Former TNA stars were either taking centre stage or were making their returns to the company all while the new crop of stars continued to their presence known. This was Hard to Kill 2023.
While were just a month or so away from the booking plans being thrown out of whack due to injuries and the Machine Gun Era not taking form just yet, this event certainly felt like the company’s version of Wrestlemania in that it was the blowoff show to some big storylines before a new direction took place soon afterwards…
Welcome to Distortion Media and here are 10 Interesting Facts About Hard To Kill 2023
10. Tasha’s Last PPV Match for Nine Months
The overall card going into Hard To Kill had at least 10 matches lined up so you knew some matches weren’t gonna make it on the official PPV and that’s exactly what happened with at least two bouts moved to the preshow and seven matches airing on the pay-per-view.
The only match to not air on PPV or the preshow was a six Knockouts Tag Team match pitting Rosemary, Jessicka and Taya Valkyrie of the Death Dollz vs. Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans and Tasha Steelz with baddies picking up the victory in a match that lasted over eight minutes.
As it turns out the bout was actually a dark match which only the fans in attendance saw before being uploaded a week later onto the company’s Youtube page as a digital exclusive match. The match also turned out to be Tasha’s last PPV match for sometime as she would be gone from our screens after a falling out between her and Savannah until she made a brief return at Sacrifice in March which saw her turn face and then beat Gisele in a physical match on IMPACT!
Tasha would disappear again from our screens after this match, but neither of these abscents were related to injuries or illness and she would return to our screens on the 1000th episode of IMPACT!; Steelz wouldn’t compete on pay-per-view again until October where she wrestled again in a dark match with Deonna Purrazzo against Masha Slamovich and Killer Kelly at Bound For Glory for the Knockouts Tag Team Titles.
9. A Title Match was Moved to the Pre Show
The two matches that ended up on the HTK pre show were very X Division centric with the first one being a six way match between Mike Jackson (not the Young Buck), Alan Angels, Delirous, Mike Bailey, Yuya Uemura and eventual winner Kushida.
The other bout was an X Division Title match with Trey Miguel defending his belt against Black Taurus in a fanastic big man vs little man high flying contest.
Originally the show was advertised to be on the card but plans changed, resulting in the X Division title match being moved off the official card and marking the first time in company history the title was ever defended on the pre show.
8. Cardona’s Final IMPACT PPV Appearance For Several Months
Tasha Steelz wouldn’t be the only person to have their ‘last match’ on this show, but at least the subject of this next entry actually wrestled on the pay-per-view.
In the second match of the night Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley defended their IMPACT World Tag Team Titles in a four way elimination match against the ABC, Heath and Rhino and The Major Players. While the action itself was good, most fans tend to remember what happened following the match with Frankie Kazarian making a surprise return and announcing that he had re-signed with IMPACT following his departure from AEW.
As it turns out, this match would end up being Matt Cardona’s last match with the company for sometime as the former Zack Ryder would leave following a set of tapings which culminated in him losing a Digital Media title match to Joe Hendry on an episode of IMPACT!
Ironically just like Steelz, Cardona wouldn’t resurface in IMPACT until he competed in that year’s Call Your Shot Gauntlet match at Bound For Glory with Cardona appearing for that one night.
7. Gresham’s First Match as Part of the Roster
‘The Octopus’ Johnathan Gresham has a few stints with TNA but his 2022 run was most interesting.
As you may recall from the 2022 article, Gresham defended the ROH World Title against Chris Sabin in a Pure Rules Match and would continue to appear for the company with him being scheduled to face off against Eddie Edwards at that year’s Rebellion pay-per-view, unfortunately that match didn’t happen.
After Tony Khan announced in early 2022 that he’d bought the rights to Ring of Honor, Gresham was called upon to defend his belt in AEW thus preventing him from wrestling elsewhere including his upcoming match with Edwards leading to Chris Bey having to take his place.
Following some miscommunications between himself and Khan as well as losing the belt to Claudio Castagnoli at Death Before Dishonor, Gresham left AEW and returned to IMPACT in December where he revealed that he signed a contract and was looking to fight Eddie Edwards with the match being set up for Hard To Kill.
6. The First Digital Media Title Defense on a Major PPV
Since it’s inception in late 2021, the Digital Media Championship has had a pretty good run with some notable names holding the belt like Jordynne Grace, Brian Myers, Matt Cardona and Kenny King.
By far one of the best champions in the belts history has to be Joe Hendry; The Scotish born wrestler was super over upon returning to the company in late 2022 and was also known for ability to combine social media and wrestling together, so naturally he was a great fit for the next Digital Media Champion.
During his 266 days as champion, Hendry would defend the title on TV and a few special events; At Hard To Kill he defended the belt against former world champion, Moose which became the first time the belt was every defended on pay-per-view since it was introduced back at Bound For Glory 2021.
5. Anthem Sports Trademarks the Santino Character
Moose’s low blow and Spear combo led to him becoming the new Digital Media Champion…or so it seemed as the match was restarted by the company’s new Director of Authority, Santino Marella who was making his official IMPACT debut and this gave Hendry the chance to win and keep the title.
That said, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans that Santino would show; See in the lead up to the reveal of the new authority figure at Hard To Kill, Anthem Sports (IMPACT’s parent company) managed to trademark the rights for the Santino Marella character ‘For Entertainment Services’.
Now many of the longtime IMPACT fans will tell you that Anthony Carrelli (the man behind the Santino persona) had actually appeared in the company before HTK, but under his real name and with no Italian accent where he made a few non-wrestling appearances including the promotion’s short lived Twitch show.
Upon getting the rights to the character, Carrelli became Santino once more where he continues to entertain the IMPACT faithful even today.
4. Josh Alexander: Longest Reigning World Champion
On October 26th 2011, Bobby Roode shocked the wrestling world when he bashed a beer bottle over the head of his longtime tag team partner, James Storm to win his first ever TNA World Championship which he would on to for 256 days which stood as the longest world championship reign in company history.
This record wouldn’t be broken for another decade plus until another Canadian wrestler broke the record; That wrestler was Josh Alexander who became a two time world champion after defeating Moose in the main event of Rebellion 2022 on April 23rd.
It wouldn’t be until January 5th of 2023 when Josh broke Roode’s longest title reign when ‘The Walking Weapon’ held the belt for 257 days and counting…Ironic when you realize that Josh is also the holder of shortest world title reign in company history.
By the time of his world title match against Bully Ray at Hard To Kill, Josh’s reign extended 265 days but it wouldn’t be until he vacated the belt due to a bricep tear with Alexander’s title reign racking up an impressive 335 days.
3. Bully Ray’s First World Title Match in Almost a Decade
On the October 24th 2013 edition of IMPACT! Bully Ray fought AJ Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in Salt Lake City, Utah in a rematch to their main event bout at that year’s Bound For Glory.
Bully would end up losing that match and soon began to transition into a feud with Dixie Carter and later back into the tag team scene with Brother Devon before returning to the WWE in 2015.
The former world champion would make his shock return at Bound For Glory 2022 where he won that year’s Call Your Shot Gauntlet which lead to him getting this world title shot at HTK.
This meant that the opening world title match between Josh and Bully became the latter’s first world title oppertunity in nine years.
2. Grace’s 0-3 at HTK
If she’s able to beat Trinity for the Knockouts Championship at this year’s event, then It’ll be the first time since the PPV’s creation that Jordynne Grace won a match at Hard To Kill.
Despite being one of the top stars in the promotion for much of the 2020’s, ‘The Juggernaut’ has yet to win a match at the company’s January event with her 2020 and 2022 appearances seeing her on the losing end.
At HTK ’22 Grace was set to defend her Knockouts Title against Mickie James where if James lost then her in-ring career would be over by way of ‘The Last Rodeo’ stipulation…Sadly for Grace she wasn’t successful, but let’s hope things turn out better for her this year
1. First Knockouts Title Change in HTK History
It took four pay-per-views to do it but the Knockouts World Championship had finally switched waists at Hard To Kill 2023 with Mickie James not only keeping her career intact but also winning her fifth Knockouts title.
This reign would end up lasting for 71 days before a rib injury forced her to vacate the title and became the second shortest reign for ‘Hardcore Country’ with her 17 days as champion happening all the way back in 2011.
In fact, Mickie’s victory was first time since Tessa Blanchard at the original HTK in 2020 in which a championship changed hands…Fittingly enough both of those title changes happened in the main event.
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