This week for the Impact Write-Up, I’m going to try something different. Instead of the usual match review with my comments thrown in there, I’m going to do just a plain review of the actual match itself and what led up to it, then at the end I’m going to list the things I enjoyed about Impact, and the things I didn’t. I hope this column turns out a lot neater and more informative than my two previous ones.
The Knockout portion of Impact started with an interview from both champion and later on, the challenger. Both put over the match and touched on issues that were impacting them at the moment, no pun intended. Angelina Love had a great line during hers; it was something along the lines of “I taught the Beautiful People everything they know, but I didn’t teach them everything I know.” Perhaps that foreshadows something to come?
After patiently waiting all night for the match, it finally rolls around as the main event of the evening. A video package starts us off highlighting Angelina’s ongoing feud with the Beautiful People. That leads into Angelina’s ring entrance and she’s looking pretty amazing tonight, in my opinion. She plays to the crowd, who clearly love her, and gets in the ring looking confident and relaxed about this match-up. Tara comes out second, with her championship strapped around her waist and her spider with her, of course! The match gets underway after the referee lets us know this match is indeed a championship bout. The two old rivals and new frenemies lock up and start jostling back and forth for position. Tara gets Angelina in a headlock and takes her down to the mat. She doesn’t let up on this but Angelina uses her strength to muscle Tara into a pinning position, but she barely gets a two count. The two women start moving around on the mat and Angelina gets Tara in a headscissors. What follows is a nice little series of wrestling between these two talented women. Tara rolls out of the headscissors and flips over Angelina, going for the pin. She gets a two count before Angelina bridges up. A few reversals happen and then Angelina executes a backslide and gets a two count before Tara wiggles out of it. The two women continue to actually wrestle before we’re interrupted by a far too long commercial break.
The match returns and we’re treated to even more chain wrestling from Angelina and Tara. Angelina takes the advantage for the most part of this, but Tara does a cutesy cartwheel thing and gets her upperhand back. It doesn’t last long before Angelina gets Tara into a pinning position and gets another two count. After Tara kicks out, Angelina gets her up and forces the Californian to eat a face full of turnbuckle. The blonde Canadian attempts to make Tara eat the opposite one, but the crafty Tara reverses it and Angelina finds herself in a world of hurt. Tara whips Angelina into the corner and charges, but Angelina lifts up and then rolls down Tara! She rolls her up for a pin but only gets yet another two count. Tara quickly gets up and gets Angelina in position for a nice sidewalk slam. She now tries to get a pin but Angelina powers out after a two count. Angelina is slow to get up and she’s gripping her lower back, but when she does make it to her feet she throws a few shots at Tara’s face then sends her into the ropes. She misses a kick and Tara catches her. She sets Angelina up for the Widow’s Peak but the crafty Angelina slides down and gets Tara in a pinning position. Tara rolls out of it and gets her entire body weight on top of Angelina, pinning her flat to the mat. Tara finally… FINALLY gets the W in a most amazing match-up.
Two competitors show some nice sportsmanship after the match. After celebrating by herself for a few seconds, Tara extends her hand to her former rival and picks her up off the ground. They share the spotlight for a moment before Tara turns around and the Beautiful People run down to the ring. The start beating down Angelina and for a hot minute it seems as if Tara isn’t going to return the favor from last week. Thankfully she does by flooring Velvet Sky with an absolute beast of a clothesline. Lacey von Erich and Madison Rayne both meet similar fates and together, Angelina and Tara fend off the three Beautiful People. They end up sandwiching Velvet, who looks scared for her life, and the distraction allows Lacey and Madison to sneak up behind the two other women who just put on an amazing match. Angelina and Tara just aren’t in the mood tonight, and finally TBP retreat and start backing up the ramp. Advantage Angelina and Tara.
Wow. What a great night for the Knockouts.
This match left me very happy and satisfied for a number of reasons. It had great length, brilliant wrestling, and it told a story of two longtime rivals locking up once again. The Tara/Angelina feud from last year received a lot of mixed reviews. I wasn’t a huge follower of it to be honest, but I kind of wish I would have paid closer attention now. Their wrestling tonight was great. More often than not, women aren’t don’t get the opportunity to wrestle so beautifully. It’s either due to their booking or limited abilities, and it was so nice to watch these two do what the men do and do it better in some cases. I truly feel that Angelina and Tara had the second best match of the night topped only by AJ Styles and the Pope. I’ve been extremely critical over TNA since the Hogan/Bischoff era came into effect but there’s very few things I can complain about tonight. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but it was pretty darn close. I would have liked a better ending. They deserved better than some cheap little roll-up ending. I see it as a negative, but I know some will see it as a positive or overlook it all together. I just feel that such a well put together match could have had a more defining ending, but it is what it is.
The whole frenemy thing between Tara and Angelina continues to grow and I can’t help but wonder if there is a catch to this whole thing. Perhaps Angelina is still a Beautiful Person deep down and at the end of this whole thing, she’s going to turn on Tara and re-align with her girls, Knockout Championship in hand? That may just be wishful thinking on my part, but it would also be a pretty good storyline if they went that route. I don’t wanna delve to deep into it because knowing me I’ll get excited about it and then it won’t happen. Overall, I would say that this was a great showing for the Knockouts. The Beautiful People looked great. Angelina and Tara looked great. Storylines were continued and we actually got see a good showing from the champ. Great, great night… except for Tara’s wardrobe malfunction. Sigh.
Food for thought: Would you like to see more face-on-face/heel-on-heel matches or do you prefer the standard heel-on-face bouts?
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27 Comments
Just one critique to the show: the match was to short for a championship match and the timing of the match, was kinda stupid.
I like the concept of heel on heel and face on face matches…….the reason why is because the styles match more th
i think it was ok, i was surprised when it ended
Great write-up!I definitely perfer this type of layout for your reviews of TNA,Cryssi,it’s much more professional.
I actually don’t think the match was that great at all.I thought it was decent for what it was.I LOVED the chain wrestling at the beginning of the match,as I usually do,but then the amount of time the match went on for totally killed it for me.I only like chain wrestling in long matches,because it’s like a build up of “Who will get the upper hand?”.
Also,the beatdown at the end of the match was slow,and painful to watch.It was pathetically executed,and did I mention that I hate LVE’s spastic selling?Especially the fact that she always lands on her side instead f her back like she’s supposed to.
I watched the match and was completely underwhelmed. It was too short and I hated the finish but I love the post-match stuff.
i thought the match was really SLOW…technically, it was a great match…but it was boring to watch…does anyone know why tara was pixelated the whole time? was her boob hanging out or was there a problem with the logo on her top?
It would be a shame if Tara and Angelina didn’t feud. This may be the best match I’ve ever seen out of Angelina; those two seem to have good chemistry. A bit slow, yes, but so many women’s TV matches are that I begin to wonder if they aren’t being told not to show the boys up.
i dont think the match was terribly by any means but i certainly wasnt impressed either. i found it really boring and expected much more from these great wrestlers. i was disappointed that there was a commericial during it as well..some people made some comments within the past weeks of lacey von erich not even being able to take a punch right and i agree…she rolls over on her stomach every time!! i have not yet really criticized lacey (other than in my head) yet, because i have been waiting to see improvements, but whenever she gets hit she turns around its liek shes scared of falling down on her back!
I really like face vs face matches coz its shows alot of athletiscm from both wrestlers. The beautiful people are hot but they should be also called the weak ass people.
It didn’t look like Tara’s boob was hanging out, I was kinda confused by the pixelation. These two excited me when they got in the ring together I knew we were up for a good match and it was a good match. I still prefer Angelina as a heel but I think her fan base is the reason she can get away with being a face. I’m sick of the current Beautiful People, I don’t see the hype. They’re annoying, slow and in my eyes can’t really wrestle to save themselves. Lacey standingthere clapping towards the end was awkward. I’m hoping TNA stops this focus on the pretty girls and starts looking at talent again, lets see some more of Daffney and Traci Brooks!
i hate thinking it, but tara has been really off since coming to tna. she just doesn’t impress me much any more. i think it has something to do with going from wrestling the model types to trained wrestlers. she’s just not that impressive fighting the likes of odb, angel and kong as she was kelly, maria and bellas.
also, more a coment on tna overall, but i really hate the piped in cheers/boos :(
Ur doing a good job of the Impact Write-Up Cryssi, well done :) Can you please just split up those paragraphs lol, some of them are giant its like being attacked by a wall of text.
i didnt find the match so special..not bad by any mean but not very good too
Great WRESTLING match, and that’s why I love it. Not a spotfest, and showed some great reversals and chain wrestling. If you don’t like this match, then you don’t like wrestling, just some over-the-top moves that don’t really count as wrestling. I really hate the rollup, makes both competitors look weak after how well they fought this match, and it just cut the match short. Would’ve liked this match to go at least 10 mins, 20 even because it was truly a good match.
PS: Lacey’s selling is PISSING ME OFF to the point where I can’t even look at her.
That initial chain reminds me of the one done by Lita and Victoria during their good (though a bit sloppy) Backlash match.
Hey DD, can I get a link to that photo you have up of Angelina’s entrance? She looks fucking stunning!
Kaledrina- So you would raher have Tara back in WWE losing every week to models and never getting a push then in TNA where she’s finally getting the respect she deserves. Listen thats your opinion and IMO Tara has done a very good job since coming to TNA, she’s FINALLY HAPPY. You also need to realize that Tara is not young woman anymore, she’s 38 years old and she can’t wrestler like she did back in 2003-2006 anymore. But you can tell she’s doing the best she can to wrestler like she did back then and give us one hell of a knockout match.
i don’t think Tara had a nip slip, I think TNA thought it was but it wasn’t really because we had a few close-ups of Tara and I didn’t see anything
i liked the build-up to the match but the match itself was boring for me. I blame Angelina, she’s not as good as people make her out to be, she’s medicore at best. I will admit that I like Angelina’s new music, very catchy….
“So you would raher have Tara back in WWE losing every week to models and never getting a push then in TNA where she’s finally getting the respect she deserves. ”
I wouldn’t want to call her first 2 title reigns as a sign of respect, more an insult. Let’s first see how long she will hold her current title.
im not very impress with the match at all. too much holds not enough wrestling.. i expected so much from Love and Victoria.
the attack at the end by the TBP was weaksauce and wheres LVE saving grace, her rassling skill mr uglystick lol.
So what exactly do you think wrestling is if it’s not holds and transitions? Just curious.
I loved this weeks knockouts action, I loved the match between Angelina and Tara, very great, loved the chain wrestling, it was so well done. I’ve been trying to find positive comments about Lacey but she was awful this week, she annoyed me, her selling was irritating.
I wonder why tara paused on Angel, i hope they aren’t teasing a heel turn from tara, shes fine as she is, her as a heel would only work if she was 02-03 psycho again.
“So what exactly do you think wrestling is if it’s not holds and transitions? Just curious.”
That reminds me of the Southpark episode ;-)
Cartman dressed as a 10 year old pregnant girl = wrestling. A wrestling instructor using real wrestling holds = gay
Good match. I needed to be a little bit longer though IMO, but besides that the Knockouts proved this week why they pwn the WWE Divas in their showings on TV. =P
I have become an Angelina fan while she was gone because I looked closely at her work and liked what I saw regardless of her persona. But I love the fact that Angelina is a face now because she can actually wrestle and not show boad and fluff her hair like when she was a heel.
I thought the match was good. I think they played off each other well and it flowed well. The thing I liked the most out of the match was the test of strength. I don’t know why but I love to see the women do that in matches.
I’d have liked to have seen Tara get a clean finish with the Widow’s Peak, but overall I thought it was a great match. I’m wondering where TNA are going to go from here, and what they’ll do with the rest of the knockouts. We haven’t seen Sarita, Taylor, Traci, Roxxi, Daffney or ODB in a while? (Besides those web matches)