Cero Reviews Impact Wrestling Hard To Kill 2022

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Cero Reviews Impact Wrestling Hard To Kill 2022

Post by cero2k » Jan 11th, '22, 12:15

Impact Wrestling Hard To Kill 2022
January 8th, 2022
The Factory In Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX

**Countdown To Hard To Kill**

Tom Hannifan is making his debut as the new play-by-play announcer, replacing Matt Striker.

Madman Fulton vs Jake Something - 6.5/10
Really fun hoss fight, I actually expected Fulton to win, but Something ended up getting the win at the end. Both guys had a chance to shine though, I'd say Fulton more than Something, when Fulton started chokeslamming Something and actually got the crowd chanting for "one more time".

"Speedball" Mikey Bailey vs Ace Austin vs Chris Bey vs Laredo Kid - 7.5/10
This was Speedball's debut now as a signed talent and all. Fun match, a good mix of multi-person spots with singles pair ups. Right off the bat they gave Bailey a lot of spotlight, not only getting the win with Ultima Weapon, but also showing off a lot of moves and pairing up with everyone else. Some of the highlights of the match saw Laredo Kid do a springboard top rope Spanish Fly on Bailey, onto the floor where Bey and Austin got taken out.

**Main Show**

Ultimate X Match
Alisha Edwards vs. Rosemary vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Chelsea Green vs. Tasha Steelz vs. Lady Frost - 7/10
The first ever Knockouts Ultimate X match in history, where the winner earns a shot at the Knockouts title. It took them a while, but it finally happened, and the women didn't waste the opportunity to make it memorable, they went all out with some of the spots, Lady Frost had the highest dive with a moonsault off the top of the structure, but Alisha and Green also had dives off the structure.

The match wasn't all that crispy clean, some of the spots looked weak in execution, but the level of risk made the match feel like a huge match. Tasha Steelz won the title after having a back and forth struggle with Chelsea Green, who had caught up with Steelz and Grace, who also fought on top of the X ropes, but Steelz had dropped Grace a couple of seconds earlier before Green got there.

There was a scary spot where Green seemed to have slipped while traversing the X ropes, and fell right on top of Steelz, it seemed like she may had knocked out Steelz for a bit, but Steelz did come back for some complex spots later on and eventually win the match, so I take it she was ok.

Impact X-Division Championship Match
Trey Miguel (c) vs. Steve Maclin - 7.5/10
This was really good, because Maclin is REALLY good. Maclin is the most incredibly looking wrestler in the US, but he brings an intensity to the ring that makes him stand above the gimmicky guys. Miguel is really good too, but he's a really good dance partner, he usually needs someone with a personality or ability to bounce from. In this case, he was a great partner to take on everything that Maclin threw at him.

Story of the match was that this was Maclin's final shot at Miguel, he did some dastardly things to get this shot, but it came with consequences, and he ended up losing the match via two Meteoras. The spot of the match however, was Maclin hitting the Crosshair spear through a Miguel that was hanging upside down in the ropes, to the point that Maclin straight up bent Miguel two-fold because Miguel's feet got hooked, and in a way, probably saved his life from falling head-first into the ground with that spear.

Not sure where things will go from here, Maclin should have won, but I'm guessing they have someone else in line for Miguel, who also just won the title in November, so they many not be in a hurry to take the title from him either. I'm spoiler free as of this writing, but Jonah has expressed interest in the X Division title, and I wouldn't be surprised if that could be a challenge going towards Rebellion, while Maclin does something else and Speedball ramps up some wins.

The Influence Promo - We got a promo from The Influence, Madison Rayne & Tenille Dashwood. They said that the IInspiration were unprofessional for not showing up to work. They said that the match will happen later in the Ft. Lauderdale show.

ROH World Championship Pure Rules Match
Jonathan Gresham (c) vs. Chris Sabin - 9/10
Ian Riccaboni joined commentary for this match, and Bobby Cruise on introduction duties, but Hebner was the referee, so Sinclair didn't get the call. Also, commentary explained that this match is a match that was owed to Chris Sabin for about 3 years after he took Lethal to a time limit draw back when Lethal was the Champion. That match was a Proving Ground match from ROH's Global Wars 2018.

The match was fantastic. A combination of grappling, lucha, and a lot of striking. Gresham kept dominating the match when things went to the mat, so Sabin would pull out a couple of lucha moves to take Gresham out of his comfort zone and come back at him. Gresham worked the arm while Sabin went for the head. Part of Gresham's tactics was trying to get Sabin to use his ropes breaks, in one of them he straight up pushed Sabin's hand while locking in the Octopus, but Sabin also forced Gresham to use two of his rope breaks in order to survive pins, one of which Hebner counted 3 before realizing the leg under the rope. There was an awesome chop sequence right before heading to the finish where they reversed pin attempts, ending with Gresham turning a Magistral into a clutch and win.

Josh Alexander vs. JONAH - 9/10
This was a FREAKING WAR! Alexander went against the immovable object and pushed it out of the building. It took a lot to achieve it, but Alexander went all out.

Match was a power vs technique match, but Alexander being a big dude himself, the match had a lot of hoss stuff as it went on and Jonah got weaker. Alexander kept going for the ankle lock, but every now and then would see if he could get the C4 going, but he was never able to do so. The C4 attempts were good because it confirmed for most of the match that Alexander just wasn't strong enough to hit it on Jonah, but then when he hit a freaking powerbomb on him, the crowd exploded!

Finish was a great climax. Jonah crashed and burned on an top rope moonsault attempt, only for Alexander to use his last remnants of energy to German Jonah, hit a freaking powerbomb, take the ankle, stomp on Jonah's head until Jonah tapped out of the ankle lock.

The one thing that I didn't like were the unprotected headbutts, they worked for the drama and intensity, especially after we saw Alexander busted open. I just wish they would work me and achieve this in the safest way.

Hardcore War Ten Man Tag Team Match
Eddie Edwards, Heath, Rhino, Rich Swann & Willie Mack vs. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) & Violent By Design (Deaner, Eric Young & Joe Doering) - 7/10
Hardcore War is technically a Lethal Lockdown match without a cage. A match style that I don't know why people like over at the Fed and AEW, it's a format that makes a brawl drag on for way longer than it needs to. Of course this wasn't as moronically booked like they do on NXT, giving the babyfaces the advantage, but just format alone means it's gonna be longer than it needs to.

Once everyone had made it to the ring, the match did get pretty fun, at that point some of the guys had been in there for a while and most of them were busted open. Also during everyone's entrance, everyone kept bringing in new weapons, so at this point we also had a bunch of unique weapons all over the place. My spot of the match was Doering doing a running DVD onto a barbed wire board, completely destroying Rich Swann, while one of the weakest ones, at least in potential, was Eddie Edwards setting his kendo stick on fire, only to go out mid-swing, but at least the fans loved the spot. Finish saw Anderson take out Mack with a Gun Stun, but Heath attacked him with a football helmet and a Gore by Rhino for the win.

Heath and Rhino could be in line for a tag title match now.

Post-match - Suddenly, right after the pin, Matt Taven and Mike Bennet jumped the guardrail and attacked Heath and Rhino. When Swann tried to help them, Vincent of The Righteous also joined the attack and took Swann down, as did PCO when Mack made it to the ring. The ROH contingency took out the Impact crew, Swann took PCO's apron senton, and at the end, Maria Kanellis joined the OGK to victoriously control the ring.

Backstage, Gia Miller tried to get a word from D'Amore, who obviously said he had just learned about this at the same time everyone had, so he stormed into the office to call Baltimore and get answers.

Impact World Championship Match
Moose (c) vs. Matt Cardona vs. W. Morrissey - 8.5/10
Considerably better than I expected it to be. Moose has become a really good wrestler for these type of matches where he can jump in and out for huge spots and look like a superstar, but in the case of Cardona and Morrissey, I wasn't sure how good they'd be to hold off the ring in the meantime, or be able to jump in and out and make their spots explosive.

A lot of big moves, at one point, Moose powerbombed Morrissey, who had Cardona on a Fallaway slam position. Both Cardona and Morrissey did dives on separate occasions. Moose went for the jumping top rope crossbody, but was pushed off the ring and onto the timekeeper's table, which he mostly missed.

The finish did have some shenanigans as the first referee got accidentally speared, Chelsea Green got involved, and then the second referee and Green got taken out when Moose powerbombed Cardona on top of them, and left Cardona open for the Lights Out from Moose for the win.

My biggest takeaway from this whole thing is that the fans are starting to get behind Morrissey, and I really wouldn't mind if they go all in on him. Dude is doing better than before when he was a catchphrase.

Knockouts World Championship Texas Death Match
Mickie James (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo - 8.5/10
I was really really loving the intensity and brutality of this match, up until the very end. I don't know if the finish of this match was changed on the last minute after the announcement that Mickie James is going (for some reason) to be participating in the WWE Royal Rumble, and Impact just wanted to have James work that show as the champion. I don't like it, but it could potentially be good publicity to tell the MJ fans that "Hey dorks, better wrestling exists outside this shit!". Anyway, I would have rather have Purrazzo vs Rok-C with 3 titles on the line, than have James retain and take it to the Rumble.

But let's talk about the match. It was heated, you could feel it when you saw both women's mannerisms, their lock ups, and how they went after each other. I'm not the biggest fan of the Texas Deathmatch or Last Man Standing 10-count, but at least it wasn't overly used in this match, only a couple of spots that were brutal enough to warrant it. The one problem that I do have with this match was that because of the 10-count component, we saw a LOT of pins and submissions that wouldn't have been otherwise, I guess it makes sense psychologically to quickly tap out and get out of the submissions, or avoid using the energy to kick out, if you can accept the 3 count and then get up immediately.

Match had chairs, tables, thumbtacks, and at the end, both women were busted open. James did a great job at selling the brutality of the match, especially her selling the first time she fell on the tacks, she just screamed in pain. Rehwoldt got involved towards the end to help Purrazzo get to her feet, but ended up taking a guitar shot to the head while protecting Purrazzo. The finish that I wasn't a big fan of was Purrazzo trying to stab James with tacks on the vagina, which I didn't mind, but James didn't sell it, hit the MickieDT, and won after throwing a table on top of Purrazzo. I was salty that James had defended, but it was all worse when she didn't sell those tacks at all.

Something worth mentioning. During the introductions, the title was announced for the first time as the Knockouts WORLD Championship. Mickie James seemed happy with the term. I don't know if they're gonna go ahead with this, or if it was a fluke of live television.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a great show from Impact, the only match that I'd say was skippable was the Hardcore War, and only because it was soo long and dragged out, but the final minutes when everyone came in, it was fun. I liked how this show felt like it had a little bit of everything, but of course we must consider that this "ROH Invasion" could run and turn into something good or something bad from here until ROH's return.

Lastly, I do want to mention, Tom Hannifan is a HUUUGE improvement of the product, him and D'lo Brown worked well together on day one.
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