Greetings and salutations Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s edition of Impact Write-Up. The newly crowned Knockouts Champion Brooke is set for her first official title defense this week against Marti Bell of The Dollhouse; an odd choice given as there was no real explanation as to how Marti even received this title shot to begin with. A little continuity is all I’m asking for TNA!
Also on this week’s show, Mickie James finally has “one more match” as she teams up with fiancé Magnus to take on the team of her former friends Serena Deeb and James Storm of The Revolution. Hard to believe this will be the way to see all these stars depart TNA!
Both Taryn Terrell and Jade accompany their Dollhouse teammate to the ring for this contest while Brooke makes a solo entrance. I must add that it feels so odd seeing the Dollhouse’s entrance without the Knockouts title in Taryn’s hand. The Knockouts champion walks down the entrance ramp in a careful pace given the numbers stacked against her and makes a first strike to Jade, sending her to the steel steps.
It doesn’t take long for challenger Marti to sneak attack Brooke from behind but Brooke toughens it out, managing to take down both Jade and Marti with a double clothesline from the outside! Inside the ring, Taryn watches all the action unfold from the top of a turnbuckle. When she makes eye contact with Brooke, a chase begins with Taryn just barely managing to slip out of Brooke’s grasp and to a safe zone outside the ring.
A second sneak attack from behind from Marti takes Brooke down and causes the official bell to finally ring. Marti begins by keeping Brooke grounded with a series of stomps before proceeding to throw Brooke’s face on to the mat with some trash talking for good measures.
Marti runs the ropes to hit a swinging neck breaker to a sitting Brooke to go for the pin cover but Broke recovers quickly enough to kick out after the count of one. Once she gets back on her feet, Brooke begins to fight back, managing to hit Marti with a neck breaker of her own and goes for a pin.
When Marti kicks out at two, she sets her sight on Brooke and regains control of the match with a swift sidekick to the champion. Brooke goes down but Marti continues to play games with Brooke through more trash talk and face slamming on the mat. Of course, Marti doesn’t want to leave Jade nor Taryn out on the fun, so she takes Brooke to the second rope where she proceeds to choke her with the use her body weight while the Dollhouse taunt and laugh at Brooke from the outside of the ring.
Going a different route, Marti whips Brooke to a corner with the intention of scooping her up to the second rope for an attack from up high but Brooke holds her own as she shoves Marti off of her and connects a beautiful flying clothesline from the corner!
Both Knockouts go down but it is Brooke who wins the battle win the two are up on their feet again with a series of forearms and wrapping it all up with a Russian Leg Sweep but even that isn’t even enough to put away Marti who kicks out at two when Brooke covers her for the pin fall.
As the Impact Zone troops behind Brooke, she whips Marti to a corner and dashes towards her only to get a taste of Marti’s boot as the challenger picks up her right foot before Brooke’s move can connect.
As Marti tries to capitalize, Brooke takes her down with a spear prompting a vocal Jade to jump to the ring apron for a shouting bout to Brooke. The champion shows no sign of backing down, going as far as swinging Jade into the ring! Unfortunately for Brooke, the third member of the Dollhouse Taryn interferes as well and takes down Brooke with a hair pull from behind.
Acting ever so innocent despite the devious action, Taryn gets a surprise when the Impact Zone darkens and Gail Kim‘s music hits the area. Although Assassin Creed Ninja Kim never actually appears when the lights come back on, her “interference” is an aid for Brooke as it freaks out Taryn and distract Marti long enough for Brooke to hit her Butterface finisher, go for the cover and pick up the win for a successful first title defense, much to the dismay of the Dollhouse who look on post-match.
Our second Knockouts related match is as bittersweet as it sounds. “One more match” for TNA’s super-couple Magnus and Mickie James taking on the man that has given them hell the last few months along with his newly recruited female Revolution followed Serena- who we can also say is having her last televised match a well given her already retirement status.
The Mr. & Mrs. meet Jeremy Borash to talk in detail about what it means to have this chance of competing in a mixed tag match together after all this time. Magnus states this is more than a match, it’s a fight about for their family and that it all ends here!
To her part, the Hardcore Country star is in complete agreement with her better half, adding on how grateful she is of Storm to having convince her to have this last match as she can think of a better way to go out than by going against him and Serena. Sure, Mickie and Serena go back more than ten years but friendship aside, family comes first and of kicking ass is the only way of proving, it’s the way this has to go!
Once both mixed tag teams make their entrances, the men start things off… and pretty much trade blows throughout most of the match until a hot tag is needed. Perhaps a mixed tag match wasn’t the option for a send off match.
Once the hot tag is made, the women enter the ring and the ball is in Mickie’s corner! She takes out Serena with a combination of clotheslines, dropkick and a single flapjack! A flashy kip-up later, Mickie goes to a corner and climbs the top rope to hit a flying attack to Serena leading to the pin.
Storm manages to break the count for his team, pulling Mickie off Serena with by taking a handful of Mickie’s hair. Mickie slaps Storm silly and breaks his grip only to around and be hit with a gut buster from Serena!
Seeing an opening Magnus hits Storm with a spear and suddenly bodies are all over the ring. To a surprise, Serena calls for Revolution member Khoya (who takes forever to come out from the back) while she dukes it out with Mickie a bit longer on the outside of the ring, sending Mickie to the steel steps at one point.
When Khoya finally does emerge, he has a walking stick in hand and targets Magnus but hit his leader instead! Magnus gets rid of Khoya shortly after and lands a powerbomb to Storm! The move takes some toll on Magnus and Serena takes this chance to climb on his back to slow him down.
Not the best strategy as Magnus tosses Serena from over his shoulders, placing Serena in the perfect position for Mickie to hit her signature Mickie DDT and picking up the win for team Magnus/Mickie!
Even with the win under her belt, Mickie still has it in her to hit one more DDT, this one to man that has caused so much trouble to her, her family and tried to “kill” her off TV from that now infamous train track segment! The couple celebrate their win with a kiss as they prepare to #JoinTheForce in why lie ahead for them! Thank you Magnus and Mickie James!
Speaking of giving thanks, our closing segment on this week’s program is all about honoring and thanking this year’s TNA Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Jarrett. The ceremony traditionally held during Bound For Glory took place on Impact this week inside the six sided ring.
Joined by Mike Tenay, Dixie Carter recalls how she met the man who would start the TNA company and introduces Jeff Jarrett with the utmost confidence. Always at his side, Karen Jarrett accompanies her husband as he accepts his TNA HOF induction. In his acceptance speech, Jeff Jarrett thanks pretty much every fan and employee of the TNA company and their mother! Literally, as he thanks Dixie Carter as well as her both parents, Bob and Janice Carter, for taking a chance to invest in TNA. He also gives a special shout out to the Knockouts division and recalls of the early days when there wasn’t even a women’s division in TNA but eventually built one that would go on to main event Impact shows! Finally he thanks his lovely wife Karen and their children who have stood by him through it all! Well deserves JJ and congratulations on taking your rightful place within the company you’ve created!
Thoughts: A couple of different topics to juggle with this week.
I thought the Knockouts match was decent as a first title defense for Brooke. We’ve seen Brooke take on the Dollhouse with the help of Awesome Kong so it was nice see Brooke continue to take on the Dollhouse individually. Granted there was some “help” from Gail this week but the way I see it, it was done to further her own personal feud against Taryn Terrell.
But again, I just have to ask why Marti? This just feels like a wasted chance to have given Taryn her rematch against Brooke. At the very least, a “Pillow Talk” segment where Taryn could’ve suggested the idea of having Marti compete for her while she was on ”lookout” for Gail Kim to assure the Knockouts title would come be back with the Dollhouse would’ve been fine as well. I just don’t want to see a pattern of confusion again.
There was some disappointment with the mixed tag match for me. Not because of anything Mickie or Serena did, I thought they completed each other well, but rather because of the lack of time the women had to interact with one another. James Storm and Magnus already had their “moment” at Slammiversary (where they really brought their A-Game in their match) so I just wish Mickie and Serena had more time given to them; more so as this whole feud really only happened because of Mickie returning to TNA!
Had TNA brought in Serena earlier, or maybe even use another female like Madison Rayne who already has history with Mickie and wasn’t doing much for the earlier part of this year, this send-off match would’ve felt more righteous. Oh, and perhaps reconsidered the whole train shoving segment!
Still, it was a nice moment for Mickie and Magnus and it’s only fitting that they leave TNA together this way. So a big thank you to Mickie and Magnus (and Serena) for this farewell TNA performance and I wish them the best of luck in the next chapter of their wrestling careers!
It may feel three years late but it was a fine moment to see Jeff Jarrett take his place in the TNA HOF because had he not found the company, we almost never even had a Knockouts division to talk about! From the looks of it, his latest GFW project looks to open more doors and opportunities for other female talents, so the best goes out to both Jeff and Karen Jarrett, whom I may add is always a treat seeing on television!
Next week sees the return of TNA’s “Fake PPVs” as Destination America presents No Surrender where Gail Kim is set to take on the Dollhouse! It gives us something to look forward but until then hasta luego Knockouts