Good day Knockout fans and welcome to another surprise edition of TNA’s Xplosion. It sure seems like we have been presented with more Knockouts action over at Xplosion; the more the merrier. During this past week’s episode of Xplosion, we have exclusive Knockouts action between former friends and foes Madison Rayne and Gail Kim. Let’s see who will come out on top this time around.
Lyrics for Madison Rayne’s “Killer Queen” theme song hits the Impact Zone as the Queen Bee of the Knockouts division makes her way to the ring, waving to close by fans in beauty pageant style and pretty much teasing anyone she can including referee Brian Hebner.
Unlike Madison, opponent Gail Kim is more than happy to greet fans as she makes her ring entrance and over at the Xplosion commentary booth, Jeremy Borash name drops Gail Kim as a nominee for a future TNA HOF induction. (I knew there was a reason why JB was one of my favorite commentators)
Suddenly, something that ever rarely happens on Xplosion happens – a mic is given to someone before the start of the match! In this case, Madison Rayne has a few choice words for her former BFF. In fact, it’s almost a concern because we all know that Gail Kim REALLY likes to wrestle. So much so, that Gail hopes are to one day be inducted to the TNA HOF! (All the teases make me believe 2015 will be the year for Gail’s induction)
Unlike Gail, Madison doesn’t care for any TNA HOF or the adoration of the TNA fans. However, what Madison does care about is whether or not Gail has had “that talk” with herself. You know, where she takes the ball she’s been rolling with and just goes home. At home, where she can be a wife to celebrity chef Robert Irvine and do what we all do at home, which is watch the Queen Bee on our television screens. Madison Rayne’s mic skills are just untouchable.
Gail snatches the mic from Madison’s hand to respond to her “concern”. Times have changed and in today’s age, women are capable to have a career as well as being a loving wife and/or mother. So, if Madison does indeed want Gail out, she is going to have to drag her out the place.
Madison says she has no problem being Gail’s personal escort, drops the mic and goes after Gail causing the match to officially start. Gail gets the upper hand early on, landing hard forearms and a very swift dropkick to Madison. Concerned over some potential bleeding, Madison outside the ring to safety as we head to a quick break.
Once back from the break, we see Madison find her way back to ring but gets her face hurled to the mat by Gail. Switching gears, Gail takes Madison to a corner turnbuckle, where she lands a low kick before sending her off to an opposite corner. Madison reverses Gail’s Irish whip halfway, sending Gail to the turnbuckle instead. Looking for a counter, Gail lifts her feet up but Madison anticipates this, grabs a hold of them and tosses them to the side mid air. Madison then grabs a handful of Gail’s hair, throws her head onto the mat and goes for the cover.
When Gail manages to kick out at the count of two, Madison decides to give the fans what they want, which is more of Gail. She adds her own twist by taking Gail to the second rope to choke her, letting go only after the referee began his countdown for DQ.
Madison scoops Gail up on her feet, sends her across the ring and hits a back elbow once Gail returns to her direction. She goes for the cover as Gail hits the ground but Gail manages to kick out in time. Looking for a comeback, Gail begins to fight off Madison as she gets back on her feet, landing forearm shots to Madison’s head and running the ropes for a quick attack but Madison finds a way to reverse Gail’s oncoming attack with a Northern Lights Suplex pin.
Gail kicking out again frustrates Madison and she looks to wear Gail down, first with a headlock submission hold and then getting creative by landing repeated face crushers to Gail using only her legs. With all these shots to Gail’s skull, Madison quickly goes for the cover but not even multiple leg trapping face crushers are enough to put away Gail as she continues kicking out. With all these kicks out from Gail, Madison then wonders if the referee can even count to three.
Even with the unsuccessful pin fall, Madison continues working on Gail’s c with another head lock submission but Gail manages to fight through and through time around. She elbows Madison to escape her hold and rebuilds momentum with a quick triple threat combination to Madison that includes a hard forearm, kick to the stomach and running clothesline.
When the Queen Bee tries to find shelter from a corner, in comes Gail Kim with dashing corner cross body. Wasting little time, Gail keeps Madison settled by climbing to ring apron on the flip-side of Madison to hit a straddle attack. Staying in the same ring apron spot, Gail sunset flips Madison into a pin but only gets a two count.
Back inside the ring, Gail climbs to the second rope, looking to hit a reverse cross body but only crashed to the ground when Madison ducks out the way. Capitalizing on Gail’s crash and burn, Madison rolls Gail into a pin but still falls short on getting the three count. Looking to end this match, Madison kicks a groggy Gail and sets her up for the Rayne Check but Gail punches her way out and instead hits her Eat Defeat finisher, going for the pin to get the three count and win this match.
Thoughts: A different kind of beginning to an Xplosion match.
Although the opening promos may have cut some of the match time between these two, I think it helped set the tone for this match. More often than not, matches on Xplosion tend to just be thrown together as exhibition matches with little or no real stories behind them, so having a little exchange before hand helped create a mini story we could get into.
Madison antics were pretty humorous as she continues to pick on Gail’s love for wrestling. She is certainly one of the strongest Knockouts on the mic and it’s nice to see her on some kind of TNA program as she currently isn’t doing much on the main show.
As for the match, again it felt shorter than your typical Xplosion match but the Knockouts made the most with the time given by keeping the match constant and physical. Madison is a hard worker, who I think deserves more credit than she’s given and Gail is always on her A Game.
That’s it for Xplosion this week Knockout fans, hasta la proxima!
