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: FEBRUARY 2, 2023 RESULTS
#5 - DOA Should Be Here To Stay
Santino Marella has been a delight since he joined Impact at the start of the year. The man’s comedic style makes even the most blatantly perfunctory of segments more enjoyable, and tonight was no different. From his slip of the tongue calling himself a dictator instead of a director, to his segment with Raven and the Yeti, Santino’s presence on the Impact roster continues to be entertaining, and help the show flow a lot better overall.
Here’s hoping Santino sticks around for a while.
#4 - Ace Opener
The opening match of the night saw Bullet Club’s Ace Austin and Chris Bey take on Kushida and Kevin Knight, in a rematch from NJPW’s Super Jr Tag League from late last year. Fast and packed to the brim with eye-catching spots, this was the perfect way to start the show.
Ace and Bey are Machine Guns-esque in their in-ring fluency, and Kushida and Knight as a team does a great job of showcasing Knight and getting the crowd invested in the LA Dojo graduate, and re-establishing Kushida as someone worth paying attention to to the American audience.
This match also played with audience expectations well, with the dropkick Doomsday Device attempt resulting in a chicken fight in the middle of the ring, and the Knight dive being intercepted by an apron cutter by Bey standing out as highlights. In the end, a cutter/Fold combo got the win for the Bullet Club. More of this please. These teams have insane chemistry.
#3 - Killer Dollz
The Death Dollz are an endless source of fun and entertainment in Impact, and this week saw the set-up for their next challengers. As Killer Kelly cut a backstage promo about Taylor Wilde, Wilde would interrupt, suggesting instead of fighting each other, they should fight together. No sooner had the words left Wilde’s mouth when Rosemary and co teleported into frame, Rosemary laying down the challenge for Wilde and Kelly, the spooky folks in the room laughing maniacally while Taya and Jessicka laughed nervously.
Given enough time, this should be the kind of over the top, charmingly cheesy fun that makes the Death Dollz so captivating to watch each week. This writer can’t wait to see this match go down.
#2 - I’m Hardcore, She’s Country
Speaking of women in tag matches, Bully Ray’s promo about being the most disliked man in wrestling, and the mutual hate he and Tommy Dreamer shared, was interrupted by Knockouts Champion Mickie James, in a measure of revenge for Bully interrupting her celebration segment two weeks ago.
Mickie told Bully to straight up leave Impact Wrestling, and Bully lived up to his name, threatening and demeaning James. After Mickie had enough and slapped Bully, it looked like Bully would put Mickie through a table with the help of the Good Hands, when Tommy Dreamer made the save. One aforementioned charming promo from Santino later, and we had an Intergender tag match set up for next week.
Simple but effective, at the very least next week’s match should be harmless fun to watch, while furthering a few storylines. You can’t ask for more than that from a segment really.
#1 - Design a Main Event
Sami Callahan completed Step 4 in the 7 Deadly Steps to joining the Design this week, as he redeemed himself for last week’s loss in the Golden Six Shooter match.
A pre-taped segment saw Deaner show mercy to Callihan, opting not to subject him to a beatdown so that the Design had a better chance of winning the 8 man tag against Josh Alexander, Yuya Uemura, Rich Swann and Frankie Kazarian in the night’s main event. This cult angle continues to be my favourite kind in wrestling-one that makes sense.
The main event itself was a nicely paced multi-man match, the faces looking good in their own ways, especially Uemura showing his strength in lifting the 300 pound Kon, whilst Callihan’s indoctrination continued to be portrayed beautifully, with details like Deaner stopping Sami from doing the “thumbs up, thumbs down!” gesture being the icing on an already excellent cake. After a scramble that saw everyone get some moves in, Callahan won the night and saved his skin with a Cactus Driver 97 to get the victory for the Design.
Everything’s running smoothly in Impact right now. It’s nice to see.
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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