Hola Knockout fans and welcome to a special TNA One Night Only PPV Write-Up! While many Knockout fans look forward to the annual special Knockouts Knockdown PPV, the all exclusive PPV dedicated to the women of TNA and outside TNA, there are still other One Night Only PPVs to be seen throughout the year, some of which feature some Knockouts action that may be overlooked. With that being said, when applicable, there will be a Write-Up for the other TNA One Night Only PPVs.
Warning: This recap contains a spoiler for an upcoming match on this week’s edition of Impact Wrestling!
This month’s One Night Only PPV is TNA’s Joker Wild 3. In this special event, there will be eight teams selected at random with the winners of each team moving on to a final Battle Royal, where every participant will compete for a grand prize of $100, 000!
Standing by the trusty raffle drum to call out the random names that will pair up in this tournament is the always dependable Jeremy Borash along with fellow ring announcer Christy Hemme. After calling the names of match number one, where the random team (and I use the word “random” loosely) of Jessie Godderz and Robbie E defeated Mr. Anderson and Al Snow, it is time for tag match number two. The first name to be drawn out is the third member of the BroMans DJ Z. With his fellow Bros already moving on to the finals, DJ Z looks to join them by picking up the win in this next match, regardless of who is partner may turn out to be. The luck of the draw pulls out the name of Samuel Shaw for DJ Z, who even under his mask looks content to be teaming up with the creepy bastard and misunderstood artist.
As this newly form team enter the ring, Jeremy Borash pulls out the first name of the team they will be facing. This first name turns out to be the name of Rockstar Spud, who is sporting his new bald look but still holding on to his trusty bow ties. As the name of Rockstar Spud’s tag team partner is pulled out from the basket, there is a bit of a pause coming from Borash. He sees the name and tentatively announces that Rockstar Spud’s tag partner is Awesome Kong!? Wow, what a lucky night for Rockstar Spud! Suddenly this unlikely combination has the potential to seriously become my favorite random pairing since Beth Phoenix and Santino!
While Awesome Kong enters this match with kinds of serious attitude, Rockstar Spud can’t seem to stop grinning at the awe of his partner and really, who could blame him? Trying to charm his way to Awesome Kong, he insists that he start the match and even holds the ropes for Awesome Kong as she exits the ring to stand by for whenever he needs to make a tag.
Starting off on the opposite team is DJ Z and as the bell rings, Spud and DJ Z tie up with Spud able to lock in headlock. DJ Z manages to escape but is immediately taken down by a drop kick from the little man. Proud of himself, he makes a quick stop to his partner’s corner, flexing his guns and breaking out some dance moves all to which seem amusing to Kong. Instead, Kong tags herself in with no arguments from Spud and goes after DJ Z.
DJ Z doesn’t let Kong’s gender get in the way of this match. He locks in a head lock to Kong and toys with Kong’s dreadlocks. DJ Z also gets in Kong’s face to do a bit of trash talking and just as he seems to run away, Kong pulls his trendy hair and takes him down. Suddenly intimidated by Kong, DJ Z turns to his partner Samuel Shaw and makes a tag.The creepy mustache Knockout loving resident eyes his female foe but Rockstar Spud interjects and pleads for Kong to step aside, guarding her so that he may take on Samuel instead. Samuel shoves Spud out of the way he can refocus on Kong but it takes more than a shove to keep Spud down, as he quickly climbs on the back of Samuel. Samuel promptly rids Spud but Spud gets back up and continues to fight to keep his partner safe with numerous whirlwind jabs to Samuel until DJ Z puts a stop to it with a kick from behind.
Samuel now in control of the match begins a beatdown on Spud, landing several blows as Spud down which causes senior referee Earl Hebner to begin a count down. Shaw lets go but then sniffs the official all the way out to the ring and weirdly touches him? Quite a different approach to a ref bumps eh?
Back in the ring, Spud manages to outsmart Samuel’s offense and runs to make a tag to Kong, who enters the ring with full force, taking out the newly tagged in DJ Z and Samuel. She clotheslines her opponents and quickly whips them each to a turnbuckle, stacking them up before charging right after them! Don’t let Kong’s size fool you, the woman has speed! Kong follows up by grabbing a handful of Shaw’s knackers and throws him out of the ring. She then lands a choke slam to DJ Z but doesn’t go for the pin right away. Instead she extends her hand to her partner Spud, who climbs the turnbuckle and onto the tip top of Kong’s head. The end result of this unique team work is a cross body from the top of Kong’s noggin, for some extra elevation, turned pin for the three count win and advancement to the finals!
There’s more than your ordinary celebration post match, as Spud faints after locking lips with Awesome Kong, who carries him over her shoulders as they exit to the back. Would wanting to see more of the dream team now known as “Awesome Spud” on Impact Wrestling too much to ask for?
Awesome Kong was not the only Knockout to take part in this year’s Joker Wild Card. During match number seven, there would be yet another intergender tag match taking place. The first name to be pulled out in this match is the luchador Tigre Uno and his tag partner turns out to be fellow masked wrestler and member of The Revolution, Manik.
As these two X-Division stars wait in the ring, the name of their first opponent turns out to be quite the surprise as a returning Sonjay Dutt name is pulled out! As if things couldn’t get even more surprising, it would turn out that Sonjay Dutt’s partner for the night would not be a fellow X-Division star but rather a TNA Knockout, that Knockout being Gail Kim! Who else better than the likes of Gail Kim to mix it up with some of these X-Division stars? I can’t bear the excitement to see Gail in some intergender combat!
Starting things up will be the Sonjay and Tigre and the speedy action happens as soon as the bell rings, with Sonjay and Tigre trading arm drags and feint dropkicks. Having seen enough, Manik tags himself in and begins to work on Sonjay’s left arm with an arm wrench. Sonjay manages to free from Manik’s lock with an arm wrench of his own with Gail cheering on her partner, wanting in on the action.
Gail gets her chance when Sonjay makes the tag but Manik doesn’t seem thrilled to go toe-to-toe with the inaugural Knockouts champion. Instead, he gently shoves Gail out of his way but Gails responds with a shove of her own. No longer being a nice guy, Manik decides to shove Gail with full force, taking her down. From the outside, Manik starts to pull out some high flying moves with a spring board dropkick but misses when Gail dodges out the way. For her part, Gail begins her own X-Division like moveset by hopping on top of Manik and using her leg strength to take down Manik. Keeping the momentum going, Gail locks Manik’s arm and climbs the top rope lucha libre style. An interfering Tigre tries to make a save but he is taken out when Gail flies off and hits him with a head scissors while also landing a spring board arm drag at the same time to Manik! Way to go Gail!
After cornering Manik to a turnbuckle, Gail launches her corner cross body towards Manik but Manik endures it and pulls Gail by the hair and throwing her down to the center of the ring. The dirty tactics from Manik continue when he steps on Gail’s hair as she is down and he pulls her arms towards her. The deed causes the ref to begin a court out and naturally Manik lets go.
Looking to change things up, Manik tosses Gail to a turnbuckle head first and tries to connect a speedy strike but only gets a taste of Gail’s boot when she is able to lift her leg up on time. She follows up with a Flying Dragon but Manik reverses this in to a leg submission. To counter this, Gail gets a hold of Manik’s leg and rolls him over for a pin fall but only gets a two count. She flees to her partner and makes a tag to Sonjay.
Sonjay does his best to better against team opponents but his masked foes are able to keep control of the match, tagging in each other regularly and landing striking kicks along with swift supplex. From the outside ring, an on looking Gail gets fired up and rallies for Sonjay to make a tag. The chance arises when Sonjay drops Manik head first to a second turnbuckle leading to a tag for both teams.
With the hot tag made, Gail and Tigre re-enter this match with Gail ducking Tigre’s attempt at a clothesline. She follows up chops and an tries to whip Tigre to a corner only to have Tigre reverse this and send Gail to a corner instead. Gail manages to bear off an oncoming Tigre with a big boot and just like as before with Manik, Gail hurdles on top of Tigre’s head and delivers a hurricanrana to Tigre. She then climbs the turnbuckle for a corner cross body and in to a pin only to have Tigre kick out before the three count.
Manik rejoins Tigre in the ring with the chance of planning a two on one attack onto to Gail, sending her to the rope Gail ducks her masked foes forearms and this allows for tag partner Sonjay to make a quick tag. He takes out both Tigre and Manik with a double clothesline.
Still wanting in on the action, Gail hits the Eat Defeat to Manik (who by the way sells it like a champion) and another Eat Defeat to Tigre as well. With Tigre down, the legal man Sonja climbs the top rope and hits a high flying splash turn into pin for the three count, assuring himself and Gail positions as participants of the final battle royal gauntlet.
The winner of the eventual battle royal would turn out to be Bobby Lashley and, due to the unavailability to a video of the match, we will have to skip over the big match that both Awesome Kong and Gail Kim qualified for.
Thoughts: Well, what an event full of wacky and fun match ups!
I was surprised to have seen that not one but two intergender tag matches took place in this event. Of course, the two Knockouts participating were Knockouts, who in my eyes, can easily square off in a match between some male wrestlers on the current TNA roster.
Yes, the Spud/Kong match against Shaw/DJ Z was more comical than actual competitive but certainly we saw Kong handle herself well during the few spots where she was able to use her size and power to match up against her male opponents. Again, for me personally, I just love the idea of Rockstar Spud and Awesome Kong joining forces as a team or maybe even something more. They are total opposites from each other and for anyone who has seen Spud’s role as a manager to the Carters, they know how well and charismatic the guy is. Should by some wrestling miracle the two move pair up on the main show, Kong would have that missing mouth piece missing that the likes of Raisha Saeed provided during the early days of the Knockouts division. Will Spud and Kong actually happen? Highly unlikely but hey you never know!
Onto Gail’s intergender tag match, this had a more serious tone compared to Kong’s tag match. How amazing did Gail look as a member though she was a member of the X-Division in this tag match? Gail just has that versatility and speed that pretty much qualifies her as a member of the division. The woman has accomplished so much as a Knockout as it is, so I was really glad to see TNA test the waters with Gail and throw in her in a new kind of environment.
While Gail has gone on record to say she prefers wrestling with women over men, I do hope we still get to see more of Gail in intergender contests, even if it’s just through these special One Night Only PPVs. They would help give these special events a more unique vibe, which in a sense should be what these PPVs should be all about.
