IMPACT! Wrestling Review - November 3, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

"Speedball" Mike Bailey def. Kenny King in an Impact X-Division Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

As the commentators noted, Bailey never got his rightful rematch for the title after losing it to Frankie Kazarian at Bound for Glory. He couldn't have at least gotten an automatic bye to the semifinals? Nonetheless, this was as well-wrestled as their original encounter two months ago. Obviously, Bailey winning made the most sense, and it was a decisive victory this time. King is officially flying solo now that Honor No More is, well, no more.

Savannah Evans def. Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Champion Jessicka

I'm all for giving the women an ample amount of time, but not necessarily in this case because I truly do not care about either Evans or Jessicka. Evans isn't great and Jessicka has never been great. Also, Jessicka's gimmick doesn't make me any more interested in her than I was when she was Havok. This was a mediocre match designed to give Evans a win to build toward her and Tasha Steelz challenging The Death Dollz soon for the Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Championship.

Sami Callihan def. Eric Young by Disqualification

The commentators noted that this was the first one-on-one encounter between the two in IMPACT. This stemmed from Young eliminating Callihan from the Call Your Shot Battle Royal at Bound for Glory. What we got from this match was good, but it ended before it could really get going. The big takeaway was that Violence By Design's two newest members are the former Konnor from WWE (a.k.a. one-half of The Ascension) and Alan Angels. Yes, Angels left a loser faction in AEW just to join another one in IMPACT. You can't make this stuff up. Needless to say, Violence By Design is significantly less interesting than they were six months ago, but I know Joe Doering's illness was unexpected.

Ace Austin def. Moose

Austin and Moose don't have much bad blood, so I thought it was a weird choice to book this heel vs. heel match. Despite that, both guys are great and unsurprisingly had an enjoyable outing. The real focus was on Bully Ray causing a distraction at ringside and costing Moose the win, setting up Bully Ray vs. Moose for Overdrive. This whole "Can Bully Ray be trusted?" storyline has gotten a ton of television time, and it's difficult to say whether that's a positive or a negative until we see where it's headed.

Impact World Champion Josh Alexander and Frankie Kazarian def. Aussie Open

I believe Aussie Open were still the STRONG Openweight Tag Team Champions at the time of this taping, but they have since lost the titles to The Motor City Machine Guns. Regardless, they didn't come out with the belts for this bout. At any rate, this was a classic case of babyface opponents attempting to coexist ahead of their upcoming clash. It was refreshing that they managed to stay on the same page and pull out the win without having any issues. It was an entertaining main event between four terrific talents.

Overall Show

There was a brawl between Eddie Edwards and PCO in the desert halfway through the show, so there was that. This was a middle-of-the-road show for IMPACT with the best parts being the beginning and the end. Bailey and King worked well together as did Alexander and Kazarian as partners. The card for Overdrive is coming together, but it doesn't look like a particularly strong show on paper. Here's hoping it exceeds expectations. Thankfully, IMPACT still has two more weeks to muster up some interest for it.

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