4 Ups & 4 Downs From Impact Wrestling (12 Jan)
Karl Anderson stands out, Decay reunites, and Matthew Palmer gets obliterated again on Impact.
Last night's Impact Wrestling marked the final show before the company's hotly-anticipated Hard To Kill pay-per-view on 16 January, and thus, they needed to deliver a standout episode. While not quite on the level of recent episodes, it was still a fine show that added further fuel to the fire ahead of Saturday's proceedings.
The non-title main event between Karl Anderson and Rich Swann was an exceptionally memorable bout, as 'The Machine Gun' reminded everyone watching why he's one of the most underrated singles performers in all of pro wrestling today. Meanwhile, Chris Bey and Rohit Raju working together to outsmart Manik and Suicide was needed for the two X Division Championship challengers, even if their alliance did seem entirely pointless last week.
Elsewhere on the episode, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone presented another paid advertisement, Rosemary and Crazzy Steve - former partners in Decay - officially reunited for the first time in nearly four years, Susan (the new alter ego of Su Yung) showed herself to be aligned with Deonna Purrazzo and Kimber Lee, and a number of delightful video packages put the finishing touches on the marquee bouts come Saturday evening.
It wasn't a perfect go-home show by any means, but it did what it needed to in most places. Let's get to it...