IMPACT! Wrestling Review - January 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tasha Steelz def. Chelsea Green

I'm stoked Steelz is finally getting more of a chance to shine on her own. Fire 'N Flava was about her and Kiera Hogan and her pairing with Savannah Evans started out with the two of them being positioned more as a team as opposed to Evans being the bodyguard for Steelz. The latter is the correct dynamic and I'm glad they've settled on that dynamic. This wasn't always pretty, but it was a good opener on the whole with both women having solid showings. More importantly, Steelz winning was the right result as they build to her challenging Mickie James for the Impact Knockouts World Championship.

The Influence (Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne) def. Havok in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

The Influence were scheduled to take on both Rosemary and Havok, but they injured Rosemary before the bell, so this turned into a Handicap match. Havok scored a fair amount of offense, which was logical, but the end result was what it should have been considering The Influence have an Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship match coming up soon with The IIconics. This effectively gave more momentum to The Influence.

W. Morrissey def. The Learning Tree in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

Unlike the previous match, this was meant to be a Handicap match from the get-go. I just don't know that I would've put it right after the last Handicap matchup. Of course, this was a lot more decisive and ended much quicker. Morrissey murdered Zicky Dice and VSK and that was it. Morrissey then called out Moose on the mic and vowed to go looking for him backstage. This was short, sweet and straight to the point.

ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham def. Steve Maclin in a Pure Rules Match

Much like at Hard to Kill, it's super cool that IMPACT is keeping Ring of Honor's presence alive by featuring ROH World Championship matches on their programming. This was another entertaining encounter with Maclin being the perfect person to put in a Pure Rules match because, well, he doesn't abide by the rules. They had some fun with that. Maclin continues to impress and Gresham continues to be great. I like how Gresham isn't involved with the ROH invasion stuff at all yet and is doing his own thing.

Impact World Tag Team Champion Doc Gallows and Joe Doering def. Heath and Rhino

The Good Brothers and Violent By Design lost their eight-man tag team match at Hard to Kill. So, why are they still aligned? Better yet, why are they still feuding with Heath and Rhino? That rivalry should be over by now. I was hoping Heath and Rhino would win to earn a title shot against The Good Brothers, but no such luck. The makeshift team won instead, which was weird. It was a decent match, but I don't know where they're going with this. Good Brothers vs. Violent By Design? I mean, I guess?

Josh Alexander def. Charlie Haas

I legitimately don't think I've seen a Charlie Haas match since 2009 when he was released from WWE as I didn't see any of his work in ROH. That said, Haas looked much better than I was expecting him to here as he and Alexander's similar styles meshed extremely well. I had read that Haas was injured during this, and while the spot was noticeable, he actually finished the match and it didn't come off as too abrupt or anything. The ROH guys attacked them afterward and declared that there will be "honor no more," which surely sounds like the name of their new faction. This was strong stuff all around.

Overall Show

IMPACT is successfully continuing their momentum from Hard to Kill by focusing on this new ROH invasion angle (which has my attention so far) and moving forward with Moose vs. Morrissey for the Impact World Championship at No Surrender next month. The rest of the show is still trying to hit its stride again as new storylines develop, but this show was an easy watch. They need to ensure the ROH stuff doesn't take over the entire show because IMPACT has a top-notch roster that should be showcased as much as it was before. This edition of IMPACT! Wrestling moved things along nicely and breezed by for me.

SEE MORE: IMPACT Reviews