At Bound for Glory, Knockout fans would see the culmination of the feud that has been building for the past few weeks. The insertion of the newest Knockout, Mickie James, as the special referee was a wild card added on just last Thursday. Would the match really be more of a tag team effort (as the Beautiful People have led us to believe), or will fragile alliances break under the pressure (how deep is Tara‘s loyalty to Madison really?) as the Knockouts Championship is on the line? And where would Mickie fall in all of this? Lets find out…
We open with Christy Hemme backstage with Madison Rayne and Tara. Madison proceeds to shred Christy verbally, unloading on the poor redhead her frustrations and fury. The promo is actually pretty hilarious and well done, with Tara providing the straight face in the background. Words can’t do it justice, you should have a listen for yourself. I’m loving Madison on the mic!
Once the interview is done, we see a video package detailing how this feud came to be, with several of the past interviews from each woman spliced in. Also included is how Miss Tessmacher came to be the Knockouts Division supervisor – something she has done a particularly good job at so far. The “Tale of the Tape” brings us up to speed before we fade back into the arena.
“HARDCORE COUNTRY!” blares over the speakers (I’m sorry, I can’t take that music seriously…how cheesy can you get?) and out skips Mickie James, who gets a loud welcome from the crowd. She looks fantastic in her referee shirt, hair done up properly. She feels genuinely enthusiastic to be there. After her entrance into the ring, new music plays and out come Madison Rayne and Tara, guiding the motorbike down the ramp instead of coming through the crowd. Very nice bike!
The two are in their usual gear and make their now-usual entrance into the ring, still chummy up to this point. Now the original Beautiful People music blares, signalling the arrival of Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. Their outfits look to be the same as they wore last Thursday, which suits me just fine as they look nice and even match somewhat. There looks to be a bit of a conflict between Angelina and Mickie when it comes to handing over the title belt. This passes, allowing Mickie to show off the belt as is customary. The crowd pops abit for her holding the title, which she acknowledges with a small smirk. In a funny moment, she goes to hand the title off to an assistant on the right side of the ring – only, unlike in the WWE, there’s no one on that side. She reverses course and hands the belt off. Looks like we’ll be starting out with Angelina vs Madison as the bell rings…
Or not. Out of pure spite Madison tags in Velvet, screeching at her to get in there and wrestle Angelina. She does, reluctantly, but in a show of good sportswomanship, the two high five each other before locking up. There’s actually a nice bit of spot wrestling between the two, each getting several near falls, before knocking each other down with a shoulder block. Throughout this exchange Madison can be heard screeching at both women and the referee. As the two roll to the sides, Madison hits Velvet, tagging herself in to take advantage of Angelina’s still groggy state. But even as she charges at Love, she gets a drop toe hold for her trouble. Angelina goes for a whip into the corner but it’s reversed, getting slammed into the corner. When Rayne charges, Love gets both boots up but Madison’s no fool – she grabs both feet, swings them around into the middle rope and slams Angelina down to the canvas in a hard move! Choking out Angelina, Madison gets pulled off by Mickie and immediately gets in the referee’s face with quite a psychotic look!
The distraction costs Madison, however, as Angelina gets in a spat of offense before going for a cover, but it’s broken up by Tara. Angelina starts towards Tara, however she sees Madison coming in time to block her offense and get in some of her own. Being slammed down near her corner, Madison tags in Tara. The raven haired lady blocks Angelina’s attempted kick and grabs her by the hair, hoisting her on her own back until Mickie’s count breaks it up. While she’s busy jawing with the ref, Angelina rolls to her own corner, where Velvet tags herself in. She goes on the offense, getting some nice chops on Tara, before whipping her off the ropes. It’s reversed, but on the come back, Sky nails a nice headscissors takedown! Velvet tries for a cover but only gets two.
Gathering Tara up, interestingly enough, Velvet goes for a submission, which looks like half abdominal stretch, half octopus – something I’ve not seen out of Miss Sky before. Nice! Tara refuses to give in, so Vel-Vel manuvers around until she gets a sunset flip into a pin. Tara rolls through and hits a short dropkick to Velvet’s chest (which actually doesn’t connect….). Tara folds up Velvet’s legs but gets two for her trouble.
Tara tries a suplex but Velvet blocks, countering with one of her own. She then gets in a flurry of offense that finishes with a running bulldog. The resulting pin only gets two. She’s apparently getting her second wind but a sneak kick from Madison to her back sends Sky to her knees. Angelina’s had enough at this point and enters the ring, rushing over to hit Madison. She turns back around only to get a stiff fist from Tara which sends her to the canvas. It’s turning into chaos as all four women are in the ring, hitting each other with fists. Tara gets Angelina with a swinging sidewalk slam, Velvet hits Tara with a dropkick to the chest (this one actually connects!), Madison slams Velvet’s face into her knee, Angelina hits a sit out jaw breaker on Madison and a Botox Injection on Tara! She turns only to be met with some kind of stiff move from Madison which sees her face/head driven into Madison’s lower leg. Angelina rolls out of the ring and Madison turns – just to be hit with an Implant DDT!
Madison rolls to the apron as Tara attempts to hit the Widow’s Peak but Velvet slips out of it, grabbing Tara by the waist and rushing her forward into the ropes (which knocks Rayne onto the floor and onto Angelina), then rolling her up into a pin. Mickie goes for the count but Tara reverses and with the leverage of holding Vel’s tights she gets the three count! Your new Knockout Champion: Tara!
Tara celebrates for a micro second before her eyes grow wide. We can clearly see her say, “Oh shit” as she realizes…she won the title. Not Madison, whom she is indebted to. There is a fabulous shot of Madison peeking over the top of the apron, eyes wide in disbelief as Tara is handed the belt, her expression turning to fury as she climbs into the ring. Her face is enough to send me into giggles because it’s just too damn perfect! She is pissed and going to let her erst-while bodyguard know it. However, whilst making her way to Tara, she pushes Mickie aside, then starts to berate the hell outta the black haired champion. Tara tries to explain but Madison’s having none of it. After a few minutes, Mickie attempts to pull Madison back but gets shoved on her keister for her troubles. We see Mickie’s face curl into a grin, as if she was just waiting for this to happen. She stands, marches over to Rayne and DECKS her hard, sending the former Beautiful Person to the ground. Tara grows furious but does nothing but go to her partner’s side as Mickie smiles – and blows Tara a kiss as she exits the ring. The two are left there to glare at Mickie James.
This has not turned out the way Madison Rayne wanted it to. But this does create tension between the two. Will Tara honor her commitment and make things right between her and Rayne? Or will Mickie get to her first? The next few tapings should be interesting…
Later in the evening, after Jay Lethal retained the X-Division title, he was jumped in the crowd by Robbie E, who layed him out in the ring. He was accompanied by Cookie, and the two let their intentions be known. Robbie’s looking for X-Division gold. However, we didn’t get to hear Cookie speak except for her catchphrase: “JERSEY’S IN THE HOUSE, BITCHES!” These two were looking to make an immediate impact, and they’ve done just that.
All in all, I enjoyed the Knockout’s match. There were no noticeable botches, except for Tara’s dropkick to Velvet, but the MVP of the night is definitely Velvet Sky. Sure, she’s no ring technician but she impressed me by working most of the match and doing really well at it. I actually wouldn’t have minded if she’d won, it would’ve been a great swerve. We’ll find out where the Beautiful People, as well as Tara and the Rayne, go from here…
