IMPACT! Wrestling Review - March 17, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact World Tag Team Champions The North def. TJP and Fallah Bahh

TJP and Bahh have had The North's number for weeks and beat them at every turn before challenging for the championships here, so they had a legitimate chance of capturing the titles. Although they came up short, the dynamic duo looked good in defeat. This received plenty of time and was an enjoyable opener. It's clear The North are en route to becoming the longest-reigning Impact World Tag Team Champions of all-time, but I'm curious who will end up taking those titles from them considering they've already dominated a majority of the division. Will they wait until Rich Swann is cleared and reunited with Willie Mack to have them take the titles off The North?

Chris Bey def. Damian Drake

I've seen plenty of Bey over the last six months between his appearances in WWE, Ring of Honor and most notably IMPACT. I'm stoked he's signed with IMPACT full-time as I can see him being a big part of the X-Division going forward. He had a strong showing here and Drake sold his offense well. I'm looking forward to watching him develop because he has a ton of potential.

Cancel Culture def. The Deaners

Yes, Rob Van Dam and Joey Ryan are officially calling themselves "Cancel Culture". Ryan has completely changed his look to reflect how he's ditching the "sleazy" persona he had before. I don't hate it, but it reeks of Right to Censor. RVD is still the same, but his girlfriend Katie Forbes is wearing a fur coat now to not show off any skin (even though she was clearly wearing her gear underneath?). At any rate, the match was fairly basic and the heels went over as they should have.

Kiera Hogan def. Lacey Ryan

Ryan appeared on IMPACT not too long ago and unsuccessfully challenged Jordynne Grace for the Impact Knockouts Championship. I thought she had an impressive outing that night, so I'm glad she was brought back for another shot against Hogan. She once again looked good here, but Hogan had to win. She's been out injured for a little bit and also shined in her return.

Daga def. JAke Crist

I completely forgot about how Crist was Impact X-Division Champion just a few short months ago. He's a talented wrestler, but he hasn't done much of note since then. On the bright side, this was a very well-wrestled match and it's great to see Daga building momentum. I liked how they were given an ample amount of time to work with and Daga winning was the right call.

Sami Callihan Attacked Ken Shamrock

A big announcement involving Shamrock was hyped all night long, and when the leader of ICU was never revealed as promised, you had to know exactly where this was going. The announcement was that Shamrock will be inducted into the IMPACT Hall of Fame over Bound for Glory weekend later this year. Sami Callihan then emerged and laid out Shamrock with a fireball. I don't think there was a doubt in anyone's mind that Callihan was behind ICU. I have to assume this angle was supposed to build to a bout between them at the TNA: No Place Like Home show, but with that not happening, who knows when it will take place.

Overall Show

First and foremost, all the mentions of Lockdown happening later this month and TNA: There's No Place Like Home over what was supposed to be WrestleMania weekend were embarrassing. I realize there was text spliced in announcing that Lockdown was postponed, but they should have pulled the episode all together to erase any mention of either event or at least have Josh Mathews do a voiceover saying what the status of the show is. NWA Powerrr did that this week, but maybe IMPACT couldn't do the same because of how they actually air on television. Other than that, I enjoyed this edition of IMPACT! Wrestling. The wrestling on the whole was better than it's been in weeks, there was some successful advancement with Shamrock vs. Callihan, and the stuff in the middle didn't drag as much as it normally does.