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

1. The Real Machine Gun

Rich Swann and Karl Anderson's main event was an elegant bout, and undoubtedly the best possible choice for the final Impact match before Hard To Kill on Saturday. What made this match better, in a way, was that Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Doc Gallows, Kenny Omega, and Don Callis were all barred from ringside, leaving this to be a truly great encounter between Swann and Anderson.

The key target of this match for 'The Machine Gun' was Rich's shoulder. Using the surrounding environment to weaken the limb of Swann reminded you of how great a singles worker Anderson is. As Omega repeatedly brings up, this is the 2012 G1 Climax finalist version of Karl Anderson we've been seeing in recent weeks. Even aside from the shoulder arsenal, though, the tag team specialist remained a standout singles performer here - his Claymore was impressive.

He had to lose, however, as Swann and The Motor City Machine Guns (in spirit) needed this win. That Rich also held the trunks during his pinfall attempt was a nice callback to when Karl did the same thing to Chris Sabin a few weeks back. Callbacks in pro wrestling are always great, but they're undoubtedly far better when they're made subtle. The hard cam feed obstructed our complete view of Swann holding the trunks, so in theory, he remains a cheeky babyface.

A post-match backstage brawl only added further hype to Saturday's main event. A fantastic match with an equally as good brawl to conclude the final show before their most-anticipated pay-per-view in recent history; that's how you start a new year.