Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Impact Write-Up. It’s been a pretty big week for the Knockouts over the past seven days, as we crowned a new Knockouts Champion at Bound for Glory in Tara, and not only that, but she revealed to the world that her much talked about Hollywood boyfriend is none other than my mortal enemy from his consecutive appearances/times as a contestant on CBS’ Big Brother, Jessie Godderz. Nonetheless, this week, Tara gets a shot to impress her male friend as she takes on ODB. But ODB’s male friend, Eric Young, has got some other plans up his sleeve. Not only that, but Miss Tessmacher also makes an appearance (albeit brief) to hype up her big rematch against Tara next week on Impact! That was surely a mouthful, so let’s start, shall we?
Backstage, Tara and Jessie are hilariously posing for a photoshoot which consists of him hoisting her into the air up and down to show both his strength and her ability to look good in a sideways position. Tara claims they are huge news… even bigger than Honey Boo Boo! (Uh oh… who smells Tara’s next challenger for the belt with that line?!) The Knockouts Champ summons the photographer away when he asks for a few more shots because in her words, “If TMZ can take it in one shot, he can to.” Jessie makes a reference that I don’t get, but after the photographer heads out, Tara continues to brilliantly hype them up in only a way she can pull off by seeming completely serious yet amusing me with the delivery in how excited and hyped she is. Jessie tries to leave, but oh no, Tara has other plans as she yanks him back in for a brief makeout session before her match against ODB next!
After a brief intermission, Tara and Jessie make their way out to the ring for the bout. Once ODB’s music hits, she is nowhere to be seen however, and we pan backstage to see her on the phone. She looks to be pretty angry at who we can assume is Eric Young. It seems Eric has decided to no show tonight, opting instead to have a dinner. Hmm… but even if he isn’t there, ODB drops the phone and interrupts a kiss between Tara and Jessie to start the match! She drags Tara to the corner and levels her with some shots, before knocking the champ down with a shoulder tackle. ODB scores with a running front powerslam, before going back for the phone asking if Eric is still there. She tells him to stay on, but then turns around to see Jessie scream that Tara’s his girlfriend. Unfortunately, he must not know much about ODB because she walks right up to him, screams “well these are my girlfriends right here!” and proceeds to shove his face all in her chest area. (Side note: This seriously elicited maybe the biggest laugh I’ve had in a while.)
He hops down, as she gets back on the phone… but now Tara looks to have snapped at the sight of ODB smothering him in her boobs. Tara grabs her by the hair in a reverse position, before dropping her to the floor as Taz comments on ODB’s bloomers. Tara with a choke hold, as the crowd gets behind ODB to not much avail just yet. Taryn Terrell tries to keep things in control, as Tara just continues this dominance. Jessie hops up onto the ring to kiss Tara’s pain away, but this ends up giving ODB some time to power up with the flask, hoist Tara onto her shoulders, spit the drink in Jessie’s face and then drill Tara with the TKO for the win! As ODB celebrates, out comes Miss Tessmacher to the ramp to stare off with her downed competition next week!
Thoughts: Alright I know this is going to be in the minority… but I really like Tara and Jessie together. The segment between the two of them really entertained me. No shame. This is the type of character for Tara that fits so well because she combines the comedic side when she’s doing these skits, but in the ring she’s all business like the badass type that she also played well. I still wish Brooke would’ve gotten a stronger reign as Knockouts champion, but on the bright side there have been far worse treated reigns, and also if Tara’s going to continue getting these segments, matches, and attention then I’m happy the title is being put to good use as well. I crave funny skit type segments backstage, because if you know me, you know that I thrive on the randomness. I like when people show they aren’t just sort of a one dimensional character of “I’m champion.” or “I want your title.” It makes the backstage stuff more fun to watch (for me at least) when there’s something humorous going on in the background or some funny line that’ll get stuck in my head for weeks… even years (for instance, the entire Madison Rayne segment mocking Mickie James to two step her way on in the ring and finish her plate of corn bread). It’s probably just my random sense of humor, but dang it I love it.
Onto the match, I thought it was much better than their last outing in terms of how I enjoyed it. Last time I felt the match was too one sided, but this time they seemed to get equal exchange, and not only that but provide some story within it in ODB legitimately talking on the phone while wrestling, as well as going crazy in shoving Jessie’s face in her boobs, which ultimately caused Tara to snap and get too distracted with him to focus on what was going on in the ring. I love matches like this where something more happens within it aside from just bell rings, fight, then finish. The ending was really creative and fresh from anything we’ve seen in a long time and it completely worked for me. Personally, I don’t feel Jessie took away from the action at all and I’m actually kind of excited to see what’s going to happen next within the division. Is Brooke getting her title match so ODB can be next in line with the victory over Tara tonight? It would make sense (and I am all for more ODB on screen), but again I just hope we don’t find any more women sitting out for months. Tonight definitely felt fresh to me though, so I’m not even going to use that as a complaint. Kudos for getting some fun stories going, and I’m definitely looking forward to whatever comes next.
