Hola Knockout fans and welcome to our first TNA PPV in review. Now, I know I’ve been guilty on missing out on several ONO PPVs and Xplosion matches featuring the Knockouts within the last four or six months. Reason being is that my schedule just really piled up in 2016 and by the time I was able to sit down to catch on any of said Knockouts action, the window of time relevancy just felt off.
Of course, I don’t want to keep anymore excuses going forward, so one of my New Year’s resolution will be to commit to more coverage for the women of TNA and what better way to start that than with a LIVE Knockouts title match between Rosemary and Sienna!
Though her enforcer was involved in a big Knockouts title match, Maria Kanellis accompanies her husband Mike Bennett in his No Holds Barred match against for friend Moose. Maybe Maria should’ve stood by Sienna, as she takes a nasty accidental spear from her husband for trying to get involved in his match.
Before we dive to our Knockouts title match, we welcome back TNA Hall of Famer Gail Kim to the Impact Zone. Looking as beautiful as ever, Gail gives the audience and fans at home watching an update on her health condition. She opens up by confirming that she isn’t medically cleared to wrestle but she is NOT retiring!
She calls out Rosemary and promises to come back for the Knockouts Championship. With that being said, out come Rosemary with some new entrance music; I’m going to miss The Nobodies theme, it was a perfect fit!
Standing across from the six time Knockouts Champion, Rosemary pokes fun at Gail’s recent surgery and begins to doubt she is actually injured. Maybe, Rosemary questions, its Gail’s soul that isn’t ready to compete again.
Gail has heard enough and begins to get physical with Rosemary but TNA officials separate the women. Rosemary dismisses Gail and calls out for her opponent Sienna. A brawl breakout before Sienna can even make it to the ring but the sound of the bell rings.
Rosemary takes Sienna down with a clothesline but acting referee Earl Hebner demands that Knockouts take things to the ring. Before this can happen, Sienna makes the most of the outside ring setting by clotheslining Rosemary on the apron and driving her back to it as well.
Eventually, the Knockouts do make it to the ring but its all Sienna, who keeps Rosemary grounded with strong kicks and corner splash. Sienna goes for another speedy attack but Rosemary is able to get the boot up this time to counter out. The champion takes a chance to apply an illegal hold with the use of the ring ropes but breaks it at the ref’s count of four.
Rosemary slides back to the outside but the challenger stalks behind, driving Rosemary face first to a nearby chair. Sienna tosses Rosemary back to the ring and, in a surprise tactic, begins to bite Rosemary’s finger. Sienna follows up with a senton from the second rope but misses Rosemary.
Despite missing her attack, Sienna manages to maintain control over Rosemary with a Samoan Drop, kneed backbreaker and even a running big boot to the chest. Rosemary bounces back and combats Sienna with speed, landing in a roundhouse kick, running clothesline and a diving elbow shot from the second rope!
Rosemary goes for her Red Wedding finisher but Sienna is able to reverse this and connect the Silencer. In fact, Sienna hits the Silencer so hard, it causes Rosemary to fall through the bottom rope and to the outside ring.
Sienna fetches Rosemary, tosses her back to the ring and looks at the Knockouts title that lies on the floor. “You’re about to be mines baby” states Sienna, who goes for the pin cover which Rosemary kicks out of just in time.
An argument between Sienna and Earl breaks out, ending with Sienna shoving Earl out of her way. With his back turned, Rosemary blinds Sienna with her illegal mist and easily maneuvers in the Red Wedding that puts Sienna away. Rosemary is still your Knockouts Champion!
Thoughts: I’m pretty sure we all knew that Rosemary was going to retain her title, mostly because there was no way TNA would have had titles change hands on a ONO event. Still, if there was ever a chance for it to happen on a ONO PPV, why not have it happen on a Live one? It’ll give fans more of a reason to want to view these PPVs over the “gimmick” style ones; which isn’t a jab to the ONO series. After all, Joker’s Wild, Hardcore Justice and Knockouts Knockdown are all personal favorites of mines. It’s just the idea of having live TNA PPVs that I miss instead of just having Slammiversary and Bound for Glory PPVs to look forward to.
Though the results of this match was predictable, it doesn’t mean that this match wasn’t enjoyable – it was refreshing and very competitive! I loved seeing a heel vs. heel style match, which is something we don’t see to often play out on television. There was a fair time given to the women, Sienna looked dominate while Rosemary wouldn’t go down with a fight! Though both women are part of their respective stables, I’m glad that this match was a sole one-on-one match with no interference from anyone.
The pre-Gail segment was interesting, as it gave us a chance to really know that it’ll be some time before Gail returns to the ring. This not only allows for the rest of the division to begin to flourish in these first months of 2016 but it also gives TNA a chance to really repackage Gail when she does become medically cleared for a in-ring return. Perhaps she can return as a heel, which is a suggestion I see thrown around a lot. Maybe have her follow up on being a mentor to Jade in a non-wrestling role until Gail turns on her.
After all, if we are trying to successfully build the next generation of Knockouts, we need to establish these new names in memorable feuds and great match-ups which we know the current division are capable of. Sienna and Rosemary certainly were able to prove that they can put on a show, now we just need to add some creative drive behind them.
What did you think of the Knockouts title match? Would you like to see more TNA One Night Only Live PPVs? How would you book Gail’s eventual return? Let us know in the comments below!
