Pay-per-view air date: March 5, 2022
On Saturday, March 5th IMPACT Wrestling presented their Sacrifice Impact Plus/Youtube Insider event from a raucous Paristown Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, and continued their streak of strong shows in 2022. This one had fewer big events and turns but provided surprising major title changes and high-quality wrestling and promos for over 3 hours.
Two very entertaining pre-show matches that saw Lady Frost get the win over her rival, “The Quintessential Diva” Gisele Shaw. Rich Swann and Willie Mack get a measure of revenge on the OGK–Matt Taven and Mike Bennett with Maria Kanellis-Bennett–representing the Honor No More group. Both are good matches that set the pace for the show.
Trey Miguel (c) defeated Jake Something
For the IMPACT X Division Championship
X Division champion Trey Miguel was victorious over the strong challenge of Jake Something in a match-up of the smaller, faster champion overcoming the vast power advantage of Something. Miguel gets the pin after countering a Something superplex, trapping the bigger man in the tree of woe, and hitting a Meteora knee drop. Great finish to a very good match.
Eddie Edwards defeated Rhino
Eddie Edwards (Hollywood Eddie to me), leader of Honor No More, faced Rhino in an all-out brawl of two former world champions (Edwards for ROH and Impact, Rhino for ECW, and the NWA). Rhino being the man Edwards betrayed at the last pay-per-view, this had a personal edge to it.
With members of Honor No More and Team Impact fighting ringside, Steve Maclin–a man with a grudge against Edwards–hits the ring and blasts Edwards with a double underhook DDT and then hits Rhino with Edwards’ kendo stick, which sets Maclin as a man on his own and hands Edwards the win when he finishes Rhino with his Boston Knee Party kneestrike. Pretty good.
The Influence defeated The IInspiration (c)
For the IMPACT Knockouts World Tag Team Championship
Before their Knockouts World tag title challenged, The Influence–Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood–demand Kaleb With a K stay in the back for their match with the champions, The IInspiration, Jessica McKay, and Cassie Lee. I’ve been critical of the in-ring work of the IInspiration, going back to when they were iconic in other companies and since arriving in IMPACT, they’ve had one solid tag match but nothing worth remembering.
So believe me when I say this might be the best IInspiration match I’ve ever seen. The veterans of Rayne and Dashwood did a great job of carrying the action but to their credit, Lee and McKaye looked…iinspired and held their own. Still lost as Kaleb came out late, slid one of the title belts to Dashwood, who smashed Lee in the face behind the referee’s back. New champions, good match.
Good backstage segment with Rhino and HEATH, where HEATH is visibly upset over not being ringside for Rhino in his match with Rhino telling him to focus on his own world title main event. Anthony Carelli, the former Santino Marella, popped up, looking sharp as a box of tacks, and gave a great pep, leading to HEATH giving an equally great fired-up promo.
“The Most Professional Wrestler” Brian Myers was scheduled to provide some guest color commentary as he did at No Surrender but W. Morrissey was not having it and chased Myers to the back, beating up several security personnel that got in his way. I’m enjoying this little keystone cops chase between the two.
JONAH defeated PCO
Monster Fight time as JONAH faced Honor No More’s PCO. The quality of big man matches has been outstanding in 2022 and this was no different with JONAH picking up a huge win, beating PCO after powerbombing the French Canadian Frankenstein to the floor from the ring steps, then hitting PCO with a piledriver on those same steps, following that with a top rope splash to the back of PCO’s head. A slobberknocker.
Jay White defeated Alex Shelley
A match that saw the student defeat his teacher was “Switchblade” Jay White defeat the returning to IMPACT for the first time in over a year, Alex Shelley, one of White’s mentors when he got started. Tom Hannifan and Matthew Rehwoldt were excellent in giving background for this, making an excellent match feel even more personal.
I expected a great match, but I didn’t expect it to be a match that saw Shelley control so much of it with White at times seeming to have jitters and being outwrestled for long stretches. A remarkable finish that saw Shelley hit White with his Shellshock finish and go for a crossface submission win. White countered that and hit the Bladerunner for the win.
Shelley went to shake hands after the match and King Switch laughed in his damn face and walked off.
Deonna Purrazzo (c) defeated Chelsea Green
For the ROH Women’s World Championship
“The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo, ROH World Women’s and AAA Reina de Reinas Champion, successfully fended off the challenge of her friend, Chelsea Green. Again, the commentary was on point, noting the real-life friendship of the two women. Green challenged for the ROH title, which made sense as the first company she appeared for after leaving WWE was Ring of Honor.
She had one of her best matches in a while but still coming up short when Purrazzo traps her arm with her legs and kicks it, making Green, a wrestler with a long history of arm injuries, shriek in pain.
Purrazzo stopped to check on her only to be pushed by back Green so the champ grabbed the injured arm and put her in an armbar, forcing Green to submit. That was good.
Tasha Steelz defeated Mickie James (c)
For the IMPACT Knockouts World Championship
Knockouts World champion Mickie James comes out to check on Green, who she promised a title shot if she was successful against Tasha Steelz.
Steelz, with Savannah Evans, came out immediately for her title match, kicking off a very good rematch from No Surrender. Except for this time, Steelz was successful, pinning James after counting a James’ top rope Thesz Press with a cutter. Steelz won her first IMPACT Wrestling KO World title, making her the first Afro-Latina KO champion.
Violent By Design defeated The Good Brothers (c)
For the IMPACT World Tag Team Championship
Violent By Design–this time Eric Young and Joe Doering with Deaner ringside–regained the World tag titles from the Good Brothers of the Bullet Club (with Chris Bey ringside), Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson in a battle of heels. With neither even trying to be the “hero”, they just went at each other, trading the advantage until Young delivered a piledriver to Gallows on the stage, leaving Anderson alone, where he was pinned after taking a neckbreaker/powerbomb combination. Surprisingly clean with little to no interference from Bey or Deaner.
Main Event: Moose (c) defeated HEATH
For the IMPACT World Championship
Moose was successful defending the World title against HEATH in the main event. I thought this was laid out perfectly with HEATH fighting from behind most of the match. He’s a very good wrestler but this being his first world title match and Moose being such a dominant champion, it wouldn’t make sense to have some back and forth battle.
HEATH was excellent as the never-die underdog with Carelli working guest color, adding to the intensity of the bout and Moose looked as powerful and dominant as he’s ever looked, finally pinning the challenger with a spear. Moose had no time to celebrate as he was blindsided by former champion, The Walking Weapon Josh Alexander, making his return from “suspension”, taking Moose out with a C4 piledriver and declaring he had signed a multi-year deal with IMPACT and would be Moose’s challenger at the April 23 Rebellion pay-per-view.
A top-notch show with no bad matches, the third straight show this year to deliver for Impact Wrestling.
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