Posted by Tiffany on July 20th, 2009
This year’s installment of Victory Road pitted Angelina Love against the Knockouts Champion, Victoria as well as Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca.
First up is the Knockout’s title match. With the women’s title match being this early on card, don’t know whether to be grateful or plead for mercy.
As the Beautiful People make their beautiful way to the ring, I’m pleased to see Madison Rayne actually doing something in their entrance, even if it’s just shaking her ass. It’s even refreshing to see Angelina out of beekeeper’s suit, even if her pants look like they have gotten into losing battle with a shredder. Oh, and Velvet Sky prances around in lingerie. What else is new? Anyway, I won’t make any mention of Madison’s lean against the ring ropes as doing her best thinking on her back… because that would be inappropriate.
Victoria enters the Impact Zone with Poison by her side and the title held high above her head. At very sound of the bell, Velvet attempts to taunt and distract Victoria. Unperturbed, Victoria takes Angelina Love down and slams her a couple times. This is too much to handle for Angelina who calls for a time-out. Before the challenger can even catch her breath, Victoria pulls her back into the ring. Victoria then proceeds to support Angelina’s weight on her own back while pulling on her hair before slamming her down onto the canvas. Following up with an irish whip to the corner, Love counters but falls into a tarantula manuever against the ropes.
Victoria breaks the hold and gets involved with the Beautiful People, only providing Angelina with the opporunity to score a baseball slide. Just like that, the fight is taken to outside. There are shadows of their last match when Angelina shoves Victoria into the ring apron. Back into the ring, Angelina performs a running dropkick. She then runs Victoria into corner repeatedly. Tossing Victoria down from the turnbuckle, Angelina even finds time to gloat about it.
However, Victoria fights back and whips Angelina Love into the corner. Angelina follows up with kicks to the side of Victoria’s head and a diving clothesline. She goes for the pin multiple times, but is unsuccessful. With similar offense in mind, each Knockout takes her opponent down with a clothesline. Referee Slick Johnson administers a 10-count. Victoria surprisingly musters enough energy to kip-up and soon lead Angelina into a flapjack. A standing moonsault on behalf of Victoria renders a 2-count.
Velvet Sky takes to the ring apron. When the Beautiful People attempt to set Victoria up, Velvet accidently sprays hairpray in Angelina’s eyes. The referee gets so distracted and preoccupied with Velvet and Madison that he abandons what would otherwise be a 3-count against Angelina.
Victoria hits a spinning sidewalk slam and makes her way to the corner, stepping on Angelina Love in the process. She misses a moonsault from the top rope. Taking advantage of this, Angelina goes for the pin. Referee Slick Johnson does not see Victoria’s foot on the bottom rope and crowns Angelina Love the new Knockout’s champion.
A disgruntled Victoria superkicks the referee and even fits in a widow’s peak on the new champion. Angelina is pulled to safety, leaving only the referee to suffer Poison’s wrath. In a backstage segment, Madison Rayne is seen exiting a shower stall just after referee Slick Johnson. It is apparent that some form “persuastion” was utilized to guarantee Angelina’s win. So, forget my last comment about Madison on her back. She can do it standing up, as well.
Honestly, the outcome of this match took me for a spin. The Beautiful People were right by calling Victoria’s win as a fluke, sadly. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and say that Victoria’s title reign was entirely pointless, seeing as I have no idea what TNA may have in store for this feud. I will say though… that it doesn’t make any damn sense. It is only sensible that if TNA was looking to further pursue this feud, they should have either held off in having Victoria win the title on Impact or should have waited to allow Angelina to win the title back. Even perhaps at the next PPV? Sure, feuds are all about exciting twists and turns of events, but I can’t help but feel a tad misled in that aspect. It’s obvious that TNA tried to pull a fast one on us and TNA succeeded. Perhaps, not to its own benefit. Does anyone truly see the point of having Victoria blow all of her momentum? Somewhere, the WWE higher-ups are laughing.
Watch the match below:
You thought that was bad? Commence with the utter failure after the cut:
For the start of the Sharmell vs. Jenna match, we get to watch Jenna prance around dressed as Tarzan’s Jane and Sharmell wrestle in an evening gown. The words “are you kidding” have just entered my mind, but for the sake of this review, I will try my best to go into this with an open mind. Oh dear, this is really going to happen, huh?
For the majority of the match, Sharmell dominates Jenna as Sojourner Bolt and Awesome Kong look on. Jenna is a little timid and slow, but admittedly, she doesn’t too bad. Hell, she’s already better than Maria.
Sharmell shows some viciousness by slamming Jenna’s head against the mat a couple times. She consults her guidance, Sojo, for a moment before going back on the offense with a brief camel clutch. Sharmell breaks the hold before irish whipping Jenna, who counters with a cross body. Though, Sharmell regains control and continues the punishment by stretching Jenna by the hair. Jenna opts to run the ropes, but Sojo trips her. A protective Kong goes after Sojo, but this distraction opens a door for a tandem attack on Jenna. Sharmell goes for the pin with no success. After enduring a few kicks in the corner, Jenna fires back with some dispassionate child’s play.
Damn, watching this match has made me more appreciative of, well…actual wrestlers. Watch closely, I’m pretty sure I saw a guy in the first row turn his back to the ring in protest. However, my interest is piqued when Jenna begins to twirl a large chunk of Sharmell’s weave in her hand. Sojo takes offense but is knocked off the apron for her troubles. Sharmell begs for her hair back, but Kong knocks her out. Jenna then sits on Sharmell’s face for the win. …I’m not sure what I just watched, either, folks.
Jenna expects Kong to carry her Tarzan-style, but Kong knocks the Survivor down a peg or two with a big splash. Thank you, Kong. Now if only she could put me out of my misery.
I have to say, the only true redeeming quality of this match was seeing Jenna pull Sharmell’s tracks out. TNA, I am not amused.
Watch the match below:
I guess with balancing an actual Knockouts contest with the smut, TNA found a happy medium. Just not one I can proudly stand behind. Between the choice of reviewing these matches and enduring an Awesome splash, getting squashed by Kong seems like the lesser of the two evils.
TNA, you’ve given us Victoria as champion, you’ve even treated us to a fantastic match between Sarita and Alissa Flash. But last night, TNA you failed, miserably.
That being said, I look forward to the debut of Ayako Hamada to redeem the filth I have just been subjected to. Because not even TNA can screw that up!
July 20, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Last night was a shambles. For once, I felt the Knockouts disappointed more than the Divas. The Angelina-Victoria match never really got out of first gear as PWInsider put it, and I wholly agree. I haven’t really enjoyed their matches together to be honest, they seem to lack chemistry. I just keep expecting to see them dial it up through the match, but they never have.
As for Jenna-Sharmell. I was watching through my hands, it was awful. I tweeted last night, it looked like Jenna was an amalgamation of different Divas & Knockouts: Maria’s leopard print, Victoria’s red streaks in her hair, Velvet Sky’s entrance. For all the talking these two have done, I think it’s funny that Awesome Kong – who’s meant to be a fearsome badass that never talks – is infinitely more likable. I’m glad they had Kong squash Jenna at the end, it shows they haven’t completely lost the priorities.
July 20, 2009 at 11:22 pm
For once, I will agree with people on here. Last night was a total disaster. Am I pissed? Yes, yes I am at a few things.
The Knockout’s match, the real one, was, mehish. I love Victoria, and I love Angel/Angelina. They are both amazing competitors, and give their heart and soul for the business. While I do not agree, or like the way that Angel won last night, I will support her, and defend her. She deserved to hold that title longer. I really do hate that they took itaway so soon, to give to Victoria, to give back to Angel. Now to defend Victoria/Tara. I think that it was disgusting the way they treated her last night, however, I do expect a full, long, lenghty and well deserved title run in the near future.
I support both women, and I love them, they are two of my favourites, but Im going to have to defend Ang on this one. Sorry.
As for the other match, eww, noooo. It was disgusting and really, really disturbing, and a slap to the face of women’s wrestling in general.
July 20, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I have alot of things to say about Victory Road!
Let’s start with Victoria vs Angelina.
Well this match really to me left alot to be desired, just like the feud that’s currently taking place between the two. I mean they both did hit there moves correctly and all, but it just ended very stupidly basically wasting a whole match that could have really made this feud worth while, very disappointing in my eyes. Ugh…
And that was only the start…
Jenna vs Sharmell.
Let me just say, why the fuck would TNA even think of putting Jenna in the ring after only training for what 3 months? That’s just plainly illogicality, so I was hoping for Sharmell (who has experience from WCW when she was “Paisley”) to atleast cover Jenna up, who I’d know was going to make alot of botches. Ok that being said, lets skip to Jenna’s entrance. I have alot of problems with this, first, WTF is her theme? Church music? This makes no sense at all, and the only way it has lionked to Jenna at all is the fact it has the word survive in it. They couldn’t have just given TNA’s mega Knockout production theme “Girlfriend” and call it a day? I guess not… Well then we go to her in ring entrance, which I have to say was the ugliest thing I have even seen, ugh her ugly butt is all up on the camera and then she bends over only to see her Nike shoes, appealing and classy isn’t it? Well lets start with the match. Jenna immediately messes everything up by selling shots to her back by just falling down. I can see why the crowd was chanting “This is horse shit!” If I was there, I would be chanting that along with them! Jenna is just awkward especially when she gets throw down or into the ropes, I don’t see wrestler in here, and I probably never will. So Sharmell takes over with the camel clutch, blah blah balah more botches here and there blah blah blah…. And then Jenna wins when she pulls Sharmell’s weave out and gives it to Kong proceeded by Kong tapping Sharmell very lightly and some how she falls back onto the floor and losses the match. Then, the best thing that has happened this whole match takes place, Kong squishes Jenna with a splash, and well, thats what you get for ruining a perfectly good PPV Jenna. Anyone else notice she wasn’t even making contact with Sharmell when she was slapping her on the floor? Thats just one of the millions of reason why this match was the worst thing I have ever seen, and I thought That Trish and Jackie Gayda match was bad…
Overall both matches made up for a very very disappointing PPV, TNA just fire Jenna, your division will be less crowded and we won’t even have to see a match like that ever again.
July 20, 2009 at 11:53 pm
I only disagree with one thing there Tiffany… Maria is way better then Jenna. And Maria sucks.
The entrance was disgusting, not sexy at all. The only thing that amused me was Sharmell’s facial expression.
I don’t know what the hell was Jenna doing. She is really sloppy, does she even know how to run? Her slaps, don’t need to even mention, worst slaps in wrestling history.
The match was ridiculous. I like the way the girl writes, but she is almost achieving first place as the worse female ever to step foot in the ring.
She couldn’t even try to sell. She just layed on the ground. Argh…
July 21, 2009 at 12:10 am
dunk20 – I agree. Maria is way better in the ring than Jenna, whether people want to admit that or not. I actually had given Jenna the benefit of the doubt, because I wanted to believe that she was more than just a pretty face, but she is more of a disappointment than Ashley Massaro. The sorry excuse for a Knockout was sloppy in the what three moves that she actually had to do. All that I have to say is that Jenna should either be fired or just to stick her job as being a backstage smut, because she can not wrestle at all. Sloppy, sloppy, and sloppy! Heck, Sharmell carried her through that match, and Sharmell’s not even all that impressive in the ring, but when in a match against Jenna she looked pretty damn good wrestling wise.
To even say that Jenna is already better than Maria is a joke, because Jenna is someone who I would honestly put on the same level of talent as Ashley Massaro. Both Playboy models, both horrible in the ring, and both were on Survivor. I’m not impressed and just like Ashley, I want for Jenna to leave my television screen, because I am already tired of her and her slutty taunts that make My Pi Sexy’s butt shaking routine look clean in comparison.
July 21, 2009 at 4:59 am
Angelina vs Tara was good but the ending was kinda bad
but in the long run its all just for the sake of the on going fued which is actually a pretty good thing
as for Jenna vs Sharmell
that was a total trainwreck
the second Jenna came out i just got the feeling that wasn’t gonna turn out so good
you cant even compare Maria to Jenna shes was that bad in the ring last nite
and that entrance god damn that wasn’t even arousing it was horrible
the only good thing that came out of that match besides getting to see Sharmell wrestle again =]
was Awesome Kong splashing Jenna which if you see the vid she looked to, how do i put this “prepared” for it lol
that match seriously just made me not like Jenna more and more “/
on and @ Marco church music lmao that was so funny XD
July 21, 2009 at 5:04 am
Guys, that thing about Jenna and Maria was obviously a joke. Because come on, who in their right mind would honestly compare Jenna to Maria? I mean, Jenna wasn’t THAT bad last night.
July 21, 2009 at 5:44 am
Tiffany – Jenna wasn’t THAT bad last night? You clearly must be joking with us when you say that, because Jenna was THAT bad last night. When compared to Maria, she makes Maria look like a pro. I have no idea what you were watching last night, but if you were watching the same pay-per-view as me last night than you would see botch after botch on Jenna’s part. At least, Maria can sell some moves. But, Jenna? What a joke…
July 21, 2009 at 6:59 am
Both matches were terrible, the angelina and victoria feud is incredibly overrated and boring, as Melanie said they lack chemistry but they also need to get the pace going, their matches r so slow and predictable. The Jenna vs Sharmell was complete crap, Jenna looked ugly as hell and that entrance was so disgusting! her ass is not good to look at. I also disagree with Tiffany here, theres no way Jenna is better than Maria even Maria isnt as uncomfortable in the ring, that has to be the worst in-ring performance (if you can call an in-ring performance) I have ever seen.
July 21, 2009 at 7:06 am
I understand TIffany, I thought Jenna would be like, soooo bad that I had to close my eyes. She was REALLY bad, at the moment she’s BY FAR the worst on either TNA or WWE. She shows a little personality with entrance and attire (doesn’t meen I like it…BLAH) but on the ring, she leaves a lot to be desired. Sharmell was pretty average, she is clearly a good worker and in-ring wise she IS better than Maria.
P.S. Only good thing on their match was Awesome Kong, she’s so loveable I want to freakin hug her.
July 21, 2009 at 8:19 am
I can’t believe that two people are telling me that Jenna is better than Maria wrestling wise. Lol, that’s like saying that Rosa Mendes is better than Eve Torres to me. Jenna does have more personaltiy than Maria, however Jenna doesn’t have better wrestling skills than Maria, and I will never understand how someone can say that with a straight face. Yes, Maria isn’t impressive, but to compare her to Jenna is like the ultimate insult in my opinion, lol. Jenna’s skills are more sloppy than Maria’s, and I don’t see how it’s CLEAR that she is a good worker in-ring when she showed poor selling skills, poor wrestling skills, and sloppy wrestling moves even though she only had to do about three. At least, show us that you can perform three moves without looking like a complete joke. Jenna = joke… she’s what I would call the Ashley of TNA. That’s how bad I personally feel she is, but whatever… we can’t expect for everyone to say think that Jenna is worse than Maria, even though she is. Lmfao, but we’ll see how she does or maybe not, maybe TNA will cut Jenna since Traci Brooks is coming back.
July 21, 2009 at 9:38 am
This is why we don’t book managers and valets into real matches against eachother, TNA. Especially not on PPV. I mean, what were they thinking? Hopefully that feud is now completely over, we definitely don’t need to see another match featuring either of these two. I don’t care if there logically should still be tension, just drop it immediately. Nobody will care.
Actually seeing Love/Tara, I’d have to say it was by a million miles their best encounter, though the booking is still odd. Clearly something will come out of that ending, though, so I’m not really worried about the future of this feud. However, I do think you’re right that they lack that certain chemistry necessary to put on an amazing match so hopefully by next month Tara goes over and we can move along to the next feud.
July 21, 2009 at 11:18 am
Geez, I can see how Jackie Gayda felt after the tag match reviews.
I know wherever you go there is a 99% chance of comparisons.. but Maria? Really? How can you compare Maria who’s been around since… 2005?! With someone who hasn’t even been under the TNA name for 1/2 a year yet as her only wrestling endeavour? Give it up on the random Maria trashing/back-handed complimenting sometimes. There is no way I was watching this match expecting anything to go anything past “fair/mediocre” at the most. Sharmell, since her injury that basically ended her career, has been doing at the most.. “light work” not flying around and doing much of any moveset outside of the Kat/Terri level of standards. So to expect her to carry Jenna whom I can’t say did anything to completely shame herself. She went out and tried to work it, all the match was is storyline development I doubt there will be a grudge match anytime soon where Jenna pulls off a perfect piledriver. It further’s the Sharmell/Jenna catfighting to get back in MEM full-time, continues to make you wonder just when is Kong going face and gives Sojo a little shine since she (in my opinion) has the best personality on the roster but doesn’t get past Web matches/TNA Heat/Dark matches/ImpactXplosion left overs. The match as far as action goes would probably (since I’ve never really watched) would be compared to the skankier side of WEW’s matches with the models and pornstars, I’d only guess.
The whole plot of that match was just (w)horrible. The “hair ripped” spot was kinda nice. To me Sojo’s fall off spot/Kong’s kinda-facey playing around with the weave was the only thing I’d remember outside of Jenna’s entrance (which failed after she hit her knees. Should’ve raised back up and did some stretching or something. If she wanted to crawl steal the Candice crawl under.) I agree she could’ve gotten better music. I thought TNA was getting better at giving their girls music (Madison, Tara, Alissa, .. even Sarita I guess?) but that just did not stick what so ever. I’d either gone for the TNA’s Move It Up/Feelin’ Me and given her “Girlfriend” or Shane Sewell’s little Freak remix since it seems more “survivor”-ish. I’d only use that theme if Sharmell was doing a Christian (religion) type gimmick and was face.
———————
Madison just needs to be given a plan to turn face soon. She’s still a bit awkward when it comes to fitting in and they could use one more face with me reading that Brooks is.. going heel? (which is a bit refreshing since she has been face since the short Payton Banks era (why aren’t they using Rain as a KO anyway? I’m sure many forgot about that now.)
For the match, I like it when Tara/Angelina wrestle. It’s something about them that gives a decent match. Being Tara’s first feud (as short as it might be) they picked good with Angelina. Her winning tonight.. didn’t see it happening. Tara had the story, the crowd has been getting more and more into her since the debut, and Poison actually gave her that extra “something” to her character. So for her to hold so short of a reign (Tara’s only reign holds the record for shortest reign in the title’s history at 24 days. – Wikipedia). What I hope for in the battle royal lead off is maybe a 4 way feud? Angelina/Brooks/Kong/Tara? It sure as hell is not as cut and dry as A vs. B. Shows some range in possibilities.
(Sorry if my commentary is random but I’m not much of a replier on here as I am a reader so they may seem a bit scattered and ranty.)
July 21, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I honestly don’t know what to make of the Tara/Love match. I mean the match itself was a decent opener, and the crowd responded to it well. But the finish? If it means prolonging the feud instead of rushing out the obvious Tara/Kong feud, I don’t mind it.
I agree with the points above that both women have lacked chemistry. Perhaps they need to work a few house shows together. That said, I reckon this match was the best out of their three encounters so far. They brought some new stuff to this match – like Tara using Tajiri’s tarantula submission and Love working on Tara’s back, kicking her in the head and the flying clothesline). It still felt like they were holding back a better match, but what could they do in 7 minutes and an unexpected finish? If they do have a match at Hard Justice I hope it’s their final encounter for the time being and they deliver even more.
Now onto Jenna/Sharmell….EPIC FAIL. The crowd hated it and Jenna was just terrible! Those slaps she did were hilariously bad lol! Worst match of the year, easily. Kong got the loudest pop of the night. She sorta redeemed it by splashing her at the end.
July 22, 2009 at 12:02 am
Tiffany you’re wrong…. Jenna tottaly sucked. She didn´t knew how to fake a crossbody right. On the other hand Maria is so much bettefr. Her moves are so much better’s than jenna’s. Have you seen those kicks. They sucked. Also the match was a fluke… Kong slaped the rope, not sharmell and she died… I hated… And Jenna was always being a little sluty with that outifit and that attitude. And besides that, what entrance theme was that? So don’t be so tough on Maria. You talk like she is a rookie. But she has defeated the top of the women in wrestling: Mickie, Melina, Tara (Victoria), Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool. I don’t know why are you so bad to her. Is it jeaulous for her being sucessfull and Hot. On this site I’ve never read something nice about her… What is wrong?!
July 22, 2009 at 12:14 am
Oh I almost forgot… Why Kong didnt did an Awesome Bomb to Jenna? Because Jenna trained so much that she isn’t ready to take a powerbomb without hurt herself. So don’t tell she’s better than Maria… Because she isn’t. OK?
July 22, 2009 at 3:55 am
Can I just ask, what does et tu mean tiffany?
July 22, 2009 at 4:02 am
@ Mace. It’s a Shakespearean quote, originally “Et tu, Brute?” spoken by Julius Caesar to Brutus, who had just betrayed him.
In the way TNA seem to have betrayed Tara.
July 22, 2009 at 4:06 am
And also, @ ACFerreira, the reason Maria gets such a hard time on this site, and quite rightly so, is for exactly the reasons you just stated:
“But she has defeated the top of the women in wrestling: Mickie, Melina, Tara (Victoria), Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool”
The fact that someone with her lack of skill and quite frankly appalling in-ring work (Spastic, I believe is synonymous with Maria on this site) has been put over these more experienced, more deserving women is a complete travesty.
July 22, 2009 at 9:02 am
@mace Michael got the background of it right, but it means ‘you too’ in Latin.
July 22, 2009 at 9:29 am
I don’t like to think of this as a betrayle for Tara, I think this is actually going to benefit her in the end. Angelina Love is the one that is being portrayed as a weak champ, because week after week she and the Beautiful People are being beat by Tara. The only way that Love has one is by cheating and outside interference. Maybe the reason that their matches haven’t been going so well, is because Tara is being pushed as the dominant one in this feud? Either way, I look forward to seeing where this goes.
As far as the Jenna v Sharmell goes… I only have a few nice things to say: I loved Kong (I agree with PedroPedroso I want o freakin hug her too), I liked Sharmell’s expressions and can imagine her saying hold my bling, and we got to see Sojo.
I’m sorry, but Jenna is just bad. She doesn’t know how to run the ropes, her slaps were a joke and I never want to see those booty shorts on ANYONE ever again. Her entrance and the way she pinned Sharmell were not sexy, they were disgusting. It seems like such a travesty to have someone that bad in such a strong Women’s division. TNA the fans have spoken and a large number of us want to see Jenna and her hotpants out of the ring… forever. Now excuse me, I’m going to wash out my eyes.
July 22, 2009 at 11:02 am
TNA committed a big blunder making Tara lose d title. As 4 Jenna vs Paisley sorry…. Sharmell it sucked to the core. They could have had Kong/Jenna Vs Sojo/Sharmell.
July 23, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I watched Victory Road last night and i thought Tara VS Angelina was alright, accept the outcome. Tara loses, wtf? it comes across that Angelina’s a weak champion, as she only seems to win based on cheating. Tara should’ve retained until Hard Justice or No Surrender if they wanted Angelina to win it back.
Sharmell vs Jenna… possibly the worst womens wrestling match I’ve EVER seen. a definite contender for ‘worst match i’ve ever seen in my life’. Hello TNA? NEITHER OF THEM ARE WRESTLERS! Jenna’s ring entrance was clearly created by a stripper of some kind, and her attire by Tarzan and Jane.
And sitting on Sharmells face? weird.
Really makes you appreciate Maria… oui?
July 24, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Worst womens match i have ever seen, nothing even compares to how bad this was, total garbage.
August 3, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I actually disagree with you Tiffany.
I thought the Tara-Angelina Love match was really good. It really enhances the feud between the two and yeah it sucks that Tara lost her title already, but we can only hope TNA will use this to fix the small devloping problems in the Knockouts Division. Who knows thought.
I wont even comment oon the second match. It irritates me that awesome women wrestlers like Roxxi and Jackie Moore have been let go while two craptastic ‘wrestlers’ like Sharmel and Jenna get face time at a PPV. Pathetic.