Hello there everybody, and welcome to your official TNA Sacrifice review! Heading into tonight’s big show, the match booked was none other than Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim defending against the ever improving, Brooke Tessmacher. Tessmacher has scored three wins against the champion, but can she make it a clean sweep with the gold on the line? Or will Gail continue to prove why her reign has been so dominant? To find out, let us get to recapping and put a stop to all of this side chatter.
Before the bout, we are treated to a dandy video package promoting Brooke’s rise up the ranks to the status she’s at today. Once the clip comes to a finish, we then go over the tale of the tape as this odd catchy theme song plays behind it that causes me to become distracted to learn the lyrics. The tale of the tape closes, and we all soon live a mixture of both Taz’s and my own fantasies as the pan up shot of Christy Hemme (his fantasy), mixes in with the theme song of Brooke Tessmacher (my fantasy). Christy announces the Knockouts Title match, and out walks Brooke giving me even more Candice Michelle vibes than before… and I love it!
Brooke slides up onto the ring apron and removes the Candice coat to reveal a new version of her Texas gear, but she is soon cut off by the STILL addicting, yet STILL lyricless theme song of our Knockouts Champion. Gail does not look amused tonight, but she still grants the crowd with her ring apron pose and taunts them with her championship and an evil scowl. The referee tries to raise the title up in the air, but he can barely separate these two as Gail takes Tessmacher down early on. She drags Brooke to the corner and kicks away at her stomach, before dropping her with a snapmare and a kick. Gail then sends Brooke off the ropes, but Brooke comes back with a nice monkey flip and a… wow! Amazing hurricanrana.
Okay, after a lengthy number of replays of that beautiful move, Tessmacher goes for the Eat Defeat, but Gail slides out. Brooke proceeds to flip Kim and level her with some punches and a dropkick. Gail throws her into the corner, but Brooke fights back with a springboard clothesline for a two count! Brooke attempts the Eat Defeat again, but Gail rolls out and jumps onto Brooke’s back. After a stiff kick to the head, Gail continues to control Brooke with a huge clothesline, but only scores a near fall. Tessmacher tries to fight out but falls victim to a knee to the abdomen. Kim hits her elastic move in the corner and slams Brooke down by the hair, before blowing a kiss to her fans!
She proceeds to choke Brooke out and scream “EAT MY FOOT”, which of course riles Taz up. The crowd gets behind Tessmacher, but it doesn’t seem to help out as Gail drops her with a backbreaker and stretches her out in a submission attempt. Finally, Brooke fights out with some knees to the head, however this comeback is short lived as Kim decks her with a clothesline. She then shakes her bottom in Brooke’s face and continues this dominance until Brooke ducks a clothesline and scores with a huge forearm! Both women are down, but they reach a vertical base near simultaneously and Brooke is the one to capitalize.
A series of clotheslines strike with Tessmacher then hitting a huge faceplant out of the corner! She does a little Sarita salsa dance briefly, before heading to the top rope and LEAPING off with a huge elbow drop! Only a two count for Tessmacher, but the crowd is still rooting for the asstastic female from Houston. Brooke sets up for the Tess-Shocker, but no avail. Kim then goes for the Eat Defeat, but Brooke counters out and hits the Eat Defeat herself! A “Yes” chant breaks out, as Brooke slides Gail in and goes for the cover. Too much time was wasted though, as Gail kicks out. Brooke tries to keep the momentum in her favor, but Gail quickly rolls her up and uses the ropes to retain her title.
Thoughts: Wow! This was one of the best Knockout matches in some time, and they don’t really ever have any that even qualify as being less than good. Brooke was on fire in her moments of control, especially that hurricanrana which I think mustered about ten replays before I could move forward. The two really showed what they can do in the ring, and I think this is one of the matches of Gail’s reign I will remember most along with the main event on Impact she had with Mickie James and the one from Against All Odds against Tara. Really hope this continues on, and oddly enough, it does seem like it will considering we have a triple threat between the two and Velvet Sky scheduled for this week’s Impact with the gold on the line. Pretty anxious to see what will come of that.
If I had to pick one fault (which I only do because I don’t want to appear too positive for everyone), it would be the finish. Gail has used dirty tactics in the past for some of her title defenses, but the difference is that I bought it being that they are all women who have been wrestling just as long as she has, if not longer. Gail has what, eight years on Tessmacher? I know Brooke trained in DSW, but I’m referring to her training and wrestling on a consistent basis since joining TNA. I didn’t really buy seeing someone who is so experienced over their opponent having to result to the ropes to beat them. Well, scratch that… I guess I do understand a little bit of it because it builds to the triple threat match scheduled for Impact since Gail defeated both Sky and Tessmacher through the same type of underhanded result, but I don’t know. I’m kind of torn on how I feel about it. I think I’ll be able to form a better judgement when I see how the triple threat goes down this week. All in all though, I really really liked this match and I can’t wait to see where things go from here.
Match Rating: 4/5