Hello everyone, and welcome to, of course, this week’ss Impact Write-Up. This week, we’ve got a battle royal to determine the number one contender, which I guess means all of ODB‘s wins lately, including pinning Tara, haven’t been enough to make her that next challenger. That’s okay, though, because this means we get to see a lot of faces we haven’t got to in a while, and that’s something I’ve been wanting for a long time. It’s five former Knockout champions, in Madison Rayne, Gail Kim, Brooke Tessmacher, ODB, and Mickie James, but only one of those five females will be the last one standing. Who will it be? Let’s find out!
Skip to 03:00
Backstage, ODB and Eric Young are shown talking to one another. Eric says they’re awesome and ODB calls them a power couple, both vowing to win their respected matches tonight, as Eric faces Jesse and ODB competes in a battle royal. “Number one in my heart, number one in the world,” he chimes, as they now whisper about a party that was previously held, citing that that will be nothing in comparison to the celebration when they win tonight. From there, the two proceed to make out wildly, not caring who sees them.
Note: You can also skip to 04:50 in the video above to watch Eric (with ODB) face off against Jesse (with Tara).
Backstage, Tara and Jesse are walking up to a door, as they discuss hoping Angelina can make it, presumably to a dinner they’re having. She requests him to knock, as they then debate over who should knock. Eventually, they barge in to see Brooke Hogan and Bully Ray looking a little chummy together on her sofa… oh lord. Tara demands that Brooke start consulting her when it comes to this division. I mean, she had to find out about the battle royal through Twitter of all things! Unacceptable.
Brooke says that if she wants to talk about respect, she would like her door to be knocked on before people just enter without permission. Nonetheless, Mizz Hogan shrugs it off and says that she can’t worry about this right now, wishing Tara luck in her future defenses. Tara tells Brooke that she should lock the door in the future, as Brooke looks concerned about what Tara and Jesse saw.
Following the entrances of all five women competing in the battle royal (Mickie James, ODB, Gail Kim, Madison Rayne, & Brooke Tessmacher), referee Taryn Terrell signals for the bell to ring as we get underway. It seems Brooke and ODB have gone right for Gail, as Mickie attempts taking out Madison. Mickie with a leg choke to Rayne, as Brooke gets a less flexible version on Gail, before trying to eliminate her. ODB pretty much looks dazed in the corner, as she sits there until Gail kicks her a little. Now Gail looks to be trying to eliminate Brooke, with Madison doing the same to Mickie. Both end up backfiring though, as Brooke now ends up on Gail’s shoulders and tossed onto the ring apron… but not falling!
Madison and Gail now double team ODB a bit, as Tessmacher gets back in the ring and begins taking down the BFF’s. Nice monkey flip to Gail, but as she goes for the facebuster out of the corner, Madison tosses Brooke over! Elimination #1. Mickie and ODB with a double thesz press on Team BFF, as Mickie gets a flapjack on Rayne as ODB scores with a fallaway slam on Kim. ODB ascends to the top rope, as Mickie now grabs Madison by the hair and drags her over to the corner where ODB proceeds to hit the dirty dozen on the killer queen.
Gail Kim attempts to toss Mickie out, but Mickie reverses it and sends her into the same corner where she gets a dirty dozen! James tosses Rayne over the top, but Madison drops Mickie’s neck across the ropes. Madison, the benevolent ruler she is, waves elegantly to her loyal subjects… which unfortunately for her, distracts her long enough to spin around into a blast of liquid courage from ODB, thus causing her to fall off the ring apron and to the floor in elimination #2.
Back inside the ring, ODB leaps off to go for a Thesz Press, but Gail dodges out of the way and it ends up going to Hardcore Country! The crowd gets behind ODB, but Gail proceeds to toss her right over the top rope. Elimination #3! The fans now cheer on Mickie, as Gail hits a clothesline that looks to knock out one of Mickie’s Indian style hairpiece items. Kim goes to town on James with some shots to the face, but Mickie now fights back. She leaps up for the Mick-A-Rana, but both Mickie and Gail go over. Kim hands onto the ring apron and grabs Mickie, as James plants her with the reverse spin kick to knock Gail off for elimination #4! Mickie is now officially the new number one contender!
Thoughts: That was interesting to say the least. Let me start off by saying how refreshing it was to have more than two women on a show for once because it really made things feel more enjoyable, even if it was a taped show. Heck, if it’s either air live and get two women or tape and get nearly the entire roster, then tape every week as far as I’m concerned. The battle royal, in its own right though, was pretty dang entertaining. There weren’t any quick eliminations, each one seemed creative, and they all meshed well together. It genuinely felt as if each one was fighting with their life on the line and not just going through the motions quickly as we’ve seen some battle royals end up before.
Mickie James winning and becoming #1 contender has somewhat mixed feelings for me. On one hand, I love watching Mickie wrestle, it’s something different, and I’m really excited to see what she’s going to do after being away from TV for so long, but what about ODB? She’s been feuding with Tara for the past month, pinned her even, and she hasn’t gotten a title shot. I don’t even know why a number one contenders match was needed truthfully, but I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy that we got a match featuring so many faces we haven’t seen in ages. Maybe this can build to an ODB/Mickie/Tara three way feud as ODB certainly has got to have a problem with Mickie coming back and getting a title shot before her despite the victories ODB has had over Tara (and Jesse). Whatever happens, I’m going to enjoy these taped shows while we have them if it means getting to see the likes of Gail, Madison, Mickie, and Tessmacher again. Now just give us Rosita and Sarita! It’s all we ask.
