Get ready for a night of intense rivalries and championship battles as Impact Wrestling's stars converge in White Plains, NY, in a historic showdown live on FITE.
Every professional wrestler lives for victory - for championships, for the defeat of their opposition, for the pride and the glory of having their arm raised, triumphant. For the stars of Impact Wrestling, as they battle their way towards Bound for Glory in Chicago, their paths will all intertwine in White Plans, NY at the historic Westchester County Center this Friday when FITE teams with Impact Wrestling to present Victory Road 2023.
Tommy Dreamer's Career on the Line
Each competitor has a moment in time where their backs are against the wall and if they don't will themselves up from the mat, certain doom for their careers and dreams awaits. If there is one competitor who have lived through the trials and tribulations over the decades of his in-ring career, it is the Innovator Tommy Dreamer, who finds himself returning to the very arena where he witnessed his first professional wrestling match - and now places his very career on the line against Digital Media Champion Kenny King.
After King attacked and humiliated Dreamer when he and other officials sought to stop King from his latest disrespectful act. Citing that King had no respect for professional wrestling, Dreamer offered his career as the bait to gain a championship match. Dreamer has fought across the world and back, facing everyone from Taz to the Undertaker to Raven to Rob Van Dam and beyond. Rising from Johnny Rodz's Gleason's Gym to worldwide prominence, could Dreamer's ongoing race to live his dreams as a professional wrestler end unceremoniously in the same venue that sparked that dream? FITE fans may be witness to one of the most emotional moments in professional wrestling history this Friday from New York!
Josh Alexander vs. Steve Maclin: A Grudge Match
FITE fans saw one of the most intense moments in recent memory when longtime foes Josh Alexander and Steve Maclin locked eyes at Impact Wrestling Emergence and began brawling, bad blood exploding like a volcano erupting. What had once been planned as an Impact Wrestling World Championship main event that was thwarted by injury now returns with a vengeance as a grudge match between two of the most intense competitors inside Impact Wrestling. With each of these fighters returning from injury in recent weeks, a win over the other would not just humiliate the loser, but place the victor in line for a shot at the reigning World Champion, Alex Shelley.
Alexander and Maclin may as well be opposite sides of the same coin. Each is obsessed with being the absolute best competitor inside the squared circle. Each is intensely focused at strategically breaking down their opponent in the ring, adept at submissions and super-charged from a cardiovascular perspective. These are two men at the top of their craft with everything to gain and everything to lose, standing on the periphery of greatness, an obstacle to the other's dreams and goals. Live on FITE, one man will fall.
PCO vs. Bully Ray: Anything Goes
Whether any one man can ever make PCO, Perfect Creation One, fall, remains to be seen but if there is anyone devious and underhanded enough to defeat the Canadian star in an Anything Goes Match, it certainly could be former Impact Wrestling World Champion Bully Ray. Ray and his associates have done everything they could imagine in attempts to humiliate and destroy the former Ring of Honor World Champion, smashing him through tables, setting him on fire and even pouring battery acid upon the French Frankenstein.
None of this has proven successful. This Friday in White Plains, in the shadows of NYC, Bully Ray, who has always proclaimed himself to be New York Hardcore, will have to dig down into the darkest bowels of evil in order to fight off a rampaging PCO. Will White Plains prove to be the funeral march of Bully Ray or will PCO's final stand be revealed to be Victory Road? In a match where everything is legal and all implements of destruction can be taken to the extreme as weapons, who will emerge from the plunder-filled battlefield this Friday on FITE?
Knockouts Championship Clash
Trinity continues her reign as the Knockouts World Champion, stepping this Friday into championship competition against the ever-dangerous Alisha Edwards, who has discovered newfound confidence and fire inside the ring. Having won a battle royal to earn the championship bout, this is easily the biggest night of Edwards' career and having shown the world exactly how far she's been willing to go in order to assist her husband Eddie against Frankie Kazarian, what would be do to claim the Knockouts Championship as Impact rolls into its 1000th episode? Trinity has proven to be beyond dangerous, even going as far as submitting Deonna Purrazzo, but she may have to cast aside her spectacular aerial offense for a good old fashioned brawl this Friday in White Plains!
Tag Team Showdown
Impact Wrestling's tag team scene continues to shimmer as one of the most entertaining in the world and this Friday, The Motor City Machine Guns, Impact Wrestling World Champion Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin will step into combat, challenging the reigning and defending Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Champions The Rascalz, Trey Miguel and Zach Wentz. The disrespectful Rascalz have spray painted the tag scene into their own image, but they can turn back the challenge of not just two of the best in-ring competitors in the world, but Impact's most legendary tag team of all time? No matter who the victor is, the fans are guaranteed one of the spectacular in-ring attractions of 2023, live on FITE.
Jordynne Grace's Return
Jordynne Grace will return to Impact rings this Friday, returning to face long-time rival Deonna Purrazzo. While their wars for the Knockouts Championship helped ascend the division to new heights, this Friday in New York is a very different environment. Purrazzo is coming off a very uncharacteristic pair of losses to Trinity and is seeking to rebound her career, while Grace is looking to make a powerhouse statement upon her return to Impact after time off to reassess her career and goals. Very similar to Maclin vs. Alexander, these are two women who need to achieve a big win on Victory Road to line themselves up for contention as Impact charges ever closer to The Windy City of Chicago and Bound for Glory this October!
KUSHIDA vs. Lio Rush: X-Division Explosion
Last but certainly not least, New Japan Pro Wrestling's KUSHIDA will again represent Time Machine as he takes to the ring to challenge Lio Rush, the explosive and controversial X-Division Champion at Victory Road. When KUSHIDA returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling from his journey into the land of sports-entertainment, he immediately sought to sharpen his skills and prove that he is one of the best fighters today. He has worked himself into contention across the world and this Friday may prove to be one of the most important nights of his life. To gain the ultimate victory, he will have to defeat a Lio Rush who has shown he's tired of taking the high road and will do anything before, during and after the match to provide a little extra leverage to his already insanely considerable skills. This explosive aerial war will see the X-Division once again poised to shatter the stratosphere!
Victory Road rolls into New York this Friday and once again, FITE will be your destination to watch every vivid, insane moment emanate from your devices worldwide. This collection of quality championship bouts and grudge matches galore will prove to be equally historic and explosive - as only Impact Wrestling and FITE can present!
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.
