After conquering through the storm that was GFW, TNA can peacefully sail their way to Bound For Glory, which is quickly approaching us! As we’ve learned from last week’s announcement, newly crowned Knockouts Champion Gail Kim will put her title on the line against long time rival Awesome Kong at the upcoming event. But first, Gail has to undergo another challenger this week as she takes on Jade of The Dollhouse, who has somehow managed to get this title shot through the help of her Taryn Terrell. More details on that coming up shortly!
In preparation for Bound For Glory this year, TNA President Dixie Carter opens up this week’s show and gets right down to booking this year’s main event. Surrounded by her TNA wrestlers outside the ring, she joins her supreme Team TNA in the ring and thanks them once again for their victory over GFW last week. As a reward, she announces that the winner of their five way elimination match will be the new number one contender for her supple nephew’s World Title. SPOILER ALERT: It’s going to be Drew Galloway vs. Ethan Carter III for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound For Glory.
Madam Carter’s next order of business is to get back at the bad apple of the group, Eric Young, by booking him in a Lumberjack match Chris Melendez. Second SPOILER ALERT: Melendez comes out victorious over Young to win back his prosthetic leg. Hooray for this feud coming to an end with a happy ending!
Our Knockouts Title match of the night is next and before we can head out to the ring, we make a quick stop at the Pillow Talk room to get some sort of explanation as to how Jade is getting this out of the blue title shot. Inside the pink walled room, Taryn expresses to her dolls how much joy they’ve brought to her following their ambush attack towards The Beautiful People.
Taryn has a new target for this week in Gail Kim and she requests that one of her dolls do the favor of hurting the champion. But who does Taryn believe in the most to accomplish this request? Could it be Marti Bell? No. Could it be Rebel? Most definitely not. That leaves us with Jade, who Taryn sees is the most vicious of the group, thus being the one sent to face Gail Kim.
As for her other two dolls, Taryn gives a chance to please her that goes beyond dressing alike to her. She tells both Marti and Rebel to go out and prove why they should be her favorite. At the sound of Taryn’s command, the two DFF’s run off to plan out how they’ll be able to reach more positive points with their leader.
We move from the Pillow Talk room to the Impact Zone, where our title match is ready to begin! Jade makes her solo entrance and as soon as Gail joins her in the ring, that vicious side of Jade comes to play as she lands a big boot to Gail to start this match off.
Jade maintains control over the champion by cornering Gail to a turnbuckle and choking her with the use of her boot. Jade goes for a second big boot in this match but Gail is able to counter it this time, sending Jade for a spin with a hurricanrana.
The champion charges towards Jade, looking to keep her momentum going but Jade puts those a stop to those plans when she catches Gail and springs her up into a German suplex pin. Jade only gets a two count out over her opponent.
After a kick to the back of Gail, Jade goes for a second cover but still comes short of the three count. Jade proceeds to make use of the turnbuckle again, placing Gail in perfect position for a running big boot and various chops to the chest. Jade’s mistake comes when she goes for a running cannonball to Gail, as Gail manages to roll out of the way before Jade’s move can connect.
This missed move from Jade gives Gail the open she needs to worn down her challenger. Ninja Kim flies all around the ring, taking down Jade with a combination of flying forearms, shoulder block and a corner cross body.
Gail switches up gears next and uses the ring post from the outside ring for a corner figure four leg lock to Jade as well as a using the post to hit a swinging kick to head of Jade. You’ve got to love how versatile Gail is in and out of the ring!
With the outside damage done, Gail rolls Jade back to the ring and goes for a cover but only gets a two count. The champion goes for an Eat Defeat but Jade is able to muscle through and counter with a massive power bomb pin!
When Gail is able to kick out before three again, Jade decides to go high risk and climb the top rope of a corner. She takes aim to Gail but misses her missle drop kick when flying off. Jade’s bad landing to the mat gives Gail another chance at hitting the Eat Defeat, which successfully connects and gives Gail the win for her first title defense!
The action doesn’t stop at the end of this contest as Marti Bell and Rebel would race to the ring to double team Gail before she can fully celebrate her win. Gail tries to put up a fight but gets stomped to the mat when the numbers game come to play.
During this beat down, Beautiful People members Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne rush to the ring to even things up and make the save for Gail. The Beautiful People brawl clears the ring of the Dollhouse, continuing all throughout the outside of the ring and into the back.
Just when everything seems to have calm down, another Knockout makes her way to the ring to meet up with Gail. This time, it would be Gail’s Bound For Glory opponent Awesome Kong. In non Kong fashion, the powerful Knockout reserves from attacking Gail while she’s still not at one hundred percent. Instead she stares down at her long time rival, locking eyes with Gail until they battle on the big stage.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed seeing Gail Kim finally go one on one with Jade. It’s a match that I, as well as other fans, have been anticipating to see.
The two work very fluently with one another and it is clear that Jade is the most skilled wrestler member of the Dollhouse; this being the toughest Jade has looked in TNA thus far. I just wish that these two had more time given to them and that this match happened under different circumstances.
These five minutes or less Knockout matches over the second half of 2015 have been really disappointing to see. There have been a handful of matches that I feel really could’ve delivered more had they been given proper time, this being one of them.
I’m also not a fan of how this match was sort of spoiled (to even those fans who may not even had read spoilers), as we already knew of Gail’s title defense at Bound For Glory and there was no way she was really going to drop the title beforehand.
I understand Jade getting this title shot helped continue the Dollhouse and Beautiful People feud but I really feel like this spot could (and should) have been used as Brooke’s title rematch. With this feud having missing storyline pieces, explanations and key players, it just feels like a missed opportunity to have given the former champion her rematch instead of having to wonder if it’ll even happen at all.
That’s it for this week Knockout fans, be sure to come back next for our home go show leading up to this year’s actual PPV Bound For Glory. Hasta luego!
