Happy (after) Thanksgiving Day Knockout fans! Whether you’re loosening your belts from those Thanksgiving meals, shopping around for Black Friday deals, searching the best Cyber Monday steals or just treating this holiday weekend as any other day, I hope you’ve enjoyed the ongoing festivities! Tis the season to be thankful and in TNA’s case, after their whirlwind of a year, being able to escape near-death (yet again) is more than a reason to celebrate! In this case, for our Knockouts, this includes a Thanksgiving dinner get together!
Backstage, we find Allie playing with her paper pilgrims and Native Americans centerpiece while running down her vegan friendly Thanksgiving menu; which includes Tofurky, sweet potatoes, carrots and corns. Maria Kanellis and Laurel Van Ness walk in on Allie’s fun, mocking the beloved Knockout on her Thanksgiving spirit and crush on Braxton Sutter. Laurel tells Allie that Braxton isn’t interested in “little girls” like Allie while Maria informs Allie that she will act as a server at tonight’s double date Thanksgiving dinner – in a pilgrim suit.
At the in-ring dinner table, Maria, Mike Bennett, and Laurel are all smiles. Allie is introduced by Maria as a “real pilgrim” and she comes down the ring to a gobbling Turkey theme song. Despite the awful theme song and outfit, the Impact Zone continues to show their love to Allie with chants of her name.
Allie confesses to feeling a bit warm in her suit-up but feels even more uncomfortable when Laurel brings out Braxton to join them as part of this double date. With all the dinner guests now at the table, the traditional going-around-saying-what-you’re-thankful-for commences.
Maria is up first and says she is thankful for her husband, Laurel and for being the First Lady of Professional Wrestling. Mike Bennett goes next and says he is thankful for food, Tom Brady and his wife Maria; all in that order! Laurel is third and says she is thankful for Maria, her handsome date Braxton and her father’s Black Amex card.
Allie takes a moment to interject to give her thanks for the fans of the Impact Zone. While Allie may have had more to say, she gets caught off by Maria, who says no one cares to hear what she is thankful for. Instead, Maria orders Allie to serve the food but Allie snaps after hearing a flirtatious conversation between Laurel and Braxton.
She calls Laurel a “big meanie” and yells out her frustration on not being able to eat anything at the table due to absence of anything vegan friendly. Allie has now become my spirit animal at the Thanksgiving table!
Laurel gets in Allie’s face, trying to antagonize her but Maria tries taking control of the situation by calming Laurel down. Allie grabs a nearby pie, trying to hit Laurel in the face with it but accidentally gets Maria instead when Laurel ducks out the way!
Elsewhere on the show, TNA announce that next week’s main event will be the big six sides of steel cage match between Jade and Rosemary for the vacated Knockouts title! Red and Blue had their say on the upcoming battle:
Finally, Reby Hardy has a reason to be thankful, as Matt Hardy has recovered from amnesia episode thanks to being struck by lightning? Well, I found the hypnotizing to be a more logical idea but in any event, welcome back Broken Matt!
Thoughts: Typically, I find these holiday segments to be cheesy but, at least in TNA’s case, this week’s segment was more entertaining than some of the previous acts we’ve witnessed from the Knockouts.
The whole dinner party highlighted Allie, Maria and even Laurel’s characters with some laughs in between. Allie has the fans fully behind her and while it is great to see her stand up to her bullies again, we’ve seen this done before only for things to go back to square one where Allie falls back and tolerates her tormenters to push her around. Let’s just see if this leads to Allie fully breaking apart from Maria and her Lady Squad.
TNA have already done their part in getting Allie over as their potential top babyface for the division but now they’ll have to find a way to transfer that to some actual in-ring competition. Keeping in mind that Allie’s character is still this rookie talent, I’m holding on to the face that someone such as Braxton will, eventually, “teach” Allie to wrestle through some kind of backstage protocols.
I am very excited for next week’s match between Jade and Rosemary! It is great to see that TNA have placed this confidence between these two, 2016 breakthrough, Knockouts for next week’s main event slot. After some less than stellar (and some weeks, with no matches) from the Knockouts this year, I think we’ll be in for a treat from both women next week.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Impact? Do you think Allie will leave Maria for good this time? Excited for next week’s Knockouts title match between Rosemary and Jade? Let us know in the comments below!
