Hola Knockout fans and welcome to another weekend edition of Impact Write-Up. Pretty soon you’ll be finding these during the middle of the week, what with the news of Impact Wrestling moving (for about the fifth time in a year) back to Wednesday nights. For now however, we focus on the present and all of the Knockouts goodness that took place this week. The Dollhouse are in tag action this week as Jade and Marti Bell take on the team of Rebel (who has been MIA for the longest time) and Brooke. We also are treated to the very first edition of the Dollhouse’s Pillow Talk.
Debuting their brand new entrance music “Doll Parts” courtesy of Courtney Love, the Dollhouse make their entrance first, being accompanied by their head leader and Knockouts champion Taryn Terrell. I would’ve preferred if the team had stuck with their laughing dubstep theme song but it looks “Doll Parts” is here to stay. The trio all hold hands down the entrance ramp, share a humorous rumor at the ring apron and stand tall inside the ring as they wait for their opponents.
Brooke and Rebel follow next with a shared entrance, each sporting some brand new attire. Rebel trading her usual Menagerie look of a black top and mean red booty shorts for a lighter lavender top and denim shorts while Brooke goes for a “sexy skittle” look as AJ Lee once said. Just as the two reach the ring apron to finish their entrance, Jade and Marti go for the attack early on, knocking Rebel and Brooke off the ring apron and to the outside. They mock Rebel’s splits and quickly get to work as the bell rings to start the match.
After a brief a ruffle on the outside, the action soon follows up inside the ring with Marti and Rebel kicking things off. Marti sends Rebel to Jade’s corner early on and quickly makes a tag for some early double teaming as the Dollhouse whipping Rebel to the ropes and bringing her down with a kick to the midsection and leg sweep. With Jade now the legal woman in this tag match, Rebel becomes victim of her agile kicks to the skull. When Jade switches from kicks to punches, she misses her first swing at Rebel who manages duck out the way.
This open window serves as Rebel’s first chance at some offense and she begins by using her long legs to kick Jade’s midsection and following up with a leg drop to Jade’s backside. Rebel goes for the pin but it’s broken up by Marti before the count of three. Regaining control, Jade begins to clobber onto Rebel’s face before resorting back to her kicks, landing a solid strike to Rebel’s chin. The Dollhouse keep Rebel close by their side of the ring as another tag to Marti is made.
Marti’s playtime in the ring is brief, as she takes Rebel to the second rope to do some choking, adding her own twist to the classic heel tactic by running the ropes and landing behind Rebel’s head to inflict some extra damage. From the corner, Jade asks to be tagged in again and Marti doesn’t disappoint her partner as she makes the tag. Before going straight to Rebel, Jade takes care of Brooke first by knocking her off the apron with a running big boot. With one foe down, Jade turns her attention to Rebel again and begins her combination offense, landing a right punch, left punch, right kick and left kick wrapping it all up with a running dropkick but misses as Rebel gets out the way in time.
Rebel crawls to her partner to make a much needed tag and Brooke quickly builds momentum for her team, taking it to Jade with a clothesline and back elbow. Bootyful, spunky and colorful Brooke continues to her offense to Jade with several forearm shots and an attempted kick but Jade senses this, catching Brooke’s leg and scooping her up over her shoulders for a powerbomb. This powerbomb from Jade isn’t able to follow through as Brooke counters this with a face crusher, laying Jade out.
Brooke takes the fallen Jade to Rebel’s side of the ring as she climbs the second rope to position herself to connect her FFG finisher. Brooke asks if we want Rebel to which the Impact Zone warmly agrees to and the tag is made. Rebel takes a second or two too long and misses as Jade rolls away from harm’s way. Brooke checks on Rebel after her missed finisher but gets a dose of double trouble when Marti rejoins Jade in the ring. The Dollhouse wipe out Brooke with a double chokeslam and do the same to Rebel ultimately allowing Jade to get the three count and win.
This clean win from the Dollhouse causes Knockouts champion Taryn to enter the ring to join her Dollhouse playmates. She grabs a mic and begins telling us that Brooke and Rebel have just been the first to learn that time with the Dollhouse isn’t all fun and games. In fact, there’s more to it and one person who should pay particular attention to this is Gail Kim. Taryn had a lot fun with her family and thinks it is time for the rest of the world to see the kind playtime she’s had.
Moments before the very first edition of “Pillow Talk”, we head to a cozy backstage room complete with pink walls, a blue mirror, fluffy pillows and, of course, a toy dollhouse to get a sneak peak of what lies ahead for Taryn and her DFFs; that stands for Dollhouse Friends Forever for those of you keeping track. Wearing a silky blue robe, Taryn would reveal that she had the pleasure of spending some quality time with Gail’s stepdaughters all while Gail was busy playing “wrestler” in the ring. However, the bigger picture in all of this an outfit she plans to wear for Gail’s husband Robert Irvine later tonight. The viewing audience isn’t allowed to have a sneak peak of this little piece Taryn speaks of but her DFFs certainly do and they agree that’s “cute”. Instead of continuing to tease us in such a matter, Taryn decides that this would be the right time to actually show us what she is wearing for Chef Irvine and heads on the Impact Zone.
Like their tag match from earlier, the Dollhouse jointly come to the ring for the biggest reveal of the night. Taryn grabs a mic and begins this “Pillow Talk” by reminding us that this isn’t just anyone’s house but rather the Dollhouse’s house. The Dollhouse are creators of fantasies and are more than wrestlers like Gail Kim. They’re special and while staying on the subject of special, Taryn recollects of her special quality time with Gail’s special stepdaughters through various selfies taken from last week’s crash of “Robert Irvine Live” event. Although Gail’s stepdaughters look lost and gloomy in these selfies, Taryn is all smiles and cheerful sandwiched in between her new gal pals.
While the girls were fun to hang out with, Taryn goes on to say she’s going to have more fun with Robert. Brace yourself, for we need the lights lowered for this unveiling, by LOWER we mean dimmed closed to darkness, thank you! With the lights dimmed to Taryn’s liking, the spotlight is on and Taryn plays out the scenario. There would be sexy music playing in the background and Taryn would walk in, dishing out her polka dotted lingerie for Robert. Before any more intimate details of this encounter between Taryn and Robert can continue, out comes Robert’s wife Gail Kim who has had enough of this twisted tale!
If Taryn wants to make this personal by involving Gail’s family and husband, then she better know that she has crossed the line with Gail! Taryn does seem too bothered by taking this approach and neither does Marti who takes the mic to ask why Gail is so serious about a little story time? They’re just playing after all and there is no need to such a buzz-kill. Marti tries to ease Gail’s attitude by offering a bite of her sucker but Gail would rather shove that sucker right down Marti’s throat! Gail goes back to Taryn and tells her to prove herself as a worthy champion by taking it to the ring instead of the shameful path she’s on now.
Shh…Shh…Shh… is what Taryn has to say to Gail’s challenge. Taryn has reached a point where she believes the whole world will know Gail is nothing compared to her, and even Robert knows this. Just the mention of Robert’s name through Taryn’s lips again is enough to have Gail slap some sense to Taryn and begin an all out brawl with the entire Dollhouse. Emotions take over Gail as she manages to clean the ring of the Dollhouse being the last woman standing and ready to take on Taryn once more.
Thoughts: A busy week for the Dollhouse this week, managing to pick up a win this week as well as push Gail’s buttons on a very personal level.
Starting with a few things that didn’t quite click with me during the tag match was the change in the Dollhouse’s theme. While the Dollhouse were already juggling two different themes prior to this week, I would have liked to see them keep their post match dubstep theme rather than this now “Doll Parts” song. It was just a better fit in my opinion and it will take some to adjust to this new song.
While it was great to see Rebel rocking a brand new look and being used again, her performance really doesn’t seem to have changed much since the last time we saw her in a ring, granted it has only been a handful of time we’ve seen her compete overall and they’ve all been in tag matches up to this point. She needs a bit more work and I just hope that during the time she isn’t being used, she is working on her craft for if/when the time comes for a single competition. Having Brooke as a partner helped add on some of offense during the tag match but I just wished more time was given to at least allow Brooke to have showcase a bit of that more.
It was nice to see the Dollhouse pick up a clean win after already having beat Awesome Kong and Gail Kim as it helps reinforce their threat to the Knockouts division. Jade and Marti were collective throughout the match and I enjoyed their team work. I hope to see more of it in the upcoming weeks.
Onto the pillow talk promo of the night, I think it’s still amazing how much different Taryn has become since turning heel! She carries herself in a very suggestive manner but still holding on a degree of playfulness, what with thanking people even after they’ve ticked her off and smiling in selfies with Gail’s stepdaughters, even though they looked like they didn’t even want to be there. It’s a different kind of Heel and it’s the gimmick that I think fans really like about the Dollhouse.
Speaking of Gail’s stepdaughters, it’s becoming a theme for TNA to still add “personal touches” to their feuds and this was no different when it came to Gail and Taryn. We saw a glimpse last week of Taryn attending Robert’s show along with a tease of Taryn having ideas with Robert. It’s great that TNA followed up with it. The only flaw I had with the encounter between the Dollhouse and Gail were the execution of it. Gail’s promo wasn’t the best but it was overall a strong segment that helped begin to heat things up between Gail and Taryn.
I was a bit disappointed to see no follow up between Angelina Love and Velvet Sky after making such a return last week as well as no Mickie James update despite a Magnus and James Storm appearance but certainly we’ll see more of these Knockouts making an appearance in the upcoming weeks. It won’t be next week as Impact is taking a break from their regular programming (is Memorial Day really that much of a risk?) but we will return the week after that for the last Friday night of Impact!
Until then, stay safe and hasta luego Knockout fans!
