5 Biggest Takeaways From IMPACT’s Multiverse Of Matches
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Last weekend Impact Wrestling held their Wrestlecon event, which they called The Multiverse of Matches. It took place on Friday April 1 and overall I don’t think any Impact fans could be less happier than what we saw. The show from top to bottom had 9 matches and every match flat out delivered, I would even hesitate to say it was Impact Wrestling’s best show since Hard To Kill of this year.
For some time now we have seen Impact Wrestling place 11 matches on their cards, this really stacks the card and gives you a lot for your money, however it can sometimes make a few matches feel a little short or even take some backstage segments out completely. With 9 matches here, they had a much better balance and even ended the show with a good 8 minutes to spare.
With Multiverse Of Matches producing such a great show, there is so much that we as Impact fans (an other fans) are able to talk about. With Rebellion also in our view on April 23, Lets have a look at 5 things we can take away from The Muliverse Of Matches.
5. Intergender Wrestling Done Right.
Intergender Wrestling is still a style of wrestling that is not to everybody’s taste, it will always be a style that will split the fan base. However Impact understand the pros and cons to it and are able to book it in a way that it doesn’t even feel like intergender wrestling. Everyone involved is on the same level and equal to each other, because of this you are able to sit back and enjoy the match.
We saw two instances in this at Multiverse Of Matches, the first was Jordynne Grace competing in the Ultimate X in an absolutely insane match. Grace is someone who you can really see being X Division champion one day and the stuff we saw from Vincent, Rich Swann, Blake Christian, Chris Bey and the X Division Champion Trey Miguel was off the chart, and Grace did not look out of place in what was a fantastic opening match to set the pace of the night.
The other match where we saw this happen was in a mixed tag team match between Chelsea Green and Matt Cardona vs Mickie James and Nick Aldis. This was another top match where you could really feel the heat between all 4 wrestlers in the ring. Both Cardona and Aldis were feuding in NWA, as were Green and Micke in Impact. This proves that you can do female vs male wrestling in a mixed tag and make it work.
4. Guns Are Loaded.
Through the early to mid 2000’s we all knew how good The Motor City Machine Guns were, however since returning in 2020, they somehow seem to have gained that extra step in their stride. Since Alex Shelley departed in 2021 we (in my opinion) saw Chris Sabin have one of his best years in Impact for a long time, now with Shelly back, the Guns are on a roll.
Shelly stepped in the ring with Speedball Mike Bailey at Multiverse Of Matches and right from the off, everyone knew this would be an instant classic. Both of these men left everything in and out of the ring, we saw a little bit of everything here and got to see just how diverse both of these wrestlers can be. This was easily match of the night up to this point from me and Im sure many would be itching to see more between these two.
On the other side of The Machine Guns, we saw Chris Sabin take on Jay White, while this was not as explosive as Shelly vs Speedball (by that I mean it stayed mainly in the ring and more grounded), these two did put on a wrestling clinic. Both men match up so well together and the recent angle between The Guns and Bullet Club really added fuel to this match also. You knew you were getting a 5 star match given the names involved, and they did not disappoint in the slightest.
3. Rebirth of the Tag Team Division?
For a good year now Impact Wrestling have had some trouble in their tag team divisions. If you look deep into their roster however, they do have a reasonable amount of teams for the men’s, it’s very puzzling that they don’t tent to use them all though. On the Knockouts side however they could always use more (little by little they are deepening the Knockouts division). At Multiverse Of Matches we saw many tag team matches, including the mixed tag team match between Chelsea Green and Matt Cardona vs Mickie James and Nick Aldis,
On the Knockouts side we also saw a four corners match for the Knockouts Tag Team Titles. The Influence were defending their titles against Decay (Havok and Rosemary), Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans, Giselle Saw and Lady Frost. This was a really fun match and everyone looked really impressive throughout the match. It showcased the KO Tag Team division really well and may have even created another team in Shaw and Frost?
On the men’s side we saw two more tag matches and both were very different. One was Josh Alexander and JONAH vs Moose and PCO, this was your typical 4 singles wrestlers placed into a tag match, however it still worked really well and proves Impact can still make teams if needed, the other was The Good Brothers taking on The Brisoes. This match was the main event and it damn well deserved to be that. Both teams left everything out there and capped off a great card in a great way. Having a great tag team match as the main event is hopefully a sign of things to come.
2. A Night Full of Returns.
Ever since Impact returned to going live for their Monthly Specials and PPV’s, it always adds that extra amount of intrigue to the event. Multiverse Of Matches had that extra intrigue to it also as you felt anyone from any company could show up (given the name of the event and booking of the matches), plus the names that we did see show up all had a history with Impact in some way.
The Briscoes made their long awaited return to Impact to face the Good Brothers. They did appear a couple of times in the Asylum Years back in 2002, so 2 decades later we finally see The briscoes back inside an Impact ring. Very similar was the Knockout who answered Deonna Purrazzo’s Champ Champ Challenge in Faby Apache. She has appeared a number of times in 2018 and 2019 when Impact have gone over to Mexico, however it was great to see her make a return and in the US this time too. Hopefully it will not be the last time we see both these talents as they would both make great additions to the Impact roster.
When you look at true returns however, there were 2 that really felt like this. We saw Nick Aldis (formerly Magnus) make his return after a near 5 year absence from the company to team with his wife Mickie James. He spent 8 years in TNA and was the first British born Impact World Champion, he is someone who has a lot of history in the company and felt like a big return in more ways than one. While Aldis was announced, Taya Valkarie was not and came as a big surprise. She appeared after Deonna Purrazzo beat Faby Apache, Taya then challenged Deonna for her AAA Reina De Reina’s Title at Rebellion. This was a great feeling to see Taya back and in Impact and for her first match back to be against Deonna, who was her final match before she left. It all just felt right.
1. Forbidden Door Perfection.
Ever since the end of 2020, many fans of all promotions have been waiting to see that event which culminates everything together and has a little bit of every promotion on. In Multivers Of Matches I think we have now found that event. Going into the event we saw representatives from, Impact, NJPW, NOAH, ROH and NWA. During the event we then had representatives of AAA also introduced. that’s 6 promotions all on 1 show.
We had NOAH and NJPW Represented in a match between Eddie Edwards and Tomohiro IshII, Edwards said he was happy to represent Noah as it represented Honor. This truly was a who blinks first match, both men left everything in the ring and it was a true representation of a pure Japanese strong style match. IshII came out victorious but neither man walked away a loser here.
In two of the Tag Team matches we had one of the teams representing a different promotion, In the mixed tag team match Mickie and Aldis were representing NWA. Then I think we all knew that in the main event match against the Good Brothers, The Briscoes would be representing ROH. Before the show started we had a big lack of AAA presence, however when we had the Champ Champ Challenge we saw Faby Apache come out representing AAA. Taya would also come out after the match and it felt like she was also representing AAA. Overall there was a nice balance between all the promotions and it created a great show.
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Deonna Purrazzo slamming home what it really means to be that Forbidden Door during her post match promo too. Paper Champions mean nothing.
Mike Bailey vs Alex Shelley
Eddie Edwards vs Ishii
Jay White vs Chris Sabin top 3 of the night all slammed into the “number 1” slot for different reasons.
All 9 matches showcased real badass in ring storytelling & edge of seat action. Easily the best special (since they went to Twitch then Fite Network with monthly specials back in 2018)