A Calculated Risk Or An Error In Judgement?
Photo Credit: IMPACT Wrestling
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Going into No Surrender, Impact Wrestling had built building up many storylines and angles which were leading towards a very interesting monthly special. As ever you always have specific angles which take president over others, there are also other angles which don’t really have much to them to warrant a “big spot” on the card also. However this didn’t stop No Surrender from being a fantastic show from top to bottom.
Going into No Surrender there were three big angles/matches that were being built, those being the angle between The Bullet Club facing the group of Violent By Design and The Good Brothers, then the World Title match of Moose against Morrissey, then finally the big battle for power in Impact with the emergence of Honor No More taking over and taking on Team Impact. All 3 were big stories and felt like big matches.
In the World Title match we saw Moose come out on top after a real barn brawler, however Moose pined Morrissey clean which is a huge win for the Impact World Champion moving forward. When you look at the other 2 big feuds however, things get slightly more complicated given what we saw happen surrounding their matches at No Surrender.
If we look at The Bullet Club angle, we first saw Jay White gain the pinfall over Eric Young in a brilliant hard fought match. It was great again to see the match wrestled without any interference and have a clean finish also (no Bullet Club or VBD members in sight). When it comes to the Impact Wrestling Tag Team Title match however, that was a little more chaotic. We had a brilliant first time ever match between G.O.D. and The Good Brothers (which is amazing to think), however after interference from Chris Bey and Jay White, we surprisingly saw The Good Brothers walk away with the win and retain their Impact Wrestling Tag Team Titles.
In what was one of the most surprising moments of No Surrender, Jay White deliberately hit the Blade Runner on Tama Tonga (out of sight of the referee) which allowed The Good Brothers to pick up the pin. What followed was a too sweet between White, Bey and The Good Brothers, along with White seemingly kicking both Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa out of the Bullet Club. This would be the first time that Tama Tonga will not be associated with The Bullet Club since it’s inception in 2013.
With such a shocking turn of events, the question has to be, what happens next? You have so many moving parts here and so many different directions this could go. We have to remember that The Good Brothers had an Alliance with VBD also, the alliance was to help them keep tag teams from getting near the tag titles, although we felt Eric Young was manipulating everything, maybe The Good Brothers were the ones truly running things? Could the brothers have seen White (and The Bullet Club) as a better and safer version of what VBD were offering for them? The true feud here was with Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga, It wasn’t with Jay White or Chris Bey after all.
Another part of this angle is what is next for G.O.D and why did Jay White choose The Good Brothers? While it’s a stretch given how the relationship was the last time around, there could be something very similar happening right now in AEW with Jay White. White has mentioned how he doesn’t want lots of splintered groups of The Bullet Club, instead he wants to see a united group who all stand as one. When you have White joining up with former members of The Elite in The Good Brothers, then on AEW he’s in a program with The Bucks, it does make you think if 2022 could be where Bullet Club Rules everywhere?
When you speak of Bullet Club ruling, it’s very strange to think of that happening and not have G.O.D in the plans. It is difficult to say where they go as they really haven’t been in Impact too long, there are however a couple of options given what we’ve recently seen on Impact. Given what we saw at No Surrender there is the possibility that they could turn G.O.D. into a decent babyface team? That could be something very fresh for them too. There is also the option of keeping this “gang” mentality if they wish, they can bring VBD back into the fray and place them with G.O.D (what a dangerous team that would be), Tanga Loa also called out EC3 hours after No Surrender saying “I see everything clearly now.” This may mean a return of EC3 and even lead to G.O.D appearing on, or joining Control Your Narrative (EC3’s new promotion) at the end of March?
There are a few options including maybe looking into the Bullet Club in Japan to maybe go against what Jay White is currently doing here, White did the high “Elite” Too Sweet at No Surrender so it did feel like a breakaway more for him. Depending on the restrictions over in Japan this could be a cool story (but it’s in the hands of the gods), This angle is definitely wide open and the fact that it’s able to go in any direction makes it very exciting. Impact are able to keep you guessing very well because this turn from Jay white was completely out of the blue, however I’m sure in time it will all make sense. It always does as we saw with another big angle later in the night and this one (if you were watching closely) was a little more expected from the Impact fans, however the obvious isn’t always the wrong decision.
Since Hard To Kill we have been seeing Honor No More run riot through Impact Wrestling, The group of OGK (Mike Bennet, Matt Taven) with Maria Kennelis, PCO, Vincent and then later Kenny King all arrived with something to prove and nothing to lose. When you have a group of 6 individuals who are involved in a match to win their future in a company, however all of them are in a position where they have nothing to lose because they have already lost everything, that only makes them more determined and more dangerous.
Team Impact to begin with was a group that vastly over shadowed Honor No More (in numbers anyway). Chris Sabin, Eddie Edwards, Heath, Rhino, Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Josh Alexander and then Steve Maclin all stood up for Impact, however for a number of different reasons Team Impact found their team change 3 times and never manage to find a consistency within it. Honor No More was a settled team from the get go, however even during No Surrender, Team Impact needed to make changes with Edwards getting taken out earlier in the night.
In the end Team Impact was represented by Chris Sabin, Rhino. Rich Swann, Willie Mack and Steve Maclin. As a team they worked really well together and put up one hell of a fight against Honor No More, however in the end Honor No More prevailed and earned themselves the right to remain in Impact Wrestling. While this result on paper seems very interesting for the story (given we now have 6 rogues allowed to roam free in the Impact Zone), it was what happened after the match that gave this match that extra little something.
As the match was building up to it’s climax, we saw Maria get into the ring and try to interfere in order to help Honor No More (by this time the ref had been knocked out and lost all control), when we then saw Eddie Edwards run out to make the save for Team Impact. Eddie ran off OGK who were in the ring leaving Rhino free to gore Maria, then we saw the heart and soul of Impact Wrestling Eddie Edwards turn. Eddie smashed Rhino with his keno stick, to which he followed up by hitting Swann, Sabin, Maclin and finally Willie Mack, Eddie tore the Impact sticker off his jacket (positioned by his heart) and celebrated in the ring with Honor No More.
Over the weeks leading up to No Surrender there had been signs of an Eddie heel turn, through little things like not attacking Honor No More, getting Team Impact thrown out from ringside right in front of the ref, then telling Josh to release the ankle lock on Vincent. All these little clues were there but they were subtle, Eddie also not trusting Maclin (as he knew he was a threat) was a bit edgy so when there was no other option, he had to take himself out at No Surrender, you can just see it all falling into place. When you take a step back and look at what we have coming out of this however, was this the best thing for both Honor No More and Eddie?
Many people could agree that in some form, Honor No More were going to grow stronger after No Surrender, you really felt like someone else was in the background pulling the strings, the question however, who? The word “was” is the key word after the emergence of Eddie Edwards however, as he emerged and joined with Honor No More. Eddie is someone fits perfectly with the group given all his history and credentials with ROH, also he was the moniker of Mr anything is possible which is a statement that Honor No More live by.
While there are a lot of positives that make this a perfect fit, you do also have to question what Eddie himself (with no disrespect) can offer to the group? Eddie has always been known as one of the best wrestlers in Impact and has developed into a brawler style over the last few years, however he has never been a wrestler known for good mic work. Honor No More have talent who are very good in the ring and also in a hardcore style, however having that big “leader” figure at the top to carry them forward (Like What EY and Jay White can do), can make a big difference. Sadly through Eddie’s 8 plus year run with the company (mainly as a facethough, it’s not something he’s managed to offer consistently.
It will be interesting to watch to see where Impact go from here, the one big plus is Eddie as a heel is fresh (even though I personally don’t like the traitor angle), Eddie has always been a face and is one of the biggest babyfaces in Impact, so it’s going to be a big change for his character. This may give him a new dynamic and help him when it comes to his character and promos? There are also some feuds that are very likely already set up, you have to think Sabin and Maclin are 2 that will be coming up. In the long term we may even see Sami Callihan return as a face to stop Eddie in a rolls reverse from what we saw 3 years ago?
Both The Bullet Club angle and the Honor No More angle will certainly be worth keeping an eye on for different reasons. Both are stories that continue to keep us engaged for different reasons and both feel like their reaching different places on their storyboards. The Honor No More story you feel you know where their end goal is, you just have no idea how they’re getting there, The Bullet Club angle feels like something completely new is just beginning and it could go absolutely anywhere. it’s an exciting time to be an Impact Wrestling fan and a wrestling fan in general.
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Hoping Jay White recruits Santana & Ortiz for his AEW branch of his multi-platform Bullet Club instead of bringing back Kenny Omega &/or The Young Bucks.
Eddie Edwards returning home(?) & this is the perfect way to play off the unfortunate events with Josh Alexander (who was still mentioned all night).