Hola Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s Impact Write-Up, the “live” Slammiversary “go home” show edition. Yeah, I know there are plenty of flaws we can poke at for this year’s soiled event but for the sake of it being one of the few (actual) PPVs TNA is still running, let’s TRY and sound as enthusiastic as possible for Sunday shall we?
While the entire Dollhouse clan are set to take on the team of Brooke and Awesome Kong at Slammiversary, this week we catch up on the secondary Knockouts feud taking place within TNA between former Beautiful People team members Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. After being hauled away in handcuffs by security a few weeks ago, Velvet Sky has the opportunity to rejoin the TNA roster should she be able to pick up a win over Angelina this week. After hearing this stipulation, I think it’s pretty much a safe bet as to who will win.
Before we get into our Knockouts match of the week, the Dollhouse make a brief appearance backstage in their sheltered Pillow Talk room where head master Taryn Terrell is not too pleased with Jade and Marti Bell.
Because of the Dollhouse’s defeat last week, Taryn must now face both Brooke and Awesome Kong in a triple threat match for her Knockouts title next week. When Taryn tries to get an answer as to what went wrong, Marti and Jade begin to blame each other. This bickering only angers Taryn even more and she demands silence so that they may begin to brainstorm how they’ll take care of their opponents at Slammiversary.
The Knockouts champion recalls how she managed to take care of Gail Kim to the point that she wouldn’t dare to return and plots to do the same to Brooke and Kong Sunday. Marti comes up with the idea of taking their opponents arms off and beating them with it to realize how stupid they are while Jade can kick them in the face relentlessly. Taryn approves of all these suggestions coming from her dolls and concludes her message to Brooke and Kong by letting them know that playtime is over for them come Sunday at Slammiversary!
Onto our Knockouts match of the evening, newlywed Angelina Love makes her entrance first, throwing around “Loser” and “Goodbye Velvet” gestures as she makes her way down the entrance ramp. Amidst of rumors that she has given her notice of leaving the company, Angelina continues to be introduced by ring announcer Christy Hemme.
Once in the ring, Angelina requests for a mic to let out a few last words before Velvet appears. Angelina reminds Velvet that this is her once last chance at getting back her spot on the roster but figures that it won’t happen as Angelina has all the confidence that she’ll be the winner of this match.
With that said, new theme music for Velvet Sky hits the Impact Zone and for the first time since she reappeared in TNA, Velvet makes her way down the entrance ramp versus being a “fan” in attendance. There’s still time to place your safe bets as to who will win!
After removing her chain that hangs from her side, Velvet enters the ring with attitude and quickly gets into the face of Angelina. Our favorite senior referee Earl Hebner holds Velvet back so that he can call for the official bell to ring before any physicality can begin.
Once the official bell does ring, Angelina gets in the face of her former BFF and shoves her back. As Velvet meets Angelina in the center of the ring again, Angelina slaps the face of Velvet in mockery fashion but Velvet responds with a spear takedown, bringing Angelina down to mat.
Velvet follows up by taking Angelina a trip to the turnbuckles, tossing Angelina head first to the corners and laying her out with a clothesline.
The action take a different wave when Velvet tosses Angelina to the outside of the ring. Once on the outside, Velvet makes the most of what is available to her: she slams Angelina’s face to the ring apron, whips Angelina’s right arm to the ring pole and even manages to use the steel steps to inflict damage to Angelina’s back. Hell hath no fury!
Velvet takes a moment to climb the very same steel steps to which had send Angelina to as the Impact Zone begin a “Velvet” chant! After using as much of the outside ring as she could, Velvet tosses Angelina back into the six sided ring but this only proves to be an opening for Angelina. She dropkicks Velvet before she can find her way to the ring leaving the battle to the outside of the ring to continue.
After slamming Velvet’s face once on the ring apron, Angelina tosses Velvet to ring and goes for the first pin of the match but Velvet is able to kick out at two. Angelina goes for a second pin cover after delivering a side slam to Velvet but just like before, Velvet gets the shoulder up in time.
When Angelina decides to go high risk, things backfire as Velvet pulls her off from the second rope sending Angelina to crash and burn. After regaining control of the match, Velvet strikes Angelina with a triple kick combination. Velvet scoops up Angelina but she is about to counter and connect a Lights Out!
Angelina goes for another pin but through and through Velvet kicks out again. Frustrated, Angelina takes a step up and looks to hit her Botox Injection finisher but only hits air when Velvet gets out the way. When Angelina turns around, she is hit with a “Stone Cold Velvet Stunner” by Velvet, who then goes for the pin and gets the three count! Welcome back to the TNA roster Velvet, although we all knew you were going to win this contest.
Speaking of returns, there was much buzz surrounding a big appearance on this week’s episode of Impact. I am of course referring to the appearance of GFW Founder/TNA Co-founder Jeff Jarrett along with his lovely wife Karen Jarrett. Has hell frozen over?
The Jarrets make their way to the Impact Zone, first greeting the commentary team of Josh Matthews and The Pope (yes they were actually people THERE this week) before making their way inside the ring they once called home. Sporting his fancy GFW T-shirt, the Jarretts are greeted with a “Welcome Back!” chant from the Impact Zone. Mic in hand, Jeff begins to fill in the gaps as to why and how he made his way back to a TNA ring.
It all started with a text from TNA management to which Jeff delayed in answering. When Jeff finally did get back to TNA management, it was revealed that TNA wanted Jeff to return for one more match; that being the match which he designed known today as King of the Mountain.
While there were many mixed emotions and thoughts racing through Jeff’s mind, he had to consider how his wife would feel about all of this. Karen takes the mic from her husband’s hand to tell her side of the story.
Karen begins by declaring her love to her husband. She continues by admitting she isn’t like her husband and has had an easier time leaving TNA in the past to focus on GFW. (Just for fun, let’s take a shot every time GFW is named dropped)
Despite all her emotions, to which are still out of place just being inside the TNA ring, she understands her husband’s decision to consider returning for one more TNA match. He had to leave the company he founded with his father under his own terms, not by being fired in a pre-taped segment with Sting.
With all said, Karen concludes by confessing her love to her husband once more with the promise of supporting him in all of his decisions today and for the or future with GFW. With the support and confidence from his wife, Jeff agrees to competing in the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary! #JoinTheForce
Thoughts: Not exactly the kind of “go home” show you would expect for a PPV happening in a few days but then again, given all the circumstances TNA are currently in, it probably was the best they could do.
Despite no match, I appreciated the Dollhouse making an appearance on the show. It was of little hype to the Knockouts match Sunday but I always enjoy the backstage Pillow Talk segments. Taryn continues to lead her Dollhouse pack, laying down the house rules and I personally see them stealing the win come Slammiversary.
It was pretty much a given as to who was winning the Angelina/Velvet match. That tends to happen when you put an obvious kind of stipulation to a match and add your “fired” star from the alumni page back onto the active BEFORE the actual match. Still, I actually found the match to be a pretty good one for what is considered Velvet’s return match. The crowd was fully behind her and she has altered her move set a bit, specifically with her new Stunner finisher.
My only bit is where does Velvet go from here? There is no need to continue this feud with Angelina now that she has won and made her way to the company. The title picture is already busy other other contenders, so perhaps moving on to Madison Rayne? There was that confrontation between the two not too long ago and this will at least give Madison something to do. Sure it would like a rehash feud but time will tell.
Even if it was just a one time deal and used a plug in for GFW, it was a pleasant surprise to see Karen in TNA again. You could just feel that she was speaking from the heart versus instead of any memorized lines from a script. It a different and genuine side of Karen that is nothing like the Ice Queen of the Mountain we may be more familiar with. Oh what I would give to see Karen in that VP of the Knockouts one more time!
Be sure to tune into Slammiversary this Sunday which then leads up to next week’s big triple threat title match. Who knows, maybe TNA will still fulfill my wish of inducing Gail Kim to the HOF.
Until then, hasta mucho mas luego Knockout fans!
