Greetings and salutations Knockout fans! We are midway of a brand new month, which means it’s time for a new TNA One Night Only PPV recap; which helps fill some of the void from the absence of TNA’s once regular monthly PPV. This month’s TNA One Night Only PPV is Xtravaganza, a special show featuring loads of X-Division action.
While this themed show brings the spotlight to the great talent in the X-Division, TNA have not excluded their Knockouts from a spot on the card as Madison Rayne, Angelina Love, Brooke, Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell compete against each other in an all out ladder match! The prize for this match: a contract for a future Knockouts Title match.
Before any physicality from this match can begin, Christy Hemme manages to get an exclusive interview from one of the contestants of the match; a woman who has already participated in such a match, Taryn Terrell. Ignoring the fact that she’s now a heel on the main show, Taryn puts on her (then) babyface game face and recalls her highly praised ladder match against Gail Kim. While Gail may have won that particular match but Taryn sees this Five-Way Ladder match as another opportunity to prove herself and catch everyone by surprise yet again.
With Christy Hemme busy conducting interviews backstage, ring introduction duties fall on Jeremy Borash (who is also serving commentary with Josh Mathews) as he makes first introduction to the Queen Bee Madison Rayne. The Killer Queen bows her head at the entrance ramp and makes her way to the ring but not without taunting a few of the audience in the Impact Zone. Out next is the record breaking six-time Knockouts champion Angelina Love, who pauses before entering the ring to take a quick glance at the ladders that would be used in this contest.
Bootyful Brooke music hits next (although Josh Matthews confuses it with Taryn’s ‘Hot Mess’ theme song) and salutes the crowd. Fourth participant Gail Kim finds her way to the ring next and the first Knockouts champion takes a moment to climb one of the provided ladders outside the ring as JB, once again, drops the idea of Gail being the first Knockout inducted to the TNA Hall of Fame. PERHAPS this all just foreshadowing a special announcement coming with Slammiversary just around the corner. Last but certainly not least is Taryn Terrell, who like Gail, includes one of the ladders as part of her entrance, climbing to the top with all the confidence in the world.
With all our participating Knockouts now in the ring and ready to go, the official bell rings, almost acting as a race horn as all of the women are quick to exit to the ring for a ladder! Angelina, Gail and Brooke duking it out for one ladder while Madison and Taryn fight it out for the other. Madison takes care of Taryn with a suplex on the entrance ramp, while Brooke best out in her collision to provide the first ladder in the ring.
Before Brooke can set up the ladder, in comes a charging Gail taking out Brooke with a flying forearm. With Brooke down, Gail decides to set up the ladder herself but gets a rude awakening when an unsuspecting Angelina attacks from behind, sending Gail to a corner causing her face to come in contact with the ladder in hand. When Angelina finds her way back to the six sided ring, Madison is not far behind and the two former Beautiful People teammates double team Brooke.
With Angelina and Madison occupied with Brooke, Gail sets up a ladder on turnbuckle before turning her attention to Angelina. Brooke joins Gail on the offense against Angelina, returning the favor from her two on one attack. Gail and Brooke throw in an incoming Angelina to the ladder carefully placed by Gail causing some hard damage to Angelina’s upper body. The team work between Gail and Brooke comes to an end when the two are in disagreement of who takes the ladder next. Fortunate for them, Taryn decided neither would have control over the ladder when she takes both of them out with a dropkick to the ladder.
Before Taryn can take new ownership of the ladder, Madison interjects to claim the ladder for her own. She strikes at Taryn and quickly sets up the ladder to a corner where she would send Taryn to face first. To add more bruises and scratches to Taryn’s beautiful face, Maddison decides to climb the cornered ladder and using her leg strength, hit Taryn with a sequence of face crushers onto the ladder.
Madison looks to be the first to set up the ladder in the ring but Brooke gets in the way and takes Madison out with a Tess-Shocker onto the ladder? Just when Brooke is able to get a hold of the ladder, Gail too reaches for the ladder. This ladder tug-of-war rematch ends quickly Gail hits an Eat Defeat out of nowhere! Instead of setting up the ladder, Gail carefully place the ladder onto the second rope where she has other plan that involve Taryn.
Gail sends Taryn to a turnbuckle and follows up with a fast corner cross body. Things look to be all going well for Gail until Angelina takes aim and lands a Botox Injection, causing Gail to fall off the ring apron and onto a floating ladder just above the ground!
One Botox Injection isn’t enough for Angelina, as she hits a second one on a ladder carrying Taryn. With everyone now down, Angelina becomes the sole woman to rightfully position the ladder in the center of the ring. She begins climbing the ladder with the hopes of retrieving the future Knockouts title contract and potentially setting a new record for Knockout Championship reigns.
Madison foils Angelina’s agenda, taking her down as she climbs up the ladder. When the two come to the ground, they exchange punches before deciding to take their battle up the ladder. While the ladder war between Angelina and Madison is taking place, Brooke kills two birds with one stones when she pushes the ladder off, sending the once Beautiful People crashing and burning.
The ladder is reapportioned in the middle of the ring again thanks to Brooke but just when Brooke turns around she is hit with a spear from Taryn! This match has just been full of non-stop action!
Taryn suddenly finds herself on close reach of the ladder and using every ounce of strength she has left, begins to climb upward. Gail is right behind Taryn’s trail and pulls off Taryn midway through her way to the top. It’s déjà vu when a bout between Gail and Taryn at the top of the ladder begins.
Gail reaches high for hanging contract but, unlike last time, Brooke inserts herself in this battle by pulling Gail’s leg from the middle ladder and trapping her in between the ladder. With Gail temporary immobilized, Brooke takes Gail’s position and climbs ladder. Once at the top, Brooke manages to push Taryn off the ladder. Being the only woman left standing on the ladder, Brooke reaches for the contract is able to remove it from the clipboard but it slips from her fingers when Gail pulls Brooke’s leg, causing her to fall off the ladder.
This ladder match now turns into a race for the fallen contract. Taryn climbs the ladder, unaware that the contract she seeks is now somewhere on the ring mat. When realization kicks in, Taryn climbs down the ladder as does Gail and just by a dive, Taryn is able to get to the contract first, thus declaring her the winner and a future title match for the Knockouts Championship… for whenever she may not be champion.
Thoughts: A very daring and physical match to say the least.
As already mentioned, there was a lot of action going on all through out the match, something I wonder how would play out with so many women involved. Still, the Knockouts pulled it off throughly and each of them deserve their fair share of props for the number of ladder spots/bumps each of them took.
As with the previous TNA One Night Only PPV’s, there may not be a storyline or a title in place to carry some of these matches but I think it’s always a nice touch when TNA is able to make the most of them and give us these “special matches” for the Knockouts. It can help serve as a break from all the action happening on TNA’s regular Impact Wrestling programming.
Since all of these One Night Only PPVs have been taped in advance, there will be moments when we have a situation when a talent, in this case Taryn, is playing a Face although they may have turned Heel, vice-versa, which can come across as contradicting from their present time characters but keep in mind that these PPVs mean close to nothing to what carries on to the main shows.
Speaking of these kinds of connections, I’m not entirely convinced that the contract Taryn won will actually be used down the line of the main show, where she is currently Knockouts Champion. Much like with TNA’s One Night Only Hardcore Justice where The Wolves won a ladder match for a future Tag Team title match against The Revolution, it’s very possible that these contracts were simply being used as props for the match. Then again, when it comes to TNA, you just never know!
