Tonight was a historic night for wrestling as round two of the Monday Night Wars kicked off and in grand fashion for both the Divas and Knockouts in my opinion. Both shows featured tag team action but on Impact we got a treat. With Awesome Kong basically done in TNA, the question has remained: “What’s going to happen with the Knockouts Tag Team Championships?” We got our answer and in spectacular fashion. Missing in action Knockouts Taylor Wilde and Sarita returned to television to take on The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) and the team of Angelina Love and Tara in a triple threat tag team match.
Before the match gets underway, we’re told that due to the champions not defending the titles, Hamada and Awesome Kong have been stripped of them. That’s unfortunate for Hamada because she’s an innocent victim in all of this but life goes on and Tenay tells us new champions will be crowned tonight in a triple-threat match. Taylor Wilde and Sarita sort of get an entrance in the fact it’s nearly half over when the camera cuts to the ring area. They’re in terrible matching outfits but the fact they bother to coordinate their outfits give you a sense that they’re a real team. As the inaugural Knockout Tag Champs, it’s been far to long since they’ve actually gotten to perform on a televised show. The audience loves them and they receive a nice reaction as they play to the crowd and pose in the ring. Their posing is short lived because the theme music of the Beautiful People started to play and those three devilish Knockouts walked onto the ramp. They do their usual posing and flirting with each other, before finally getting in the ring and settling down for business. They know what a huge opportunity this is and how winning tonight could solidify this version of the Beautiful People as the real deal. Team number three consists of our Knockouts Champion, Tara, and ex-TBP member Angelina Love. Angelina is basically foaming at the mouth at the chance to get in the ring against her haters and Tara just looks fierce like usual.
Upon entering the ring, Angelina makes a beeline right for her former friends. Velvet and Madison are quick to get the heck out of dodge but a sluggish Lacey von Erich nearly gets caught in the clutches of a furious blonde Canadian. TBP start screeching at Angelina and Tara, causing an annoying distraction, and that allows Saritaylor to quickly go for a roll-up pin on both. The bell rings but before a count can be made, Angelina and Tara both kick-out. Nice explosive start to the match. Thankfully it doesn’t take long for the chaos to get sorted out and each team of ladies take a corner. Taylor and Tara are the two who officially kick us off. Taylor hits a nice kick to bring Tara down to the mat and she immediately goes for a quick cover. Tara kicks out after a one count but that doesn’t stop Taylor’s effort. She uses the ropes for momentum and goes to leap over Tara, but Tara catches her, holds her for a second, then just brutally drops Taylor down to the mat on her chest. In obvious pain, Taylor makes the tag to her partner. Sarita comes in, ducks a clothesline attempt, and delivers a nice modified neckbreaker to Tara, sending the Champ staggering. Sarita goes flying to the ropes to get momentum for a crossbody and Velvet smartly tags herself in. Sarita is unable to go for the pin on Tara and Velvet takes over.
Miss Sky goes for the pin in Sarita’s place but Tara kicks out. This irritates Velvet who starts screaming in that awful shrill voice she’s been using recently. After pitching a fit, Velvet grabs Tara by the hair and lugs her over to TBP’s corner where Madison tags herself in. Madison and Velvet double team the crap out of Tara before Velvet removes herself from the action and Madison is allowed to show us what she can offer to this match. Madison snapmares Tara to the seat of her pants and follows it up with a nice looking knee right between the shoulders. She goes for the cover, but Tara powers out which leads to more screaming from Velvet. The match gets a little crazy at this point because Madison bullies Tara towards Velvet, and the latter makes a big deal of pointing to Angelina then slapping Tara across the face. This brings Angelina into the ring, as well as Velvet, causing the referee to take his eyes off Madison and Tara. He argues with Angelina which gives TBP ample opportunity to double team Tara. Madison goes for the pin, but Sarita and Taylor quickly stop that and we have a two on two situation between Saritaylor and TBP. The girls fight for position but Saritaylor go for a double whip across the ring. TBP reverse the move, send Saritaylor across to the ropes, and we get our first taste of Lacey von Erich tonight as she trips the ex-champs and they eat a face full of mat. Lacey feigns innocence and TBP hit gorgeous double drop kicks to Saritaylor, knocking them right out of the ring.
The Beautiful People start taunting everybody, turning their backs on Angelina Love. At this point Angelina is pretty disgusted and she comes into the ring despite the fact she’s not even the legal woman and starts taking down Velvet Sky. Madison does her best to help out but she’s disposed off and the referee starts ripping into Angelina once again. He forces her back to the corner but Tara has come to her senses and has grabbed Madison for the Widow’s Peak. Tara gets Madison set up but unbeknown to her DAFFNEY has literally come out of nowhere, grabbed the Knockouts Championship, and has gotten into the ring. As Tara turns around with Madison in the air, Daffney takes the title and knocks her right in the side of the head with it. Tara goes down like a ton of bricks and Madison falls on top of her. The referee finally turns around and sees the unintentional pinning attempt so of course he goes to count. By the time anyone else catches what’s going on it’s too late and the bell has started too ring. The Beautiful People start to mark out and begin jumping around and celebrating while Angelina and Tara are in total disbelief. We cut to a few shots of Daffney who is absolutely beside her with happiness that she just pulled one over on Tara. Absolute brilliance on the part of TNA.
Wow!
I absolutely adored everything about this match/segment. It wasn’t the best Knockout action wrestling wise but it certainly delivered for everything it was supposed too. I guess I’ll start with the obvious and congratulate the Beautiful People on finally winning the Knockout Tag Championships. This has been a long time coming because I believe these titles were made specifically for this faction. If the drama with Angelina hadn’t happened, then she and Velvet could very well still be champions but now we have the team of Madison and Velvet carrying the belts. There are several directions TNA can take this storyline and I’m excited to see where it can go. Will any combination of two of the three defend the belt? Personally I would like to see Lacey end up left out. It’s not because of her limited wrestling skills or anything like that, it’s because Velvet is such a dominant personality and overbearing, and Madison is just… well she’s Madison. Together those two make a formidable team. They’re bound to overshadow Lacey, who should really do nothing more than valet for them. It would be interesting to watch the title win go to the heads of Madison and Velvet, and they could start to take Lacey for granted. Lacey could turn into the Madison of this incarnation of TBP because Madison was never a star until Angelina Love left. Lacey doesn’t seem like the type of girl that would enjoy taking that abuse. Since LVE has the least amount of history with the group, I’d like to see her eventually get fed up with the antics of Velvet and Madison, and turn on them. With Lacey’s family history she could eventually turn into a great babyface. If she actually develops some wrestling skills, throw the woman in a ring. There’s endless possibilities for this scenario! The Beautiful People winning the tag belts are the best thing to happen to the belts because now we have champions who will be there and who will be pushed, and we’ll be left guessing as to which way this title run will go.
It was nice to see Taylor Wilde and Sarita return to our television screens. If TNA is truly going in a superficial direction with their Knockouts then they need more Sarita in their lives. That woman is one of the most gorgeous people in wrestling right now and what makes Sarita so fantastic is she can actually wrestle, and wrestle great. Sarita has star quality and TNA would have to be blind to not see that. With proper booking, Sarita could get way over and I would love to see her and Taylor form a small faction with Angelina. That’s the best possible scenario for Saritaylor right now. They can get back into the tag title picture this way and Angelina needs allies. We can’t keep seeing Angelina try and fend off three-on-one attacks on a nightly basis. Judging from the way the match ended, Tara is now going to have her hands full with Daffney, so Angelina is going to have to start scrambling. If she partners with Saritaylor not only do the ex-champs get back in the title hunt, but Angelina has two strong partners who won’t back away from TBP. Wrestling in general doesn’t have enough stables/factions, so having two feuding female ones would be a treat to all women wrestling fans.
Reckon I saved the best part of Impact for last?
Personally, I was hoping for a Daffney appearance on Impact during the tag bout and my wish was granted. Not only did Daffney cost Tara and Angelina the tag titles, but her actions overshadowed the win by TBP. I said it last week in my article and my Write-Up that Daffney is basically the “it girl” for TNA right now and once again that was proven last night. Daffney’s presence and demeanor at the end of the match made it the best thing on television last night (unless you like old guys or Secret Life of the American Teenager) and as a fan it’s agonizing to me that I have to wait seven more days for another Daffney fill. I really, really, REALLY hope this is building towards a pay-per-view match for the Knockouts Championship between Zombie Hot and Tara. I know that it’ll be epic and I have a feeling that it will be done right if you know what I mean. The fact that Daffney’s interference was more of a big deal than the perennial pretty faces of TNA winning the vacant tag titles speaks volumes to me. I feel that TNA is 110% behind this Daffney push and that the best is yet to come for her.
Overall, I give tonight’s Knockout action one million thumbs up. A lot of people are going to slam it because of their disdain for the Beautiful People but I encourage everyone to look at it in a positive light. With those girls having the titles, it’s going to open a lot of doors. It could very well lead to the downfall of TBP. They’re not the best wrestlers on the roster, but heel champions are more beneficial because they don’t have to wrestle that much. They can bump and sell very well, and the babyfaces can shine. After two months of just “ehhh” Knockout action, last night proved that the division is still important to the fans. Things can only go up from here.
Agree? Disagree? Leave comments and storyline ideas because I’m curious to see what you readers want to see happen.
