By David E Houston II
Show air date: January 13, 2022
IMPACT Wrestling was coming off an incredible Hard To Kill (HTK) pay-per-view Saturday with a strong follow-up. George Iceman cleared Ring of Honor management of any involvement in the attack from their former employees Saturday. Black Taurus of Decay beat “Drama King” Matthew Rehswoldt in a good match (Taurus hit a nasty-looking Powerbull piledriver). They gave us a quick highlight reel from HTK.
Scott D’Amore Has A Lot on His Hands
W. Morrissey, one of the two world title challengers at HTK, powerwalks out and demands a world title shot since he was not pinned at HTK and had world champion Moose down in that match. Moose pops up on the video screen on the stage, denies Morrissey’s challenge, and lets everyone know he will be defending against someone else, giving someone an opportunity. What a gracious champion.
Executive Producer Scott D’Amore was laying down the law to Morrissey but it’s interrupted when we go back to ringside as former ROH champion Matt Taven is harassing Tom Hannifan. D’Lo Brown tries to stand up for him but is overwhelmed as Taven’s OGK partner Mike Bennett and Vincent take down Brown and put him on a table for PCO to dive on. Tough ass table didn’t do the job the first time so PCO hits a second dive off the top rope.
Taven is pretty good here, calling Tom “Tom New Name” and saying you know that hurt since D’Lo didn’t have on his chest protector.
Nice video package on ROH Women’s World champion Rok-C before her winner takes all main event with AAA Reina de Reinas champion Deonna Purrazzo.
Laredo Kid defeated Chris Bey
Laredo Kid won his rematch over “The Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey.
These two. Two matches. Two classics. This one might have been better than the first. Good work by X Division champion Trey Miguel on guest commentary. He came out somber, selling the Brown attack from earlier but lightened up and had some good one-liners as it went.
Welcome back “The Most Professional Wrestler” Brian Myers as we find out that deserving wrestler getting a world title shot is Zicky Dice. HA! Now I want some pizza.
Mike Bailey defeated Jake Something
The winners of the two HTK preshow matches–Jake Something and “Speedball” Mike Bailey–have a good match with Bailey using his speed and strikes to successfully offset Something’s decisive power advantage. Bailey is off to a red hot start and that shooting star double knee drop (Ultima Weapon) is impressive.
Eddie Edwards had the hot idea to look for the old ROH guys individually and all it got was HEATH and Rhino beat up by the Good Brothers and Violent By Design. Some leader that Edwards is. He earned the asswhooping somebody gave him later in the show off-camera.
Tasha Steelz puts some hot trash talk on Matt Cardona and Chelsea Green and gets a match with Green in the next episode for her troubles.
Masha Slamovich defeated Vert Vixen
Masha Slamovich has her second match for Impact, this week against Vert Vixen. All Masha for the 2 minutes they were in there. Another great new star for them.
Charlie Haas Makes His IMPACT Wrestling Debut
“The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander comes out, coming off a big win over JONAH at HTK, to lay his claim to his owed world title rematch.
He was doing great and teased leaving the company if he can’t get a rematch when he’s confronted by former WWE and ROH world tag champion, Charlie Haas, making his Impact Wrestling debut.
Haas cuts a good promo and challenges Alexander to a match for the next episode. Alexander does not accept and puts it off until he gets his world title match. Haas thanks him by popping him in the mouth. A pull-apart makes me think we have a match. Very good segment and good use of a Texas guy since they’re in Dallas.
Moose (c) defeated Zicky Dice
For the IMPACT World Championship
Dice (in front of his mentor Myers and Learning Tree mate, VSK) got his world title shot. Moose didn’t even put on his gear. One really stiff ura nage and it’s in the books. Morrissey didn’t interfere as he was told not to (not enough time to interfere) and got into a fight with the champion. Somehow Dice got beat up in that too and got VSK beat up too. Rough night for the Outlandish One.
Raj Singh wanted the smoke, JONAH broke a forest fire. The “Top Dog” did him dirty fast.
ROH World champion Jonathan Gresham makes his IMPACT TV debut, disavowing the actions of his former ROH cohorts, which does not sit well with Steve Maclin. Gresham vs Maclin under Pure rules for the ROH World title?? They are stacking the next episode’s show.
Main Event: Deonna Purrazzo (c) defeated Rok-C (c)
Champ vs Champ
For the second show in a row, the Knockouts main evented (with Purrazzo in both) as “The Virtuosa”, defending her AAA title, was able to defeat Texas’ own Rok-C for her ROH Women’s title. A very good match and strong finish in front of a hot crowd. ROH play-by-play guy Ian Riccaboni worked guest color with this being a ROH match.
Rok-C is a terrific sympathetic babyface, looking great here. Big future for that but “The Virtuosa” is right now, winning with her Venus De Milo double armbar. Great finish. She can’t enjoy her big win before Maria Kannellis gets in the ring, followed by the rest of the former ROH crew, who beat down Rehwoldt (that guy had a bad night). Rich Swann and Willie Mack try to even it out but without Edwards, Rhino, or HEATH, they go down too.
Strong finish to a good, fast-moving show.
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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.
