Welcome, Knockout fans, to another Impact Write-Up! We’ve got a match we’ve been waiting over a year for. That’s right: Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell are finally facing off in their rubber match. This time around, though, Gail is Knockouts Champ, so now the title is on the line.
Before the match, we’re presented with a video package that’s meant to remind fans of the magic they made this time last year. It also dubs this match the “tiebreaker”:
All caught up? Let’s jump to the present:
Off the bell, Gail and Taryn jockey for control. Gail takes Taryn down to the mat, a headlock applied. Taryn rolls Gail onto her shoulders for a pin, but Gail is able to resume her position, bringing Taryn to her feet while maintaining the hold.
After some well-placed punches, Taryn sends Gail into the ropes, but the momentum allows Gail to knock her off her feet on the return. Gail runs the ropes, which somehow looks cooler than usual in the six sides, and knocks Taryn down again.
Gail sends Taryn into the ropes, but her ensuing dropkick catches nothing but air. Taryn rolls her into a pin, but Gail kicks out. Undeterred, she immediately goes for another pin, taking Gail down with a sunset flip. The Knockouts Champ kicks out again.
Taryn hits a monkey flip and then climbs the second rope, taking Gail out with a clothesline. She tries for another pin, earning a two-count. She goes for a snapmare, but Gail shoves her off. Taryn hits back with an elbow to the face, buying her enough time to scale the turnbuckle again.
When she gets to the top, though, Gail’s recovered enough to make the trip to the top as well. She take a hold of Taryn and tosses her from the top rope all the way to the mat! Both Knockouts are down!
Gail recovers first, going for the pin. Taryn kicks out. Gail sends her into one of the many corners, charging and planting a shoulder into her midsection. She scales the turnbuckle and lays Taryn out with a top rope dropkick.
The time seems right for the Eat Defeat, and Gail attempts it, but Taryn fights out, escaping and running the ropes. Gail has a similar idea, though, and both Knockouts end up flying at each other at the same time, leaving both with the wind knocked out of them.
They get to their feet at the same time and start trading blows, Taryn managing to take control and hit Gail with a series of clotheslines. She hits a suplex and a neck breaker, climbing to the top rope again with her sights set on sealing the deal. Out of nowhere comes Velvet Sky, who shoves Taryn off the top rope!
The Beautiful People storm the ring as the bell sounds, the match being cut short. Angelina Love hits Gail with the Botox Injection, while Velvet plants Taryn with the In Yo Face. Both competitors are left lying as the Beautiful People exit, leaving as suddenly as they arrived.
At the end of the night, Dixie Carter got the last laugh (well, for now) against Bully Ray and co., stealing a street fight win and laying them out to end the show:
Thoughts: Obviously, Gail and Taryn’s match didn’t scratch the surface of what they accomplished last summer, but it wasn’t meant to. Though I don’t see why it needed to be a title match, I think this match accomplished what it set out to do: whet fans’ appetite for more Gail/Taryn down the road.
Many fans speculate that Gail will be defending the title against Taryn at Bound For Glory, so it makes sense that they didn’t go all out here: they wanted fans to remember the great chemistry these two have and leave them wanting more. The fact that this was dubbed their “tiebreaker” (though I believe it’s technically their fourth match) wasn’t lost on the TNA bookers, since we got that inconclusive ending brought on by the Beautiful People run-in. I like that psychology, too: Angelina and Velvet don’t want to be shown up by these two babyfaces, so they just decide to end the match. It’s not fancy, but it gets the job done.
I don’t think Taryn is quite back to where she was, skill wise, but she’s still got that fire that made her matches with Gail so fun to watch. I’m sure she’ll get back there soon enough. I do wonder, though, if their next big match will suffer from both being babyfaces – a lot of the charm their last feud had was due to Gail being the cocky heel and Taryn having that underdog fury.
Judging by this match, though, they’ll be able to put on an exciting match regardless. It just won’t have as much of a story to back it up. There’s a lot of time between now and Bound For Glory, though, so I probably shouldn’t make that assumption just yet, or even assume that we’ll see Gail and Taryn face off at the big show. After all, I’m sure Angelina and Velvet will have something to say about that..
