What’s up Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s Xplosion Watch. TNA have kindly gave us a Knockouts match on this week’s Challenge TV exclusive show and after watching it, I couldn’t be happier. It’s the battle of the good girls on this edition as Brooke Miss Tessmacher goes one-on-one with Mickie James. With both fan favorites desperate to become number one contender to the Knockouts Title once again, which girl will want it more and climb up the ladder? Will Tess ‘shock’ Mickie or will Hardcore Country prove that she’s ‘not the kinda girl that ever gives up’? Let’s find out, shall we?
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“YOU KNOW WHEN I TEASE, YOU TOUCH”! I am definitely now screaming and getting off on the rush as Miss Tessmacher makes her way to the ring. Not to be outdone in the epic entrance theme stakes, out next is the country starlet herself, Mickie James! The eight-time champion skips her way to the ring and with Taryn Terrell signalling for the bell (I’m a poet and oh don’t I know it), the bout is underway.
Todd Keneley (who is normally fantastic) says a load of codswallop about how Brooke Hogan brought Mickie James back to TNA (she never left!) as the competitors collide with a collar and elbow tie-up. Both girls don’t want to let go of the hold and push each other all around the ring before Mickie puts her leg between the ropes and Taryn forces them to break it up. The girls smile at how even their exchange was before grappling once more, but this time, Mickie immediately gets the better of Tess and applies a side headlock. Brooke then reverses this with a keylock before Mickie reverses again by executing a swift hammerlock which she transitions into a headlock. The aforementioned move is then broken as Mickie is forced to run the ropes but luckily for her, she manages to shoulder tackle Tessmacher down. She then uses the ropes to gain momentum and although Brooke avoids contact at first, Mickie rebounds back and hits a sweet dropkick, which sends her adversary to the outside. A commercial break then follows and so far, both girls have been even stevens.
Back from the break and there is still a level playing field as the Knockouts once again lock-up. Mickie James goes for a waistlock before Tessmacher standing switches and takes Mickie down. The former Extreme Expose member then wrenches her foe with a headlock and although Mickie tries with all her might to get out of it, Tess keeps it locked in for a good thirty seconds. Finally, Hardcore Country manages to power out and wrap a headscissors on Brooke. Tess breaks free, kips up and goes back to the well so to speak by controlling the pace with another headlock. Mickie once again struggles to get out of the hold and when she lifts Tessmacher up, the teasing Texan simply floats over and tightens the hold. Mickie rolls Tess over and goes for a pin but that doesn’t ‘mess with Tess’ who is still dominating. Mickie then clubs Brooke’s side and forces her towards the corner but yet AGAIN, Miss Tessmacher finds a way to keep Mickie at bay (yet more rhyming) by traversing the ropes and thrusting Mickie towards the mat.
Finally (hallelujah!) Mickie manages to get out of her troublesome predicament, snapmare her opponent over and land a basement dropkick. After a two-count, the Richmond, Virginia native then decides to apply a submission of her own by digging her knees into Brooke’s back and crossing Brooke’s arms. After an initial failed attempt to get out, Brooke fights through the pain and monkey flips Ms James, resulting in a very high angled fall – very nice!
Mickie elbows Tess as the latter charges at the former but as Mickie then goes for her patented Mick-a-rana, Tessmacher counters and goes for her signature faceplant from the corner. Yet another reversal takes place in what has been a tremendous back and forth match and Mickie manages to hit a flapjack. The former WWE Women’s and Divas Champion then goes to the top, but after she misses her Lou Thesz Press, the former secretary to Eric Bischoff (clutching at synonym straws) starts to gain momentum. After hitting a series of strikes, Tessmacher uses one of her best ass-ets (pun intended) by booty popping in Mickie’s face. Brooke jerks Mickie from the corner, dropping her on her back, but she only manages to get a two-count. Mickie then attempts the Mickie-DT which is reversed into a Tess Shocker attempt and just when you think it could be over, Mickie makes sure that there is one last reversal in this match, and she rolls Tessmacher into a schoolgirl roll-up and gets the win. The two girls raise one-another’s hands and embrace to the end the segment.
Thoughts: Reversal, counter, reversal, counter, reversal, counter! Although this match was hard to recap without sounding too repetitive, it was a pleasure to watch! With so many headlocks, it’s easy to compare this to a certain headlock fest on WWE Smackdown a few weeks back but honestly, I really enjoyed the natural and realistic feel to the match. If you ever have a fun fight with someone (and let’s be honest, which wrestling fan hasn’t), you tend to go for headlocks and simple submissions as a way to realistically get the win and this match certainly represented that notion of realism. The action was back and forth, there were no botches in sight and I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw – and it definitely left me wanting to see more!
Another cool thing to point out was that commercial breaks can often take away from the action, yet in this case, it caused no problems to the flow of the match at all. Normally, someone is often on the offense when the cameras start rolling again, but this time, it was as though the show was commercial free (well it was as it was on Dailymotion but you get what I mean). Overall, TNA has perhaps give us an early match of the year candidate and I hope that when it comes to the end of 2013, this contest has not been forgotten. And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
