and Rich Swann.

IMPACT Wrestling "Hard To Kill"From The Bomb Factory in Dallas, TexasAvailable on FITE TVBy Dylan HagerIt's time for the first IMPACT Wrestling ppv of 2020. It's time for Hard To Kill!The show starts with an absolutely sick video package hyping up the main event title match between Sami Callahan and Tessa Blanchard. The Golden Announce Team of Josh Matthews and Don Callis are on the call, and it is time for match number one!In the year 2020, we start the show with the 55 year old UFC Hall of Famer, Ken Shamrock. Love it! Fulton is joined at ringside by his OVE teammates, Jake and Dave Crist. Shamrock uses his striking advantage early. When Fulton gets a takedown, Shamrock shows off his submission skills. The two have a hard hitting back and forth match. With Fulton on the outside, Shamrock went for a no touch dive over the top rope! Both Crist brothers ended up being ejected by referee Mike Posey. The ending of the match came after Fulton's shoulder popped out of socket. Both the ref and Shamrock think the match should be stopped, but Fulton wants to keep going. Fulton tries to hit a powerbomb and goes for the cover, but Shamrock turns it into a Rings of Saturn like submission and gets the win. Very solid opener, and both men looked great coming out of the match.Josh and Don hype the rest of the card, and they say Rich Swann is not going to be able to compete tonight.This was a great match that reminded me of the classic X Division Title matches of old. The match started off hot with Trey going right for Ace. Trey landed two big takedowns early, and when Ace fled to the floor, Trey met him with a moonsault. While on the floor, Ace would gain the advantage and punish the challenger right in front of Trey's mom, who was seated in the front row. Ace would gain two near falls after hitting the Bang-a-Rama and a springboard kick. Trey would come back with a Cheeky Nando's kick and a 619 knee, but only get a two count. The champ hit his finisher, The Fold, for the win. After the match, Ace continued to flirt with Trey's mom. Trey would return to ringside and have to be pulled off of Ace. Looks like this feud is continuing moving forward, and I am very okay with that. One of the best X Division Title matches since Swann dropped the belt.Gabby Loren is in the back to interview ODB. ODB cuts a normal ODB promo and says that she will become a five time "knocked up" champ. Time for the Knockouts!Of course Taya is accompanied by John E. Bravo. This wasn't the best Knockouts Title match ever, but it certainly wasn't bad. All three women had a chance to shine. ODB started the match on fire. She went to piledrive Grace on the apron, but Taya dropkicked ODB to the floor. With both Taya and ODB on the floor, Grace nailed the champ with a suicide dive. ODB would answer with a fall away slam to Grace on the ramp. Taya took control of the IMPACT legend back in the ring. Taya hit her running double knees on ODB and lock in a submission until Jordynne broke it up. Jordynne had Taya on her shoulders, and ODB connected with a bulldog on Taya from the top rope. A high impact, top rope senton only earned Grace a two count on ODB after Taya broke up the pin. Jordynne hit her finishing Grayce Driver on ODB, but Bravo distracted the referee. As Grace went to confront Bravo, John E. held her leg allowing Taya to run in and pick up the 1-2-3 on ODB. Taya continues her reign as the longest reigning Knockouts champ in company history. Solid match.Now it is time for the show to hit rock bottom. Gabby is backstage to interview RVD and Katie Forbes. Katie says that they don't need Gabby for the interview. Rob cuts a promo. Daga walks by, and Rob ask if Daga wants an autograph. Slight confrontation. Daga leaves, and Rob and Katie continue to be gross.RVD and Katie are out first. While Cage is making a lap around ringside, a woman stops him and allows RVD to attack Cage. Rob works over Cage on the outside before getting him in the ring. Don says that the woman is Katie's girlfriend, so she is Rob's girlfriend's girlfriend. I mean, is Russo booking again or what? Cage has a bad shoulder and his mouth is bleeding. A chair gets introduced. Katie holds the chair while Rob hits a Van Terminator. Rob goes for the pin, but instead of counting three, the ref says the match is off.Daga comes out while Cage gets helped to the back, and Rob hits him from behind. So it looks like...RVD starts working over Daga in the corner, and the ref rings the bell because why not?! Daga gets momentum for just a second. He hits a dive on the outside. Once they are back in the ring, Katie grabs Daga's leg, and RVD regains momentum. A Five Star Frog Splash from Rob is enough to get him the win. The whole segment sucked. It is that simple. I don't want to spend any more time on it.Gabby is outside of the OVE locker room to interview Sami. Jake answers the door instead of Sami, and he sends Gabby away without Sami doing the interview.How do you regain momentum after a bad segment? Let Elgin and Eddie kill each other! This is a rematch from just last Tuesday, but this time Eddie's trophy is on the line. Whoever holds the trophy can challenge for any title they want. The two start right where they left off last week, and like last week, Elgin's forearm played a big roll in this match. The match started off back and forth before Mike's power and forearm strikes led to him taking the advantage. Eddie reversed a suplex which sent both men to the floor. Eddie connected with a dive and a backpack stunner, but Elgin kicked out at two. Another huge Elgin forearm put him back in control. Eddie countered a German with a Blue Thunder Bomb, but like all Blue Thunder Bomb's, Eddie only got a two count. The two wrestlers treat us to some strong style striking exchanges. Eddie gets the better with a huge lariat and goes straight to a Tiger Bomb, but Elgin gets out at two. Elgin comes back with a trifecta of kicks. Elgin takes Eddie up top and lands a TOP ROPE GERMAN SUPLEX! Eddie finds a way to kick out at two. Elgin goes right to another lariat and a Splash Mountain, but Eddie is again out at two. Eddie comes back with a half-crab and he sets up the Boston Knee Party, but Elgin counters with a cross face. Once Eddie reaches the ropes, Elgin goes for the sequence that won him the match on Tuesday. He connects with a lariat and hits the Buckle Bomb, but Eddie counters the Elgin Bomb into a sunset flip pin and gets the win! Another great match between these two! Super stiff and super athletic. Great showing, and a great way to get the crowd back.Rhino cuts a promo backstage, and it is time for the Spear vs the Gore.Moose looks great in his Randy Savage inspired gear tonight. The two big guys go right at each other. Moose quickly hits a spear, but the veteran Rhino rolls outside. Both men use a chair on the outside. Moose sets up a table, but Rhino pop-up powepombs Moose through the table instead. The two make it back inside the ring with some chairs. Moose gains the advantage, and hits a Macho Man elbow from the top. He goes for a second onto a pile of chairs, bur Rhino meets him and superplexes Moose into the chairs. The finish of the match came after Rhino had Moose set up for a Gore through a table. Moose pulled the ref in between him and Rhino, so both the ref and Moose went through the door. By the time a second ref makes it to the ring, Moose is able to kick out at two. Moose hits Rhino with a low blow and the No Jackhammer Needed for the win. Solid, physical match. I expect great things from Moose in 2020.We see a doctor, Rich Swann, and Willie Mack backstage. The doctor will not clear Swann to compete or even go to ringside. It's going to be a handicap match for the tag titles.When this match was originally announced, I expected it to steal the show. My expectations were lowered when it became a handicap match, but the champs and Mack still put on a show. Josh Alexander and Ethan Page started the match by making a ton of quick tags without even making contact with Willie, just to remind him that he had nobody to tag. When Willie let his guard down, both Page and Alexander attacked Mack. Every time Willie would start to gain some momentum, the illegal partner would interfere and The North would regain the momentum. Willie was able to score a couple near falls though. The finish was set up after The North went for a double superplex. Mack fought them off and Josh ended up on Ethan's shoulders. Mack came off the top with a Canadian Destroyer on Josh.Willie sent Page to the outside, and hit Josh with a frog splash, but Ethan pulled the ref out of the ring. Ethan ate a stunner from Mack, but Josh was able to counter the stunner. The North double teamed Mack with a series of strikes before hitting their double team finisher for the win. Handicap matches are hard to pull off, but these three did a great job with it. The North have done a great job with the titles since LAX and the Lucha Bros left the company. They probably deserve more attention in the "best tag team in the world" discussion.Next we get an announcement for the next IMPACT ppv. "Rebellion" will be held sometime in April in New York City.Main Event time!!!What a freaking main event!! This match had a ton of hype and some controversy coming into the match, and did it ever deliver on the hype! Sami starts off hot with a big kick right at the opening bell. Sami hits his Cactus Special 97 for two, and Tessa comes right back with a Magnum for two. Tessa picks up momentum and sends Sami to the floor by drop-kicking him off the apron. Tessa nails two suicide dives. While on the outside, Sami gains the advantage and drives her knee first into the barricade. Tessa barely makes the 10 count, and when she does, Sami wraps her leg around the corner post twice. Tessa tries to fight back with strikes, but they have no effect on the champ. Sami answers back with one strike that drops the challenger. Sami continues to work over the knee in the ring, but Tessa will not stay down. Sami throws her outside and puts her through a table. Tessa again barely answers the 10 count. Sami removes the ringside padding, but Tessa meets him with a Magnum on the apron. Both wrestlers manage to make it back in the ring at a count of 9. The two exchange strikes, and Sami kicks out the bad knee. Tessa manages to muscle Sami up into a Samoan Drop. Sami answers with a big boot, but Tessa meets him with another Magnum, this time coming off the middle rope while Sami was in the corner. The champ kicks out at two. Tessa goes up top for another Magnum, but Sami avoids and hits the "Get Out of Here" for a two count. German suplex by Sami, big kick and a cutter from Tessa, then a sit-out powerbomb by the champ. Tessa kicks out of the powerbomb, and Sami transitions right into a stretch muffler. He goes from the stretch muffler to a modified single leg crab into a STF, but Tessa reaches the ropes. Anticipation building. Sami grabs his title belt. As the ref is removing the belt from the ring, Sami slips on some brass knuckles, but Tessa goes low on Sami. Tessa goes up top and hits a fourth Magnum. Sami again kicks out at two, and Tessa transitions right into a crossface. Sami gets out of the hold and hits another Cactus Special 97, but Tessa again kicks out at two. Tessa hits a Canadian Destroyer. Tessa hits a second Canadian Destroyer. The challenger mocks Sami's "Thumbs up, thumbs down" taunt, and hits her Buzzsaw DDT for the 1-2-3! We have new champ and history is made! Seriously just a phenomenal main event.Overall I enjoyed "Hard to Kill." The RVD stuff absolutely sucked, but the X Division Title, Eddie vs Elgin, and the main event were all very good. Shamrock vs Fulton, Moose vs Rhino, the Knockouts triple threat, and the tag match were all really fun. Ending the show with a title change is always exciting.You can still purchase "Hard to Kill" from FITE TV and support the bWb team at this link