"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
- Winston Churchill
The one true constant in life is that chaos never subsides. There will always be a wolf at the door. There will always be wind howling in the blackness of night. There will always be a raging tide battling the shore, beating it down endlessly, forever changing the landscape.
The world of Impact Wrestling is no different. The wolves, in the form of Honor No More, are at the door. Heated rivalries rage into the night and from all corners, all directions, every competitor is battling to maintain their grasp on everything they hold dear, their championship belts, their pride, their dignity, their confidence at being the best professional wrestlers in the world.
The turbocharged, ultra-competitive atmosphere that radiated the air at the universally acclaimed Hard To Kill event this past January on FITE has not once subsided over the last several weeks within Impact Wrestling and this Saturday, live from New Orleans, Impact Wrestling and its stars stand tall, giving no inch or quarter and offering No Surrender.
While Impact Wrestling will once again seek to raise the bar with five championship encounters, a war between promotions and more, FITE once again innovates with its coverage of the No Surrender PPV, providing, for the first time ever, a special alternative commentary for the live event with three powerful Impact alumni in So Cal Val, Lisa Marie Varon (aka Tara) and Traci Brooks.
This trio of illustrious personalities from Impact's past will preside over the alternative commentary, bringing unique insights into all of No Surrender's marquee battles, drawing from their own experiences in the professional wrestling to take FITE viewers inside the minds of the competitors and the backstage world beyond the battlefield within the squared circle.
Impact Wrestling's No Surrender will be headlined by a true life battle between two larger than life,dangerous Kaiju monsters with the World Heavyweight Championship hanging in the balance. Impact World Champion Moose's unholy alliance with W. Morrisey turned into a nuclear meltdown as 2021 turned to 2022 and this Saturday, there is nothing and no one that can hold these two back against the other. Since making his Impact Wrestling debut, Morrisey has been on a path of redemption personally and professionally, tossing aside past sins and demons alike in a laser-focused pursuit of destroying all of his opposition.
In many ways, Moose's journey of self-discovery is a mirror image, going darker and more destructive since defeating EC3 at Bound for Glory back in 2020. Since stealing the Impact World Championship from a beaten and exhausted Josh Alexander last year, Moose has held a firm grip on that title, willing to do anything in order to retain his status as Impact's most important athlete. In Morrisey, he faces the rare competitor who can match him in size and ferocity, leaving the oddsmakers completely clueless as to which way this battle can go. The ripple effects of this encounter will be widespread on the Richter Scale and beyond, emanating from The Big Easy and FITE.
With the demise of Ring of Honor as everyone knew it back in December, Honor No More have taken their anger and bitterness and forged it as their new mantra, interlopers into Impact Wrestling seeking to plunder and destroy the promotion in order to remake it into their own image. At No Surrender, the line has indeed been drawn into the sand as neither Impact nor Honor No More seek to give any inch or quarter. The stakes could not be higher as Team Impact's eclectic collection of athletes - Rhino, Rich Swann, Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin and even Steve Maclin have stepped up, united in their attempt to ward off Honor No More and prevent them from putting permanent roots down within Impact Wrestling. When Maria Kanellis leads PCO, Vincent, Mike Taven, Kenny King and Mike Bennett into battle this Saturday in the Bayou, they have zero to lose and everything to gain, making them perhaps the most dangerous collection of talents to be seen in an Impact ring in some time. With their backs against the wall, it is all or nothing for a group of competitors who have lost their home and everything they held dear and now want Impact's most loyal soldiers to suffer the same, exact fate. With the heart and soul of Impact, Eddie Edwards, leading Impact's finest into the fray, No Surrender is not just the name on the marquee, but the rallying cry that brings these fighters together as they charge together into the great unknown.
What is known is that over the last several months, there has not been a Knockouts competitor more celebrated than the reigning and defending Knockouts World Champion Mickie James. The pride of Virginia had her home run celebratory return to the Royal Rumble last month and rightfully has been lauded for all she has brought to professional wrestling since debuting, but at No Surrender, the celebration ends as she steps back into the grind of the ring and an extremely dangerous challenger. Tasha Steelz, since the day she emerged in Impact Wrestling, has broken down opponents and brought the swagger and the flavor of someone obsessed with being the best fighter in the world.
Emerging victorious in the first-ever Knockouts Ultimate X, Steelz, alongside her muscle Savannah Evans, have never been more brash and confident that she is about to achieve her destiny. In order to do so, she'll have to outlast and out-perform one of the most passionate and versatile competitors in Impact history in Mickie, who is always one kick or DDT away from solving the riddle of victory. Tasha Steelz will walk into the Big Easy for the biggest fight of her career, but achieving her championship dreams will be anything but easy. This will be a fight from one bell to the other, as two of the most celebrated women in Impact today fight to determine the trajectory of the Knockouts division, each seeking to become the definitive female fighter in Impact Wrestling.
Dream matches get tossed around for all sorts of matches for different promotions across the world but No Surrender this Saturday on FITE can truly state that it will feature the tag team dream match fans have been clamoring for globally for tag team aficionados. Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson, the Good Brothers vs. multi-time former IWGP Tag Team Champions Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. Let that roll off your tongue, sit back and say, "Whoa", because the rest of the world is saying it with you. The Good Brothers were among the most important members of Bullet Club in its earliest incarnation but the Guerrillas of Destiny have been the definitive tag team for the supergroup in recent years.
When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and Gallows and Anderson exited sports-entertainment for a return to professional wrestling, the countdown began for fans expecting them to return to Japan for a massive showdown. What no one counted on was The Guerrillas of Destiny to arrive, hunting for the Good Brothers. This tag team battle will not be for the weak of heart as years of pent-up resentment and infinite anger will all explode at once, settling once and for all, while Bullet Club is for life, which team are the apex predators in pro wrestling, once and for all. A dream match, indeed.
Equally intriguing is a first-time clash between Violent by Design's Eric Young, one of the most successful fighters in Impact Wrestling history and the leader of Bullet Club, former New Japan Pro Wrestling Grand Slam winner Jay White. Each is loud and brash and cunning and dangerous, never letting up against their opposition and constantly plotting to destroy all who stand in their past. This is Lex Luthor vs. The Joker, Darth Vader vs. The Emperor, Skeletor vs. Mumm-Ra as the most villainous and selfish combatants in professional wrestling today seek to battle in and around the Impact Zone in an attempt to put the other out of their misery permanently. In a world where laws are made to be broken, this match seeks to shatter all rules of engagement into dust, leaving one man standing and the other broken, with both changed forever. Prepare to witness chaos theory coming to life before your very eyes on FITE.
If there is one talent who has seen his life changed over the last year, it is Matt Cardona. The one-time darling of the Internet turned deathmatch veteran saw exited Hard to Kill last month with a broken heart. Embittered, Cardona changed his focus and his attitude, capturing The Impact Wrestling Digital Media Championship from Jordynne Grace after striking her with a steel chair. The real Cardona has been exposed and he doesn't give a damn about anyone except his own success, going as far as to call Grace to challenge him again at No Surrender. One of Impact's most powerful competitors has every reason to want to break Cardona down and if Cardona is taking her lightly, he'll quickly exit No Surrender with a broken heart as well.
The man who may carry the blackest heart in all of Impact, JONAH, will also be in action this Saturday in NOLA, battling Decay's Black Taurus. After beating Crazzy Steve down on Impact on AXS, JONAH seeks to go 2–0 against Impact's most unorthodox and twisted stable. JONAH has left a path of destruction everywhere he has traveled but even he has never dealt with the lucha powerhouse. No Surrender will tell the tale of who emerges from that battlefield victorious.
Impact Wrestling continues to march forward, bringing professional wrestling's most valiant and courageous talents battling their hearts out within the theater of pain that is the squared circle. No Surrender will be a night where souls are bared, blood is spilled and champions are challenged. When the night ends, all involved will have pushed to the bring and every FITE viewer will have seen history made yet again.
Mike Johnson is the lead reporter for PWInsider.com and has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He can be found on Twitter @MikePWInsider and MikeJohnsonWrites.com.
