Brian Myers (fka Curt Hawkins) is a free agent once again.

The former WWE star recently appeared on the Battleground podcast. During the talk, he confirmed that his contract with Impact Wrestling has expired.

The wrestling veteran noted how Matt Cardona has been wrestling on the independent circuit. He said that he is ‘along for the ride’ with the former Zack Ryder as they continue to wrestle all over the country.

Myers was released from his WWE contract back in April 2020. This was his second run with the company which lasted about 4 years.

He returned to Impact Wrestling in July after his non-compete expired. He had been a featured member of the Impact roster ever since.

Brian Myers led a faction called The Learning Tree in the promotion. The stable that lasted several months also included VSK and Zicky Dice.

• The IInspiration Done With Impact Wrestling, Issue Statement

He then reunited with longtime partner Matt Cardona. The duo known as The Major Players in Impact unsuccessfully challenged for the Impact tag titles at the Rebellion PPV earlier this month.

Before his release in 2020, Myers had spent the majority of his wrestling career in WWE. His first run with the organization started in 2006 and lasted till 2014.

Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay, best known as The IIconics in WWE, are leaving Impact Wrestling.

The former Impact Wrestling Knockouts World Tag Team Champions will be “indefinitely stepping away” from in-ring action.

They issued a joint statement on Wednesday announcing:

“We first want to thank Scott D’Amore and the entire IMPACT family. We have had such an amazing experience, working with the incredible IMPACT staff and roster. We will cherish these IMPACT memories forever. We are excited to start a new chapter in our lives and explore other opportunities that may come our way.”

Scott D’Amore, Executive VP of Impact, had this to say about their departure:

“The IInspiration have been a great part of IMPACT’s Knockouts roster and wonderful to work with,” said D’Amore. “Cassie and Jesse are incredibly talented performers. Everyone at IMPACT wishes them every success in the future.”

Lee and McKay were released by WWE on April 15, 2021 after six years with the company. They debuted for Impact six months later at Bound for Glory. Shortly after joining Impact, The IInspiration said the company “feels like home.”

Savannah Evans has signed a multi-year contract with Impact Wrestling.

Evans recently appeared on the Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast to discuss her decision to make Impact her longterm home, her impressions of the locker room and her favorite moments working for Impact Wrestling thus far.

Evans says she got a call from Tommy Dreamer last year, June or July. Dreamer had been in touch with Kaleb Konley, one of her trainers, about bringing her in. They sent in some of her recent work, which led her to working shows for Impact last year.

“But, about the signing itself, I got that call, maybe three weeks ago,” she said. “Worked out all the you know, fine details on the contract and then sent it back last week.”

Savanna Evans says she loves the Impact locker room and is impressed how everybody has their own role there.

“No one’s stepping on anyone’s toes or anything like that,” she said. “It’s just, we’re all working to put out this product, you know. We all have the…that one goal in mind. So, I do..I love the locker room that they have there. And you know, just like their goal, like their plan for the company is really big for me, like, just, for example, like the diversity of women they have on the roster is..is big for me.”

Evans added that, “none of us look the same” in Impact and everybody brings something unique to the table.

Catch Savannah Evans’ appearance on Women’s Wrestling Talk:

AJ Styles Reacts to Cody Rhodes Rumors

There are a ton of rumors swirling around who will be Seth Rollins’ mystery opponent at WrestleMania 38 this weekend. The favorite for the nod is none other than former WWE and AEW star Cody Rhodes. Rhodes is currently a free agent after making the decision to leave AEW, and would be the perfect surprise opponent for Rollins in Dallas.

AJ Styles, who faces Edge at this weekend’s “Show Of Shows,” recently offered his thoughts on the matter speaking to Wrestling Inc. during media row. “The Phenomenal One” says he’ll believe it when he sees it.

“Listen, I haven’t seen Cody here, so I’ll believe it when I see it,” Styles said. “This is what we’ve been a part of for a couple, well I’ve been decades. There’s a lot of rumors, but you don’t believe something until you actually see it.”

Title Match Added to IMPACT Rebellion

Another title bout has been added to the upcoming IMPACT Rebellion card on April 23. The event will go down from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. On this week’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling, Rosemary emerged victorious from a 10-Knockouts Battle Royal to become the new No. 1-contender for Tasha Steelz’s Knockouts World Title.

Rosemary defeated Lady Frost, Jordynne Grace, Gisele Shaw, Jessie McKay, Havok, Alisha Edwards, Savannah Evans, and Knockouts World Tag Team Champions Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood to earn the title nod. Now, she’ll face Steelz for the strap at Rebellion.

Check out the updated card below.

• IMPACT World Title Match
  Josh Alexander vs. Moose (c)
• IMPACT Knockouts World Title Match
  Rosemary vs. Tasha Steelz (c)
• Triple Threat for the IMPACT X Division Title
  Ace Austin vs. Mike Bailey vs. Trey Miguel (c)
• Eight-Team Elimination Challenge for the IMPACT World Tag Team Titles
  The Good Brothers vs. The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The Decay vs. Willie Mack and Rich Swann vs. Rhino and Heath vs. Jay White and Chris Bey vs. Honor No More vs. Violent By Design (c)
• Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jonah
• ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham vs. Eddie Edwards

Ace Austin is sticking around in IMPACT Wrestling for a while.

Ace Austin Re-Signs With IMPACT Wrestling

Ace Austin spoke with Sportskeeda, and during the interview he announced that he had signed a new multi-year deal with IMPACT Wrestling.

Ace made his debut in IMPACT back in 2019. He is a former two-time X-Division Champion and the 2021 Super X Cup winner.

Ace even spoke about the reason that he decided to stay in IMPACT. “I wish that I could give a very different answer than, ‘why did I sign with IMPACT in the first place?’ The answer is pretty much the same. It’s the place to be right now. It’s the best environment backstage that I’ve personally experienced. I experienced all the locker rooms in 2018.

It’s the place that has been my home and has been such a launching point for me. I feel like there is some unfinished business. It wasn’t time to leave after three years. I accomplished a lot, but I didn’t accomplish everything that I said I would. That’s very important to me,” Austin said.

Ace Austin At The WrestleCon SuperShow

Last night, Austin competed at the WrestleCon SuperShow, when he teamed with Josh Alexander & Black Taurus in a losing effort against Rey Horus, Laredo Kid & Michael Oku. 

For the full results of the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow, you can click here. 

H/T to Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription

The fourth edition of IMPACT’s Rebellion is just about a month away and matches are starting to get announced.

This will be the go-to article for an updated card of the matches and segments announced for IMPACT’s Rebellion pay-per-view.

Rebellion is annually held during the month of April, and the event was first held in 2019. Last year’s event was headlined by Rich Swann vs Kenny Omega in a winner take all match for the Impact World Championship and the AEW World Championship. This match, and show, acted as the beginning of Kenny Omega’s journey in IMPACT Wrestling as The Belt Collector persona. 

IMPACT Wrestling Rebellion 2022 Matches

• IMPACT World Championship: Moose (c) vs. Josh Alexander
• IMPACT X-Division Championship: Trey Miguel (c) vs. Ace Austin vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey
• IMPACT Tag Team Championship Eight Team Elimination Challenge: Violent By Design (c) vs. TBD
• IMPACT Knockouts World Championship: Tasha Steelz (c) vs. Rosemary
• AAA Reina De Reinas Championship: Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie
• Tomohiro Ishii vs. JONAH
• Jonathan Gresham vs. Eddie Edwards

Date, Time & How to Watch

IMPACT Wrestling Rebellion is scheduled to take place at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. This event follows IMPACT’s Multiverse of Matches event that will take place during WrestleMania weekend through WrestleCon on April 1 at 10:00PM EST.

IMPACT’s Rebellion takes place on Saturday, April 23, 2022. The air time is set for 8:00 PM EST.

You can watch IMPACT’s Rebellion on FITE or through cable pay-per-view providers. The show is priced at $39.99.

• WrestleCon 2022 Schedule, Matches, Dates & Times, How To Watch

Trey Miguel believes Impact Wrestling stars aren’t exactly feeling the love from other promotions.

Trey has demonstrated loyalty to Impact. One example of this is when his former Rascalz teammates, Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz left to form MSK on WWE’s NXT brand. Miguel remains on Impact citing personal reasons for not accepting WWE’s offer:

“I feel like it is worth mentioning AGAIN that a month and a half ago my Nephew was born prematurely and is in isolated care until what would have been his actual due date. Meeting a healthy baby boy is more important to me than anything else. I’m sure you all can respect that.”

Outside of WWE, cross-promotion is typically embraced in the wrestling industry. WWE actually did business with Impact back in January, leading to Mickie James entering the Royal Rumble wearing the Knockouts Championship.

While AEW and NJPW have also done business with Impact, Trey thinks that other promotions aren’t itching to bring in talent from the Anthem-owned company.

No Love For Impact Stars, Says Trey Miguel

Appearing on the Out of Focus podcast, Trey Miguel shared his opinion that other promotions simply aren’t willing to bring in Impact Wrestling stars (h/t Fightful).

“The main thing that makes today’s wrestling so special is how willing companies are to work with each other. You see AEW popping up at New Japan, New Japan popping up at IMPACT. You don’t really see IMPACT guys popping up anywhere else, people don’t f*ck with us like that. It’s cool. People want to drop in on us, but we don’t get to go nowhere.”

Miguel went on to say that it’s not an issue of Impact stars not being allowed to branch out.

“That’s not it. You’ll see a tweet go out, ‘Oh, anyone is invited,’ but no one is invited [from IMPACT]. There’s a list this big of guys, Sami Callihan went there, Moose went there, and the Good Brothers, but that’s it, but the list is huge from guys that have come in.”

Rhino, the former WWE star currently performing on Impact Wrestling has plans to wrestle for at least another 5 years before finally hanging up his boots and transitioning to a behind-the-scenes role as a producer.

Rhino is enjoying his time in Impact Wrestling after having a long-lasting career in the ring. He is celebrating 27 years in pro wrestling and discussed his longevity in the industry while appearing on the podcast The Angle. He also discussed how long he expects to see himself competing full-time in the ring and what his plans are afterwards.

Rhino said he isn’t planning to return anytime soon and he has a lot of time left in the business. When asked who he would like to face before his eventual retirement, Rhino named Kevin Owens.

Speaking on the podcast, Rhino said, “I would really like to… I don’t know why Kevin Owens’ name just popped in my head. Probably because I am here in Philly, and I am talking to you from Philly.

“I’m at that point where I’m starting to, you know, [be] less in the ring and more behind the scenes in phase and that’s one of the beauties I love about Impact. One of the many beauties is that I can start producing. So, and then hopefully I can get, God willing, five more years out of in the ring full time. I would definitely like to do one of my last shows at the arena. Hopefully, I have the ability to be the one to choose whether to walk away,” Rhino said.

Rhino has had a long career in wrestling, starting from ECW. He won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and the ECW Television Championship, being the last champion to hold both titles. He would then go on to work for the WWE and was involved in The Invasion storyline. He stayed with the company until 2005 and then worked with TNA and won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Rhino would return to WWE in 2015 and worked in NXT as a veteran. He would then be promoted to the main roster and on his time in SmackDown, he would become the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champion with Heath Slater. He left WWE again in 2019 and has been working in Impact Wrestling since then.

Gail Kim feels that Tessa Blanchard is a rare talent who should be accomplishing big things in the wrestling business.

Kim and Blanchard worked together from late 2018 through early 2019 during their time at Impact Wrestling. In the culmination of their heated rivalry, Blanchard ultimately Gail Kim at Rebellion 2019 in what would be Kim’s retirement match.

“Tessa Was Like This Ultimate Athlete”

Gail Kim appeared on Busted Open Radio on Tuesday morning and spoke very highly of the second generation performer.

During her years as an active wrestler (2002-2019), Gail Kim has worked with them all, including Trish Stratus, Lita, Molly Holly, Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres and Awesome Kong. According to Gail Kim, Tessa Blanchard was an “ultimate athlete” who stands above the rest.

“Tessa was like this ultimate athlete that I’d never been able to face an athlete on that level,” said Kim. “Years have passed now, it was 2019 since we had that match, and she should be accomplishing big things in this business, in my opinion. So, I wish I could see that for her, because I know that that talent is rare. So you know, we’ve talked about this a bunch but those are ultimately my bottom-line feelings.”

Tessa Blanchard went on to become the first woman to capture the Impact Wrestling World Championship in January 2020. After going on an extended leave of absence, Blanchard was released by Impact before her contract was set to expire and stripped of the championship in June of that year. She’s currently involved in the rebooted Women of Wrestling promotion.

• Tessa Blanchard Responds to Allegations of Racism

You can listen to Gail Kim’s comments about Tessa Blanchard below, courtesy of our friends at the Putting You Over podcast:

A top IMPACT Wrestling star has reportedly become a free agent following the Sacrifice event on Saturday 5th March.

Fightful Select reported that Jake Something has now left the company, with his original contract being up at the end of February.

The site noted: “Fightful reported recently that Jake’s deal was up at the end of February, which was true, but there was one outstanding date remaining on the contract.

“Despite the deal being set to expire, IMPACT put him in a top spot in an X-Division title match for Sacrifice, which is slated to be his last date with the company as of now” it was also revealed.

Fightful also revealed that as of writing that no deal had been reached, and that Jake was not scheduled to be at the Sunday television tapings for the company.

Jake Something now a Free Agent

Jake Something has reportedly left the company on good terms, and that he would “likely be welcomed back.”

Josh Alexander appeared at the end of the Sacrifice event and revealed that he had re-signed with the company. There’s a good chance that we could see Something also re-sign in the coming weeks unless there is a deal waiting for him from the likes of WWE, NJPW or AEW.

We do not currently know if Jake Something has any open offers on the table from other promotions, but we will update you on the story as and when it becomes apparent.

At Impact Wrestling’s No Surrender PPV over the weekend, Jay White and Chris Bey turned on the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) and helped The Good Brothers retain the Impact Tag Team Championships. Impact Wrestling recently posted a backstage interview with Jay White, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, and Chris Bey.

“I said that I was going to create the best version of Bullet Club across New Japan Pro Wrestling, AEW, and Impact. I also said that the best tag team in the history of Bullet Club was going to walk away the Impact tag team champions and I was right,” White said during the interview.

“Listen, there ain’t no Bullet Club if the Machine Gun and the Big LG ain’t in it,” Anderson then said. “This right here, like I said since Day 1, since May 3rd of 2013, Bullet Club is 4-life.”

“There was no better place for the Bullet Club to reunite and become one again than here in New Orleans, Louisiana,” Gallows added.

The 4 then gave each other the 2 sweet hand signal, but White said there would be no more throwing the hand signal low as the group had been doing recently.

Following the angle in Impact Wrestling, there was also some tension teased between El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori on a recent NJPW card. The two had a bit of a disagreement regarding the tag match they were in. Jado also expressed to the commentary team that he had no idea White was going to do what he did. Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa will be back in Japan next month for the New Japan Cup. Jay White will not be back in Japan for the tournament, however.

Mickie James has one person to thank for convincing her to sign with Impact Wrestling.

Mickie was briefly featured on Impact Wrestling when the company was called “TNA Wrestling” from 2002-2003. She then signed with WWE where she gained notoriety before being released in 2010.

Kurt Angle Brings Mickie James Back To Impact

During an appearance on The Kurt Angle Show, Mickie James revealed that she wasn’t too keen on returning to Impact in 2010 before Kurt Angle kept ringing her phone.

“You know, there would probably be no Hardcore Country if it wasn’t for Kurt Angle. We go back to when I first came to Impact, well TNA at the time, and I wasn’t gonna come and I didn’t — remember Dixie had you call me multiple times to talk me into coming to Impact Wrestling at the time.

“It was pretty incredible and this is all thanks to Kurt Angle, right? Because he talked me into coming over there when I was like, ‘I’m so sad about wrestling. I don’t wanna wrestle anymore, I can’t believe it.’ So, I really appreciate that, Kurt. I really do.”

Mickie ended up returning to Impact Wrestling in 2010 and was able to bring the “Hardcore Country” character to life. Mickie returned to WWE in 2016 and was once again released by the organization in 2021.

As of late, Mickie has become a red hot name in the world of wrestling. Mickie walked into the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble match with her Impact theme and holding the Knockouts Championship.

Please H/T SEScoops with a link if you use any quotes from this article

An angle with implications for NJPW and AEW took place Saturday night on Impact Wrestling’s No Surrender PPV. The Guerrillas of Destiny were challenging the Good Brothers for the Impact World Tag Team Championships when Chris Bey came to ringside. His distraction seemed to irritate both Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa. Then, Jay White appeared and gave a Blade Runner to Tama, leading to Anderson and Gallows retaining.

After the match, it was made clear that White had kicked the GOD out of Bullet Club and welcomed Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows back into it.

Following these events, Jay White tagged the Young Bucks in a post featuring highlights of his Blade Runner to Tama Tonga.

The Young Bucks then changed their bio to read, “Never really cared for Tama anyway tbh ?”

Karl Anderson commented on the Young Bucks bio as well.

Tama Tonga then responded to the Young Bucks on Twitter.

There are implications for the angle in AEW as well. In storyline, Adam Cole brought White into the promotion recently. The Young Bucks and the Good Brothers had previously been aligned along with Kenny Omega as members of the Elite in both Impact and AEW last year. This angle is essentially taking place in 3 different promotions.

One day after the eventful No Surrender PPV, Impact Wrestling taped two episodes of its weekly programming from the Alario Center in Westwego, Louisiana, USA.

According to a report from PW Insider, here is what took place on the show:

1. Gisele Shaw defeated “Local Talent”
2. Ace Austin & “Speedball” Mike Bailey defeated Trey Miguel and Jake Something. (Something and Miguel will face off for the X-Division title soon and Austin and Bailey are running an angle where Austin wants them to be aligned but Bailey’s not too sure about it.)
3. Heath interrupted a Moose promo and demanded a title shot. They brawled with Heath getting the better of it and holding up the title in the end. So, that looks to be where the world title picture is headed for the next bit.
4. Brian Myers defeated Crazzy Steve w/Decay
5. Digital Media Championship
   No Disqualification
   Matt Cardona (c) defeated Jordynne Grace (Grace was DQ’ed in their match at No Surrender)
6. Masha Slamovich defeated Rachel Rose
7. Bhupinder Gujjar defeated John Skyler (Brian Myers was on commentary, when W. Morrissey came out and attacked him. Skyler tried to make the save but then got put through a table for his efforts.)
8. ROH Women’s Championship/Reina de Reinas Championship Open Challenge
   Deonna Purrazzo defeated Lady Frost (after the match, Gisele Shaw came out and got into Frost’s face.)
9. JONAH defeated Zicky Dice
10. Honor No More (Matt Taven, Mike Bennett and Kenny King) defeated Rich Swann, Willie Mack and Chris Sabin (Eddie Edwards cut a promo after the match about why he aligned with Honor No More at No Surrender. Alisha Edwards came out and asked why he would turn his back on his family. Edwards said Honor No More is his family and Alisha needs to decide if she still has one.)
11. Cassie Lee defeated Madison Rayne
12. Tasha Steelz defeated Chelsea Green (Mickie James was on commentary)
13. JONAH defeated Johnny Swinger (PCO came out after and confronted JONAH. That sounds like a fun match!)
14. Steve Maclin defeated Eddie Edwards via disqualification.
15. Heath defeated Vincent (Both Honor No More and several Impact talents brawled after. Heath took out Moose again during this.)
16. No Disqualification
    Bullet Club (The Good Brothers & Chris Bey & Jay White) defeated The Guerrilla of Destiny & Violent by Design (with Eric Young). Tanga Loa cut a promo after saying he’s coming for Jay White stemming from the betrayal at No Surrender.

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows have filed an interesting trademark considering their current rivalry with their former stablemates in Bullet Club. The Good Brothers have been in a rivalry with the Guerrillas of Destiny in Impact Wrestling as of late. The feud also played out on an NJPW show last summer.

Doc Gallows’ company “Wrestlemerica” and Karl Anderson filed to trademark “The BC” for wrestling purposes on February 10th, 2022. Michael E. Dockins is the attorney on record for the filing.

This comes at an interesting time, as The Good Brothers will defend the Impact Tag Team Championships against the Guerrillas of Destiny at No Surrender this weekend. The storyline is that Anderson and Gallows feel that Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and other members of the current Bullet Club should thank them for making the faction what it is today. Tama Tonga has been particularly unmoved by this sentiment.

Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga are 2 of the 4 founding members of the faction. Back in 2013, the group was started by Prince Devitt (Finn Balor), Bad Luck Fale, Anderson and Tonga. Gallows would join the group later that year. Tanga Loa would join the group in 2016. Jay White joined the group in 2018 and is also involved in the faction that is active in Impact and NJPW’s American division.

Josh Alexander announced via a statement on his Twitter account that his contract with Impact Wrestling has expired. As a result, his United States work visa has also expired. 

He has been pulled from all events he was scheduled for this month including TERMINUS and AAW. He wrote the following: 

“Today my contract expired & subsequently also US work visa. Unfortunately as a consequence I will not be able to honour my commitments to both @TERMINUSpro & @AMLWrestling later this month. I’m disappointed & I’m sorry. Hopefully I’ll have everything in order soon.”

Following this reveal, it explains why Alexander was removed from the No Surrender card this coming Saturday night. He is Canadian and in order to stay in the United States, he needs a work visa. 

Alexander started working for Impact in 2018 and since that time, he has found a lot of success including runs as a World Heavyweight, X-Division, and Tag Team Champion. 

Moose will defend his Impact World Championship against W. Morrissey at the No Surrender event on FITE TV and Impact Plus. 

Mickie James has not gotten to work with All Elite Wrestling yet but the Impact Knockouts champion knows who she will face if she gets the chance. The Impact star recently appeared on Women’s Wrestling Talk. During the interview, she revealed her dream opponents from all the major promotions.

Speaking about Tony Khan’s promotion, Mickie James went straight to the top and picked the current AEW women’s champion Britt Baker as her dream opponent:

“AEW, Britt Baker, I think, period, I feel like yeah, I really kind of, I’ve met her a few times. I’ve just recently actually got to know her, like, got to chat with her more to kind of get to know her a little bit recently. I just, I always She’s kicking down doors and doing so much amazing stuff over there.”

• Mickie James Reveals Nick Khan Apologized For Trash Bag Incident At Royal Rumble

Mickie James continued by mentioning how Baker has been carving out her own unique path. The wrestling veteran applauded the AEW star for that.

The former WWE star also revealed her pick within her former promotion. She said that she would like to face the SmackDown women’s champion Charlotte Flair because the two have never faced off in WWE.

Quote: H/T Fightful

Former Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo has confirmed her engagement to fellow Impact Wrestling star Steve Maclin.

The female star revealed the news via a photo of the two on her Twitter account as seen below. In the caption, she wrote: “LOOK AT MY FIANCÉ”

Deonna Purrazzo is a former WWE and Stardom star. She had her first run with Impact Wrestling from 2014 to 2017 before she left the promotion for WWE. Deonna was released from WWE in April 2020.

She returned to Impact in May 2020. She won the ROH women’s world championship from Rok-C during the January 10 episode of Impact earlier this year. Purrazzo is also the current AAA Reina de Reinas Champion.

Steve Maclin is better known to WWE fans as former Forgotten Sons member Steve Cutler. He was part of WWE from 2014 to 2021. Cutler was released from his WWE contract back in February 2021.

• Deonna Purrazzo Wants to Defend ROH Title Everywhere

He made his debut for Impact Wrestling under his new ring name in June 2021. Maclin has been chasing the X Division title but is yet to win a championship in Impact.

Deonna Purrazzo and Steve Maclin have been dating each other since their WWE days. SEScoops congratulates the couple on their engagement.

Laredo Kid has been a regular for Impact Wrestling in recent months. He has now officially signed a contract with the promotion.

The high-flying star recently had an interview with Darren Paltrowitz. He discussed a number of things, including his desire to win the X-Division championship and more.

During the talk he also revealed that he was offered a contract with Impact and Laredo Kid confirmed that he has signed a deal with the company:

“When I see all the crazy moves they do, I try to do the same, you know? And training more [to] be there one day

And when I had the opportunity to be — to sign with IMPACT, it’s great, you know? Right now, it’s a dream to have this opportunity” said Laredo Kid, “then I’m going to find the X Division belt.”

• Lance Storm Joins Impact Wrestling as Producer & Coach

Laredo Kid made his Impact Wrestling debut in March 2017 as part of the company’s partnership with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide. He is also the current AAA World Cruiserweight Champion.

The Luchador had a tryout with WWE in 2015 as well. He worked a tag team match with Sammy Guevara under the ring name Tony Guevara. The duo lost a SmackDown dark match to Los Matadores.

Thanks to Post Wrestling for the quotes

Lance Storm is back with Impact Wrestling. The company recently announced Storm would be part of the Gut Check competition, which is returning soon.

Lance Storm later told Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline that he’ll also be working backstage in Impact as a producer and coach.

“This is a chance to make the decision I should have made two years ago,” said Storm. “I had done a couple of tapings with Impact as a producer back when I still had my school. Then when I decided to close my school and was looking at options, I talked with Impact and I talked with WWE.”

“I really liked it in Impact but both my wife and me too liked the idea of the security of WWE, which is ironic considering it ended up being a 6 month gig.”

Lance Storm Back with Impact

Storm noted that he will be going to Impact’s tapings in New Orleans later this month. He will be working as a producer and coach but will not have an official role on the creative team.

“I’m quite sure Scott is more than willing to hear an idea or two if I happen to suggest one but that is not part of my current job description,” Storm continued.

Lance Storm old briefly worked with Impact Wrestling backstage in 2019 before signing with WWE as a producer. He was then released at the onset of the global pandemic in the spring of 2019.

• Moose Says Impact’s Shows Are Just As Good As AEW or WWE

Impact Wrestling pulled in the best ratings its done since February 2021 last week. On the heels of Mickie James being announced for the Royal Rumble match, Impact’s 1/27 show drew 182,000 fans and a 0.05 in the 18-49 demo. It’s the best rating Impact has done since the February 16th, 2021 show.

The 2/16 show last year featured the debut of Juice Robinson and David Finlay. It was also the first show since the No Surrender 2021 show that had taken place that weekend. The promotion was about 2 months into the storyline that saw Kenny Omega invade the promotion. Omega would win the Impact World Championship from Rich Swann that April.

In addition to the Mickie James “Forbidden Door” bump, Impact also has a storyline right now featuring several members of Ring of Honor invading the promotion. The Honor No More stable consists of Vincent, PCO, Mike Bennett, Matt Taven, and Maria Kanellis. Jonathan Gresham has also defended the ROH World Championship on recent Impact shows.

In the world title picture right now in Impact, Moose is gearing up to defend his championship against W. Morrissey next. They will face off for the belt on February 19th’s No Surrender 2022 show. Mickie James will also defend the Knockouts World Championship on that show against Tasha Steelz.

Impact Wrestling on 1/27 was the first show to air from the recent tapings in Fort Lauderdale. The tapings featured the Impact debut of the Guerrillas of Destiny.

Impact Results 1/27:

1. Jake Something defeated Chris Bey
2. The iinspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay) defeated Kaleb with a K & Madison Rayne
3. W. Morrissey defeated The Learning Tree in a handicap match.
4. JONAH defeated Johnny Swinger
5. PCO defeated Chris Sabin

Bullet Club Attack Jake Something & Mike Bailey

Jake Something picked up a victory over Chris Bey in this week’s opening contest. After the match, however, the Guerrillas of Destiny Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa hit the ring and attacked Something. “Speedball” Mike Bailey came out to make the save but Jay White came up behind him and gave him a suplex.

Tama and Tonga then sent a message to the Good Brothers into the camera. We haven’t seen those two teams come face to face since the NJPW USA show this summer.

Honor No More vs Team Impact Booked For No Surrender

Vincent, PCO, and the OKC bought tickets and made their way to ringside. This led to a team of Impact babyfaces (Rhino, Rich Swann, Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin and Josh Alexander) coming out to the ring to prevent anymore invasions. Scott D’Amore came out and booked a 5-on-5 match for No Surrender with the stipulation that if Honor No More wins, they can remain in Impact. He also booked a match between Chris Sabin and PCO for later in the show. D’Amore noted that the Honor No More faction does not represent ROH like Jonathan Gresham does, they are in it for themselves.

Later in the show, D’Amore brings Honor No More to a backstage room that they can use as their locker room. There, they are visited by former ROH owner Cary Silkin, who says the group do not represent Ring of Honor.

The Iinspiration defeated Madison Rayne and Kaleb with a K

Tenille Dashwood was not able to make it to the tapings in Fort Lauderdale, so Kaleb with a K subbed for her in this match. Since Kaleb is not eligible to compete for the Knockouts tag team titles, the match was changed to a non-title bout. Lee ended up pinning Kaleb with a pinning combination to pick up the win for the Iinspiration.

Mickie James Gives State of the Knockouts Division Address

James put over the division roster. She did refer to Deonna Purrazzo as “the worst person” she’s shared a ring with, which obviously the Virtuosa did not take too kindly to. Purrazzo had a few words for James before leaving the ring area.

James also spoke about taking part in the Royal Rumble on Saturday. She said she is honored and excited to walk into the Rumble as the Knockouts World Champion. Chelsea Green got in the ring and complimented James and listing off her accomplishments. Green said Mickie is going to win the Rumble and she wants the first title shot after she does. Tasha Steelz reacted to this with loud boos, since she’s scheduled to face James at No Surrender next month.

Steelz hit James with the Red X from Ultimate-X and a melee ensued between her & Savannah Evans against Green and James. It ended with Green and James throwing both of the heels out of the ring.

W. Morrissey Defeats The Learning Tree In Handicap Match

Brian Myers inducted multiple people into his Learning Tree in the back earlier in the show. Several of these wrestlers then took on W. Morrissey in a handicap match. Morrissey had little trouble with any of them. He squashed all of Myers’ new recruits and is building momentum on the road to his No Surrender title match with Moose.

After the match, Myers tried to attack Morrissey but Morrissey got the better of him. Then Moose attacked from behind. The Learning Tree got back involved but Morrissey fought them off before getting speared by Moose to end the segment.

JONAH Squashes Johnny Swinger

JONAH didn’t have any trouble at all with Johnny Swinger this week. He defeated him with his big tsunami splash off the top rope. American Top Team and AEW’s Dan Lambert was shown watching and applauding JONAH’s performance from the crowd.

After the match, JONAH looked to do more damage to Swinger when the members of Decay came to the ring. They had a bit of a staredown with JONAH as he went to the back.

PCO Defeats Chris Sabin

The night’s main event saw Honor No More’s PCO take on Chris Sabin in singles action. Sabin looked as though he had PCO where he wanted him, but PCO thwarted the Cradle Shock. Sabin then had to fight off the members of Honor No More at ringside but Bennett managed to knock him off the top ropes while Maria had the ref distracted. PCO then delivered a full nelson slam and got the pin.

After the match, Honor No More attacked Sabin but Josh Alexander, Eddie Edwards, Rhino and Rich Swann made the save. Alexander put Vincent in the ankle lock until Honor No More pulled their stablemate to safety as the show came to a close.

Coming Up In Impact Wrestling

Next Week:

• Digital Media Championship
  Jordynne Grace (c) vs Matt Cardona
• Jonathan Gresham vs Steve Maclin (traditional rules, not Pure rules)
• Ace Austin, Madman Fulton, Mike Bailey, & Jake Something vs Bullet Club (Jay White, Chris Bey, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa)

No Surrender (February 19th)

• Knockouts World Championship
  Mickie James (c) vs Tasha Steelz
• Impact World Championship
  Moose (c) vs W. Morrissey

Ring of Honor World Women’s Champion Deonna Purrazzo wants to be a fighting champion.

Sporting News Daniel Yanofsky interviewed Purrazzo about becoming the ROH World Women’s Champion and her plans. She defeated Rok-C to win the title on the January 13th Impact Wrestling episode. Although ROH is on hiatus, the company has allowed there champions to defend the title for different wrestling promotions.

Yanofsky transcribed the following quotes. He asked Purrazzo if she’d try to represent ROH elsewhere as a champion like ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham.

“Absolutely, especially with the unprecedented times, they are in. It’s interesting to have Jonathan Gresham wrestling on Impact, fighting Steve Maclin in a Pure Rules championship match. I love that Ring of Honor is represented, whether on Impact Wrestling, an independent show, wherever it is. It is a brand that means a lot to me personally from my time there,” said Purrazzo. She explained, “It helped develop who Deonna Purrazzo, “The Virtuosa,” was going to be as a wrestler. Now that I have the championship, I don’t know if I will be defending it under Pure Rules, but it does mean the world to me to be the ROH Women’s World Champion. I want to defend it and carry on the ROH brand wherever and however I can.”

What’s Next for ROH

ROH announced on January 20th that they would return with Supercard of Honor on April 1st. They revealed a unification title match for the ROH World Championship between Bandido and Gresham. However, the company doesn’t plan to sign talent to exclusive contracts. Instead, they will act like other independent promotions and get wrestlers to work dates. It’s unclear if the Bandido vs. Gresham match winner will defend the championship for different promotions.

Impact Wrestling doesn’t have an event scheduled for April 1st, and Purrazzo could appear for ROH’s return event. Although, ROH would have to figure out whom she would defend the title against now that they don’t have signed talent.

Kurt Angle has unveiled a surprising name for someone who he considered to be an unsung hero of TNA.

Angle was a part of the TNA Wrestling roster from 2006 through 2016. His run with the promotion lasted longer than his first stint with WWE. During his time in TNA, Angle became a six-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

Kurt Angle Praises Vince Russo

During an episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the Olympic gold medalist chose Vince Russo as his pick for the unsung hero of TNA.

“The unsung hero that I think? I loved Vince Russo. I don’t know how fans think about him or how they feel about him but Vince was very talented.

“The success he had in WWE was phenomenal, the Attitude Era. When he went to WCW, the problem was he was writing for the wrestlers and they were like, ‘I’m not doing that. I’m gonna do whatever I want.’

“So, his storylines turned into something else cause the wrestlers turned it into whatever they wanted and it got diluted. I think that’s the reason that WCW kinda went downhill.

“But when he was in TNA he was phenomenal. He wrote for me every week and I didn’t have any problems with him. I know there are some fans that don’t like him, there are some wrestlers that don’t like him but Vince is very talented.”

Russo has been widely panned over the years for his booking decisions. Some have even credited him with killing WCW quicker.

With that said, Russo does have his supporters. He’s given his due by some in the industry, such as Kurt Angle, for successful segments during the Attitude Era both on the entertainment and business sides.

Please H/T SEScoops with a link if you use any quotes from this article

Impact World Champion Moose recently stated that he believes Impact’s shows are just as good as AEW or WWE’s. He also stated that he hopes the promotion will begin to run bigger venues as well.

“If you watch our shows, I feel our shows are just as good, if not better than AEW and WWE,” Moose said. “I think the biggest challenge, if I was running the company, I would try to expand our following in the sense of getting bigger venues and seeing if we can draw a 5,000 or 6,000 seat arena. You never know unless you try it. Let’s see if we can start slowly running in big arenas, especially our PPVs.”

Moose continued to say that he had a custom Impact World Championship belt made but the company decided against him using it.

“I’m going to break the news now. I actually had a custom Impact World title made. It looks exactly the same, but it’s on a red strap, on red leather. I pitched it and it got turned down. I understand why it got turned down. I don’t want to get into the details of it, but I understand why. If I keep it long enough, maybe they’ll change their mind on it.”

At the Hard to Kill PPV earlier this month, Moose successfully defended his title against Matt Cardona and W. Morrissey in a triple threat match. He’s scheduled to face W. Morrissey in another title match at No Surrender next month. Impact recently spent two days in Fort Lauderdale taping episodes of their weekly programming. Spoilers for those shows are available below:

• Impact Television Taping Spoilers
• Impact TV Taping Spoilers From Night 2 In Fort Lauderdale

H/T to WrestlingNews for the above transcriptions.