| Hard To Kill (2021) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Promotional poster featuring various Impact wrestlers (This poster was made beforeAlex Shelley was withdrawn from the advertised match and replaced byMoose) | |||
| Promotion | Impact Wrestling | ||
| Date | January 16, 2021 | ||
| City | Nashville, Tennessee | ||
| Venue | Skyway Studios | ||
| Attendance | 0 (behind closed doors)[Note 1] | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Hard to Kill chronology | |||
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The 2021Hard To Kill was aprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV)event produced byImpact Wrestling. It took place on January 16, 2021, at the Skyway Studios inNashville,Tennessee. It is the second event under theHard To Kill chronology.
The event crowned the reactivatedImpact Knockouts Tag Team Championship's first champions since 2013, with Fire N Flava (Kiera Hogan andTasha Steelz) defeatingHavok and Nevaeh to win the titles. The main event saw theAEW World ChampionKenny Omega and theImpact World Tag Team ChampionsThe Good Brothers (Doc Gallows andKarl Anderson) defeat theImpact World ChampionRich Swann,Chris Sabin, andMoose in aSix-man tag team match. Other notable matches sawManik andDeonna Purrazzo retain theX Division andKnockouts Championships respectively, with Manik defeatingChris Bey andRohit Raju in aTriple Threat match and Purrazzo defeatingTaya Valkyrie. The event also sawMatt Cardona make his debut in Impact Wrestling, defeatingAce Austin by disqualification.
On October 14, 2020, atBound for Glory, it was announced that Hard To Kill would take place on January 16, 2021.[1]
| Other on-screen personnel | |
|---|---|
| Commentator | Matt Striker |
| D'Lo Brown | |
| Ring announcer | David Penzer |
| Referee | Brian Hebner |
| Brandon Tolle | |
| Daniel Spencer | |
| Interviewer | Gia Miller |
| Pre-show panel | Jon Burton |
| Madison Rayne | |
| Scott D'Amore | |
The event featured tenprofessional wrestling matches that involves different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds andstorylines. Wrestlers portrayedvillains,heroes, orless distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.[2]
AtBound for Glory, Impact wrestler and commentator,Madison Rayne, announced that after months of speculation, Impact will be reviving theImpact Knockouts Tag Team Championship, which was last used by the company in 2013, with the new champions being determined by an eight-team tournament which began on the November 17, 2020 episode ofImpact! with the final taking place at Hard to Kill.[1] On the same episode, in the first match of the tournament,Havok andNevaeh defeatedTenille Dashwood andAlisha to advance to the next round.[3] On the November 24 episode ofImpact!,Kiera Hogan andTasha Steelz defeatedTeam Sea Stars (Ashley Vox andDelmi Exo) to advance to the next round.[4] On the following episode,Jordynne Grace andJazz defeatedKiller Kelly and Renee Michelle to advance.[5] On the December 8 episode ofImpact!,Taya Valkyrie andRosemary defeatedDeonna Purrazzo andKimber Lee to advance.[6] On the following episode, Tasha Steelz and Kiera Hogan defeated Taya and Rosemary to advance to the finals. On January 5, Havok and Nevaeh defeated Jazz and Jordynne Grace to move on to Hard To Kill
AtAll Elite Wrestling's "Winter Is Coming", a special episode ofAEW Dynamite that aired on December 2,Kenny Omega defeatedJon Moxley to win theAEW World Championship for the first time, following assistance from Impact Co-Executive Vice President and color commentatorDon Callis, who was working as a special guest commentator during the match. After the match, Omega and Callis fled to a car with Callis stating Omega will appear on the December 8 episode ofImpact! to explain what happened. During that episode, Omega and Callis explained the partnership between the two of them during an interview with Impact commentatorJosh Mathews, with Callis saying that this partnership had been in the works for almost ten years and Omega dubbing himself as "The Collector".[7] AtFinal Resolution, Omega and Callis appeared alongside Omega's formerBullet Club stablemate and one half of the currentImpact World Tag Team Champions,Karl Anderson, in which Omega urged Anderson to revert to "the real Machine Gun", in reference to Anderson's days in Bullet Club alongside Omega.[8] On the next edition ofImpact!, after Anderson defeatedChris Sabin in the main event, theImpact World Champion,Rich Swann, confronted Anderson backstage only for Anderson to attack Swann. Anderson was then attacked himself by Sabin andAlex Shelley, which resulted in Anderson's tag team partner and fellow Impact World Tag Team ChampionDoc Gallows attacking Sabin and Shelley. Swann then superkicked Gallows, but was then attacked with a hazard sign by Omega. Following the incident, Omega and Callis announced that Omega would team up with Gallows and Anderson to face Swann, Sabin and Shelley in asix-man tag team match at Hard To Kill.[9][10] However, on January 15, 2020, Impact announced that Shelley had been withdrawn from the match due to "unavoidable circumstances" (later, Shelley revealed he could not work for Impact since he was working also as a physical therapy clinician and the company was more restrictive in its COVID-19 safety mandates)[11] and would be replaced byMoose, who had been engaged in a feud with Swann andWillie Mack for the prior few weeks.
At Final Resolution, Manik, who is reallyTJP in disguise, returned toImpact Wrestling and answeredRohit Raju'sImpact X Division Championship 'Defeat Rohit' challenge; resulting in Manik winning the title.[12] TJP had to wear the mask after he lost their previous title match, which stipulated thatTJP could never challenge for the title so long as Raju held it.[13] On the following edition ofImpact,Chris Bey agreed to a non-title match with Manik, believing that unmasking him would give Rohit the title back. However, Raju accidentally got Bey disqualified when he struck Manik in full view of the official.[14] Raju still had a rematch clause, however, which he would invoke at Hard To Kill, but on the December 21Impact, Bey was able to "finesse" his way into the match, making the championship bout into athree-way match.[15]
On the December 8 episode ofImpact!, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie eliminatedImpact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo and Kimber Lee in the first round of the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship tournament, with Rosemary pinning Lee.[16] AtFinal Resolution the following Saturday, Purrazzo would successfully defend her championship against Rosemary. On theImpact! after Final Resolution, Rosemary and Valkyrie would be eliminated from the tag title tournament by Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz, after Purrazzo and Lee neutralized Rosemary from the match away from the referee's view. On part one ofThe Best of Impact in 2020, Valkyrie congratulated Purrazzo on her Impact rookie year, but claimed it was because the two rarely crossed paths in singles competition. She later challenged Purrazzo to a Knockouts Championship match at Hard To Kill, a challenge Purrazzo and Lee accepted the next week, and the match was made official.[17]
| Quarterfinals Impact! (November 17 & 24, December 1 & 8, 2020) | Semifinals Impact! (December 15, 2020 & January 5, 2021) | Final Hard To Kill (January 16, 2021) | ||||||||||||
| Alisha andTenille Dashwood | 06:32 | |||||||||||||
| Havok and Nevaeh | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Havok and Nevaeh | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Jordynne Grace and Jazz | 09:49 | |||||||||||||
| Killer Kelly and Renee Michelle | 08:54 | |||||||||||||
| Jordynne Grace andJazz | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Havok and Nevaeh | 08:40 | |||||||||||||
| Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Kiera Hogan andTasha Steelz | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Team Sea Stars (Ashley Vox andDelmi Exo) | 07:10 | |||||||||||||
| Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie | 07:58 | |||||||||||||
| Deonna Purrazzo andKimber Lee | 06:59 | |||||||||||||
| Rosemary andTaya Valkyrie | Pin | |||||||||||||