wrestling / TV Reports
Himanshu’s Impact Wrestling Review 12.15.22
Image Credit: Impact Wrestling
Loading...Hey there, IMPACT fans! It’s Thursday and that means it’s time for another episode of IMPACT Wrestling. I’m Himanshu (you can follow me on @Himanshu_Doi) and you know how this works. Tonight, we have the legendary Motor City Machine Guns challenge Champions Heath & Rhino with The Major Players banned from ringside, Bully Ray goes one-on-one with John Skyler, Eddie Edwards squares off with Delirious, Angels of The Design takes on Sami Callihan and we’ll hear from World Champion Josh Alexander and Mike Bailey after their epic near-60 minute showdown last week. So let’s jump right in!
As a reminder, the GoFundMe for Larry’s daughters is still active and if you can make a donation, that would be awesome. Thank you so much to everyone who’s done so thus far.
IMPACT Wrestling
Match 1: Eddie Edwards vs Delirious
Lockup to start and neither can get an advantage and they standoff. Delirious runs across all 4 ropes to confuse Eddie and finally clotheslines Delirious. Eddie and Delirious exchange chops until Eddie clotheslines him. Eddie hits the Tiger Driver and goes for the pin but Delirious converts it into the Cobra Stretch. Eddie pins Delirious while he still had the submission and gets the three.
Result: Eddie Edwards def. Delirious by pin.
Rating: ***
Himanshu’s Hot Take: Tom Hannifan did a good job highlighting the history between these two in NOAH. Solid match for what it was. You know that if these two get time, they’re capable of even more.
After the match, Eddie Edwards seemed impressed with Delirious and shakes hands with Delirious before he hits the Die Hard Flowsion. Yuya Uemura comes out but Eddie takes him out. Eddie goes after the mask but Jonathan Gresham’s music hits and he comes out. Eddie Edwards backs out of the ring.
Scott D’Amore is backstage with Josh Alexander and he said that wrestling Bailey for 60 minutes is the best thing before Hard To Kill, but he respects him. Josh says iron sharpens iron. Scott says he is not going out there tonight. Tommy comes in and says he wants to apologise because he told Josh to trust Bully and he is wrong. Scott says one thing Tommy is not is dishonest. Josh says just maybe Tommy was in on the whole thing and walks off.
Match 2: Bully Ray vs John Skyler
Bully Ray hits three scoop slams and a piledriver and wins.
Result: Bully Ray def. Josh Skyler by pin.
Rating: SQUASH
Tommy Dreamer’s music hits and everyone’s chanting ECW. Tommy asks if Bully can hear that, that is history. Tommy says he vouched for Bully. He says his friendship with Bully is done. Shame on him for trusting Bully.
Tommy is leaving. Bully says what he’s learnt from their years of friendship is that Tommy is nothing but a jealous coward. At the end of the day, Tommy is a nobody. If Devon was his shadow, Tommy was 10 steps behind. He says he was a bigger star than Tommy in ECW, WWE and IMPACT. He says some might say he’s a failure in the business. Tommy returns to the ring and Bully says when he got into the best shape of his career, Tommy was a fat bastard. Bully said he was the one who laid out Ace Austin. Bully says Tommy called him a bitch, he is the one who’s crying like a bitch on television.
Tommy says he is crying because of his mom. Bully says he doesn’t give a shit about his mother. Tommy Dreamer says he’s going through a lot so let’s motherf’ing do this. Bully Ray backs out of the ring and leaves.
Himanshu’s Hot Take: Great segment. On the mic, you won’t get many better heels in the business today than Bully Ray and faces than Tommy Dreamer. They can take any segment they’re in and make you care for them and what they’re doing. It’s just that it’s 2022 and both would be better served being backstage producing the next generation of talent to help them get over.
Match 3: Major Players (Brian Myers and Matt Cardona) vs Decay (Crazzy Steve and Black Taurus)
Trey Miguel attacks Crazzy Steve before the match and spray paints his logo on Steve’s back. Taurus starts off and gets the advantage on Matt Cardona. Cardona tags out to Myers and Taurus throws him and Cardona out of the ring and hits a suicide dive as we go to commercial.
Back from commercial and Myers has an advantage on Taurus until Myers whips Taurus into the corner and eats a moonsault. Both tag out and Crazzy Steve has the advantage and bites Myers but Myers pushes Steve into Cardona who hits and elbow and they hit a combination move for the win.
Result: Major Players def. Decay by pin.
Rating: ***
Himanshu’s Hot Take: I am glad that there are teams like Decay to fill up the tag team division and I’m glad that it was Steve that took the pin here thus protecting Taurus. I do wish though that Taurus got a big push from the company either as a singles guy or in a tag team as he is a special talent. The Major Players will go on to contest for the World Tag Team Championships.
Mickie James and Jordynne Grace have a contract signing backstage presided by Scott D’Amore. Jordynne says she will say her piece in the ring. Mickie James says Jordynne assumes she is going to win like its a foregone conclusion. Tasha comes out and she said that she beat Mickie not once but twice. The Last Rodeo is not going to happen without going through her first. Mickie says Hard To Kill is in a month so she will kick Tasha’s ass tonight. Jordynne says the contract is already signed and she will not let Tasha fight Mickie. Mickie asks if Jordynne doesn’t think Mickie can beat Tasha. Tasha leaves and Mickie says she didn’t need Jordynne’s help.
Himanshu’s Hot Take: It is tough to build tension for a match when you have a face vs. face where both wrestlers get along but they did a good job of trying to do that here with Mickie thinking that Jordynne underestimates her and doesn’t think that Mickie can beat Jordynne while Jordynne is genuinely trying to be her friend. It also makes the viewer think whether this isn’t Mickie’s last match and that she indeed wins the Knockouts title like she promised.
Interview with Bailey and Gia Miller asks him about Kenny King spitting water in his face last week. Bailey says King is trying to get under his ring. If he wants to face him, he will see him in the ring, but if all he wants to do is play games, Bailey isn’t going to go along with that.
Match 4: Angels (w/The Design) vs Sami Callihan
Callihan hits a pop-up powerbomb on Angels to start. He is about to hit a Cactus Driver but Angels gets out if the ring. Callihan chops Angels and hits a back body drop on the apron. He is about to hit a Cactus Driver on the apron but Angels gets out of it. The Design distracts Sami and Angels hits an STO on the apron. Sami gets back into the ring and Angels unloads punches on him. Angels has a crossface on Angels but Sami bites his hand. Sami hits an elbow followed by a brainbuster for two. Sami takes him on his shoulders but Angels rakes his eye, hits a discus clothesline and hits a frog splash for two. Angels goes to the top again but missed the frog splash. Sami hits the Cactus Driver ’97 for the win.
Result: Sami Callihan def. Alan Angels by pin.
Rating: ***
Himanshu’s Hot Take: A solid competitive match for Alan Angels. It would have been easy with The Design at ringside to make it seem like he depended on them to be competitive with Callihan who is a former IMPACT World Champion, but Angels had a great showing here.
Callihan stares at Deaner after the match but Kon attacks Sami from behind. Big Kon holds him up as Alan Angels hits a spin kick on Sami. Deaner walks over Sami’s body and smiles.
Gisele is backstage and she goes upto Deonna and says they should get the band back together. Deonna says she is not in the band, she is the Yoko Ono, she broke the band up. Gisele says Deonna has a rematch but no partner, why not team with her. Deonna says alright.
A vignette for Taylor Wilde. She is reading tarot cards. She says she is neither masculine nor feminine, without the shadow there is no light, without conflict there is no victory, from the disillusionment emerges a wild witch.
Match 5: Joe Hendry and Bhupinder Gujjar vs Johnny Swinger and Zicky Dice
Joe Hendry says he doesn’t know what kind of sick things happen in the Swinger Dungeon, but he hears a lot of moaning. But in Hendry’s dungeon they only hear “we believe” and what they believe in is 250 pounds of pure motivation.
Hendry hits a stalling vertical suplex on Swinger. Gujjar tags himself in. Moose jumps the barricade and tries to attack Hendry but Hendry gets out of the way. Hendry says if they want to talk they can talk. Moose picks up a steel chair as Hendry goes to the back leaving Gujjar all by himself. Gujjar takes out Dice and hits the Gargoyle Spear on Swinger for the win.
Result: Joe Hendry and Bhupinder Gujjar def. Johnny Swinger and Zicky Dice
Rating: **1/2
Himanshu’s Hot Take: I thought for sure that with Hendry gone from the match, Swinger and Dice would pick up their first of 50 wins but that was not to be. Fun stuff.
Jason Hotch is backstage tying his shoelaces as John Skyler walks in and Hotch says what happened to Skyler out there was a lack of respect. Skyler agrees and says people call them a “good hand” like that’s a bad thing. He suggests they form a tag team and they shake hands with their fingers.
Maclin is backstage and says if you work hard you will be rewarded but there is no reward here in IMPACT Wrestling. Maybe he has to do whatever is necessary to get what he wants which is the World Title. Rich Swann is in the wrong place at the wrong time and and next week it is tag ’em, bag ’em and mayhem for all.
Match 6: Heath and Rhino vs The Motorcity Machine Guns for the IMPACT World Tag Team Championships
Rhino and Shelley start and Rhino hits a shoulder tackle on Shelley and tags out. Heath gets a wristlock but Shelley pushes him against his corner and gets the tag to Sabin. Sabin and Shelley double team on Heath and Sabin gets a one count. Tag to Shelley and they hit a double dropkick on Heath in the corner. Heath hits a powerslam on Shelley as we go to commercial.
Back from commercial as Rhino is in control of Shelley. Tags out to Heath and he hits a hard chop on Shelley. Tag to Rhino and he knees Shelley in the gut. Heath gets the tag and he hangs Shelley in the tree of woe. Shelley gets out of it and hits Heath face first into the turnbuckle. Rhino gets the tag and clears Sabin away from ringside. Sabin gets the tag and he hits a kick to Rhino on the outside and a crossbody on Heath for two. Sabin gets Shelley on him to hit an assisted DDT on Heath and gets two. Sabin is about to hit the Skull and Bones but Heath gets out of it and Rhino hits a Gore on Sabin and Heath pins him but gets two. Tag to Rhino and he goes for another Gore but he gets countered into a pin for three.
Result: The Motorcity Machine Guns def. Heath and Rhino to become the new IMPACT World Tag Team Champions
Rating: ***3/4
Himanshu’s Hot Take: Good match and probably Heath and Rhino’s best match as a tag team in IMPACT. The Motorcity Machine Guns are definitely the team you want representing your tag team division and I’m interested to see where they go from here with many new teams emerging in IMPACT in recent weeks. The Major Players will definitely be the first in line with Ace and Bey also promising to be a great rival to the Machine Guns in the future.
Sabin and Shelley celebrate to end the show.
