IMPACT! Wrestling Review - March 29, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Petey Williams def. Suicide, Rohit Raju and Taiji Ishimori in a Four-Way Match

There wasn't anything on the line in this match, though it was designed to serve as a showcase for the talented stars of the X-Division. It worked in that respect, and it was a very fun way to kick off the night. Everyone played their roles well and the in-ring action was enjoyable. Afterward, Williams essentially announced he'd be cashing in his Feast or Fired briefcase at Redemption for a shot at the X-Division Championship. By the way, I don't know where the hell Suicide has been all this time and who is even portraying the character at this point.

Su Young def. Amber Nova

As I noted last week, Young's gimmick seems a little similar to Rosemary's for my taste, but I imagine those two are destined to do battle before long. This marked Young's in-ring debut for IMPACT, and she looked pretty impressive by making quick work of Nova. I didn't see enough of her to get a good grasp on how skilled she actually is, but from what I've heard from other fans, she should be a solid addition to the Knockouts division, and this effectively put her over as a threat to the Impact Knockouts Championship.

K.M. def. Fallah Bahh

This match was filmed at a WrestlePro independent event, I believe in New Jersey. I appreciate it whenever IMPACT takes their show outside of Orlando, but this looked really low-budget and honestly didn't even need to happen because it was completely pointless. While it was far from a bad match, they mostly went for comedy and it wasn't very well-wrestled. In other words, this was a time killer and nothing more.

Brian Cage def. Lashley

​For a bout that had been built up so heavily in recent weeks, this somewhat fell flat for me. It was a perfectly fine match and both men had average showings, but nothing stood out as special about it. It didn't help that the crowd largely sat on their hands for it, but that might have been because this took place late in the tapings. What's important is that Cage won clean, though it remains to be seen whether the feud will continue and/or if this was the end of Lashley's IMPACT tenure or not.

Impact World Champion Austin Aries def. Impact X-Division Champion Matt Sydal to Win the Impact Grand Championship (The Impact X-Division Championship Was Not Defended)

It's interesting that a match that you would expect to be for the Impact X-Division Championship was actually for the Impact World and Impact Grand Championships. It was cool for Sydal to be prominently featured on the program in the main event slot, and although this match came together at the start of the show, the video package preceding the matchup gave us great insight on both men and their motivations. Unsurprisingly, this was a quality contest and it was especially excellent once they picked up the pace down the stretch. I liked how Williams prevented Josh Mathews at ringside (furthering his own feud with Sydal in the process), and hopefully this means the Impact Grand title is no more.

Overall Show

Although this edition of IMPACT didn't feature a ton of matches, that was what I liked about it, because as I always say, less is more. In addition to what I wrote about above, we saw Eddie Edwards travel to Ohio and attempt to ambush oVe at an indie show, and it was a well done angle. Between the nice little opener, Cage's clean over Lashley and the entertaining main event, the rest of the show held up as well, making it an improvement over last week's effort.