Last week on Impact, the Knockouts took an unexpected, yet welcomed step in the right direction in terms of their booking. Whoever wrote the show or whatever gave all of us long suffering KO fans a well deserved treat in the form of a brilliantly scripted and well acted in-ring segment and a pretty darn good streetfight. Personally, it was almost to much for me to handle you know what I’m sayin’? This week, the action wasn’t overwhelming but it was still great, and very enjoyable to watch.

Tonight’s Knockout portion of Impact kicks off with a segment featuring Madison Rayne, Sarita, Velvet Sky, and Lacey Von Erich. Sarita and Madison are hanging out in the women’s lockerroom and they’re gossiping. Eventually the subject gets switched to Velvet, and Madison starts to run her mouth unaware that Velvet and Lacey have both walked up behind her. Lacey attempts to cover Velvet’s ears so she can’t hear the mean things Madison is saying, but it fails and Sarita goes quiet. Madison wants to know what’s going on and of course, Velvet is standing behind her when she turns around. Lacey begs them to stop, but Velvet’s not having that and she looks down her nose at Madison. She tells Madison that if she has something to say then she better say it to her face. Sarita is in the background smirking, but Velvet calls her out next. She basically accuses Sarita of being the mystery biker chick and tells her that she should keep the helmet on her big ass head. Bitching ensues and once again, Lacey tries to break it up. Both Madison and Velvet snap at Lacey like she’s a five year old, and then Madison gets all cocky, saying that tonight she is going to be handed back her TNA Knockouts Championship. Velvet just rolls her eyes and mentions that she still has her title because she never lost it. Both girls try and buck up to one another, and poor Lacey. She’s just stuck in the middle of all of this and getting treated like crap. Sarita and Madison both walk away, and Velvet and Lacey go off in the opposite direction. TNA goes to commercial.

After a bit of pointless crap, Angelina Love and Taylor Wilde make their way to the ring. Angelina is still wearing the Knockouts Championship but that’s about to change. The Beautiful People music hits and Sarita walks out with Madison. Sarita and Taylor are jawing back and forth at one another during the entire entrance  and Madison is literally bouncing to the ring with a bright smile on her face. Once all that is finished, senior referee, Earl Hebner, stands in the middle of the ring with a microphone in his hand. He informs Angelina, as well as the crowd, that the Board of Directors have no proof that a member of the Beautiful People was riding that bike therefore Angelina has to surrender the championship. Madison starts demanding that she be handed the belt, but after Angelina passes it off she cold cocks Madison right in the kisser. Taylor attacks Sarita and the fight between these four talented ladies is underway!

The bell rings, but things are ridiculously out of hand. Sarita ends up getting thrown out of the ring at one point which leaves Madison prone to a double team inside the ring. Taylor is forced out of the ring and into her corner, while Angelina takes down Madison. Sarita is back up on the apron so Madison is able to make the tag. Angelina controls the limited offense and then begins to drag Sarita towards a waiting Taylor Wilde. Sarita is able to shake free, but Taylor has already come into the ring. Sarita’s not really one to back down from a fight so she kindly greets Taylor with an innovative take down. Sarita taunts Taylor, which prompts the blonde Canadian to fight back stiffly. Sarita’s not really game for this type of onslaught and she eventually ends up on the mat.

Sarita finally figures out that she needs to get in some offense, so she manages to catch Taylor off guard and send her spinning into the mat. Taylor rolls over towards her corner to make the tag to Angeline, and meanwhile, Sarita has gotten to Madison. Madison comes running in, but quickly reverses her position once she sees Angelina coming at her full steam ahead. Madison doesn’t make it in time to her corner, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Sarita’s not even on her feet. Angelina takes her foe down a couple of times before finally just slamming her. Sarita comes in the ring to break it up and Taylor decides to assert herself into the melee. She jumps Sarita and the two fall down and begin to brawl. Their fight spills out of the ring right as Madison attempts to hit Angelina with her finisher. Angelina is able to put a stop to that and she knocks Madison out for the three count thanks to a fancy little inverted face plant thing.

Taylor brushes off Sarita and gets back in the ring, just in time to congratulate Angelina on picking up the victory for their team. While that’s going on, the biker babe comes driving down to the ring. That completely overrides Velvet’s theory of Sarita being the woman on the bike. The confused Tag Team Champions make their way to the ring which leaves Angelina and Taylor even more perplexed. The distraction allows Madison and Sarita to jump them from behind. The biker chick gets in the ring and goes right for Angelina. This allows Velvet and Lacey to plaster on their confused expressions. Eventually the biker woman gets out of the ring, and So Cal Val hands the Knockouts Championship back over to Madison. Sarita and Madison get out of the ring and head for their mysterious friend, and much to Velvet’s horror, Lacey runs off and goes with them! To be perfectly fair, Lacey looks torn in half over the situation and she does her best to get Velvet to join them. Velvet’s not having it and finally Lacey, Sarita, Madison, and the mystery woman just leave. Velvet shakes her head and looks in the ring where her eyes lock with Angelina’s. The two literally look like they’re having a silent conversation and the looks on their faces say it all. Neither one of them know what their next move is going to be.

The Good: I often gripe about combining storylines, but this one worked because it wasn’t hastily thrown together and everything actually made sense (for the most part). I don’t really feel like picking apart the little things because really, it gets us nowhere. I’m pleased with Madison getting the championship back and I truly hope that next time we see the Knockouts Championship change hands its at the conclusion of a hard-fought match with a fair ending. It’s time TNA started to bring some prestige back to the belt.

For the second week in a row, I feel like everyone shined. Each girl played their part well. Lacey is becoming quite the little actress and I’m loving her role in all of this even more so than Velvet’s. It’s so interesting and intriguing to me to see Velvet Sky play the victim. I loved the silent exchange between Angelina and Velvet this week. I can’t help but feel and hope that a reunion, even if it’s short-lived, takes place soon. They both have a common annoyance now and that’s Madison Rayne and her massive ego. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before they join forces to try and stop her.

The Bad: I felt the match was slow and sloppy in some places. Taylor and Sarita seemed unsure of where to go next at a few parts. I don’t know if it was miscommunication or if they simply didn’t have the timing down. Either way, there were a few spots in there that seemed weird to me.

The Ugly: Sarita and Taylor continue to dress funky. I know wrestling is not a quote “fashion show” but neither are the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, ect. and we still comment on the dresses worn on the red carpet. I’ll never understand the Beautiful People fashion sense either, but I’ve given up on them. We know that they’ll always dress bad, but for once they looked presentable. At least I thought Velvet did in her little yellow dress.

Tonight was the second week in a row of good Knockout action. I didn’t enjoy it as much as last week, but I’ll chalk that up to the funny spots in the match. I’m really just grasping at straws though. Everyone played their part well, once again, and I hope next week goes over just as well. I haven’t read spoilers and honestly,  I don’t even know if anything has been taped. I just want this fun run for the Knockouts to continue. God knows they deserve it after wasting away in purgatory for the longest time.

Author’s Note: At the time of posting, no video was available for the match. Once a video is location, it will be added.

Divas Champion, Alicia Fox will defend the belt against Eve Torres this Sunday at Money in the Bank.

This match is in addition to the Women’s Title bout between Kelly Kelly and Layla, bringing our Divas tally to two matches this Sunday!

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)

For the second month in a row, there was a major swerve during the Knockouts Championship match on pay per view. Angelina Love became the first ever four-time Knockouts Champion tonight at Victory Road, defeating Madison Rayne by disqualification due to ‘interference by The Beautiful People’.

The stipulations of the ‘Title vs Career’ match meant that Rayne would lose the belt if her tag partners, Lacey Von Erich or Velvet Sky interfered.

The finish came when a mystery figure rode out to ringside on a motorcycle, wearing all black and a helmet, and interfered on Rayne’s behalf, shoving Love into the ring post. The referee, assuming it was either Von Erich or Sky, called for the bell and awarded the championship to Love.

The move marks the third consecutive title switch without the champion even being pinned. Tara lost the belt in April in the Lock Box Showdown and Rayne later pinned Tara for the belt in a tag contest at LockDown though Angelina was champion.

Let speculation begin as to just who the mystery Knockout is. My money’s on Tara.

I believe it’ll be the first pay per view singles match for both Divas, so it’s going to be a big night for Layla and Kelly.

The two Divas are no strangers to each other. Both Divas’ careers began in the summer of 2006, coming up the ranks in ECW together as part of Extreme Exposé before feuding for nearly a year.

Money in the Bank airs on pay per view on Sunday, July 18th.

FCW history is made as the promotion crowns its first ever Divas Champion. After an eight-woman tournament, the finals are here as Naomi Night battles SmackDown’s Serena for the belt. Watch below:

Watch the second part after the cut:

We have a new Divas Champion! Alicia Fox was just crowned the new champion moments ago defeating Eve Torres, Maryse and Gail Kim in a fatal four-way match.

After Eve hit a moonsault on Maryse, Alicia quickly re-entered the ring, throwing Eve out and stealing the win by pinning Maryse.

This is Fox’s first major championship in professional wrestling. Her only other credit is the OVW Women’s Championship.

Fox — real name Victoria Crawford — joined WWE in 2006 along with Kelly Kelly after being scouted in a catalogue. She spent two years in the developmental system before making her main roster debut in the summer of 2008.

At just 23 years old, Fox makes history as the youngest Diva to win the Divas Championship. I believe [but don't quote me on this] she may even be the youngest Diva to win a WWE championship, period. [Wendi Richter won the Women's Title at age 22].

Welcome to a long awaited and extra large serving of FCW Watch! As you all know, FCW Diva matches have been few and far between in the last few months. However, with some crafty detective work (not really), I’ve managed to unearth the quarterfinals and semifinals of the FCW Divas Championship tournament. First up, the newest Raw Diva, Tamina takes on the reigning Queen of FCW, AJ Lee:

Thoughts: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Tamina is really green and it shows in this match. She looks like she cant quite get her bearings in the ring, and the match suffered from it. However, I do like how they’re building Tamina up as this uber-tough, powerful Diva ala Beth Phoenix. I do think that Tamina has potential to be a great in-ring competitor someday, but for right now let’s keep her away from the live show please?

Next up, the battle of the NXT announcers as Savannah takes on Jamie Keyes:

Thoughts: To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this match and for good reason. Although Savannah know her way around the ring pretty well by now, she’s facing off against an uber-rookie in Jamie Keyes. This mixture could very well be disastrous. Thankfully, Savannah and Keyes kept the match pretty simple, sticking to basic moves and techniques. Definitely not my favorite match of the tournament, but certainly not the train wreck it could have been.

In the last quarter final match-up, Naomi Night faces off with Liviana:

Thoughts: Of all the quarterfinal matches, this one had me worried the most. Unlike the other matches, this match was rookie vs rookie, so I wasnt sure if either of these girls could pull out a decent match with the other. I hadn’t seen much of Liviana, and what I had seen wasn’t exactly mindblowing. That said, Naomi Night has been improving at light speed, so I was hoping she could bring out the best in Liviana.

Surprisingly, this ended up to be my favorite match out of first four matches (couldn’t find Serena vs Askana, sorry). Naomi has really stepped it up in the past few months and I can see why FCW has been pushing her so hard as of late. I liken her to Alicia Fox and Savannah, as she has picked of the sport fairly quickly and can pull out a good match from almost any opponent. I expect to see lots of good things from her in the future.

Believe it or not, Liviana also impressed me in this match. Her ring skill aren’t the best, but she’s far from the worst competitor to step into the squared circle. In-ring skills aside, it’s Liviana’s character that impresses me. She reminds me of early Melina in her mannerisms and even her moveset. I would to see her teamed up with a superstar in a managerial role while she improves on her ring work. i think she may be my guilty pleasure when it comes to the FCW Divas.

Now on to the semifinals! The obvious favorites to win the tournament, AJ Lee and Serena meet in the semis, but only one can move on to the finals:

Thoughts: Out of all the girls in this tournament, AJ Lee and Serena probably know each other the best between. Very solid match from both these girls. I especially liked how Serena has incorporated her involvement with SES into her gear (CM Punk’s wrist tape) as well as her moveset (her new GTS-like finisher). I can’t wait for her to have her first WWE match, if this is any indication. AJ Lee was also very impressive. I would love to see her moved up to the main roster to add some much need firepower to Smackdown’s Diva’s roster.

Last, but certainly not least Naomi Night and Savannah squared off for the last spot in the finals. Also, everyone’s favorite straight edge Diva makes a cameo appearance:

Thoughts: I enjoyed this match, but I do think it was the weaker of the two semifinals bouts. Both girls pulled out all the stops, but i just don’t think they have the same chemistry as AJ and Serena do. Not to mention, Naomi needs a new finisher pronto ( A leg lariat?! Really). The segment where Serena attacks Naomi was excellent. By cutting Naomi’s hair (which is Yaki #9, according to Abraham Washington), Serena created a feud that has the potential to carry on far past the finals of this tournament.

All in all, this tournament has been more exciting (and longer) than any of the tournaments that WWE have put together recently, which is sad seeing how most of these girls aren’t close to ready for the main roster. I suggest that WWE take note of the work their developmental Divas are turning out and try to emulate that on Smackdown and Raw. Hopefully, the finals of this tourney live up to the rest of the matches. For those who are itching to know who becomes the  first ever FCW Divas Champion, spoilers can be found here.

Credit to YouTube user Mikie91 for the videos and reader Bobby Lea Burchill for the tip!

It’s the night of Slammiversary and all through the world, wrestling fans  are waiting, shaking in anticipation. It’s the biggest night for TNA, their anniversary. The granddaddy of them all for the little Orlando company that has kept on chugging for the past eight years. When most ragtime, no name, mediocre companies would have folded, TNA has truly stood the test of time. That speaks volume about their resiliency and their efforts to make their company better…

My God. I sound like a TNA supporter.

Let me start over. Tonight was TNA’s version of Summerslam (since it’s not Wrestlemania apparently), Slammiversary. How the company has managed to survive this long is beyond me, but nonetheless, it’s made it this long and they decided to oblige us Knockout fans with an absolutely scorching hot contest for the Knockouts Championship featuring Madison Rayne, the champ, against the babyface challenger, Roxxi. I would love to sit here and act all excited for the match, but I’m really not. TNA did absolutely nothing to build up this match and this past Thursday on Impact the title match wasn’t even mentioned. The lack of hype for this Knockouts title match has left a lot of fans frigid, including yours truly, and put an immense amount of unfair pressure on Madison and Roxxi to perform. Whether or not they can live up to those expectations remained to be seen. Personally, I didn’t have high hopes. Did you?

As it turns out, I was absolutely right to not have high hopes. What happened tonight was an absolute travesty. It was a miscarriage of justice. It was the biggest crime committed since OJ Simpson walked away a free man thanks to Kim Kardashian’s father (… and some other old guys). Roxxi, as far as we know, is now gone from TNA and it’s total bullshit if you want my honest opinion. I’ve never in my life been more disgusted with a single television program in my entire life. I find it completely laughable that Eric Bischoff went on record this week saying the Knockouts division was a staple of the company. It’s not an absolute farce and I’m ready to give up on it. There’s really nothing else I can say. For those of you who spared yourselves from watching, I commend you. Lets just get on with it.

Roxxi is out first and thank God she is in a new outfit tonight. It’s not that pretty and it’s certainly not that flashy, but it’s not a gross brown color. It’s a nice red ensemble etched with a bit of gold. As Roxxi comes to the ring, the feed cuts to a highlight of Roxxi beating Madison a few weeks ago in a non-title match, which is basically how she earned this chance tonight. After that, Madison walks out solo and she’s dressed in this little pink skirt and a black top. It’s interesting to me that she’s alone, and I respect that. It makes me wonder if the Beautiful People will end up getting involved towards the end. The champ gets into the ring and does her usual thing, while Roxxi stands back and watches, focused on her match and highly unimpressed by Madison’s sexy antics. Madison is looking so confident, totally ready for this match and she hands the title over to the referee who sports a nifty bow-tie. Cool.

Mike Tenay wonders aloud if Roxxi can take the final step tonight and secure her first TNA championship and shockingly, Madison has summoned a ring servant to hand her a microphone. Nice twist. She tells everyone to chill out for a second and that gets her some fantastic heat. Madison claims that she has something important to say and she really wants everyone to listen. Of course, no one wants to listen to her, but that doesn’t really deter the champ from speaking her mind. She turns her focus directly on Roxxi and asks the challenger to explain why the Beautiful People, as a faction, have basically dominated the Knockouts division for the past two years while Roxxi’s TNA tenure has been shaky, to say the least. She reminds everyone that Roxxi has been in and out of TNA several times and while this goes on, the crowd is just eating Madison alive. Madison is annoyed at the disrespect but she starts to bitch that this time Roxxi was basically handed a Knockouts title shot and to be fair, she’s got a point.

The crowd doesn’t agree and they continue to go nuts on Madison. She responds in perfect heel fashion and screams at everyone to shut up. No one listens to her and finally Madison tunes them out and moves on. She complains that tonight she is putting everything on the line and that it’s unfair Roxxi isn’t putting anything up. Madison says she has everything to lose and nothing to gain, whereas Roxxi has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Roxxi looks perplexed by this but things become clear when Madison challenges Roxxi to put her career on the line. Madison taunts the shit out of Roxxi and demands that she give her an answer right now. She even bucks up and gets in Roxxi’s face. Roxxi finally caves but before she can get all the words out, Madison slams her in the head with the microphone and goes for the quick pin. Roxxi kicks out but she’s bleeding profusely thanks to that vicious shot.

Roxxi starts bossing Madison around and takes her down with a double elbow. She goes for a pin but it’s unsuccessful. Roxxi is really covered with blood and it’s so gross. I’m like cringing but Roxxi continues to fight on and climbs on the top rope. Madison does take her down and Roxxi’s face slams into the mat. Blood flies everywhere and Madison once again takes control. She goes for a cover, but only receives a two count because Roxxi isn’t about to give up that easily. Always the popular one, Roxxi has the crowd solidly behind her. They’re chanting her name but Madison continues to overshadow Roxxi. Roxxi is finally able to get some offense in and she slams Madison’s head into the mat. She follows it up by attempting to whip Madison across the ring, into the ropes, but Madison reverses it and they start to exchange arm holds. Roxxi ends up hitting a sweet looking enziguri and she begins to bounce Madison around like a beach ball. She ends up getting the champ down and hits a pretty good impact maneuver. She goes for a pinfall, but Madison fights out of it which sucks for Roxxi. I thought she had the victory! Both women begin to exchange holds again but this is very brief. Roxxi uses her size advantage and scoops Madison up. She nails her with the Voodoo Drop but the momentum sends Madison flying out of the ring. Roxxi isn’t able to capitalize and Madison is allowed to regain her composure on the outside of the ring. Roxxi finally goes to get her and tosses Madison back into the ring. She goes to follow her in, but Madison is coherent enough to kick Roxxi in the face. Roxxi is woozy now and stumbles around, and Madison hits her finisher.

1… 2… 3! Roxxi gets pinned and now her career is apparently over.

Are you freaking kidding me?!

Madison celebrates in the ring as the fans seem shocked by what has transpired. I’m shocked as well. The Roxxi chants begin and Roxxi is led up the ramp. Madison is screaming at Roxxi to get the hell out of the building because she made a deal. This is absolutely horrific. The scene fades out with an image of Madison Rayne checking her hair and make-up in the belt and Roxxi walking dejectedly up the ramp.

Wow. Where do I even begin? Normally this is where I go through the good, the bad, and the ugly, but ohmygod. What’s good about this?!

After taking a moment to collect my bearings I reckon I can say Madison’s promo was good. This is by far the best she’s ever been on the microphone and the amount of heat she was getting was absolutely insane. I feel as if Madison really believed in the words she was saying. It was an amazing acting job by her and you can tell that she’s getting more and more comfortable in her role as the company’s top heel. She exuded confidence and her voice was firm and clear. Tonight, Madison was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and what she had to do to get it. She played on Roxxi’s sweetness and basically manipulated her into putting her career on the line. Once Madison got what she wanted, she busted Roxxi right in the head with the microphone. The shot was absolutely sick. I still have no clue why this happened or what TNA was thinking by doing this, but I guess Madison fans can take away the fact she’s gotten an even bigger rub. She’s now the TNA Career Killer.

(This whole gimmick is going to end up being the TNA Ratings Killer if they keep it up. That’s just my personal opinion.)

The match itself was good after I got over the initial shock of that grotesque microphone shot Roxxi took. I’ve never really seen a woman bleed quite that much. Why would Roxxi bleed for this company when they basically used her and tossed her out? I realize that Angelina is their top face but why did Roxxi have to be such a victim tonight? As brief and dramatic as the match was, it had some nice moments. Both women showcased some great skills and transitional holds, and they have chemistry together. I honestly thought tonight was going to be a stepping stone for more to come between these two. I guess with Angelina getting cleared to return, and Rosie being on the roster that there wasn’t room for Roxxi and that’s just awful. It’s just a shame that their little match is going to be overshadowed by this controversy but rightfully so. We know TNA is biased towards the Beautiful People and Angelina Love, but they just reached an entirely new low tonight. Roxxi is a woman who has done everything she can for TNA and then some. She came in as a Voodoo Queen. She had her head literally scalped for this company. She’s come back to them time and time again to help out in a pinch, and they continue to treat her like shit. It’s unfortunate and it’s certainly unfair, and I can’t believe this has happened to her in such a shady fashion.

More often than not, us fans get wrapped up in the characters the wrestlers play on television. We hate them. We love them. But sometimes we forget that they’re people. Roxxi is a human being who is trying to make a living doing something she has a passion for. I honestly feel so sorry for her at the moment. This is the type of thing that can make a person question their career choices and rethink their way of living. Roxxi is a really talented individual, with a lot to give wrestling. TNA had no business jerking her around the way they did tonight. I think TNA showed their true colors tonight and this could very well be the final nail in the coffin of the Knockouts division. Those of you who sit there every week and beg for Sarita, Hamada, ODB, and Taylor Wilde to get pushes, just stop. Their push will probably end up in having their career ended by Madison Rayne and none of us want to see that.

The backlash of this is going to be intense and I encourage all of you to feel the way you want to feel. Just keep in mind that none of this is Madison’s fault. Don’t blame her, crucify her, or bash her. She’s just playing a character; like Roxxi. Madison doesn’t write the script, and she certainly doesn’t go around telling management who to hire and fire. (As far as we know, but come on.) I don’t think it’s fair to Madison that she gets some of the blame for this and believe me, there will be people who start to blame her. She’s just a young woman enjoying the push of a lifetime and if I were her, I would absolutely eat it up too. Is it believable that she’s a ‘career killer?’ Absolutely not, but what can we do?

A part of me feels bad that this review is so negative. What else am I supposed to do, though? This has turned into nothing more than a rant and I hate that. I’ve said it so many times in the past that TNA used to be the home of the most amazing womens wrestling on television. But now? Now it’s just depressing to watch. I wish Roxxi all the best, I really do. How can you not sympathize with her? Everyone has to do what they can to make a living, even if it means going back to the company that has screwed you over before.

I don’t know where TNA can go from here with their Knockouts. If I had to guess, then I would assume Angelina is going to come back and immediately challenge for the belt. If not Angelina, then Rosie. TNA seems pretty pleased with both of those women at the moment. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to either potential feud. We’ve seen Angelina and TBP before, and I’m not sold on Rosie at all. That said, I certainly don’t want to see anyone else challenge for the championship because they’ll likely end up in the unemployment line by the time their four week push is up.

Oh TNA. What have you done?

Match Rating: 2**/5*****

Oh, as far as the WCW goes, Chelsea did exactly what I predicted she would do and that was turn on Desmond Wolfe and help Abyss win the Monster’s Ball match. It wasn’t a full turn, but it was enough to signal the end of Desmond and Chelsea, and yes, that makes me sad too.

Here are the first images of the new FCW Divas Championship belt created by renowned belt designer, Dave Millican. Dave is also the man behind the Knockouts Championship and the Knockouts Tag Team Championships as well as the SHIMMER Championship.

For more pictures click here.

What do you think?

It’s just after 4 AM and I’m feeling quite sprightly at the moment. The French Open is on my television. Rafa Nadal is playing. The entire Impact show is up on YouTube so I don’t have to leave the comfort of my livingroom desk and big screen TV in order to recap the Knockout action for each and every one of you. At the time of this introduction, I have yet to watch the match itself but it features Lacey Von Erich. That fact alone makes this an epic in the making and I know that secretly all of you are closet Lacey fans. Without Lacey, you’d have nothing to look forward too or complain about! And speaking of our girl, she her part of the show involved a tag team title defense alongside the devious Velvet Sky. The two Beautiful People were in action against Sarita and Taylor Wilde, who to my knowledge have done nothing to earn a tag title shot, but whatev. At least they’re on television for like the third week in a row so I’m not going to complain.

The Knockout portion of Impact starts with a stupid promo for Halfpint Brawlers which isn’t a surprise if you read spoilers. Something named Puppet is sitting at the commentary table with Taz and Mike Tenay. Apparently he’s the owner of the new midget show and he puts it over before we go to the backstage area. Christy is standing by with Roxxi, who last week defeated Madison Rayne in a non-title match. Roxxi is wearing her ugly brown outfit again, but Christy sports a pair of fit jeans and a white wife beater. Christy talks about Roxxi’s victory over Madison and welcomes her back to TNA with open arms. Roxxi replies that it’s great to be back and that she’s looking forward to her time in TNA. As she’s talking, the video of her injury is being played. I’m totally shutting my eyes because it’s just far to gross to watch again. Roxxi says that the position she’s in now is a familiar one but this time, she’s not going to let her chances slip through her fingers. Roxxi’s pretty pumped and ready to go, and Christy decides to drop a bomb. She mentions to Roxxi that because of her (Roxxi’s) victory last week, Roxxi will be Madison at Slammiversary for the TNA Knockouts Championship. Roxxi gets all excited over the opportunity and basically freaks out. Christy is super giddy herself and Roxxi finally takes the microphone and tells Madison that she will meet her at Slammiversary.

Christy sends it back to the ring area where Sarita and Taylor are waiting for the Beautiful People. Puppet is invited to stick around for commentary (oh joy) and the BPs begin to make their way to the ring. I refuse to talk about their entrance ever again so to take up this writing space I want to say that Rafael Nadal is wearing my favorite color combination at this year’s French Open – lime green and turquoise. True story. Instead of discussing the in-ring action, the announcers and the midget begin to talk about Halfpint Brawlers. Shocking. Velvet and Sarita are looking to kick things off and Sarita catches Velvet around the waist. Velvet reverses whatever Sarita was planning and hiptosses her to the mat. Velvet’s super proud of herself but Sarita’s not down for long. She Shawn Michaels’ up to her feet and when Velvet turns around she shrieks and goes back at Sarita. Sarita brings her down and goes for a quick roll-up, but she only gets a two count. Velvet’s back up in a flash but is brought down with an elbow. Sarita makes the tag to Taylor, then splashes Velvet just to do it. Taylor mounts her first bit of offense by somersaulting on top of Velvet and she goes for the cover. Another two count.

Velvet is picked up by the hair and punched in the face. She’s sent to the ropes but reverses a whip. Sarita tags herself in as Taylor kicks Velvet in the gut and does a Power Ranger move to get the tag champ on her back again. Sarita drops an elbow and tries to get Velvet in position for a pin but she goes with a roll through instead and gets another two count. Velvet desperately tries to tag in Lacey but Sarita begins to work over the arm. Taylor gets tagged in and together, the innagural champions force Velvet into the ropes. They push her across and when Velvet comes back at them, Sarita takes her down with a drop toe hold and Taylor follows it up with springing kick to the face. She makes a cover but only gets a two. This is getting old. Velvet battles back to her feet, or maybe she’s helped, either way it doesn’t matter because Taylor just hits her in the face and tries to go for a whip. Velvet reverses it and Taylor ends up getting distracted by Madison. That allows Lacey to take the cheap shot and send Taylor down. Velvet uses the cheating to her advantage and finally makes the tag.

Lacey comes into the ring much to my delight and the Beautiful People sloppily double team Taylor Wilde. Velvet gets out and allows Lacey to take over. She puts the Claw on Taylor, picks her up and slams her down, then goes for the cover. Sarita doesn’t bother to break up the pin attempt and Lacey wins the match for the Beautiful People, and they retain their championships. Sarita gets Taylor out of the ring and the Beautiful People begin to celebrate. Puppet, you know, the midget on commentary, decides he wants to join the party in the ring so that’s what he does. Everything is fine and dandy for a bit. The girls probably think he’s cute, like one of those little purebred dogs you carry in a bag, so they dance with him. Eventually, Velvet’s over it and she gets out of the ring. As she does, the creepy perv Puppet runs over and slaps her on the ass. This pisses off Velvet and she backs the little critter into an equally offended Madison. The Knockouts Champion DDT’s Puppet into the ground and both Vel Vel and Madison begin to stomp on him. Lacey looks pretty upset because she clearly doesn’t believe in child abuse. She pleads for her friends to stop and that infuriates Velvet who orders Lacey to get out of the ring.

Lacey, however, is a grown up and doesn’t take orders from Velvet Sky. She drops to her knees and checks on the poor thing who’s playing up his injuries like some kind of war veteran. Lacey falls for the ploy and Puppet grabs her into a kiss. She ends up falling on top of Puppet while they’re making out. Eventually Lacey breaks free and she’s apparently pretty hot for this dude. She exclaims the word “wow” and begins rolling around on the mat with him some more. Velvet is horrified by this and is throwing up on the stage and I’m just left shaking my head. Oh Lacey. You amuse me so much.

Moving on!

On this week’s WCW (Weekly Chelsea Watch, clever right?), our favorite arm candy made her first appearance as the reluctant valet to her new owner, Abyss. Abyss was in action against Orlando Jordan, who interestingly enough had pasties on his nipples featuring Abyss’ face. Wonderful. Their match is pretty insignificant to me until the point where Orlando Jordan shoves Abyss into poor Chelsea. She takes the hit like a pro and in turn, Abyss gets pissy and starts to beat the snot out of Jordan. He sends Jordan into the ring post but before Abyss can check on Chelsea, the hotness that is Desmond Wolfe decides to attack Abyss with a lead pipe. A 2-on-1 attack on Abyss ensues until random Rob Terry comes storming to the ring to make the save. Desmond bails and Terry dismantles Jordan. Abyss finally gets the chance to check on Chelsea, who’s basically dead on the outside. He finally just scoops her up and carries her backstage. Yup, that’s it.

The Good: The first thing that comes to mind is Velvet Sky. She sold Taylor and Sarita’s offense pretty well and I enjoyed watching her play the whipping girl for the majority of the match. We criticize Velvet’s wrestling skills a lot, but she’s really good at taking punishment and her acting is always spot on. To me, Velvet is more of a performer than an actual wrestler, and Saritaylor are the opposite. That’s why this worked so well in my opinion. Taylor and Sarita were allowed to wrestle and Velvet took it like the star she is. The best part was at the end when Lacey was rolling around with Puppet. Velvet was seen standing on the stage and the look on her face was totally priceless. She was disgusted, sick to her stomach, and just overall horrified that Lacey was liking the midget and what he was doing to her. The fake throwing up in her mouth was great and Velvet was the Knockout MVP tonight. Dispute me if you like.

The Bad: Most everything else was bad this week. I hate that, but c’est le vie. Roxxi is another one of those “wrestlers” and her reaction to finding out she had a title match at Slammiversary was cringe worthy. I took drama for three out of four years in high school so I feel as I have a right to state that Roxxi’s reaction was seriously fake and way to put on. I don’t really know what she could have done to make it a little better. Maybe TNA’s crack creative team should have wrote her some better lines. Maybe Roxxi could have stood there and stared at Christy, and just kept saying “Oh my God” in a stunned voice. Anything would have been better than her phony excitement.

Lacey getting the win was bad and it hurts my heart to write that. I wouldn’t have a problem with this if Velvet Sky hadn’t been so spot on tonight. I don’t like that Velvet took all the abuse and let Lacey have the win. It doesn’t seem very Velvet-like, but TNA is known for doing strange things. I’m happy for Lacey and I love the fact she uses The Claw for her finisher, but again. She didn’t even take a hit in this match. At least sell a few punches or something before getting the win. This probably sounds a bit hypocritical and I’m sure I’ll get comments saying “Lacey never does anything anyway” but whatever. She’s been doing very well recently and I don’t think she got enough of a chance to show that tonight.

The Ugly: The Chelsea/Abyss stuff was awful tonight. As much as I love Chels, she’s not ready to take bumps and she proved that tonight. Abyss barely knocked into her and Chelsea went down very sloppy and never got up. If they wanted to do this sort of angle, then they should have trained Chelsea to take the hit and make it believable. Abyss is a big dude but he’s also a veteran of the squared circle. He should have done his part in making the whole thing more “real” as well. This storyline has been so hot and I was terribly disappointed to see that Desmond didn’t even bother to check on Chelsea. He went right to attacking Abyss and ran away as soon as Rob Terry hit the ring. I said last week that I didn’t want Chelsea and Abyss to end up together and I got the impression this week that we’re heading in that direction. My heart definitely hurts for that.

The stuff with Puppet was terribly ugly. It further proved the point that the Knockouts are the new Divas. This reeked of a painful reminder of all those God awful Hornswoggle/Diva segments on Raw. Why are midgets and women always put together in wrestling segments? Is it because chauvinistic male egos get off on putting something so insignificant and pointless with a woman to remind everyone that women don’t need to be taken seriously in wrestling?! Damn you Eric Bischoff. As hot as you are, quit TNA already please. And take Hogan with you just because. Talking about Puppet’s stupid show during the Knockout match was disrespectful and something I expect from the WWE. Maybe TNA let Lacey win the match for the Beautiful People to compensate for the fact she had to simulate a make out scene with this Puppet character. It’s nothing against midgets or anything like that. I’m just sick of seeing them overshadow Divas and now Knockouts.

TNA is so frustrating. A year ago they were the best place to watch female wrestling action. Now the Knockouts are nothing more than a sideshow act at some cheap carnival. I hate it for the girls and I hate it for the fans who watch every week and somehow remain devoted. I promise you guys I’m not PMSing this week. I was just general disgusted with what I had to watch. It did nothing for me but if you enjoyed it, then more power to you. I wish I could say the same, but I can’t, and like always, I’m not going to sugar coat things. Tonight’s Impact was a fail and that sucks because TNA has shown flashes of brilliance as of late. TNA is being a tease these days. They give you something good to keep you somewhat satisfied and wanting more, but they absolutely refuse to go all the way. When are we going to see the Knockouts perform at the highest level again? The girls there now are capable, that I would bet money on. They may not be Awesome Kong, Gail Kim, or even Tara, but they’re talented and they can work.

But you’d never know it judging by this week’s Impact.

Returning TNA Knockout, Roxxi whose comeback aired last week on Impact, is shooting to the top of the Knockouts roster with a Knockouts Championship match against Madison Rayne at the Slammiversary pay per view on June 13th.

The match was announced last night on Impact and comes after Roxxi defeated Rayne in a non-title match in her return match.

Surely, the fastest turnaround from debut [kinda] to title shot, no? The move certainly raises some eyebrows considering the fact that TNA has girls like Sarita, Taylor Wilde and Hamada on its books — all of whom were overlooked for this position. Rather, TNA went outside the company and brought back Roxxi. However, there’s no denying the Hardcore Knockout is mighty popular at the Impact Zone and has a strong work rate; her match with Hamada at December’s New Year’s Knockout Eve speaks for itself.

What do you say? Much too soon or deserved?

This is a bittersweet day for me and I’m sure a lot of readers will share my sentiments. The Knockouts division is on a decline and last night it lost one of its best performers. We knew it was coming, but that didn’t help dull the sting. Tara put her career on the line against Madison Rayne‘s Knockouts Championship and the champion walked away with the victory. Our last TNA images of Tara will forever be her being escorted from the ring by a security guard but the effect and impression she left on us fans will always be remembered.

The Knockout portion of Sacrifice begins with the Knockouts Tale of the Tape. They have a cute little joke up about how these BP spill gold, not oil. For some reason, I didn’t laugh. Maybe it’s because the oil spill has basically threatened all the businesses in my little town and that indirectly threatens my job, and yeah. Oil spill jokes equal not funny. They also mention that this is Madison’s chance to prove herself and that this could be the last time we ever see Tara. Speaking of, the former Knockouts Champion is the first woman to make her way to the ring. Now in my opinion, she already seemed a little emotional. I don’t know if it’s just me, but she seemed to sense that this was it, basically, and you could tell in her face and in her eyes. She savours her ring entrance and then her music is cut and replaced by that belonging to the Beautiful People.

The lovely trio makes their way to the ring and for once, all three look classy and gorgeous (ignore Velvet’s bra straps showing, plz). Lacey wows me in her maxi dress and I really like Madison’s top. They do their usual shtick must to Tara’s annoyance and once that’s all said and done, Madison decides to send the girls to the back. She wants to go at this alone and Velvet’s unsure. Madison reassures them both that everything is fine and as Lacey and Velvet are trying to leave, Tara attacks Madison from behind and sends her spilling out of the ring. It takes a second for Madison to gather her bearings but she does just in time and bounces up to fight back at Tara. She punches her a few times and then sends her back into the ring. Madison looks fairly confident and takes her time getting back in the ring. Tara greets her, rudely, but Madison is able to get control back and she levels Tara with a vicious kick to the face.

A dueling “Lets Go Tara/Lets Go Madison” chant breaks out while the girls play a cat and mouse game with one another. Tara reaches the ropes, but Madison takes a hold of the ankle and attempts to jerk Tara back into the middle of the ring. Tara has a pretty good grip on the bottom rope and kicks Madison away from her. The champ goes down and Tara rolls out of the ring. Madison staggers back to her feet and goes to the where Tara is resting her hand on the apron. She stomps on it out of spite and gets out of the ring. Tara knocks Madison’s feet out from underneath her, and Madison takes a harsh fall on the edge of the ring. She rolls to the outside and Tara sends her flying into the steel ring post. Tara throws her opponent back into the ring and goes for a pretty nonchalant cover. She only gets a two count and decides to waste a considerable amount of time arguing with the referee over it. Madison has plenty of time to collect herself and backs up into the corner.

Tara finally gets away from the referee and runs at Madison. The crafty, lovely Miss Rayne anticipates this and flips over Tara. She rolls her up for a two count and then the woman start exchanging pinfall attempts. This is pretty sloppy and actually makes me cringe, but kudos to them for trying something rarely seen in women matches on cable television. Madison and Tara finally get to their feet and the blonde is able to reverse Tara into a backslide and gets another near fall. This leads to another pin attempt and good Lord. My head is spinning with all these Madison near falls.

Tara basically begs Madison to stop, but the 23-year old doesn’t fall for the more experienced competitor’s antics. She goes right for Tara, but the Californian is able to lash out at Madison and finally knock her off her feet. Tara seizes the moment and bullies Madison Rayne to the corner. She precedes to driver her shoulder into Madison’s gut a few times before grabbing her by the hair and throwing her down onto the mat. The dueling chants break out again and Tara nails Madison with a suplex and rolls through for a front guillotine choke. Madison does her best to squirm out of the hold but it doesn’t really do her any good. Tara does tire of Madison’s wiggling and clubs her in the back to add insult to injury. Tara gets to her feet and grabs hold of Madison’s leg. Madison tries to kick away with her free foot, but she’s not all there and fails. Finally she’s able to catch Tara in the jaw and sends the ex-Diva reeling. Both girls are down at this point.

The first woman to get to her feet is Tara and she heads towards Madison. The champ is on her knees and she manages to catch Tara in the stomach with several blows and fights her way up to her feet. Madison slams Tara in the chest, and Tara whirls around with a clothesline. Madison ducks and catches Tara, which sends her to the mat. Tara gets back up but Madison knocks her right back down. Madison easily controls the match at this point and is extremely fired up about it. She’s showing a lot of emotion and I’m pretty impressed with how this match is turning out. Madison yells at Tara to get up and when Tara finally obliges, Madison kicks her in the gut and looks to be going for some fancy armbar hold.

Tara puts a stop to that via clothesline and goes for the Widow’s Peak. Madison squirms out of it once, but the second time Tara goes for it, she hits it. Unfortunately, the momentum sends Madison rolling out of the ring and Tara is unable to go for the pin. Tara is pretty frustrated that her golden opportunity has passed her by and she has to follow up on the outside. She gets Madison back inside the ring but now Madison has enough wit to fight back. Tara is unsure of what to do and finally just picks up Madison for a powerslam. Tara looks to follow up with a high risk move and climbs to the top rope. Tara executes a picture perfect moonsault and goes for the cover on Madison. She almost gets a three but Madison is somehow able to get the arm up at the absolute last possible nano-second. Ohmygod.

Tara is horrified that she failed to win and holds her hands to her face in shock. She basically looses it at this point and stomps Madison in the stomach. Then, for some ungodly reason, Tara goes back up for another moonsault. She misses it this time and now Madison feels it. She goes for that weird armbar but it’s not really an armbar. It’s some fancy, smancy little finisher that puts Tara away for good and ends her TNA career once and for all. Madison gets arguably the biggest victory of her and she celebrates in a respectable fashion. Madison gingerly gets out of the ring as Tara tries to digest what’s just happened to her. Like a good heel, Madison smirks and tells Tara “bye bye” before exiting and giving the former champion the chance to say goodbye.

An emotional Tara soaks in the moment and motions for So Cal Val to hand her Poison. Tara opens the little cage. She pulls the creature out and holds it up for the crowd to see. The fans in attendance are very appreciative of Tara and they give her a well deserved round of applause. She seems very grateful to them and unfortunately a security guard comes into the ring and escorts her out. I realize this was probably done for storyline purposes but I thought it was tasteless, but I’m not about to let it ruin how I feel about the match.

And what a match it was.

I simply don’t have the heart to sit here and write about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Everything is emotional and sad, and it’s the end of an era. Knockouts come and go, but this one hurts a bit more than the others because none of us really know when/if we will see Tara again. If she ends up in the WWE for a second run, I’ll rejoice. If she decides to go ahead and pursue MMA, I’ll support her. Whatever Tara’s future hold, I wish her all the best. On a selfish level, I hope she ends up back in the ‘E so we can continue to see her on a weekly basis. I would never consider myself a “Tara mark” or even that much of a fan. It’s nothing personal to her, it’s just that she’s never been given a character that’s I’ve been able to connect with. As a performer she’s exceptionally good in the ring and can work a match with anyone. A lot of people have been quick to criticize her, but no one is perfect in the ring. Everyone is flawed and everyone has the potential to get better if they really put forth the effort. Tara, well Lisa Maria, is someone who always puts in the work and for that, I truly respect her as a person and as a wrestler.

The match wasn’t just about Tara. Madison Rayne finally got a much needed, one on one victory. A lot of people have been questioning why she’s champion and hopefully, Madison was able to shut up some of her critics. She’s consistently been the best performer for the Beautiful People and now that she’s put Tara out of the job, Madison should have something to build on and hopefully TNA pushes her to the moon. This is a huge, huge deal because Tara is one of the most respected female wrestlers of our generation. Madison got a huge rub last night and I absolutely love the fact that this victory was a clean one. It’s exactly what she needed to get herself in the thick of things and if this doesn’t make people take her seriously as a champion, then they’re all just haters. Madison is so talented, gorgeous, and her promos are getting better. I’m not entirely sure what she’s going to do now with Tara gone and Angelina sidelined, but those questions should be answered come Thursday and I’m curious to see where they’re going to go with it.

Overall, I thought this match was beautiful. Madison and Tara worked so well together and it wasn’t littered with storyline stupidity and general TNA fuckery (can I use that word?). Tara went out in a great way and Madison should finally get respect as a champion and the face of the Knockouts. Tara is going to be so, so missed in TNA. The division keeps losing talented women left and right. I hope Tara’s absence makes room for more Sarita, or maybe even some new talent. I don’t know what’s going to happen in TNA now, but I know I’ll miss Tara. Since I began writing these TNA Write-Ups, Tara has been a mainstay in them. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. I already said I hope she sticks to wrestling. I’m just sad I won’t be able to write about her if she does.

Match Rating: 5/5 *****

PS. Thanks to the fan who’s sign on Sacrifice I ripped the title for this Review from haha

Layla — full name Layla El — makes history by becoming the first British-born Diva to win championship gold in the WWE. She is also the first Diva Search winner to win the prestigious Women’s Championship.

El won the belt in a two-on-one handicap match when she teamed with Team Lay-Cool cohort, Michelle McCool against Beth Phoenix in the former champion’s hometown of Buffalo, New York.

When it comes to TNA, they always drop the ball when it comes to the live shows so imagine my surprise and shock when they exceeded even my low expectations this week. Announced over the weekend, was a title match where all three titles were on the line; The Beautiful People defending against Tara, Taylor Wilde, and Sarita. It sounds good on paper (sort of…) but it was an actual hot mess on television. The MIA tag team known as Saritaylor were mere stand-ins tonight and TNA’s weird booking once again came into play. If you want to watch the mess unfold, go ahead and click the video. If you don’t, then I don’t blame you. I want to forget Impact was even on television last night.

Even though it was a crappy night for the Knockouts as a whole, it was a decent night for the Beautiful People. Earlier in the show, Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky, and Lacey Von Erich were seen backstage in their lockerroom. All three girls were either sitting or standing at their vanity table and they were messing with their make-up and just generally looking at themselves in the mirror. They were having a conversation about how hard it was to be a champion and Lacey starts talking about how her back is always killing her. She goes on to say that things aren’t so bad during the day but when she wakes up after a good night’s sleep she is basically in a world of hurt. Velvet gives her a look and politely tells her she’s not supposed to wear the title to bed. Lacey is like “I thought we weren’t supposed to take them off” and the other two girls just groan. Madison is a little annoyed that they’re being forced to defend the belts again but Velvet calms her down and states what we all know to be true: the BP are the entire Knockouts division. Velvet goes on to say that no one is a threat to them and this and that, and the segment ends with Lacey triumphantly announcing that they weren’t supposed to take the belts off and that she knew that all along.

Tara and Saritaylor are in the ring as the Beautiful People begin to make their way down the entrance ramp. I’m not going to bore you with the details of their entrance but it’s certainly sparkly this week. Tenay and Taz run down the rules for the match and when the bell rings, Tara decides she’s going to begin the match for her team. She tries to tell this to Sarita and Taylor, and when they don’t seem to get it, she demonstrates by shoving Taylor rather stiffly a few times to get her out of the ring. Taylor is like whatever and does what she’s told and Tara turns her back. Lacey is waiting for her and she’s looking pumped to start this match. The sultry blonde is decked in silver and black, and she’s ready for action. Lacey begins to dance around in the ring much to the chagrin of Tara, and Tara finally kicks her, doubling Von Erich over in pain. She slams Lacey down, rolls over her for a pin, but changes her mind and goes for a front guillotine choke instead. Tara shoots dirty looks over her shoulder at her partners while the referee tries to get her to let up on Lacey. Finally she spits at Taylor and Sarita, which is pretty unsanitary, and she picks Lacey up.

Using Lacey’s neck as a hand hold, Tara bullies the less experienced girl against the ropes and whips her across them. Lacey ducks a clothesline attempt and comes back at Tara with a very nice Streetfighter like roundhouse kick that would totally make Ryu proud. Lacey is so pleased with herself and she dances around in celebration while the other two BP smile happily on the outside. Tara is flustered now because Lacey got the better of her so she tags in Sarita, even if it’s a bit reluctant. Sarita gets in and goes for Lacey, but Lacey’s not having that and tags in Velvet. While that’s going on, Sarita has gotten distracted by Tara, who I suppose is shouting at her. It gives Velvet the perfect opening and she takes Sarita down from behind. She starts stomping away on the grounded highflyer, then picks her up and tosses her in the corner. Sarita finds herself thrown into the opposite corner next, and Velvet comes at her like a freight train. Sarita is able to get the boots up and Velvet lands flat on her back. Sarita busts out the flash just to throw Velvet up in the air and slam her face first into the mat. She goes for the cover but the tag champ gets out after two.

Sarita hurries to her corner and makes the tag to Taylor. They pull off a cute double team move which sees Sarita flip Taylor onto Velvet, and Taylor goes for another cover. Velvet is able to kick out of that as well. Taylor gets Velvet up and in position for a finishing like move, but Tara starts screaming at her, which distracts Taylor. Velvet takes advantage and starts fighting out of the hold. She gets to her corner and makes the tag to Madison. Madison comes in and is met with a rough looking German suplex. Taylor heads to her a corner for a tag and it looks like she’s favoring Sarita. Tara is bitching her out and demanding that Taylor tag her in but Taylor goes for Sarita anyway. It doesn’t matter to Tara. She steals the tag, gets in the ring, and everyone suddenly starts to PMS. Sarita slaps the crap out of Tara’s back not once, but twice. It’s an official tag and Tara is none to thrilled about it. The referee says it’s legit so what does Tara do? She turns around and knocks the hell out of Sarita, sending her off the apron. Taylor storms into the ring and mans up to Tara, and the two women have a little heated exchange. Of course Taylor turns her back and yes, Tara attacks her.

Tara goes to the outside to punish Taylor and Sarita comes running back into the ring. Lacey and Velvet are there to greet her and Sarita gets hit with a horrible looking DDT. I swear they crushed her neck, head, and everything in between with that move and ugh. Just ugh. Madison, who is the legal woman, goes in for the cover and the Beautiful People sneak out yet another win. Tara is completely furious and the Beautiful People celebrate their victory by using their title belts as a mirror to check their make-up. Tara starts playing the blame game and we’ve just been subjected to one of the worst Knockout segments ever.

Oh yeah, there is a backstage promo too. Basically what happens is a match gets made for the next pay-per-view; Tara’s career against Madison’s championship. At least that’s different.

The Good: What was good about Impact tonight? I seriously have to dig deep for this one. I was more into dreaming up faux storylines for Teddy Jr. and myself over on Raw. Can you just imagine how awesome I would be as his “Virgil”? No one ever said Virgil had to be a man and if I were a valet, I would be as deadly as they come. He would never lose a match on my watch. See how off topic that is? TNA went from having a hit last week to having a nasty little strike out this week and it’s so unfair to the girls. I don’t want this Write-Up to be all gloom and doom so lets just move on. Tara’s new hair style looked really good. Less red works for me and it totally works for her. At least she looked great tonight.

Taylor and Sarita were back. It’s always nice to see them on the actual show. I wish I could sit here and write more about their return but it was basically nothing more than a sideshow. They were just used as background characters for Tara, and to a certain extent, the Beautiful People were just background too. The whole match/segment was built around Tara. Nonetheless, fresh faces are always welcome/needed and this week was no exception. I hope we get to see more Sarita and Taylor in the upcoming weeks because if we’re all being honest, they’re the only two girls left on the roster who can challenge The Beautiful People for the tag belts at this moment in time.

Lacey got to show off some personality tonight. She was allowed to dance around in the ring, take a few bumps, and even got to be part of the finish. I wasn’t really liking how she and Velvet worked Sarita at the end. It was a little scary to me. I was totally concerned about Sarita’s health but at the time of this writing nothing has been reported so I reckon she’s okay. Even though it’s not really saying much, Lacey had one of the better showings of the night. She certainly looked the best out of everyone. The silver disco ball outfit was light years better than the gold one Velvet was wearing and I have no clue what Madison had on. The girls need to chill on the body glitter though. It blinded me more than Sheamus ever has and with Spike TV now in HD… sheesh.

From a kayfabe perspective, the back stage segment was pretty good. A Title versus Career match for the Knockouts is a great way to showcase them on the pay-per-view. I stand by preferring Angelina to Madison in this match, but shit happens and Madison is set up for what we feel is going to be a huge rub. I still think this match is going to end in some cheap way but you never know, I guess. I am excited for the match. This will be Madison’s first pay-per-view title defense and it’s a golden opportunity for someone who has been nothing but a workhorse for TNA since she debuted. I think I said this on the post show, the match will either be brilliant or an epic fail. So flip a coin. At least we’re getting two girls who can work and tell a story together inside the ring.

The Bad: You knew it was coming and honestly most things things that were good, were also bad. The backstage segment was so predictable for those of us who follow the Knockouts on great internet sites such as Diva-Dirt.com. Tara is leaving TNA at the end of the month so putting her career on the line didn’t shock me. I have to use my favorite saying here: “It is what it is.” Because really, what else can I say? I’m going to wait and see how they build this up in the last two weeks or so they have left. It deserves a huge build and Tara deserves a huge send-off. I really hope TNA delivers on this.

The match itself was a waste of time. I think this could have worked better had they thrown the match out and went with a segment instead. I’m not saying the girls shouldn’t have gotten in the ring. But as crappy as the booking has been on TNA as of late, this would have worked better if they played it like the match was getting thrown out. It was perfectly clear that Tara didn’t want to work with Saritaylor and instead of wasting time with an ineffective match, they could have had Tara arguing with Sarita and Taylor before the match even began and perhaps it could have led to a brawl between the three. The Beautiful People could have enjoyed watching their opposition beat down on each other and simply left the ring with all their titles. I don’t know, but anything would have been better than what we watched tonight. I wasn’t expecting the live show to go smoothly and despite my low expectations, I was still disappointed.

Taylor and Sarita haven’t been seen for months and they basically were used as jobber fodder tonight. These girls are two of the most talented people on the roster and they deserve a little better than what TNA is giving them. I know not everyone can get a push but how about showing them a little respect? Taylor is a former Knockouts and Tag Team Champion, and Sarita is not only hot, but she was Taylor’s partner when Taylor had the tag titles. These girls are both former champions but you’d never know it with TNA’s sparse use of them. They’re rarely spoken about by the commentary team as well. If Angelina and Daffney weren’t injured, then Taylor and Sarita more than likely wouldn’t have been on television this week either. I guess I should probably just shut up and be thankful we were all blessed with them this week, eh?

The Ugly: TNA’s booking continues to be crappy. This was a title match and Tara was basically booked to lose it for her team. She’s supposed to be all obsessed with getting the championship back but she completely blew it for her team by deciding to hate on Taylor and Sarita, who just wanted to help her. Tara is a heel, we know that. But last time I checked, Saritaylor were faces so….

I just don’t get what goes on in the heads of TNA bookers/writers/whatever. Consistency is not a hard thing. I keep my Write-Up consistent on a weekly basis. It’s always negative thanks to the crap I’m forced to stomach. My heart just breaks for the Knockouts because they deserve so much better. When Scott D’Amore left, the division was left to die. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem like anyone but the girls themselves care about the division and the titles. I tip my hat to the fact they go out there every week and try. Lord knows they’re not given much to work with. But they put their hearts and souls into performing for the fans and I hope someone over at TNA appreciates what they do. They’re the ratings for the company along with people like Jay Lethal, MCMG, AJ Styles, Desmonde Wolfe, ect. People don’t tune into TNA to watch Ric Flair versus Hulk Hogan, or whatever. They want to see young talent, hot girls who can wrestle, and just good storytelling.

We’re not getting the storytelling aspect with the Knockouts, not right now anyway. Tonight was just proof that the company has no clue what it’s doing. TNA was so much better before Hogan and Bischoff came along, and this is coming from someone who is actually an Eric Bischoff fan. The Knockouts flourished then and when I see what I saw tonight, and I think about the glory days, I just cringe. Can someone please tell me why Tara basically cost her team the match tonight and then got so upset that they lost? It was her fault, so she had no reason to freak the way she did. What would have made more sense is if she beat up on Saritaylor, cost her team the match, then laughed about it because she didn’t want to share the glory with the two other girls. That would have been a good heel move. That would have made sense. Challenging Madison to a title match would have made sense. But ya know, it’s TNA.

They should start cleansing their booking staff and management team, one ugly person at a time!

Also, I now have a Twitter if anyone cares. Follow me so I can talk to someone other than WWE stars who never reply; CRYSSIROCKS is the name!

Obviously, we know how this one will end as Tara announced that she would be leaving TNA after her contract expires on May 23rd. Looks like Sacrifice will be her last date, unless they swerve us.

Nonetheless, it’s nice to see such a high stakes match booked for the Knockouts and gives Tara a big exit rather than just disappearing. It should make for an exciting match and could give Madison a big rub at Sacrifice.

This Impact Write-Up is bittersweet for me. As great of a night as this was for the Knockouts, I think of the repercussions it had. We learned last week that at this particular taping not one, but two Knockouts were ultimately injured and it’s unclear when they will return. One of the stars of tonight’s Impact, Angelina Love, suffered a few injuries thanks to the segment we will get to see. I’m not sure how bad her injuries were or if she will miss any time, so maybe someone in comments can clear it up for me. I want to dedicate this Write-Up to Angelina and our Zombie Hot goddess, Daffney. Get well soon and get back ASAP. TNA needs you both and so do all of the fans!

Now with the sap out of the way, lets get down to business. A lot of us were annoyed last week with the lack of Tara and Angelina in our lives and thankfully, TNA made up for it this week. Angelina and Tara squared off in one amazing post match fight that gave Knockout fans from around the world ample opportunity to get to their feet and cheer their faces off. But prior to that, there was a match featuring brand new Knockouts Champion, Madison Rayne, defending against the two former champions; Tara and Angelina.

Before the match starts, we’re treated to a backstage segment featuring the Beautiful People and to say they’re unhappy about Madison’s title defense would be an understatement. The BP are downright furious that Madison has to step into the ring against two former champions. As Madison rants, she points out that doesn’t even need to be pinned in order to lose her Knockouts Title and Velvet makes a highly disgusted sound. They talk about how it’s total BPD and after a minute, Lacey is like “oooh. Boston Police Department.” An awkward silence ensues for a half second before Lacey starts getting stroked and informed that BPD stands for “Beautiful People Discrimination.” Velvet claims that the minute the Beautiful People get things under control, TNA management literally starts falling over themselves to try and find ways to screw over the group. Lacey declares that no one can screw them and Velvet very gently reminds her that they can’t screw the Beautiful People “over.” Lacey agrees to that as well as Madison stands in the background shaking her head. Velvet’s getting super upset so Madison intervenes and says that as the new Knockouts Champion she is going to take care of both Angelina and Tara tonight. With the way the two of them have been barking over the title as of late, Madison will easily be able to cleanse TNA of not one, but two ugly people tonight.

A video package is played highlighting all the events that have led up to Angelina and Tara feuding and finally it’s time for the match. Angelina is the first woman to make her way to the ring and the crowd gives her a great pop. We’re reminded that she lost her title at Lockdown without getting pinned or submitting, and Tara comes out next. Tara has her mascot in hand and the cameras cut to a view of the ring where the referee is having to restrain Angelina from running down the ramp and attacking Tara before the match even begins! Tara reminds stoney-faced and taunts her rival, while the music of the Beautiful People begins to play. As usual, they make their way to the ring as the solid, cohesive unit they are and I must say, I want Velvet Sky’s shoes added to my closet right freakin’ now. Can someone please find out where she got them? Anyway, they do their usual thing but in a fun twist of events, the referee ejects them which leaves Madison on her own for this match.

Of course the Beautiful People protest this move but the referee’s not interested and Madison finds herself facing two angry challengers alone. The bell rings and Madison makes the split second decision to get the heck out of dodge. She flies out of the ring and takes off running, but Angelina is right there on her heels. She finally runs back into the ring but has her head taken off with a clothesline via a waiting Tara. Angelina is back in the ring as well and she bumps chests with Tara. The two heated foes are nose to nose and start talking trash to one another. Angelina is the first to strike with a nice right hand to Tara’s face. Tara fires back with her own right and Angelina answers it and then attempts to whip Tara into the ropes. Tara reverses it and sends Angelina across the ring, but the Canadian bounces off and levels Tara with an absolute sick spear. Instead of going for the immediate pin Angelina mounts her dark haired opponent and starts wailing on her. Her attack is so vindictive that the referee has to pull her away and Madison sneaks into the ring and attempts to steal the win. Angelina puts a stop to that and throws Madison in the corner. She starts kicking her before Tara comes up and makes the unintentional save.

Madison takes the free time to catch her breath while Tara starts to use Angelina like a rag doll. Tara pulls Angelina up by the hair and lets her hang in the air before flipping her over and dropping Angelina on the ground. Tara is getting a nice little mix of jeers at this point and she goes to cover Angelina. Madison shows up and stops that from happening by pushing Tara off the ex-BP member. With Tara caught off guard, Madison takes control and does a nice little side roll on Tara to place her in a pinning position. The MMA fighter powers out but Madison isn’t distressed. She simply nails Tara with a decisive kick to the head, and that sends the Californian out of the ring. With the Knockouts Champion firmly in control, TNA decides to go to commercial (which doesn’t shock anyone anymore).

When Impact returns, Angelina is in control of the ring action. She slams Madison’s head off the turnbuckle then drags her to the opposite side and does the same thing. Madison is pretty dazed but she still tries to have a go at Angelina, but that’s just not in the cards right now. Angelina knocks her flat, goes for the cover, and gets a two count. Tara is seen trying to drag herself up but she’s not really having any luck. She’s a bit woozy herself, not that we would know or anything because Impact went to a commercial break. She’s moving her jaw around a bit so she probably got clocked pretty good. Back inside the ring, Madison is trying to plead with Angelina to just leave her be. Angelina’s not going to adhere to that plea so Madison tries to escape. She’s caught and pulled back into the ring by her ankle. Angelina scoops her up and hits her with a vicious slam. This takes a lot out of the champion because when Angelina goes for the cover, Madison barely gets her shoulder up in time. She does, which is good news, and promptly rolls out of the ring to try and regroup.

Angelina goes to follow her, unaware that Tara has popped up again, and she’s bitchslapped like a cheap whore and thrown head first into the steel ring post. Angelina sells this so well and Tara climbs on the ropes to survey the damage she has done. Madison sleeks into the ring, rolls Tara up, but Tara is out after a one count. Tara takes her unhappiness out on Madison and lays a kick to her midsection. Madison doubles over and gets rolled up into some type of front face guillotine choke hold. Yeah, that sounds good. Tara is screaming like a banshee and eventually both women drag one another to their feet. Tara chest chops Madison to the ropes and whips her across to the opposite set. Madison ducks a clothesline attempt, comes back from the other side, and takes Tara down with a hair mare (is that even a move or did I just become super creative?). Madison can’t capitalize because she’s hurting and Tara isn’t feeling much better at this point. Angelina is still on the outside trying to figure out if she’s in Orlando or Luxembourg, and the crowd is solidly into this match and trying to rally everyone to their feet.

In true storylike fashion, all three women end up on their feet at the same time. Angelina claws her way back into the ring and lays out Madison and Tara with a double clothesline. She’s gotten her second wind and precedes to lay out Tara and Madison with some great shots to their faces and whatnot. Angelina turns her attention to Tara and pulls off a beautiful modified jawbreaker which causes the fans to oooh and ahhh. Madison meets a similar fate, although it wasn’t as spectacular, but she makes the mistake of turning her back on Tara. Tara picks her up and sidewalk slams her down. Tara has all the momentum now and she’s looking to put Angelina away for good. She waits patiently for Angelina to stagger to her feet but at the same time Madison is getting up as well. The devious Knockouts Champ sees an opening and she shoves Angelina into Tara, sending Tara through the ropes and out of the ring. Wasting no time, Madison pulls Angelina into a roll-up, grabs a handful of tights, and gets a very shady three count to retain her title.

As Madison celebrates and rubs her victory in the face of the other two girls, Tara is furious. She starts unleashing her anger on Angelina and Angelina is quick to fight back. TNA security rushes the ring and does their best to pull these two women apart. They get them separated but both are trying to get away. Angelina eventually breaks away and goes back at Tara and the fight is back on! Security has to scramble but they take a few bumps in the process. Angelina’s even taken to the ground at one point but that doesn’t help. She gets right back up and she and Tara are at it again. It’s absolute madness in the Impact Zone and the crowd is eating up these two women like they’re delicious pieces of succulent chocolate cake. It’s pointless to try and keep them apart so finally they just stop trying. Tara begs Angelina to leave her alone and even starts crying, saying that she is sorry. Angelina puts on her WTF face but nonetheless backs off. Deciding to be the bigger person, Angelina turns and walks away but just like at Lockdown Tara cheap shots her and Angelina is sent sprawling up the ramp thanks to a monstrous club to the back. That basically ends the Knockout portion of Impact and all I have to say is wow!

The Good: It definitely benefited me to watch this match a second time and while in a better mood because it came off as flawless. Sometimes triple threat matches are absolute madness and not in a good way. This one had the right mix of madness, wrestling, and well, talent. Tara and Angelina are hot and I look forward to seeing where this feud is going to go. Their first feud never really did anything for me, but the emotion in this one is great and I’m totally into it now. I’m wondering how Angelina’s injury is going to play into this because like I stated earlier, I’m not really sure how severe it is. Impact was totally hot tonight and it’s thanks to the these two women.

The Beautiful People had a fun backstage segment. I’m glad they were showcased since the match wasn’t booked around them for a change. I like watching them talk because Lacey is pretty funny, and Velvet is just such a bitch. It makes for great television because all three have different personalities, yet they’re the same in so many ways. They remind me of the snobby cheerleaders no one really liked in high school and this win for Madison was a great one. I didn’t mind the roll-up pin that much because after re-watching this, I noticed that all three women did about the same amount of work. Madison took a lot of bumps but she usually does in her matches. Sneaking out the win at the end is a good thing for a heel to do, but I hope it doesn’t become a habit for her. For her first title defense, this is about as good as you can get so props to Madison.

I also liked the ejection of the Beautiful People. Had Lacey and Velvet stayed at ringside it would have been to much of a distraction. This match was not about them and honestly, it really wasn’t about Madison either. It was booked pretty much to perfection in Angelina/Tara terms and the Beautiful People still came off strong as well. I didn’t find anything bad or ugly about tonight for the Knockouts, and next week should prove to be interesting. We should find out who is going make up for the losses of Daffney and Angelina, and we should find out what will happen with the Tara/Angelina sage, and the Knockouts Championship. On a night where we got surprising draft picks and great Diva action, the Knockouts lived up to expectations and I take away my middle stance on this match and give it two solid thumbs up. I hope TNA can deliver something hot for next week with or without their injured Knockouts and finally do the girls justice on a live show.

Extreme Rules is done and over with, and the mixed reviews continue to pour in. Last night, each and every one of us were able to watch the first ever Extreme Makeover Match which starred the reigning WWE Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool, and the lovely, beautiful Beth Phoenix. These two talented Divas fought within the confines of the match regulations and delivered one of the best diva matches we’ve had in awhile. Michelle’s cohorts and resident SmackDown mean girls, Layla and Vickie Guerrero, would make their presence felt, and as the match reached it’s crescendo we all watched as the Phoenix rose again. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Beth Phoenix was crowned the ultimate Queen of the WWE once again and Simply Flawless were sent limping to the back with their heads bowed down in silent defeat.

Before the match begins, the WWE gives us a close up of the make-up table and the so-called weapons that are going to make this match extreme. Michelle McCool and her Simply Flawless stablemates make their way to the ring first. Michelle does this unnecessary dance at the top of the ramp before she begins to saunter down to the ring. It’s not as if we were able to see her walk to the ring because the ‘E decided to get in a sponsor announcement but hey, at least they didn’t go to commercial a la TNA. Michelle and Layla are matching and Vickie is sporting some sexy mom jeans that didn’t have an elastic waist thus making me wonder if they were even mom jeans at all?

As the Vickie insults start to fly thanks to our wonderful broadcast team, the Glamazon’s theme music hits and Beth receives a massive pop as she makes her way onto the stage. As always, the shapely blonde looks gorgeous and her face reads of nothing but absolute confidence as she stalks down to the ring. As tonight’s “Buffet of Beauty” waits to get underway, Beth poses to the crowd while Laycool plus Vickie try to not look that effected. When things settle down, the referee holds the championship up for everyone to see and then calls for the bell. Michelle and Beth circle one another before locking up and jockeying for position. Beth forces Michelle to the ropes and the ex-teacher slips between them temporarily. Beth doesn’t break the hold but Michelle does get the advantage and nails the Glamazon right in the face. Beth staggers back and Michelle follows it up with a kick, an uppercut, and a whip into the turnbuckle. Beth jumps on the ropes, over a charging Michelle, and rolls her up for a quick pin. Michelle is out after the one count, but the match is off to a fantastic start.

Beth stays put in the corner and lures Michelle towards her. The Floridian eats an elbow and Beth pounces on the second rope and flies off with a devastating clothesline that takes Michelle down hard. Beth goes for another cover but Michelle kicks out, then rolls out of the ring to regroup. She doesn’t get enough time to collect herself because Beth is on her like white on rice and soon enough, Michelle is flat on her back again and this time it’s on the dirty ring mat. While Michelle is withering around on the ground in pain, Layla comes at Beth like a crazy woman and she’s waving a broom. Beth snatches it from her and gives Layla a little dose of pain. She tosses her into the ring, follows her, and even jabs the broom at Vickie Guerrero. Vickie wants nothing to do with that so she quickly drops off the apron. After Beth makes sure Vickie and Layla are in check, she goes to the other side and jerks Michelle up by the hair. Michelle, though, has summoned her inner Beautiful Person/Maryse and fights off Beth with a hair spray shot to the face. Beth is blinded by the Aqua Net and Michelle reaches under the ring for a weapon.

The majestic ironing board makes it first appearance of the night and Beth gets an abortion whether she needed it or not. Beth is covered by Michelle but she manages to kick out after the two. Michelle’s not thrilled by this so she decides to punish her challenger but slamming her with the ironing and then laying it flat across Beth’s mid-section. Michelle jumps right in the middle of it which leaves Beth down and visibly hurting. The devious blond decides to keep up the offense on Beth’s injured mid-section and applies a very painful body scissors to the number one contender. Beth does her best to fight back and finally catches Michelle in the jaw with an elbow. The soon-to-be ex-champion releases the hold and calls for a weapon. She receives an iron via of Layla, but unbeknown to Michelle, the cord of the iron has gotten stuck so when she goes to use it, it slips right out of her hands! Beth is able to capitalize with a quick roll-up but a horrified Michelle slips out of it! She quickly puts the boots to Beth and gets the Glamazon into the corner where she places the ironing board across Beth’s chest. Michelle harassing the crowd then kicks the dastardly weapon leaving Beth stunned from the brutal assault. Michelle pulls Beth away from the ropes, hooks both legs, and goes for the cover. She only gets a two count and it looks like frustration has started to settle in for the graduate of Florida State.

Michelle rolls to the outside and picks up a red mop bucket. Whatever’s inside she tosses on Matt Striker in frustration (perhaps she was listening to the commentary?) and she reaches for what seems to be the supporting guest star in this match: the ironing board. As she goes to crawl back into the ring with it, Beth drop kicks her, and Michelle flies back into the make-up table, bouncing her head off it in the process. The crowd is shocked at the sheer brutality of the spot and Beth goes to capitalize. She’s greeted by Layla and Vickie who double team her long enough for Michelle to stand up in a dazed state and grab another can of hair spray. Beth wiggles away from Layla and Vickie just in time for Michelle to spray her BFF in the face. Layla starts screaming that she’s blind and Michelle slams the Aqua Net to the ground in disbelief that Layla just got sprayed instead of Beth. Beth grabs Michelle by the hair and throws her right across the make-up table giving all of us reason to think something awful is about to happen to McCool. Beth keeps her grip on Michelle’s hair and slams the other woman’s face into the wood a couple of times before just pushing the table over and sending Michelle sprawling onto the mat.

Beth uses her half a minute free time to start throwing weapons into the ring before she pulls Michelle back inside. The groggy champion halfheartedly gets to her feet but Beth is waiting and ready to knock her down again. Beth slams the red mop bucket into Michelle’s abdomen and then hits her in the back with it. If that wasn’t awful enough she throws all her weight behind the bucket and launches it right at Michelle’s face. Michelle isn’t able to duck or anything, so she ends up slumping to the ground thanks to the ferocious beating she’s taken for the last few minutes. Beth goes for the cover but by sheer instinct alone Michelle manages to get the shoulder up. An annoyed Beth decides that she’s basically ready to the end the match. She places to ironing boards together in the ring and goes to get Michelle. She hoists her up and places her on top the rope, climbing up after her. At this point, Vickie and Layla do the only other thing they can do and that’s start batting at Beth’s feet with a mop and a broom. I guess this distracts the Glamazon from superplexing Michelle down onto the ironing boards, because next thing you know Michelle is able to muscle the stronger woman off of her. Beth lands flat on the metal weapons and you have to think that the Glamazon is out of it at this point. Michelle goes for the cover but Beth somehow by the grace of God (…or David) manages to kick out. Michelle lets out an ear piercing shriek and pitches a fit, not that I blame her. Beth has been hit with everything at this point and she won’t stay down. There’s really nothing else left for Michelle to do.

She gets Beth up by the hair and looks to be setting up for the Faithbreaker. Beth has come to far to give up now she digs deep and reverses the attempt by picking Michelle up on her shoulders. Michelle fights out of it but she ends up in a position for Beth to hit the Glam Slam. Beth hoists Michelle in the air and we all know what’s coming. Michelle starts screaming bloody murder but Beth has no sympathy and puts Michelle out of her misery. She goes for the cover, gets the pin, and we have a brand new champion! Layla and Vickie are so shocked and horrified, and tears spring to the eyes of Beth as she is announced the winner. The crowd is very happy with this outcome and Beth poses with her newly won championship.

The Good: I think the first thing that needs to be applauded is WWE management. We lay the smack down on them each and every week, and rightfully so, but tonight they gave their amazing divas an ample amount of time to go out there and work a match that would satisfy diva fans and maybe even make a few haters open their eyes to the fact that these girls are no joke. Beth and Michelle are two of the best on the WWE roster right now and despite the fact the match could have been so much more, they did their absolute best with what they were given. Beth took an amazing bump from the ropes onto an ironing board. Michelle more than proved that she is the top diva heel in the company. She beat on Beth and never really held back, not to mention she took some punishment of her own. One of the best spots of the match is when Beth took the mop bucket and began to beat Michelle with it. How much fun was that? I know that all of you want to beat someone down with a plastic bucket now because it honestly looked like it hurt like hell. And you know what? Deep down, we all have a sadistic side. Each of us laughed a little bit as the leggy, dominate Women’s Champion got her ass beat by something as simple as a bucket. It was the ultimate humiliation, in my humble opinion, and Michelle deserved that beating!

The Simply Flawless stable is probably the best thing to happen to the Divas in a long time. The combination of Michelle and Layla, along with Vickie, gives anyone who comes into contact with them an instant storyline. I find it horrifying and shocking that people want this group to break up. People should want to see more Simply Flawless segments on their television because the longer it lasts, the more opportunities for segments and fun matches the divas will have. I’ll agree that Flawless has done everything they can on Smackdown, and Raw certainly needs some life injected into it. What better way to get Eve over than throwing her to the wolves and giving people a chance to get behind her? Michelle, Vickie, and Layla are hated enough that people will rally behind Eve and cheer her to the moon if she can take them down. Last night’s PPV was pretty decent as a whole, and my unbiased opinion allows me to believe that Simply Flawless getting dismissed in such great fashion by Beth was one of the best moments of the night.

Another great moment was Beth recapturing the Women’s Championship. This has been a long time coming and it couldn’t have happened to a better worker. Beth has worked her butt off for the WWE and has become the top face on the Diva side of the spectrum. I’ll be happy to argue with anyone who disagrees with that and I’ll even say she is/was more popular than Mickie James. There is just something about Beth that makes everyone take notice of her. Her run as a face is so exciting and just so fresh and needed. She’s going to be able to carry Smackdown to even better heights now that she’s the face of the division. Last night Beth was powerful, endearing, emotional, and she shined like a star. No one can say she holds the title all the time because it’s been a long while since we saw Beth with some gold. The world is her oyster now and I can’t wait to see who steps up to challenge her first.

The match itself was good. Both girls have great chemistry together and with the exception of a few awkward moments, the whole match came off really well. Beth and Michelle made use of the “weapons” they were given and both took a nice amount of punishment. Vickie and Layla were full of shenanigans (that’s totally my favorite word) and their involvement in the match wasn’t overbooked. We speculated on the pre-show that perhaps Mickie James was originally slated to interfere in this match. We’ll probably never know if she was or not to be honest. But lets say that if the match did have to be rebooked, I’m glad it happened. Beth is the type of character that doesn’t need help in order to win. The WWE stayed true to her last night. Simply Flawless gave Beth everything she could handle last night and then some, and Beth still refused to stay down. If the match had some alternative ending, it would have definitely taken away from the emotion of the contest and Beth’s eventual victory.

The Bad: As much as it pains me to say, some of the interference from Vickie and Layla last night was bad. They provided the awkward spots of the match but none more strange than when they took the mop and the broom and attempted to bat the Glamazon away from Michelle while the girls were battling on the top rope. I literally cringed at this segment and tried not to think about how badly it would get slammed by the wrestling press. The interference wasn’t really needed and it made Vickie and Layla look kind of dumb and useless. We all know they’re not, but this came off awful and I have to question what they were thinking when they decided to go ahead and put that in the match.

The weapons were pretty bad. It’s like they took every stereotypical girl object ever made and threw it down at ringside for Beth and Michelle. I can see why some people would find this cute and whatnot, but I found it stupid and borderline sexist. I’m sorry if that bothers people, but why do girls have to use mops, buckets, brooms, and make-up as their weapons? What they should have done is let Cena and Batista play with the brooms and mops, and let Beth and Michelle play with the duct tape! Am I serious with that comment?

The Ugly: The only thing that was ugly about last night’s match was the horrible commentary, in particular Matt Striker’s. When you are naturally as wonderful as Matt Striker, you tend to overshadow those around you, and during the diva match Matt Striker unfortunately stood out for his crappy remarks more than King and Michael “Vintage” Cole. It’s sad because Striker is one perfect looking man. From his piercing blue eyes to his stunning tan to the fact he wears suit jackets and dress shirts with jeans. He’s gorgeous and intelligent, and he plays perfectly into the female hot teacher fantasy. But his stupid, sexist remarks brought a great match down to elementary school level and showed just how little the divas are cared about in the WWE. He had no clue what was going on in the match and King and Cole weren’t any better. I know Vince McMahon tells the commentators what to say, but there is a fine line he keeps crossing. He may not give a damn about the divas but he doesn’t have to force feed crappy lines to his announce team. And if Matt Striker came up with his sexist comments on his own, then shame on him. Double shame on him for the Vickie Guerrero insults. We know she’s an older woman who isn’t a hot, young diva but talking down on her isn’t acceptable. King and Cole were tacky too and deserve a nice telling off as well.

Of course I’m sitting here and saying all this when I would gladly slap on an apron, a pair of five inch pumps, and a cute dress and make dinner for Matt Striker on any night of the week. Ahem.

Overall, Extreme Rules was a superb night for the divas. They gave it their all and put on a match that gave all of us a little bit of hope. I hope this isn’t one of the classic “one step forward, two steps back” thingies the WWE is good at when it comes to the divas, but we’ll have to wait and see. We have the draft in a few hours and that is bound to shake things up for the girls. Anything will help at this point and the more balance the rosters are given, the better. I want to end this article by saying Congratulations to Beth (and David) for winning the Women’s Championship last night, and congrats to Beth and Michelle for bringing everything they had to last night’s table and giving all of us something to be very proud about.

Match Rating: 4/5 stars!

The Glamazon, Beth Phoenix has won her third Women’s Championship, defeating Michelle McCool at Extreme Rules moments ago.

Beth pinned McCool after hitting the Glam Slam. The switch came in an awesome Extreme Makeover Match, the first of its kind, which saw the two Divas battle using several props.

Congratulations to Beth!

For all the crappy booking we’ve been forced to watch on TNA as of late, this past Sunday’s Lockdown was a refreshing treat. The cage match between The Beautiful People and Angelina and Tara signaled the end of some old angles and the beginning of some fresh ones. We were privy to a Tara turn, a brand new Knockouts Champion, and the culmination of the Beautiful People who have now reached their highest peak. The thought of a face Angelina and pyscho Tara feud was salivating to say the least and the announcement of a Knockouts Tag Team Championship match for Impact with the stipulation that Daffney would have a mystery partner led to plenty of afternoon speculation of just who that could be. Impact looked promising and the Knockouts seemed to be floating leisurely up, up, up.

Then Impact aired and what we got was a horribly short, stupidly booked match that made little if any sense. An injured competitor made her return and it went unnoticed because she wasn’t given a ring entrance. Angelina and Tara were left off the show which lead to much shaking of the head. How can you have such a dramatic angle the night before and not have it picked up or even mentioned on the next show? We got to watch Lacey Von Erich wrestle instead of Madison Rayne, who’s Knockouts Championship win wasn’t given the proper respect. Then we had to watch a big, powerful woman go down to an aerosol can of spray and get pinned for her team. There wasn’t really anything good about Impact. There wasn’t anything bad, either. It was all ugly considering everything that could have been done.

As I stated earlier, Daffney and ODB weren’t given entrances. This random ass pairing is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. It’s great that they decided to use someone different, but to pair her with Daffney? These two have nothing in common and to my knowledge, no previous interaction with one another. Maybe TNA were going for the comedy effect by making these two oddballs a team but it simply didn’t work. They were already in the ring as the pre-match glitz came to fruition which made it even more strange because TNA went out of their way to promote this match as something that could potentially be interesting. Whatever, right?

As the Beautiful People come to the ring it’s clear that the new Knockouts Champion isn’t going to be wrestling tonight. Madison is dressed in a little black dress with strappy wedge sandals. Despite all this, the ring announcer says she is going to be in the match anyway, while Lacey is the one at ringside. Madison didn’t even try to hide the can of what we’re going to call hairspray for the sake of this recap. I mean you can just see it and tell she is going to use it and that’s how the match is going to end. After TBP did their thing, Daffney and Lacey are two who decide to start the match off. It takes all of two seconds for Lacey to change her mind about that and she tags out to Velvet Sky before the match even properly begins.

Velvet comes in screaming and goes straight for Daffney, but Zombie Hot takes her down with a drop toe hold that leaves Velvet grabbing at her nose for the second night in a row. Daffney is a quick worker and grabs Velvet in a headlock, using that so she can drive her knee right in Velvet’s gut. Velvet’s face then gets slammed on Daffney’s knee and she’s already on her back seventeen seconds into this match. Instead of going for the pin, Daffney elects to pick on Lacey and chases her around the ring. LVE slides into the ring with Daffney on her heels, but Velvet is ready. She unleashes her fists of fury on Daff, and throws her into the turnbuckle. The announcing is making me cringe at this point because Mike Tenay has decided to remind us all that Daffney picked stripping out of the Lockbox and LVE stole her thunder on that night.

Call me crazy, but something tells me Daffney really doesn’t mind that Lacey came out to the ring and started dancing around in lingerie that night.

But anyway, Daffney is now in the corner of the Beautiful People and Velvet makes the tag to Lacey. Lacey seems happy to get into the match now because Velvet just chunks Daffney down in the middle of the ring. She does a fancy little back-handspring, but since this is wrestling and I like Lacey, I’m going to say she did a standing moonsault. After LVE’s standing moonsault she drops an elbow, which is becoming her trademark move. Lacey prances and poses, happy with herself and life in general, but her smile quickly turns to a look of sheer terror when Daffney puts a death grip on her wrist. Needless to say, our perky blonde tags out to her angry, devil blond partner. Velvet kicks Daffney away from our girl Lacey (thank God!) and starts treating Daffney the same way she treated Tara last night which isn’t very nice. Daffney has her throat stepped on and her back slammed into the mat a few times, and Velvet is all smiles because at this point she feels like the queen of the TNA world. Velvet goes for a cover, but Daffney kicks out after two which makes Queen Vel Vel scream in anger.

For some ungodly reason, Velvet gets the bright idea to strut across the ring after viciously clubbing Daffney in the back and climb to the middle rope. She shakes her butt a bit before jumping off but Daffney greets her with a shot to the midsection. Velvet crumples over in pain and Daffney decides it’s time to make the hot tag to ODB. Velvet doesn’t want that to happen so in her distressed state she grabs a hold of Daffney’s ankle and tries to keep her from getting to the corner. Well to make a long story short, Velvet fails, Daff makes the hot tag to ODB, and the formerly MIA Knockout starts making Velvet her woman. She eventually tosses Velvet into the corner and absolutely crushes her with a huge splash. A woozy Velvet stumbles into ODB’s clutches, gets squashed thanks to a super fantastic slam from ODB, and the popular ODB leaps to her feet a la Shawn Michaels before he got super old.

A worried Madison Rayne jumps up on the apron and starts flirting with the referee. She just wants to get Velvet out of trouble, I suppose. It doesn’t really help because ODB has gotten Velvet with a roll-up. What does help is the fact that Lacey has disposed of Daffney on the outside and has taken that can of hair spray. ODB moves away from Velvet and goes to bitch at Lacey, but Lacey sprays her in the eyes which leaves the powerful woman blind. Velvet rolls up ODB and Madison jumps off the apron. The referee turns around and counts the 1, 2, 3 because ODB is in such distress she just can’t get her shoulder an inch off the ground in time. The Beautiful People have retain their Knockouts Tag Team Championships in a titillating three minute match.

Brilliant.

There’s really no need for me to launch into what was good, bad, and ugly because as I already stated, there wasn’t anything good or bad. I don’t want to be typecast as this week’s negative Nancy, but really. There just wasn’t a whole lot going on for the Knockouts tonight. I suppose I can indulge you all and try and pick out some positives but don’t expect very much. The Beautiful People looked amazing. I found Lacey’s ring attire to be questionable, but it’s Lacey. Who are we to judge her? She’s just smiley and happy, and glad to be out there so I’ll put my fashion police badge aside and give her this week’s free pass. I already said I loved Velvet’s outfit. It’s the same one she wore last night and it really pops in HD. Madison looked adorable and lets face it, it’s hard to go wrong with a little black dress unless you’re a WWE Diva. I’m not going to arrest Daffney or ODB either. They wore what they usually wear and it works for their characters. I enjoy any time I get to see Daffney on my television and welcome back to ODB. I wish TNA would give her more of a purpose seeing as how she is a former two-time Knockouts Champion, but that’s asking to much.

I’m really horrified by the lack of Tara and Angelina tonight. Something should have been said about that altercation they had at the end of their match at Lockdown. It made no sense to just forget about that and I’m actually glad Impact tapes tonight for next week so we can see if anything progresses from that. Overall, it was a crappy night for the Knockouts. They got the short end of the stick again and it just goes to show that you can’t look to far ahead when it comes to TNA. I’ll tip my Diet Coke with Lime in the air and toast to the Knockouts in hopes of a better week next week, and I encourage all of you Knockout fans and readers to do the same.

The finish came as Lacey Von Erich interfered from the outside, clocking Tara with one of the tag belts allowing Rayne to roll her up for the win. Under the rules of the bout, either Rayne or Sky could become the Knockouts Champion by pinning either Love or Tara.

The move is extremely surprising considering that Rayne has spent much of her time in TNA putting over other talents, with few wins of her own. At just 24 years old, she now shoots to the top of the Knockouts division.

Coincidentally, WWE also made a shocking title switch this week of their own — putting the Divas Championship on Eve Torres last Monday. It seems that both companies are giving the ball to the younger talents.

Rayne is unarguably the best worker among The Beautiful People and has worked extremely hard over the past year to establish herself in TNA. Congratulations to her!

New WWE Divas Champion, Eve Torres posted the following on her WWE Universe page just hours after winning the belt:

I am still on a high! This feeling is indescribable. Who would have thought, 3 years ago when I was just interviewing for the WWE Diva Search, that I would hold the WWE Divas Championship in my hands tonight. In some eyes, I may still be considered a rookie to the Divas division, but I have had my eye on the title since I was interviewing champions backstage. Tonight, I realized how far believing in yourself, working hard, training hard, and most importantly, acting with respect and integrity can take you in life. I would not be able to call myself Divas Champion if I hadn’t taken the opportunity to learn from the best. When you respect your teammates, coworkers, teachers, or superiors, which in my case, happens to be other WWE Superstars, and even my opponents, they will respect you… and want to help you succeed. No one gets anywhere in life on their own, and without the guidance of those with more experience than you. But beyond the help and advice of others, I also respected and believed in myself. I knew in my heart that if I worked and trained hard enough, and continued to believe in my own potential, that this opportunity would eventually present itself. And here I stand, Divas Champion!!

And truthfully, I feel that now is only the beginning! The hard work and discipline gets turned up ten notches, because now that I have won the title, I have to keep it! I have to defend it, and bring honor and pride to the WWE Divas Championship every time I do. So the training continues, and the matches and opponents will continue to get harder, but I am definitely up for the challenge. I have a feeling that Maryse may be a little upset so I am sure the heat will be turned up with every encounter.

It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for Eve and the Divas division. I’m definitely intrigued to see where Raw goes next with Eve firmly in her place as the new top babyface of that brand. Roll on next week to find out!

Congratulations to Eve Torres on becoming the new WWE Divas Champion on an edition of Raw taped in London, England earlier tonight.

Eve’s title win makes some history as she becomes the first Diva Search winner to win a championship.

Torres defeated Maryse, a two time Divas Champ, for the belt.

Both the Knockouts Championship and the Knockouts Tag Team Championships will be on the line at TNA’s annual LockDown pay per view this Sunday, it has been announced.

At this pay per view, where all matches take place inside a cage, The Beautiful People’s Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky will take on Angelina Love and Tara.

I predict that Ang & Tara will win, become the ‘odd couple’ Knockouts Tag Team Champions until their frustrations with each other reach boiling point, they end up unable to co-exist and will then battle for the Knockouts Title. Oops… did I just give away months worth of TV?

Wow, I don’t even know how to start off this Write-Up. First, I guess, we all got a surprise last night when the 8-Knockout Tag Team match that was announced was mysteriously changed into this hot mess of a match with rules that were more confusing than a episode of Lost. If you want an in-depth explanation of what went down, please go and listen to the Post Raw and Impact Show or just watch this video of Christy explaining what’s going to happen with the Knockouts tonight.

So there you have it. The Beautiful People kick off the live Impact after Christy explains the rules and what’s at stake. Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne are looking adorable with their pink outfits and tag titles, but Lacey is missing in action interestingly enough. Velvet starts off by saying that the Knockouts continue to revolutionize this business and tonight the Beautiful People will own three of the four lock boxes. She claims they’re going to get the spider and squash it like they should have done ages ago. Then she says they’re going to get the open contract so they can dominate whoever they want, and last but not least, they’ll get the TNA Knockout Championship, which is apparently the highest honor for women in wrestling today. Madison takes her turn speaking next. She agrees with “Vel Vel” and says tonight the Beautiful People will get it all; everything they deserve and everything they are owed. While she’s talking, Lacey von Erich walks out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a smile and a fuzzy white towel. She takes front and center and says no one will ever forget the night they saw Lacey von Erich strutting around in her bra and panties.

LVE: “Tonight, everybody wins.”

Oh boy.

With the Knockouts basically spread through out the entire show, it’s awhile before we get another segment, but when we do, it’s Christy Hemme standing with Team Tara. Team Tara is comprised of soon-to-be former champ, Tara, Angelina Love, ODB, and Hamada.

Tara is the first to speak and she goes off on a tangent about how tonight’s match is an absolute joke and how it’s ridiculous that TNA is using her just to get ratings. She understands the stakes and what could happen tonight, and she promises she is going to go out there tonight and pin someone’s ass.

Preach.

Angelina looks at Tara and reminds her that there is really nothing fair about wrestling and that sometimes life’s a bitch. They all have to deal with it. Angelina very confidently says that with the Knockout Title on the line tonight, she is going to be the one leaving with it and Tara doesn’t seem to impressed with that statement. Tara gets all huffy and basically tells Angelina that if she does win the title, it’ll be a cheap victory, and Angelina would have stolen it. She adds that if Angelina wants to role that way, then she’s game, and stalks off. Angelina gets huffy as well and she walks off leaving Hamada and ODB to just stand there.

Leave it to ODB to provide the most interesting promo of the night. She says “screw the knocked up title” which makes me giggle, and then says if she wins the open contract she’s going after AJ’s booty, and I can’t say I blame her. I love that little Georgia boy! After ODB exits to stage left, Christy turns to Hamada who says something in Japanese, and that little Knockout segment is now done.

After some more sweaty man action, it’s finally time for the match. After a shot of the Beautiful People backstage groping one another, Tara’s music hits and she starts to walk to the ring. She’s followed by Angelina, ODB, and Hamada. The Beautiful People and Daffney come out next and in a fun twist, all four actually coordinate their entrances to go together. That was pretty cool. Since there’s not really time for shenanigans tonight, the bell rings as soon as all eight women are in the ring. The rules state that once a Knockout is pinned and the one who was pinned, as well as the woman who pinned her, are both eliminated from the match. Madison and Angelina start us off.

They two former friends lock up and start to jostle back and forth for position. Angelina takes control and makes the tag to Tara. Madison gets the upper-hand on Tara and does some really unique and pornographic move on the poor girl. She seems very pleased with her effort and steps on Tara’s stomach as she heads for the ropes. Tara gets to her feet and meets Madison, scoops her up and positions her for the Widow’s Peak, and gets the pinfall. Tara and Madison are both out of the match now, with Tara earning the first key of the night.

Daffney charges in and pulls Angelina into the ring. She’s stomping away on the Canadian as TNA goes to commercial break. Super. When the show returns we’re missing two Knockouts. Apparently Daffney pinned Hamada during the break which shouldn’t shock anyone. Velvet has ODB down on the mat and is working her over. Angelina and Lacey are cheering on their partners from the outside, and ODB starts to throw her weight around and bully Velvet Sky. The popular ODB has the crowd going and Velvet is in pretty bad shape at this point. She’s giving up far to much size and strength to the bigger, stronger competitor. ODB attempts to pin Velvet, but the crafty Miss Sky manages to kick out after the two. ODB keeps the momentum going by attempting to slam Velvet to the mat, but Velvet wiggles out of the failed move and hits ODB with her own version of the DDT. Velvet goes for the pin and gets the three count, winning herself the third key of the night.

It all comes down to Angelina and Lacey for the final spot and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who is going to win this one. Lacey kicks ODB out for the ring and goes right for Angelina, who ducks the other blonde’s clothesline attempt. She knocks von Erich to the ground and starts beating on her, causing Lacey to curl up in a fetal position to try and fend off the attack. A pumped up Angelina Love motions to the crowd who are solidly behind her and throws Lacey into the turnbuckle face first. Lacey then finds herself whipped to the opposite set of turnbuckles and Angelina charges her. Lacey manages to get her foot up, and Angelina eats it and falls on her back. Von Erich climbs to the second rope and goes for her moonsault into an elbow drop, but misses because Love has rolled out of the way. Taz pokes at Lacey which I find stupid, but back to the action in the ring. Angelina takes advantage of Lacey’s mistake and hits her with “Lights Out.” It’s indeed lights out for Lacey as Angelina collects the final key. We’re treated to a shot of the lock boxes and their prizes backstage with a promise of the Knockouts opening them later on tonight.

And TNA wasn’t kidding when they said the boxes would be open later on that night. In a surprising turn of events, the Knockouts were given the opportunity to close the show.

Jeremy Borash (playing the role of Ryan Seacrest) was the master of ceremonies so to speak and he did a lot of teasing before we even got down to business. To make a long segment short, Velvet got to open her box first and she recieved the open contract for a match of her choice. Tara went second and was gifted with her spider, Poison, which was bittersweet because it signaled the end of her Knockout Champion title reign. Angelina and Daffney were last and they opened their boxes simultaneously. Angelina got the championship. Daffney got the right to strip. Angelina was thrilled. Daffney, not so much. She was forced to go to the ring and reluctantly did her thing which was kind of funny and kind of not. Lacey put a quick end to it by running out, attacking Daffney with the ugly stick, and giving the males in the crowd what they wanted. Realization sunk in for Tara that she was no longer the champion and she started beating the crap out of Angelina. Velvet got upset that Lacey upstaged her so she cashed in her contract for a Leather and Lace match next week against Angelina. After that, the show finally came to an end.

The Good: Well, despite all the bull, the Knockouts were basically the entire show. I appreciate the fact TNA woke up and realized that their girls equal ratings, but the way they went about it was all wrong. The wrestling wasn’t bad, and everyone looked adorable. So I guess that’s a good thing, right? ODB’s promo and Velvet screaming at Lacey not to upstage her were my two favorite parts of tonight’s broadcast. I hope this whole Lacey upstaging Velvet is not a one time thing because it could very well lead to a great storyline between all of the girls involved in the Beautiful People. Personally, I would love to see Velvet and Madison turn on LVE and tell the world their feud with Angelina has been nothing more than a hoax and that Lacey being with the group was nothing more than a joke. It would be nice to see Lacey work as a face because I get the feeling the fans would likely back her because she is pretty and she does try. With the Angelina the champion now, the Beautiful People could be one golden stable and I would love to see the Knockout lockerroom led by Tara come together and try to decimate the powerful BP.

The Bad: There wasn’t a lot that was bad about tonight’s broadcast. We had our usual commercial break in the middle of the match, and the returns of Hamada and ODB were handled poorly. Hamada may very well be the best wrestler on the TNA roster, but those who want her to be a champion are in for major disappointment. The Knockouts are being turned into a better version for the Divas by TNA and Hamada is likely to be the Jillian or Katie Lea of TNA. It sucks and it’s unfortunate but like Angelina Love said, there is nothing fair about the wrestling business. We should all know this by now.

The Ugly: Tonight in general was an ugly night for wrestling. The Knockout Championship was downgraded to a cheap tool used for ratings and in my opinion, the belt lost some of it’s prestige tonight. For the past several months, this belt has been passed from girl to girl, and tonight someone won it because they stuck a key in the right box. That’s a terrible way to win a title. It sucks for Tara because she got the short end of the stick yet again and it sucks for Daffney because TNA basically told us they don’t consider her championship material. I have no idea what goes on in TNA creative meetings but this whole complicated storyline nonsense is basically what killed WCW and they’re going to end up killing TNA. The Knockouts used to be the shining light of the company but now they’re basically side show acts. Yes they got a lot of attention, but there are better ways to go about it. Telling someone to strip or be fired violates so many laws it’s unreal and before someone decides to comment that it’s only kayfabe, you need to realize that there has to be at least some realism in your storylines. You can’t make someone strip under the stipulation that they will be fired. It’s just not ethical and I don’t give a crap that this is just wrestling. The so-called “creative geniuses” who run the company can at least try and think with their brains and not their anatomy when it comes to the Knockouts.

TNA is the most frustrating show on television to me. They have so much talent but it’s going to waste on dumb storylines and degrading angles. Next week we get to watch what’s sure to be a thrilling Leather and Lace match featuring Velvet and Angelina. I don’t even know if this is going to be for the title or not. All Velvet wanted to do was show up Lacey and get her hands on Angelina. She didn’t even bother to make it a championship match. Thank goodness Impact is getting taped tonight so we will get some answers to our questions. I’m not sure if I want answers. I shudder to think of what’s going to happen to Daffney and Tara now. Weeks and weeks of great, dramatic build-up have potentially gone down the drain. Tara has spider back and no title, so there is no reason for her to interact with Daffney anymore. After this match with Velvet, Angelina is more than likely going to end up in a feud with Tara and that’s something we’ve already seen a million times over.

I can’t really justify giving TNA the benefit of the doubt anymore. They’re going to keep disappointing me so I have no choice but to lower my expectations. TNA is going down the trashy route, in more ways than one, and the girls on that roster deserve better than that. I don’t care that they may have gone for humor with Daffney being forced to strip. I don’t care that they tried to make things exciting. All they did was alienate the purist in me and a lot of others. Just let these girls wrestle. Let them cut promos. Don’t force us to watch uncomfortable segments and deal with confusing storylines that make little, if any, sense. TNA you are better than this. Start proving it. You wanted to be competition for the WWE. Instead, all you’re doing is becoming a laughing stock and dragging your gorgeous, talented Knockouts down with you.

Love won the belt in the ‘Lock Box Showdown’, literally just winning the belt for opening a box in what has to be the dumbest title switch in history.

Nonetheless, Angelina becomes a three time champion rivalling the now former champion, Tara, for most title reigns. This is Love’s first title run as a babyface, however.

At least one promotion gets the March pay per view right this year…

EDIT: This match is now a ‘First Blood Match’.

Tonight was a historic night for wrestling as round two of the Monday Night Wars kicked off and in grand fashion for both the Divas and Knockouts in my opinion. Both shows featured tag team action but on Impact we got a treat. With Awesome Kong basically done in TNA, the question has remained: “What’s going to happen with the Knockouts Tag Team Championships?” We got our answer and in spectacular fashion. Missing in action Knockouts Taylor Wilde and Sarita returned to television to take on The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) and the team of Angelina Love and Tara in a triple threat tag team match.

Before the match gets underway, we’re told that due to the champions not defending the titles, Hamada and Awesome Kong have been stripped of them. That’s unfortunate for Hamada because she’s an innocent victim in all of this but life goes on and Tenay tells us new champions will be crowned tonight in a triple-threat match. Taylor Wilde and Sarita sort of get an entrance in the fact it’s nearly half over when the camera cuts to the ring area. They’re in terrible matching outfits but the fact they bother to coordinate their outfits give you a sense that they’re a real team. As the inaugural Knockout Tag Champs, it’s been far to long since they’ve actually gotten to perform on a televised show. The audience loves them and they receive a nice reaction as they play to the crowd and pose in the ring. Their posing is short lived because the theme music of the Beautiful People started to play and those three devilish Knockouts walked onto the ramp. They do their usual posing and flirting with each other, before finally getting in the ring and settling down for business. They know what a huge opportunity this is and how winning tonight could solidify this version of the Beautiful People as the real deal. Team number three consists of our Knockouts Champion, Tara, and ex-TBP member Angelina Love. Angelina is basically foaming at the mouth at the chance to get in the ring against her haters and Tara just looks fierce like usual.

Upon entering the ring, Angelina makes a beeline right for her former friends. Velvet and Madison are quick to get the heck out of dodge but a sluggish Lacey von Erich nearly gets caught in the clutches of a furious blonde Canadian. TBP start screeching at Angelina and Tara, causing an annoying distraction, and that allows Saritaylor to quickly go for a roll-up pin on both. The bell rings but before a count can be made, Angelina and Tara both kick-out. Nice explosive start to the match. Thankfully it doesn’t take long for the chaos to get sorted out and each team of ladies take a corner. Taylor and Tara are the two who officially kick us off. Taylor hits a nice kick to bring Tara down to the mat and she immediately goes for a quick cover. Tara kicks out after a one count but that doesn’t stop Taylor’s effort. She uses the ropes for momentum and goes to leap over Tara, but Tara catches her, holds her for a second, then just brutally drops Taylor down to the mat on her chest. In obvious pain, Taylor makes the tag to her partner. Sarita comes in, ducks a clothesline attempt, and delivers a nice modified neckbreaker to Tara, sending the Champ staggering. Sarita goes flying to the ropes to get momentum for a crossbody and Velvet smartly tags herself in. Sarita is unable to go for the pin on Tara and Velvet takes over.

Miss Sky goes for the pin in Sarita’s place but Tara kicks out. This irritates Velvet who starts screaming in that awful shrill voice she’s been using recently. After pitching a fit, Velvet grabs Tara by the hair and lugs her over to TBP’s corner where Madison tags herself in. Madison and Velvet double team the crap out of Tara before Velvet removes herself from the action and Madison is allowed to show us what she can offer to this match. Madison snapmares Tara to the seat of her pants and follows it up with a nice looking knee right between the shoulders. She goes for the cover, but Tara powers out which leads to more screaming from Velvet. The match gets a little crazy at this point because Madison bullies Tara towards Velvet, and the latter makes a big deal of pointing to Angelina then slapping Tara across the face. This brings Angelina into the ring, as well as Velvet, causing the referee to take his eyes off Madison and Tara. He argues with Angelina which gives TBP ample opportunity to double team Tara. Madison goes for the pin, but Sarita and Taylor quickly stop that and we have a two on two situation between Saritaylor and TBP. The girls fight for position but Saritaylor go for a double whip across the ring. TBP reverse the move, send Saritaylor across to the ropes, and we get our first taste of Lacey von Erich tonight as she trips the ex-champs and they eat a face full of mat. Lacey feigns innocence and TBP hit gorgeous double drop kicks to Saritaylor, knocking them right out of the ring.

The Beautiful People start taunting everybody, turning their backs on Angelina Love. At this point Angelina is pretty disgusted and she comes into the ring despite the fact she’s not even the legal woman and starts taking down Velvet Sky. Madison does her best to help out but she’s disposed off and the referee starts ripping into Angelina once again. He forces her back to the corner but Tara has come to her senses and has grabbed Madison for the Widow’s Peak. Tara gets Madison set up but unbeknown to her DAFFNEY has literally come out of nowhere, grabbed the Knockouts Championship, and has gotten into the ring. As Tara turns around with Madison in the air, Daffney takes the title and knocks her right in the side of the head with it. Tara goes down like a ton of bricks and Madison falls on top of her. The referee finally turns around and sees the unintentional pinning attempt so of course he goes to count. By the time anyone else catches what’s going on it’s too late and the bell has started too ring. The Beautiful People start to mark out and begin jumping around and celebrating while Angelina and Tara are in total disbelief. We cut to a few shots of Daffney who is absolutely beside her with happiness that she just pulled one over on Tara. Absolute brilliance on the part of TNA.

Wow!

I absolutely adored everything about this match/segment. It wasn’t the best Knockout action wrestling wise but it certainly delivered for everything it was supposed too. I guess I’ll start with the obvious and congratulate the Beautiful People on finally winning the Knockout Tag Championships. This has been a long time coming because I believe these titles were made specifically for this faction. If the drama with Angelina hadn’t happened, then she and Velvet could very well still be champions but now we have the team of Madison and Velvet carrying the belts. There are several directions TNA can take this storyline and I’m excited to see where it can go. Will any combination of two of the three defend the belt? Personally I would like to see Lacey end up left out. It’s not because of her limited wrestling skills or anything like that, it’s because Velvet is such a dominant personality and overbearing, and Madison is just… well she’s Madison. Together those two make a formidable team. They’re bound to overshadow Lacey, who should really do nothing more than valet for them. It would be interesting to watch the title win go to the heads of Madison and Velvet, and they could start to take Lacey for granted. Lacey could turn into the Madison of this incarnation of TBP because Madison was never a star until Angelina Love left. Lacey doesn’t seem like the type of girl that would enjoy taking that abuse. Since LVE has the least amount of history with the group, I’d like to see her eventually get fed up with the antics of Velvet and Madison, and turn on them. With Lacey’s family history she could eventually turn into a great babyface. If she actually develops some wrestling skills, throw the woman in a ring. There’s endless possibilities for this scenario! The Beautiful People winning the tag belts are the best thing to happen to the belts because now we have champions who will be there and who will be pushed, and we’ll be left guessing as to which way this title run will go.

It was nice to see Taylor Wilde and Sarita return to our television screens. If TNA is truly going in a superficial direction with their Knockouts then they need more Sarita in their lives. That woman is one of the most gorgeous people in wrestling right now and what makes Sarita so fantastic is she can actually wrestle, and wrestle great. Sarita has star quality and TNA would have to be blind to not see that. With proper booking, Sarita could get way over and I would love to see her and Taylor form a small faction with Angelina. That’s the best possible scenario for Saritaylor right now. They can get back into the tag title picture this way and Angelina needs allies. We can’t keep seeing Angelina try and fend off three-on-one attacks on a nightly basis. Judging from the way the match ended, Tara is now going to have her hands full with Daffney, so Angelina is going to have to start scrambling. If she partners with Saritaylor not only do the ex-champs get back in the title hunt, but Angelina has two strong partners who won’t back away from TBP. Wrestling in general doesn’t have enough stables/factions, so having two feuding female ones would be a treat to all women wrestling fans.

Reckon I saved the best part of Impact for last?

Personally, I was hoping for a Daffney appearance on Impact during the tag bout and my wish was granted. Not only did Daffney cost Tara and Angelina the tag titles, but her actions overshadowed the win by TBP. I said it last week in my article and my Write-Up that Daffney is basically the “it girl” for TNA right now and once again that was proven last night. Daffney’s presence and demeanor at the end of the match made it the best thing on television last night (unless you like old guys or Secret Life of the American Teenager) and as a fan it’s agonizing to me that I have to wait seven more days for another Daffney fill. I really, really, REALLY hope this is building towards a pay-per-view match for the Knockouts Championship between Zombie Hot and Tara. I know that it’ll be epic and I have a feeling that it will be done right if you know what I mean. The fact that Daffney’s interference was more of a big deal than the perennial pretty faces of TNA winning the vacant tag titles speaks volumes to me. I feel that TNA is 110% behind this Daffney push and that the best is yet to come for her.

Overall, I give tonight’s Knockout action one million thumbs up. A lot of people are going to slam it because of their disdain for the Beautiful People but I encourage everyone to look at it in a positive light. With those girls having the titles, it’s going to open a lot of doors. It could very well lead to the downfall of TBP. They’re not the best wrestlers on the roster, but heel champions are more beneficial because they don’t have to wrestle that much. They can bump and sell very well, and the babyfaces can shine. After two months of just “ehhh” Knockout action, last night proved that the division is still important to the fans. Things can only go up from here.

Agree? Disagree? Leave comments and storyline ideas because I’m curious to see what you readers want to see happen.

It looks as though the trio may be defending the belts under ‘Freebird Rule‘, a gimmick that was applied to the legendary tag team The Fabulous Freebirds some years ago. Under the Rule, any two members of the trio could defend the Tag Team Championships and it looks as though the same will be applied to The Beautiful People.

We discussed the idea of them doing this on the Post Show last night and I’m sure you’ll agree, it’ll make for interesting viewing to see who defends the belts on any given night — it would certainly spice things up. Good move in my book though Lacey VE as champion seems a little scary…

TNA crowned new Knockouts Tag Team Champions tonight in the wake of Awesome Kong’s departure from the company. In storyline, Taz and Mike Tenay announced that Kong and partner Hamada had been ‘stripped’ of the belts after failing to defend them in the past 30 days. In actuality, the move is due to Kong coming to terms with TNA over her release.

The new tag team champions, The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) defeated Saritaylor and the team of Tara and Angelina Love in a triple threat tag team match to win the belts.

As seen moments ago on SmackDown, Michelle McCool has regained the WWE Women’s Championship and is now a two-time holder of the belt.

McCool’s win marks the first time in nearly 10 years that the Women’s Championship has changed hands on a taped show. The last time this happened was also on an episode of SmackDown when Ivory beat then-champion Lita as well as Jacqueline and Trish Stratus in a fatal four way match on November 2nd, 2000. That show was taped two days prior on October 31st.

Click here for the SmackDown Redux

The finals for the Divas Championship Tournament are set to (finally) take place in less than two weeks at the Elimination Chamber PPV. Maryse will take on Gail Kim, obviously, and we will at last have some closure for the tournament that was prompted all the way back in December when champion Melina injured her knee.

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?

The Divas Championship tournament comes to an end tonight when Gail Kim and Maryse battle it out for the gold silver in the finals. Who will be the new Divas Champion? Will Gail Kim make history and complete the trifecta of singles gold in WWE and TNA? Will Maryse make history by becoming the first multi-time Divas Champ? The Diva Dirt writers weigh in with their predictions:

Cryssi: Are predictions really needed for this? It’s been set in stone since Maryse needed surgery that when she returned her precious butterfly belt will be waiting on her. We already know she was supposed to go over Melina. We already know this tournament is just a pointless way of giving her the title back without it being to obvious. She’s the only Diva on Raw who gets mic time. She has random little bits and pieces with the Miz (who for some reason the WWE thinks is better than John Morrison). Maryse is the WWE’s ‘it’ girl and there is nothing any of us can do about it. That said… I’m picking Gail Kim to win the Diva’s Championship. Why the hell not?

Erin: I feel like it’s been obvious from the start that this has been Maryse’s tournament to lose. Meaning, it’s been all about her from the get-go (if placing her in the forefront of the tournament by putting her on commentary and giving her mic time when no other Divas receives the same didn’t make it obvious) and the only twist the tournament could have had is if someone shockingly managed to defeat her. I didn’t see that happening, and it didn’t. Pitting her against Gail was another obvious move, but it’s not because I feel that the WWE is jonesing to put the Divas Championship on Gail–it’s because she was the default top babyface in Melina’s stead and thus is the one destined to be the last one to fall to Maryse. Still, maybe she can have a title feud with Maryse as a consolation prize. But the point is that tonight, Maryse will win the Divas Championship. It was destined to happen back before Melina got injured, and Maryse’s victory tonight will fulfill that destiny.

Melanie: First let me just say, Cryssi I love your style haha! Anyway, WWE has made no effort in masking the chances of both of these Divas. Let us compare: Gail’s qualifying match was on WWE Superstars, Maryse is guaranteed a spot on Raw every week. After Gail and Maryse had advanced and there were just two spots to be filled, Gail was nowhere to be seen during the Alicia-Kelly match but Maryse was ever-so prominent in the Eve-Katie match. Last week in the semis, Maryse got a better spot with more time and got to cut a promo before her match. Gail didn’t get an entrance and her victory celebration was cut short for a segment between Alicia Fox and Dule Hill. We know WWE always has their favourites so it’s not Maryse’s fault, but if you’re going to have a tournament at least freakin’ try and mask that the girls all have equal opportunity. There’s nothing to suggest Gail will win tonight. Maryse is the hot act right now and she has it in the bag.

Fresh from crowning a new Women’s Champion, WWE will crown a new Divas Champion tonight as Gail Kim and Maryse compete in the finals of the Divas Championship tournament tonight on Raw.

The Divas Title was vacated one month ago when former champion, Melina suffered an injury at a house show.

Tonight, Mickie James won the Women’s Championship for the 5th time, defeating Michelle McCool in quick fashion at the Royal Rumble. Congrats, Mickie!

A Women’s Championship match was made for the Rumble at last night’s SmackDown taping.

Michelle McCool will defend the title against Mickie James at the pay per view on January 31st.

Didn’t we just do this a month ago? Don’t worry, it’s not a repost from last month! Tara has earned her third reign as Knockouts Champion, defeating ODB in a two out of three falls match.

Tara beat ODB in two straight falls, the first with a small package and the second with the Widow’s Peak.

Let’s hope she gets to hold onto it this time.

Announced for next week is a semi-final match between Alicia Fox and Gail Kim.

Feeling lucky? In this new feature we’ve dubbed Playing the Odds, we will weigh the odds of certain Diva or Knockout events occurring, be it a championship win or heel turn.

We classify each like so: if the event’s occurrence is highly unlikely, it gets the Long Shot stamp; if it’s within the realm of possibility, it’s a Safe Bet; if it is extremely likely, it is a Sure Thing. Now, this does not mean everything we brand a Sure Thing is destined to happen–it just lines up with what we feel to be feasible from precedent or a person’s current position. Also, this is from our point of view, so don’t take this as fact or anything of the sort.

In this first edition, we will take a look at the ongoing Divas Championship Tournament, seeing which Raw Divas have the best shot at coming out on top. We may not be in Vegas, but we’re placing our bets anyways–take a look at ours and make a few of your own in the comments.

Alicia Fox
Odds: Safe Bet. Even though the WWE has been noticeably fickle about giving Alicia big pushes (they’re more of a “now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t” type thing), she is certainly a rising star in the company. They have felt comfortable giving her title shots before (twice, actually), and though her pushes were always short lived, they showed that she’s not destined to be merely a background player. Comparatively, a Diva such as Layla, who is still pretty much a background player, has never seen the kinds of pushes Alicia has been given. This makes us believe that Alicia might have better luck than her “replacement” (remember, Alicia was Michelle’s tag along first). This year could hold Alicia’s big breakout, and winning this tournament or even giving a good showing in it could effectively kick-start that. Though, as promising as her future looks, the WWE’s fickleness when it comes to her makes us hesitate to give her our full confidence in this tournament. It’s certainly possible that she could go all the way, but we’re not going to be betting the farm on it either.

Brie Bella
Odds: Long Shot. Yes, she’s already out of the tournament, which makes this sort of irrelevant, but when looking at it from an objective standpoint, pretending that the match had not taken place yet, it’s quite the long shot to picture Brie getting pushed all the way to the title. It’s not that we lack the faith in Brie having success on her own, but with the way the WWE books Brie and her sister–that is, extremely inconsistently–it’s tough to imagine the WWE giving either of them a title run. They seem to only use them in the ring when they need extra bodies. Otherwise, it’s escort duty fro the GM of the week. Bottom line, there’s just been no real investment made in the Bellas by the WWE. Until the WWE starts taking them seriously as competitors, they pose no real threat.

Read more to see how the other Raw Divas’ odds stack up.

Eve Torres
Odds: Safe Bet. While her move to Raw has pretty much cut the legs off of her in-ring progression, that doesn’t mean she isn’t improving or not worthy of a serious push–the WWE just hasn’t seen fit to give her the ring time she had on SmackDown, and it has hurt her as a result. Being demoted to backstage segments and randomly pairing her with Chris Masters isn’t using her to her full potential, to say the least. We obviously feel that there are big things in store for Eve, but her treatment on Raw so far hasn’t been foretelling a serious push. With Melina’s injury, though, it leaves the top babyface spot wide open, and Eve could be a prime candidate for that spot. This question is, will the WWE see fit to use her as such, or will she remain in the state of regression that resulted from one of the most ill-fated Diva draft moves in recent memory?

Gail Kim
Odds: Sure Thing. She’s passed the first round, and has all the flash and pizazz that could easily place her in that open top babyface spot, so this gives us a bit of a hunch that she might just make it to the finals, if not capture the title. She certainly has some momentum going, having already got that one win under her belt, so she has a leg up on the other babyfaces in that respect. Overall, when we look at the candidates, no babyface stands out as much as Gail–she has that experience of holding a title (both in the WWE and TNA), and she’s certainly not inexperienced. She would be the safest bet for the writers to take if they wanted a face champ to, say, be chased by Maryse, as Melina was. She, we believe, could step up in Melina’s place better than any other Diva at their disposal. Many Diva fans would be all for it, too–a crowd pleasing move and a feasible one in the business sense–what could be better?

Jillian
Odds: Long Shot. Again, as with Brie, this is irrelevant, as she has already been eliminated from the tournament. Still, judging by Jillian’s lack of luck when it comes to pushes (she held the Divas Championship for a hot minute and went on the have a botch-filled mini-feud with Melina that the WWE pulled the plug on pretty quickly) it seems like the WWE lacks faith in Jillian, especially now given her lackluster feud with Melina. They seem content to make her a side show act, and a serious push towards the Divas Championship seems out of the question. Now, given all of this, it’s no big surprise that she was the second Diva eliminated, but I don’t think anyone had much faith in her chances to begin with. Maybe some day Jillian will get another moment in the sun, but it ain’t now.

Kelly Kelly
Odds: Sure Thing. While we have every confidence in Gail’s ability to pick up Melina’s slack, it’s no sure thing that the WWE would go for her. The more obvious candidate for the company to call on is her blonde counterpart. Kelly is easily the biggest crowd-pleaser of the babyfaces, getting the biggest Diva crowd reaction pretty consistently. While usually the WWE have used those sympathetic qualities in a more humbling way–as a glorified heel punching bag–they could easily spin that into a full-fledged push as the brand’s top face. If the WWE are looking for a solid figure for the fans to get behind, Kelly is the one. There have been underdog champions before (early Trish, to name one) and it is realistic to think that the WWE would go for that. She’s arguably the face of the WWE Divas in mass marketing already, so why wouldn’t the WWE want to actually push her to the forefront–in more than just commercials and Slurpee cups?

Maryse
Odds: Sure Thing. We’ve already expressed our concerns that the tournament could end in the most predictable way possible–crowning Maryse as Divas Champion. It really is the most obvious choice, as she was destined to win the championship sooner or later, had Melina not been taken out with her injury. The WWE could have easily given her the championship in a Battle Royal and saved all the fuss that comes with an 8-Diva tournament, but this provides the opportunity to build Maryse up to the title in a way that the Battle Royal wouldn’t–she’ll defeat her competition in place of Melina and assume the position she would have been in eventually. It’s highly predictable, as we’ve said, and we sincerely hope that it doesn’t turn out to be so obvious. It’s not that we don’t have faith in Maryse to be a decent champion, it’s just that it takes all the fun out of things when you can see the ending from a mile away. Still, this is by far the safest bet of them all. Put your life savings on this one, folks.

Nikki Bella
Odds: Long Shot. With Brie already eliminated, it doesn’t leave much hope for Nikki’s chances. The WWE, as we mentioned above, doesn’t seem all that sure what they want to do with the Bellas. Whether they wrestle or not, it seems unlikely that they would push one over the other, especially to such heights as the Divas Championship. The short-lived sibling rivalry was ret-conned rather quickly too, so don’t expect a split any time soon. By the way, with Nikki taking the pin for Brie, that would make for an interesting squabble between the two, with Brie claiming that Nikki has been eliminated, and not her. Of course, the powers the be could then just disqualify them both for admitting to cheating. Ah well..

How do you think the odds stack up? Vote for what you think it the best bet below and let us know how you see it in the comments
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Brackets are subject to change if WWE changes up the semi-final matches.

We’ve also put together a play-along brackets sheet for you to print off and/or mess around with in Photoshop/Paint/whatever. Just fill out your predictions, upload it somewhere and reply here in the comments with the link or send it to us via Twitter [@divadirt]. Warning: contains spoilers.

For an example of how it could be filled out, click here. Send us your completed play-along sheets by Friday! Happy predicting!

In an incredibly fun match, the TNA Knockouts sort of made up for the earlier title shocker as Hamada and Awesome Kong became the new Knockouts Tag Team Champions, defeating Sarita and Taylor Wilde.

This is exactly the type of stuff I wanted to see more of on the show, it took nearly one and a half hours to get a good match that shows why TNA is an alternative. All the women delivered. Definitely go out of your way to see this one!

The Knockouts Championship shockingly changed hands just moments ago on the three hour live episode of TNA Impact. ODB regained the title after rolling up Tara with a handful of tights.

The switch means that Tara’s second title run logs in at just 15 days, up five days from her initial 10-day run with the belt back in July. Needless to say, as someone who wished that Tara would get a lengthy run as champion, I am super pissed. It seems Tara cannot get a break with this damned title.

Kind of a random place to make an announcement, but it seems as though Mickie James is once again the #1 Contender for the WWE Women’s Championship according to WWE.com’s POWER 25. For the week ending January 1st, Mickie came in at #18 with the description:

The beautiful Diva was impressive on SmackDown, defeating the powerful Beth Phoenix in singles action. Her hardwork earned her a future opportunity at the Women’s Championship.

Perhaps Mickie will get her shot at this month’s Royal Rumble pay per view?

The culimination of a career-changing year has led to Tara becoming the Knockouts Champion just in time for Christmas.

The fairytale ending to Tara’s year occured just moments ago at TNA’s Final Resolution pay per view when she defeated ODB in the scheduled Knockouts match. Despite twice teasing the Widow’s Peak, Tara eventually won the match with a rollup.

Tara joins Awesome Kong and Angelina Love in the ranks of multi-time Knockouts Champions.

ODB has successfully defended her Knockouts Championship against perhaps the two biggest challengers in the division, Awesome Kong and Tara, who will likely now be feuding on their own. Where does this leave the Knockouts Champ? Who will be the next challenger for the title? With seemingly the top contenders for the title now wrapped up in their own feuds [Saritaylor vs TBP, Kong vs Tara], this leaves the door wide open for a Knockout who is usually the ‘understudy’ to come in and stake their claim against ODB. We weigh the options:

Alissa Flash: Perhaps the most underutilised TNA Knockout on the roster, the Future Legend has been laying down for the pin more often than making the cover. Her history beyond TNA is what Barney Stinson would describe as legen-wait-for-it-dary. She is considered one of the top women’s wrestlers in the world. So why is it that in TNA she has become a doormat for her fellow Knockouts? With her alter-ego Raisha Saeed now seemingly done, there’s no need for TNA’s writers to have to prioritise her two roles — they now have the opportunity to push the Future Legend hard and have her cement what seems like a birth right, to be a top Knockout. As one of the most experienced women on the roster, we have no doubt she could give ODB a good run for her money and their matches would likely be epic.

Daffney: She’s bumped and bumped for this company, why not reward her? It’s time for Dr Stevie’s sidekick to branch out on her own. Behind that character, many forget that Daffney is a fantastic wrestler and has a genuinely unique style in the ring [see her match with Hamada]. As a fully-developed character also, which is rare in women’s wrestling, the storylines are seemingly endless for her antagonising ODB. ODB is a woman of bad ass strength, but I’m guessing Daffney could spook her out with some Dark Knight Joker-esque antics. Just think: Psycho Mickie on crack!

Hamada: Is she a babyface? Is she a heel? TNA can’t quite decide what they want Hamada to be. Right now however, she is a babyface and despite having an awesome debut match — it’s safe to say that TNA has dropped the ball with this Knockout. Why not have her re-establish herself by going for the Knockouts Title? Hamada has a hard hitting style that could make for some rough-and-tumble matches with the Knockouts Champion, who herself is a rough-and-tumble kinda gal.

Traci Brooks: Original Flavour has yet to truly be considered a top Knockout… or even a middling level Knockout for that matter. She was part of the now defunct Main Event Mafia, so they could bring her back with a renewed focus on becoming the top Knockout in the company, touting all the tips and tricks she learned from wrestling ‘royalty’ in the Mafia. Traci is long overdue a title programme, right? Perhaps this could be the time for her to re-establish herself.

So which of our four chosen Knockouts do you think should be next in line for the title? Or do you think it should be someone else entirely? Vote below & sound off in the comments.

The Divas Championship has changed hands not once, but twice in an unfathomable episode of Raw. [Still in shock!] Jillian and Melina became the fourth and fifth Divas Champions, respectively.

Jillian defeated Mickie James in a short singles match to take the title and can now claim that in her long five year career, she has held a major championship. [Happy now, Jillian fans?] Afterwards, Guest Host Nancy O’Dell announced a Diva trade which saw Melina being traded back to Raw. O’Dell gave Melina a Divas Championship match, which was even shorter than the one prior; Melina pinned Jillian with the Last Call to become the third woman to hold the Women’s & Divas Championship.

Needless to say, this whole situation is mind blowingly… er, mind blowing.

The full details of the Diva trade will be announced after Raw on WWE.com, however already announced is that Beth Phoenix has been traded to SmackDown.

This year’s No Surrender marked a staple in Knockout history.  Sarita and Taylor Wilde faced Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.

Saritaylor debut some new music and a new entrance.  It isn’t any better, but hey it’s different.  In all honesty, now they really just look like a hot-n-heavy couple doing the tango.  Keep trying ladies, I’m sure you’ll get it eventually.

Tazz continues to spoil the outcome of the match (like he has done from the very beginning of the tournament), but it’s not like the result wasn’t utterly predictable.

The Beautiful People make their way to the ring in such a ridiculous manner that makes me absolutely miss Angelina Love.  Call me crazy, though I prefer “incredibly loyal.”  There’s no TLC without Left-Eye, there’s no Alice in Chains without Layne Staley, and there sure as hell ain’t no Beautiful People without Angelina Love.  Wherefore art thou, Love?  This entrance isn’t nearly the same without you.  Bleh…I guess I’ll just have to settle for this Knockout knockoff for the time being.

Mike Tenay hits the final nail in the coffin by mentioning Angelina Love’s release onscreen, which makes it “legit” in some way.  He even pulls the “future endeavors” line…which, as everyone knows, is the wrestling version of “Rest in Peace.”

Earl Hebner and his (oddly fitting Nazi-authoritarian) mustache assert themselves as the officiator to this match, playing off of Slick Johnson’s past history with the Beautiful People.

Sarita and Taylor Wilde waste no time in starting off the matchup.  Madison Rayne is sent to the outside while Taylor Wilde basically slams Sarita on top of Velvet Sky, in quite an unique showing of offense… if I do say so myself.  Velvet Sky kicks out.  Sarita maneuvers a brief headlock into an armlock into a series of pin attempts.  Madison breaks up the count, however, during.  Taylor forges a tag and takes advantage.  She and her partner take down Velvet with a double back elbow, and Sarita elevates Taylor into a moonsault for the 2-count.  Tsk tsk…that’s cheating, ladies.  Old Hebner knows no difference as Velvet tags out to Madison Rayne.

Taylor effortlessly breaks down Madison with a drop toehold and an elbow.  Sarita makes the tag this time and delivers an elbow of her own.  Sarita is whipped into the corner and suffers a sudden burst of gonash from miss Madison, resulting in a near fall.  Madison is perplexed, as she is not used to arguing with referees.  Madison takes Sarita into the corner, who endures a few kicks to the midsection.  Madison tags out.  The Beautiful People attempt some tandem action with a double straight jacket neckbreaker.  Velvet makes the cover, but Sarita kicks out at 2.  Velvet doesn’t go apeshit just yet.  Instead, she bides her time with a couple mat slams.  Velvet tries a sunset flip, but cowers out of it, avoiding a dropkick in the process.  So much for mat initiative.  Eh.  Velvet puts the boots to Sarita, but Sarita kicks out at 2.  After a modified curb stomp to the throat, Sarita kicks out again.

Madison tags in and puts Sarita in a headlock and then drops into a spinning neckbreaker for the 2-count.  The Beautiful People continue to cut the ring in half with the quick tags.  Velvet becomes a bit overzealous, allowing Sarita to recover amidst a float-over DDT.  Both competitors make the hot tag out to their respective partners.

Madison runs into a dropkick and a rollover fireman’s carry slam, as well as a swift backbreaker.  Taylor tries to ensure a victory for her team, but Velvet Sky breaks up the pin.  For the finish, Sarita lays a springboard dropkick onto Madison Rayne who is subsequently taken down with a German suplex for the win.

Sarita and Taylor Wilde make history as the first ever TNA Knockout Tag Team Champions.  Victory dance!  No?  Okay.  I guess Old Hebner and his ‘serious business’ ‘stache won’t allow it.

Next up commences a battle of the sexes for the TNA Knockouts Championship.

An overly friendly fan cops a feel as we prepare for the TNA Knockouts Championship match: ODB vs. Cody Deaner.  Give’r!

At the start of the match, ODB uses Cody Deaner’s attire as toilet paper and Deaner threatens to… “backhand” her.  Okay…

ODB avenges this with a series of seemingly stiff shots to the Deaner.  Deaners rolls out to the outside, and ODB follows up with a crossbody from the top rope.  ODB leads Deaner back into the ring and into the corner.  Deaner takes ODB down and continues to dominate for a considerable remainder of the match.  The turnaround in the competition comes when Deaner attempts a top rope move and his halted by a low blow.  The back-and-forth action continues until Deaner attempts to steal a win with his legs on the rope.  A couple pin attempts later, and ODB reverts the match back into her favor with the TKO for the win, solidifying her place as the official Knockouts Champion.  Took long enough, huh?

ODB boasts to Lauren about her victory, which I guess is the TNA equivalent to the Women’s Rights Movement.  Just another comedy sketch match, folks.  Nothing to see here.

The first ever TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions were crowned just moments ago. Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People in the opening contest of No Surrender.

For Wilde, this marks two lots of history as she becomes the first woman to hold the Knockouts Championship and the Tag Team Championship.

Check out the first picture of the new TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship belts! The titles will be decided this Sunday at No Surrender when Taylor Wilde & Sarita challenge The Beautiful People.

I’ve always thought TNA has the ugliest belts in wrestling, the unflattering Knockouts Championship and now this? That Divas Title sure is looking good right about now…