Happy September Knockouts fans and welcome to this week’s Impact Write-Up. September is a fun month as it’s the start of the cool fall season, pumpkin flavored coffee, a fresh start for returning students and just happens to be my birthday month. For TNA, there is a sense of importance behind the September month this year, as it is still rumored to be TNA’s last month on Destination America; right before TNA’s Bound For Glory event. TNA just can’t catch a break can they? We’re keeping an eye on you TNA but for now let’s move on to this week’s program.
After the newly recruited Dollhouse member, Rebel, joined Jade and Marti Bell in a three-on-one attack to Velvet Sky under the orders of Taryn Terrell, Velvet has asked for an open mic segment this week to speak her mind against her attackers. Also throughout the week’s show, the tug of war for power between TNA President Dixie Carter and GFW founder Jeff Jarrett reaches new heights, as the pieces for an all out battle for all of TNA’s marbles begin to fall into place.
Our show picks up right where we left off last week, following Karen Jarrett’s revelation of being the one behind the series of backstage attacks within TNA, ultimately betraying the company she once worked for to help elevate her husband’s GFW promotion. Along with the other members of the GFW troupe (where I spy Lei’D Tapa in the mix), Karen joins her husband in the ring as he delivers an opening message to Dixie Carter.
Jeff summarizes everything that has happened ever since his return to TNA this year, from winning the King of the Mountain title at Slammiversary to being inducted to TNA Hall of Fame. He calls out Dixie Carter and tells her that he genially tried to help her, by giving her a taste of how great a show can be when he is running things as evident by the GFW vs. TNA show he booked just a few weeks ago.
Karen then borrows the mic from her husband to give her two cents on where she stands in all of this. She says that she did what she had to do to ensure that Jeff would get what he deserves. She explains that with the help of Chris Mordetzsky, she was able to take out both Bully Ray and Drew Galloway as a way to fully support her husband for his hard work, unlike the Impact Zone fans who jump the bandwagon of whatever new name comes to TNA.
Jeff thanks his wife and finishes his message to Dixie Carter by reminding us of the shares he still has within the TNA company to declare a hostile corporate takeover with the boys (and girl) of the GFW roster! How will Dixie respond?
The GFW clan begin to make their first mark against TNA by capturing the TNA Wold Tag Team titles from The Wolves. Karen Jarrett revealing that through her good friend (and member of the GFW roster) Magnus, she was able to get a hold of his Feast or Fired Tag Team briefcase that he never cashed in. With the Wolves already being beaten down by the GFW guys, the Jarretts found it to be the perfect time to cash in the briefcase on behalf of the team of Trevor Lee and Brian Meyers, who become the new TNA Tag Team champions after a very chaotic and clustered style tag team match. That’s one point for GFW!
TNA even up the score when Bobby Roode manages to regain the King of the Mountain title for TNA by defeating PJ Black. This prompts the Jarretts and GFW to return to the six sided ring once again, claiming they won’t leave this time until they speak to Dixie!
Dixie’s new entrance music and right away a shouting match between her and Jeff begins. Dixie claiming all she ever wanted to do was to work with Jeff. For his part, Jeff says they were once a great team until she took away his power to replace him with multiple leaders who have failed miserably
Dixie counters Jeff’s comments by stating that Jeff made the decision to leave TNA while she stayed with the company since day one. When the talk of ownership stake begins, Dixie makes Jeff an offer: a winner take all match! Dixie would put up her majority of ownership stake against Jeff’s minority stake. Jeff has his team assembled through his GFW roster while TNA stars Drew Galloway, the Wolves and Bobby Lashley stand by their boss lady Dixie Carter. The Lethal Lockdown style tag match between the two teams takes place in two weeks.
After all the TNA and GFW drama, the time has come for our Knockouts segment of the night. Stone Cold Velvet Sky makes her way to the ring and starts off by saying there are a number of reasons as to why she’s kept to herself since returning to TNA. The landscape of TNA and the Knockouts division has changed since Velvet’s first day with the company. Velvet goes on by calling out Taryn to come down to the ring for having her doll minions attack her last week.
Taryn responds to Velvet but is from a the safe shelter of her Pillow Talk room. Through the big screens of the Impact Zone, Taryn says her doctors have advised her to remain calm after she broke her hand. Taryn continues by recalling her first days in TNA and being compared to Velvet as the “hot girl” of TNA.
Although they’ve yet to cross paths, Taryn assures she would destroy Velvet. After all, Taryn is a star with an impressive resume that include multiple movie and TV roles while Velvet just looks like she stepped out of a Hot Topic store. In conclusion, Taryn tells Velvet that she needs to learn to play with the dolls of the Dollhouse, thus leading for the Dollhouse to come out and begin their hunt to Velvet.
The Dollhouse surround the ring and although Velvet tries to fight off all three members of the Dollhouse on her own, she is at a disadvantage as the numbers pile up against her. It doesn’t take long for Velvet to find herself being attacked by all three members of the Dollhouse again.
However, this time things take a different turn as both Angelina Love and Madison Rayne come out to make the save for Velvet. As the Impact Zone begin a “Beautiful People” chant, The Dollhouse are cleared out of the ring and Angelina announces the return of an edgier, badass new and improved Beautiful People!
Thoughts: Last week, we were treated to two heel turns coming from Karen Jarrett and a very random Rebel. This week, we were treated to two face turns from Angelina Love and Madison Rayne.
As with Rebel’s heel turn last week, I’m just finding this Face turn for Angelina and Madison to be completely random. It has been a few months since we’ve actually seen either Madison or Angelina on an episode of Impact and the last time they were actually on, BOTH women were FEUDING with Velvet! Are we just supposed to ignore those mini-feuds didn’t happen? Was this done just so that TNA can realign the Beautiful People again?
This is where I just feel the importance of some kind of mini backstage segment or explanation is needed, as we are still to wonder how this was all planned out with the Beautiful People. Perhaps some kind of message from Angelina along the lines of “Only WE are allowed to pick on Velvet because she’s one of us” would’ve helped instead of this confusing matter. It all just comes off as a very lazy way of booking thing.
Still, I did see some positives in all of this. Number one being that Madison Rayne is FINALLY being used; she has been so under utilized this year. I also like that this now gives the Dollhouse a chance to sort of try and rebuild themselves after their many losses to Gail Kim, Awesome Kong and Brooke. While Velvet’s promo wasn’t spectacular, I did like her stand up attitude to Taryn. It help set up for the Dollhouse versus Beautiful People feud that is on the rise, a feud that I’ve secretly always wanted to see. However, given Angelina’s real life pregnancy, we may have to wait a while before we see this full fledged feud between these Knockout stables.
Speaking of Brooke, it is a shame that she continues to take these TV breaks despite being the champion. It almost makes me feel like taking the title off Taryn was for nothing as even Taryn has managed to stay on TV despite not physically being there.
As for the Dixie/Jarretts fiasco, I’m glad to see Dixie regain her composure against Jeff. There were those blurred lines of trying to keep things kayfabe and all but the hints of “realism” from Jeff Jarrett still having share holds in TNA made for an interesting segment. Of course, this is all leading up to another big TNA Lethal Lockdown match but Dixie looked much more confident in her promo this week than she ever had before and Karen Jarrett has always been brilliant as a heel.
That’s it for this week Knockout fans, hasta luego!
