Credit: Impact Wrestling
The announcement that Alex Shelley would not be able to compete in the main Hard to Kill event forced Moose to compete, in partnership with Chris Sabin and rival world champion Impact Rich Swann, to fight tag team champions The Good Brothers and AEW world champion Kenny Omega.
Don Callis took care of the introduction of Omega.
Sabin and Karl Anderson’s initial wrestling gave way to a horse fight between Moose and Doc Gallows before the action broke. In the middle of it all, Omega grabbed Swann and scored Anderson. Sabin won a fast almost drop from a Moose moonsault, but the jumps won him over in the corner again.
The action was halted again and this time, the babyfaces rolled, Sabin and Swann delivering an assisted DDT tornado to Omega and diving over the ropes to eliminate the opposition. Gallows worked in Swann and Omega added a fameasser.
Impact world champion scored Moose for the match and former St. Louis Ram stood out in the competition. With Sabin as the cool man, the babyfaces again found themselves on the defensive when Omega took him down with a powerbomb for two.
Sabin knocked over Omega and almost went red-hot. Anderson and Gallows defeated the former TNA and X-Division champion, however, and scored a two count for themselves.
Swann joined the game and exchanged blows with Omega. The AEW champion won, delivering a suplex snapdragon and piledriver underhook.
Moose hoisted Omega on his shoulders, but The Cleaner slipped and sent the big man over Swann, holding him on the top rope. Swann and Moose, enemies, combined for a modified Doomsday Device that scored a two.
Swann gave a splash of 450 moments later for another almost dramatic drop as the Omega staggered.
A lost Phoenix Splash gave way to the Good Brothers taking Swann down with the Magic Killer and Moose making the last-minute defense. Omega threw Moose to the ground, handed over the V-Trigger and finished with the One-Winged Angel for the win.
Result
Omega and The Good Brothers defeated Swann, Sabin and Moose
Degree
AN
Analyze
This was a bit of the action-packed main event you’d expect from a talent pool as big as this one.
Moose shone brightly here, the most electrifying artist in a game full of celebrities in the ring. He was motivated, quick and physical, whether he threw big fists or fought Omega. At a time when Impact is clearly positioning him to be the man to dethrone Swann, he has absolutely acted to date and looked like the company’s biggest star.
Which brings us to Swann.
Rich has been one of the best stories in wrestling, a workhorse for the company that overcame an injury that threatened his career to win the world title in a month-long story that paid off in October’s Bound for Glory.
Throughout this particular storyline and at the start of the match, however, he was overshadowed and treated as a secondary reflection by Kenny Omega. The fact that he ate the pinfall when Chris Sabin could easily have lost the game and did no damage to his credibility, only further increases his questionable credit card throughout this program.
As strong as the match was, it raises the question of why the whole ordeal was so one-sided from start to finish.
Omega and The Good Brothers defeated and got the best of babyfaces countless times at the beginning of Hard to Kill. Then they win the main event. What exactly did that do for Impact?
Sure, he increased his stature in the wrestling world for a few weeks, but things stabilized very quickly and outside of a single buyrate, it hardly seems to have any long-term benefits. Especially when Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone are on the show every week talking badly about Impact.
Assuming the goal was to reserve this one-time PPV match, in the hope of generating revenue, it probably worked. Whether it was worth sacrificing the credibility of the Impact stars is an entirely different matter.