Hello, Knockouts fans! I’m filling in for Chris this week, so unfortunately I won’t be conducting a ride on the Dixie Train, as I don’t have my train conductor’s license. We’ll just take a scenic car ride around Dixieland, okay?
We kick off the show with a segment that leads to TNA President Dixie Carter discovering the final member of Team MVP at Lockdown will be Jeff Hardy.
Dixie says MVP will wrestle only control away from TNA over her dead body. Well, they do call it “Lethal Lockdown”, after all…
Dixie can also be seen in two other backstage segments: one with Ethan Carter III and another with Magnus:
Moving on from whiny men to a good old fashioned stalker, we see Christy Hemme‘s “admirer” Sam Shaw‘s match with Eric Young was thrown out when he attacked Christy’s friend Ken Anderson, choking the life out of him.
Christy is not happy about this. I assume she subsequently booked a flight back home to America because when Sam goes to find her later, he only runs into a half dressed Velvet Sky:
Velvet points him in the direction of the makeup room, where Shaw finds Anderson again.
Anderson in a red wig, that is. He attacks Shaw, wastes a perfectly good lipstick on him and leaves him lying with the wig. Shaw sniffs the wig and delivers the line, “I’ll see you both… Sunday” in his best impression of a soap opera villain.
I hope Christy finally puts a stop to this Sam Shaw business at Lockdown, preferably in some way that calls to mind the final scene of most Dexter episodes. Okay, maybe not.. Wouldn’t it be fitting, though, since they’ll be in Miami?
Finally, we have a Knockouts match, which pits the team of ODB, Madison Rayne and a now-dressed Velvet Sky against Gail Kim, Lei’D Tapa and Alpha Female:
Chris Sabin is at ringside, having been escorted there on the shoulders of Alpha Female.
The match starts with Madison attacking Gail, pounding on her and hitting her with a Northern Lights suplex. She gets too close to Gail’s corner, though, and Tapa snatches a handful of her hair, distracting her long enough for Gail to hit her with a dropkick.
Gail takes control, only to miss a splash in the corner when Madison dodges it. Madison tags in ODB, who comes in guns-a-blazing. She smashes Gail into the corner and hits a subsequent Bronco Buster, AKA my least favorite move in wrestling. Ban it! Gail screams mirror my own.
ODB goes for a pin attempt (I guess she’s assuming Gail hyperventilated with those screams), but Gail kicks out. ODB sees Tapa trying to interfere, and beats her to the punch. Again, Gail takes advantage of the distraction, clotheslining ODB. She tags in Tapa, who effortlessly hoists ODB onto her shoulder and hits her with a backbreaker.
She whips ODB into a corner and clotheslines her into it again. With ODB on the mat, Tapa stands on her hair, pulling on her arms to yank it out. Tapa is admonished by the referee, and she just spits in his face. When she returns, ODB has regained some strength and starts fighting Tapa off. She dodges another attack from Tapa and tags in Velvet just as Tapa tags in Alpha Female.
Velvet tries all she can, but she can’t manage to knock Alpha Female off her feet. Eventually, a kick to the midsection and a neckbreaker does it. Velvet goes for the pin, but Gail breaks it up, causing the match to devolve into separate brawls. While all of this is going on, Chris Sabin enters the ring and backs Velvet into the ropes, calling her a stupid skank.
Eventually, Velvet has enough of this and slaps him and his man bun, pulling down the top rope when he comes charging at her and sending him flying out of the ring. Alpha Female comes from behind and tries to finish off Velvet, but she blocks it, slipping out of her grip and kicking her in the face. She hits Alpha Female with the In Yo Face, and that’s enough to earn her team the win.
While this was shorter than I’d like, I think they used the six Knockouts well, giving each pair a story to tell. Frankly, I wish the WWE’s multi-Diva tag matches would do the same and have the Divas pair off into separate mini-feuds. It makes the match seem less slapdash and more “killing three birds with one stone”.
Alpha Female looked incredibly weak here, but I guess it makes sense, since this was her final TNA appearance (for now) and gives Sabin a reason to ditch her. If she eventually gets signed after her Japan contract is up, maybe they’ll invest more in making her an unstoppable monster, not once that’s pinned by a facebuster. No offense, In Yo Face.
I’m kind of disappointed that more focus wasn’t put on Gail and Madison, as they have a huge Steel Cage match this Sunday. We said on Diva Dirt Weekly that it doesn’t feel like the feud is living up to the match, that the feud isn’t hot enough leading up to such a big stipulation. Still, I can’t complain about us getting a Steel Cage match. I just hope the feud gets more focus after Lockdown – if the cage doesn’t settle it, that is.
