12 Ups & 4 Downs From Impact Wrestling Hard To Kill 2021

3. Born To Be Wired

Barbed Wire Massacre IV. Wow.

Sami Callihan and Eddie Edwards' fierce rivalry reached its boiling point at Hard To Kill as the duo did battle in just the fourth Barbed Wire Massacre. From the sheer brutality of the bout, you can see perfectly why this stipulation had only occurred three other times before this. Fighting in a ring surrounded by a barbed wire cage part, barbed wire boards, barbed wire bats, and a barbed wire N64 controller, this was war.

What was odd is that the duo actually started the match with a traditional collar and elbow tie-up, the exact opposite of what you'd expect given the gnarly stipulation attached to the bout. Once the weapons were used, though, the blood was streaming down both men's faces.

As the match progressed, a brilliant callback saw Sami and Eddie waving their patented baseball bat and kendo stick (both wrapped in the wire), two weapons that have defined the duo in Impact Wrestling. A top-rope piledriver through a barbed wire board to Eddie and a barbed wire chair-assisted Boston Knee Party (the chair bounced directly off 'The Draw's' skull, by the way) garnered a two count and one count, respectively. Ending the match with a Die Hard Driver on the broken board is how Eddie secured his victory - a decisive ending, although the Boston Knee Party arguably would have been a more effective finish.

Depending on your pro wrestling taste, this was a marvelous display of hardcore wrestling harking back to the ECW classics. For such an intense rivalry, it needed to culminate with a genuinely horrifying stipulation. Not just anyone can work perfectly in a Barbed Wire Massacre scenario. These two made the stipulation work beautifully, and offered something different to the pay-per-view alongside the high-flying, technical, and story-based contests that were previously on offer. That's what makes a great pro wrestling match.