Welcome to another edition of POINTS OF IMPACT—a breakdown of the top moments of this week's edition of Impact Wrestling.
This segment will fill you in on the most important parts of the show worth checking out or keeping up to date with, in case you missed this episode of Impact Wrestling.
Without further ado, let's inspect the biggest takeaways of the week!
IMPACT WRESTLING: JANUARY 13, 2023 RESULTS
#5 - Dancing Moose and His Backup Dancers
The main event of this week's episode saw some Booking 101 at play, with the face team of Jonathan Gresham, Rich Swann and Joe Hendry facing Moose, Steve Maclin and Eddie Edwards in a neat little six man tag.
About fifteen minutes without entrances, this week's main event was compact and did all it set out to do, reminding everyone of all the existing feuds going into tomorrow's Hard to Kill event, and giving the Impact fans another glimpse at Jonathan Gresham's unique style of offence in particular. The heels and faces were both on the same page here, making for an exciting, fast paced ending to the night.
It won't win any Match of the Year awards, and it is, when you stop to think about, blatant tying up of loose ends before a PPV, an efficient way of showcasing six competitors just 24 hours before they're all set to compete in what will surely be extended matches. But, it's fun, and everyone involved did their jobs and did them well. You can't ask for much more from a main event.
#4 - Designing a New Sami
For all the flak Impact has gotten (sometimes rightfully) for their booking in the past, in recent years they've shown they're capable of playing the long game, and this week's segment in the storyline between the Design and Sami Callahan is proof of that.
We all know Sami Callahan isn't joining the Design in the realms of kayfabe because he feels drawn to the message of the Deaner-led group. Either he's planning on taking them down from the inside, like Daniel Bryan in the Wyatt Family, or he's planning to take control from Deaner. Sami is a leader, not a follower. He doesn't take orders from others well. But Impact is, I will admit, doing a good job of keeping the fans guessing.
This week's segment saw the Design demand that Sami come out to the ring and let them shave his head, as the start of the process to join the group. Deaner continues to play the cult leader gimmick beautifully, giving Sami an out, telling Sami that the process will be long, brutal and violent, so that later down the line, he can say Sami chose all this, that Sami wants this to happen. The positive reinforcement throughout the segement, with Deaner telling Sami “this is the right decision” every time Sami obeyed his commands, was a nice touch also.
But more importantly, Sami isn't loosing who he is right away. He threw his hat in Deaner's face, demanded that Deaner stop talking and cut his hair, snatched the clippers from Deaner and shaved his head himself. Sami is still defiant, and prideful. Whether this is a ploy, or if we have indeed seen the death of the Death Machine and the birth of Callahan, as Deaner claims, I'm hooked. More of this please. Good job by all around.
#3 - Everything in Moderation
Another thing the Impact creative deserve credit for us knowing when to pump the breaks in recent times, knowing when enough is enough. It was announced during tonight's broadcast that the Jordynne Grace/Mickie James match will main event Hard to Kill, with Bully Ray vs Josh Alexander. That, along with one or two pre-taped promos and hype packages, was all the build we got for the Knockouts Championship this week.
The Impact of old might have insisted on a contract signing, or a pull-apart brawl, or even a warmup match for Grace or James, but no. Not this time. This time, creative knew when to exercise restraint, and stood by the strength of their booking up to this point. And I respect that.
This gave more time to the Knockouts Tag Team Champions, the Death Dollz, who lost the battle to the new group of Giselle Shaw, Jai Vidal, Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans this week. The new foursome attack Taya Valkyrie off camera, which tipped the numbers even more in their favour, and enraged Rosemary, making the Demon Assassin a little more sloppy, a little more careless going into her match with Savannah Evans this week.
The match itself was an exciting back and forth, a beside herself Rosemary taking the fight directly to Evans, who relied on power moves and outside interference to regain the advantage throughout the match. The finish came via shenanigans, the numbers game proving too much for Rosemary this time around, who Evans put away with a Full Nelson Slam. Evans looks credible coming out of this, now with singles wins against Taya Valkyrie and Rosemary, and Rosemary loses no real credibility, being out-numbered as she was.
Moderation people. I'm happy to see it.
#2 - A Jobber Done Right, Part 2
In a warmup match for next week's Fight Pit affair against Kenny King, Speedball Mike Bailey faced Anthony Greene this week, in what was a surprisingly fun match. Speedball was as captivating as ever to watch, but the real highlight of the segment, at least for me, was how good Anthony Greene looked throughout.
In last week's match against Black Taurus, I praised how the match was structured not to paint Greene as utterly hopeless, but simply outmatched in terms of intensity and explosive offence and power by Taurus. That theme continued this week, with Greene getting a ton of sneaky yet brutal offence, such as the school boy roll up by Greene that sent the back of Bailey's head into the turnbuckle.
Too often, big companies will portray their heels, and their jobbers, as hopeless. Anthony Greene is a shining example of how it should be done. Was the finish ever in question? No. But Greene looked like he belonged in a wrestling ring. That's more than I can say for heels in other companies.
#1 - Begin as You Mean to Go On
Impact started, as Hard to Kill will tomorrow, with the World Championship match. Josh Matthews is much more tolerable away from commentary, and did a fine job being the professional, matter of fact interviewer here, mediating a Zoom conference between champion and challenger, both at home as requested by Impact management.
Josh Alexander wears the weariness a man in his position would so well. His friends and family have been terrorised and attacked by Bully Ray over the last few months, and Alexander, as any of us would be in his situation, is tired of it all. But he isn't giving up. Nor does he appear wimpy. He is a good wrestler, and a good man, trying to keep his anger in check. He is trying to avoid becoming someone like Eddie Edwards, a man who lost himself to anger for understandable reasons, and the tired anger something like this brings about is conveyed beautifully by the champion.
The challenger, on the other side of the Zoom call, also plays his part well. Bully Ray has, as the hype packages throughout the night note, gone into uncharted territory. He has pissed away all of his friendships, all of the goodwill he might have had, for this opportunity. And the doubt creeping in to Bully's mind, instead of being conveyed by a cartoonish breakdown, instead of being portrayed by a Flair-esque beg for mercy, is portrayed in subtle details.
Bully compares Alexander to Kurt Angle multiple times, and admits that in a normal wrestling match, he likely couldn't beat Alexander. He says, in a hype package later in the night, that he becomes a different man when the World Title is in the picture. He leaves the video conference first, giving Alexander the last word. But he never confronts his doubt blatantly. He demands Alexander admit that Bully is in his head, he wears his cap low during a pre-taped promo, so the shadow covers his eyes. All the small, important details, the challenger absolutely nails. As I've said before, I don't know what direction Impact will choose tomorrow. But I do know two things. The build to this world title match has been outstanding. And it's sure to be one hell of an opener.
What did you think of this week's episode of Impact Wrestling?
Do you think any other moments stood out on this show?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
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