Impact Wrestling
Under Siege 2022
May 7, 2022
Promowest Pavilion
Newport, Kentucky

Watch: FITE

Two weeks after a strong Rebellion PPV, Impact Wrestling presents their latest live special this Saturday (May 7) live from the Promowest Pavilion at Ovation in Newport, Kentucky. In the main event, Josh Alexander makes the second defense of his Impact Wrestling World Championship title against New Japan’s Tomohiro Ishii.

Countdown to Under Siege

Rich Swann vs. Laredo Kid

While they probably won’t get an enormous amount of time on the pre-show, I’m looking forward to seeing what these two can put together.

With Willie Mack reportedly on his way out, I feared that Swann may end up a little directionless, but they’ve teased him challenging Matt Cardona for the Digital Media Championship. This match is ostensibly a way to get him a singles win before that eventual title match. Prediction: Rich Swann

Madison Rayne (w/Tenille Dashwood) vs. Gisele Shaw

The other day, I had a little rant about there being no depth in the Knockouts Tag Title picture. Their current plan seems to be chucking Shaw and Lady Frost together to create a fresh challenger and the go-home show only increased my belief in that.

Dashwood beat Shaw on Before the Impact, but only thanks to a Rayne assist. It would be odd to have Shaw lose to both members of The Influence, so I suspect she wins here before getting beaten down post-match, allowing Frost to return and set something up for down the line. Prediction: Gisele Shaw

Under Siege Main Show

Steve Maclin vs. Chris Sabin

While I thought the three-way involving Maclin, Sabin and Jay White at Rebellion was good, I doubt I’m the only one who would have preferred any combination of those guys in a singles match. Even if I am the only one, I’m getting my wish at Under Siege. 

Sabin was the first to welcome Maclin to the Team Impact group for February’s No Surrender event but Maclin’s teased babyface turn was just a tease and the two have been at loggerheads ever since. Maclin laid Sabin out after his match with Jay White at the Multiverse of Matches and then at Rebellion stole the fall in the three-way after Sabin had hit Cradle Shock on White. 

On paper, this should be superb. Maclin has a track record of delivering in his big singles matches in Impact, while Sabin is a consummate pro that gels brilliantly with more or less everyone. Although he lost to Tomohiro Ishii on the go-home show, this feels like the moment where Maclin gets a big win on a big show. Prediction: Steve Maclin

Mike Bailey vs. Alex Shelley

A little rematch action from April’s Multiverse of Matches here, with Bailey looking to go up 2-0 after winning their superb first meeting with a roll-up. 

There’s a little bit more to it than simply running a buzzworthy match back, though, as Bailey seemed to blame Shelley for him eating the pin in a six-man tag against Honor No More on the first Impact after Rebellion.

Given that their first meeting was seen as one of the best of Mania Weekend, I have no reason to doubt that this will be very good the second time round. Although Bailey winning again seems an obvious choice, I feel that they might give Shelley the win here to take it to a third match, potentially at Slammiversary. Bailey’s obvious trajectory is the X-Division title but with Ace Austin off to the Best of the Super Juniors and his Slammiversary challenger potentially coming from there, keeping this program going would keep Bailey busy and further the work doing to get him over with the Impact audience. Prediction: Alex Shelley

Bullet Club (Jay White, The Good Brothers, Chris Bey & El Phantasmo) vs. Honor No More (Eddie Edwards, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Kenny King & Vincent)

I have a feeling this will be quite fun and I’m intrigued because I’m genuinely not sure which way they’re going to go with the booking and whichever way they do go will be indicative of some booking patterns for the weeks heading into Slammiversary. 

The issues between these factions stem from a lumberjack match in April when Matt Taven and Mike Bennett attacked The Good Brothers and cost them their rematch with Violent By Design. Since then, they’ve gone back-and-forth, the Bullet Club winning an eight-man tag and the Taven & Bennett tandem eliminating The Good Brothers from the tag title match at Rebellion.

In many ways I feel like the two additions from that eight-man tag are indicative of the way the result will go; Eddie Edwards is the leader of Honor No More, while El Phantasmo is a New Japan talent who has made sporadic appearances in Impact. Indeed, I initially felt that Edwards was destined for the Slammiversary main event initially but I now wonder whether he’ll be facing a returning Sami Callihan, or even Steve Maclin, and it’ll be White instead in that title match with Josh Alexander. 

Whichever way they go, the feud will be continuing anyway as they’ve already announced that at the tapings the following day they’ll be running The Good Brothers vs Taven & Bennett and El Phantasmo against Kenny King. They’ve also, however, said that White and Bey will be facing Josh Alexander and Tomohiro Ishii in a tag match, which suggests a Bullet Club win in this 10-man to yours truly. Prediction: The Bullet Club

AAA Reina de Reinas Championship
Taya Valkyrie (C) vs. Deonna Purrazzo

Few things wind me up more in pro wrestling than the notion of rematch clauses. If I had the pencil, immediate rematches should be reserved for matches with roll-up finishes or finishes involving controversy and shenanigans (although I’d not book such things in the first place). They would not, however, just be given out all the time because as far as I’m concerned, it’s a lazy booking crutch that just burns off matches that you could work back towards while keeping your product fresh.  Ok, burning off Valkyrie/Purrazzo matches is not some dreadful crime as these two are hardly reinventing the wheel together but I’m sure you get my point. 

Taya’s win at Rebellion was as clean as a whistle, so it seems odd to come back to the rematch straight away. You’d assume Purrazzo is losing again but it would be odd for her to drop three recognized falls on the spin in such quick succession after she also dropped the ROH belt earlier in the week. I could see a reality where AAA would sign off on them putting the belt back on Deonna to keep it on TV with some interest, especially if they just needed it on Taya for Triplemania, but it does seem unlikely when they love Taya so much. Prediction: Taya Valkyrie

Impact World Tag Team Championship
Violent By Design (C) vs. The Briscoes

Much like the 10-man tag, I’m looking forward to this because it’s got a level of intrigue to it. That intrigue isn’t because I see this as some potential MOTY contender but rather because I want to see if The Briscoes will be Impact regulars moving forward and strapping them up would be a clear indication in the affirmative direction. 

After debuting at the Multiverse of Matches show in a losing effort to The Good Brothers, The Briscoes returned on the Impact after Rebellion to call for a title shot. They beat Heath and Rhino on that show and now take on Violent By Design, who are making the third title defence of their second reign. 

Even though Turner had issues with Jay’s previous comments (which it should always be noted he’s apologized for multiple times and been endorsed as a changed man by respected people subsequently), I still always assumed that he and Mark would end up signing with AEW/ROH in some capacity. For the time being at least that seems not to be the case and, as such, Impact should absolutely be capitalising on them being free agents. They’ll take up the match quality of the division and have pre-existing stories with both The OGK and The Good Brothers. Also, with Violent By Design having ‘defeated’ seven other teams at Rebellion, there’s nowhere else for them to really go, so dropping them to a hotter prospect would make sense. Prediction: The Briscoes

Impact X-Division Championship
Ace Austin (C) vs. Trey Miguel

We’ve got another contractual rematch! 

In the interests of fairness, it’s only right that I point out that I’m actually firmly in favour of this one because of how they finished things at Rebellion. Miguel looked on course to retain when he hit the Meteora on Mike Bailey, only for Austin to pull referee Brian Hebner out of the ring. That gave Austin the window to jump in and put Miguel down with The Fold to become a three-time X-Division Champion. 

Interestingly, Miguel has challenged Austin in a singles match for the X-Division title on an Impact pay-per-view show before. That was back at Hard to Kill in 2020 and both men have improved considerably since then. Miguel has matured into a consistent top-level performer while Austin has main event potential and is gearing up for a potentially career-making Best of the Super Juniors appearance. 

They’ve told the story that Austin simply has Miguel’s number and with the champ off to Japan next week, it seems almost certain that that trend will continue at Under Siege. Prediction: Ace Austin

Impact Knockouts World Championship
Tasha Steelz (C) vs. Havok

Expectations for this one are pretty low. Much like with her match against Rosemary at Rebellion, this screams placeholder defence for Tasha. Tasha is fine bell-to-bell but needs the right opponent and the main difference between Rosemary and Havok is that Rosemary is a solid hand and Havok isn’t particularly good.

My main hope is that Tasha wins and wins cleanly so that she can move on to something much more interesting at Slammiversary – either Masha Slamovich or Jordynne Grace. Prediction: Tasha Steelz

Impact World Championship
Josh Alexander (C) vs. Tomohiro Ishii

If expectations for the previous match are low, then they’re absolutely sky high for this one. I’ll make no bones about it, Josh Alexander is my favourite guy working anywhere right now and has been for well over a year. Ishii, in fairness, isn’t far behind and I’m confident that his style will gel brilliantly with Alexander’s. 

After Alexander defeated Moose in a rematch (another one!!!) of the Rebellion main event, Ishii was announced as Scott D’Amore’s hand-picked challenger for Under Siege. Personally, I’d have rather they had him beat Maclin a No. #1 Contender’s bout and ‘earn’ the title shot, but you can’t have everything.

On paper, it’s the perfect match for Alexander’s first title defence in the main event of a bigger show. Ishii will lay into Alexander with strikes and give him big comebacking spots, but he’ll also suck people into that babyface vortex like he always does when he inevitably taps to the Ankle Lock or gets pinned after a C4 Spike. The lack of drama over the result may hurt the ceiling that this can hit but I’m excited. Prediction: Josh Alexander