By David E Houston II
Show air date: April 28, 2022
IMPACT Wrestling on AXS TV featured the aftermath of their great Rebellion pay-per-view on April 23 and immediately setting up matches for their May 7th Under Siege IMPACT Plus special and they came out the gate hot.
The Briscoes defeated HEATH and Rhino
Coming from the historic Mid Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, they opened with World tag champions Violent By Design–Eric Young, Deaner, and Joe Doering–came out to celebrate their successful title defense at Rebellion, where they were confronted by longtime rivals, HEATH and Rhino, who were the final elimination in the gauntlet match at the pay-per-view.
Before anything jumped off, Mark and Jay Briscoe made their long-awaited debut and made it plain they wanted to be IMPACT Wrestling World tag champs. Young being an evil genius, bowed his team out and told the other two to settle it and they would face the winner. The Briscoes got the win over HEATH and Rhino, with Mark pinning Rhino after a Froggy Bow elbowsmash, in a match featuring 12-time former Ring of Honor tag champions vs former WWE tag champs. This was good. HEATH and Rhino worked more aggressively, making the brothers the de facto babyfaces and giving the match a flow that helped it come together. Now Mark and Jay will face VBD at Under Siege.
Moose confront Executive Producer Scott D’Amore about being booked so quickly for his mandatory rematch. D’Amore dismisses it and tells him the winner will face a handpicked opponent at Under Siege.
Bhupinder Gujarr defeated VSK
Nice match with Bhupinder Gujarr beating VSK. The Poughkeepsie crowd gave Gujarr his best reaction to date, a good sign for him as a rising face, and VSK did some good heelwork. Raj Singh and Shera come out after the match, still trying to recruit Gujarr and he still refuses, infuriating Shera, with the “Indian Lion” dropping VSK with a DVDR slam and needing to be held back by Singh. Good underneath story.
Rocky Romero interrupts the Gia Miller backstage interview with new X Division champion “The Inevitable” Ace Austin, first extending an invitation to the New Japan Best of Super Juniors tournament and then challenging Austin to a title match.
Steve Maclin delivered another great short promo. That guy has gotten so good at everything. He’ll hold IMPACT gold before too long.
Honor No More defeated Motor City Machine Guns and “Speedball” Mike Bailey
Honor No More–Eddie Edwards and the OGK (Matt Tavern, Maria, and Mike Bennet) with Kenny King ringside–were victorious in a damn good six-man match over “Speedball” Mike Bailey and the Motor City Machine Guns, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. Chaotic match with all six guys going hard from the start to the finish. Edwards picked up the win for his team, pinning Bailey. Some hostility between Shelley and Bailey after the match. Commentary was good in reminding us they had a very tense match against each other at the April 1 Multiverse of Matches show.
Honor No More’s celebrating is cut short by the arrival of Bullet Club (The Good Brothers, “The Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey, and “Switchblade” Jay White), who did not come to talk on the mic but fight. A good brawl that saw King get dropped by a Good Brothers’ Magic Killer neckbreaker. They get to settle this feud at Under Siege in a 10-man match.
Decay defeated Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans
New AAA Reina de Reinas Champion Taya Valkyrie came to the ring and gave a good promo…then got stomped out by former champion, “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo, in a violent ambush. Only the arrival of Decay–Rosemary and Havok–stopped it with Rosemary and Valkyrie, former tag partners, giving each other a little side-eye. Decay was victorious in their match with Knockouts World champion Tasha Steelz, who beat Rosemary at Rebellion, and Savannah Evans, with Havok pinning Evans after a double team spear attack with Rosemary. It’s announced that now Havok will get a shot at Steelz at Under Siege.
The Influence–Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood– were trying to do their All About Me talk show but “The Quintessential Diva” Gisele Shaw made an uninvited, unwanted (by the Influence) appearance and booked herself a match with Dashwood next week.
Vincent has a great promo, revealing his Honor No More mate PCO will face JONAH in a Monster’s Ball match next week. I’m all the way ready for that.
Main Event: Josh Alexander (c) defeated Moose
For the IMPACT Wrestling World Championship
“The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander retained his World title in the rematch with former champion, Moose, in another hard-hitting, physical match. Not as good at the Rebellion match but only because that was a classic. This was just great. Different completely as Moose maintained control for most of it, with Alexander fighting from underneath and finally overcoming his rival with a powerbomb and then a C4 spike piledriver.
D’Amore’s handpicked opponent: Tomohiro Ishii! They close with Ishii and Alexander face to face. Best show of the week.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: B (but only because I’m stingy with As).
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Reviews by Dave is the best wrestling review on the internet! It’s written by David Houston II, who writes about WWE NXT 2.0, AEW Dynamite, and IMPACT Wrestling.
