4 Ups & 4 Downs From Impact Wrestling (12 Jan)

2. Smart Guys

Your writer had some harsh comments to make last week regarding Rohit Raju and Chris Bey's reasoning for forming an alliance just because they both want to achieve the same outcome with regards to Manik, but last night's Impact proved that the pair have actually come a long way since Manik returned.

Most importantly, Bey and Raju are smart players now. Every time we've seen Manik wrestle, he's done this spot where he's removed from the ring, and hides underneath it, eventually coming in on the opposite side. This week, the spot happened with both Manik and Suicide, leading to Bey and Raju actually turning their backs to face the side where Manik would typically return. A small callback to previous bouts, but it made sense, even if their masked adversaries instead came in the same side they went out.

As for the rest of the match, it was a fun bout for the most part. 'The Desi Hitman's pouncing knee was, as always, a major highlight as he near enough knocked the X Division Champion out flat. Chris Bey's Art of Finesse cutter to Suicide was a fine way to end the match too. A thing of beauty.

Aside from Rohit attempting to, once again, unmask Manik near the match's conclusion, this was a perfect way to build anticipation for one of the least-hyped bouts on the Hard To Kill card. Despite the current straight-fire status of that card, expect this to be a dark horse banger of a match come Saturday.