Various: Impact Victory Road 2023 Current Card, Paul Heyman on Terry Funk’s Legacy in Wrestling, Indies

Sep 1, 2023

Current Card for Impact Victory Road 2023

During Thursday’s Impact! show, Impact Wrestling announced several new matches and the current card for their upcoming Victory Road 2023 event, which takes place on September 8th at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York.

Impact Knockouts World Championship – Alisha Edwards vs. Trinity (c)
Impact X-Division Championship – KUSHIDA vs. Lio Rush (c)
Impact World Tag Team Championship – The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel) (c)
Title vs. Career, Impact Digital Media Championship – Tommy Dreamer (career) vs. Kenny King (title)
Anything Goes match – Bully Ray vs. PCO
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Jordynne Grace
Steve Maclin vs. Josh Alexander

Paul Heyman Comments on Terry Funk’s Influential Legacy in Wrestling

A recent episode of WWE The Bump show featured Paul Heyman as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Heyman’s thoughts on the importance and influential legacy of Terry Funk in wrestling.

“I’m always hesitant to try to encapsulate a life like Terry Funk’s within a sound bite or even a portion of a program. I didn’t say anything publicly. I haven’t yet and one of the reasons why is because I was aware of the decline in Terry Funk’s health and I had the extraordinary opportunity and pleasure of speaking with him in the last few weeks of his life.
I with held my tributes because I got a chance to tell him while he was alive. I didn’t have to explain my affinity for the man after his passing, I got a chance to let him know.
There was no, pun intended, acknowledgement of the greatness of the performers of ECW without them getting into the ring with Terry Funk. Shane Douglas was recognized as a franchise player because of his interaction with Terry Funk. The Public Enemy truly got recognized as a preeminent tag team of their time by being in the ring with Terry Funk and the Funk brothers, Terry and Dory Jr.
Sabu came out of the gates in ECW making a splash but his splash was infinitely bigger because by the end of Sabu’s first weekend in ECW, he was in the ring and holding his own and sharing the spotlight with Terry Funk.
I don’t know if there is anything that I can say that will match the brilliance of what Cody said. What Cody said the other night moved me. It was profound and just so eloquent in that you could be going through an airport and (hear), “You egg-sucking dog” and go, “What am I listening to? Who is screaming is that?” And here’s Terry Funk coming. It’s so Terry Funk for him to do and at the same time, he was the grandfather of a revolution, of an evolution in the industry, of a movement, of an extreme movement.
What I wish future generations will take from the legacy of Terry Funk is the passionate pursuit of greatness in all moments of a performance and never losing sight that it’s a business.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Warner Bros Games recently released a new trailer for their upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 video game featuring Dave Bautista as the narrator.

House of Glory recently announced that Samoa Joe will be hosting a wrestling seminar for the company on September 19th in Jamaica, New York.

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding a Ten Bell Salute ceremony honoring the late Terry Funk at their Road to Destruction 2023 event on September 8th in Tokyo, Japan.

In a recent interview with TSN Sports, UFC President Dana White denied a recent report from The Daily Mail that stated that Ronda Rousey will be making her official return to UFC at next year’s UFC 300 event. White stated “Stop reading the Daily Mail, everything that they write is a crock of sh*t Ronda’s having kids! Ronda built this whole thing that’s going on with the women here, then her dream was to go to the WWE, she went there and did everything that she did there and achieved, she’s made sh*tloads of money. She’s moved on with her life.“

Eric Young is currently auctioning off the gear he wore for his official return to Impact at this past July’s Slammiversary 2023 with all proceeds going directly to Joe Doering to help financially support his current battle with brain cancer.

As noted before, Impact Wrestling officials held a meeting with talent and staff this past Monday in Toronto, Canada revealing that the company will be making massive upgrades to their production for shows. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that besides production-related talk, Impact President Scott D’Amore had revealed that next year’s Hard To Kill event will be taking place at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Impact recently announced that this year’s Turning Point event will be taking place on October 27th at the Walker Dome in Newcastle, England. It was also announced that Will Ospreay will be making an appearance for the company at this upcoming event.

Impact also recently announced new matches for the card of their Impact! 1000 event on September 7th in White Plains, New York:

Impact World Championship – Trey Miguel vs. Alex Shelley (c)
10-Knockouts Tag Team match – Trinity, Jordynne Grace, Awesome Kong, Gail Kim, & mystery partner vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans, Angelina Love, & mystery partner

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Crushed Up event on September 10th in Brooklyn, New York: