Coming off of Rebellion at the end of April, which was a good show capped off with a fantastic main event between Moose and Josh Alexander, Impact Wrestling announced their next special event, with Under Siege being the pit stop in between Rebellion and this summer's Slammiversary PPV. Under Siege's main event would see Josh Alexander defending against Tomohiro Ishii from New Japan!
With the Knockouts, Impact Tag Team, AAA Reina de Reinas, and X Division Championships on the line, almost every title in Impact Wrestling was on the line. The PPV featured a number of other big-time matches like Honor No More vs Bullet Club, as well as the Impact returns of Sami Callihan and Mia Yim!
10 Shera & Raj Singh vs Rhino & Heath
Kicking off the pre-show festivities, a surprise match was added with Shera and Raj Singh taking on the babyface duo of Rhino and Heath. While the crowd was firmly behind the good guys, Heath and Rhino's output as a team has been less than stellar in recent weeks, and this was nothing different. Rhino would eventually pick up the win, with a Gore on Raj in a fine match.
9 Knockouts Championship Match
Coming off a successful Knockouts Championship defense against Rosemary at Rebellion, Tasha Steelz put her title on the line tonight against the other female member of Decay, Havok! In a similar fashion to her match with Rosemary, a lot of this just came off feeling like filler with the crowd dead for a large portion of the match. Tasha retained with The Blackout, though her reign is certainly not off to a great start.
8 Laredo Kid vs Rich Swann vs Mike Bailey
Another change to the card came with an X Division bout on the countdown show, as Mike Bailey, who was scheduled to face off against Alex Shelley was now slotted into a triple threat with Laredo Kid and Rich Swann. Fans who were looking forward to another big-time match for Bailey may have been disappointed, and rightfully so, with the company advertising this match up until the start of the show and not announcing why the change was made, with commentary ignoring the card mix-up.
As for the match itself, it was X Division goodness that the Impact Faithful have come to love over the years, featuring world-class talents in the form of all three men, with Bailey continuing a big 2022 for himself now that he is back in the United States. In a somewhat shocking turn, Rich Swann would pick up the win! This was quite fun from top to bottom, if a bit underwhelming due to the big change for Speedball.
7 AAA Reina de Reinas Championship Match
Coming off of Rebellion, where Taya Valkyrie took the AAA Women's Championship off of Deonna Purrazzo, the two women would collide once again for the belt, coming off of Deonna's big AEW Dynamite appearance this past week where she would lose the ROH Women's Championship.
Taya would manage to kick out of the Queen's Gambit, something that very rarely happens because Deonna's moveset is quite protected. This was followed by Taya also getting out of the Fujiwara Armbar. Valkyrie would roll-up Deonna after Purrazzo attempted to cheat in an anti-climatic finish, though the bigger story coming out of this was a post-match angle that saw Mia Yim returning to Impact, taking out The Virtuosa, in another big move for the Knockouts Division!
6 Honor No More vs Bullet Club
Coming off of a huge night at New Japan's Wrestling Dontaku stadium show, in which Juice Robinson would join the group, Jay White would return to Japan, and multiple championships would find their way into the faction. Bullet Club was featured here in a 5-on-5 match against Impact's Honor No More faction, a group that they have had issues with for weeks! This was a long mess, but a fun one at that, in a fairly standard 10-man tag with nobody, in particular, standing out. Honor No More scored what most would consider an upset as Karl Anderson would be taken out with a Proton Pack from OGK for the finish.
5 Impact World Tag Team Championship
After the monstrosity that was the Tag Team Elimination Match at Rebellion, one of the worst matches of the year, VBD found themselves defending the Impact Tag Team Titles here against the legendary Briscoes! This would get off to a somewhat messy start, with a big beatdown before the bell, though by the time the match came to a conclusion, VBD and The Briscoes managed to have the crowd firmly invested.
Thankfully, Impact made the right call here by putting the tag titles around the waists of The Briscoes, who can likely help bolster the tag team division in Impact moving forward.
4 Madison Rayne vs Gisele Shaw
Originally scheduled for the pre-show, Rayne vs Shaw was moved to the main card, being given the opening match of the PPV. With Gisele beginning a program with The Influence, she was going to need a partner and, she did indeed find one in the form of Alisha Edwards! While this felt like a random match to start the show with, it ended up being the right one.
Madison is still one of the best women's wrestlers around, and Gisele continues to shine in every match she gets the chance. The two displayed great chemistry, and Shaw would score a major win here, knocking off Madison Rayne in a hot opener.
3 Steve Maclin vs Chris Sabin
Seemingly being the final match in the Team Impact vs Honor No More program, Sabin and Maclin have been at odds for some time now despite both being tied to Team Impact. The two would finally come to blows here in a big singles match at Under Siege. Maclin has been on quite the run as of late, being one of the breakout stars for Impact in 2021, and once again, the man would deliver in a hard-hitting, aggressive, marquee singles match.
This would be a hugely physical match, with Maclin looking like an absolute beast as he brought out a side of Chris Sabin that fans have not seen in years. A Cradle Shock would lead Sabin to victory, and while the result may be questionable, the match itself was superb and should be sought out by wrestling fans worldwide.
2 X Division Championship Match
At Rebellion, Ace Austin would be crowned the new X Division Champion before being announced for New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament! At Under Siege, Austin would defend his belt against the former champion, Trey Miguel. While this got off to a slower start than one might expect from a singles match between these two, it would pick up in both pacing and intensity in the latter portion, with the champion pushing Miguel to his limits.
Ace Austin would thankfully retain here, with Trey Miguel still unable to defeat Austin in a singles match. He now heads into Best of the Super Juniors as X Division Champion after a phenomenal title defense here at Under Siege!
1 Impact World Championship Match
Under Siege's main event saw Josh Alexander defending his Impact World Championship for the second time, after his rematch with Moose, against the fan-favorite New Japan star, Tomohiro Ishii! This was built up as a "hand-picked opponent" by Scott D'Amore, as well as being a big cross-promotional match, and rightfully so, as these two would tear the house down in the main event.
After having a mediocre match that underwhelmed at Rebellion against Jonah, Ishii faced off against Adam Cole on an episode of AEW Rampage and against Steve Maclin on this week's Impact television, in two quite good matches. This main event would fall into the same category as the latter, with Ishii and Alexander clicking quite well with one another's style. For some reason, however, the crowd turned on Josh and was actively booing him against Ishii.