The Internet is buzzing about a dark match that took place during the three-day Impact tapings last week. The match saw former Knockouts Champion, Awesome Kong face her manager, Raisha Saeed who wrestled under her other gimmick, Cheerleader Melissa. Read the report below:
People were raving about the Melissa Anderson vs. Awesome Kong match that took place as a dark match at the last set of iMPACT tapings. Anderson is better known as Cheerleader Melissa or Raisha Saeed. The match was said to have blown everyone away.
It doesn’t look like she will be using the Cheerleader Melissa name and might be going with Melissa “Future Legend” Anderson if they decide to change her gimmick, a title that was given to her years ago at the Cauliflower Alley Club. There are no plans right now to use her on television without the Raisha Saeed gimmick.
The match was so good that when it was over, Raven remarked that it was the best women’s wrestling match he had seen in ten years. For what it’s worth, Raven isn’t known for being generous like that when it comes to complimenting someone’s work. Word is that if it was compared to the Kong vs. Gail Kim matches of 2008, this match was more believable but Kong vs. Kim was more spectacular.
It’s stories like this that give me some hope in TNA, something I lost in mid-2008. Looking at the great roster of females the company has right now, I think they could hit their stride again this summer. With fantastic workers including the former Victoria and Sarah Stock combined with some of the Knockouts already on the roster, you have a lot of things you could explore.
The problem however is, you don’t really know who’s coming or going in TNA. Knockouts appear so infrequently or just disappear altogether, that you don’t know who’s doing what and you don’t know who is heel or babyface. They need to clearly identify their top babyface – and they seem to be doing that with Victoria – and they need to identify who comes under her. Then identify your top heel, and who comes under her.
If I look at the roster, it seems there’s an uneven ratio of faces to heels. Fix it! If I had to re-order the roster, you’d have Victoria as the top babyface and under her would be Taylor Wilde, ODB and Sojo. Then on the heel side, you have the Beautiful People led by the Knockouts Champion, Angelina Love. Under them, you could have Daffney and introduce Sarah Stock and Ayako Hamada as heels. I think Hamada could help fill that aggressive, no-nonsense heel spot that has been left behind by the Knockout I’m about to mention.
The interesting thing about the Knockouts division is Awesome Kong, who is no longer a heel nor a babyface, but a tweener. You could use her where you see fit. She is an incredible star and she doesn’t need to be defined as ‘face’ or ‘heel’ given the way TNA has built her up. She could feud with Angelina one month and then feud with Victoria another.
