Impact Wrestling brought us No Surrender on Impact Plus, Tommy Dreamer fighting for the World Championship in the main event, every member of the knockouts roster featuring on the show. Of course, a huge MCU style secret ending with the announcement of David Finlay & Juice Robinson from NJPW appearing on Impact Wrestling next Tuesday. A stacked card from start to finish, here are more thoughts on last night’s No Surrender on Impact Plus.
A very solid opener in the form of DECAY defeating the team of Tenille and XXXL, a nice way to start the show in a match that perhaps didn’t have as much build up as some of the other matches on the show. But strong nonetheless, Black Taurus proving he is a great fit in this demonic group. Brian Myers and Hernandez then took on and beat the team of Eddie Edwards and Matt Cardona. Again there could have been more hype around this match if there was more of a build towards it that included Cardona. But as a whole, it was very entertaining and Brian Myers is becoming one of the best parts of the show.
Deaner then took on his cousin, the newly minted Jake Something in a good old family fight. Perhaps one of the matches that a lot of people weren’t necessarily too excited about, but both men did an excellent job of telling a story. Although Jake was the same move set that Cousin Jake used to use, it felt more effective as Jake Something. He had the extra force and power due to the personal nature of this match.
Following that was the Triple Threat revolver match, a match that had a lot of people excited due to its unique rules and stipulation. Trey Miguel was a pretty big stand out in this match as was Chris Bey and Josh Alexander who would go on to win. There were perhaps one too many flips in the opening five minutes but it had a mix of all styles, Trey Miguel being put in the iron man position was a good call, but Josh Alexander as the winner will make a nice change of pace to the X Division title picture.
The Knockouts Tag Team Champions Fire and Flava (Hogan and Steelz) also had their first official defence as champions, they took on Havok and Nevaeh. In what was a nice pallet cleanser after the X Division style match before. The match was a Texas Tornado No disqualification match, maybe they didn’t make as much use out of that stipulation as they could have, possibly due to timing. It was a successful defence for the champions at No Surrender, which led to an interesting riff between the Havok and Nevaeh.
The X Division championship on the line, as the Champion TJP successfully defended it against the former Champion Rohit Raju. The Challenger with Shera in his corner went on the offence quickly, by hitting a suicide dive to the champion before he got into the ring. A brawl would ensue with excellent storytelling, despite having seen this match quite a few times lately it was a nice way to potentially wrap this storyline up.
Six Knockouts tag team action then took place, between the Knockouts champion Deonna Purrazzo, Kimber Lee and Susan. Who was eventually defeated by their opponents of Jordynne Grace, ODB and Jazz. In what was a fun match to watch, there may not have been an awful lot of pace to it but it was still enjoyable. Recently however it does appear as though the knockouts championship has taken a bit of a backseat, with no obvious number one contender, but as for the match itself maybe it wasn’t the right team picking up the win but without any doubt, Jazz has still got it.
The Impact tag team championships on the line next, the Good Brothers successfully defending against both James Storm and Chris Sabin and Private Party. Once again the storytelling in this match was excellent, Chris Sabin trying to cause an issue between Private Party and Matt Hardy but unsuccessfully. The Good Brothers didn’t appear to have too much of a look in during the match, but the mark of a good champion is making the most of every opportunity which they did.
The Main Event saw Tommy Dreamer taking on Rich Swann for his Impact World Championship, although this match was fine it certainly didn’t have the normal pace you would expect from a Rich Swann match. But was it ever really going to? By no means an instant classic but they told a great story which sometimes, especially with a big prize on the line is more important than having big spots. It was superb booking by Impact when Tommy dislocated his finger and for a few minutes, you believed Dreamer could pull this off which is full credit to the storytelling and facial expressions of both champion and challenger. A touching moment at the end between both men before it was ruined by Moose who cemented his spot as next in line for Rich Swann and his World Championship to close No Surrender…
After the show went off the air, it was announced that David Finlay and Juice Robinson from New Japan Pro Wrestling will be coming to Impact Wrestling this Tuesday. It’s a huge moment for pro wrestling as a whole but is also huge for Impact personally, meaning NJPW once again trust Impact Wrestling.
Catch the replay of No Surrender on the Impact Plus app and Fite TV. Find Impact Wrestling weekly in the same place in the UK, as well as Tuesdays on AXS TV in the US.
