At Rebellion this past weekend, a new era of Impact Wrestling began with the crowning of Steve Maclin as the new World Champion. But, as the saying goes, being the man and staying the man are two different things. And, unfortunately, for Maclin, his next opponent may not even be a man… but, rather, a monster.

 

Match 1: Time Machine (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, and KUSHIDA) vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Jonathan Gresham, and Trey Miguel

This was a fast-paced match, with a lot of action and motion. At one point, Sabin ran the ropes back and forth so fast it was exhausting to just watch him move. Time Machine hit a bunch of slick combo moves throughout the match. Bailey was isolated for a long time, but then escaped and tagged in an explosive Gresham. The action picked up then, and the action came too quick to call, with bodies flying all over.

 

Later, Gresham had KUSHIDA in the Octopus but Trey tagged himself in to take the glory. This led to all six men fighting in the ring, with a highlight being Sabin hitting Bailey with a Release German Suplex off the top. After some more frenzied action, the Time Machine cleared out Gresham and Bailey, and hit Trey with some triple-team offense before Sabin put Trey down with the Cradle Shock for the pin.

This was a really good opener. The dynamic between Gresham, Bailey, and Trey is interesting, given that they are have been feuding for the X-Division Championship. Curious to see where this may go.

Winners: Time Machine

In the back, Gia Miller interviewed the Director of Authority Santino Marella. He said that he might not wrestle often, like he did at Rebellion, but if he needs to, he will. Alisha Edwards stormed in and complained loudly about PCO and how he mishandled Alisha’s husband Eddie at Rebellion. To shut her up, Santino booked her into an impromptu match and told her to leave and get ready to compete.

Immediately after she left, Johnny Swinger and Zicky Dice barged in. Swinger wanted a match so that he could try to chalk up Win #1 on his quest to 50, at which point he will earn a title shot. Marella said he couldn’t keep spending money to bring in talent to face Swinger, so Zicky said he would bring in an opponent for Swinger on his own dime. Marella agreed to those terms.

A spotlight video aired on the new Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo. She said that this is the New Age of the Virtuosa.

 

Match 2: Tara Rising vs. Alisha Edwards

Tara is from Toronto, and the crowd hoped she would be facing another hometown roster member Jody Threat, and weren’t thrilled to see Alisha.  Alisha started off with a quick attack and had Tara in trouble early, dumping her hard to the floor. She threw Tara back into the ring, and shortly thereafter, hit a Facebuster for the pin. Alisha attacked Tara after the match, until Threat made the save.

 

This was short but fine for what it was. The crowd liked seeing Threat who, it would seem, will have her first feud with Alisha.

Winner: Alisha Edwards

In the back, Jody Threat was checking in on Tara Rising. Jody gave Tara a pep talk, and then said that she would make sure that Alisha paid for what she did to Tara earlier.

 

Match 3: Moose (w/ Brian Myers) vs. Yuya Uemara (w/ Bhupinder Guitar)

This was a contest of speed vs. power, and Yuya effectively used a hit-and-run strategy early on. But Myers sacrificed himself to be used as a human shield on an aerial attack, and that let Moose take the momentum. He beat up Yuya for a bit, including with a brutal slap, until Yuya fired up – at least until some interference by Myers on the floor stopped that. Yuya wouldn’t quit and won a mid-ring collision that rocked Moose, as did a German Suplex, which earned Yuya a 2-count. Yuya hit a Suplex off the top, but Myers distracted the ref on the pinfall attempt. Myers did it again after a High Cross Body by Yuya, and this time Gujjar ran over and took care of Myers. The distractions were still effective enough to throw off Yuya, and after snapping Yuya’s neck on the top rope, Moose hit him with a humongous Spear to end things.

 

This was good. Yuya really got a lot of offense in this one and it looked like he actually could have won. Moose is divisive for many fans, but he’s very convincing in the ring with his power and agility.

Winner: Moose

In the back, Jimmy Jacobs interviewed former World Champion Nick Aldis, who returned to Impact at Rebellion. Nick said he appreciated the fans for welcoming him back with open arms. He ran down his career history, from his original rise in Impact Wrestling, then going to other companies and setting the standard for being the World Champion in the modern era. He said that he’s now returned to Impact, older, wiser, and better. He said he has his eye on Steve Maclin’s World Championship. He said that Maclin isn’t ready to carry the burden of being the face and leader of the company, but he is. And when Maclin falters, he’ll be there to take the title away from him. And while he won’t be attending Maclin’s Changing of the Guard ceremony tonight, he will be watching.

 

Match 4: Frankie Kazarian vs. the Good Hands (Jason Hatch and John Skyler)

During their introduction, the Good Hands said they were challenging Frankie to a handicap match since he beat both of them up during the Hardcore War match at Rebellion even though they weren’t in the match. Spurious logic, but whatever.

The Good Hands used their numbers game to beat down Frankie for a while, until he had enough of that.

During his comeback, he used a few submissions to try to tangle up his opponents. In the end, that strategy worked and he won with an Armbar.

This was fine, though the crowd didn’t ever seem to think Frankie was ever in any real trouble.

Winner: Frankie Kazarian

The Coven held a witchy ceremony. The tarot cards revealed that something new was coming. They badmouthed Deonna Purrazzo and predicted her downfall, witchy-style.

A guerilla self-video of Sami Callihan aired. He said that he never wanted to join The Design, but was only playing puppet-master. He said that it was always his plan to take them down. He said his plan remains simple: destroy The Design one member at a time.

 

Match 5: Sheldon Jean vs. Joe Hendry (c) – for the Digital Media Championship

The crowd liked to sing and wave along to Hendry’s entrance song, but after the bell rang, they seemed evenly-divided between the two, based on the dueling chants. The commentators mentioned that Jean was on track to win the Canadian version of Big Brother   but the season got shortened by the COVID-19 lockdown, so he never got the prize money, something that has put a chip on his shoulder. Jean missed out on the winner’s purse (TM: Gorilla Monsoon) on this night as well, after a good physical battle. In the end, Hendry put Jean down for the count with the Standing Ovation.

This wasn’t quite a squash match, as Jean did get some offense during this one, but it was very much a showcase for Hendry.

Winner, and still Digital Media Champion: Joe Hendry

 

Steve Maclin’s Changing of the Guard ceremony

The new World Champion came to the ring flanked by a squadron of camo-clad soldiers. The American flag on the screens and red, white, and blue streamers adorned the ring. The crowd didn’t appreciate this, and chanted for Josh Alexander and called Maclin a paper champion.

Maclin said that he came to Impact to find himself and he did that with a bullet, ultimately becoming the World Champion. He said that his mission was to not only to beat Alexander for the title, but also to win the title on Josh’s home soil. He said he will continue the mission by embarrassing any Canadian wrestler, and made an open challenge to any of Josh’s countrymen in the building.

This brought out Impact President Scott D’Amore, who joined Maclin in the ring. D’Amore said that he always believed Maclin had the ability to become champion. But he questioned whether Maclin made the challenge only to Canadians in order to avoid facing Nick Aldis.

 

Maclin denied the accusation, and questioned D’Amore’s toughness by not accepting the open challenge. D’Amore bristled up and it looked like they were going to throw down.

Instead, D’Amore said that at Under Siege, Maclin will face a Canadian opponent. More specifically, a Perfect Canadian One. In other words, PCO.

PCO came to the ring. Maclin’s goon squad swarmed PCO and tried to hold him down so Maclin could put him through a table propped up in the corner. But PCO monstered up and took them out. He beat up Maclin and Powerbomb him through the table, but Maclin escaped and skedaddled out of the ring. With his prime target gone, a crazed PCO settled for some secondary targets, running through two of Maclin’s goons and smashing them through the table. PCO posed to the crowd’s cheers as Maclin glared at him from the top of the ramp, bringing the episode to a close.

 

Top photo: ImpactWrestling.com

Impact Wrestling - April 20th, 2023
3.5

Rebel Entertainment Complex - Toronto, ON

With the title situation resolved at Rebellion, this week had to set the table for Maclin’s reign. And the selection of PCO as his first challenger kicked things off in an interesting way. With Nick Aldis also in the background, there are a few ways where this could go, and that adds to the intrigue. The lengthy first match was very good, and the other matches tonight did what they had to do. Ultimately, the final segment was the payoff to the show, and it was well-done, but not sure that it was a truly epic moment.