IMPACT! Wrestling Review - February 23, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact World Tag Team Champions and NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns def. "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Jonathan Gresham (Non-Title)

What an awesome opener. Of course, you couldn't have expected anything less given the level of talent in the ring. Bailey and Gresham will be facing each other at No Surrender, so this served as a small preview of the chemistry they'll have when they go one-on-one. The fast pace ensured there was never a dull moment and the action was highly entertaining. This easily could have happened on an Impact Plus special or pay-per-view.

Tommy Dreamer def. Jason Hotch in a Beat the Clock Challenge Match

There's no reason for Dreamer to be having matches that are longer than a few minutes at this point, so I appreciated that this was kept short and sweet. In fact, The Good Hands' promo beforehand lasted longer than the match itself. That's their role right now and they play it well. Plus, the Death Valley Driver off the top from Dreamer to win it was quite cool. This was what it needed to be.

Allysin Kay def. Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Champion Taya Valkyrie

This was the battle of former Impact Knockouts World Champions. I liked that the commentary team mentioned how The Hex are former NWA World Women's Tag Team Champions, establishing that they are indeed a threat to The Death Dollz' Impact Knockouts World Tag team Championship at No Surrender. Both of these women are very good, so of course, this was a quality contest. Kay winning was the right result with this being her first bout back in IMPACT in several years.

Frankie Kazarian and Yuya Uemura def. Callihan and Deaner

They're clearly telling a story with Callihan wanting to prove himself to The Design, but regardless of whether it's leading to him turning on them or not, I haven't found any of it interesting. Deaner is doing his best, but he's not as natural of a leader as Eric Young was with Violent By Design, not to mention Kon and Angels are lame cronies. This was a solid match and the loss further teases tension between Callihan and Deaner, but it's a story I can't currently bring myself to care about.

Bully Ray def. Bhupinder Gujjar in a Beat the Clock Challenge Match

I thought Gujjar would be able to last more than a minute against Bully considering how he's been built up a bit over the last year, but amazingly, Bully hit him with his chain while the referee was distracted and won with plenty of time left. It made Gujjar look like a total loser. Dreamer's post-match pep talk to Gujjar backstage was their way of attempting to make up for it, but I don't know that it worked. If nothing else, I can't complain about getting something quick and painless from Bully.

Impact X-Division Champion Trey Miguel def. Crazzy Steve in a Monster's Ball Match

It's been a while since the X-Division title last felt like a focal point on IMPACT programming, so giving it the main event slot on the go-home show before No Surrender was refreshing. We've seen so many hardcore matches in IMPACT over the last year that a lot of them have blended together for me, but I applaud their effort and the crowd was into it. All in all, it was a fun main event and Miguel showed he could retain his title in an extreme environment.

Overall Show

As is usually the case, IMPACT has done a splendid job of putting together an appealing card for No Surrender and I'm looking forward to the event. This was an effective go-home show on the whole. The stuff in the middle of this show was fairly forgettable, but the video packages were well done and the night opened and closed on a high note. Hard to Kill was an excellent event last month and I'm hopeful No Surrender can keep the momentum for IMPACT going.

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