Impact Under Siege

Overall Rating: ★★★●★★☆

I enjoyed the whole show this time. Not a bad match in the whole thing. Probably nothing that I'll be thinking about much beyond today, but it was well worth watching.

1. Singles (Madison Rayne vs. Gisele Shaw)
   ★★★●★☆☆
   I haven't really paid much attention to Gisele Shaw before, but she has some cool moves, and this was a decent opener for the show.
2. Singles (Steve Maclin vs. Chris Sabin)
   ★★★●★☆☆
   When I see him in matches like this I'm reminded why it took me a while to realise how good Chris Sabin is. A bit long, a bit slow, pretty unremarkable.
3. AAA Reina de Reinas Championship (Taya Valkyrie vs. Deonna Purrazzo)
   ★★★●★★☆
   I went into this thinking I knew exactly how it was going to go but they managed to change my mind and I didn't know how it was going to end until it did. That said, the actual ending itself wasn't great.
4. X Division Championship (Ace Austin vs. Trey Miguel)
   ★★★●★★★
   These two are great. They make everything look super athletic and effective. I'd watch them fight each other every week.
5. Five-on-Five Tag (Honor No More vs. Bullet Club)
   ★★★●★☆☆
   Too many dudes. There were some very good bits but it's just too hard to buy into it because there's no cohesive story. A big fight like this needs everyone to be doing things all the time - or for the camera to cut away so that we can imagine they're still fighting each other where we can't see. Having dudes just stand around waiting their turn, although it makes sense in the context of a supposed sport, doesn't work narratively.
6. Knockouts Championship (Tasha Steelz vs. Havok)
   ★★★●★★☆
   Really cleverly done. Making Steelz the confident champion but Havok the more physically dominant competitor seems like it shouldn't work, but it did. You could totally buy both that Havok was bigger and stronger, and that she was still somehow the underdog with something to prove.
7. Men's Tag Championship (Violent by Design vs. The Briscoes)
   ★★★●★★★
   I don't think much of VBD, conceptually or in execution, but they're good enough that if you put them in a ring with the Briscoes, you get a great match. Tag team wrestling, when it's done right, is the best wrestling - and the Briscoes are among the best at it.
8. Men's Championship (Josh Alexander vs. Ishii Tomohiro)
   ★★★●★★☆
   I think I'd have possibly rated this a full 7/7 if it hadn't been for the championship, but unfortunately adding that belt into the mix just had me convinced that it wasn't going to change hands, and nothing they did could change my mind. If I can't believe the stakes of your story, I'm just not going to be that interested in the outcome.