This week on TNA Xplosion, Tara takes on rising star Taryn Terrell. Will the veteran come out on top, or will the “hot mess” continue her hot streak? Watch the match below:
Before the match starts, we get a few words from the competitors. Tara mentions Taryn’s recent success–namely, her win over Gail Kim at Slammiversary–in saying, “Big hooplah!” All she cares about when it comes to Taryn is that Taryn’s taking her spot in the ring. She wants to show Taryn just how frustrated she’s been sitting at home on the sidelines.
In response, Taryn says she’s not looking to impress Tara. All she cares about is beating her. Let’s see if she’s able to do that.
Tara hits the ring first, accompanied by “Mr. Pectacular” Jesse Godderz, who presses her over his head a few times to warm up his managing muscles. Taryn’s next, and referee ODB signals for the match to start.
They start with a tie-up, and Tara shoves Taryn away easily. Another tie-up, and this time Tara takes Taryn down with an arm drag. A third tie-up, and Taryn goes down again. Tara’s clearly feeling at ease here.
For the fourth time, Taryn finds herself on the losing end of a tie-up, slammed to the mat by Tara. Tara then breaks out an Adonis pose, showing Taryn how seriously she’s taking this match (not at all). Finally, Taryn gets the better of the fifth tie-up, taking Tara down repeatedly with arm drags and a body slam.
Not feeling this turn of events, Tara scoots out of the ring. Mr. Pectacular rushes to her side, possibly to re-energize her with another Eskimo kiss. And.. yep.. there it is. Tara is ready to return to the ring!
Taryn’s tired of seeing Tara milk the count, and attempts to drag her back into the ring. After an exchange of blows, Taryn pulls her over the top rope by her hair. She suplexes Tara and heads for the top rope, going for a crossbody, but Tara picks up her brace-covered knee, driving it into her stomach. Rookie mistake!
The move seemed to smart for Tara too, as she holds her knee momentarily. We cut to commercial, and when Xplosion returns Taryn’s still recovering from the knee brace to the stomach. She tries to drag herself up by the ropes, but Tara takes the opportunity to wrap her up in them, stretching her around the top rope. She then kicks her in the crotch for good measure. Hey, I thought they only did that move in video games..
Tara tosses Taryn across the ring by her hair before using the ropes again, this time choking her against the second rope. Finally, she decides to play by the rules (sort of), locking a submission on Taryn in the middle of the ring. Taryn quickly reverses it, tossing Tara over her head and latching on the exact same hold. Tara makes her way to her feet and makes use of her strength advantage, prying Taryn’s arms apart, kicking her in the stomach and slamming her to the mat.
She goes for another hit of Jesse before returning to Taryn, hitting her with a Northern Lights Suplex and bridging it into the first pin attempt of the match. Taryn kicks out at two. Tara then wraps Taryn up, stretching her solar plexus. She soon rolls it into a cradle pin, but Taryn kicks out again.
Taryn suddenly goes on an offensive tear, snapmaring Tara and hitting her with clotheslines. Tara appears to be out (and so does one of Taryn’s extensions.. whoops), and she scales the turnbuckle, hitting Tara with a crossbody. She goes for the pin, but that won’t keep Tara down, and she kicks out with authority.
Tara soon has her in position for the Widow’s Peak, but Taryn wiggles free, hitting her with a running cutter (the same move that get Gail down for the 10-count at Slammiversary) and going for the pin. ODB counts to three, and it’s all over!
Taryn celebrates while ODB, ever the professional, returns Taryn’s stray extension. She should toss it out to the crowd like it’s a hat or a t-shirt. Now that’s a million dollar idea..
The cameras catch up with Tara post-match, who makes sure that Jesse let TMZ know she meant to lose. She felt bad for the girl.. All in all, Tara doesn’t seem too miffed about the loss, falling back on Jesse and his abs. Meanwhile, Taryn tells the camera that, as she just showed, she’s not just a bubbly blonde–she’s tough!
Thoughts: A pretty slow match which pretty much just served as an excuse to beef up Taryn’s profile going into the Ladder match. A win over a veteran like Tara is nothing to sneeze at, but it wasn’t nearly the hard fought victory she experienced against Gail.
What sets Taryn apart from the other underdog “bubbly blonde” types is the fact that she takes the rough bumps and comes back for more. I know you can’t really showcase that skill in a simple one-on-one match, but here I got more of a Kelly Kelly vibe from Taryn than anything else. Knockouts are typically more rough around the edges than their Diva counterparts, but we really didn’t see that here. Here, we saw your standard “underdog somehow pulls out a win” match that counted on Tara to do most of the legwork. It’s not horrible, but it’s something I hope TNA doesn’t rely on to get Taryn over. Matches that truly test Taryn’s toughness and allow her to battle back like in the Last Knockout Standing match are what are going to make Taryn a star, not an unconvincing win like this.
Sadly, this match also gave me flashbacks to the end of Tara’s run with the WWE, when she mainly existed to put over the younger, less experienced Divas. I hope we don’t see history repeat itself in that regard. Tara undoubtedly deserves to be one of the top stars of the division, so I hope she’ll be back in the thick of things sooner or later.
