IMPACT! Wrestling Review - October 5, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tasha Steelz def. Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Champion Killer Kelly

Steelz returned at IMPACT 1000 but was completely lost in the shuffle while sharing the ring with so many names bigger than her. She's had success in IMPACT, but it feels like she's done all she can do and isn't interesting enough on her own at this point. It looks like she'll be going after the Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Championship, but that feels like one of those "been there, done that" type of things. This was well wrestled while it lasted, though.

Crazzy Steve Attacked Impact Digital Media Champion Tommy Dreamer

Dreamer recounting his history with Steve from over the years (a lot of stuff that has never been discussed on television) and bringing up how he's legally blind was great, but Steve stabbing Dreamer in the back with a fork was a bit over the top. I understand his character is supposed to be sadistic, and Dreamer has endured worse in his career, but the crowd had an uncomfortable reaction to it. At least this set up their Impact Digital Media Championship match for Bound for Glory.

Eric Young, Jake Something, Jordynne Grace, Dirty Dango and Champagne Singh def. Brian Myers, Shera, Bully Ray, Kilynn King and Jody Threat

I guess this was confirmation that all of these people will be taking part in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match at Bound for Glory, as the winning team here will compete in a five-way match next week to determine who enters first and last. IMPACT does a lot of intergender wrestling, and some of it is fine, but this sort of stuff isn't for me. It wasn't bad necessarily, but it was basically a throwaway match with several stars who are currently directionless. I really didn't care which team won.

ABC def. John Skyler and Jai Vidal in a Fan's Revenge Match

Would it not be a Fans' Revenge match because there were multiple fans around ringside? Sorry, the placement of the apostrophe bothers me, and that's how it was written on IMPACT's website and YouTube channel. Nonetheless, this was actually fun for what it was. ABC have been screwed by Good Hands a few times, so this gave ABC a measure of, well, revenge, even though Vidal had to fill in for the injured Jason Hotch. It was gimmicky, sure, but it worked for these guys and they had a good match.

Moose def. Bhupinder Gujjar

Okay, there was a lot going on here, but no with the match itself. That was a total squash that Moose won with ease as he should have. The post-match angle was chaotic with Steve Maclin accusing Moose of stealing his Feast or Fired briefcase, followed by PCO attacking Moose and Brian Myers in the ring while Rhino laid out Maclin on the stage. Are we getting some sort of multi-man match at Bound for Glory, or will they all just be involved in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet and their stories will intertwine there?

Josh Alexander def. Kon

I remember the match these two had around a year ago where Alexander won in roughly a minute or two. I also remember being happy with the way it went down because I had no desire to see the former WWE Ascension member be competitive with the then-Impact World Champion. I know Kon's been around in IMPACT since then, but this definitely did not need to be the main event. Despite that, Alexander got a solid match out of him. The bigger focus was on Alex Shelley attacking Alexander afterward, seemingly cementing his heel turn (though we'll have to wait until next week for confirmation because it looked like he turned weeks ago and nothing came of it).

Overall Show

Bound for Glory is shaping up to be a hell of an event on paper, but this was not a strong show. In fact, it was quite forgettable on the whole, including the largely-average main event. The build for Bound for Glory was well done and I suppose that's what's most important, but none of the matches reached that next gear for me, though the Fan's Revenge match exceeded my expectations. I found this to be a rare miss of an episode from IMPACT, but I'll chalk it up to it being an off week as I still find myself looking forward to the pay-per-view.

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