Why hello there everyone, and welcome to your official recap of all things Knockout related for last night’s TNA Slammiversary Pay-Per-View extravaganza! (What a mouthful!) Your frequent TNA recapper, Eleri has graciously allowed me to step in for her, thus I’ll be back to recap both tonight and this Thursdays episode of Impact barring there’s no world catastrophe that results in every television busting before Thursday.
As far as Slammiversary went, this will be my first time seeing the match as I unfortunately fell asleep before the show began last night and for some reason actually slept a good amount of time, but I’ve heard nothing short of rave reviews so I’m excited. In case you’re not up to speed, tonight’s match is none other than Gail Kim taking on Taryn Terrell in a Last Knockout Standing match (collective gasp). This feud has been building up for quite some time, and even resulted in Terrell becoming an active member of the division. With Kim’s mass amount of experience advantage though, we know she’s definitely going to be something special in tonights match. The real question is how Terrell will do since she’s still extremely fresh and new to the Knockout roster, and even in her career a few years ago, she never really got the chance to have such a high caliber match. It’s vastly unpredictable and if you know me, unpredictability is my favorite thing in the world… aside from cake. You just can’t top cake.
Now before we get the video underway, I’m going to warn you it’s not exactly… well, in English. I firmly believe everyone uploading it knew I would be covering this and thus wanted to throw me a curveball by feeding it to me in a language I’m not familiar with. That’s okay though, because I live for these challenges. Bring it on Germans, let’s see what you’ve got.
Now to the video…
We enter the backstage area as Jeremy Borash promotes the female match as being next. He then brings forth his guest, the one and only new girl in town who’s coming for you, Brooke Hogan! Brooke displays how proud she is of the knockouts and how much the division has grown in the past year. She cites the addition of Taryn from referee to wrestler as a smart move, claiming she also can’t believe Terrell has received such a huge opportunity and overall what an exciting night is tonight. We then turn to Bully Ray talk, who claims he still remains in love with her. When asked if she feels the same, Brooke simply ends the interview and we head into one of the always brilliantly put together Knockout feud video packages!
And here comes the one and only ODB to referee the following contest. She clearly has the greatest referee attire ever with two hand prints over her breasts (Earl Hebner could never pull that off). After she steps into the ring, Gail Kim elegantly graces us all with her presence (and one of a kind theme song), and then we round out the batch with the hot mess, Taryn Terrell! I really just want to call her the hot mess from now on since it can’t be seen as an insult, but I’ll refrain and simply enjoy her theme song. The bell sounds as both women stand in the ring, Gail looking annoyed and Taryn looking peppy. They come face to face, as Kim smacks her across the face and sets Taryn into beast mode with some shots. Gail now takes control with a shot to the turnbuckle and a few kicks, but Taryn gets the upper hand now. Kim takes the advantage again with a choke hold and follows it up with a clothesline to the corner.
Taryn scores a set of clotheslines and a shoulder tackle, rounding it out with a neckbreaker and a suplex! Gail gets an elbow and locks in the Christo, but Taryn refuses to submit even when the option wouldn’t win Kim the match. Gail now breaks the hold as ODB begins the 10 count, that of which Taryn must stand up by… or simply get dragged around by Gail who looks to go for the figure four. She settles for a shot on the ring apron, with Terrell holding onto the ropes for dear life. Gail scales the ropes and nails a big front missile dropkick to send Taryn back down and slowly trying to escape the ten count. Oh Mylanta, Gail now has a steel chair and she clearly wants to bash Taryn’s face in. Fortunately for Taryn’s looks, she’s able to kick the chair away and take Gail down with a few snapmares. She now looks to head to the top rope as Gail grabs the chair and…
… she’s climbing and climbing and Taryn crossbodies onto both the steel chair and Gail! The crowd begins a holy shit chant as both women seem battered, but Gail starts ramming Taryn’s leg into the chair. She now props it up into the corner and throws Taryn towards it, but Taryn dodges colliding and thus Gail locks in the figure four on the turnbuckle! Taryn screams out in pain as Kim looks proud with her actions from the opposing side of the ring. She mimics ODB’s count, but Taryn gets up at a count of eight. Kim looks to spear Taryn, but Terrell moves and Gail collides head first with the chair! She falls to the outside and looks to be out of it as ODB administers the count again. Gail somehow manages to get to two feet at a count of nine! Now Taryn locks in the figure four on Gail and gives her a taste of her own medicine as Gail finally feels the pain she’s caused on so many others. Taryn slides back inside, meanwhile Gail struggles to reach a vertical base.
She finally does, sparking Taryn to get the initiative to charge her… only Gail pulls the ropes down and Terrell leaps outside the ring onto the steel ramp! She’s down, but just manages to get up at a count of nine herself. Gail and Taryn argue on the ramp, as Taryn sets up for another spear and this time meets a chop to the leg and back head collision with the entrance ramp. Terrell gets to her feet at another nine count, but Gail remains in control and sets up for a… PILEDRIVER? Taryn fights it all she can, and counters into a cutter off the stage! Holy moses what even? Both are down and I don’t even see how this can result in anyone gettin to ten as ODB begins the count. The crowd embarks into another “Holy Shit” chant as nobody shows signs of life just yet. ODB reaches a seven, as they now start to climb, but Gail falls once again and Taryn steps up for just a moment in order to win! The hot mess has gotten the better of the Asian sensation in what proves to be a surefire televised female match of the year candidate.
Thoughts: Something about this just didn’t click for me… clearly I’m sure you know is something I’d never say. This match was fantastic and everything I could’ve possibly hoped for it to be. They incorporated weapons, had tension, special spots, and both women were on their A-game. I was kind of worried heading into it as I wasn’t sure how willing Taryn would be to take big risks given she took a lot of time off before her recent comeback, but did she ever prove me wrong. I’m not going to downplay Gail either, because anyone who works with her can only do great things it seems and this surely proved that these two were going to give everything they had to make this match special. There really isn’t even a moment I can single out that I didn’t like because I felt everything had a purpose behind it and it culminated in the biggest move of the match as the finish. That’s definitely a believable way for Taryn to overcome the experience disadvantage she had against Gail because you can easily play it as Gail underestimating the lengths that she would be willing to go to in order to topple her. Overall, I (obviously) felt this was an outstanding showing from both ladies and I really hope that it leads us next into a four way feud alongside Velvet and Mickie that gets as much effort behind it as we got tonight. Normally it seems a bit taboo to give something a perfect score, but I have nothing to fault so here we go…
Match Rating: 5/5
