There’s really no kind of clever, interesting, or amusing way of introducing what happened on Victory Road. Madison and Angelina squared off in their long anticipated championship match and instead of just letting the girls have a hard fought match with a well deserved victory for Angelina, TNA had to throw us a curveball. No doubt, they think they’re being clever. Idiots.
Angelina Love, the challenger, is the first Knockout to make her way to the ring for this Career versus Championship match. She’s brimming with confidence as usual and the fact she could very well walk away without a job tonight doesn’t seem to phase her in the least little bit. Reckon she understands just how truly predictable this match is going to be? Madison Rayne, the champion, walks out to the ring next. She’s dressed in a most interesting flesh colored outfit and of course, she looks pretty cocky too. Bless her for that. After Madison gets in the ring, she hands the belt over to the referee and he displays it for everyone to see. The bell rings and our championship match is underway.
Angelina strikes first with a knee to the gut, but Madison hits her right back. The two former friends go back and forth to open the match, and Madison ends up taking Angelina down via a hair pull. Angelina is quick to get to her feet and immediately takes Madison down with the same move. The Knockouts Champion is a bit slower to get up so Angelina takes her down twice more and starts beating on her. Madison tries to roll away and gets out of the ring, but Angelina follows her. Madison runs but she knows she has nowhere to go. She takes a wild swing at an oncoming Angelina, but the three time ex-champ manages to duck it. Madison is then taken down with a clothesline and Angelina tosses her back inside the ring. She goes for a pin, but Madison gets the shoulder up just after the two count.
Angelina goes back to the drawing board and picks Madison up. She appears to be going for some kind of high impact slam, but Madison rakes Angelina across the face. Angelina drops the champ and actually sells the injury, which allows Madison to take a shot to Angelina’s kidney area and send her flying into the turnbuckles. Madison slowly walks towards her hurting opponent and helps her up. She slams her fist into Angelina’s chest, then starts to choke her. The referee puts a stop to this but Madison doesn’t back off. She grabs Angelina and takes off running with her, sending the other woman head first into the turnbuckle. Madison follows it up by grabbing Angelina around the neck and slamming her down into the mat. She turns her over and goes for the cover, but Angelina is out after the two.
Madison glares at the referee as she sits up, but she doesn’t waste a lot of time. She places Angelina in a sleeper, then hooks her legs around Angelina’s neck. She flips her over and starts slamming her face down into the mat. Taz calls this a modified scissors stomp. I call it dirty, but interesting. When Madison relinquishes the hold, she’s all smiles and rightfully so. She’s got Angelina down and now Madison wants to finish the job. She attempts to set Angelina up for her finisher, but Angelina is able to counter it into a clothesline and take Madison down. Madison slowly gets up but once she does, she goes for Angelina. Angelina is ready for her and counters with a jawbreaker. Madison staggers back and Angelina pushes herself off the ropes. Madison takes a big swing, but Angelina misses it and comes flying back from the other side with a nice crossbody.
The match momentum has shifted now and Angelina is on the attack. To be fair, that bit of Angelina offense doesn’t last long at all. Madison catches her with a knee directly to the jaw and Angelina is now down for the count. Madison debates her next move and finally decides to go outside the ring. She heads over to where So Cal Val is sitting and screams at her to get up. Queen Knockout grabs the steel chair, folds it up, and slides back into the ring. The referee starts ripping into Madison for bringing a weapon into the picture but she’s basically ignoring him. Her eyes are set on Angelina and ending this match/feud once and for all. Unfortunately, Madison’s wishes don’t come true and Angelina drop kicks the chair, sending it crashing into Madison’s skull. Madison goes down hard and the crowd ahhs over the turn of events.Angelina isn’t able to immediately capitalize on this because she’s still a little out of it.
While all that is going on in the ring, a black-clad figure riding a motorcycle drives out to the ring. Angelina’s attention is diverted from Madison and the entire crowd (as well as everyone watching at home) are instantly confused and curious as to what is going on. Things take an even more confusing turn when Angelina starts screaming at this mystery person. I can only assume that she thinks it’s a BP member because she starts telling them to bring it on and what not. Madison does get to her feet, eventually, and she sends Angelina flying out of the ring. Conveniently, Angelina lands at the feet of the mystery woman and the mystery woman responds by slamming the head of Angelina Love into the steel ring post. Mr. Referee is out of the ring in a flash and starts to accost the assailant because as the rules state, if Velvet or Lacey interfer, Madison is disqualified and loses the championship. The mystery woman doesn’t take to kindly to being pawed at and she knocks Andrew Thomas into the guard rails. He calls for the bell and everyone is left in a state of confusion.
Madison seems to know what’s going on and she’s in the ring laughing. She knows it wasn’t her posse that messed everything up. Sadly for Madison, the referee jumps to the conclusion that it was indeed a Beautiful People member that helped out Madison and he awards the championship to Angelina, who acts like she earned the victory or something. Madison is livid and the mystery woman is too. Madison freaks out on the referee and starts pushing him away as he tries to explain. Madison wants nothing to do with it and she storms off. She hops right on the back of the motorcycle and takes off into the night with the mystery woman. Angelina, meanwhile, is in the ring celebrating the most ridiculous title win since the whole Lockbox fiasco. Good grief.
I’ve decided that stifling my opinions for the benefit of others is a horrible thing to do as a writer, but sheesh. Victory Road hasn’t given me much to work with because the majority of it wasn’t just ugly. It was disgustingly ugly and that’s a whole lot of ugly. In fact it’s so much ugly, I don’t even know where to begin. May as well stick to the mold and begin with the good, ha.
The Good: Well, despite being marred by a nasty ending, the match itself was really good. I found both women to have chemistry with one another and that’s the key to making a match work. Madison and Angelina have a well documented history with one another and their familiarity with each other shined tonight. The match wasn’t sluggish. It wasn’t slow. Neither really seemed to be going through the motions. Both were in there and you got a sense that each woman wanted to win really bad. Madison has been a good Knockouts Champion and it’s a real shame her title reign has been ended so prematurely. I don’t feel like she was getting stale as a champion. She never really got a lot to work with, but Madison really did shine with everything she was given. For awhile, the Knockouts Championship felt legit. Unfortunately, that came crashing down tonight.
The Bad The Ugly: There’s no use in trying to find something bad about the match. It wasn’t bad in the least bit. Madison and Angelina were spot on in the ring tonight and put on a very watchable show for the fans. The contest was pretty even. No one got jobbed out. No one was made to look weak. You can’t complain about their in-ring work. What you can complain about, however, is the shit ending. I’m not sure which behind the scenes genius thought it would be a good idea to give Angelina another stolen title victory but they need to have Dexter Morgan pay them a visit ASAP. They’re hurting these girls. This marks Angelina’s second title victory in a row that she’s not deserved. It’s not a knock on Angelina. It’s a knock on TNA. They can’t keep having their titles change hands in such a crappy fashion. Angelina is a great wrestler. Let her finish off and win a great match. She doesn’t need cheap title victories. She doesn’t deserve to look like someone who can only win a championship based on luck. It’s so dumb. I don’t even know what else to say.
Madison, bless her heart, injected some much needed life into the title and she basically had the rug ripped out from underneath her. A lot of fans are sick and tired of the Beautiful People, myself included, but Madison Rayne was coming into her own and I’ll speak for myself here, she was really becoming a great title holder. There’s not a lot reasons to watch TNA these days, but Madison was one of mine. Her promos were getting really strong and her overall presence was great to see. Some girls can’t hold their own and blend in with the crowd. Madison used to be one of those people but as soon as TNA put the spotlight on her, she came alive. I hate that she’s no longer champion. I would have loved to see her feud with Sarita over the championship. But that’s never going to happen now. I can only speculate that Madison and Angelina will continue on with their feud, and now Tara (Mystery Woman) is going to be involved as well. Same old thing.
If it truly was Tara on that motorcycle, I have to ask myself this. Why did she come back to help Madison Rayne, the woman who ended her career? Why did Madison ride off with the woman who cost her the Knockouts Championship? Why doesn’t Angelina Love celebrate these championship victories like she’s actually accomplished something? Why can’t TNA string together a storyline that actually makes sense? I’m pretty sure I would be more successful at solving a Rubix Cube than I would be at figuring out TNA’s line of thinking on this one, so I’m just going to let these questions linger and call it a day. Hopefully something that actually makes a lick of sense will be revealed come the TNA tapings this week. Who even knows at this point.
Match Rating: 2**/5***** (rating was brought down considerably thanks to the ending)
