Impact Wrestling has been making quite a wee bit of noise as of late and with their event Hard To Kill having just gone down this past Saturday, they are still getting that attention. It can be argued that the attention thrown their way had a lot to do with the fact that Mickie James was announced for WWE’s Royal Rumble event scheduled to go down later this month, which let’s be honest, is pretty big news. That definitely started quite a bit of buzz for the promotion for sure.
Hard To Kill had a lot to offer, it must be said, and yes, even beyond the attention garnered by the aforementioned fact. The matches were pretty amazing, as were some debuts that occurred at Hard To Kill and of course at the tapings that went underway in Dallas on the weekend as well.
‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey premiered at Hard To Kill and at the aforementioned tapings, where he defeated Ace Austin, Chris Bey and Laredo Kid; Charlie Haas, former member of Team Angle over in WWE, premiered according to a report at Wrestling Inc, and he challenged Josh Alexander, who defeated Jonah in their match at HTK. It was during the tapings for future Impact episodes that this altercation occurred.
This possible pairing has made many fans of their amateur style of pro wrestling quite excited. They should be able to put on quite the match once this feud gets going if it does, which I hope it does for obvious reasons.
At Hard To Kill, a few Ring Of Honor wrestlers also appeared during the festivities, specifically Maria Kanellis, Matt Taven, Vincent, Mike Bennett, and even the legendary PCO. They mixed it up with Impact wrestlers, specifically Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Heath and Rhino who had a match against The Good Brothers and Violent By Design during their hardcore match at Hard To Kill. The team of Heath, Rhino, Rich Swann, Willie Mack and Eddie Edwards won that bout.
The commentary team featured a few new voices which included the former Tom Phillips of WWE—he now goes by Tom Hannifan.
Seeing that there was also a match between ROH Champion Jonathan Gresham and Chris Sabin, ROH analyst, Ian Riccaboni called the match. Of course Gresham retained. With his new promotion starting this month as well—Terminus—it seems as though he will be bringing the ROH title there. The future of ROH is still a big question, but it seemed as though they invaded Impact last night, as the announce team also suggested, and in a big way. Who knows where they go next with this and the plethora of talented ROH stars, but it’s reason for excitement for sure and could mean even more attention for Impact.
And to go back to Mickie James for a moment, her Texas Death Match vs. Deonna Purrazzo was epic. That word gets thrown around a lot these days, but really, the match was just that. These women held their own, and not only that, they made a few statements in the way they delivered that match. Shades of Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa could be seen, but a few original spots also were seen. Hats off to both these women.
So now it’s pretty much set: Mickie James will be entering the Royal Rumble as Impact Knockouts Champion, and if that doesn’t send the statement that the landscape of pro wrestling has surely changed, then nothing really will.
Moose of course retained his title defending against Matt Cardona and W. Morrissey, and it was thought that Josh Alexander would be challenging him for the title, but according to reports from the tapings in Dallas, it looks like he needs to deal with Charlie Haas first. Who Moose will face next remains to be seen.
Overall, it certainly looks like Impact Wrestling is starting the New Year on the right foot, and with so many different stars on board, who knows just how much attention they can get for themselves.
Other results from Impacts Hard To Kill: Jake Something defeated Madman Fulton; Tasha Steelz won the first-ever Knockouts Ultimate X Match, and of course Trey Miguel won his match against Maclin, retaining the X-Division Title.
