The TNA Knockouts used to be dominant fixtures on Impact with multiple matches and segments. They ushered in a brand new televised era of women’s wrestling that we haven’t seen since the Attitude Era and it was refreshing. They didn’t focus on the looks of their girls. They focused purely on their butt-kicking abilities and the fans in the Impact Zone, and at home, just ate it up. It gave all of us female wrestling fans many reasons to be proud. Unfortunately, things have changed thanks to the transition period TNA is going through via the Hogan/Bischoff era but that said, a noticeable bright spot as emerged. The shining light I’m referring to is none other than Daffney.
The woman born Shannon Spruill has become one of the most respected and loved female wrestlers in the United States. Ever since her days in WCW, Daffney has enjoyed a loyal fanbase that have followed her career and supported her every step of the way. A lot people were disappointed when Daffney and WCW parted ways. She had proven herself as a tremendous talent but luckily she stayed in wrestling and kept improving. Fast forward nine years later and Daffney makes her mainstream return to TNA. Some of the most amazing Knockout moments in recent memory have involved “Zombie Hot”. Daffney has more than overcome her lackluster start in TNA and has solidified herself as not only a serious competitor, but someone who could potentially become the next Knockouts Champion.
On last week’s Impact we got the start of a potential feud between the crazy, off-the-wall Daffney, and TNA Knockouts Champion, Tara. This week, that upcoming feud was acknowledged and Daffney was in action yet again as she took on former Knockouts Champion, ODB. With two unique and alternative wrestling personalities clashing in the ring, memorable moments were sure to be made. Did these two ladies deliver? Well keep reading to find out!
ODB is out first wearing a small pink dress and clashing red underwear. Her hair is a very vibrant blonde and she just totally kills me. I don’t even know if it’s in a good way anymore. “Zombie Hot” is out next and I approve of her sexy ring entrance. These two women don’t really screw around and that’s super great. Daffney tries to drive ODB back into the ring post but ODB gets the heck out of dodge and Daffney ends up driving her own shoulder into the post instead. ODB with her flask still in her hand, smacks Daffney on the bum and then turns her around and lays a vicious chop to the goth queen’s chest. She throws Daff across the ring and smacks her in the chest again. Pretty nice start for ODB and she capitalizes by slinging Daffney head first into a turnbuckle.
Now things are about to get confusing and I’m bothered. TNA decides to split the screen while simultaneously having Tara cut a promo. What this does is completely take away from the action in the ring. I’m all about giving Knockouts mic time, but was it really necessary to have this going on while the match was? Couldn’t Tara cut her promo before or after the match? Why couldn’t she just get involved? Why were we forced to pick between the match on the left side of the screen or the promo on the right side of the screen? I know I shouldn’t be bothered by little things like a split screen of a match and a promo but good grief. Would it have killed TNA to cut the time of one of their other 9572035879203987420948 segments in order to give the Knockouts separate segments? It probably would have to be fair because this is the company who doesn’t believe in elevating young talent and has turned itself into a retirement home, while giving the WWE free publicity all at the same time with their squabbles over Hogan’s Hall of Fame ring.
It’s no secret that the majority of us have a love/hate relationship with TNA and all things about it. It’s easy to bash the company and it’s management, and to be honest, it’s one of my hobbies these days it seems. It’s not that I do it intentionally, because I don’t. I really want to like TNA and I want to seem them push the envelope and elevate their product towards the top so they can compete with the WWE and force the ‘E to raise its quality. Sometimes I think it’s wishful thinking, but nonetheless here I am with another Impact Write-Up and this week it’s going to be a pretty happy one. The TNA love came into play tonight when the company finally gave us some diversity and featured *gasp* Daffney. With the whole Beautiful People/Angelina Love soap opera we’ve watched play out over the past few weeks, Daffney was seemingly one of the forgotten Knockouts who got stuck playing second fiddle to the pretty people of the company. On this week’s Impact, she took on Knockouts Champion, Tara!
Daffney is the first competitor to make her way to the ring for this non-title match up. Taz makes a comment about how nice it is to see zombie-hot Daffney and I totally agree with him. Daffney has one of the better female characters in all of wrestling right now and she has years and years of experience behind her as well. With the exception of the hat she’s wearing, her outfit is totally fabulous. I absolutely love it. She looks amazing. Tara is out next and she looks cute tonight as well. Her body is completely ripped and she can pull off the beanie, T-shirt, and little shorts look so well. Tara has certainly started looking better as she’s gotten older which is a true testament to her amazing workout routine and the fact TNA has seemingly given her a new lease on life.
The match begins with both women jockeying for position. Daffney forces Tara back against the ropes and takes a wild swing at her, but the crafty champion ducks and just totally floors Daffney with a huge right hand. Daffney hits the mat but she gets up, so Tara hits her again, and then a third time! Daffney doesn’t let this stop her, and she gets up once again. This time Tara slams her foot into Daffney’s gut, doubling over the gothic beauty. She shows off her strength and hoists Daffney onto her shoulders, then hits a nice looking slam. Tara goes for the cover and gets a two count. Tara’s not really happy about that and she lifts Daffney up and goes to work on the other woman’s arm. Daffney defends against this and hits Tara with a knee to the stomach, then a huge uppercut. Tara staggers back against the ropes, get chest chopped, and when Daffney goes for the whip, Tara is able to reverse it and send Daffney across the ring. Daffney bounces off the ropes, ducks a clothesline, and comes flying back at Tara. Tara is ready for this and lifts Daffney up, back body dropping her with ease.
Daffney grips her lower back in pain and Tara starts to rally the crowd behind her. How does she do this? By being a diva of course and ripping her shirt off! At least there’s another top under her wrestling shirt this week, so we’re not subjected to any wardrobe malfunctions. Daffney has been recovering in a corner throughout all this and when Tara goes after her, Daffney unleashes a spinning heel kick that no doubt catches the Californian off guard. Tara goes down like a ton of bricks but Daffney is to hurt to go at her right away. Tara manages to slowly get to her feet and Daffney has enough instincts to go after her and make her stay down. This seems to give Daffney a bit of a second wind and she suddenly starts to remember why she’s such a sadistic you know what! She repeatedly snapmares Tara to the mat using only the woman’s hair (… and for you tender headed people out there that’s pretty cringe worthy). To make matters worse, Daffney has began taunting Tara and the referee for that matter, and she kicks Tara right in the chest. Daffney continues kicking the crap out of her opponent and finally just pushes her right out of the ring.
(** author’s note: To all the readers, I apologize profusely for this going up so late! My work schedule was nothing but mornings this week and it completely threw me through a loop! Hopefully the read is well worth the wait =D)
For the past few weeks, Impact has turned into the Beautiful People show and this week was no exception. As usual, Lacey Von Erich, Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky, and ex-member Angelina Love took center stage. Joining them this week was special guest star, Knockout’s Champion Tara. What did the fabulous fivesome have up their sleeves for us this week? Click the video below to watch or just continue reading if you can’t be bothered.
Before the match begins, we’re treated to an interview with Angelina and Tara. Right off the bat, Christy brings up the past history between the two former rivals and Angelina is quick with a rebuttal. She flat out admits that she didn’t care for Tara when she (Tara) first arrived in TNA. Tara takes it in stride and Angelina continues on by saying the past is the past. She brings up last week and the amazing match the two women had, then gets disgusted because of how the Beautiful People interfered. Tara mumbles “welcome to my world” but Angelina brushes it off. She says that last week she and Tara had each others’ backs and that this week it would be no different.
Christy, who’s been nodding along all this time, turns her attention to Tara and asks her if there’s a special plan to take care of the Beautiful People tonight. Tara says something along the lines of “…the plan for tonight is quite simple. It’s going to get Ugly.” A confident Angelina takes the microphone, puts on her serious face, and adds “…real ugly.” Great promo by both.
After the interview, the terrible ring entrance by the Beautiful People takes place. I’m all about flashy entrances, but they completely kill me (and not in a good way). Madison and Velvet having matching outfits is completely adorable and I really like Lacey’s boots. Angelina walks out to the ring next wearing something slightly trashy but what else is new? The girl does the trash look well and manages to make it not look disgusting like it would on most people. Finally, Tara comes to the ring. All I can do is pray for no wardrobe malfunction this week. It takes a little longer than necessary to get everyone settled but when they finally do, Velvet bravely offers to being the match against Tara. It takes all of two seconds for Tara to tag in Angelina and once that happens, Velvet is off and running. She wants absolutely nothing to do with Angelina and I don’t blame her. Angelina is one fierce mamacita and Velvet stands no chance against her!
Velvet seems to be heading towards the ramp and Angelina continues to stalk her. When Velvet sees she has nowhere to go reality sinks in. She’s totally stuck. Angelina is almost to her when Lacey comes up from behind. This doesn’t faze Angelina because she slaps the stew out of her replacement. Angelina climbs back on the apron where Madison is waiting to confront her. Needless to say Angelina doesn’t care what Madison has to say because Madison Rayne gets a boot to the gut for her efforts. While all that goes on, Velvet gets back in the ring and she starts attacking Angelina. She gets her former bestie down on the mat and begins to work her over, gaining the clear upperhand. A small “You Can’t Wrestle” chant breaks out while Velvet is offense but if she actually cares, she doesn’t show it. She happily chokes Angelina Love with the woman’s own hair. When Velvet tires of the choking, she gets Angelina in a position to whip her into the ropes. I kid you not, someone from the crowd screams “TAG IN LACEY” but that doesn’t happen… yet. (Dun, dun, duuuunnnn!) Velvet whips Angelina across the ring, but it does her no good. Angelina knows what’s coming and attempts to go on offense. Velvet anticipates this, falls flat on her backside, and rolls out of the ring.
Velvet wants none of what Angelina’s got, and that’s fine with the Canadian. She turns her attention to Madison and starts picking on her. The pastel blue attired member of TBP is pulled into the ring by her blonde and pink locks, and is forced to eat a face full of turnbuckle as a punishment. Angelina tags in Tara and the Knockout’s Champion gets her first taste of action in the match! Tara sunset flips in, goes for the cover on Madison, but only gets a two count. Madison gets up but is taken down twice with arm drags. She’s taken down again with a suplex and Tara rolls her over into a guillotine-like move. Tara does a great job of bullying Madison around the ring with various little moves and eventually Madison has to get out of the ring. Velvet and Lacey jump down from the apron and start to comfort their fellow BP member. The Beautiful People receive no sympathy for Tara and Angelina. Angelina gets into the ring with Tara and the two women bounce off the ropes and come flying at the backs of the BP with dropkicks. All three members go flying into the guardrail and I’ll let you guess which one took that bump awkwardly. Tara and Angelina celebrate their dominance as the match fades to a commercial break.
If you’re a fan of women’s wrestling and more specifically, the WWE Divas, then you are familiar with the “Piggie James” storyline that has graced our television screens in recent weeks. The angle has ignited a lot of discussion and controversy due to the sensitive issue it has been dealing with; a woman’s weight and image. The WWE constantly promotes their women as smart, sexy, and powerful and with those labels come certain expectations. I’m almost positive the girls employed by World Wrestling Entertainment are expected to maintain their appearance at the highest level they possibly can. I’m purely speculating here, but seeing as how the majority of their roster is filled with models, the girls get hired for their looks alone. If want to sit here and nitpick, the male portion of the roster has its fair share of lookers to but that’s not what’s important today. In the entertainment world, looks are everything, and as sad as it is, Mickie James could be considered big for a diva by some people.
Personally, I find it absolutely ridiculous to call Mickie James fat, but the writers over at the ‘E saw a chance for a storyline and they decided to role with it. Week after week we got a chance to see then Women’s Champion, Michelle McCool, and her BFF, Layla, humiliate and taunt Mickie for being “overweight”. Team Laycool (and sometimes Beth Phoenix) made Mickie’s life a living hell until the Royal Rumble when Mickie finally got some much needed and oh so sweet revenge. Laycool got served a nasty little dish of their own medicine and Michelle suffered the ultimate embarrassment of losing her precious title in less than a minute. I thought the end justified the storyline, and overall I thought the angle was brilliant. Lets face it, the WWE just doesn’t care about their divas like they used too. The Diva division has suffered in the post-Trish era. I don’t know if it’s because the WWE just doesn’t care these days, or if it’s because they don’t have the confidence in any of their women like they had Trish. Either way, women haven’t had legit storylines in a long time and their three minute matches have been sloppily put together and terrible to say the least.
Since the draft last April, Smackdown has more than proven itself as the place to be if you’re a diva. The girls on the blue brand are given a little more time and for the most part, better writing. As a diva fan, I didn’t find Piggie James appalling whatsoever. I found it funny, dramatic, annoying, and I enjoyed it. As a woman, I sympathized with Mickie and wanted to punch Michelle McCool and her perfect little self in the face. Us diva fans were FINALLY given a storyline we could get emotionally attached too. We were made to root for Mickie and we were made to hate on LayCool for their terrible actions. All women were given mic time. They were given segments. The storyline had extreme build and that’s something we haven’t seen since the days of Trish and Lita. Our girls were finally given time to shine. I had no idea Michelle was capable of comedy. I had no clue I could ever be made to want Mickie James win a match. I was so excited to see what Beth Phoenix would do and which side she would pick. I even marked out for Maria when she got herself involved and cut the best promo she’s ever done. This simple, childish storyline brought something out of each and every woman involved and it was refreshing to see. Despite the touchy issue it was built on, I think everything worked out well in the end. Us Diva fans were finally given a reason to get excited and emotional.
Thanks to Melanie’s expert eye, we have a treat for Knockout fans this week. TNA’s exclusive web match for this week features former Knockout Tag Team Champions, Taylor Wilde and Sarita, battling against the Original Knockout, Traci Brooks, and former Knockout Champion, ODB!
The oddball, yet fun combination of the normal Traci Brooks and the ridiculous ODB make their way out to the ring first. As usual, ODB is hyper as hell and Traci seems pretty pumped to be actually wrestling for a change. They get into the ring and there’s some disturbing groping going on, but we’ll let that go. Afterall, it is an ODB match and she’s usually disturbing enough for everyone on the TNA roster. The former champions are out next and their ring entrance is unique to say the least. It’s actually kind of sexy seeing if like to watch two women touch a lot and then stare at one another in the eyes. Their matching outfits are cute to say the least and Traci imitating them is really fun to watch. Taylor and Traci get us started off.
Traci is quick to try the offensive side of things but Taylor puts a stop to that pretty quickly. A single leg takedown has Traci down, but she gets back up. Taylor tries an armdrag, but the buxom brunette recovers from that and scoops the smaller Taylor up on her shoulders. Traci appeared to be going for some type of slam, but Taylor manages to block it, roll down to the ground, and scramble to her feet. She chest chops Traci, then blocks a punch, before wretching Ms. Brooks’ arm back and going for a tag to Sarita.
The amazing Sarita slingshots in and immediately goes to work. Her offense is pretty spectactular. In fact, it’s so spectactular that Traci can’t handle it and stumbles to her corner, right into ODB’s waiting arms. The ex-champion makes the tag and I’m guessing Traci was pretty relieved to get away from Sarita is just ready to explode on the opposition. As soon as ODB makes her way inside, Sarita takes her down with a drop-toe hold, which leaves ODB withering in pain and gripping her left breast in agony. Sarita applies a nice little two and a half Nelson, floats over into a pin, but she only manages to score a one count. An overwhelmed ODB gets up and finds herself up against the ropes. She muscles Sarita against them and sends her across to the other side. Sarita charges at ODB, who goes for a clothesline, only to have Sarita duck and hit the other side. Traci grabs two handfuls of Sarita’s hair, but Sarita fights her off and sends her to the floor outside the ring. The distraction is enough to allow ODB to gather herself and when Sarita turns around, ODB nails her with a Thesz Press and starts punching her in the side of the head.
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.
It’s nearly time for the 2010 Royal Rumble and it’s got the Diva Dirt team feeling all resminiscent! Over the next day or so, we’re going to be rewinding the clock and reliving our favourite Rumble moments. Cryssi: My pick for the ‘Rumble Rewind’ is a match that should still be fresh in most of … Read more
All I have to say is thank God for the fast forward button. I thought I could be strong and sit through an entire episode of Impact tonight but man, was I ever wrong! It’s truly an excruciating show to watch and I literally watched the whole thing on fast forward until it came back from commercial break and we were treated to a shot of the Beautiful People backstage getting ready for their six woman tag team match. The brief segment (and when I say brief, it seemed less than thirty seconds!) was nothing more than two of the Beautiful People stretching each other out and the third standing in the middle looking like a little lost puppy. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out who is who. Mike Tenay mentions that the Beautiful People will be in action later on tonight against the Knockouts Champion and Tag Team Champions, so of course I’m forced to sit here and fast forward through more garbage; aka old men desperately clinging to one last shot at glory they do not deserve. Blah.
I’m not one who reads spoilers so I was surprised to see that the Beautiful People actually got an interview. Christy Hemme made mention of the match but instead of asking them about their opponents, she asked them about Angelina Love. Velvet Sky spoke first and said that Angelina makes her sick and she’s just so tired of hearing about her. Velvet basically ripped on her former BFF and claimed that Angelina just wasn’t cut out to be a BP so that’s why she got to steppin’. Unfortunately Madison Rayne decided to talk next and she made me LOL IRL. Apparently Angelina Love is so 2009 and the Beautiful People have moved on to bigger and better things. Kudos to Madison and Velvet for keeping straight faces through that preposterous comment. Madison talked about how the Beautiful People were aiming for gold and rubbed her waist to signal that’s where it would it up going. I absolutely refuse to repeat the rest of the segment because I firmly believe everytime Lacey Von Erich speaks God kills a kitten and I just don’t agree with animal abuse.
We finally get to the match and the Beautiful People are out to the ring first with a horrible choreographed ring entrance. As cute as their pink outfits are, their antics just aren’t this week. I hated von Erich’s awkward flip over the top rope and I when I went to pause the match to dissect the ring entrances, I paused on a shot of Velvet’s bottom which does absolutely nothing for me. Madison’s hair looks absolutely terrible and in my opinion, Velvet just doesn’t seem to have as much fun anymore. Awesome Kong and Hamada make their way out next and if this is truly Awesome Kong’s last match in TNA, I’m sure going to miss her. She’s got the best entrance music ever and it just scares me to see her stalking down towards the ring because I sure wouldn’t wanna face her! Tara gets a nice reaction from the crowd and I chuckled at seeing TBP freak out over the spider.
The match gets started pretty quickly with Hamada and Madison Rayne. There’s not a whole lot of messing around at the start of this like there was in last week’s match and that’s always good to see. Hamada takes Madison to the mat with a wicked kick and doesn’t let up on her offense by chopping the pink and blonde headed beautiful person. This continued for a few moments before Hamada decided to unleash her inner Undertaker and do his “Old School” type of move by walking on the top rope while hanging onto Madison’s arm. Hamada put her own twist on the move by flipping down and executing a weird looking arm drag to which Madison bounced back up from. Madison is able to make the tag to Velvet, who stayed in the match for approximately two point two seconds before tagging out to LVE.
I suppose I should begin this by introducing myself. My name is Cryssi and I’m Diva Dirt‘s new TNA correspondent. It’s an honor to be here and I promise to bring my best each and every week with whatever I do here! I’m excited for this job. Part of the excitement stems from the fact I’ve been thrust into the middle of a train wreck of a show. TNA is a soap opera of revolving doors, pointless drama, and politics. At least that’s how I view it. With the departure of Alissa Flash and Awesome Kong’s request for her release, we’re left with some questions about the Knockouts division. None of them were answered on this week’s episode of Impact and we likely won’t know much until TNA returns for more tapings. Tara was absent from this show, as were Knockout Tag Champs, Awesome Kong and Hamada. The Beautiful People and Angelina Love were the only entertainment for us Knockout fans. So with all that being said, lets get on with my first ever Impact Write-Up!
We’re treated to a backstage shot of Angelina getting mentally ready for her match but that’s not all fans. We get a video package too! The history of Angelina’s break-up with the Beautiful People is rehashed, and I’m not going to lie; I still laugh whenever I see her beat the crap out of Velvet Sky. It’s hilarious. Madison Rayne comes out first and she doesn’t look half bad tonight. She’s improving week after week and her antics toward the crowd were pretty funny. I loved when she booed the fan that was booing her, and her overall attitude was great and spot on. She does her posing with the ropes and on the turnbuckles, and it surprised me to see that she came out sans Velvet and Lacey von Erich. Angelina comes out next, to her new music, and gets a hot face reaction. The crowd seemed really excited to see her and rightfully so. She’s one of the few women left in TNA now who can actually put on an amazing, legit match.
The bell rings and Angelina goes after Madison. The referee tries to stop it seeing as how Madison is backed into the corner, and to her credit Angelina backs off. Madison uses Angelina’s sportsmanship to her advantage and goes right after her former leader. She hits a few nice punches and gets Angelina to the mat. The Canadian does her best to defend herself, but Madison doesn’t really let up until she (Madison) gets back to her feet. Angelina is up as well and is met with a few stiff forearms to her jaw, then finds herself pressed against the ropes. Madison whips Angelina to the other side, but momentum switches and Angelina slams Madison down to the mat by her hair!
With Madison down, Angelina takes charge. She mounts her and begins to unleash her angst on her former lackey. Madison takes the abuse and then gets thrown into the corner. Okay, she doesn’t get thrown. Her face eats a mouthful of turnbuckle and it looks like it really hurts. Madison stumbles to the left and is “helped” to her feet by Angelina. Angelina goes for a whip, Madison reverses it, Angelina ducks a clotheslines, and Madison gets absolutely destroyed by a sick bicycle kick! Angelina goes for an arrogant cover and gets the victory.
