After long anticipation, we’ve at last have made it to TKO: A Night Of Knockouts! Hello Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s edition of Impact Write-Up. There is so much ground to cover from this week’s episode of Impact, some good and some bad. With me already being a day behind on this week’s write-up, let’s not waste anymore time and jump right in on all Knockout action that took place!
Our first Knockout sighting comes in the form of the Knockouts Champion herself Taryn Terrell! She’s backstage and speaks of how hard she has worked to for tonight’s match against Awesome Kong. She is going to prove herself tonight, doing everything she can to get a win over Awesome Kong and retain her Knockouts title! That you certainly did Taryn!
Before we get to that title match, we have to first crown a new number one contender’s match for the Knockouts Title and what better way than a Fatal Four-Way match between Gail Kim, Angelina Love, Madison Rayne and Brooke. Out first is Gail Kim is the very first Knockouts champion Gail Kim, following by the record breaking Knockouts Champion Angelina Love very shortly afterwards.
Brooke is the third Knockout to make her entrance but doesn’t make it to the ring right away as Madison Rayne ambushes Brooke from behind with a surprise attack! Bless the Queen Bee of the Knockouts division! Back in the ring, Angelina applies her own surprise attack to Gail Kim, sending her to the outside ring and this four way match has broken all out as we head to a commercial break.
Once we return from our break, all the Knockouts have found their way back to the ring as the action continues. Brooke being a victim of a double team attack from Angelina and Madison but is able counter this. Gail Kim returns in the match with a double dropkick to both Angelina and Madison, while also getting in some damage to Brooke. Gail takes control of the match, working against the heels of the match with flying forearms until Angelina puts a stop to Gail with a rolling kick.
With Gail now down, the double team attacks from former Beautiful People team members come to play again. Angelina and Madison throwing Gail to turnbuckles and taking turns to strike as the Impact Zone get behind Gail with their “Let’s go Gail!” chants. The teamwork favors Madison and Angelina, as they each manage to keep Brooke on the outside and keep Gail grounded by lifting her up and down the mat. This short partnership comes to an end when Madison takes it upon herself to break herself away with an attack to Angelina.
As Gail finds her way back to her feet, she begins to make a comeback with forearm shots to Madison. She races from one side to ring, but from the side of her eye, Brooke too is up on her feet again and takes down Gail Kim first. Brooke then begins working her other opponents in the match, hitting a face crusher to Madison and sending Angelina to the ropes and landing a flapjack maneuver! As she salutes the crowd, Brooke is taken down by another sneak attack from Madison.
When Madison turns around, she is taken down by toe hold from Gail Kim. Gail then follows up with a head submission to Madison using her legs. Angelina joins in wrapping her legs onto Gail’s upper-body, all while Gail maintains her hold. Not shying away from the submission train, Brooke joins in and locks in a submission to Angelina! Madison feeling the worst of all this, finds a way to free herself and kick Brooke causing he submission chain to fall apart.
Madison looks to pick up the win with a Rayne Check but Brooke counters. She then climbs the top of a turnbuckle and connects a flying elbow and adjacent to her, Gail too climbs a turnbuckle and connects a missile dropkick to Angelina. “This is awesome!”chants break out from the Impact Zone as Brooke and Gail collide when they both go for the same running cross body move.
It’s a race to who will get to their feet first and it’s Angelina who does so. In typical ending to a fatal four way match sequence, Angelina Love hits her Lights Out finisher to Brooke, Gail hits her Eat Defeat finisher to Angelina, Madison hits her Rayne Check finisher to Gail and Brooke tries roll up Madison but is unsuccessful. Instead, it takes a Tess-Shocker from Brooke to put away Madison and get the three count pin, giving Brooke the right to a future title match!
With a new number one contender crowned, we move on to another kind of playtime for The Dollhouse, as Jade and Marti Bell officially make their TNA debut. The same creepy juvenile music used in their vignette serves as Jade’s theme song as she plays an innocent game of ring-around-the-rosie with Marti Bell down the entrance ramp. They playfully run hand in hand to the ring with huge grins on their faces. In Marti’s other hand, she holds a sweet jawbreaker which she takes a lick from upon making it to the ring apron. Interesting choice of prop.
Already in the ring is Jade’s opponent Laura Dennis, who sadly gets no entrance nor ring introduction from ring announcer Christy Hemme. Instead, it is just Jade who is introduced by Christy with Marti Bell receiving a quick mention as well.
However, this seems to rather upset The Dollhouse duo and they get right into the face of Christy to sort out her ring announcing errors! “Say it again! Dile otra vez!” are demands Marti yells to Christy, who gives in to their request and re-introduces the duo the RIGHT way – by referring to them as The Dollhouse! When the words are correctly spoken, The Dollhouse mood quickly change as they’ve gone from anger to full play mood, giddy and swinging around in the middle of the ring.
With the ring introductions properly done to The Dollhouse’s suit, the bell rings and our second Knockouts match of the night is underway. Jade taking down Laura as they tie-up, as Marti cheers in full support at ringside. Still, Laura has her own support within the Impact Zone as they cheer her on, chanting her by her more familiar name in Cherry Bomb.
The chants seem to give Laura inner strength, as she takes control of the match taking down Jade with an arm drag first and follows up with a drop toe hold then a running dropkick. Laura wraps it all up with a crucifix pin, looking for an early victory fall but only gets the two count.
As Jade catches her breath, she looks for encouraging words from Marti at ringside but the Impact Zone don’t stay quiet for their favorite “Cherry Bomb” as the chants for her name become even louder. Such a warm and surprising welcome from the Impact Zone if you ask me. Recollecting herself, Jade goes for the attack onto Laura, who ducks out of the way and hits her own forearms to Jade. It isn’t long before Jade counters Laura’s attacks, as she knees Laura in the midsection, lifts her up and tosses her with a gutwrench suplex.
Anger takes over Jade, as she pummels a fallen Lauren. Official referee Brian Stiffler tries to maintain order and calls for Jade to remove herself from Lauren. Jade is not to pleased by this and begins a brief tantrum to Stiffler before going for a cover only to get a two count.
In a more calmer state of mind, Jade continues her offense to Laura with a running knee shot before scooping her up and delivering a nice fall away slam. The camera catches Marti’s reaction at ringside and she is LOVING every second of Jade’s performance, taking yet another lick of her trusty jawbreaker and treats Jade to a lick as well, almost as if it was a reward token for her dominance thus far.
Jade refocuses on Laura and sends her to the turnbuckle with a running dropkick. Once at the turnbuckle, Jade mounts onto Laura and begins to strike her with some right punches. Just when Jade least expects it, Laura begins to build momentum with a combination of numerous forearms, a flying clothesline and a reverse elbow shot.
As Laura runs the ropes, she is taken down by an outside interfering Marti. This is enough for Stiffler to intercept his referee authority, step outside the ring and send one of the newest TNA Knockouts to the back. Marti throws a fit but Stiffler stands by his call. Marti begins to head backstage… or so we think! Instead, Marti attacks Stiffler with her knee, sending him to a ring post just before he finds his way back the ring.
With the referee down, The Dollhouse begin a full on double beat down to Laura. As a consequence of Marti’s action to Stiffler, he rules this match a disqualification and award the win to Laura Dennis (a win is a win right?) which The Dollhouse hear once Christy Hemme announces it.
For the second time in the night, Christy Hemme has upset The Dollhouse and this time they aren’t holding back their anger! They meet Christy outside the ring and the innocent bystander is gets a taste of Jade’s fist to her face. Marti joins in on the fun and follows up the attack by sending Christy’s lower back to the never forgiving steel steps. The attack doesn’t stop there as Jade hits a running dropkick to an already knocked out Christy Hemme.
As if all that humiliation isn’t enough, The Dollhouse finish up “playing” with Christy by taking their little colorful jawbreaker candy and place it in the mouth of an unresponsive Christy. The Impact Zone unites to chant a “You Suck!” to our newest Knockouts who only leave the arena the same way they entered, by ring around up the entrance ramp as a more dubstep Dollhouse theme song, complete with an opening creepy laughter, plays. Talk about making a debut!
From Knockouts debut to a Knockouts announcement, we move on to our next TKO segment of the night which involves Mickie James to reveal her future with TNA.
Who else better to introduce Mickie before she makes this surprise of an announcement than her better half Magnus. Mickie Jame’s fiance begins by stating that he appreciates all the support that fans have been giving him and Mickie. He continues by saying that tonight we will not hear from Mickie James not as his fiance or as the mother of his child but rather as one of the best female performers of all time; there’s no arguing that!
The ever-so catchy Hardcore Country theme song plays and out comes Mickie James in a floral dress and brown high boots. She enters the ring to a very strong ovation from the Impact Zone (this was a GOOD DAY in the Impact Zone!) and begins her announcement by first thanking everyone, including the man whom she shares a son with. It’s been a real roll coaster month for Mickie’s family, as she recalls Magnus’ personal battles with Bram.
She is so grateful to have been welcomed back with open arms and have been able to step into the ring with some of the other great female performers of this generation; beating every single one of them as well. Mickie recalls winning championship after championship (she is the only triple crown women’s champion after all) and feeling a sense of accomplishment and purpose every time. With all that said, Mickie has reached a new purpose in her life and that is within her son Donovan.
As a mother, she gets the greatest feeling in the world when she holds her child. The Impact Zone applauds Mickie and once again, Mickie is just so grateful for all her fans but drops a bombshell when she breaks the news of her retiring from the ring to be a better and more focused mom. Say it ain’t so Mickie! The audience break out a “Thank You Mickie!” chant and it would seem that one more person would like to personally thank Mickie James as well and that is none other than old friend James Storm.
The Revolution cult leader joins Magnus and his misses in the ring, grabs a mic to tell Mickie to stop shedding those tears! There’s no crying in wrestling! He understand this may be an intimate moment for Mickie and her family but he has something he would like to share with them. Storm says tells Mickie that she is almost a female version of him. She’s the kind of girl who would wear cowgirl boots before high heels, who would drink wine out of a box instead of a fancy cup and lastly the kind of woman who stand up to anyone, no matter who that may be. Mickie nods as Storm goes on but Magnus seems unsure as to where Storm is going with this.
Storm continues by reminding Mickie of the adrenaline rush that comes when she steps through the curtains, her theme song hits and she is steps into a ring all while fans chant “Mickie! Mickie!”. On command, the Impact Zone chimes in with Storm and the “Mickie!” chants commence.
As evident by the fans in attendance, Storm doesn’t want to see Mickie go just yet but Magnus disagrees. He thanks Storm for his kind words and action towards his family but this has been a difficult decision for them. Storm brushes off Magnus’ idea of this being a “difficult decision” to let Mickie know that her talent, inside and outside the ring, is far too good to be put away! After hearing all of what Storm has had to say, Mickie gets a chance to respond.
She says that she is happy with the decision she has made to be a full time mother and stands by it. As a family man himself. Storm completely understands but does not give up on trying to get Mickie to reconsider. All he asks is for Mickie James to have “one more time” in the ring and the Impact Zone unites and agree by chanting along with Storm.
Surprisingly, the final person to join in on the “one more time!” chant is Mickie James herself, suggesting that she is indeed not ready to hang up the boots just yet! A celebrated feeling emerges as the master manipulator asks for Mickie’s music to hit but Magnus does not look all too pleased by this!
Once backstage, Magnus shares his indifference with Mickie, asking her what had happened to their mutual agreement concerning their family. Mickie simply responds that she was caught in the moment and it would only be for one more match; nothing wrong with that right? (Although inside we are all hoping it is more than just one more match) She looks for support from her fiance and she has it, as Magnus understands Mickie James’ passion for the business.
Also backstage is Davey Richards, who has personally dealt with the likes of Jame Storms as well. He welcomes Micie James back to TNA and asks to briefly speak to Magnus. As Mickie excuses herself, Davey warns Magnus of the danger that comes with James Storm. He doesn’t trust him, call hims the devil and warns Magnus to keep a close eye on what he may be up to. Magnus takes this advice in and later in the night, would talk to some of the backstage crew to help keep an eye on Mickie James.
As we near the end of our TKO night, the time has come for our Knockouts Championship match between the champion Taryn and her challenger Awesome Kong. We begin with a video package high lighting the long journey and dream Taryn has had to become Knockouts champion. Since her return to TNA at the start of the year, Awesome Kong has been an destructive obstacle and painful force of nature that has been a doubt and struggle of Taryn’s. A breaking point has been reached from both Knockouts and it will come to play in this title match!
With Christy Hemme seemingly out the picture, it is Jeremy Borash who fills in on the ring announcing duties. Out first is the challenger Awesome Kong who bides her time at entering the ring and looks unimpressed when the Knockouts champion Taryn makes her entrance next. From the solo commentary booth, we hear Josh Matthews that Taryn is clearing in on Gail’s record as the longest reigning champion at day 184. Should Taryn want to surpass Gail’s record, she has to go through Kong in this match!
Before the match can start, Taryn requests for a mic and has a something to say to Awesome Kong. She wants to give the Impact Zone a match to remember and that is by making this title match a no DQ match! No one objects to this request at all and after a quick stare down, the bell rings to start this now no DQ title match, Taryn going straight to Kong but it’s no use as Kong easily brushes off her smaller opponent.
Kong overpowers Taryn and tosses her to the outside of the ring, where Kong begins to bring the pain to Tarym, swinging her around and hitting her on to the steel barricade. A pair of kendo sticks are then introduced to this title match, as Kong hits Taryn’s shoulders first! Still on the outside, Awesome Kong looks to inlfict major damage by going for an Awesome Bomb onto the steel steps but Taryn is fight out of it, countering Kong’s move by stomping her head to the steel steps!
As Taryn stands over Kong, she is taken down by an expected from Kong to Taryn’s leg, causing the champion to fall and land on her shoulder. Kong brings Taryn back to the ring and goes for a big splash but misses as Taryn. Looking for a comeback, Taryn fights Kong off to a corner, sending her to a turnbuckle after landing a dropkick. The champion then sneaks behind Kong, elbowing her back and lands a cross body from the top rope and into a pin but Kong is able to get a shoulder up before the count of three.
Still putting up a fight, Taryn steps outside the ring and looks for some goodies under the ring to make the most of this no DQ match that she requested. She finds a table which the Impact Zone fans have been asking for! It’s not the weapon Taryn brings with her in the ring, as she also brings more wood in the form one of the kendo sticks used earlier in the match. She rams the kendo stick to Kong, who falls when it strikes!
With Kong down, Taryn sets up the table she brought into the ring, revenge on her mind from when she was the victim of a power bomb through a table! Just as this is all happening, The Dollhouse appears from a close view of what is about to happen. Taryn pays no mind to any of this, as her focus is purely on getting Kong through that table with her finisher Cutter! Awesome Kong counters this and instead drives Taryn head first. She sets Taryn onto the table and climbs the turnbuckle to presumably send Taryn another table.
Things don’t go as Kong has planned to as The Dollhouse serve as guardian angels to Taryn, interfering in the match and striking the beast Kong with Kendo sticks each in a metronome pattern. Taryn slides under the table and positions herself under Kong. With the table in place and her new allies by her side to assist, Taryn delivers a MASSIVE powerbomb to Awesome Kong through the table, goes for the pin and at last gets the pin that she longed wanted over Kong!
With the match over, we are introduced to a new side of Taryn! She calls for a mic and tells EVERYONE that they are on notice now! She has finally beaten Awesome Kong and that if anyone else dares to get in her way again, they will have to deal with her and her new friends in Jade and Marti Bell. As with Christy Hemme before, a jawbreaker is placed in the mouth of Awesome Kong as Taryn announces a new kind of house to the Knockouts division – The Dollhouse!
Thoughts: Wow, where do we even begin?
I think I’ll start by getting out all the negatives I had with the show. As a fan of the Knockouts, I was so ecstatic when the news broke that we would be getting an all out Knockouts show! It brought back memories to when TNA aired their special Rockin’ Knockouts New Years Eve special from years ago, a full episode dedicated to women’s wrestling.
However, we would learn that this would not be the same case as we were treated to several non-Knockouts segments throughout the night including a World Heavyweight title match between Austin Aries and Kurt Angle (that never took place because of an interring Eric Young), an X-Division match between Davey Richards and Manik and an announcement from ECIII for his brilliant campaign for a World Heavyweight Title shot (no association with #DIX2016 for you Diva Dirt Weekly fans).
I understand the need to bring in some male segments, as it just seems to be a different time in TNA. The Knockouts were certainly still being played as the focus point throughout the show, which is just as important, but I just can’t help feel mislead by TNA; more so when some of the Knockout matches felt as they weren’t given enough time. While the Knockouts title match was technically the main event (or at least it was said to have been), I really wished that The Dollhouse win would’ve been the one to close the show over the World Heavyweight title picture as they really did steal the show.
Part of me was also hoping to see Rebel and Havok somewhere on the show as they too are current Knockouts! I just feel like maybe Rebel could have taken on Christy’s ring announcing duties after being attack. Havok could have been given some kind of video promo or something as an update to where she currently is and a hint to when we will see her again but alas we didn’t get that.
Still all that being said, I think there was a lot of significance throughout each Knockout segments of TKO. Beginning with the four way contest, the match was fun and TNA typically do well in these multi-women matches when they aren’t Battle Royals. It’s a nice change of pace to have Brooke in the title picture as we’ve already seen Gail, Angelina and Madison have their shot already. Brooke has been quite a comeback since her return so I’m really looking forward to seeing how she will do in this new title hunt.
The Dollhouse debut was very interesting and I think they made an impression just by intimidating Christy Hemme before the start of Jade’s match. The gimmick is only starting and I think it will develop thoroughly overtime. As for the match, it was short but it was enjoyable for the most part. It was fantastic to see Cherry Bomb be so over in the Impact Zone, who I again am very glad to see were responsive throughout the episode, despite no build up at all! I really hope TNA are looking to sign her if she isn’t already because they have quite a find in her.
Much props to Christy Hemme for taking the sick bumps that she did post Jade vs. Laura (these name swaps will take some time to get use to) as these attacks only gave more heat to The Dollhouse and really help build up to their mean streak.
For sometime now, we’ve been wondering whether Mickie James would compete in the Knockouts division again. While her fights aside with Magnus have been fun to watch, she’s to talented to be put to the side as James Storm has said. I have to say that I loved his interaction with Mickie James. Storm was cutting such a babyface promo despite being a heel and was selling Mickie’s idea to reconsider so fantastically. It’ll be real interesting as to what the playoff of this will be as Mickie James has already said she would (kayfabe) have “one more match”. It will also be interesting to see how Magnus feels all about this and what he’ll do to protect Mickie from the harm that may come from allying with James Storm.
Lastly, the biggest twist of the night, where Taryn turned Heel and FINALLY got the win over Awesome Kong after weeks of trying to do everything to put her away! While I wish this title match was a bit longer I LOVED the table power bomb ending! I think it would have only made sense for Taryn to have gotten the win as we’ve seen week after week of how frustrated Taryn was of never getting a win over Kong. Now, she has and also carries The Dollhouse with her! The team together look so diverse and have a ton of potential to do something great within the Knockouts division. This will be the first time we see Taryn as a Heel and it comes at a great time as this will really help refresh Taryn as a character and as a champion.
As announced, next week is the return of “Free-PPVs” as Hardcore Justice takes place. A bit odd in my opinion, as Hardcore Justice has already been labeled as a ONO PPV but regardless, there’s still a Knockouts match to look forward to as new number one contender takes on Taryn, with the revelation of The Dollhouse now in her corner
How will Brooke do battle? Find our next week Knockout fans!
