Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

#WhoShotBravo?: IMPACT Wrestling Seemingly Headed Toward Murder Mystery

bravo impact

If it’s been said once, it’s been said 1,000 times: wrestling weddings never end well. And I mean never. But on Tuesday night, IMPACT Wrestling took the idea of a wrecked wedding to a whole new level when the wedding between John E. Bravo and Rosemary ended in a shocking, well, murder of the groom.

Yes, you read that right.

Just when Father James Mitchell told Bravo he could kiss his demon bride, the lights went out, two gunshots rang loud, and when the lights came back on, Bravo was shot dead in the middle of the ring. It’s a shame Rosemary’s bestie didn’t warn her of the consequences of getting married in a wrestling ring as no one knows better than Taya just how off the rails wrestling weddings can be. Only, her wedding to Johnny Mundo in Lucha Underground only ended with both bride and groom getting dropped through tables, not murdered…It’s still as unbelievable writing that word now as it was when the episode aired on Tuesday night. John E. Bravo was murdered at his own wedding on IMPACT Wrestling. Tragic.

As the ringside wedding party looked on with a mixture of emotions on their faces, Tommy Dreamer pierced the air with a horrid scream of “NOOOOOOO!” And then, when the show went off the air, IMPACT immediately went to work on social media to get the most mileage out of possibly the most shocking outcome in a world when shocking wrestling weddings are the norm. But this one certainly takes the proverbial cake. In an angle that seemed ripped from the classic, “Who Shot JR?” bit from TV’s Dallas that was later spawned into “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” on the Simpsons, members of the IMPACT roster hit Twitter to offer their condolences to Rosemary but more importantly, profess their innocence in what seems will become a Clue-style murder mystery. There are any number of suspects and looking back on it now, IMPACT seemed to offer some foreshadowing on this moment multiple times over the course of the two-hour show as the recurring theme was characters saying, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

The wedding itself was as wild and crazy as you would have expected from the Undead Bride and her bewitched groom. Dreamer dressed in tribute to Road Warrior Animal, Crazzy Steve waked his former Decay partner down the aisle, Bravo wore the most elaborate headgear one may ever see at a wedding, and Taya played the perfect role as the maid of honor. But something was missing. Bravo’s best man. A few weeks ago, Johnny Swinger battled Fallah Bahh for the right to the title and it was Bahh who won. But on Tuesday night, after Bahh claimed to have stolen Hernandez‘s money for Bravo (much like Rikishi ran over Steve Austin for the Rock), Bravo dismissed his best man, suggesting he should have picked Swinger instead. With Hernandez coming for him, Bravo told Bahh that he was “DEAD to him,” which Swinger followed up shortly after by expressing his bad feelings about what might happen on the night. At the time, the conversation was easy to shrug off, but with a murder mystery likely about to unfold, that exchange could be evidence and not just a throwaway.

And speaking of lines, there was another particular one from the bride herself. As Taya wondered if Rosemary was going to dump Bravo at the altar and even suggested as much as an option, Rosemary handed Taya a tarot card and said she had much better plans for her would-be groom than that. As the clip ended, Taya looked on and said, “I have a bad feeling about this.” Comments on Twitter suggested that tarot card would play a role in things to come as many wondered if Rosemary would be sacrificing Bravo at the altar on Tuesday’s episode of IMPACT.

Following the non-wedding, Rosemary’s tweet was perhaps the most telling of all. She had lost her fiancée but merely responded “how inconvenient” at Bravo’s untimely demise. This of course coming after she had tweeted common word as found in wedding vows prior to the event: “til death do us part.” As a suspect, Rosemary seems too obvious, but keep in mind, she is all too familiar with the Undead Realm. Perhaps she is even keeping Bravo there with plans for him to re-emerge a new man in the end. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that Rosemary, who let’s remind everyone goes by the nickname of the Demon…Assassin, has trapped people in that underground realm of hers.

IMPACT did a great job building to this wedding as the entire Wrestle House angle that ran for a month or so over the summer, was all part of setting up this unlikely courtship between Rosemary and Bravo. But going back, it does make you wonder if the demon bride was ever sincere. Or perhaps she was just trying to get rid of Bravo in order to have her bestie Taya all to herself. But Rosemary isn’t the only suspect.

Taya herself has come under fire for perhaps similar reasoning. On Tuesday’s IMPACT, Taya told Rosemary she had recently become annoyed by Bravo and during the Wrestle House angle, didn’t always seem on board with Rosemary and Bravo’s budding relationship. Could she have been the one to take out her former friend? Or Hernandez, who is claiming innocence but seems to have a pretty strong motive? Perhaps it was Swinger, feeling slighted at being passed over for best man? Or Bahh, for being relieved of his best man duties? Or even Father James Mitchell, who’s connection with Rosemary is stronger than anyone else on the roster and didn’t seem all that surprised…

Like Austin being run over by a car, the culprit here may not be so obvious and could be a member of IMPACT’s roster who no one is expecting. And in classic wrestling fashion, whoever committed the murder likely won’t be made to pay any consequences, no matter where the storyline ends up going. In the meantime however, between now and the Bravo murderer reveal, look for IMPACT to engage in a murder mystery the likes wrestling has never seen as everyone looks to answer the million dollar question: #WhoShotBravo?

Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch IMPACT Wrestling on Tuesday nights on AXS TV and Twitch.TV as well as all the time on IMPACT Plus.

Looking to talk wrestling, pro football, or any number of sports? Head on over to the LWOS Boards to engage in conversation with fellow fans!

Marilee Gallagher, Manager

Marilee Gallagher, Manager

Marilee Gallagher is a Philadelphia native and lifelong sports fan with interests beyond just the major five U.S. sporting leagues. At Last Word on Sports, she is the Department Manager for Last Word on Pro Wrestling, helping lead a team that covers WWE, AEW, and indies both in the U.S. and internationally. Past writing experience includes time as a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and Rant Sports.

Share:

More Posts

Send Us A Message