5 Bold Predictions for IMPACT in 2022
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When it comes to making predictions, us as fans always like to push the boat as far as we can into the fantasy realm to make dream matches and dream scenarios happen. This can be incredibly fun and give a new layer to the product. When you look at how the landscape is shaping up in front of us currently, anyone could turn up, anywhere at any point. It really is wide open.
There’s always still a sense of realism to any scenario however and you have to think “would that really ever happen in all honesty?” Most of the time no and that’s where the product puts us as fans in our place and makes us remember that we’re only booking “dream” matches.
If we take our sensible hats off for a second however, we could open the gate to many possibilities within Impact. They have many angles which could go into many different directions, plus if we’re playing a game of no boundaries anyone could enter into those angles. Lets have a look at 5 things that we could see from Impact Wrestling in 2022, that would be considered a very bold predictions.
5. Bullet Club Fight For Leadership.
For quite some time now Impact have infused their show with a heavy Bullet Club taste. Even before The Bullet Club arrived you had The Elite (The Good Brothers and Kenny Omega) on Impact Wrestling who where historically part of The Bullet Club.
The Good Brothers have been at the centre of most of this, whether it be aligning with Kenny Omega and bringing The Elite to Impact Wrestling or creating tension between the current members of The Bullet Club? If you also add the fact that Karl Anderson himself is a founding member and former leader of The Bullet Club, things could get very interesting down the line.
Impact have already laid the groundwork for The Good Brothers and The Bullet Club to face off, however could we see a full “leader face off?” Impact have Jay White and Karl Anderson already in a storyline, we have seen Impact and WWE do a deal with Mickie in The Royal Rumble, what if we see AJ Styles and Finn Balor make an appearance? We’ve been wondering what the question mark on the Rebellion banner is, Could it lead to a true winner takes all on the Bullet Club?
4. Factions Call For The Gold.
Impact Wrestling over the past few months have been gaining a good number of factions on their screen. In my personal opinion a faction (or group) is 3 people or more, if you’re only 2 then you are just a tag team (unless you are part of a bigger group).
Impact have Violent By Design, The Decay, The Learning Tree, The Influence, Honor No More and The Bullet Club. That’s 6 factions and 3 of them (in VBD, The Bullet Club and Honor No More) are all in very prominent spots on the card.
With Impact placing so many factions in dominating roles on their show, you have to wonder if we will see a point this year where a specific faction like Violent By Design or The Bullet Club will hold every title on Impact Wrestling? It’s very possible we could see Impact make their dominating groups look even more dominating by wearing all the gold?
3. Mickie James Vs. Lita
This past Saturday we saw the Impact Wrestling Knockouts World Champion Mickie James make her appearance in the Royal Rumble. This created a lot of buzz going into the event and it was certainly something worth watching for this moment alone.
Many were a little concerned (myself included) on how Mickie may be booked in the match, however in this instance the WWE can’t be praised enough. Including her entrance Mickie was out there 15 minutes and looked like a true champion. In that time she battled hard but sadly got eliminated by Lita.
This does bring up an interesting possibility, the Rumble can often lead to storylines and when it came to Mickie’s elimination, they really focused on her exit. This could have been for respect (between company to company) or it could be to set something up? Lita is someone who could very easily pop up in Impact, due to her part time schedule and never landing anywhere specific. The set up for the match was there in the Rumble to start something with Mickie if Impact want to go down that road?
2. Kenny Omega Returns.
Through the majority of 2021, Impact Wrestling saw Kenny Omega as it’s Impact World champion. Omega split opinions as champion, however his work rate and matches never disappointed. He would drop the title to Christian Cage on the debut of AEW Rampage in September and since then we have not seen or heard anything from Kenny Omega when it comes to Impact.
One of the biggest moments from Impact in 2021was at Slammiversary, after the main event of where Kenny Omega prevailed over Sami Callihan, the match was fantastic however afterwards we saw the debut of Jay White, he would come down the ring and then face off with The Elite (Omega, Callis and The Good Bothers). While this was a really cool looking visual and a really cool moment, it is really strange that it sadly never went anywhere.
However maybe it still might. We have Jay White back in Impact now (hopefully for a little bit of a longer run this time) and who’s to say we don’t see an Omega return too? The seeds were set with that face off, and everyone knows that Impact like to plant things for a reason. Whether he joins up with The Good Brothers again, goes after Moose again or we get that pay off with Jay White? The table has been set for Kenny Omega to do something in 2022.
1. History Repeats Itself.
At the top of the card Impact Wrestling are slowly building up their next top babyface in Josh Alexander, they are also at the same time building their next top heel in Moose. We saw both men have an incredible 2021 and rise to the top of the card in very different ways, Although both ways were different, both ways felt organic.
With the story that Impact are telling between Moose and Josh, it feels very similar to the story that was told between Bobby Roode and James Storm in 2011-2012. That feud however hit a roadblock in the middle and never quite recovered. So far the current Impact story we’re seeing is being handled far better than what we saw a decade ago (in my eyes). The biggest question is, what is Impact’s next move going to be?
You have to assume Impact are building up to Moose vs Josh Alexander at Rebellion, Josh winning the title at Rebellion would be great and would be the perfect end to this story (assuming Impact want to end it there). However could we see a different direction? Could Morrissey cost Moose the title without Josh seeing, then after working out what’s happened, Josh asks for the match to be restarted. With that we see a repeat of Bound For Glory where Moose gives an instant spear, 1 2 3, Josh only holds the title 30 seconds again and gets done over again by Moose? May be a stretch and slightly overbooked, but it could really work?
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