It’s no secret that the majority of us have a love/hate relationship with TNA and all things about it. It’s easy to bash the company and it’s management, and to be honest, it’s one of my hobbies these days it seems. It’s not that I do it intentionally, because I don’t. I really want to like TNA and I want to seem them push the envelope and elevate their product towards the top so they can compete with the WWE and force the ‘E to raise its quality. Sometimes I think it’s wishful thinking, but nonetheless here I am with another Impact Write-Up and this week it’s going to be a pretty happy one. The TNA love came into play tonight when the company finally gave us some diversity and featured *gasp* Daffney. With the whole Beautiful People/Angelina Love soap opera we’ve watched play out over the past few weeks, Daffney was seemingly one of the forgotten Knockouts who got stuck playing second fiddle to the pretty people of the company. On this week’s Impact, she took on Knockouts Champion, Tara!
Daffney is the first competitor to make her way to the ring for this non-title match up. Taz makes a comment about how nice it is to see zombie-hot Daffney and I totally agree with him. Daffney has one of the better female characters in all of wrestling right now and she has years and years of experience behind her as well. With the exception of the hat she’s wearing, her outfit is totally fabulous. I absolutely love it. She looks amazing. Tara is out next and she looks cute tonight as well. Her body is completely ripped and she can pull off the beanie, T-shirt, and little shorts look so well. Tara has certainly started looking better as she’s gotten older which is a true testament to her amazing workout routine and the fact TNA has seemingly given her a new lease on life.
The match begins with both women jockeying for position. Daffney forces Tara back against the ropes and takes a wild swing at her, but the crafty champion ducks and just totally floors Daffney with a huge right hand. Daffney hits the mat but she gets up, so Tara hits her again, and then a third time! Daffney doesn’t let this stop her, and she gets up once again. This time Tara slams her foot into Daffney’s gut, doubling over the gothic beauty. She shows off her strength and hoists Daffney onto her shoulders, then hits a nice looking slam. Tara goes for the cover and gets a two count. Tara’s not really happy about that and she lifts Daffney up and goes to work on the other woman’s arm. Daffney defends against this and hits Tara with a knee to the stomach, then a huge uppercut. Tara staggers back against the ropes, get chest chopped, and when Daffney goes for the whip, Tara is able to reverse it and send Daffney across the ring. Daffney bounces off the ropes, ducks a clothesline, and comes flying back at Tara. Tara is ready for this and lifts Daffney up, back body dropping her with ease.
Daffney grips her lower back in pain and Tara starts to rally the crowd behind her. How does she do this? By being a diva of course and ripping her shirt off! At least there’s another top under her wrestling shirt this week, so we’re not subjected to any wardrobe malfunctions. Daffney has been recovering in a corner throughout all this and when Tara goes after her, Daffney unleashes a spinning heel kick that no doubt catches the Californian off guard. Tara goes down like a ton of bricks but Daffney is to hurt to go at her right away. Tara manages to slowly get to her feet and Daffney has enough instincts to go after her and make her stay down. This seems to give Daffney a bit of a second wind and she suddenly starts to remember why she’s such a sadistic you know what! She repeatedly snapmares Tara to the mat using only the woman’s hair (… and for you tender headed people out there that’s pretty cringe worthy). To make matters worse, Daffney has began taunting Tara and the referee for that matter, and she kicks Tara right in the chest. Daffney continues kicking the crap out of her opponent and finally just pushes her right out of the ring.
Daffney gives an evil little laugh into the camera and slams Tara into the steel guardrail. But you know, Tara is champion for a reason and she starts fighting back. Daffney crawls away from her and reaches under the ring for a weapon. She manages to find a strategically placed tool box and just knocks the snot out of Tara with it. Of course that’s an automatic disqualification but does Daffney care? Of course not! This woman is certifiably crazy and I’m absolutely loving this. She beats Tara with the toolbox again and begins to drag the champion away from the ring. The referee, bless him, is following behind them and trying to make Daffney stop, but she has other plans. She tosses Tara into the steel railing and when the referee finally tries to assert himself, Daffney lets out an ear piercing shriek that stops him dead in his tracks. His face is totally priceless and I’m laughing everytime I see it because I have Impact on pause right now. The camera switches to Tara and the sheer agony of Daffney’s maniac attack is written all over her face. She’s gingerly walking and trying to get away, but she’s basically just a wounded piece of prey right now. Daffney pounces on her and knocks her down with a double axe handle. The bell rings again which is so pointless and so funny, especially because Daffney just doesn’t care. She throws a piece of the barricade across Tara, screams at everyone to get out of her way, and grabs a chair.
Then in perhaps one of the most beautiful moments I’ve seen on television in a very long time, Daffney takes the chair and starts beating the guardrail with Tara trapped underneath it. Tara is twitching, moaning, groaning… it’s just fantastic. Dr. Stevie finally runs out and tries to get a hold on Daffney but man does she put up one hell of a fight against him. It’s pretty amazing to watch Daffney flip the ‘eff out and even while Dr. Stevie drags her away, Daffney screams and fights. Tara’s out cold and everyone is checking on, and unfortunately Impact decides to cut away and go to Mick Foley thus ending our Knockout entertainment for this evening.
I for one was extremely happy with Impact tonight. I think they made up for snubbing the Knockouts this past Sunday and both Daffney and Tara really brought it tonight. After weeks of seeing nothing but the Beautiful People and Angelina Love, this was a much needed break for me. I love TBP and Angelina, but they were shoved down our throats far to much and the angle got so boring and stale to me. What we saw on this week’s Impact really put Lacey’s moonsault elbow drop to shame. Impact definitely gets two manicured thumbs up from me. I’m excited about the potential this Daffney/Tara storyline has and I hope that TNA can broaden it’s horizons and actually go all in on this one. I would love to see more Knockouts featured, but I’m not going to complain. We got to see a new, fresh face tonight and at the end of the day, that’s what truly matters. Did anyone else enjoy the fact Dr. Stevie got Daffney away from Tara? It made me flashback to a much happier time in wrestling when Victoria and Stevie Richards were a couple, LOL. I hope there will be some Stevie/Tara interaction somewhere down the line!
I can honestly say that for the first time in a long time I’m excited to see what next week’s Impact will feature. I don’t read spoilers for these tapings because I like everything to be fresh and new for me. Daffney was a welcomed distraction from all the Mean Girl-esque BS we’ve had to deal with lately and for someone who’s never really been impressed with Daffney, tonight I can say with a smile on my face that I marked out for her and maybe, just maybe I became a bit of a fan.
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17 Comments
I hope they are going somewhere with this, but it was nice to see an episode without the Beatiful People. I did hope that it would’ve been longer than 2 minutes though. They could’ve done a 5 minute match first and then let Daffney go crazy after the match. It’s kinda a bad sign that nowadays we are satisfied with only 2 minutes of knockout action.
i’m not a fan of double standards, so i’m just gonna put this out there.. one was in wcw and one was in wwe. they’ve both retired from wrestling and they’ve both since came back to it. just because they are women, people shouldn’t think too differently of this than they do towards the likes of “the band” or the nasty boys. even if i don’t like any of the men i just mentioned. i would prefer more time spent on tna’s “homegrown” knockouts, the likes of taylor and traci. even sarita, kong and hamada.
regardless of that, i really like this combination. tara vs daffney could be the one to watch this year. the match itself was a bit slow for me. comparing it to the likes of daffney vs taylor and daffney vs hamada.. pretty disappointing. the aftermath was what mattered, but that could’ve been achieved with a backstage promo and the ring time itself going to somebody else. my thumb is in the middle.
Was the match really two minutes or is half the match just missing from the video?
Part of the match is missing, I posted a full version of the match on my Daffney website. And just to say, Daffney never “retired” from wrestling, she had a break for a short time after WWE released her from a developmental contract in 2003 and she has worked her ass off on the Indies since then training, wrestling, etc. She never really ever went away. She deserves her time to shine again in TNA because she is the total package of charisma, in-ring talent, she can cut a great promo, her facial expressions and her whole look just make you want to see more and she is always entertaining.
I like Daffney a lot (dark characters and cold heels are always my favs) and I loved to see her in action. I wish she was given the opportunity to hold a title at least once, cause she’s great.
BTW, what an vicious attack. Im happy they let them do this. Usually only men do things like this.
I am so excited for a potential Daffney push! She has so much talent both in and out of the ring. She’s worked so hard for so many years, and I really feel like it’s her time to shine. A Daffney/Tara feud would do a lot to highlight the talent and charisma of both women, as well as bring some respect back to the belt.
By the way, where the hell have Sarita and Taylor been?!
Hmmm,to be honest,I didn’t mark out on Daffney like I thought I would.I just expected something…..more.Don’t get me wrong,it brought a huge smile to my face seeing Daffney beautifully demolish Tara like the gorgeous psycho-bitch we all know she is,but I didn’t jump up and down pointing at the t.v yelling,”That’s my sexy psycho bitch!”,like I thought I would.
I would love to see a Daffney push…oh how I would love that.
I think it would’ve been more effective to just have Daffney beat the living hell out of Tara with the chair directly hitting her,as opposed to having a barrier.And,I’d have Daffney smack her head against the chair afterwards for good measure,you know,to show her psycho-ness.
Overall,a fun Impact,and it was good to see Daffney dishing out the pain instead of taking it for once. :)
Kaledrina- Daffney and Tara never retired from wrestling. Daffney has been in the indies for years perfecting her wrestling skills and Tara’s departure from WWE in january 2009 to her TNA debut in May are only 4 months apart, it was more a break than retirement.
As far as Daffney’s push goes, i’m really excited she’s finally getting one because she deserves it. Ever since her fued with taylor wilde ended, she’s been nothing but a jobber and the girl who takes big bumps. I really liked the work between Tara and daffney in this match and i loved the attack afterwards, those chairshots looked like they hurt big time
i’m really excited to see daffney vs. ODB next week
Some good news for the knockouts.
Tara/Daffney drew 1.28 while the peak of the show was 1.29, that shows that it’s not just the TBP-segments that score high. Maybe that will pursuade TNA creative to show more Daffney.
Pope, AJ, Flair, Hall/Nash all drew 1.15 as lowest of the show (10% lower than the knockouts).
I’m soooo excited Daffney is getting her well deserved push. Hope she and Tara are able to show us an awesome feud. They really got the potential to do it.
Not a bad segment, and definetly something fresh that will surely make Tara more enjoyable to watch, and it’ll actually give one of her fueds some personality for once.
Tara never once used the word ‘retirement’ when she was leaving WWE, she just said she was leaving the WWE. And as others have said, Daffney took a break in 2003, not retired. That being said, the segment was great and I love the Daffney push coming. Hopefully this feud gets to amount to all I’m hoping for.
About time daffeney got some air time, ive never been impressed with Tara since she debuted she is very generic, so it was cool to see Daffney kickin her ass.
Tara is the best seller on the TNA roster (with Taylor of course). That attack was so believable on her end.
TARA/DAFFNEY FEUD, PLEASE :)
Good, great stuff – I want more!
@Kerry – Thank you for posting the whole thing. Nice site!