IMPACT Victory Road Review - September 8, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Pre-Show: Alan Angels def. Guido Maritato

This was an open challenge from Angels. Of course, Maritato is the former Little Guido from WWE, and he's been a regular in MLW as of late as part of the new FBI. He was a fan favorite here in New York and looked fine in there with Angels. Unfortunately, most of the match was unwatchable because the feed cut out and we only saw the last minute of it. I'm sure we didn't miss much, but it did give Angels a rare win.

Pre-Show: ABC def. Brian Myers and Moose

It's cool to see that there's such an abundance of teams right now in IMPACT and any of them can slide into championship contention at any given time. This was a good match from two good teams, making the most of the time they had. There wasn't anything at stake, so it was logical for it to take place on the pre-show, just as it was logical for ABC to go over given that they're still chasing current champs The Rascalz.

Impact X-Division Champion Lio Rush def. Kushida

Amazingly, I don't think these two ever had a match in WWE. That's probably because they were never in the Cruiserweight division at the same time. They worked really well together and had a fun match. Rush hasn't been champion for very long and still has a rematch with Chris Sabin coming at some point, so the outcome was never in doubt, but I enjoyed this for what it was. Maybe Rush winning with the low blow means there's more to come between these two?

Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Champions MK Ultra def. Gisele Shaw and Savannah Evans

The Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Championship aren't typically defended on the main card for these live specials, so this was a nice change of pace. That said, this was a fairly average outing, much like most of these Knockouts tag team matches. The stories aren't strong and the titles just seem to exist at this point. Masha Slamovich and Killer Kelley have awesome chemistry, so I'm glad their reign will resume.

Crazzy Steve def. Black Taurus

I'm surprised they went to this match as quicky as they did seeing as how Steve turned on Taurus only a week or two ago. A non-finish here would have been acceptable to extend the feud, but I'm not complaining about Steve winning. He has some momentum coming off those intriguing sit-down interviews with Tom Hannifan and it would have been the wrong call for him to lose. The match itself was okay but could have easily happened on your ordinary episode of IMPACT! Wrestling.

Tommy Dreamer def. Kenny King in a Title vs. Career Match to Win the Impact Digital Media Championship

Heath almost cost King the Digital Media title at Emergence two weeks ago, so you'd think he would've gotten the shot on this show. That said, Dreamer getting the shot instead made sense after the story he told on IMPACT! Wrestling a week ago about his history in this building. There was a realistic chance of him losing and retiring, but I'm happy he got his moment. He doesn't need to champion for long as it was just a token title win. The match itself was decent.

Jordynne Grace def. Deonna Purrazzo

This marked Grace's first match back since earlier this year, when she lost against Purrazzo in a rematch for the Impact Knockouts World Championship. In fact, Grace had never beaten Purrazzo prior to this event, so this was a must-win situation for her. They had their usual quality contest in the time allotted to them and it felt meaningful given their long-running rivalry despite nothing being at stake. I imagine Grace will be gunning for the gold again before long.

PCO def. Bully Ray in an Anything Goes Match

The No Disqualification matches are PCO's strong suit at this point, and while they're not my cup of tea personally, this match probably benefited from the stipulation. It was the chaotic brawl you'd expect from them and the crowd ate it up. I also appreciated that it wasn't longer. Bully being scared of PCO made for a good story and the payoff was well done. We should finally be able to move past this feud.

Impact World Tag Team Champions The Rascalz def. The Motor City Machine Guns

This just felt like an excuse to do the match and not because it's going to lead to anything significant. Emergence didn't have an Impact World Championship defense and it's pretty silly this show didn't, either. On the bright side, this was a blast. It didn't take long for The Rascalz to find their footing as heels and the Guns are obviously one of the best teams around. The Rascalz weren't losing the titles here, but I question putting the Guns in a position to lose with Shelley being the world champ and Sabin chasing the X-Division title.

Impact Knockouts World Champion Trinity def. Alisha Edwards

Edwards posed as little of a threat as anyone who has challenged for this championship in a very long, but I give her credit for holding her own here.​ It was a basic bout for the most part, but they wanted to convince viewers Edwards had a chance of winning with that ref bump. Once it was over, I felt like this existed only so Eddie Edwards and Frankie Kazarian could further their feud, but Trinity and Alisha did what they could to make this interesting.

Josh Alexander def. Steve Maclin

Without an Impact World Championship defense on this show, Alexander vs. Maclin was the next best choice to main event, especially since they were supposed to be the main event back at Rebellion. I wish they had more time to heat their feud back up, but they had an excellent outing, regardless. Neither guy showed any signs of ring rust and they fought like the World title was on the line. Speaking of which, Alexander shifting his focus back toward the championship he never lost seems to be the likely direction heading into Bound for Glory.

Overall Show

There was a very quick turnaround between this show and Emergence and IMPACT still managed to put together a strong show. There weren't too many matches with high stakes (and some of them were television-worthy), but the bigger bouts delivered, specifically Alexander vs. Maclin. This could have passed as a special edition of IMPACT! Wrestling, but then again, you can say the same thing for most Impact Plus specials. I was thoroughly entertained by the event and that was my top takeaway. More importantly, the build has begun for Bound for Glory and we now have a better idea of what we might be getting come Chicago.

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