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Impact Wrestling Under Siege 2023
05/26/2023
Western Fair District Agriplex . London, Ontario.
Steve Maclin vs. PCO - No Disqualification Match
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| TNA Impact |
In the world of professional wrestling, sometimes there's more to the sport than simply being a champion. Sometimes, it means something to also be a survivor. The winning formula for the sport of kings tends to be pretty cut and dry, outmanoeuvre, outlast, and fight harder than the man you are in the ring with. But, there are occasions, and they are rare, where the competitor breaks that formula entirely. Someone, or something that is not only able to endure punishment, but thrive in it, to find a certain clam inside the malestrom of the ring. At Under Siege 2023, Steve Maclin finds himself against exactly that force as he looks to defend his Impact World Championship, asking himself the eternal question; how do you beat a monster? Maclin's rise to the top of the TNA/Impact roster has been defined by his unique presence when inside the ring, his own personal brand of ruthlessness and precision. He is a lone soldier on a mission, that of seeking control and rewriting history in a way that benefits only him. Winning the greatest prize his company has to offer is step one in his mission, with Impact Executive President Scott D’Amore finding himself in the crosshairs of Maclin. Burning bridges at every turn, none would prove to be more damaging than that of D'Amore's. Crossing the lines of professional conflict, Maclin's attitude and outright violence showed to D'Amore defined his title reign almost moreso than any of his title defences. Responding to Maclin in equal measure, D'Amore decided to forego any professional lectures, monetary punishments or suspensions, instead, he decided to escalate. If Maclin decided he's be a champion who would reign and rule through sheer force, then D'Amore would do the same, and meet his force head on. Feeling his hand was forced, D'Amore decided to confront brutality in its purest form; PCO. More myth and legend than man, "Perfect Creation One" was more of a construct, stitched together from everyone's worst nightmares, unbridled violence, and pure resilience. PCO is not a competitor that fights to win in the traditional sense, he's much closer to a force of nature. Someone- something that doesn't know how to stop. Pain is irrelevant, damage is temporary, and fear fuels him on to push the envelope even further. To add insult to the already guaranteed injury this match will result in, D'Amore gave his weapon of war a proverbial "get out of jail free" card, making the match No Disqualification. Sure, an advantage for Maclin as well, a man who thrives where rules have all but dissolved, but only when he's standing in the ropes with someone who is human. For PCO, the absence of rules gives him full dispensation to do whatever he wishes, whenever he wishes, wherever he wishes, making this champion challenge near insurmountable. Really, it boils down to this core idea; if your opponent cannot be worn down, cannot be reasoned with, and cannot be finished… what exactly is left? | |
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Steve Maclin
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| "Bulletproof" Maclin. TNA Impact |
Previously known as Steve Cutler while in the tag team "The Forgotten Sons" in the WWE from 2014 to 2021, the former United States Marine made his TNA/Impact debut in the Spring of 2021 under the name Steve Maclin. Slowly working his way up the card, Maclin was a semi-prominent name while under the TNA/Impact banner, competing for the X-Division championship on a few occasions as well as pinning prominent names line Rhyno, Moose, and Sami Callihan. Treated as a much more threatening singles presence, Maclin was finally given a chance to spread his wings and fly. Proving he's more than just another player in a decent-at-best tag team, Maclin silenced a lot of doubters and proved he was worth paying attention to.
It wasn't until April of 2023 that Maclin would get a one-on-one match for the Impact World Championship, only after the previous champion Josh Alexander had to vacate the championship due to a torn triceps. Alexander relinquished his championship after setting the record as the longest reigning champion in company history at 336 days. The match was set for Impact Wrestling Rebellion 2023, with Maclin and KUSHIDA fighting over the vacant gold. Winning the match, Maclin proved he would be forgotten no more, demanding that Scott D'Amore make good on his promise of handing Maclin the championship personally if he were to win the match. D'Amore, to his credit, made good on his word, but Maclin attacked D'Amore when he turned his back.
On Impact, D'Amore declared that Maclin would be defending his championship against a challenger of D'Amore's choosing, throwing away the open challenge stipulation Maclin previously had for his gold. Making sure Maclin would have his work cut out for him, D'Amore's hand picked opponent for Maclin would be...
PCO
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| Perfect Creation One. TNA Impact |
For many years, PCO would wrestle on the independent circuit after his time with the WWF was up. From 2000-2010, PCO was semi-active all over the United States and his native Canada, eventually taking a 5 year hiatus from the business. Returning in 2016, it wasn't until 2018 where his career really started to change and take off, and at the age of 51, PCO decided it was time for a major change. Insisting his abbreviated name no longer stood for Pierre Carl Ouellet, the "French Canadian Frankenstein" began filming bat-shit insane videos to further prove that he is, in fact, not human.
In Janruary 2022, PCO made his return to TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling. A much different moster was showing up in a much different version of a company he once worked for, he debuted as a heel but turned face just over a year later, leaving his partner Eddie Edwards in the dust after he called PCO "nothing but a bitch." Using PCO as his tool of destruction, D'Amore decided to sick the monster on Maclin as a measure of revenge, giving the Impact World Champion his toughest challenge to date. Initially, Maclin was certain he'd dispatched the monster after smashing a solid concrete slab with a sledgehammer on his back, but PCO emerged from the darkness on an episode of Impact after D'Amore assured Maclin "there is no replacement!"
Once again, the question remains, if your opponent cannot be worn down, cannot be reasoned with, and cannot be finished… what exactly is left?
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The Match - The Mercenary vs. The Monster
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| TNA Impact |
Emerging through smoke, the monstrous PCO lumbers to the ring like the undead monster he is. Clad in a tattered jacket and headgear reminiscent of something the original Doctor Frankenstein may have used to reanimate his monster, the massive PCO is ready for war. Facing off against a man who has seen actual was, having deployed twice in the War in Afghanistan, Maclin makes his entrance and looks as ready as ever.
Charging at PCO the moment the bell rings, he lays into the monster with heavy right hands. Wasting no time, PCO drills a boot in the gut of Maclin that backs him to the ropes, rebounding off the opposite side, PCO charges and takes both he and Maclin over the top rope and down to the floor! Getting to his feet as if he didn't just tumble out to the floor, PCO darts back in the ring and rebounds off the ropes, taking flight and crashing into Maclin on the floor with a massive senton!
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| Let the bodies hit the floor! TNA Impact |
Now on the floor, the match begins to work at PCO's pace, wearing Maclin around the ring. He rebounds his head off the steps and looks to try and suplex him into the stairs, but Maclin shifts his feet and is able to drive PCO into the ringside barricade, crushing the monster against the unforgiving steel. Stealing PCO's idea, Maclin suplexes PCO into the steps, dropping the monster tailbone first on the solid edge of the steel. Jesus Christ. With PCO down for the moment, Maclin fishes under the ring for plunder, eventually retrieving a trash can and a baking sheet, banding both of them across the spine of the stirring monster.
Sending PCO inside the ropes, a baking sheet is bent on the head of PCO, but he responds by grabbing Maclin by the throat, absorbing the blow and pushing forward through the pain. Maclin fires back with forearms, fighting out of his grip and pushing the monster back. Baking sheet shot after shot only staggers PCO for the moment, with a boot to the gut allowing for Maclin to literally toss PCO through the ropes and to the floor. I mean it, PCO is sent clear out of the ring and out to the floor. Nothing to break it, just 51 year old spine on the solid floor. Mother of god.
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| The precision of a sniper. TNA Impact |
Pulled to his knees, PCO lays into Maclin's wound with punches, staining the knuckles of the monster crimson before sending Maclin back inside the ropes, his head visibly spurting blood as he crawls across the canvas to escape. Climbing back inside the ring, PCO now holds a staple gun high above his head for all to see, looking to help the medical staff by stapling Maclin's wound shut, no doubt! Before he can have a chance to be the French Canadian Franken-Nurse, Maclin cracks the monster in his family jewels, dropping the monster momentarily and forcing him to drop his weapon.
Taking every opportunity he can, Maclin wields a chair and bends it across the back of PCO, making sure he stays down long enough for Maclin to catch his breath and mount some sort of comeback. With PCO laid flat out, Maclin stomps around the ring with the chair still in hand, rage boiling up in him as he tastes his own blood, driving him to reach deeper and deeper into his playbook of violence. Rolling PCO onto his stomach, Maclin stabs the monster's chest with the top of the chair over and over again, trying to shatter the ribs and decimate the organs of the undead freak of nature.
Ducking to the floor, Maclin brings the trashcan and another chair inside the ropes, finding a sense of comfort in being utterly coated in his own blood. He positions a trash can between the bottom and middle rope in a corner, seating PCO on the top and dropping him into the tree of woe for his signature spear, Caught in the Crosshairs. Unfortunately, this knocks the trashcan to the floor, with Maclin instead opting to kick PCO in the gut until he drops from the corner and back to the canvas.
Cracking PCO in the middle of the ring with the chair again, Maclin sits himself on the top with the chair in hand and jumps, landing on the gut of the monster with the chair in a sort-of elbow drop, the spur-of-the-moment nature of the move making it no less effective. He pins PCO for the first time, but he escapes, with Maclin doing the same in the form of rolling to the floor. Another trash can is brought in the ring and positioned in the corner, with Maclin going for Caught in the Crosshairs again.
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| Nearly cut in half. TNA Impact |
"Tag 'em! Bag 'em!" he shouts from the opposite corner, charging in and crushing PCO against the trash can, nearly destroying it entirely from the impact. He tries for another cover, but PCO kicks out at two, surviving one of Maclin's best moves. Pulling himself to the apron, PCO tries to get some air, with Maclin reaching for the small silver weapon still sitting in the ring; the staple gun. Getting in the face of the walking abomination, he staples the mouth shut of PCO. No seriously. He staples his lips together, fusing his mouth shut.
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| Frankenstein, you say? TNA Impact |
Lips stuck together, the monster is able to stagger off the apron and to the floor, having his wits about him enough to sidestep a Maclin spear, leaving him to crash shoulder first into the ringpost. Leaving Maclin for a moment, PCO fishes pliers out from under the ring and... mother of God, he removes the legitimate, actual staples from his lips. Like, you can see the actual steel staples hanging off his top lip as he pulls them off one by one, freeing his mouth once again. Feeling around with his tongue, PCO ensures all foreign objects have been removed, only to receive one in the gut in the form of a sledgehammer from Maclin.
Back within the confines of the ropes, PCO rises to his feet and gets clobbered with a charging Maclin, driving the sledgehammer into his skull. Maclin is on the apron again, back fishing for weapons, this time pulling out... concrete tiles?! Like, one of those 2 foot square tiles you use for making a pathway. What the fuck is going on?! Laying the stones across the prone PCO, Maclin lines him up with the sledgehammer and swings, completely destroying the stones across his back. PCO crawls in agony, bellowing out in pain as he crawls to nothing in particular.
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| Some light hardscaping work. TNA Impact |
Eventually, PCO's spasm's lead him to be laid out on his back, seemingly out from the pain. Maclin covers him for thr- what?! PCO gets out at two! Firing up to his feet, PCO lays into Maclin with heavy forearms, shooting him into the corner and crushing him with a lariat. Pulling him out to the middle, a DDT spikes him near the concrete debris, with Maclin rebounding to his feet and stumbling to the corner and seating himself on the top to try and escape. Giving him no time, PCO grabs Maclin by the face and pulls him down for a codebreaker. Taking off from the middle rope, the massive PCO drops a leg across the throat of Maclin, still somehow able to move after having paving tiles cracked across his spine. He covers Maclin, but he survives at two.
Pulling Maclin to the apron, PCO ascends to the top rope, taking flight with an awkward yet effective senton onto the torso of Maclin, crushing him as he falls to the floor. PCO is on his feet in an instant, marching around the ring, with Maclin hanging upside-down on the apron, eventually falling to the floor as gravity wins the fight. Climbing the neighbouring corner, PCO lines up a laid out Maclin, but gets caught with a flying chair, catching PCO in the head as Maclin makes a desperate play to survive. With PCO still on the ropes, Maclin climbs to the apron and rips the monster off the top, drilling him into the apron as he falls to the floor like a body falling out of a building.
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| Ouch. TNA Impact |
Somehow, PCO is crawling on the floor, which Maclin thwarts with a chair to the back. Marching around ringside, he digs under the ring from a few spots, clearly looking for something specific. He eventually finds what he's looking for; a fucking cinder block. I mean, at this point, should we even be surprised? Maclin keeps digging, bring out not one, not two, not even three! But five solid ass cinder blocks, tossing them in the ring. PCO is back in the ring now, somehow, standing vertical and catching Maclin with an inverted DDT inside the ring. Forgoing a pin, he grabs the blocks and sets them up in the corner, making one of the most solid, horrific looking beds I've ever seen.
As if 5 wasn't enough, PCO grabs two more from under the ring, extending his bed to a group of 7 lucky blocks. He drapes the body of Maclin on the blocks as he climbs to the apron as ascends to the top, no doubt looking for his signature PCOsault. Maclin is able to come back to life, saving himself from disaster. He meets PCO in the corner and grabs him, disrupting his ascend, instead able to rip him off the top and dropping him on the cinder blocks. Good fucking God, this is horrific. Grabbing PCO in a front facelock, Maclin drops him with the KIA, driving the monster skull first into the cinder block bed. He covers, and wins. Mercifully, Maclin retains.
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| The horror movie finally ends. TNA Impact |
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| D'Amore stays true to his word. TNA Impact |
Getting on the mic after the final bell sounds, Maclin demands the D'Amore stays true to his word and comes to the ring to put the Impact World Championship around his waist and shake his hand. A bloody Maclin waits in the ring, clearing the debris as D'Amore makes his way down the ramp. He stands at ringside and takes off his suit jacket, watch, and headset, not wanting to bring anything inside the confines of the ring that could be damaged if this go south.
Standing on the blood soaked canvas, Maclin meets the eyes of the monster slayer, still dripping in blood as he demands to be presented his title in the way he demanded. Holding the title with Maclin presenting his back to him, D'Amore has a chance to get even with Maclin, to crack him in the back like Maclin did to him. But D'Amore clearly has second thoughts. He already sicked PCO on Maclin, and he survived. What would he need to do to keep Maclin off him if he did swing on him here? Hell, he'd need to bring a gun to the ring next time if he had a hope in hell of surviving.
Thinking better of it, D'Amore wraps the title around the waist of Maclin, laughing gleefully as he gets his way. Showing no resistance, D'Amore offers his hand for Maclin to shake, a sign of peace. Knowing he got what he wanted, that he was able to force D'Amore to bend to his will, Maclin turns his back and leaves the ring, leaving him alone with his hand outstretched. D'Amore was ready to make peace, but Maclin thrives in war. Despite slaying the monster, things were far from over between Maclin and D'Amore.
For this, and so much more, Steve Maclin vs. PCO - No Disqualification Match is a 5 star match.
Until next time, be well, stay safe, and love one another.
Cliff Morgan
cliffmorganwstl@gmail.com
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