Hola Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s Impact Write-Up. After plotting against Gail Kim for months, Maria Kanellis finds herself in a bit of a pickle when she finds out that her muscle, the Knockouts Champion Sienna, will have to defend her title on this week’s episode of Impact. The good news for the Maria clan: Gail Kim won’t be involved in the match. The bad news: four other Knockouts will be. Let’s see how things played for our Knockouts!
Up first is Rosemary who has a bit of fun (when doesn’t she?) with number one contenders for the TNA Tag Team titles “Broken” Matt Hardy and Jeff “Brother Nero” Hardy. From within the crowd of the Impact Zone, Rosemary gives a lesson on the emotion of “worry” and is then joined by her Decay Demon partners Abyss and Crazzy Steve, who vow to decay the remaining legacy left in the Hardys.
A match between Abyss and Jeff is booked after accusations of abducting baby King Maxel are thrown. Plot twist: Matt channels in his inner Dracula and literally sinks his teeth to Crazzy Steve’s ear, claiming that he is the kidnapping perpetrator. All while that is going on the outside ring, inside the ring, Rosemary throws green mist to Jeff from the top rope, setting him up for Abyss’ Black Hole finisher and the win.
We now head backstage to find a livid Maria Kanellis alongside her assistant Allie and the Knockouts Champion Sienna. Maria demands to know how a Knockouts title match was booked this week behind Maria’s back, blaming Allie for not keeping track of such important notes. Cue in new TNA President Billy Corgan, who reveals he was the one who went behind Maria’s back to book this title match.
Billy adds a tease by announcing that Sienna would compete in her title match against multiple other Knockouts. Well, at the very least, he did hold out Sienna having to wear the annual Turkey Suit despite the mention of it!
Sienna makes her entrance to the Impact Zone, awaiting her opponents to be introduced one by one. Out come Marti Bell, Madison Rayne, Allie (gasp) and Jade, in that order.
With all the competitors now in the ring, the bell sounds off and right away, former Dollhouse members Jade and Marti go after one another, spilling their fight to the outside ring. Meanwhile, Sienna sets her focus on Madison Rayne, taking down the Queen Bee with a running Samoan drop. Allie watches all the action unfold from a safe corner but decides to get involved when she sees Sienna go for a suplex on Madison.
Allow offers to assist Sienna with the move but only ends up getting in the way. Sienna rejects Allie’s offer and pushes Allie away but then gets caught in a small package pin cover by Madison for a near three count.
As the match continues, Maria would slowly make her way to the Impact Zone, observing things from ringside to make sure her vision stays intact.
Marti renters the ring and strikes Sienna with several right forearms until Allie gets involved when she shoves Marti from behind. The shove may not have done much damage but it distracts Marti enough for Sienna to be able to toss Marti to a corner. From said corner, the champion lands several stomps to Marti and instructs Allie to do the same, though her stomps aren’t as effective. The pair attempt another double team attack but miscommunication occurs, allowing for Marti to take down both Sienna and Allie with a double clothesline.
Jade finds her way back to the match and clears the ring of her opponents: hitting a spinning round kick to Sienna, a body slam to Allie and her small packaged piledriver finisher to a resurfaced Madsion Rayne.
Marti avoids Jade’s series of attacks and takes out her former DFF with a running big boot. A weapon to this no DQ match is finally introduced by Marti, who pulls out her handy baton. Allie spots this and tries to confiscate the weapon, leading to a tug of a war between her and Marti. During this back and forth struggle, Allie accidentally hits Sienna with the baton with so much force, it causes the champ to roll out of the ring.
Marti takes back her weapon and knocks Allie in the head with it. Allie falls and lands on top of the already unconscience Madison. Acting referee Earl Hebner makes the three count for Allie all while Jade appears to have thrown out her back when she hits a running dropkick to Marti.
The unexpected winner is still unaware of her victory but the realization sinks in once Earl impolitely throws the belt on Allie’s back hands Allie the Knockouts title. The Impact Zone begin a “you deserve it chant” all while both Allie and Maria remain shocked at the results of this match up.
In a post interview, Allie is full of joy upon her surprise win! She came to TNA in wanting to be Maria’s apprentice and now she’s a champion! Sadly, Allie’s joy is short lived when the cameraman/interviewer asks Allie how she thinks Maria will respond to this. Let that sink in for a moment.
Thoughts: While I am glad to see Allie have her “moment” in TNA, I can’t really say I’m thrilled about how it came about.
Much like Jade’s title reign, Sienna’s run with the title was nothing memorable. There were no real feuds for either women to latch onto during their reign and both of their title wins felt as though they came and ended too soon. If anything, both Jade and Sienna’s run with the belt were used more as tools to further the more in depth Gail/Maria feud; a feud that doesn’t need a title in the picture to begin with! For me, all this just sets off an uneasy tone to Allie’s first reign as Knockouts champion.
As for the match itself, it did what it was suppose to do: allow the title to change hands in an unexpected manner (assume you haven’t read the spoilers) while still selling Allie as a novice of a wrestler. She’s getting in Sienna’s way by making these small mistakes, trying to impress Maria and throws in that high pitch tone of a voice whenever she can. Some fun stuff in between.
The match wasn’t as clustered as I thought it would be, I think the Knockouts would’ve benefited more if they were given more time to the match. TNA are usually pretty good when it comes to their multi women matches but this match felt too short for.
Though I can’t say I’m exactly a fan of Allie’s gimmick, I will say that she is doing a well job at it. She’s giving fans a reason to sympathize for her, what with having a bossy boots of a boss in Maria. Based on the audience’s reaction to her win, I think Allie has the potential to really be a strong babyface for the Knockouts division once she fully breaks away from Maria and, hopefully, “learns” to fully wrestle in the ring.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Impact? Is it too soon to see Allie with the Knockouts Championship? Are you enjoying Allie’s character? Let us know in the comments below!
