IMPACT! Wrestling Review - September 29, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bullet Club (Ace Austin and Chris Bey) def. Trey Miguel and Laredo Kid

It's been a good week for Juice Robinson, who stood in the corner of Austin and Bey here one night removed from wrestling AEW World Champion Jon Moxley on Dynamite (granted, this was taped last weekend). I'm not sure what purpose this was supposed to serve other than to get all of them on the show, but the four X-Division competitors worked well together and had a fun little match. I wouldn't have had Miguel get pinned, though. Whatever happened to all that singles momentum he had at one point?

Impact Digital Media Champion Brian Myers def. Crazzy Steve

All due respect to both guys, but this was a pretty pointless match, especially since Myers already beat Bhupinder Gujjar in a Ladder match to retain the title last week. I couldn't care less about the belt and having it defended regularly on the show doesn't change that for me. Steve has been a non-factor as of late, anyway, so he wasn't much of a threat to win it. He and Myers was perfectly fine, but this was seemed to only exist so Myers could announce afterward that he'll be holding an open challenge for the championship at Bound for Glory.

Black Taurus def. Delirious

This was another random match that didn't need to be booked. It was weird seeing Delirious go from being competitive with Mike Bailey at Victory Road and nearly winning the Impact X-Division Championship to being squashed pretty decisively by Taurus here. Delirious should be booked as an enhancement talent at this stage of his career, but in retrospect, he probably shouldn't have taken Bailey to the limit. I assume Taurus ends up in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match and that this was meant to make him look like a top contender to win it.

Rich Swann, Heath and The Motor City Machine Guns Saved Impact World Champion Josh Alexander From Honor No More

It was emphasized that Eddie Edwards was the first person to pin Josh Alexander at Victory Road since Moose did it at Bound for Glory a year ago. That puts some much-needed heat on this program, but not a ton. Edwards vs. Alexander still doesn't feel as big to me as it should, but I applaud their effort, nonetheless. Alexander and Edwards had a good verbal exchange and the brawl that followed built toward their Bound for Glory bout while also furthering the babyfaces' feud with Honor No More.

Rich Swann and Heath def. Honor No More (Vincent and PCO)

I liked the seamless segue from the brawl to this match, which was already scheduled coming into this show. This was solid stuff yet a fairly average outing. Vincent eats more pinfalls than anyone in Honor No More, so it was predictable Swann and Heath would win to rebound from their Victory Road loss. There wasn't much to this matchup, but maybe PCO eating another loss (despite not being pinned) will play into the story they're telling with him and his possible split from the group.

Masha Slamovich def. Allie Katch in a Monster's Ball Match

As much as I enjoy Slamovich, I wasn't a fan of this crap at all. We've seen so many hardcore matches this year in IMPACT that this didn't pack much of a punch at all and I wish they didn't waste the Monster's Ball stipulation on this. It didn't help they assumed everyone was familiar with who Katch is, and unless you watch GCW regularly, you're probably not. She's mostly a death match wrestler from what I understand and that was evident in this main event because it was just a series of spots (along with some no-selling) and nothing more. Kudos to the women for getting a Monster's Ball stipulation in the main event slot, but I personally thought this was trash.

​Overall Show

I don't know, man. I'm not feeling the hype for Bound for Glory as of now, and I doubt my excitement level will drastically change between now and the pay-per-view next weekend. It's bizarre because the IMPACT product has had an awesome year on the whole, but the build to Bound for Glory hasn't been very strong and the last two weeks worth of shows have been subpar, at least compared to the typical quality of the show. They really need to hit a home run with next week's go-home edition.

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