Impact Wrestling live results: Matt Cardona vs. Joe Hendry Digital Media title match
The Digital Media title will be on the line as part of Thursday’s Impact on AXS TV as Joe Hendry defends against former champion Matt Cardona who will look to reclaim the title he lost last year.
In a match built out of his recent feud with Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer will team with Knockouts Champion Mickie James to take on The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch).
The first two qualifying matches for a four-way no. 1 contender’s match at No Surrender will take place as Dirty Dango takes on the aforementioned Myers while PCO returns to battle Shera.
Former Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace begins her ascent back to the top against the debuting Steph De Lander, the former Persia Pirotta in WWE NXT.
In non-title action, Killer Kelly & Taylor Wilde will face Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Death Dollz.
The BTI pre-show will see “Speedball Mike Bailey” against Raj Singh.
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Mike Bailey defeated Raj Singh (w/Shera) on the BTI pre-show
After some good offense and sneaky tactics by Singh, Bailey evetually gained the victory after hitting the Ultima Weapon.
After the match, Bailey took the mic and accepted Jonathan Gresham’s challenge for No Surrender taking place in just over two weeks.
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The opening video highlighted The Design’s main event victory last week followed by Joe Hendry’s catchy song infuriating Matt Cardona leading to tonight’s main event for the Digital Media title.
-Matt Cardona was seen entering the building and being checked in by an official. Cardona didn’t officially say who he was, just that he was in the main event and was brought to this awesome dressing room with champagne waiting. When Cardona told the official who he was, he was directed to another dressing room looking very similar to a janitor’s closet.
Brian Myers defeated Dirty Dango in a qualifying match for the four-way no. 1 contender’s match at No Surrender
After some quick paced action from Dango, Myers mean streak came out and he started attacking the left arm of Dango before beginning a ground game.
Myers continued the ground game but got cocky and began shoving the head of Dango asking him if he wanted “to dance” which infuriated Dango and let to a momentum change.
After Dango hit a series of moves, Myers was on the outside and unfortunately for Dango, he failed to hit a dive off of the top rop to the outside and ended up with the ring skirt between his legs. Myers hit a Roster Cut on the outside followed by a Roster Cut on the inside and that was all she wrote for Dango.
– Backstage, Gisele Shaw and Jai Vidal were in catering and Shaw was picking on some of the talent seated before Deonna Purrazzo interrupted. After Purrazzo said a few choice words to Shaw, she dumped a bowl of food over Gisele as Vidal looked on in horror. Santino Marella then arrived on scene and as the Director of Authority, he told both ladies they would compete against one another at No Surrender.
– Backstage, Gia Miller was current X-Division champion Trey Miguel. Miguel cut a promo on Crazzy Steve before the lights flickered and Steve’s laugh was heard overhead while his logo appeared on the monitor.
Tommy Dreamer & Mickie James defeated The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch)
Before the match, Skyler cut a promo on the crowd stating that he couldn’t wait to get this match over with so they could get the heck out of the town.
Impact Knockouts champion Mickie James began the match against Hotch and after some quick tags back and forth, James and Dreamer were in full control of the match as Dreamer hit a double clothesline from the ring apron to the outside while James followed up with a diving crossbody from the top rope as well.
Momentum switched up momentarily as Hotch caught Dreamer off guard as he was focused on Skyler but Dreamer landed a cutter and tagged in James who was a house of fire.
Hotch tried his best but after a Mick Kick, James and Dreamer hit double ddt’s and James pinned Hotch for the victory.
After the match, Bully Ray hit the ring and took out Dreamer and then focused on James. It was a setup however as Masha Slamovich nailed James from behind and laid out the current Impact Knockouts champion.
– Backstage, Johnny Swinger and Zicky Dice caught up with Santino Marella to make a request. Before they could say too much, Dirty Dango, the “deputy” Director of Authority, arrived on scene and denied their request as Swinger and Dice look puzzled but optimistic.
– A promo aired for the upcoming events taking place at Cicero Stadium in Chicago in 2023.
– A video promo aired on Rich Swann’s thoughts and highlights in Impact Wrestling leading into his match against Josh Alexander for the Impact world title at No Surrender.
Jordynne Grace defeated Steph De Lander
Australia’s own Steph De Lander was making her debut for Impact Wrestling in this match after seeing action in the past for SHIMMER and the WWE.
De Lander cut a promo on the mic prior to the match stating that this was now her time to capitalize on Jordynne’s fall from Grace before we went to commercial.
We’re back from commercial and Grace is headed down to the ring. While De Lander definitely had a massive height advantage on Grace, the power and quickness of Jordynne easily balanced the match out.
De Lander gained the early advantage, hitting some hard chops followed by a big suplex but that only seemed to fire Grace up. De Lander followed up with a fallaway slam but you could tell that there was no way that Grace was going to lose this match as she was way too intense. Grace eventually capitalized with the Grace Driver to give De Lander a loss in her debut.
– Backstage, Matt Cardona was furious and arguing his case to an official stating that he would rather change in the parking lot than in a broom closet. The official seemed concerned and told Cardona to follow him and sure enough, Cardona was led to the parking lot with his gear chucked out the door behind him.
– A promo aired for NJPW Battle in the Valley 2023 taking place live on FITE on Saturday, February 18th.
– Backstage, Gia Miller was with Impact World champion Josh Alexander. Alexander commented on the legacy of Rich Swann in Impact before being interrupted by Kenny King. King took offense to Swann getting a title shot before Swann himself interrupted. After some jaw jacking by Swann, he slapped King across the face. Alexander stepped away and told them to handle this as King backed off as well.
Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Death Dollz (Rosemary & Taya Valkyrie w/ Jessicka) defeated Killer Kelly & Taylor Wilde in a non-title match
Valkyrie and Kelly started things off as the two powerhouses attempted to gain momentum for their team. Valkyrie managed to get the upper hand first and tagged in Rosemary who soon had Kelly trapped in the upside-down.
Wilde tagged herself into the match after studying a tarot card and managed to switch things up for her and Kelly. After some quick tags by Wilde and Kelly, Wilde and Rosemary collided in the middle of the ring with double clotheslines leading to both women down and out.
Kelly was tagged back into the match and so was a hot Valkyrie. Kelly tried to tag Wilde back in but Taylor was too busy looking at her tarot cards. Wilde revealed a devil card and threw it as Kelly as Kelly looked confused. Valkyrie took advantage of the situation and with an assist from Rosemary, she hit the Road to Valhalla on Kelly to pick up the win for her team.
After the match, Father James Mitchell came out to the entrance ramp and cut a promo on the Death Dollz, specifically Rosemary. Mitchell stated that “father wasn’t happy” and decided to place a Hex on Rosemary. Out of nowhere, Allysin Kay and Marti Belle were in the ring to layout the Death Dollz and make their return to Impact Wrestling in the process.
– Backstage, Eddie Edwards caught up with Raj Singh and Shera. Edwards told Singh and Shera to take out PCO tonight by any means necessary.
– Backstage, the Motor City Machine Guns met up with KUSHIDA before being interrupted by Ace Austin and Chris Bey. A challenge was made for a six-man tag team match at No Surrender and it was revealed that KENTA will side with the Bullet Club to take on Time Machine.
PCO defeated Shera (w/ Raj Singh) in a qualifying match for the four-way no. 1 contender’s match at No Surrender
Shera hit very little offense in this match as you would expect as the “French Canadian Frankenstein” was just way too insane for him. PCO finished Shera off with PCO Sault to advance to the #1 Contender’s match at No Surrender.
– Backstage, Gia Miller was with a furious Matt Cardona. Cardona stated that he had to change into his ring gear in the parking lot and sought out to find Joe Hendry. Cardona ended up back at the champagne dressing room only to find Brian Myers leaving the room with shrimp in his hand. As Cardona was confused, a trio of talent walked past Cardona singing Hendry’s theme song as Myers clapped as they passed. Cardona questioned Myers on why he did that to which Myers responded that the theme song was catchy.
– Backstage, Frankie Kazarian was with Sami Callihan. Kazarian questioned Callihan’s loyalty to The Design but before Callihan could respond, Deaner and The Design appeared. Deaner stated that every answer had to go through him and Kazarian then challenged Kon to a match at No Surrender if he could get Deaner’s permission.
Impact Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry defeated Matt Cardona to retain
A furious and focused Matt Cardona headed to the ring as we headed into commercial break.
We’re back from commercial and as Cardona was posing on the turnbuckles, Hendry’s music hit and the fans in the arena were waving their arms in unison. Hendry entered the ring and grabbed the mic and after once again stating that Cardona was “Edge’s b***h”, it was now time to believe.
The bell rang and Cardona immediately nailed Hendry with Radio Silence but could only manage a two count, lucky for Hendry.
The two men looked to gain the upper hand for the next few moments before Hendry was able to catch Cardona in an impressive delayed vertical suplex. Cardona was able to roll out of the ring and then managed to nail Hendry with a neckbreaker on the floor as we headed to another commercial break.
We’re back from commercial and the two men are back in the ring and Cardona has Hendry trapped in the corner with his boot on his throat. Cardona followed up with some more offense and as Hendry was looking to switch momentum and land another suplex, Cardona escaped and hit a massive neckbreaker.
Cardona followed up with a guillotine but Hendry was able to power out and drop Cardona on his back. The two men started trading blows once again and Hendry caught Cardona off the ropes and landed a modified fallaway slam but only managed a two count.
Cardona wouldn’t give up and after landing a ddt, he failed to land his running corner kick and Hendry was back on the attack. Cardona followed up with a Radio Silence out of nowhere but only managed a two count. Cardona climbed to the middle turnbuckle but Hendry nailed a powerbomb as Cardona was coming down.
With victory looking like it was in sight for Hendry, Brian Myers hit ringside, grabbed the Digital Media title and attempted to toss it to Cardona but the referee grabbed it. As the referee was distracted, Myers entered the ring and attempted to nail Hendry with the Roster Cut but ended up nailing Cardona instead. Hendry took the opportunity to capitalize, tossed Myers out of the ring and nailed Cardona with the Standing Ovation to retain the Digital Media championship.
After the match, Moose hit the ring and attempted to nail Hendry with a spear but hit Cardona instead. Hendry tossed Moose from the ring and left the ring himself to grab his title and the mic. Hendry stated that with his music not currently playing, he’d play some music of his own in tribute to Cardona and the fans in the Impact Zone were once again treated to the music video of “Edge’s b***h” as the show came to a close.
Final Thoughts:
Fun episode of Impact tonight with a killer lineup being set so far for No Surrender in just over two weeks. The announcement of Time Machine battling Bullet Club could easily be match of the night but that’s just one of the amazing matches announced so far.
Brian Myers and PCO have qualified for the #1 Contender’s match and the thought of the 55-year-old PCO in an Impact world title match in 2023 is unreal! It’ll be interesting to see who joins them next week in the other qualifying matches.
Go out of your way to catch this week’s (and next week’s) Impact, folks.
Next Week:
- Chris Bey vs. KUSHIDA
- Eddie Edwards vs. Heath in a qualifying match
- Steve Maclin vs. Rhino in a qualifying match
- Rich Swann vs. Kenny King
New for No Surrender:
- Bullet Club vs. Time Machine
- Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw (pre-show)