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)
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34 Comments
It was a pretty good match until the craptastic ending. Ugh. Anyway, glad to see Angelina with the title again. I love Madison but her time as champ was fairly uninspiring, although I blame creative for that. Hopefully, Love’s new reign will be fairly interesting.
i REALLY dislike Angelina Love, and this is the second time TNA has pretty much handed her the title with out Angelina pinning anyone, firstly she opens a box to win the title, then she gets attack and wins the title on a DQ aweful.
i did not like Angelina anyway however this angers me, also as a face to me she is bland and sometimes does come across as a heel, i find it extremly hard to get behind Angelina Love, imo she is nothing special and dresses like a drag.
Usually they would have a face win the title due to hard work/effort, and would have a heel have the title pretty much handed to them….but in TNA’s case it seems to be the other way round, i hope Madison remains in the title picture even if Tara is back. I smell a triple threat but knowing TNA they will do something really odd and mess up what could be a decent storyline
Madison Rayne > Angelina Love.
i know said i’m tired of the same old stuff out of the knockouts but this looks interesting if that is tara (no doubt in my mind it is) i will look at tna again only because tara is one of my favorite women’s wrestlers but i want to see how this will play out and what will they do with this new storyline
Great review as always Cryssi and that ending was spot on. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Angelina just can’t play a face. I just can’t take her seriously because of how she wins the titles. She wins the title by opening a box and a DQ, and she’s happy?!?! I just don’t want to see Tara in Tna for many reasons. I may sound harsh, but it is the truth. She is past her prime and can’t deliver in the ring with basically one knee. It sucks that Sarita, once again, has to take a back seat to this has been again. Plus her acting was awful in her promos and of course, Poison. Oh Joy, we will see Poison the spider again. The same spider that Tara cared more about than winning a championship. At this point, I would rather see Velvet Sky get pushed than her. Say what you will about TBP, but at least they are interesting somewhat. Also, they are homegrown talent and not ex-wwe stars. I see the same thing happening when Mickie James comes to Tna. Mickie and Tara will be the main stars on the roster having lackluster sloppy matches. Why doesn’t Tna just raid Shimmer?
It was so wierd when the ” Mystery Women” rode in!
Angelina gets districted , you would think Madison would roll her up or attack from behind and deliver a final blow , but no she pushes her outside the ring…like seriously TNA….
nd Yeah I agree Angelina its like she ddnt seem that excited when she won the title , then again niether did eve when she won the divas title ….
If its Tara get ready to see another Tara vs Angelina fued Plus Madison…
So there goes my hopes of seeing a:
Angelina vs Sarita vs Taylor fued & A Daffeny vs Angelina fued…TNA sure loves to kills our hopes and dreams
Btw I just find it odd how some ppl or against Tara using her age as an excuse….Yeah look at Ric Flair , Fab Moolah was still kicking ass in her days when she was up in her 40′s ( I think ) , so dnt use oh Tara is 40 she cant do this she cant do that ….b cuz thats just bull crap…
So Tara >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Angelina & Madison, Velvet .
Bringing back Lisa was definetly not a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, I adore her, she’s probably one of the best out there, but still, she’s well past her prime, it’d be like Trish returning to WWE, it’s sounds great but you know you’d get annoyed at the fact that new talent isn’t being used/pushed.
Great write-up Crissy!
I understand why madison left with tara and wasnt so ticked off because the rule was if lacey or velvet were to interfere then she would loose her title but since it wasnt any member of the beautiful people them madison is still considered KO champion but the referee thought it was lacey or madison so angelina was rewarded the titl
In one of the post-TNA shows, i think right after Angelina won her title through a box, she said she didn’t care how she won the title. lol! that explains so much now!
Goodnightddtmnm- How is Tara better than Angelina? Angelina has the total package in wrestling, but I perfer her as a heel because that is what she’s best at. BTW, wrestling fans don’t use age as a excuse for everything. If we did, we would bash Angle, HBK, Taker, RVD, HHH. These guys may be old, but they can still produce a good match unlike Tara. Tara just doesn’t have it anymore, I’m sorry but that is the truth. I want you to name me three good matches that Tara had in her Tna run. I start you off easy with her vs. Kong steel cage match. So name two more.
Next PPV is Hard Justice, the all hardcore PPV, now I see why Tara is back, I predict a street fight between Tara/Angelina/Madison for the strap, with Tara taking more of the punishment.
I see that Tara will bump like crazy because no way Angelina/Madison will do it.
@ohiofan1 Nd Angelina has had better matches ? Dnt get me wrong trust me Im a Angelina fan so Im not bashing he or anything…
btw not to sound mean or anything but I dnt have to prove to you what good matches Tara had in TNA , the point is your nvr to old to do what you do best well not until ur body is worn out…nd it cant take any more so u saying Tara cant deliver matches isnt legit , not every wrestler out in the wrestling industry is perfect…so thats ur opinon on Tara I have mines you have yours end of Discusson…feel free to comment back to say waht u gotta say cause its no point on going back nd forth.
Goodnightddtmnm- Fair enough; Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink lol.
It was a pretty good match…crappy ending. There were better ways to bring Tara back.
I get what they were trying to do, but poorly executed. Madison though that since Tara wasn’t a BP member then when the masked biker attacked Angelina, it would be just a regular DQ and Madison would keep her title.
The rest of the ppv was pretty good….Ric Flair vs Lethal, MCMG vs Beer Money, Joe/Steriod Freak vs Styles/Kaz, Kendrick vs Williams were all goood
it was a decent back and forth match, better than i was expecting, actually.
i do find the backlash concerning the way the match ended confusing, though. people were foaming at the mouth at the thought of velvet or lacey purposely costing madison the belt.. but a mystery person inadvertently costing madison the belt is terrible? i find it intriguing and i can’t wait until the big reveal as to who it is happens on tv.
if anything, it’s gotten people talking.
i’ve gotta say.. i’m still not completely sold on it being tara, yet, though!
I’m very confused as to where things in TNA are going right now. It would’ve been so much cooler if Sarita was on the motorcycle, not Tara.
So we’re maybe getting the original Beautiful People back together, Tara/Madison alliance, and Lacey von Erich is just going to turn face and be the resident jobber? I’d be…okay…with that. Or maybe Angelina and Velvet are just going to stay separate and the Beautiful People are going to break up? Destroying every stable in the Knockouts division now that Saritaylor is over with? Or perhaps now like every girl in the division is going to turn heel? I mean let’s face it, Angelina, Tara, Velvet, Madison, Daffney, Sarita as heels? Sounds pretty enticing. Of course, that’d leave the faces being Lacey, Rosie, and Taylor, and honestly I’d be quite okay with those three just jobbing to the heels and having the heels run the division, albeit separately.
Hopefully, someday, we’ll get to see a Sarita vs Madison feud. I think those two girls, with Sarita’s newfound viciousness, could put on an epic heel vs heel match.
i LOVED how the ref faked to rayne and gave the title to a.love! haha
I have to say, I really hate the direction the match took. Angelina was bound to win, that’s obvious but did they have to do it so obviously, not to mention having the mysterious biker woman (tara) interfere the way she did… have Madison bitch it isn’t a member of TBP and then have her leave with the person. Random.
And this is only going to lead to Madison getting the belt back Thursday because she technically didn’t get DQd by a member of TBP.
i enjoyed the match, and although it’s not a great ending, at least there’s some story progression,
i still think it’s Mia Yim or someone else, you can see the reflection of the persons face in the bike mirrors and i don’t think it looked like Tara
Very controversal i like that Angelina Love won and all but not the way she won it couldn’t they both be disqualified resulting and Angelina Love not leaving and Madison retaining or something and i wanted a longe rmatch but whatever can’t have everything well maybe if were lucky lol i hope it was Mia Kim in the black crosses fingers but i read Tara is back soooooooooooo…………………… yeah don’t know what to think man and i wanted sarita and Hamada to get a pushed:( i love Tara but i agree with Ohiofan
Its so obviously Tara, you can tell by the way she stands and just her body language. Those who are saying its not are just wishful thinking…
As a fan I just can’t understand why after the ref gave the belt to Angelina why wouldn’t Tara reveal herself? If she’s alligning with Madison it just doesn’t make sense. If Madison wanted a reverse decision and to keep her belt the only way would have been for “Biker Chick” to reveal herself
Tara isn’t better or a smarter investment for the future than Angelina. Or Madison. Or Daffney. Or Sarita. Or Kong. Or Melissa. Or Rain. Or………
She was tailing off before leaving the last time. And her time did nothing to elevate the division or it’s native workers. Her ring skills are still adequate to get the job done. But she’s never been really good on the mic and hasn’t been even passable there since about 2004-05. And may not even be fully commited to wrestling. Nor will she ever be Tara of TNA first and foremost. Her most and best years were as Victoria in the WWE.
There were literally double figures of women that would have been wiser choices to bring in to or push from TNA’s already existing roster. And I really used to like Victoria back in the day. But she’s not what she was then and isn’t going to be getting any better. Having her wreck shop on the division again, if it comes to that, is just another short sighted setback.
“Its so obviously Tara, you can tell by the way she stands and just her body language. Those who are saying its not are just wishful thinking…”
but tara has a tattoo on the back of her neck? this person didn’t.
As long as they don’t reveal the person facially, they can play a certain amount of games with this and actually use someone other than it ends up being..
”but tara has a tattoo on the back of her neck? this person didn’t.”
the tatoos on her ankle not her neck
i didn’t like Madison’s attire but she still looked good and I’m glad Angelina won shes my favorite knockout.
I like Angelina because I feel she is one of the most well rounded female stars on any major wrestling show and I did want her to get the title back. However, I did hate the ending to this match up and I kind of wanted Madison’s reign to last a little longer, so I’m kind of torn. I think it was pretty obvious by the movements and figure of the “Motorcycle Chick” that it was Tara and though I’m glad she is back I wish it was done in a better fashion. The match was good and the ending sucked hard.
“the tatoos on her ankle not her neck”
i’m pretty sure she has one on the back of her neck, too.
i didnt enjoy this match i am so glad i didnt get this is on PPV but i did like the kick to chair because madison sold it perfectly imo and i dont think it is tara because the stance and the way she walked just doesnt seem like tara
This could have been an exciting match that ended up being really unsatisfying. Angelina, who is presumably their number one woman considering the time and effort they put into her, looks incredibly week by winning the title twice without ever pinning anyone, let alone the champion, and is an epic failure as a face considering she’s being presented as having screwed Madison–a heel due to attitude, usually, not lack of skill…. she’s always presented as dangerous competitor–out of the belt on a technicality. Of course, it’s hard to buy Angel as a face after she went all crazy and beat down Lacey and Vel Vel to the point of injury, and after the Impact Zone popped for Daffney in a BIG way as opposed to her. This could make sense if they turned Angelina soon, but I don’t see that happening… oh well. “Not everything has to make sense,” after all… :/
i didnt like neither the match nor the ending and crowd seemes to be dead most of the time
What started of as quite a promiosing match was to me ruined by such a daft conclusion. So Angelina wins her fourth title (she was never going to lose and so retire) but why not a clean win Her recent title wins have all been “handed” to her – picking the belt out of a box or DQ in strange circumstances. Indeed recently tythe KO title seems to be moved without clean wins, A clean win could kickstart a strong title run, Now its going to drag on.
I guess Madison’s days with TBP are numbered, I’d expect Velvet to rejoin Angelina assuming of course that it wasnt Velvet acting as the biker chick. Possibly to reintroduce the dreaed tag titles it could be Angelina and Velvet (with Lacey) vs Madison and Biker chick for all the titles!!!!
Where this leaves them I’m not sure. Madison is certainly being cast as a heel and TBP are best as heels.
Finally have to say I disliked Madison’s appearance. Cryssi rightly pointed out her hair last time and now also rightly critcises her new attire. To me this skin coloured attire does not suit her and at times seem to venture close to wardrobe malfunction! Come on Madison you can look far better than this, go back to the long pants.
Ooh flesh colored attires…reminds me of Terri Runnels :P