6 Ups & 4 Downs From IMPACT Wrestling (3 June)

1. Iron Men

Josh Alexander vs. TJP worked a pay-per-view main event-quality match in their Iron Man match to the extent that you would never have guessed we’re still in the empty arena era.

What started as a slow-burning, technical masterpiece soon descended into a race for TJP, who went one fall down early on. The championship challenger having to chase their opponent to tie the score is one of an Iron Man match’s oldest tropes, yet, it worked brilliantly here. TJP is the perfect kind of guy to pull this off, however, his work was made that bit better by Josh’s constant scampering for a submission to wear TJP down. When he wasn’t doing that, he and TJP were saying f*ck it and slapping each other endlessly.

Going into overtime at a 1-1 draw was inevitable for this. It’s rare an Iron Man match doesn’t go into overtime. Again, though, it worked expertly with these two. They were quite clearly as weak as piss by this stage, but they were willed on by the IMPACT roster surrounding the ring. A Divine Intervention sealed TJP’s fate.

This ruled. A sixty-minute Iron Man match is difficult to pull off, regardless of who’s involved. Alexander and TJP cemented a new bar to break on a night that set a new precedent for the X Division. Good stuff all around.