Hola Knockout fans and welcome once again to another weekly edition of Impact Write-Up. We abruptly took off last week when the 2014 edition of TNA’s Slammiversary aired Destination America in respect to the Memorial Day weekend.
While fans within the United States were treated to a replay of last’s year PPV, the rest of the world received a special “International Impact” episode of TNA; an episode that sadly never found its way online. SPOILER ALERT: In said episode, Marti Bell with Jade defeated Rebel in singles Knockouts action in what was said to have been an overall throwaway episode. If anyone happens to manage to find a link to this lost episode, please feel forward to me as I still have a notion to see Rebel in singles competition!
Even with an omitted episode last week, there was still plenty of talk coming from the world of TNA, what with rumors and changes that are to come for the company. TNA just can’t seem to catch a break. One of these big changes includes TNA moving their Impact Wrestling program from Friday nights to Wednesday nights (hooray!) beginning next week right after their new TV neighbor Ring of Honor make their Destination America network debut. However, this week we refocus all of our attention to where we last left our Knockouts in a night full of mayhem. Gail Kim battling out Knockouts champion Taryn Terrell for the title in a Six Sides of Steel cage match after the champion made personal attacks to the challenger, Mickie James finding herself in a test of friendship and Angelina Love introducing former friend Velvet Sky to her new set of “friends”.
The night kicks off right away with our Knockouts Title Steel Cage match and making her entrance first is Gail Kim. As Gail steps foot into the steel caged six-sided ring, she climb close to the top of the cage and we see that the split screens have made their return. Joining Josh Matthews over at the commentary booth this week is Al Snow who is wearing an unflattering jacket as he calls out the action on this week’s program. Back to just one screen, Taryn makes her entrance next and she is joined as always by her DFF’s Jade and Marti Bell. Before Taryn makes her way inside the steel environment, Gail steps out the cage to action first. She lands a hard right forearm to Taryn and tosses her to the enclosed ring before taking out the other members of the Dollhouse who tried to interfere at the sound of the ring bell.
Having taken care of the outside foes, Gail re-enters the ring and pulled Taryn’s leg as she was looking for a quick escape by climbing to the top of the cage. Right off the bat, Gail takes quick offense to the champion, striking Taryn with more forearm blows to Taryn’s head and whipping her to a corner to connect a flying clothesline. Gail goes for an early pin but Taryn toughs it out at the count of two.
Gail then uses the steel cage surroundings to her advantage by throwing Taryn’s body onto the cage walls twice and then pummeling her face when she’s down flat on the mat. Gail stays in control of the match, bringing Taryn to a corner again and adds several kicks to Taryn’s midsection. Through the small convenient camera hole in the cage, Jade grabs onto Gail’s right leg to hold her off against Taryn. As Gail tries to fight off Jade, Taryn attacks from behind and soon begins a beat down to Gail.
Taryn gets her payback against Gail by returning the favor in tossing Gail’s body to the steel caged walls. Even from the outside, Jade and Marti manage to get involved in this match by pulling Gail’s hair through the cage’s opening. The champion then begins to focus on a unique body part of Gail’s, that being her left hand where Gail’s ring finger is. Taryn calls it “pretty” and even smooches it before throwing it straight to the walls within, much to the amusement of the Dollhouse.
Taryn’s heel persona is in full gear, as she stomps on the back of Gail’s head, landing her face first onto the mat to which they’re wrestling on. Taryn goes for the pin but Gail finds a way to kick out. Still in control of the match, the champion attempts to wear Gail down with a swinging neck breaker and a snap suplex before going for another pin but as with last time, Gail is able to kick out right before the three count.
When Taryn tries to put Gail away with her Cutter finisher, Gail is able to counter and shove Taryn to the opposite direction. A stalemate is reached when both Gail and Taryn hit one another with a clothesline but both find a way to get back to their feet at the same time. Once back up, the Knockouts trade blows but Gail manages to win this mini-bout taking Taryn down with a running clothesline.
Gail takes Taryn for another trip to the corner where Gail lands a reverse cross body from the second rope and into the pin. When Taryn is able to kick out, Gail’s attitude is fired up and her courageous mind-set is to climb to the very top of the cage for some heavy high flying action. All doesn’t go as planned for Gail, as Jade and Marti quickly and easily climb the cage from the outside of the ring to meet Gail. While Gail is temporarily able to battle off the Dollhouse, the numbers game eventually overpowers Gail and she gets pushed off from the top of the cage.
After crashing and burning, Gail stumbles to get back up and becomes easy prey for Taryn who hits her Cutter finisher, goes for the pin and gets the three count to retain her title for another week. Taryn’s DFF’s join Taryn in the ring following her win over Gail to hand her the Knockouts title as well as to have a bit more “fun” with Gail.
When senior referee Earl Hebner tries to put a stop to this, Taryn takes him out with a not-so-smooth clothesline. With no order left in the ring, the Dollhouse look to continue with their mischievous bidding by closing the cage door to assure no escape for Gail. Just before the door can fully be sealed, Awesome Kong‘s music hits and out she comes to have her own fun with the Dollhouse. Scrambling for some safety, the Dollhouse grab a chain a lock the door before Kong can make it to the ring.
With Kong now on the outside, all she can do is watch as the Dollhouse massively beat down Gail. Taryn takes a moment to remind Gail that she is nothing compared to her and continues her assault onto Gail. She removes Gail’s wedding ring from her left hand and proceeds to stomp on it twice so hard that we would later find out that Gail would suffer an injury from this assault. Awesome Kong looks on from the outside, an upset look on her face upon what she has witnessed.
Immediately after this Knockouts title match, we move on to our next Knockouts segment featuring Mickie James, who begins to touch base on the “one more match” she promised when she came back to TNA. Although she may not know when that will take place, she cannot wait for it to happen as it looks at it as being one of the greatest matches she’s ever had in her extraordinary career.
That’s all she will say in regards to that upcoming match, as this week she would like to talk about two things that should go hand-in-hand: friendships and family. Mickie speaks about her fiancé Magnus and how he is more than that. He’s also her best friend, the father of her child and the love of her life. On the other side, James Storm has been a longtime friend of hers and despite the friction there may be between the two parties, Mickie just wants to find a way to balance things out.
This causes James Storm to come on out and join her friend inside the ring to address this issue. Mickie is glad to see Storm as Magnus never did apologize for smashing Storm’s head with the gift guitar he got for Mickie. She takes this opportunity to apologize for Magnus’ action but Storm cuts off Mickie and says there’s no need to apologize.
Instead, Storm suggests that Magnus’ ordeal with him stems from jealousy of his close relationship with Mickie. Mickie counters Storms’ statement and instead proposes that Magnus is simply looking out for Mickie in this crazy world of wrestling where anyone can be backstabbed at any given moment.
But Storm isn’t a bad guy (or so he says) and reminds Mickie that he saved her right before that psycho Bram was going to smash her head. He continues listing all his respectful doings he has done for women, such as holding doors for them and helping them out when need be. If that makes him a bad person, then so be it!
Storm doesn’t understand how someone who got gifts for Mickie’s entire family can be seen as a “bad guy”. Would a “bad guy” set up a meeting with the likes of Billy Corgan to help Mickie James do more projects outside of wrestling? As Mickie soaks this idea of furthering her music career, Storm lets Mickie know that no matter if she takes up on his offer or not, she has his full support. As Storm heads on back, Mickie calls out his name and tells him to that she will attend these meeting in Nashville. Storm is enlighten to hear this… or is he?
Our final bit of Knockouts goodness comes from the drama between former friends Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. Angelina has already seen Velvet inside the building and doesn’t know why she is following her around. Instead of just ignoring Velvet, Angelina is going to take matters in her own since being away and what she ultimately plans to do against Angelina.
Mic in hand, Angelina enters the Impact Zone and spots Velvet sitting along with the other “losers” in attendance. Angelina then calls out her news group of “friends” to meet Velvet and four Average Joes join Angelina at the entrance ramp. In case you’re a bit confused, Angelina has these men turn around and reveal that they are actually Angelina’s personal security. You would’ve been better off just having Jessie Godderzz as back up Angelina.
With her security team close by, Angelina gets in Velvet’s face and warns her that if she tries to lay a hand on her again, she will hauled out by these gentlemen. Why can Angelina do this? Well it’s all because Velvet was fired and she has no business being back! Velvet stays silent throughout this ordeal and maybe she’s angry but she remains calm, taking in all of Angelina’s taunts and insults.
When Angelina has had enough satisfaction in toying with Velvet, she turns around to head on back but is attacked the second she turns her back by Velvet! Angelina’s security team scrambles to break this cat fight off but with a simple elbow shot and kick to the midsection, Velvet breaks free and once again numerous punches to Angelina! When Love’s Security breaks these two apart the second time, they manage to fully take away Velvet in handcuffs and escort her out the building all while Angelina continues her slurs against Velvet.
Thoughts: Not a bad way to come back to TNA after a week of no Knockouts action! I’m pleased to have seen multiple Knockouts sighting that all helped further their respective storylines.
Beginning with the Knockouts title match, though I did enjoy it for the most part, I was expecting to see a bit more than what we actually received. Both women made the most of the cage they were enclosed in, taking turns to hurl one another to the cage and it did help keep things between firmly against Taryn and Gail until the very end of the match where Marti and Jade cost Gail the match. I just feel with a little more time, the match could’ve been more enhanced.
Still, the post match segment helped make up for of the shortage of time of the match as it really help put more heat to Taryn and the Dollhouse. Aside from the poor ref bump, the attacks onto Gail’s left hand added another layer to Taryn’s mean streak of wanting to embarrass Gail. Biting off Gail’s wedding ring from her ring finger really made this match feel more personal between these two and with Gail now being written off, it makes you wonder who will be the next victim to the Dollhouse.
Awesome Kong’s presence was a bit surprising but it’s understandable as to why she would try to make the save for her rival. They lost their tag match against the Dollhouse and still want redemption for the all trouble the trio has put her and Gail through. There was a genuine concern on Kong’s face as well as anger in not being able to help her fellow Knockout Gail Kim. It’s a side that we haven’t really seen from someone like Kong and it does give her more character aside from the dominant monster we’ve grown accustom to.
Mickie James angle was pretty interesting. Since the announcement of this “retirement match”, there has been little talk about and more so about the beef between Magnus and James Storm. Though it was just a mention this week, it was still nice to see Mickie refer to it as it is the whole reason she came back to TNA as well as to why Magnus and James Storm are currently feuding. Though there was no Magnus this week, the one on one session between Mickie and James Storm really makes you wonder where thing will go between these two friends. Though James Storm promo was babyface, he still is a Heel and it makes you wonder what his intentions for Mickie James are. Does he really want to help Mickie restart her music career or is he just wandering Mickie off closer to his side as opposed to the side of her fiancé Magnus. From the looks of James Storm face following their in ring promo, something tells me that Storm has an agenda he wants to play out with Mickie.
Finally, there’s the Angelina and Velvet storyline that was retouched this week. It may have been a while since we’ve seen any follow up between these two but I think Velvet is coming off as a credible babyface despite having uttered a word since her return. Perhaps it does help that Angelina is doing the talking in this feud and that she really is going out of her way to irritate Velvet since her surprise return. The actual brawl was all right but I would like to begin to hear more of Velvet speaking and know more of how she truly feels since being away and what she ultimately plans to do against Angelina.
Don’t forget that Impact Wrestling moves to Wednesday nights starting next week! It’s the start of the brand new “Wednesday Night Wars” as NXT, Lucha Underground, Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling all happen on the same night! As always, keep it here to catch up on all the different action taking place on these various promotions!
