Hola Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s Impact Write-Up! After being hunted down by a train of women last week, Knockouts Champion Rosemary will be keeping a close eye to the winner of this week’s number one contender Gauntlet Battle Royal to see who will be the next challenger to her title.
Kicking off our Gauntlet style match is… Ava Storie? Wait a minute, is Brandi Lauren just not going by her previous KC Quinn persona now? The one Impact dedicated a whole introduction to on their site!? Eh, maybe this is a sign that the young star is a possible signing. Anyhow, Ava has her hands full as the second participant to this match is five-time Knockouts Champion Madison Rayne. Thank you for bringing back the ‘Killer Queen’ theme song Madison!
Completely ignoring the bickering between Josh Matthews and Jeremy Borash (not this again…), the match starts off with Madison taunting the aspiring Knockout with a pat on the head. Ava slaps away Madison’s hands, whips her to the ropes and takes her down with a spinning kick when she comes back.
As Ava continues to work on Madison from a corner, the next participant Rebel makes her way to the ring. Rebel saves Madison from Ava’s attacks by landing a high kick to Ava from behind and tossing her across the ring by the hair.
Though the heels initially double team Ava, they begin to argue when it comes time to determine who will actually be the one to eliminate her. This allows for Ava to regroup and take down both Rebel and Madison with a double clothesline.
The fourth participant is out next and its Amanda Rodriguez, who goes on to attack all three Knockouts inside the six sided ring! Ava, Rebel and Amanda begin to fight one another for some control all while Madison lays low and out of the action.
Two more minutes pass and our fifth participant, MJ Jenkins, literally bounces into the match with a springboard dropkick that takes down Amanda! It’s a chaotic scene in the ring as all the women continue to stay alive in this Gauntlet match.
LAX’s own Diamanté enters next and immediately looks for a fight when she dashes inside the ring! “Se acabó” declares Diamaté as she dropkicks and clotheslines her opponents down.
Halfway through the match, our first elimination occurs courtesy of Rebel who scoops Amanda over her shoulders and tosses over the top rope, adding a kick for good measures. Just as Amanda is out of the match, in comes ODB ready to change things up!
One by one, ODB stacks up ALL of the Knockouts to a corner and fully charges after them, which leads to the next elimination as ODB clotheslines Ava over the top rope. BAM! Brandi Rhodes is our final participant and gets a few licks to her opponents upon her arrival, going as far as to eliminating Diamaté.
On the other side of the ring, another elimination occurs when MJ ducks a corner kick from Rebel and tosses her over the top rope. A newly confident MJ begins to target ODB and Brandi, taking the pair down with a double clothesline but it doesn’t take long for the numbers game to come to play. After a double shoulder block, MJ goes down allowing for Brandi and ODB to collectively toss her over the top rope.
With only three competitors left, Madison comes out of her playing possum state to eliminate Brandi next. It comes down to ODB and Madison, with the next Knockout to score a pinfall or submission will be the winner. The Impact Zone heavily favor ODB, who emerges victorious after hitting a TKO to Madison. Get ready for a future ODB vs. Rosemary title match!
Though they didn’t take part in the Gauntlet match, other ‘official’ Knockouts make appearances throughout the show, including Angelina Love and Alisha Edwards who get into a physical altercation during the brutal Last Man Standing match between Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards.
Alisha would come to her husband’s defense when Angelina tried to interfere and the two battled it out at ringside! Alisha removing her belt to whip Angelina around but said weapon would be against Alisha as Angelina fights her off and chokes her out with it before sending her to the guardrails. Back in the ring, Angelina orders her husband Davey to finish Eddie off with a stiff kick that earns him the big win.
Karen Jarrett also booked a mixed tag match for between the team of Allie and Braxton Sutter against Sienna and her cousin KM. The match comes after a backstage interview where Allie said it felt good to stand up for herself from Sienna last week. This prompt Sienna to confront Allie and continue her accusation that she ‘ratted’ out Sienna on some disclosed bullying.
Quick reminder: ‘Fury’ will be unleashed next and based on this week’s vignette, Sienna has an even bigger plot for Allie/Braxton that goes beyond the mixed tag match.
Thought: It isn’t really a surprise that ODB is being set up as Rosemary’s next challenger. As I said last week, its a safe bet to have Rosemary go against an established name for the time being. I don’t see ODB winning the belt right away and with word that Gail Kim is planning to make her return to Impact, here is where I expect Rosemary to have her real ‘full-fledged’ feud.
As far as the Gauntlet match, well it was forgettable for the most part with some messy spots. With Allie, Sienna, Laurel Van Ness, Angelina and Alisha in their own respective storylines, it felt as though the likes Amanda, Ava, MJ and Rebel were brought in to basically fill up spaces for this gauntlet match. Part of me wishes that Impact would have tried going with a fatal four match between ODB, Madison, Brandi and Diamaté (who is now part of the Impact roster) instead. It wouldn’t have felt so clustered and I think it would have given me breathing room for someone like Diamaté who is warming up to fans. On the positive, I did like the bits that we did see from MJ and would like to see more from her.
Angelina was absolutely brutal with Alisha and I’m loving her pull/chemistry with Davey. This was the most intense we’ve seen from Alisha and I’m ready to see her and Eddie get some sweet revenge against their rivals!
I’m ready to see more of Allie getting in the ring and we are seeing a new confidence grow in her character through this feud with Sienna. Though I don’t think there is a need for a ‘fury’ factor, there are already enough people in this feud, I think its interesting to see Sienna being able to pull some strings to get someone new on her side. I just hope that this circle doesn’t get too crowded to the point that the women are pushed to the sideline.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Impact? Would you like to see any of these new names signed by Impact? Are you enjoy the mixed tag side feuds? Let us know in the comments below!
