followed by a clothesline and a back elbow, leading to a standing moonsault for two. Raju escapes the stunner attempt and applies the crossface on Mack in the center of the ring, but he powers out to only get hit with a running knee shot and covered for a two count. Raju climbs to the top rope and attempts the double stomp, but is met with a back elbow and an exploder suplex from Mack for a near fall. The two then collide with each other in the corner, causing Raju to roll to the outside and get counted out, allowing Mack to win the match but still retain his title.