Welcome, Knockout fans, to this week’s edition of the Impact Write-up. I hope you’re well. I’m great. I’m super excited, actually! By now most of you will know (and if not then why didn’t you read the title?) that Taryn Terrell made her return to the ring last night! I’m really excited to see what they do with Taryn; she was improving so much last year, so hopefully she hasn’t lost her momentum. I’m still hoping for her to return as a heel. She has so much potential, but that does leave Gail as carrying the face division in terms of the title picture, so we’ll see. There’s no doubt in my mind that Taryn will be chasing the Knockout’s championship before this year is out.
If y’all wanna go ahead and think that I’m biased, the fine. We all have our favourites. But please don’t say that I don’t care about the TNA ladies. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come back to the write up. I seriously missed it while I was gone.
Onto the show!
Our first glimpse of lady comes in the form of TNA president Dixie Carter. She’s backstage with her nephew, EC3 (who looks quite alright in a suit) and they’re talking about his win over Bully Ray at Slammiversary. Dixie’s so happy with her nephew that she’s flown in a massage therapist named Helga especially for him! How sweet!
Dixie heads out to the ring with Rockstar Spud in tow a little later on. He’s wearing the ugliest suit I have ever seen. Even Jimmy Hart would be sick at the sight. Dixie thanks the crowd for their welcome, which is deinitely not what I heard from them, and then goes on to promise that she will never, ever go through a table.
In the coming weeks you should expect Dixie Carter to go through a table.
You know I’ve never noticed before but I think Dixie has a lazy eye. Anyway, she starts talking about how she’s sick of people telling her how to run her own company, and she’s sick of people latching on to her famous star. She doesn’t care what people think of her. The tide turns to Bully Ray, and Dixie tells him to carry on because he’s just digging his own grave and saving her from doing it for him! Tough talk.
Moving on. Dixie wants to talk about another man that’s been less than courteous about her this past week. Tommy Dreamer is rumoured to have called her a bitch at his show, and Dixie is none too happy with that. So she calls him out. There’s an enjoyable little moment between Dixie and Spud when she has to double check what Dreamer’s name is, and asks if he ever won for her when he was employed with TNA. Not that she even remembers that. It reminds me of the 2006 Survivor Series match between Team DX and Team Rated RKO when Shawn Michaels isn’t even sure if the guy he eliminates straight away was in the match. But never mind that. Tommy Dreamer heads on out to the ring.
Before I go any further I just want to declare Rockstar Spud’s facial expressions as the MVP of this segment.
Dixie states that she wanted to give Dreamer this opportunity face to face so he could think about what he did and apologize to her. Something tells me that’s not quite the plan.
Oh my God! The crowd is chanting ECW and Dixie says ‘you people did not go to school and you do not have the right letters!!’
Classic. Wonderful. Love it.
Dreamer’s starts recounting tales of when Dixie and he used to hang out, and how they put together Hardcore Justice and gave former ECW talents closure. Dreamer says the most important thing that Dixie did, however, was that she did it for each and every TNA fan. All twenty of them. I’m joking. It’s a day of reminiscing. I’ve gotten back in touch with some old school friends, Dixie and Dreamer are talking about hanging out and watching football games. Dixie, admittedly, does not remember.
Dixie appears to be getting emotional as Dreamer puts on his best The Rock voice and talks about the thousands (really?) in attendance and the millions (seriously?) watching at home, and then how the entire wrestling industry wants TNA to do great things for the men and women working there, because the men and women would die for Dixie. That’s a very extreme thing to say. You know, I can probably think of one company that doesn’t want TNA to succeed to much…
Dreamer says, plain and simple, that Dixie is not a wrestler. TNA shouldn’t be about her. It’s her responsibility to give the best product she can every week on television. I’ve never been big on Dreamer but he does speak some truth. Makes sense. Dixie looks like she’s ready to cry, for realz.
Dreamer then says that he’s met people suffering with cancer who’ve been told by their doctors to watch wrestling, because it can help them fight. It’s a lovely sentiment that, really. I know personally that wrestling cheers me up when I’m in a bad mood. Thankfully I’ve never had to see if it could work for anything worse than a downer day. Dreamer himself is getting emotional now as he talks about wrestling moments, and about how his best ones are with his friends, who he no longer has. Alright, now I’m getting emotional.
I think we often forget how gruelling a life is lived by wrestlers.
Dreamer says he saw how Dixie exploded like a little fan when Von Erich applied the claw at Slammiversary, and the crowd really responds to that. That moment wasn’t about Dixie, and Dreamer tells her that. He begs Dixie to do the right thing, and she responds by hugging him. I’ve a feeling this is going to go south right about…
…now.
And there it is.
Dixie knees Dreamer right in the manhood and he goes down. Spud and EC3 beat down on Dreamer as Dixie calls him a publicity-grabbing, has-been piece of trash and orders them to remove him from her ring.
Onto the main event. (Well, our main event.)
Gail Kim looks gorgeous in pink when we come back from commercial. She’s waiting in the ring, microphone in hand, and asks the audience to please welcome back TARYN TERRELL. A lot of readers made predictions about how Taryn would be booked, and a lot of them were on point. I totally get why Gail is introducing her. Obviously they were enemies when they last left off, but now that Gail is a face, it makes sense for them to ally. I’m sure the respect between them is insane after their last knockout standing match last year.
My God. How does someone look that gorgeous so soon after having a baby. Dedication, thy name is Taryn. Amazing.
The crowd welcomes her back with open arms as Gail proceeds to shower her with praise, stating that Taryn was on a mission to prove that she belonged, and that she did just that. Taryn takes the mic and talks about having her baby girl, and how coming back with Gail’s respect makes it that much more worth it. She goes on to say that technically, she and Gail are tied, and she thinks the crowd would love to see a tie breaker. I would. They had some amazing matches.
Cue the Beautiful People.
They’re none too impressed with the ‘love fest’ going on in the ring, and Angelina Love wants to know who died and made Gail the boss. Angelina says that Gail is not the Knockouts champion, and she’s not the leader of the division. She says Gail’s opinion doesn’t really matter, and follows it up with a lovely #goawaygail. Charming!
Angelina compliments their dresses as Velvet Sky cackles. The Knockout’s champ asks if they’re going to junior prom after Impact.
Oh, honey. Wherever they’re going, it looks a whole hell of a lot more sanitary than where you are.
Angelina wants to formally introduce herself to Taryn, and does so with a stiff kick to the groin. Gail tries to make the save but Velvet takes her out. TBP double team Gail, but Taryn makes the save and takes on both Angelina and Velvet. Gail recovers and they throw the Beautiful people out like the trash they’re acting like.
My God I was terrified through that whole segment that Taryn’s dress would fall down!
And that’s that!
Not what I was expecting for Taryn’s return, but I do love the set up of the Beautiful People vs. Taryn and Gail. Wouldn’t mind a Fatal Four way for the title somewhere down the line, or maybe an elimination tag match? Maybe even a championship tag match! The possibilities are endless. I’m just super happy to have Taryn back because I think she’ll give the division a boost. The crowd was really getting behind her last year, because week after week she was proving how damn tough she is!
Last week I said that I thought TBP needed an overhaul, and to be honest this week made me realize why. I think Velvet’s star has always been dim under Angelina’s, and she gets lost behind her BFF. So maybe we need Velvet to shake things up for herself? Like I said – the possibilities are endless.
Until next week. Ciao x
