Hello Impact fans! Welcome to this week’s write-up. We got a pretty good showing from the Knockouts this week, with Taryn Terrell taking on Tara one-on-one, and Mickie James challenging for Velvet Sky’s Knockouts Championship. Not only that, but the official Knockouts website was launched too! Exciting stuff, I know. Right, let’s get to it, shall we?
Our first dose comes courtesy of Taryn and Tara. ODB is our referee again tonight. People are complaining that she’s not being utilized as well as she could be, but I would argue that she’s still on TV, even if it’s not in the role she deserves. Anyway… Taryn is out first. I reallt dislike her ring gear. She’s followed by Tara, who’s looking pretty badass as usual. She reckons she’s going to break Taryn, and gets in her face before the bell sounds. Once it does, she delivers an almighty slap to Taryn! Oh my. Taryn’s not having any of that though, and she sends Tara one in return. Taryn takes control early on, sending Tara into the corner and following up with a spinning neck breaker.
Taryn’s all fired up, or a little bit mental. Either one works here. She sends Tara into another corner and starts slamming her opponent’s head against the turnbuckle. Tara manages to fight out of it and gets the upper hand. She slams Taryn quite ungracefully into the mat, over and over. She applies a death lock, and follows up with a pretty big chokebomb when Taryn tries to fight back.
Tara goes in for several covers, trying to get into Taryn’s head. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. In-ring psychology is so important in this business, and Tara’s doing it really well here. It only goes on for so long, however, as Taryn manages to take the control again after Tara misses an outside leg drop. She’s starting to sound a bit like Kelly Kelly in the ring though. A bit of a screamer. Not the best thing for one’s ears. Taryn goes for a cross-body but misses, and Tara capitalizes. She hits the Spiderweb, and then sizes Taryn up for the moonsault. She takes too long though, and Taryn rolls her up for the three count! Called it.
It’s Title Time!
Mickie James is out first, looking fierce. Next out is our champ, Velvet. She’s coming off a recent knee injury as we all know, and she doesn’t look to be letting it affect her. We’ll see how she fares in the ring. The bell rings and they kick things off with a nice show of respect for one another. They lock up. The women go through a series of take downs and pin attempts, each of them trying to get the upper hand early on. The crowd is pretty into it. Mickie and Velvet take a breather, size each other up and then lock up once more.
Velvet takes control. She hits Mickie with a snapmare and follows with a kick to the back that sounded pretty nasty. She runs Mickie around a little bit, sending her into the corner. Mickie tries to counter and sends Velvet running. When Velvet attempts to avoid Mickie, her knee buckles and she drops. ODB starts to check on Velvet and Mickie tries to take an easy win! She gets a two count. She tries again. Another two count. Mickie grabs Velvet’s knee and locks in a submission as we go to commercial.
We’re back, and Mickie is still in control of the champ. Velvet looks worse for wear as Mickie works over the knee. She manages to reverse briefly, but Mickie reverses again. Velvet drags herself to the ropes and Mickie breaks the count eventually. Velvet tries to regain her composure and manages to fight off Mickie’s several attempts to knock her down. Velvet takes control again, taking Mickie down and then delivering some sharp slaps to her chest! Wooooooooooo! Velvet hits a side-russian leg sweep for a two count.
Mickie fights back with some kicks to the mid-section, but Velvet goes right in for the In Your Face. Mickie reverses and lines Velvet up for the Mickie-D-T. Velvet reverses and fights out, but Mickie gets her with a low drop kick right to the knee. Ouch. It looked pretty nasty. Things are looking pretty bleak for the champion, but out of nowhere she rolls Mickie up in a small package to take the victory and retain her Knockouts title!
Mickie cannot believe it.
Thoughts: I enjoyed the second match more than the first tonight, but that’s probably because the stakes were higher and I think it was a bit more… vicious? It wasn’t a cat fight, or even particularly brutal, but I thought the exposure of Velvet’s Knee and the way Mickie worked it over really added to the match as a whole. It definitely added to Mickie’s character. I’d love it if she were to go full heel. She’d be so good at it, and it’d be a welcome change! Also, I hope they go somewhere with this feud and it isn’t just a flash in the pain title opportunity. Tonight was a valiant effort on Velvet’s end and a deserved win.
Onto Taryn/Tara. It was a good match overall. Tara works well with pretty much everyone. I thought it might have been a nice touch to have Gail in Tara’s corner for some continuity and some added drama. Taryn is on a roll right now, and her momentum is going up and up. I see great things in her future, but where she goes from here, I’m not too sure, but I don’t think it’ll be very long before she’s in the title picture. We’ll see!
A good showing from the Knockouts tonight!
Signing off. Eleri out!
