A Pay-Per-View event for Impact Wrestling

This weekend was a hell of a weekend for wrestling fans! Not only did Impact Wrestling No Surrender (the topic for today’s review) happen, but we had shows from GCW and WWE as well. Be on the lookout for some GCW goodness after I get caught up on NJPW – Y’all know how I feel about the other guys lol. The biggest storyline going into this show is undoubtedly the feud between ROH Talent and the staunch Impact Wrestling guys. Disenfranchised and betrayed by a company they see as having “no honor”, they have decided to come to Impact in order to cause chaos. Their motivations are not 100% clear, but it seems like other ROH guys, such as Jonathan Gresham, are having none of it. If done correctly this is one of the storylines that could really define the year.

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The first hour of the show is FREE on YouTube:

The Card:

• 1P Trey Miguel defeated John Skyler by pinfall Singles match 5:59
• 2P Havok (with Rosemary) defeated Tenille Dashwood (with Madison Rayne and Kaleb with a K) by pinfall Singles match 4:37
• 3 Jake Something defeated Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton), Chris Bey, and Mike Bailey by pinfall Four-way match – Winner became number one contender for the Impact X Division Championship. 7:19
• 4 Jonah defeated Black Taurus (with Crazzy Steve) by pinfall Singles match 8:08
• 5 Jay White defeated Eric Young by pinfall Singles match 12:12
• 6 Deonna Purrazzo (c) defeated Miranda Alize by submission Singles match for the ROH Women’s World Championship 7:26
• 7 Matt Cardona (c) defeated Jordynne Grace by disqualification Intergender match for the Impact Digital Media Championship 7:58
• 8 The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (c) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) by pinfall Tag team match for the Impact World Tag Team Championship 12:19
• 9 Mickie James (c) defeated Tasha Steelz (with Savannah Evans) by pinfall Singles match for the Impact Knockouts World Championship 10:28
• 10 Moose (c) defeated W. Morrissey by pinfall Singles match for the Impact World Championship 12:21
• 11 Honor No More (Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, PCO, Vincent, and Kenny King) (with Maria Kanellis) defeated Team Impact (Chris Sabin, Rhino, Rich Swann, Steve Maclin, and Willie Mack) by pinfall 10-man tag team match – Since Honor No More won, they remained in Impact Wrestling. 23:17

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I stopped awarding “grades” to things long ago, after my gig at a videogame site slid into them manipulating scores. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

Commentary:

I haven’t been able to keep up with Impact’s weekly show for the last few weeks, so I was unaware that Matthew Rehwoldt had taken over for D-Lo Brown. While it always seems like “The Drama King” gets the short end of the stick when it comes to wrestling, he’s pretty awesome at commentary. He joins Tom Hannifan forming perhaps one of the best commentary teams Impact has had in a while. I generally like Matt Stryker, and D-Lo was pretty good, but these are two of the more underrated guys in the biz that get overlooked able to shine.

The Pre-Show is Always Great:

I know that sounds dumb but hear me out! I always love how Impact Wrestling tosses a couple of free matches on YouTube whenever they do a big show. Both matches tonight were solid with the match between Dashwood and Havok being pretty awesome. I’m a sucker for badass female wrestlers that kick people around, and as a direct result always enjoy me some Havok and Rosemary.

Hoss Fight Indeed:

This was a hell of a match. Black Taurus once again proves that you can get a Minotaur gimmick over, and Jonah continues to amaze me every week on here and NJPW. When Black Taurus looks small in comparison to somebody, you know you are going to get something crazy here. These two did stuff I haven’t seen big men do in a while, and it goes to show how fun these types of matches can be if booked well.

Jay White is Everywhere!

When Jay White became leader of The Bullet Club I was less than impressed. I’m not sure what it was, but it just seemed random that he was chosen over some of the other people in the company at the time. Some years later, and the man has put in the work, and is well deserving of his spot. Jay White has been on three (maybe more lol) different wrestling shows this week and excelled each time; and here he is wrestling one of the best guys in all of Impact Wrestling in Eric Young.

Tasha Steelz is Impressive:

Tasha Steelz has really stepped out of the shadow after moving away from tag team wrestling and going for singles gold. She has really improved a lot since her time in NWA (which I’m fairly certain is where I first saw her). After winning the Ultimate X match at Hard to Kill, this was easily her time to shine against a legend like Mickie James, and I feel like she delivered. I wish the match would not have had a wave of interreference at the end, but perhaps this was a test for Steelz and we’ll see her get her chance back.

Honor No More:

This is the sort of thing I’ve wanted from “The Forbidden Door” from day one – some kind of tangible invasion angle that leads to a company vs company feud. Who knows what ROH will even look like if/when it comes back, but I wouldn’t be sad if anyone in this stable stays behind in Impact, as the storyline has been cool. I have missed the past few weeks of weekly television, and need to go back and watch that after this weekend, it looks like some cool stuff has been happening. In the end, the ROH guys have won the right to stick around a bit longer which I’m sure will cause all manner of issues for the coalition of guys that banded together against them.

Conclusion:

This was another great Pay-Per-View from Impact Wrestling. They may not get all the hype that places like WWE, AEW, or NJPW get, but I would argue that they have been consistently solid for years now. Having the crossovers from NJPW and ROH are a nice touch, and make every Impact show feel important. When other companies have largely moved away from “The Forbidden Door” it’s in full effect here. With this being one of the “cheaper” Impact shows at only $9.99, you really can’t miss here. Matches of the night were the Eric Young vs Jay White showdown and the IW vs ROH match.