After losing her Knockouts Championship at No Surrender a couple of weeks ago and being refused a rematch by Knockouts VP, Karen Jarrett, Mickie James had to earn another crack at the title the old fashioned way — by winning a match. Granted, Mickie didn’t have much standing in her way in the less experienced (but ever improving) Brooke Tessmacher, one half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions, as she earned another shot at the gold in a four-way match at Bound for Glory.
Let’s see how it all went down…
We kick things off backstage with Karen and her trusty assistant Traci giving a talking to our competitors tonight, Brooke and Mickie. Just as the two are about to walk off, Karen holds Brooke back to give her a dressing down. “If I see any of that erotic, strip tease behavior…” she says. I don’t know about you guys, but I find Karen so entertaining.
Karen then turns her attention to her poor assistant, asking her if this looks like a brothel to her. “Does it look like I’m running a ho house?” Oh hell no, she did not! In comes Traci’s husband (where was he when she was doing the dirty with Bischoff?) defending her honor and calls Karen a “madam”. Oh my! This takes me right back to Stephanie and Jericho.
As Karen calls her husband to tell him about what just happened, it’s time for us to watch the Knockouts match…
Out first is the Knockouts Tag Champ, Brooke, in a little coat. She heads to the ring where she does her Candice Michelle-esque reveal and rips off her mini-skirt also. Next out is the former champion clad in denim.
The two women circle the ring before locking up. Mickie gets the better of the exchange by taking control of Brooke’s arm and twisting it. Brooke then counters and does the same to Mickie, but the former champion cartwheels out of the move and hits an armdrag variation on the Tag Team Champion. Brooke quickly kips up and again works over Mickie’s arm, but James reverses and pins Brooke’s arm behind her back. Mickie then goes for a side headlock takedown. With the headlock still in place, both Knockouts rise to their feet as Brooke begins to break free of the move but Mickie then quickly applies another armbar.
Brooke now fights back with a forearm shot — and another! Brooke whips Mickie into the ropes but Mickie manages to baseball slide through her legs. Mickie with a snapmare and then runs the ropes and hits a low dropkick right into Brooke’s face.
Brooke tries to use the ropes to rise to her feet but Mickie is right behind her. Brooke, however, scouts this and hits her with a back elbow in the mouth. Brooke ducks a clothesline attempt from Mickie and then applies a hurricanrana into a pin but Mickie kicks out.
As the Knockouts rise to their feet, Brooke hits a dropkick on James and a splash in the corner. Uh oh, it’s stinkface time and no Divas of Doom to rid the Knockouts division of it! “This is for you, Karen,” says Brooke as she plants her butt in Mickie’s face.
The move delights the crowd but enrages the multi-time champion, Mickie James. The furious Mickie hits Brooke with several clotheslines and then a flapjack. Mickie quickly kips up and locks Brooke into her Mickie DDT and connects. Mickie with the cover and the 1, 2, 3.
Mickie will go on to face Winter and Velvet Sky in the four-way Knockouts Championship match at Bound for Glory.
Afterwards, Mickie checks on Brooke and helps her to her feet in a show of sportsmanship. The two embrace as the segment ends.
Thoughts: I wasn’t really into this match, to be honest. Technically sound, but I wasn’t terribly excited. I did, however, enjoy the shift in Mickie’s aggression following the stinkface. That was pretty interesting. I liked how they played up the fact that Mickie isn’t pleased about receiving that move (after all, she’s a serious competitor) but then after the match, she can be friendly with Brooke, giving us a more three-dimensional babyface as compared to the Divas.
Brooke is getting better in the ring, but perhaps she should leave the gimmicks to WWE. She has an opportunity here to be taken seriously as a wrestler if she can continue to improve, and I don’t think stuff like a stinkface works. I understand she wants to set herself apart, but now more than ever with the Divas of Doom angle being so anti-fluff, TNA has an opportunity to capitalize on those frustrated Divas fans and present an alternative. Instead of doing a stinkface, they could present Brooke as “Hey, she’s hot like a Diva but fights like a Knockout”.
Compared to previous weeks, this week felt very Knockout-lite on Impact.
What did you think of the Knockouts match on Impact?
