IMPACT! Wrestling Review - December 1, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rich Swann def. Bully Ray by Disqualification

Bully started the show explaining his actions from Over Drive and ran down everything he's accomplished in IMPACT. As tired as I am of seeing Bully compete in major promotions at this point, I will give him credit for still being a strong promo. He's such an excellent asshole heel. He and Swann had a solid impromptu match and the non-finish protected both guys while also managing to put more heat on Bully. Swann remains directionless, but him standing up for his friend Josh Alexander made sense. I didn't mind most of what they did here, but this entire opening segment lasted way longer than it needed to.

Moose def. Bhupinder Gujjar

Bless IMPACT for trying, but Gujjar simply hasn't clicked with the IMPACT audience yet. Even one of the commentators said that he's still searching for his first big win and perhaps that's part of the problem; he hasn't done anything of note in IMPACT and therefore it's difficult for fans to care. That said, he and Moose had a well-worked match and Moose winning was the right call. Moose moving on to Impact Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry is certainly a choice, though. Is there really nothing else for Moose to do?

Frankie Kazarian def. Steve Maclin by Disqualification

I thought Kazarian's latest IMPACT run wrapped up at Over Drive following his loss to Josh Alexander, but apparently not. Maclin feels he's owed a world title shot and Kazarian is coming off a shot at the title, so it was a logical match to do. Kazarian's great and Maclin has had a hell of a run in IMPACT so far, so they had the top-notch matchup you'd expect from them. I wasn't a fan of running two disqualification finishes on the same show, but if this sets up a rematch, then that's fine because this was thoroughly entertaining.

Mickie James def. Deonna Purrazzo in a Career Threatening Match

James and Purrazzo really brought the best out of each other in their two matches at Bound for Glory 2021 and Hard to Kill 2022. James won both of those bouts, so she technically didn't have much to prove, but this is was the most jeopardy her career has been in yet. They were deserving of the main event slot and had yet another wonderful installment in their series. Post-match, Jordynne Grace emerged and made her title match against James official for Hard to Kill. That one can very well go either way, so I'm looking forward to it.

Overall Show

There was a clip that aired at the very end of the episode showing Deaner and Eric Young sitting across a table from each other and Young demanding Deaner to "eliminate the sickness," which led to Deaner stabbing Young. Yes, it was random, but per PWInsider, it's because Young is on his way back out to WWE. That's one way to write someone off, I suppose. Nonetheless, this was a rare "less is more" edition of IMPACT! Wrestling and I thought it worked really well. All the focus is on the Bully stuff, so make of that what you will. The rest of this show was very good and I enjoyed all of the in-ring action we got.

SEE MORE: IMPACT Reviews