TNA is doing a great job of creating buzz around it’s newly signed Knockout, Ayako Hamada, who it seems will be going by just her last name. They’ve put up a nice piece on their site including quotes from one Awesome Kong [even though she can’t string a sentence together on TV].
With TNA’s biggest, baddest heel putting Hamada over, it would be absolutely ridiculous not to strap the rocket on her from the get-go. Her debut could instantly gain more traction than Tara, Sarita or Alissa’s. Read below:
She’s 28 with 10 years of in-ring experience, and a lifetime of pro wrestling knowledge truly at her front door.
The newest TNA Knockout, Hamada, was recently signed to a contract and arrives from Japan, best known as the daughter of wrestling sensation Gran Hamada, 59, himself a wrestler of 35 years.
Expect great things from this Orient import.
“I would compare Hamada with AJ Styles, because she’s simply phenomenal,” TNA’s Awesome Kong said in a rare interview (Kong has also dominated the Japanese wrestling scene). “She’s a triple threat. She’s mastered the Japanese style of wrestling, along with the Mexican lucha libre, and I can see it in her eyes that she wants to be a great American wrestler.”
For a company with a female president, TNA sure proved that wrestling is still a man’s sport. Despite boasting the most progressive women’s division on national television, TNA’s Knockouts division was not, this time, exempt from TNA’s recurrent reckless booking. Having already shot themselves in the foot several times with stale and lousy booking for … Read more
Moments ago at Hard Justice, ODB and Cody Deaner defeated Angelina Love and Velvet Sky to take the Knockouts Championship. Deaner rolled up Velvet after a botched attempt to spray him in the eyes by Madison Rayne on the outside, she instead accidentally sprayed Velvet allowing Deaner to win. Afterwards, ODB was announced as the … Read more
TNA delivers some Hard Justice tonight on pay per view, as Angelina Love defends the Knockouts Championship against ODB. Though it seems the exact details of the match are ambiguous; TNA has teased that Angelina will team with Velvet Sky and ODB with Cody Deaner while the latest lineup on TNAwrestling.com suggests a singles bout. … Read more
If you’re following former WWE Diva, Kristal Marshall on Twitter, you’ll have noticed that she’s teasing making a ‘debut soon’. Could Bobby Lashley’s baby mama be heading to TNA too? She writes: I’m gonna make a debut soon… Where could it be Then again, it could simply be some innuendo to get sites like this … Read more
TNA has rehired Scott D’Amore, the man who was behind the initial stages of the Knockouts division [and helped put together those awesome Gail-Kong matches]. D’Amore is set to return at Hard Justice, according to PWInsider and will once again resume his duties over the Knockouts division as road agent. If you’re not familiar with … Read more
Last night’s Impact saw the announcement of Angelina Love vs ODB for the Knockouts Championship at Hard Justice on August 16th. What this proves to me is that VicTara did get screwed over. The logic in giving her the title in the first place will continue to baffle me forever.
We’ve heard from a source that there is once again interest from TNA in hiring former WWE Women’s Champion, Jazz aka Carlene Begnaud. The ECW alumna has fallen off the radar in the past year or so but it’s understood that she gave birth to her first child with husband, Rodney Mack late last year/early … Read more
With all the talk over the past couple of weeks about what is being described as the worst match in TNA history, Jenna vs Sharmell at Victory Road, you’d think there was only one person in the match — Jenna Morasca. After all, she’s been the one doing all the talking… until now. Jenna’s opponent, … Read more
In what could be major news, though unconfirmed at this time, we have heard some rumblings about TNA producing a separate Knockouts series. PWInsider is now reporting that there’s some “interesting Knockouts news in the weeks to come.” So I guess one could do some addition there. The only thing I have heard so far … Read more
Christy Hemme is set to return to TV at the Impact tapings either tonight or tomorrow night, reports PWInsider. Hemme has been out of action since January, when she injured her neck during a training session. Fellow Knockout, Traci Brooks made her return at last night’s taping to air this Thursday. Meanwhile, Japanese star Ayako … Read more
This year’s installment of Victory Road pitted Angelina Love against the Knockouts Champion, Victoria as well as Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca.
First up is the Knockout’s title match. With the women’s title match being this early on card, don’t know whether to be grateful or plead for mercy.
As the Beautiful People make their beautiful way to the ring, I’m pleased to see Madison Rayne actually doing something in their entrance, even if it’s just shaking her ass. It’s even refreshing to see Angelina out of beekeeper’s suit, even if her pants look like they have gotten into losing battle with a shredder. Oh, and Velvet Sky prances around in lingerie. What else is new? Anyway, I won’t make any mention of Madison’s lean against the ring ropes as doing her best thinking on her back… because that would be inappropriate.
Victoria enters the Impact Zone with Poison by her side and the title held high above her head. At very sound of the bell, Velvet attempts to taunt and distract Victoria. Unperturbed, Victoria takes Angelina Love down and slams her a couple times. This is too much to handle for Angelina who calls for a time-out. Before the challenger can even catch her breath, Victoria pulls her back into the ring. Victoria then proceeds to support Angelina’s weight on her own back while pulling on her hair before slamming her down onto the canvas. Following up with an irish whip to the corner, Love counters but falls into a tarantula manuever against the ropes.
Victoria breaks the hold and gets involved with the Beautiful People, only providing Angelina with the opporunity to score a baseball slide. Just like that, the fight is taken to outside. There are shadows of their last match when Angelina shoves Victoria into the ring apron. Back into the ring, Angelina performs a running dropkick. She then runs Victoria into corner repeatedly. Tossing Victoria down from the turnbuckle, Angelina even finds time to gloat about it.
However, Victoria fights back and whips Angelina Love into the corner. Angelina follows up with kicks to the side of Victoria’s head and a diving clothesline. She goes for the pin multiple times, but is unsuccessful. With similar offense in mind, each Knockout takes her opponent down with a clothesline. Referee Slick Johnson administers a 10-count. Victoria surprisingly musters enough energy to kip-up and soon lead Angelina into a flapjack. A standing moonsault on behalf of Victoria renders a 2-count.
Velvet Sky takes to the ring apron. When the Beautiful People attempt to set Victoria up, Velvet accidently sprays hairpray in Angelina’s eyes. The referee gets so distracted and preoccupied with Velvet and Madison that he abandons what would otherwise be a 3-count against Angelina.
Victoria hits a spinning sidewalk slam and makes her way to the corner, stepping on Angelina Love in the process. She misses a moonsault from the top rope. Taking advantage of this, Angelina goes for the pin. Referee Slick Johnson does not see Victoria’s foot on the bottom rope and crowns Angelina Love the new Knockout’s champion.
A disgruntled Victoria superkicks the referee and even fits in a widow’s peak on the new champion. Angelina is pulled to safety, leaving only the referee to suffer Poison’s wrath. In a backstage segment, Madison Rayne is seen exiting a shower stall just after referee Slick Johnson. It is apparent that some form “persuastion” was utilized to guarantee Angelina’s win. So, forget my last comment about Madison on her back. She can do it standing up, as well.
Honestly, the outcome of this match took me for a spin. The Beautiful People were right by calling Victoria’s win as a fluke, sadly. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and say that Victoria’s title reign was entirely pointless, seeing as I have no idea what TNA may have in store for this feud. I will say though… that it doesn’t make any damn sense. It is only sensible that if TNA was looking to further pursue this feud, they should have either held off in having Victoria win the title on Impact or should have waited to allow Angelina to win the title back. Even perhaps at the next PPV? Sure, feuds are all about exciting twists and turns of events, but I can’t help but feel a tad misled in that aspect. It’s obvious that TNA tried to pull a fast one on us and TNA succeeded. Perhaps, not to its own benefit. Does anyone truly see the point of having Victoria blow all of her momentum? Somewhere, the WWE higher-ups are laughing.
Watch the match below:
You thought that was bad? Commence with the utter failure after the cut:
In the opening contest of Victory Road, Angelina Love shockingly regained the Knockouts Championship in what I can only describe as WWE-esque ‘shock value’ booking. Angelina pinned Victoria, after Victoria missed a beautiful moonsault from the top turnbuckle — however Victoria’s foot was on the bottom rope. Post-match, Victoria superkicked referee, Slick Johnson and hit … Read more
Tonight’s Victory Road pay per view sees Main Event Mafia ladies, Jenna Morasca and Sharmell go one-on-one [or will they?] meanwhile Knockouts Champion, Victoria defends the gold against Angelina Love.
Our Diva Dirt writers weigh in:
Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell
Erin: They seem to be resting pretty heavily on Jenna’s Survivor “fame”, so I’m pretty sure TNA’s going to put her over. Jenna will win, and TNA will milk whatever press they can out of a Survivor winner/Playboy covergirl winning her first wrestling match. Sharmell probably has more fire coming in, and personally I’d prefer her to win and have Jenna vanish completely, but it’s far too logical for Jenna to win. TNA would profit off of her victory, and that’s the route they’re obviously going to take.
Melanie: This is a real waste of a pay per view spot, but I have to admit the highlights on Thursday’s Impact was quite entertaining. Even so, I’m still not interested in this match. I think it’s going to be Jenna, just because she’s a ~celebrity~ Load of crap, if you ask me…
Steven: To make a prediction for this match, would mean acknowledging this as a real match. Which I don’t. But if I had to choose, I would go with Jenna. She has Awesome Kong in her corner for christ sakes! While I do predict that Sharmell will be the loser in this exchange, the real loser is the TNA audience.
Tiffany: If the match between Sojo and Kong is any indication, Jenna has the advantage here with Kong in her corner. I believe that Sharmell can hold her own in the ring. However, if it comes down to the two accessories to match, I can see Jenna picking this one up, as much as it pains me.
In the Saturday Supplement, the Diva Dirt team will aim to discuss a news story, a televised event or other relevant and current topics. The objective, like the average weekend newspaper, is to offer more indepth and lengthy discussion.
After this week’s edition of TNA Impact, the name Alissa Flashis surely on everyone’s lips. Alissa opened eyes and got the fans on their feet in her TNA debut. An event years in the making, it made me cast my mind back to the first time I laid eyes on this surly competitor.
I’ll be the first to admit that four years ago Cheerleader Melissa, real name Melissa Anderson, was an absolute mystery to me. Raised off the glitz and glamour that is the WWE, I was completely oblivious to the independent circuit. I had no idea what kind of treasures were hidden in the small, virtually unknown promotions littering the country. However, all this changed when I laid eyes on what was soon to become the most watched DVD in my collection: SHIMMER Women Athletes Volume 1.
As I read the match listing, one name in particular caught my eye: Cheerleader Melissa. I immediately thought the worst of the situation. No doubt it was just another lame, cliche and mildly offensive gimmick that would serve no greater purpose than to give the crowd a rise. After years of being force-fed that kind of crap, the mere thought made my eyes roll. Oh, how wrong I was.
This week, we are treated to a TNA Knockout webmatch between the two accessories of the Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca contest at Victory Road. Consequently, we also get a sneak peek of things to come toward the PPV. Awesome Kong (looking just fine without Raisha Saeed in her corner) unleashes some pent-up aggression against her … Read more
TNA Knockout, Christy Hemme who was sidelined last year in the midst of a huge push, has written a suggestive message on her MySpace teasing what I assume is her wrestling return. She writes: A little birdie told me that a certain firey redhead is coming back to kick some ASS! I will give you … Read more
Wrestling veteran, Jacqueline has been released by TNA. Her profile was removed from the company’s website last week and by all indications, she is completely done with the company. Earlier this year, we reported that TNA had decided to drop Jacqueline as an on-air character, but had plans to use her in a behind the … Read more
TNA’s resident busy-body, Jeremy Borash has confirmed the company’s signing of Ayako Hamada — even though the news was confirmed by the new Knockout herself, months ago. He writes on where else, but Twitter: After months of rumors, I can finally confirm Japanese female star Ayako Hamada has signed with TNA. Hearing she arrives in … Read more
Unless you’ve been living under a rock this past week, you know that the TNA Knockouts Championship changed hands on Thursday’s Impact. The wrestler formerly known as Victoria, Tara, now has the strap firmly in her grasp. Now while all that is just peaches and cream, I’ve found myself asking a question I’m sure is on everybody’s mind: Who’s next in line for a shot at the title? Here are my picks:
Angelina Love: This one is a given. No way is Angelina Love going to let her title go without a fight. I expect to see her in a rematch in the very near future.
Awesome Kong: Awesome Kong may have had Tara’s back during their tag match with The Beautiful People, but chances are she has her mind set on getting that belt back. Kong has been out of the title picture since losing it to Angelina Love and now would be the perfect time to get back in the game.
Just last week in our Roundtable, we were wondering when TNA had planned to introduce Ayako Hamada, who was signed several months ago. Well according to a new report, Hamada is set to debut at the next batch of Impact tapings — which will occur after Victory Road on July 19th.
As you know, TNA tapes their month’s worth of shows the week after their pay per views so Hamada will enter the Impact Zone later this month. When her debut airs on TV remains to be seen.
Hamada joins a recent slew of new Knockouts including Victoria and Sarita. Meanwhile, Raisha Saeed will be repackaged as Melissa Flash, making her a new-ish Knockout too.
One Knockout that is no stranger to Hamada is Awesome Kong, who she worked with in Japan. Check out one of their matches from 2004 after the cut:
In an interview with TNAwrestling.com, TNA President Dixie Carter talks about the company’s recent seven-year milestone. Yadda yadda, as interesting as it may be, we were much more interested to hear her comments on the Knockouts division — after all she is in a unique position of being a female head of a wrestling company. … Read more
In the mist of jam-packed Knockout action, TNA features ODB and Madison Rayne in a webmatch. As Madison Rayne begins to approach the ring, the first thing that strikes me is her unrecognizable entrance theme. In the very few times that Velvet Sky has wrestled alone, we’ve seen her enter with the Beautiful People’s music. … Read more
Looks like we could be seeing the last of Kong’s Syrian cohort in TNA. According to our partners at the Wrestling Globe Newsletter, TNA is dropping the ‘burkha babe’ character soon. Raisha Saeed, real name Melissa Anderson, will be taking on the persona of ‘Future Legend’ Melissa Flash. Just hazarding a guess, Flash will be somewhere along the lines … Read more
TNA has begun it’s promotional hype for the Impact debut of Sarita – better known as Canadian wrestler Sarah Stock. The following promo aired on this past Thursday’s Impact: Looks like the company will be pushing Sarita as a Latina character, with the use of Spanish in that promo. I can’t seem to recall TNA … Read more
For all intents and purposes, the Knockouts Title match between Angelina Love and Victoria (Tara) failed to properly live up to the hype and positive development surrounding Tara’s highly anticipated debut. It wasn’t, however, a wasted effort (imagine your mother’s matronly voice telling you that she’s not mad, just ‘disappointed’). While the aspiration seemed to be there, last night’s match just did not live up to the quality of work I’d expect from either competitor.
While we here at Diva Dirt were correct in predicting the outcome of the match, ayone who has ever prayed for brighter days in the women’s division would have hoped for a better showing of Tara’s experience and Angelina’s abilities. Now, we were not a complete loss as this was not a bad display by either lady. However, just as Tara begins to build momentum at the very start of the match, an interference from the Beautiful People occurs, which is to be expected in a match of this caliber. Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne make due of their purpose to keep the competition in Angelina’s favour with the help of good timing and negligent officiating. Though, not before Tara hits a snapshot-worthy spinning backbreaker on the Champion. Tara neglects a pin attempt for a piece of the Bratz dolls. Before long, many calculated attacks are exchanged between Tara and Angelina’s lackeys, which consequently takes away from the entire feeling and purpose of the match. At some point, it seems as though Tara makes a costly decision to eliminate outside interference by taking out Velvet and Madison, but wastes precious time in which she could have become champion. In the end, the heelish advances pay off when Tara receives a mouthful of proverbial hair spray and a devastating kick in the face for her troubles … and for the finish. Angelina lives another day, another accolade, as your reigning TNA Knockouts Champion. You like her, you really like her?
With Angelina retaining the Knockouts title and Awesome Kong slowly being pushed back into the title picture, the possibilities regarding the division have rendered themselves endless. Though, I wouldn’t count Tara out yet. This match just screams ‘stepping stone,’ and an apparent ‘holding back’ for greater things to come. Whether or not she will eventually earn the belt still seems to be without question. I’m not sure what kind of game TNA is playing here, but seems to revolve around specific timing and circumstance.
Watch the match below:
Thoughts on the Monster’s Ball & video after the cut:
TNA is doing a great job of creating buzz around it’s newly signed Knockout, Ayako Hamada, who it seems will be going by just her last name. They’ve put up a nice piece on their site including quotes from one Awesome Kong [even though she can’t string a sentence together on TV].
