Hello there everybody, and welcome to your Slammiversary recap extravaganza! For the past month and a half, things have been heating up between rivals Miss Tessmacher and Knockouts Champion, Gail Kim. First, Tessmacher attained three victories over the champ… but none of those three were the all important one when the gold was on the line. After winning a fatal four-way match this past Thursday, Brooke gets one more shot to end Gail’s historic reign, but can she do it? Not to mention, the show even emanates from none other than Brooke’s home state of Texas! Let’s find out if this girl that nobody took seriously can become a Women’s Champion…
Following a screen flash of the Knockouts Championship logo, we take it to the ring where Christy Hemme announces the following contest. My addiction of a rock theme hits, and out skips the hometown girl, Miss Tessmacher! She then skips down to the ring and hops onto the apron. From there, Tessmacher removes her coat to and tosses it onto the camera as if to give us a little tease (meaning we’re supposed to touch, I guess). Tessmacher is then cut off by the STILL addicting theme of Gail Kim, which sparks our Knockouts Champ to strut down the ramp with her gold on the shoulder. She climbs onto the ring apron… and wait! Are those lyrics?! My night has already been made! What’s even better is I think that is the voice of Mr. Hardcore Country himself, Serg Salinas. Tremendous.
The bell sounds as both women lock up and Gail scores with a takedown. She tries to rile Brooke up, before executing a roll up and a dropkick! The crowd boos the champion, before Tessmacher scores with some arm drags. She goes for the Tess Shocker, but Gail rolls out of the ring quickly. Brooke tries for a baseball slide, however, Gail catches her and slams her into the side of the ring. She then throws Brooke into the ring and tosses her into a corner to just continue this beatdown. Kim looks to do the same in the opposing corner, but Brooke decides to leap onto the ring rope and fly back with a clothesline. She quickly follows it up with a beautiful hurricanrana and gets the fans excited!
Tessmacher goes for a handspring type maneuver, but Gail uses her strength to drop Brooke throat first on the top rope. She begins to dominate the match, throwing the challenger into the corner. Brooke gets a brief sign of life as she tries to leap onto Gail’s shoulder, but this doesn’t last long being that Kim decides to drop her with a shoulder-breaker. Gail reverts to a submission soon after, while the crowd continue to be on the side of the hometown girl. Brooke finally fights out and once again goes for the Tess Shocker, but Gail elbows her in the head and executes a nice leg scissors submission.
Brooke looks to be fading, but she doesn’t have a chance to tap as Gail decides to break the hold. Following a two count, Gail starts choking Brooke out, before blowing a kiss to the booing crowd. Kim looks to continue the dominance, but Brooke scores with a neckbreaker out of nowhere! The fans start to clap in the favor of Miss Tessmacher, as the two women exchange punches. Finally, Brooke takes the advantages with a series of clotheslines and a running forearm! She ascends to the second rope and goes for the facebuster, but flies off just herself. This doesn’t stop the challenger though, for she dropkicks Gail into the corner once again. Tessmacher looks for her finisher again, but some miscommunication seems to occur and Gail’s knee collides with Brooke’s face in a pretty sick way.
Kim points and laughs at Brooke’s pain, as she nails the Happy Ending neckbreaker to send Brooke rolling outside the ring. Brooke gets to two feet, but Gail spears her off the ring and to the floor outside. Tessmacher looks to be down and out, which sparks the referee to start counting as Gail taunts the fans. She doesn’t want to win by countout, thus Gail drags Brooke back in the ring and attempts the Eat Defeat. Suddenly, Kim lets go and decides she wants to win using BROOKE’S finisher. Kim sets up for it, but Brooke counters into a victory roll! One… Two… Three! Brooke Tessmacher has ended Gail Kim’s run as Knockouts Champion!
Brooke falls to the outside in celebration of her big win, while the referee raises her hand as the new Knockouts Champion. Brooke starts to head up the ramp when she is stopped by Christy Hemme to get an interview with the new champion. She asks Brooke how it feels to win the title in her home state of Texas, to which Brooke, who can barely contain herself, replies that she honestly never thought she could be here and has overcome so many obstacles and stereotypes set against her. Tessmacher cites this win as being truly epic, especially in her home state, before concluding the brief chat with, “God bless Texas!” The fans cheer their home state champion on, as this segment comes to a conclusion!
Thoughts: So incredibly happy for Brooke Tessmacher. Not only because she is a “model” that a few years ago, nobody would have taken seriously, but because of all the mess she had to go through to get to where she is. I’m not sure most remember that her first run as a Knockout actually ended abruptly when she broke her jaw and had to spend so much time away from the roster that I thought she actually got released at one point. It’s just really awesome to get to see someone who has come from nothing get to this point, because as my colleague Cryssi said on Twitter last night, she didn’t have to continue wrestling when WWE released her, and for a time, she didn’t. But she eventually came back to it and look where it’s gotten her.
Onto the match, I thought it was solid overall. There were some shaky parts, and I definitely wouldn’t say it was better technically than their last outing, but for the moment of Brooke’s win, I personally like it better than the last one. The attempt Brooke did at the Tess Shocker where Gail’s knee collided with her skull made me cringe, and I’m glad neither of them got seriously injured from that. The finish, I thought, was handled brilliantly. Gail going for the Tess Shocker since Brooke beat her with her own finisher was great storytelling, and Tessmacher countering it into a victory roll was great!
I know we’ve not all been the biggest fans of Gail’s reign, but she held the title so long, and because of that, Brooke’s win felt important. They treated it like a big moment as well, with the interview afterwards. Sort of like when Mickie James won the Women’s Title from Beth Phoenix. I pray to God that TNA does not revert back to the hot potato title games now that the belt is off Gail, but I’m insanely interested to see where Brooke’s feuds will be headed. A lot of fresh matches can occur with Brooke holding the belt, so we will have to wait and see I suppose!
Overall Match Rating: 3/5
