IMPACT Under Siege Review - May 7, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Gisele Shaw def. Impact World Tag Team Champion Madison Rayne

This was a weird choice for an opener given the heel vs. heel dynamic and the fact that it was arguably one of the weaker matches on the show, but I guess IMPACT wanted to get it out of the way early, which I can't blame them for. Shaw is still improving, but I haven't been blown away by any of her matches yet. She's mediocre in the ring, though working with women as experienced as Rayne will only help her cause. I assume she and her new partner Alisha earn a tag title opportunity coming out of this.

Chris Sabin def. Steve Maclin

These two have been feuding for the last month or so. There hasn't been anything at stake and it's been a rather basic feud, but the storytelling has been simple and the matches have been so enjoyable that it's hard to complain. I can't sing Maclin's praises enough, as he's been killing it left and right against a variety of opponents. This is also some of the best work I've seen out of Sabin as well. They worked wonderfully together here. Considering Maclin won at Rebellion, Sabin winning here surprised me. He also beat Jay White at Multiverse of Matches, so it'd be cool if he received a sustained singles push soon.

AAA Reina de Reinas Champion Taya Valkyrie def. Deonna Purrazzo

This was a rematch from Rebellion where Valkyrie beat Purrazzo for the title. AAA must be loving the amount of exposure that belt has gotten on IMPACT in the last year. At any rate, these two had a good-but-not-great match at Rebellion, but this was better and what was I was hoping for from them. It felt like they were able to reach that next level this time, and although the finish wasn't executed perfectly, I suppose the idea was to protect Purrazzo in defeat so she didn't lose clean on two straight shows. Post-match, Mia Yim made her IMPACT return, which was cool to see. She hasn't appeared for the promotion since she was wrestling as Jade in 2016, so she'll be a welcome addition to an already-stacked Knockouts division.

Impact X-Division Champion Ace Austin def. Trey Miguel

These two know each other very well, as they previously feuded over the Impact X-Division Championship two years ago. Remember when they had Miguel's "mom" involved? Yeah, that was stupid. Both guys have come a long way since then and their chemistry is even stronger now. This was a classic X-Division sprint with a frantic pace as well as awesome energy and urgency. It was too soon for Austin to drop the belt, but I hope Miguel won't get lost in the shuffle now that he's presumably out of the title mix for now.

Honor No More (Eddie Edwards, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Kenny King and Vincent) def. Bullet Club (Jay White, Chris Bey, El Phantasmo and The Good Brothers)

Bullet Club beat Honor No More in an eight-man tag team match a few weeks ago on IMPACT! Wrestling, so Honor No More were owed a win here. Similar to that initial encounter, this was total chaos. It won't be for everyone, but I dug it and liked that everyone involved had a chance to shine. This, in my opinion, has been an example of faction warfare done right. Granted, they're all heels, but the crowd certainly didn't seem to mind. By the way, what will be the endgame with Honor No More? You'd think it'd be Edwards challenging for the championship at some point, but I'm not entirely sure and they haven't had a ton of purpose lately aside from this mini feud with Bullet Club.

Impact Knockouts World Champion Tasha Steelz def. Havok

This was unfortunately up there with Shaw vs. Rayne as one of the worst matches on the show, but that isn't to say it was bad by any means. It was a well-worked match, but it lacked excitement because there was no conceivable way Havok was winning the title. Plus, I'm not a big fan of Havok's singles matches, so this wasn't for me, personally. Again, it was what it needed to be. There wasn't much outside interference and I appreciated that as well.

The Briscoes def. Violent By Design (Eric Young and Deaner) to Win the Impact World Tag Team Championship

If AEW isn't going to sign The Briscoes for something that happened nearly a decade ago and Jay has since apologized for, then it's their loss and IMPACT's gain. They're still such a fun team to watch after all these years and Violent By Design have been holding it down in IMPACT's tag team division for the last year. This was superb stuff from two tandems that excel at tag team wrestling. I figured Violent By Design would find a way to win so Heath and Rhino could take the titles from them at Slammiversary to complete that story, but apparently not. I'm all for The Bricoes being pushed to the top of the tag team division from the get-go, but I'm curious how many teams they'll have to defend against. At the very least, I imagine they'll have a rematch with Good Brothers soon after losing to them at Multiverse of Matches.

Sami Callihan Attacked Moose

Moose wasn't booked to wrestle on this show following his failure to regain the Impact World Championship from Josh Alexander nine days ago. I was wondering what was next for him following his title reign and now we know: a feud with the man he (in storyline) put on the shelf before Bound for Glory. I honestly forgot about Callihan, but I'm glad he's back and this was a logical way to reintroduce him. There's your match for Slammiversary.

Impact World Champion Josh Alexander def. Tomohiro Ishii

Man, what an absolute banger this was. I knew it'd be a top-notch main event given what I've seen from Ishii (specifically in IMPACT), but this went hard and was a real treat to watch. They beat the holy hell out of each other and had the crowd with them every step of the way. I didn't actually think Ishii would take the title from Alexander, but he definitely pushed the champ to his limit. This was a war and a phenomenal one at that.

Overall Show

If you thought IMPACT only delivered on pay-per-view, think again. Obviously, the weekly shows have been consistently strong for a while now, but don't sleep on the monthly Impact Plus shows like this one. It was a tremendous three-hour event with plenty of matches and moments worth going out of your way to see, especially that outstanding main event. The cool thing is that IMPACT doesn't have another big show until Slammiversary in mid-June, giving them plenty of time to build up a big card for one of their most important shows all year.

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