IMPACT Rebellion Review - April 16, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Pre-Show: Champagne Singh and Shera def. Heath and Rhino

Have Heath and Rhino been feuding with Shera and Singh recently on IMPACT! Wrestling, or was this just a random pre-show match? I have no memory of these teams ever interacting. The booking of Heath has been weird because he'll be positioned as a serious singles star at times, and then a total afterthought the next as part of his team with Rhino. I was actually surprised they lost here because Singh and Shera never win anything, but I assume there will be a rematch. This was fine.

Pre-Show: Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Champion The Coven def. The Death Dollz

Rosemary and Jessicka are the remaining members of Death Dollz with Taya Valkyrie now in AEW. The Coven just became champions a few weeks ago, so it would have been too soon for them to drop the belts back to Death Dollz. This was well worked, but like most Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Championship matches, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this. The Coven won clean, so I see no reason for this rivalry to continue.

Impact World Tag Team Champions Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Ace Austin) def. The Motor City Machine Guns in an Ultimate X Match

When you get a match with this much talent, it should come as no surprise that it's as excellent as it is. They worked a frantic pace and it was all action from start to finish. This wasn't the classic I thought it might be given the history of Ultimate X matches, but it was a very entertaining opener, nonetheless. On a side note, Motor City Machine Guns are fresh off losing the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship, so now they have no gold at all.

Santino Marella, Dirty Dango and Impact Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry def. The Design (Deaner, Callihan, Angels and Kon) in a 4-on-3 Handicap Match

Marella is Canadian, so him getting back in the ring for a televised match for the first time in almost a decade was the real attraction here, at least for this Canadian crowd. He had nice chemistry with Dango and Hendry, but I can't bring myself to care about The Design or their ongoing angle with Callihan. He finally turned on them, so at least that's finally over with. It was an adequate Handicap match, but this easily could have happened on IMPACT! Wrestling.

PCO def. Eddie Edwards in a Last Rites Match

PCO's matches can be hit or miss, but this stipulation fit him and the feud well. Plus, he's over with the IMPACT audience, so they were behind him here. This won't go down as one of the greatest matches of the year by any stretch, but they had a solid brawl and PCO winning was obviously the correct outcome to end this rivalry once and for all. PCO moving on to the world title picture would be logical, but I'm curious where Edwards goes from here.

Impact X-Division Champion Trey Miguel def. "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Jonathan Gresham in a Three-Way Elimination Match

Much like the opener, it would have been difficult for these three to disappoint. They all had their time to shine and it was a strong X-Division showcase. Miguel has been excelling in the heel role as X-Division champ, so him retaining (in fluky fashion) was the right call. Since Bailey was pinned, Gresham could lay claim to a one-on-one shot at the title if they want to go in that direction.

Team Dreamer (Tommy Dreamer, Frankie Kazarian, Bhupinder Gujjar, Yuya Uemura and Killer Kelly) def. Team Bully (Bully Ray, Moose, Brian Myers, Kenny King and Masha Slamovich)

This nonsense with Dreamer and Bully has lasted way longer than it should have, and throwing a bunch of random people in there didn't help much. This reminded me of Anarchy in the Arena from AEW Double or Nothing last year in that it was all over the place and complete chaos. And no, I don't mean that as a compliment. This wasn't my cup of tea, personally, as I found it to be more of a mess than anything. This ate up a ton of time and none of it was overly enthralling, but on the bright side, Dreamer pinning Ray should hopefully put their rivalry to rest at long last.

Steve Maclin def. Kushida to Win the Vacant Impact World Championship

IMPACT tried hard to make viewers believe Kushida could capture the championship, but Maclin winning made the most sense and was what had to happen. I would've wanted him to win even if Josh Alexander hadn't gotten sidelined. He's been ready for a while and it's cool that IMPACT has been able to make a main event star out of him. This was really good stuff, and with Nick Aldis returning beforehand to sit in on commentary, Maclin already has a big-time challenger waiting in the wings.

Deonna Purrazzo def. Jordynne Grace to Win the Vacant Impact Knockouts World Championship

Putting this on last was a wise choice seeing as how Grace and Purrazzo have proven in the past what they're capable of and they delivered here. It helped that the outcome was genuinely unpredictable as it could have gone either way, but between the two, Purrazzo is the better fit as champion right now. Maybe she can finally avenge her losses to Mickie James when she comes back? This was a top-notch match from two of the very best in the business, let alone in IMPACT.

Overall Show

Kudos to IMPACT for turning a negative into a positive by announcing that this would be a newsworthy night with two new champions being crowned in the top two matches. Not every match was a winner, but the main ones I was looking forward to lived up to the hype. This was definitely a thumbs-up event, which typically tends to be the case with IMPACT when it comes to the pay-per-views. Aldis is an awesome addition to the roster and I'm hoping the product won't miss a beat even in the absence of Alexander and James.

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