Wrestling Review: Impact Wrestling Multiverse of Matches (2022)

As part of Wrestlecon 2022 in Dallas, for Wrestlemania Weekend, competitors from across the various universes of professional wrestling collide at the Multiverse of Matches, hosted by Impact Wrestling. Competitors from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Ring of Honor (ROH), Pro Wrestling NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and Impact are on the show, with the main event set to see ROH legends The Briscoes, Mark and Jay, battle the Good Brothers of the Bullet Club, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. The Good Brothers’ Bullet Club commander, the undefeated Jay White, will also be in action as he faces Chris Sabin, while Sabin’s Motor City Machine Guns partner, Alex Shelley, battles “Speedball” Mike Bailey. Meanwhile, Tomohiro Ishii of NJW will battle Eddie Edwards, opting to represent his former promotion of Pro Wrestling NOAH, in a cross-Japan feud. The reigning ROH and AAA Women’s Champion, Deonna Purrazzo, will also be in action, as the once again hosts an open ‘Champ Champ’ challenge, where whoever accepts will be able to choose which title they challenge for. A four way tag team contest for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Titles will also take place, with numerous moving parts coming together across both the single and tag team divisions, and Moose and PCO will team up to face the unlikely duo of JONAH and Josh Alexander. Finally, kicking things off will be a wild 6-man Ultimate X match as Trey Miguel defends the X-Division Championship.

+ The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) vs The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson): interestingly, technically the Briscoes are still a part of CHAOS in NJPW. Make of that what you will, especially since The Best Friends are now in CHAOS as well, over in AEW. Anyway, this was good, but not great, and I do wonder why it was put in the main event instead of White/Sabin. The Briscoes are fresh off that absolute banger against FTR at Supercard of Honor, and I can’t help but compare these matches, with that one being significantly better. Still, these are two good teams and there was enough stuff to keep things good here
+ Chris Sabin vs Jay White: this was really, really good, with Jay White once again proving why he is one of the best wrestlers in the world right now. Sabin was also really good, and he showed that he more than just the tag team guy he is famous for. There was a bit of backstory about Sabin training Jay back in the day, but frankly this version of Jay White is something so special that it was hard to get too invested in that aspect of things. I really look forward to where this is going
+ JONAH & Josh Alexander vs Moose & PCO: between Moose or PCO facing Jonah, and then just how good Alexander is, this was relatively short, but sweet. I’ve sung the praises of Alexander for a long time now, and the intensity now with Moose is taking him even above that greatness. JONAH has more than redeemed himself from his lacklustre run in NXT, and what else needs to be said about PCO. This was good
+ Tomohiro Ishii vs Eddie Edwards: it should be no surprise to anybody that a stiff striking match between Ishii and anyone was a great showing. Edwards has changed his style so much over the past decade or so that he actually held his own against the Stone Pitbull, and I loved it
+ Alex Shelley vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey: both of these guys are really good, but I do struggle to see Shelley as the bad guy he was trying to be. Speedball once again really causes concern for his knees, after all of his other matches so far in these shows, but when the crowd reacts for his stuff they way they do, then I can’t really complain. This was relatively standard, but both guys are pros so of course it was good

– Deonna Purrazzo’s Champ Champ Challenge: I get the feeling the live crowd didn’t know Purrazzo’s opponent, and then the match wasn’t very good anyway (and I don’t think it was Purrazzo’s fault). This seemed mostly about the aftermath, which was fine
– The Influence (Madison Rayne & Tenille Dashwood) (c) vs Gisele Shaw & Lady Frost vs Savannah Evans & Tasha Steelz vs Decay (Havok & Rosemary) (Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championships): there is no nice way to say this but this was not very good. Multi-person matches like this are often hit and miss, no matter the gender or styles involved, and this was a miss. I’d almost simply have preferred some sort of Steelz/Rosemary team, as they are singles champion and contender, against the defending Influence – or just bring back the IInspiration, because those women can do no wrong
– Mickie James & Nick Aldis vs Chelsea Green & Matt Cardona: perfectly adequate, but sort of ‘not enough’ after the story they were telling. The expected ‘bad team hurts both partner, good guy won’t hit bad woman’ stuff was on display, but it just sort of didn’t quite resolve anythign strongly enough for me either way. I like both teams ‘as teams’, but none of them stood out, especialyl Cardona who we know can be the huge dickhead when he wants to be
– Trey Miguel (c) vs Rich Swann vs Vincent vs Jordynne Grace vs Chris Bey vs Blake Christian (Impact X-Division Championship Ultimate X Match): it felt like this was just getting good, before a very abrupt ending that left most of the competitors looking confused. I wonder if it ended too early. I really can’t say anybody looked particularly good or bad, because there was just no time

Should you watch this event: For a very long time, the Knockouts of TNA/Impact were some of the true highlights, but that was not the case here. Ishii/Edwrds, the Josh Alexander/JONAH vs PCO/Moose tag and especially White/Sabin are all great and worth your time, but you don’t need to seke out the whole show.