The year 2022 was a monumental one for IMPACT Wrestling; Not only was the company turning 20 years old in the summer, but you could arguably say that it was the first time since the mid to late 2000s and the promotion started to feel like a must watch programming again. It’s Hard to Kill 2022!
Fresh off a string of sold out events, a partnership with AEW and surviving a global pandemic, the first Hard To Kill to take place in front of a live audience was great with the show being anchored by two memorable matches in the all female Ultimate X and the first ever Knockouts Texas Death Match.
Add in some unique circumstances heading into the show and it’s easy see why it’s one of the best in the events history…
Welcome to Distortion Media and here are 10 Interesting Facts About Hard To Kill 2022.
10. The Major News Before the Event
The first few weeks of 2022 had a lot of hype around it as IMPACT’s first PPV of the year saw multiple news stories coming out on an almost daily basis in the lead up to it, with reports ranging from long time stars (Fallah Bahh and Rohit Raju) becoming free agents, selling out tickets for the pay-per-view and so much more.
The two biggest stories however centered around a massive shakeup within IMPACT’s commentary team and one of the participants in the Knockouts World Title match.
News broke that Matt Striker who had been the play-by-play guy for IMPACT since the previous year’s HTK event was relieved of his duties over management not being too pleased with Striker’s recent performances in the booth.
It was soon revealed on the literal day of the pay per view, that former WWE interviewer Tom Hannifan (aka Tom Phillips) was now the new play-by-play guy and his first show as lead commentator was for the first IMPACT PPV of 2022…That’s one hell of a start.
A day before that news broke, the wrestling community lost their minds when on the January 7th edition of Smackdown, commentator Pat McAfee announced some of the names who would be a part of that year’s Women’s Royal Rumble match with the most surprising entry being Mickie James especially when consider how the WWE concluded their business with Mickie almost a year prior with the infamous trash bag incident.
What made this news even more shocking was that McAfee mentioned Mickie as “The IMPACT Knockouts Champion” which pretty much spoiled the ending to the Texas Death Match but also a major shock to many.
9. Rachael Ellering was Originally Scheduled For the Ultimate X Match
Exactly two days before Hard To Kill, news broke that former Knockouts Tag Team Champion, Rachael Ellering wouldn’t be taking part in the Ultimate X match as orginally planned.
The story surfaced not too long after the go home episode of IMPACT concluded although any explanations as to why Ellering was taken out of the match were never really explained with some speculating things like testing positive for Covid, suffering an injury or Ellering herself gettting upset with the company on social media after receiving a happy birthday message from IMPACT’s Twitter account a day or two late…although neither side has brought this matter up since.
Alisha Edwards was then chosen as Ellering’s replacement in the Ultimate X match while Rachael wouldn’t be seen in the company again as she would later confirm that she’s no longer was a part of the roster.
8. Tasha and Jordynne Pushed For The Ultimate X Match
The first ever all female Ultimate X match was not only a great way to start off the pay per view, but it was also a great match which saw former Knockouts Tag Champion, Tasha Steelz picking up a major win.
While the victory helped in further establishing Tasha Steelz within the Knockouts Division, perhaps this win may have something to do with the fact the Boricua Badass was one of a few to really push hard to make this match happen.
According to reports, it was actually Tasha Steelz and Jordynne Grace who were trying like hell to convince Executive Vice President, Scott D’Amore to make the match happen and after much pestering the former coach of Team Canada decided to officially make the match happen at the next major pay per view.
Although it was Tasha who won the match and eventually the title at the Sacrifice event in March, it would be Jordynne Grace who would go on to win the Knockouts World Title at Slammiversary after beating Tasha and several others in the first ever Queen of the Mountain match.
7. The Story Behind the Gresham/Sabin ROH Title Match
From late 2021 into 2022, Ring of Honor was experiencing a dilemma that was similar to that of TNA Wrestling back in 2016 as the company was facing shutdown following the Covid-19 Pandemic and Sinclair Broadcasting were looking to get out of the wrestling business, resulting in them releasing all of their wrestlers from their contracts including their champions.
By the time 2022 rolled around, rumors began that Tony Khan or Anthem Sports were thinking about buying the rights to Ring of Honor which in IMPACT’s case could explain the amount of ROH talent that started to showed up like Johnathan Gresham, so when Gresham was announced to defend the ROH title against Chris Sabin in a Pure Rules match at Hard To Kill, fans were compeletely blown away.
ROH commentator, Ian Riccaboni later mentioned via Twitter that Sabin had earned a shot at the ROH title in 2018 but was unable to get that title match due to a knee injury in 2019, so three years later the match was set to take place in a different promotion and the rest is history.
6. A Knockouts Tag Title Match was Delayed
Continuing our theme of Hard To Kill 2022 having to be reorganized due to outside forces, we turn our attention to the Knockouts Tag Title match that was originally suppose to take place.
Jessie McKay and Cassie Lee aka The IInspiration were scheduled to defend their Knockouts tag belts against Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne aka The Influence on the pay per view until it was revealed a day before the show that both McKay and Lee were exposed to Covid-19 and therefore would be unable to defend their titles.
The Influence would make an appearance on the PPV in a backstage segment where they criticized the champs for being scared to defend their belts and claimed that they will be getting their match as soon as they come back.
A few weeks later that match would be postponed again after Tenille was unable to appear at the tapings but sure enough the match finally took place at the Sacrifice event in March with The Influence picking up the win and becoming the new Knockouts Tag Team Champions.
5. The Story Behind the Prosthetic Leg
One of the unexpected moments in the three way world title match between Moose, W. Morrissey and Matt Cardona was the usage of a prosthetic leg with a pink sneaker during the match which led to many fans to wonder…Where the heck did that come from?
According to those who attended the show, an unknown fan who had the leg tried to get the wrestlers to use it as a weapon throughout the night as the show was filled with hardcore matches that would allow the appendage to be used.
It wasn’t until the former Big Cass spotted the leg at which point he went on to use it as a weapon against Matt Cardona in a moment that helped to make the match all the more enjoyable.
While Hard To Kill had no shortage of weapons being used throughout the night, this one particularly stands out for obvious reasons, although it’s unclear if that fan got the leg back after the show…hopefully he or she did.
4. Some of the Wrestlers Involved Got Injured
So, I think it’s fair to say that wrestling at Hard To Kill is almost certainly going to result in a wrestler or wrestlers getting injured, sure the 2021 edition largely avoided any injuries that we know about, but the very first show had a number of wrestlers getting hurt and the 2022 event is apparently no different.
According to 411Mania, a few of the wrestlers who took part in event suffered some casualities:
- Trey Miguel suffered a broken tooth which lead to him needing surgery to fix
- Rosemary was injured although it’s unclear if the injury surrounds one of her arms or shoulders
Bonus fact, both Rosemary and Miguel had to cancel an up-and-coming event at Pro Wrestling Revolver due to their respective injures
- Moose suffered an injury to his hip which was the result of the table spot he took during the triple threat world title match
And finally, Deonna Purrazzo was reportedly banged up from her match but did not suffer a concussion or need stitches as others speculated…What can you say: Wrestling is a tough business.
3. First Knockouts Title Match To Main Event a PPV
Speaking of Deonna Purrazzo, the final match on the card saw The Virtusoa take on her rival Mickie James in a Texas Death match for the Knockouts World Championship…a match that easily ranks as not only one of the best matches in either ladies career but it also ranks as one of the best matches of 2022.
It also was the first ever Texas Death match in company history to involve the females and the Knockouts Championship and it took place in the main event of a major pay=per-view no less.
While Tessa Blanchard is credited as the first Knockout to main event a major IMPACT PPV as she did this at Slammiversary 2019 and Hard To Kill 2020, her matches saw her wrestling in intergender matches with Sami Callihan whereas Deonna and Mickie can both claim that they main evented a major pay per view together.
2. The Consecutive Knockouts Title Defenses
Mickie James had what some would call the best start of the year for any women’s wrestler in history as she was not only announced to take part in the up-and-coming Women’s Royal Rumble, but she took part in the previously mentioned Texas Death match with Purrazzo where she kept the title in tact.
However something that tends to get lost in the shuffle is the fact that Mickie James became the third knockout to keep the belt at Hard To Kill and if you look back at the history of the Knockouts title being defended on Impact’s January PPV, it’s quite fascinating…
- Taya Valkyrie retained the belt in a three way bout against Jordynne Grace and ODB at HTK 2020 in order to maintain her record as the longest reigning Knockouts Champion
- Deonna Purrazzo forced Taya Valkyrie to submit at HTK 2021, allowing her to keep her title
- And as mentioned before, Mickie James defeated Purrazzo in the main event of HTK 2022 to remain Knockouts World Champion
By this logic that would mean that the woman who goes on to retain the Knockouts World Title at the previous Hard To Kill PPV, goes on and fails to recapture the belt at the following year’s event.
1. It’s the Second HTK with No Title Changes
Title changes are usually done to further a storyline or get a big pop from the crowd, however when it comes to IMPACT’s Hard To Kill PPV’s there pretty short on title switches.
Hard To Kill 2022 is perhaps the most famous in this regard with Moose retaining his IMPACT World Championship as did Trey Miguel with the X Division Championship, Gresham with the ROH Title and Mickie James with the Knockouts Championship.
With the Knockouts Tag Team Title match scrapped from the show, and the IMPACT Tag Team and Digital Media Champions taking part in the Hardcore War and Ultimate X match respectively…This show had zero titles change hands which makes it the second time in this shows history in which no champions lost their titles at Hard To Kill.
The first time was at the 2021 event for those that are wondering with both the X Division and Knockouts titles being retained on that night while the World and Tag Team Champions took part in the six man tag team main event match.
Be sure to follow Distortion Media on X for updates, results and articles regarding wrestling, politics etc. and you can follow me on X @FullertonHakeem for more wrestling themed articles like this.