It’s definitely a beautiful world these days when it comes to TNA. Last night on Lockdown, quintessential Beautiful People jobber, Madison Rayne, shocked the wrestling world as we know it and became the new TNA Knockouts Champion. The surprising win came just weeks after the title had changed hands in the controversial Lockbox segment. With the way TNA works these days, nothing should come as a surprise, but putting the title on Madison Rayne definitely made for great television last night in St. Louis. Lets take a look back at Madison’s historic win, as well as the long anticipated heel turn of Tara.
The Knockout portion of Lockdown begins with a video package highlighting the hot mess that has been the intertwining storyline these five women have found themselves in over the past couple of months. A rundown of the rules also takes place and the Beautiful People are the first team out. These three women look absolutely stunning. The best part of pay-per-views is the new ring attire that always debuts, and TBP did not disappoint. Between their amazing fashion and lesbian-like entrance, fashion gurus and pervs alike were satisfied. Not surprisingly, Tara and Angelina were given separate entrances. Tara was out before the Knockouts Champion and she took the time to pose with a guy who was holding a sign that read “Tara’s Future X-Husband.” Amazing. Tara was sporting a St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball cap (gag) and she had her precious baby with her as well. Tara gives a disgusted So Cal Val the spider, tosses the baseball cap to the crowd, and makes her way into the ring where TBP are just chillaxing. Angelina Love is out last and Velvet Sky starts to mock her ex-BFF by running around the ring with her hands behind her back mimicking being handcuffed.
Angelina pays no attention and starts pose, basking in her championship glory. She holds the belt up, showing it off, and finally gets into the ring in her own beautiful person style. She hands the title off to the referee, who shows off all three belts. Angelina and Tara don’t really seem to agree on who will start the match off, but Angelina eventually does and she takes Velvet down with a nice, girly spear. Velvet ends up getting beat on for a few seconds before she escapes, but since she’s not Houdini, she can’t make herself disappear. Angelina easily catches her and connects with an elbow, taking Velvet to the mat. Velvet is clearly flustered and scrambles to her corner while begging the referee for a time out. There’s no time outs in wrestling so Velvet smartly makes the tag and we get out first look at Madison.
Angelina drags Madison into the ring by her hair and immediately slams her down. It’s a pretty brutal looking slam and the champ smartly goes for the cover. Madison is able to kick out. Madison fights back with a jawbreaker-like move and Angelina tags out. Tara comes in swinging and connects with Madison’s head. She easily takes control over the smaller woman, but Madison is able to gain the upper-hand by using a cheap tactic, and she scrambles to her corner and tags in Velvet. Velvet is kindly greeted by a drop toe hold, then Tara flips over into a bridge position and wrenches back on Vel’s neck. Beautiful submission hold. Tara flips back over, turning the move into a front facelock. Tara snaps off a suplex, goes for a pin, but Velvet isn’t ready to be counted out yet. Tara pulls her up and chops her to the ropes. She goes for a whip, but Velvet is able to reverse and Tara finds herself flung across the ring. Madison is waiting and unfairly grabs a handful of Tara’s hair. Tara goes down and it’s advantage Beautiful People.
Velvet goes for a cover, but Tara muscles out and Velvet starts beating on her. In a cool move, Velvet places her boot on Tara’s throat, pulls her up by the arms, and starts beating her into the mat. I love it. Velvet goes for her third cover in the span of less than a minute, but of course Tara gets out of it. Velvet looks disgusted and holds onto to Tara while she makes the tag to Madison. They double team Tara for a moment and it leads into a pinning attempt by Madison. Tara kicks out once again and gives Madison a chance to cater to said pervs and do her porno-style head lock face slam thing. After flirting with the crowd, Madison tags Velvet back in. The Beautiful People try another pin attempt but Tara kicks out and this time she starts fighting back.
Tara lays into Velvet’s midsection with a few right hands and once she’s back to her feet, she suplexes Velvet down to the ground. Tara looks over at Angelina and orders her to watch, and then climbs to the top rope. She tries for a moonsault on Velvet, but Velvet has moved and Tara is now in a world of hurt. Angelina is trying to rally her reluctant teammate, and the Beautiful People are encouraging Velvet to make the tag. Both girls are able to get to their respective partners and Angelina comes in on fire. She starts whipping Madison into shape and doesn’t let Velvet distract her from it. The Canadian totally nails her former bestie and throws her into the corner. She picks up Madison and throws her into Velvet. Angelina is looking to hurt both members of the Beautiful People and backs up towards her corner. Before she can take off running, Tara tags herself in.
Angelina has no choice but to get out of the ring and Tara destroys Madison with the Widow’s Peak. Velvet thankfully breaks up the pin, saving the tag team titles for the Beautiful People. Angelina comes in and starts beating the hell out of Velvet, causing a distraction for everyone involved. Lacey von Erich makes her presence felt by opening the door to the cage and sneaking into the ring. She slams Tara in the head with one of the title belts, and Madison scoots into position for a pin. The referee makes the count and ohmygosh, Madison Rayne wins the match.
And becomes the new TNA Knockouts Champion.
Angelina’s face sums up the entire situation. “Did that really just happen?” Yes, Angelina, it did. No one seems to believe it but the Beautiful People who are now the sole owners of all three Knockout belts. Angelina’s shock turns to anger and she paces around the ring, unsure of what to do. What can she do? The Beautiful People are gloating and rightfully so. Angelina’s eyes lock on Tara and the blonde, now ex-champion, is livid. Tara attempts to explain what happened but Angelina doesn’t seem interested in listening. She finally pulls Tara to her feet but instead of fighting, Angelina turns her back and walks away.
And Tara attacks.
She clubs Angelina in the back and then throws her face first into the cage. Angelina goes down like a ton of bricks and it looks like she died, because she gets all limp. Tara starts to twitch and get a little crazy, and smartly leaves the ring before she really does murder Angelina on national television.
Nice.
The Good: Glorified “jobber” and ex-laughing stock of TNA, young Madison Rayne, is now the TNA Knockout Champion. In my opinion, this is a great change of pace. As much as I would love seeing Daffney with the title, I’m pleased that all of Madison’s hard work in TNA has paid off. She got off to a horribly unfair start in TNA and now it’s the 24-year old’s time to shine. Not only is Madison the first woman to hold the SHIMMER and TNA Tag Team Titles, she becomes the first woman to hold the TNA Tag Team and Knockout Championships. If that’s not a rub, then I don’t know what is. Madison has steadily improved since her arrival in TNA and she’s really come into her own. She’s the best wrestler out of all the Beautiful People and her character has improved tremendously. She’s becoming a great “mean girl” and I hope TNA gives her a pretty lengthy title reign.
Tara’s heel turn was good as well. It’s been a long time coming because lets face it, Tara is slowly becoming stale as a face. TNA won’t give her a chance to hold the title for a long period of time so this heel turn is the best thing that could have happened to her. She will no doubt feud with Angelina and the attack came off as great. Tara is always impressive as a crazy type of character and I want to see her reunite with Dr. Stevie! The fact she tossed Angelina into the cage was great because throughout the whole match, the cage was never used until Lacey opened the door. Why have a steel cage match and not use it as a weapon? Well that’s TNA for you, but at least Tara got the memo about cages being made of steel and she made Angelina pay for picking the Knockouts Championship out of a Lockbox.
Last but not least, Lacey von Erich proved to be a good thing, at least for the Beautiful People. Had it not been for Lacey’s intuition, TBP would not be the holders of all three title belts. I told all of you that Lacey would play a pivotal role come Lockdown, and once again, I was right.
The Bad: Well I didn’t really see anything bad about this match. It had good length, lots of antics, and there were no commercial interruptions. Everyone did fairly well in the ring and the aftermath came off well. The Knockouts had a great night for the most part. I guess if I had to pick, I would have liked to see the cage get used more. We all know the Knockouts can go hardcore so hopefully they’ll step it up tonight on Impact with whatever they get to do.
The Ugly: The Knockouts Championship belt continues to be the dirty whore of TNA. After sleeping with Angelina for a couple of weeks, it now makes it home in the beautiful bed of Madison Rayne. I don’t know why TNA is making this title into a mockery, but at least a fresh face is holding it now. And at the end of the day, that’s what matters. We have a new champion in TNA and the belt changed hands in an actual match. That’s pretty impressive for TNA nowadays so I’m not going to complain.
To sum all of this up, congratulations to Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky, and Lacey von Erich for having all three championships. Extra congratulations to Madison who has her first singles championship (to my knowledge) and for making history. She’s turning into an amazing talent in the wrestling world and here’s hoping TNA does right by her. And finally, congratulations to Tara who finally gets to turn heel. It’s what she does best and I hope she does end up as Daffney’s partner tonight.
Match Rating: 3.5/5*
