The 2022 Victory Road was a professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on September 23, 2022, at Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and aired on Impact Plus and YouTube. It was the 13th event under the Victory Road chronology. The event also featured wrestlers from partner promotions Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Ten matches were contested at the event, including two on the pre-show and one taped as a digital exclusive. In the main event, Steve Maclin defeated Moose and Sami Callihan in a three-way Barbed Wire Massacre. In other prominent matches, Jordynne Grace defeated Max the Impaler, Frankie Kazarian won an Intergender Triple Threat Revolver to become the number one contender to the Impact X Division Championship, Mickie James defeated Gisele Shaw in a Career Threatening match, and Mike Bailey defeated Delirious to retain the X Division Championship in the opening bout. The event also marked the Impact debut of Bobby Fish.
Production
Background
Victory Road was an annual professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) between 2004 and 2012. In 2013, TNA discontinued most of its monthly pay-per-view events in favor of the new pre-recorded One Night Only events. Victory Road would be revived as a "One Night Only" event in 2014 and a special edition of Impact's weekly television series in 2017.
On August 5, 2022, Impact Wrestling announced that they will return to Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, for Victory Road on September 23, 2022.
Storylines
The event featured several professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
At Slammiversary, Sami Callihan defeated Moose in a Monster's Ball match, his first match back from an ankle injury caused by Moose. Several weeks later, at Against All Odds, Moose won the rematch, this time a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match against Callihan due to interference from Steve Maclin. While there was no obvious explanation for Moose and Maclin's suggested alliance, they would help each other in attacking Callihan whenever the latter attempted an ambush in the following weeks. Callihan would eventually defeat Maclin at Emergence in a no disqualification match, after their first match earlier in the night ended in a no contest. All three would be a part of an Impact World Championship number one contender six-way elimination match on the August 18 episode of Impact!. Moose and Maclin would team up to eliminate Callihan, with Maclin immediately using a rollup to eliminate Moose, leading to them bickering. On the August 25 episode of Impact!, Callihan got into a backstage fight with Moose and Maclin when they were arguing, resulting in Callihan getting left bloodied and wrapped up in barbed wire in the parking lot. When Callihan emerged at ringside, he challenged Moose and Maclin to a three-way Barbed Wire Massacre at Victory Road. The next week's episode would have a segment where Maclin and Moose were shown arguing about the contender's match and the need to focus their attention on Callihan. On the September 8 episode of Impact!, Maclin would have an interview with Gia Miller where he denied an alliance with Moose, but saying it is in their best interest to work together. He would then be surprised by Miller to find out he has a tag match against Decay next week. Later in the episode, Callihan would have a promo where he promised to turn Maclin and Moose against each other and destroy them. Moose and Maclin would be defeated by Black Taurus and Crazzy Steve on the September 15 episode of Impact! due to their bickering. After the match, Callihan would appear in the balcony and would show security footage of both men having conversations where they planned to betray each other. They would start brawling with Callihan joining the brawl and hitting Maclin with a barbed wire wrapped bat. A week later, Scott D'Amore would have all three be a part of a Hold Harmless contract signing, to free Impact from any liability from their upcoming match. After numerous threats to each other, the signing would break down into violence with Maclin and Moose working together to bust Callihan open. Moose would then betray Maclin by attacking him until Callihan in turn took Moose out. Callihan would then sign the contract using his own blood.