By David E Houston II
Show air date: December 9, 2021
Lady Frost defeated Kimber Lee
Lady Frost making her official debut, beating Kimber Lee in an impressive match on BTI kicked off the night of Impact Wrestling on AXS-TV as they’re building to their January 8th Hard To Kill pay-per-view.
Deonna Purrazzo and Matthew Rehwoldt defeated Mickie James and Chris Sabin
Months-long rivals and Hard to Kill (HTK) opponents “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo and Knockouts world champion Mickie James chose “The Drama King” Matthew Rehwoldt and Chris Sabin respectively for a mixed tag match. This was pretty good where the interactions between the men and women looked good and the finish was done extremely well as James hit a dive off the top turnbuckle to the floor on Purrazzo and Sabin which ended up leaving Sabin out of position as Rehwoldt aided Purrazzo in the pinfall, giving them the win. Well done.
Great backstage confrontation with HTK world title challengers W. Morrissey and Matt Cardona that results in them deciding to fight it out later in the show.
Eric Young. Violent By Design. Always good as Young has a street fight with former member Rhino scheduled for the show.
Larry D vs Rohit Raju
Spinning out of WRESTLEHOUSE, Larry D faced Rohit Raju in a match I thought was oddly placed as this seemed like something to do on BTI.
Of course, Impact got me again as “The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander stormed into the building and ring and took out Raju and held the ring, challenging JONAH, who attacked him at Turning Point, to face him.
Executive Producer Scott D’Amore came out, told him JONAH wasn’t even in the building and that the two would face each other officially at Hard To Kill, which doesn’t appease Alexander at all and he C4 Spikes Raj Singh (who had come out with Raju).
Damn, Chris Bey took that boy belt and got cussed out in Spanish by Laredo Kid. I’ll take that match.
FinJuice defeated The Learning Tree
The Learning Tree team of Zicky Dice and VSK wanted to impress their teacher, “The Most Professional Wrestler” Brian Myers, by taking out FinJuice–David Finlay and Juice Robinson. They failed.
More angle than a match, though there was some good work at times. The story was how dysfunctional the Tree is without Myers and they sold the hell out of it. Funny exchange on commentary when Matt Striker compared the Tree to the Andersons and D’Lo Brown asked him “What match are you watching?
Eric Young defeated Rhino
Eric Young told Deaner and Joe Doering to stay in the back for his streetfight with Rhino and they listened…until they didn’t, coming out to save him when Rhino had him at a decisive disadvantage. Rhino’s tag partner, HEATH, tried to offset VBD’s numbers and then Rich Swann and Willie Mack came out and it looked like Rhino might have the win in hand but a “design” Doering mentioned came into play as tag champs the Good Brothers–Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson–swung it back in favor of VBD with Young pinning Rhino after a piledriver.
Common foes made for what looks like a temporary alliance because Young was definitely not looking to pal around with the champs. Solid match but nothing special but good, interesting angle.
Decay defeated The Influence and The IInspiration
The Influence (Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne with Kaleb With A K) tried to get their new alliance with KO world tag champions The IInspiration (Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee) off on the right foot, facing Decay in the second intergender match of the show. They came up short and lost badly.
Not much of a match at all. If you like IInspiration shenanigans, you might have liked it. I didn’t but it clearly sets up the Influence challenging for the tag titles soon.
Gail Kim announces the participants in the first Knockouts Ultimate X match at HTK: Lady Frost, Tasha Steelz, Rachael Ellering, Jordynne Grace, Rosemary, and Chelsea Green. I’m picking Steelz right now. I am surprised at some of these names considering the history of injuries with a couple of them but it should be exciting.
I wanted to point out how much respect they have for the KO division as this and the KO world title match were the very first matches announced for a few weeks for Hard To Kill. They clearly see the KOs as draws and use them as such.
Main Event: Matt Cardona defeated W. Morrissey
By DQ
Morrissey (looking like Sid Vicious in Levi’s) and Cardona had a rematch from Turning Point in the main event with Cardona risking being dropped from the HTK world title match if he lost (makes sense), with world champion Moose sitting in his seat in the rafters.
Sidenote: Morrissey’s Timberland boots game is top guy status. They started off hot with a brawl around ringside before the bell and had a good match, at least as good as the Turning Point match. Cardona was busted open on a corner post spot, and I can’t immediately remember the last time someone bled on Impact TV. Very good work here as they had that live crowd completely invested and biting on every false finish. Easily the best thing on the show.
Morrissey lost control and tossed the referee across the ring and was disqualified, then, in a rage, mafia-kicked the ref. Morrissey powerbombs Cardona again, bringing out Cardona’s fiance, Chelsea Green, who pleads to him to stop. Moose hits the ring and commands Morrissey to pick Cardona and eats a Timb like everyone else.
Considering what Morrissey did to Alisha Edwards a few months ago, it looked like he may repeat with Green but Cardona fights him off, ending the show with Moose on the ramp as a bloody Cardona holds up the championship belt.
An okay show for the most part with a good start a lot of “it’s okay” in the middle and a very strong finish.
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