Impact returns from Queens, NY after taking a week off with the build towards Hard To Kill. 

Opening video was a full recap of the 6-person elimination gauntlet that lasted over an hour that crowned a new number one contender in Tessa Blanchard. Big emphasis was also put on Swann’s huge performance in the match, overcoming Moose and Elgin, only to fall to Brian Cage. 

Show opened with Gabbi Loren interviewing Michael Elgin about the loss. Elgin said that tonight, he’s going to beat someone. 

Eddie Edwards vs. Brian Cage ended in a no contest

Wrist control chain wrestling to start the match, transitioned into Cage running through Edwards chops into a shoulder tackle. Eddie used his speed advantage to side step him to the outside and go for a jumping rana, that Cage almost blocked by catching Eddie in the air.

Eddie and Cage exchanged some chops and kicks until Cage brought in Eddie with a deadlift auplex for a two count. Cage gained control chopped and tossed Eddie around the ring. Cage hit a couple of backbreakers for another two count. backplex for a third two count. 

Eddie made a comeback blocking Cage’s suplex attempt and after some dodging landed a suplex of his own. Eddie hit Kobashi chops and a second rope hurricanrana. blue thunder bomb for a two count by Eddie. 

Eddie went for a tiger driver, but Cage blocked it and hit a side suplex for a two count. Cage went for the F-5, but Eddie escaped. Cage hit a knee to the face while Eddie hit an enziguri. Cage came back with a big lariat and both men went down. 

Both started trading strikes when Michael Elgin came out and attacked both men. Fans booed. Elgin attacked Eddie mostly until the referees pulled him away.

Commentary told us that this match is being restarted now as a three way.

Michael Elgin defeated Brian Cage & Eddie Edwards in a three way match

Obviously, Eddie and Cage now teamed up against Elgin for a bit, but Elgin being fresher, was able to dodge them and get a quick roll up on Eddie for a two count. Eddie sent both men outside and hit a dive on Elgin as Cage dodged and set himself up, following with a tope con giro on both men. 

Back in the ring, all three men traded clotheslines, with Eddie getting a two count with a twisting Suplex on Cage, until Elgin broke it up. Elgin and Eddie exchanged chops and clotheslines, and now all three men exchanged superkicks. 

Enziguri by Eddie on Elgin, followed by a top rope Hurricanerana, tossing Elgin into Cage. Elgin hit a German on both Eddie and Cage, missile dropkick on Eddie, and one final clothesline on Cage, sending both to the outside. Elgin followed with a big top rope senton to the outside.

Back from commercial,  Elgin is still in control, working over Cage with clotheslines and going for a superplex, but Eddie recovers and blocks him. Eddie hits a blue thunder bomb on Elgin and the backpack stunner on Cage for a two count, but floats it over into a half crab until Elgin breaks the submission via multiple forearms to the face. Eddie goes for the Crab on Elgin, but Elgin kicks him off. Cage now recovered, takes down Eddie with clotheslines and that pumphandle into an x-factor. 

Elgin hits a dragon suplex on Cage and clotheslines both men, diamondgiri on Eddie, followed by a pop-up slam. Elgin hits a suplex and falcon arrow on Cage for a two count. Elgin finally goes for the Elgin Bomb, but Cage blocks him and turns it into an Alabama slam, but out of nowhere, Eddie hits the Boston Knee Party on Cage and a tiger bomb for a two count. 

Eddie goes for another BKP, but Elgin blocks him and exchanges forearms with Cage. He hits a Tornado DDT on Cage. Eddie took out Elgin, but Cage was there to take out Eddie with a lariat. All men down and the fans chant “Impact Wrestling”.

Cage went for a top rope rana on Elgin, but was dropped on the ropes. Eddie took out Elgin and hit the BKP on Cage for a two count. Elgin went for a German on Eddie, but Eddie countered, they traded strikes, Eddie hit the German, but Elgin no sold and came back with a Lariat. Elgin finally won with an Elgin Bomb. 

Wow, hell of a 30 minute opener. 

Commentary ran down the card for No Surrender this Saturday. Taya vs Havok for the Knockout’s title, Callihan vs Swann for the World title, and Ace Austin defends the title against Eddie Edwards in a table match.

The Rascalz were in the Treehouse talking about Ace Austin’s comments on Trey Miguel’s mom. Wentz and Xavier agreed with Ace a bit. In came Trey Miguel’s mom into the Treehouse, with Trey asking her to not be at ringside tonight during their match. Trey’s mom said that other wrestlers bring their moms to the show and asked Trey if he was embarrassed by her, guilting Trey into letting her be there. Trey’s mom is making meatloaf after the match for the Rascalz. 

Out in the streets of NYC, Moose walked down saying that while he lost to Swann, he is still great as he compares himself to Ali and McGregor on their respective loses. Moose walked up to a basketball court where he bullied two fans who have seen that Moose has been attacking people at the golf course. Moose landed a 3-pointer and then attacked the fans. 

Josh Matthews brought out ODB, who was here to talk about her unfortunate situation where she lost her food truck in a fire. Matthews announced that all proceeds of the show were going to help her fix her food truck. 

ODB said she was happy to be home, she explained that she has been working with the food truck for the last 3 years and explained what happened. She said that unfortunately, insurance wouldn’t cover it and thanked the wrestling community for helping her out. She said that Impact always allowed her to be herself and that Impact reached out to her. 

Suddenly, Taya Valkyrie interrupted the speech. Taya had some backhanded comments for ODB and then bragged about being the longest reigning Knockout’s champion in Impact history. Taya talked trash and told ODB that she would donate to the fund so she could now afford a fire extinguisher, and told ODB to get out of her ring. 

After taking so much, ODB finally knocked down Taya, sending her running away. Taya was amazing here, she can trash talk like no other.

After commercials, commentary informed us that ODB will take on Taya. 

We got footage for a press conference with Matthews and D’Amore talking about Tessa Blanchard vs Sami Callihan at Hard To Kill. Tessa said that she would be professional in her quest and put over Callihan’s work in the last few years. Callihan said that Tessa was a spoiled brat and that she was what was wrong with the new generation of wrestlers because she got everything handed to her. Callihan said he should be glorified for being the only one who actually treated Tessa as an equal, and that on January 12, he’s going to “crack her f***ing skull”. Tessa and Callihan got into a pull apart. 

This looked great, but you could tell there was no press there and the pull-apart could have used more people to make it seem more chaotic.

Ace Austin & Reno Scum (Luster The Legend & Adam Thornstowe) defeated The Rascalz

Trey started the match against Thownstowe, with the former getting the better of the latter with his speed. Ace tagged in and blindsided Trey, getting the upper hand with some quick kicks. Ace went for the paper cut, but Trey escaped. 

Wentz tagged in and overtook Ace Austin with kicks. Dezmond blind tagged and hit a double team combo, forcing Reno Scum to jump the rope and take out Dezmond with a German and footstomp combo. 

Luster The Legend, now legal, worked over Dezmond, mostly with strikes and suplexes. Ace and Scum proceeded to cut the ring in half on Dezmond, mostly quick tags between Luster and Thornstowe, with the latter getting a two count with a standing moonsault. Ace taunted Trey while he stomped Xavier. After cutting Dezmond with the card, Xavier finally managed to hit a desperation kick on Austin and got to tag Trey Miguel. 

Trey came in and took out both Scum members, Thornstowe with a neckbreaker, and Luster with a superkick. When he went for the dive, Ace caught him with a kick on the ropes. Dezmond and Wetnz came in for the aid and hit a combo on Ace to take him out. Wentz and Thornstowe followed with dives, and finally, it was Trey Miguel going for the meteora on Thornstowe for the finish but soon realizes that Ace Austin is out there flirting with his mom. Miguel went to attack him. Thanks to the distraction, Thornstowe recovered and rolled up Wentz to steal the win.

Pretty good match, it’s nice to see The Rascalz get into a serious feud for once.  

Backstage, Jordynne Grace told ODB that she had her back. ODB told her that she’ll only leave some pieces of Taya for her at the PPV. 

Backstage, Johnny Swinger approached Joey Ryan to complain about ‘these kids today’ that are killing the business for them. Swinger tells Ryan that they should form a Kliq together. Swinger said that he has a match with Petey Williams tonight and when he gives his signal, Ryan should come out and take him out. Joey Ryan agrees and goes back to his phone. 

Rob Van Dam and Katie Forbes came out. Forbes did the introductions. Rob cut a promo saying that he would explain his past actions, but that no one would understand him because no one is as great as RVD and no one would ever want to copy any of them. RVD said that he has been raising the bar for many years already. 

Tommy Dreamer came out and challenged RVD to fight Rhino next week, and that he could be the special guest referee. Rob told him that Tommy was living in the past and they’d done this many times already. RVD said that fans always get excited for ECW reunions, but he wants to move on from that because they all keep clinging onto him. Rob passed on the match, but appreciate the offer. 

Rhino now came out and brawled with RVD into a short pull apart. Forbes tried to kick Rhino among the chaos.

Backstage, Acey Romero and Chris Sabin congratulated Swann. Swann said that it wasn’t his night, but now that it’s behind them, they should focus on next week’s Tag Team Open Challenge for the No. 1 Contendership. 

The North walked up and had some comments for Swann going for the title this Saturday. Swann called out Page on his fake comment (which didn’t sound so fake), and told him that next week, they become the No. 1 Contenders for their titles. 

Gabbi Loren interviewed Fallah Bahh about being attacked by the Desi Hit Squad. Bahh talked and said he is still here and she’s damn right he’s gonna fight back. 

Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was ODB defeating Mickie James to win the Knockout’s Championship.

Somewhere in the Undead Realm, James Mitchell introduced Suzie to Havok. Mitchell told Suzie that if she respects Havok’s space, the three of them will be the best of friends. 

Petey Williams defeated Johnny Swinger

Swinger offered a handshake, which obviously was a trick, but Petey was ready and got a quick two count with a school boy. Petey hit a rana and drop toe hold on Swinger, following with a running dropkick to the back. 

Swinger hit a fist drop on Petey, followed by a headbutt, a double axe handle and a couple of elbow drops that Petey dodged. Petey hit a springboard codebreaker, a side Russian leg Sweep, and prepped for the Canadian Destroyer, but Swinger escaped and called out for Joey Ryan. 

Petey locked in the Sharpshooter and tapped out Swinger. Joey Ryan never came out. 

Commentary ran down next week’s card: Tessa vs  Madman Fulton, Sami Callihan vs Ken Shamrock, Rhino vs. RVD and the Tag Team open challenge. 

ODB defeated Knockout’s Champion Taya Valkyrie (w/John E. Bravo) in a non-title match

Taya quickly knocked down ODB with a forearm and started stomping her, but ODB managed to dodge her and hit a couple of shoulder tackles and clotheslines. ODB chopped Taya from corner to corner and landed a fallaway slam, sending Taya to the outside. 

On the other side of the ring, Bravo stole ODB’s flask, distracting her. ODB forced Bravo to take a sip, which he liked. ODB motorboated Bravo and got a one count after a flapjack on Taya. 

ODB went for the second rope, but Taya pulled her feet off and regained control. Taya choked out ODB and hit a running knee for a one count. 

ODB tried to make a comeback with strikes to the midsection and the running Splash, but Taya dodged this last move and hit a running hit attack instead for a two count. Taya hit a double leg drop to ODB’s crotch and locked in an STF for the submission tease until ODB made the ropes. 

Taya hit a Super Dragon style curb stomp and started slamming ODB’s head to the ring and turnbuckles. Taya started getting cocky and playing to the crowd, giving ODB time to recover, which she did in the form of a second rope Thesz Press. ODB hit the running splash and the Bronco Buster and took a sip of the flask but got distracted by Bravo again, allowing Taya to attack her from behind. 

Bravo, now drunk, said he was the champion now, which was an opening for Jordynne Grace to come out and distract Taya. That led to ODB rolling up Taya with a schoolgirl pin for the win. Match was nothing special other than Taya’s fantastic heel shtick. This felt like some sort of Impact retirement match for ODB, giving her a last big win.

ODB and Jordynne celebrated together in the ring to close out the show.

Final Thoughts — 

Ok show, it started really strong, but it closed out with what felt like a nostalgia send off match for ODB. The stories heading into Hard To Kill are now better cemented, and so I’d say that it was a stronger show for stories than anything else. Opener is definitely worth checking out.