Hola Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s very eventful Impact Write-Up. Why eventful you ask? Well we are treated to two Knockouts matches featuring two of the newest names added to the Knockouts division: Ava Storie and Alisha Edwards. While we’ve already seen Ava compete on Impact (under different names mind you), this week marks Alisha Edwards’ making her Impact Wrestling debut (not to be confused with Alisha’s previous appearance on Xplosion) in singles action against Angelina Love!
The two wrestling wives have held a grudge against ever since Alisha first appeared on our Impact television screens cheering on her husband Eddie Edwards only to be back-stabbed by his former Wolves tag team partner Davey Richards.
Elsewhere, we say our final goodbyes to The Decay as Diamanté and the rest of LAX have prepared a faux funeral for the former Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champions. We still miss you Crazzy Steve!
Our first of two Knockouts match sees Ava Storie take on Laurel Van Ness:
Out first is Ava… who is suddenly a babyface now even though she played the heel during her GFW Women’s Title match? Ugh, the inconsistency! Well maybe this work for the better Ava? Broken Bride Laurel Van Ness is out next, who has her minion Kong Kongo at her side. I wonder how long they’ll have LVE wrestle in that wedding dress?
The bell sounds off and Ava immediately rolls-up LVE from behind for a two-count. Back on her feet, Ava ducks a slap from Laurel and manages to land one of her own. Laurel lets out a screech and is able to turn the tables around when she takes Ava down with a spear. The screeches from Laurel continue and she takes down Ava once more, this time opting for a bulldog. Ava tries to defending herself when Laurel grabs a handful of her hair but it’s to no benefit as Laurel manages to end the match with a big boot and stomp to the back combination on Ava.
Post match, Ava continues to rib after Ava and although Earl Hebner tries to maintain order by removing Laurel, he gets chased away by Laurel’s muscle Kongo Kong. Run Earl run! With Earl out the picture, Laurel soaks in her easy victory the way any broken bride would: by running laps all around the six sided ring!
We move to LAX’s special ‘funeral’ to their former rivals The Decay. The Impact Wrestling tag team champions are pulling out all the strings for this occasion: Decay styled face paint, urns and even customized tombstones for the fallen Decay.
Konnan starts off by admitting that this funeral is something ‘real hard’ for him to do. PSYCHE! Konnan pulls a complete 180 and instead says that they’re here to show their disrespect to their fallen comrades! LAX proceeds to throw Decay’s ‘ashes’ to the floor as Konnan explains that the real purpose behind this ceremony is to use it as a warning to the rest of the tag teams in Impact Wrestling.
Konnan takes credit for putting one clown in a coma and having another guy eating out of a feeding tube. Hmm, where does Rosemary fit in all of this? She is, after all, spying all of this from a safe bird’s eye view. Konnan continues his rant and makes mention of an upcoming GFW Tag Team tournament and promises to double up on more tag team gold.
This is about Latino Empowerment, Latino Nation for LAX. When a fan in attendance begins to wave an American flag, Konnan is angered and demands the fan to stop waving it. The planted fan ignores this and Konnan gets physical by shoving the man’s face. Suddenly, VOW’s music hits the Impact Zone and out come Wilcox and Mayweather who declare war against LAX and clear the ring of them.
And lastly, our second Knockouts match between Alisha Edwards and Angelina Love:
Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards are accompanying their wrestling wives but Alisha is all business this week as she runs down the entrance ramp and takes Angelina down! The Knockouts are trading blow after blow that eventually spills to the outside ring. Alisha rams Angelina’s head to ring apron as well as the steel steps before tossing her back to the ring.
Once inside, Angelina takes down Alisha with a big time clothesline and just pummels Alisha away. Angelina then stomps down on Alsiha and takes careful aim for a Botox Injection. Alisha sidesteps to avoid this and counters out with a double under-hook DDT. Before Alisha can even go for a pin cover, Davey Richards jumps on the apron and barks at Alisha.
In response, Alisha kicks the ring ropes which Davey was hanging off from and takes him down. The distraction allows for Angelina to wrap a chain around her hand and viciously strike Alisha from behind. The referee spots Angelina’s chain and calls for a DQ, awarding Alisha the win.
Even with the match officially over, Angelina continues to beat down on Alisha with her chained fist. A limping Eddie Edwards comes to his wife’s defense but ends up getting his bad knee attacked with his own crutch courtesy of Davey Richards.
The Natural Born Killers continue to beat down on Eddie, claiming he made them do these uncalled for attacks!
Thoughts: I honestly don’t know what to make of Ava Storie. As I’ve mentioned before, Ava’s purpose on Impact right now seems to be the designated generic heel/face jobber. She lacks character and the back and forth face/heel turns aren’t doing any favors. Since Ava’s matches have been squash matches, we’re also not getting a chance to see a whole of her ring work. This is just not the most exciting way to build or get behind a new name to the Knockouts division. Hopefully with time, things can turn around for Ava.
Laurel’s pairing with Kongo Kong is okay for now – although I think the latter needs Laurel more then she needs him. My problem here is the delay in storytelling. Kongo was introduced as this fury factor against Allie and Braxton Sutter but we haven’t seen too much interaction from them since Kongo’s debut. The idea of Laurel having some sort of ‘mind control’ over Kongo is a neat concept that adds to Laurel’s character but I’d like to see more depth to this other than Laurel shrieking out orders.
The Decay funeral served its purpose in officially ridding The Decay and announcing the start of the GFW Tag Team tournament. Personally, I think this is all just stalling time as all the GFW Titles feel more like props than any prestigious belt. I hate saying this because I don’t like putting down any wrestling belts. Eventually, I see all the GFW morphing/fading away in favor of a new set of ‘Impact Wrestling’ titles to replace the ‘TNA’ ones.
In terms of Knockouts, I hope that Rosemary lurking this funeral from the shadows means she is plotting something against Diamanté. Let the guys go on and do their things with the Tag Team titles while the women, at the very least, begin to have some backstage interactions with one another.
And finally my favorite part of the night, aside from EC3 impersonating James Storms I mean, the Angelina/Alisha match-up!
I was very pleased to see that the women were given a chance to have more of the spotlight on them on this week’s show. Angelina (and Davey) have been absolutely brutal against their former friends and you can’t help but cheer on the babyfaces. Even though the match ended arubtly, we got to see a glimpse of Alisha’s fighting spirit and the story of the Richards wanting to break Eddie’s knee so that he can go through what Davey went through was still there.
I’m still betting that we’ll see some sort of stipulated showdown from these four come Slammiversary this year.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Impact? Would you like to see Rosemary plot against LAX? Have you been enjoying the Edwards/Richards feud? Let us know in the comments below!
