Impact Wrestling
Date: August 18, 2016
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: D’Angelo Dinero, Josh Matthews

This should be an interesting show as we have the first tapings under Billy Corgan’s watch. For perhaps the first time in at least ten years, we’re looking at an Impact without Dixie Carter running things so it should be interesting to see how things look for a change. We’re also about a month and a half away from Bound For Glory so it’s time to start building towards the show. Let’s get to it.

We open with a look at Lashley collecting all three singles titles.

Lashley walks up to Corgan and Dixie Carter as they talk to Aron Rex. A quick staredown ensues and Lashley keeps walking.

Here’s James Storm to open things up. Storm wants referee Brian Hebner to come out here right now. As luck would have it he’s already at ringside so they get straight to the point. James wants an explanation for why the three count at the bell last week didn’t count. We see a clip of last week’s match and Hebner is trying to get JB out of the ring instead of paying attention.

Storm has a point so he wants a rematch but here’s Corgan to interrupt. Corgan says something about winning a game in the end but Storm correctly says this isn’t football. All that matters is that Storm lost which Corgan says is because he can’t win the big one. That’s not cool with James as he pulls out a tool box and grabs a hammer. He helped build this company and he’ll take it apart limb by limb, which means ripping off the turnbuckle pad to start.

Security comes in but Storm says a wrestler doesn’t need security. He’s the only legend that hasn’t left because he cares about this company. A guard gets a Last Call and Storm gets in Corgan’s face. James will leave now but says it won’t go so well if their paths cross again. Storm leaves so Corgan suspends him indefinitely. I really, really hope this isn’t a sign that Corgan is going to be around all the time.

Moose says Eddie Edwards isn’t going to be a challenge.

Storm leaves in his truck.

Eddie Edwards vs. Moose

Moose throws him into the corner to start so Eddie changes tactics and starts speeding the match up. A dropkick puts Moose on the floor so Eddie can score with a running knee off the apron. It only works for a bit though as Mike Bennett offers a distraction so Moose can powerbomb Eddie onto the apron. Back in and we hit the chinlock before Eddie dropkicks him out of the air (close enough at least). Moose cuts him off with a hard clothesline, only to have Eddie snap off a middle rope hurricanrana. He makes the mistake of hitting a suicide dive on Mike though, allowing Moose to hit a chokebomb for the pin at 6:18.

Rating: C. This was a good way to have Moose look good in his first big singles match and that’s important going forward. Eddie is still in a weird place as he doesn’t have a partner so he’s stuck waiting to bring the Wolves back, but he’s kind of turned himself into a cool singles wrestler who doesn’t have anything to do.

Maria tells Jade that she has to beat Gail Kim or no more title shots.

Gail Kim vs. Jade

Jade spins out of a wristlock to start and gets two off a clothesline. Gail sends it outside but gets caught in a fireman’s carry gutbuster. Back in and Jade avoids a cross body, only to miss a moonsault. A fight over a small package lands on Earl Hebner but Gail grabs Eat Defeat. There’s no cover though as Sienna comes out to go after Gail for the DQ at 5:22.

Rating: D+. Egads I just do not care. I get the story here and it’s fine with what they’re doing, but it works on the assumption that the fans want to see Gail Kim rise up the roster again and win the title for a sixth time. I’d like to see these newer women go somewhere instead of just being fresh victories for Gail as right now it’s not so much of a division as much as it is “who does Gail beat this week”?

Lashley laughs at the X-Division guys (all three of them) and says he has an announcement that’s going to affect the entire division. DJZ decides that the winner of a three way match gets to challenge Lashley for the title.

Rockstar Spud vs. DJZ vs. Braxton Sutter vs. Mandrews

Everyone goes after Spud to start, leaving the other three to all try covers for two each. DJZ dives onto Sutter and Mandrews, followed by Spud teasing a dive but stopping to do something….which we don’t see as the camera cuts to the crowd instead. Back in and Spud goes after Sutter, only to have DJZ take him down with a suplex. A roll into a double DDT on Mandrews and Sutter is enough for DJZ to pin Mandrews at 4:40.

Rating: C. There were four guys in the match, they all did spots, one of them got a pin. There’s no story, there are barely any characters (Remember when Sutter came in and looked like a big deal?) and this is all for a chance to (most likely) be slaughtered by Lashley again. Why do people care about this division again?

Ethan Carter III is going to answer Drew Galloway’s challenge from last week.

Dixie yells at Corgan for suspending Storm. I’m so glad it took her forty five minutes to do this. She thinks everyone is on edge because of Lashley holding all three titles (huh?) so they’re going to deal with it right now.

Ethan Carter III is in the ring and calls out Galloway to give him an answer. Drew doesn’t think he’s going to get what he wants, which is a chance to set things right. Carter surprises him by accepting but here’s Aron Rex to interrupt. Rex says the entire universe has been watching Impact in the last few months. I could have sworn there were more than 350,000 people in the universe, or at least in the USA. Rex thinks both of them should have a fair shot so he’s going to be the guest referee in their match.

Eli Drake says he made the King of the Mountain Title but Lashley cuts him off. Lashley doesn’t need a catchphrase but Drake says he’ll be taking any of those titles he wants. The champ really isn’t interested and leaves, only to run into Sienna, who tells him to not be cute.

Jeff Hardy is looking at ladders but Matt says he’s had a deletion telling him that there will be no jumping off a ladder tonight. These ladders are obsolete and Jeff agrees, shoving all of them over.

Here’s Eli Drake for a match but first he has something to say. Drake isn’t happy with having to see a bunch of James Storm vignettes before he just lost his match. He wants to hear Lashley’s announcement right now but gets interrupted instead.

Mahabali Shera vs. Eli Drake

Shera slams him down to start and drops an elbow for two. Drake easily shrugs off everything Shera throws at him but misses an elbow drop of his own. The Sky High is broken up though and Blunt Force Trauma ends Shera at 2:38.

Lashley won’t tell the bosses about his announcement.

Here’s Lashley for his promised announcement, accompanied by people carrying the King of the Mountain and X-Division Titles. Lashley has accomplished his goal and wants Dixie and Corgan out here right now. He says he has all the power because he’s a businessman in addition to being a great wrestler. The bosses suck up to him but Lashley says he’s going to unify the belts together and name himself the undisputed champion of wrestling. Dixie freaks out and says he can’t do that and Corgan drops the President card.

Lashley calls the King of the Mountain Title garbage and throws it down. As for the X-Division, Lashley ripped its heart out and there’s no reason for him to defend the title against any of them. That title is dropped as well, sending Dixie into her best Stephanie McMahon impression as she talks about respecting the company. Lashley doesn’t care and walks out, saying he’ll see them at Bound For Glory. Corgan says not so fast because next week there’s a #1 contenders battle royal for a World Title shot. I really wouldn’t mind if those titles went away. It’s not like they’ve meant anything in years anyway.

Corgan says there will be a new X-Division Champion. And that champion will be treated like a big deal for all of a month before the title falls through the cracks again.

Tribunal vs. Hardys vs. BroMans vs. Helms Dynasty

Ladder match with the winners getting a Tag Team Title shot against Decay at Bound For Glory. Jeff throws in a ladder and we’re at a break 12 seconds after the bell. Back with everyone not named Matt brawling all over the place and Matt yelling at Jeff on the outside. Matt pulls the ladder from the ring so the Tribunal finally starts beating him up. A double baseball slide sends the ladder into the Dynasty as things start to slow down.

Jeff dives at the Tribunal but leaves it a bit short, sending him mostly crashing onto the floor. Matt and Everett fight over a ladder but Matt has to stop and bite Trevor’s hand. A lot of biting ensues before Matt goes after Raquel, only to have the BroMans beat him down. Baraka goes up but seems to be scared of heights, allowing the BroMans to make another save.

The BroDown off the ladder drops Dax but Matt freaks out again and screams at the announcers. That goes nowhere as the Dynasty beats up the BroMans. Jeff comes off a ladder in the corner to knock Everett off the ladder in the ring, resulting in another big crash. Matt climbs up and gets the contract at 14:08.

Rating: C+. This really wasn’t that surprising as they’re the only team doing anything at the moment. I’m fine with Matt and Jeff doing their weird thing in the midcard instead of being the focal point of the show as it means they’ll be kept to one place and not all over the place. This was pretty much your standard multi-team ladder match and that’s about all you could expect.

Overall Rating: C-. There’s enough watchable stuff on here but I was mostly just bored. Very little here felt like must see TV and the low levels of Ethan Carter III and Mike Bennett really showed. Instead we had Lashley talking a lot (not a good idea) and various other uninteresting acts. It’s not a bad show (they’ve done way worse in recent weeks and months) but the energy was really lacking tonight.

Results

Moose b. Eddie Edwards – Chokebomb

Gail Kim b. Jade via DQ when Sienna interfered

DJZ b. Rockstar Spud, Mandrews and Braxton Sutter – DDT to Mandrews

Eli Drake b. Mahabali Shera – Blunt Force Trauma

Hardys b. BroMans, Tribunal and Helms Dynasty – Matt pulled down the contract

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s WWE Grab Bag at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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Impact Wrestling
Date: July 21, 2016
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: D’Angelo Dinero, Josh Matthews

Tonight is a special show as they’re moving (again) to Thursday nights (again). There’s also a big rematch with Eddie Edwards vs. Lashley with both titles on the line inside a cage. It’s been a long time since there was a cage match in TNA (like a full three weeks or so) and that means it’s fresh enough. Let’s get to it.

We open with Jeff Hardy standing on a hill thinking about his motorcycle crash. Matt comes up to tell him he’s broken Brother Nero’s spirit. He eggs Jeff on until he gets on the motorcycle again, which Matt says he saw Jeff doing in a premonition. Jeff goes to jump and we cut to the arena. This would be the latest example of TNA running an idea into the ground.

Here’s Lashley to the ring to talk about how he should be the X-Division Champion after what happened last week. He’s not cool with someone like Moose coming to his ring and messing up his match because he doesn’t put on a helmet when he gets in a ring or in a cage. Moose needs to get out here right now and have a fight. Instead he gets Mike Bennett, who says Lashley has something he wants.

Bennett is going to go through the entire Bound For Glory Playoff until he gets what he wants because of this big man right here. Lashley wants to fight so Moose slowly comes down to the ring, only to have Eddie Edwards jump Moose from behind. The brawl erupts until Dixie Carter comes out to say cut it out because Mike and Moose are barred from ringside in the main event.

Matt Hardy and Reby come out (second segment with them in ten minutes) to show us clips of Jeff crashing his motorcycle. That means it’s BROKEN, just like Jeff will be. Back in the arena, Matt and Reby have Vanguard 1 play Jeff’s new music, which keeps calling him OBSOLETE in a computerized version of Matt’s singing voice. Also Jeff’s name graphic now says Brother Nero and his Twitter handle is obsoletemule.

Bound For Glory Playoff First Round: Jeff Hardy vs. Mike Bennett

This is a tournament for the World Title shot at Bound For Glory, which TNA only kind of explained. Jeff is banged up from the motorcycle accident earlier today and can barely move. Mike takes him to the mat with a Fujiwara Armbar as the announcers talk about Jeff being fined $5000 every time he uses his own name since it’s Matt’s intellectual property. A cutter puts Jeff away at 2:08. This was barely a match.

Matt insults him a lot and starts to sound less like a British person and more like Mr. Burns.

Bound For Glory Playoff First Round: Matt Hardy vs. James Storm

Josh: “It’s like Matt is torturing his brother Jeff.” Thank you for clearing that up buddy. Storm punches him out to the floor to start and whips Matt into the steps. Storm drives the Boozer Cruiser into him and we take a break. Back with James sitting on the steps with Matt in the crowd and biting Storm’s hand. Storm fights back and hits a quick Closing Time inside, only to have Reby hit him in the leg with a hammer. The Twist of Fate advances Matt at 9:30.

Rating: D+. You knew Matt was going to advance here as they kind of have to push him towards the main event at this point. Unfortunately Matt’s character is far much stronger than his in ring work and that’s going to catch up with him in the long run. At the very least though it’s a good change to have Matt and Jeff in the arena and doing something other than fighting each other or being in wacky segments. The match wasn’t great but it’s better than seeing Matt be all nuts again.

Eddie says tonight is about second chances because he gets a second chance.

Video on Ethan Carter III.

Moose implies he’ll interfere but Mike tries to keep him backstage so they don’t get fired.

Here’s Ethan Carter III with something to say before his match. He goes to the steps (“Ethan’s Corner”) to say we’re talking about playoffs (complete with a Jim Mora impression for you NFL fans) where he can get to the top of the mountain for a third time. This brings out Drew Galloway who says (in some bad audio) that the real question is which of them are better.

Ethan may be great but his last name is Carter. He came here because his aunt runs this place. It wasn’t the same for Drew because TNA came to him. It turns out that they can meet in the finals and Ethan likes the sound of that. Drew wants to fight now but Eli Drake cuts them off. Drake says he’s looking at dummies and wants to hear YEAH when he says dummy. Eli: “Dummy!” Fans: “YEAH!” Eli: “I WASN’T TALKING TO YOU!”

Bound For Glory Playoff First Round: Ethan Carter III vs. Eli Drake

Non-title. Carter grabs an armdrag into an armbar before dropping an elbow with a shout of EC3. Drake comes back with a jumping neckbreaker and we hit the neck crank. Carter fights back and hits a quick backdrop. Josh says Carter wants to be a modern day LeBron James. So…..like LeBron James? The TK3 gets two and Ethan heads up but Drake rolls through a high cross body for two. Blunt Force Trauma is countered into a rollup to send Carter to the semi-finals at 7:47.

Rating: C. I’m not wild on having a champion get pinned clean but Carter is a much bigger name than Drake in the first place. Also there’s only a handful of people that could actually win the tournament so just have Carter go over here and don’t waste time trying to make us believe that Drake has a chance.

Matt and Jeff are in the back with Vanguard 1, who Matt has catch him up on the tournament. Apparently Matt will be facing Ethan next week but he doesn’t want us to see the keys to victory that Vanguard 1 has produced so he has the camera feed taken down. Related note: is there a reason Jeff is following Matt around? The stipulation was that he loses the Hardy name, not that be becomes Matt’s property.

Allie tries to get Maria to meditate before Maria’s state of the Knockouts address.

Ad for Brodus Clay’s fixing services.

The Knockouts division (including Allie to get us to seven) is in the ring as Allie introduces Maria for the address. The boss says they can air their grievances so everyone raises their hand. Allie starts by asking how you can be more like Maria. Apparently it’s just believe in her vision so Jade cuts Maria off to ask why she hasn’t gotten a one on one rematch for the title.

Gail wants to know the same thing but also wants to face Maria one on one. That broken hand looked just fine last week so what’s the next excuse? Sienna gets in Gail’s face and tells her to stop being so selfish and making it all about her. Maria makes Gail vs. the entire division with the person taking her out being handsomely rewarded. Jade says she’s out and gets in a fight with Marti. Madison jumps Gail from behind, saying she’s looking out for herself.

Bram is getting ready when Rosemary comes up. She offers her help to win tonight and they kiss.

The Tribunal beats Mahabali Shera down.

Bound For Glory Playoff First Round: Drew Galloway vs. Bram

No Rosemary. They slug it out to start and Bram bails from the threat of a Futureshock. Drew sends him outside but eats a spinning kick to the head. Back in and Drew still can’t get Futureshock so Bram punches him into the corner and gets two off a good looking powerbomb. Drew fights back up and avoids a charge, setting up the Futureshock to advance at 6:55.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t feeling this one but that might be because they’ve fought multiple times in the last few months. Bram losing is a bit annoying but again, Galloway is one of the few serious options to win the whole thing. I’m kind of disappointed they didn’t go anywhere with Rosemary in this match but I’m sure that’ll be a story going forward.

We see a preview for next week’s show but the graphic says “tonight”. That’s the second time in three weeks they’ve screwed up something like that.

Mike tries to intimidate Drew about their match next week but Drew doesn’t bite.

X-Division Title/TNA World Title: Eddie Edwards vs. Lashley

Pinfall or submission only. Title for title inside Six Sides of Steel and there’s no Davey Richards here. Also if Bennett or Moose interfere, Bennett is fired. Eddie dives through the cage door to take Lashley out before the bell. Lashley throws him into the barricade and then into the cage for the opening bell. A neckbreaker puts Eddie down and his hurricanrana attempt is countered with a powerbomb into the cage as we take a break.

Back with Lashley getting two off a suplex and grabbing a chinlock. A torture rack doesn’t work as well but Lashley cuts off the comeback with a spinebuster. Eddie finally realizes they’re in a cage and whips Lashley into the steel a few times. Edwards tries to get to the top but has to hurricanrana Lashley down to break up a powerbomb attempt. The Boston Knee Party gets two so Lashley just throws him into the cage door.

The spear drives Edwards onto the floor (remember it’s pin or submission only) and Lashley follows him to grab the World Title. Eddie is back up for another Boston Knee Party to send the belt into Lashley’s face but it’s only good for two. So much for that finisher meaning anything. Eddie goes up again but Lashley shakes the cage to set up a superplex and a big crash. Two spears make Lashley a double champion at 19:11.

Rating: B+. Aside from basically destroying the running knee as a finisher, this was a really good showcase for Eddie who now looks like a threat to Lashley and most other main eventers. Now I highly doubt he does anything other than restarting the Wolves because they basically are the tag division but at least he had a quick singles run. One other thing: why was this in a cage? The point was to keep Bennett and Moose out of the match but they were banned earlier tonight. Either don’t ban them or have this be a regular match. It didn’t need to be both.

Lashley shoves Eddie away post match so Ethan comes out for the save. That brings out Matt (who we hadn’t seen in a long time) followed by Mike and Moose for the big brawl to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. It’s amazing what happens when your show has an actual focus and gets stuff done instead of just being the Matt Hardy Does Odd Shenanigans Hour. This blazed through more than half of a tournament, set up stuff for the future and changed a title in the span of a little over two hours. If TNA can keep doing stuff like this while limiting the Hardy stuff to a segment a show (Matt showed up in four different segments tonight and dominated the almost the first forty minutes), things will be looking way up. As it was, this show worked quite well and I like where things are going for a change.

Results

Mike Bennett b. Jeff Hardy – Cutter

Matt Hardy b. James Storm – Twist of Fate

Ethan Carter III b. Eli Drake – Sunset flip

Drew Galloway b. Bram – Futureshock

Lashley b. Eddie Edwards – Spear

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book, KB’s WWE Grab Bag at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Impact Wrestling
Date: May 24, 2016
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Josh Matthews, D’Angelo Dinero

It’s a big show tonight with May Mayhem, meaning things are a bit more violent than the regular shows. As you might guess, this is a show that was announced a week ago with almost no other build. The big match tonight is Matt Hardy vs. Ethan Carter III as Carter tries to get his rematch with Mike Bennett. Let’s get to it.

The opening video focuses on everything we’re getting to see tonight.

Here’s Matt Hardy for a chat before his match with Ethan. Matt now has half black and half white hair (divided down the middle) which looks like Bozo the Clown’s. Before the match Matt talks about how he has evolved into something more dangerous. He sees this match as nothing more than a warmup for his match with Jeff at Slammiversary.

With something like a weak British accent, Matt says he has a contract for the match with his brother Nero, which brings out Rockstar Spud and Tyrus. Spud says he’s dedicated his life to Matt Hardy. Matt: “As you should.” That accent is REALLY weird and comes off like Matt trying to be all intelligent and brilliant and it’s really just creepy.

Spud blames the fans for this going too far but Tyrus really doesn’t care. Matt says it’s ok to say he looks like a psychotic lunatic. He has a deal for Nero tonight: if Nero can beat Spud and Tyrus in a ladder match, there will be a match between the brothers at Slammiversary. If Jeff loses though, there’s no match. Also if Jeff wins, Spud and Tyrus are done associating with Matt. This felt like someone shouting LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME and trying to be all interesting but coming off as a guy who is more sad than anything else. As usual, Matt is in over his head and is nowhere near as brilliant as he thinks he is.

Ethan Carter III vs. Matt Hardy

Matt pounds away in the corner as we hear about how amazing a transformation he’s undergone to become this lunatic. Carter charges into a boot to the face and gets elbowed in the jaw to keep him down. A bulldog out of the corner gets two for Matt and he whips Carter into the corner.

The slow pace continues with a legdrop until Carter comes back with a jawbreaker, only to miss a splash in the corner. Here’s Mike Bennett to watch as Matt gets two off a Side Effect. The Twist of Fate is countered into a cobra clutch but Bennett comes in for the DQ at 6:40. The stipulation said that Carter had to win by pin/submission to get his shot so Ethan gets nothing.

Rating: D+. Can we take up a collection to get rid of Matt Hardy? Like, how much would it cost for us to never have to sit through one of his speeches or matches again? His character is confusing/stupid, his promos are annoying, he gets WAY too much TV time and his matches aren’t even good. What are he and Jeff going to do at Slammiversary? Jump off something really high like they’ve done for nearly twenty years? I’m sure TNA fans will call it brilliant but this is moving into Hogan/Flair levels of sad.

Mike lays Carter out post match and says that he has failed. There will be no rematch at Slammiversary.

Post break Bennett says what he just did was art and you don’t have to explain art. A few weeks ago he had a vision for EC3’s Road to Redemption. Well now Ethan has failed because he didn’t get the job done, meaning no match at Slammiversary. This was just repeating what was said earlier.

Here’s Allie to introduce Maria for a speech. Maria talks about how she’s taking over the new future for the Knockouts and Velvet Sky is part of the past. This brings out Gail Kim, who says Maria manipulated her way to the top of the division. They argue over Velvet being fired with Maria saying she put on her boots just like Gail told her to and she attained power. Gail offers to beat her up right now but Maria threatens to have her fired. This results in Gail being put in a match with her career on the line, which brings in Sienna for a cheap shot from behind. Who is actually begging to see Gail vs. Maria in a straight match?

Grado promises Mahabali Shera that he’ll take care of Al Snow tonight. Grado has a chain wrapped around his fist while Shera eats what looks like a drumstick.

The BroMans call each other from about a foot away. Robbie thinks they need to move up a few levels while Jesse keeps stopping to talk to people. Apparently Robbie has found them a guru to take it to another level. A woman comes up to point out that they’re right next to each other and Robbie blames Jesse for not paying attention.

Gail rants about how angry she is.

We recap Al Snow vs. Grado in your standard “I’m old and grizzled and you’re not serious enough” feud. Snow claims to be a pure athlete and keeps cheating to win matches.

Al Snow vs. Grado

Street fight. Before the match, Snow asks if the fans want violence, chairs and tables. Well even if they do, they’re not going to get it because he’s a wrestler. Snow: “I’m your mom’s favorite wrestler!” Naturally he hides behind the set and jumps Grado from behind to start things off. The bell hasn’t rung yet as Snow slams Grado’s hand into the steps. They head inside for the bell with Snow slamming him down but missing the moonsault.

Snow’s powder is thrown back into his face as Shera brings in a trashcan full of weapons. Grado spanks him with a cookie sheet and it’s time for the drumstick (as in a bone with meat on it) for a low blow. A chain punch hits Grado in the jaw but here are two newcomers (NXT’s Marcus Louis and Sylvester LeFort) to pull the referee out. The distraction lets Snow hit the Snow Plow for the pin at 3:39.

Rating: D-. Yes this is continuing and Snow is going to have a stable. This really does feel like it’s 1999 but for some reason we’re getting an Al Snow win instead of any…..you know what? I don’t care. We’re reaching the point with TNA where I can’t even get mad about it anymore. This is what we’re stuck with because of all the people they have on their roster, it’s best to have Al Snow do this instead of ANYONE else.

I’m so sorry that TNA has no money because no one watches their shows and they’re stuck on a third rate network with no audience but it’s the kind of nonsense like pushing Matt Hardy as some psycho genius for the “real” main event of Slammiversary against his brother because Darlin Dixie is too thickheaded to realize that this nonsense doesn’t draw a thing anymore. This match and this show are such a waste of time anymore and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Matt Hardy (of course) is sitting in the dark when Reby comes in to ask what’s wrong. We get another monologue about how Matt needs to get rid of Nero for his life to continue. Reby talks about how he’s alienating everyone but Matt doesn’t care because it’s all about Nero.

Jeremy Borash is in the ring to talk about the end of last week’s show when Lashley interrupts. Lashley rants about how many fights he’s had without twenty idiots interrupting but here’s Drew Galloway to cut him off. Drew says Lashley can lay claim to being the only real fighter on the roster but he’ll stick to the title of World Heavyweight Champion. Last week he saw fear in Lashley’s eyes but Lashley doesn’t want to hear it.

Drew comes to the ring for a fight but Dixie Carter comes out to say this is ridiculous. Yeah we need to cut out this action on a wrestling show. I for one would love another Matt Hardy monologue right about now. Dixie makes the rematch for Slammiversary with only submissions or knockouts for the win. If I’m Drew, I’d be rather ticked off by that but of course he’s fine with everything.

Lashley calls him out and the fight is on again with Drew hitting a Claymore and pounding away. Security’s intervention only slows Drew down, allowing Lashley to get in a spear and hammer away. A referee gets speared and Lashley chokes Drew out with a belt. Lashley isn’t done yet and takes off his shirt but does nothing.

X-Division Title: Andrew Everett vs. Eddie Edwards vs. DJZ vs. Trevor Lee

Lee is defending and this is Ultimate X with the belt hung at the intersection of two cables. The first person to climb up and pull it down is champion. We come back from a break after Eddie’s entrance with the rest of the entrances because we haven’t wasted enough time on this show yet. Shane helms is out with Lee and Everett, who are introduced as a team. Eddie dives over the top to take out Everett before the bell rings.

It’s a huge brawl to start of course until Everett dropkicks everyone down and goes for the belt, only to have Lee pull him down and swear a bit. Helms tells his boys to calm down and Everett lets Lee get on his shoulders to help him get tot he belt. Eddie and DJZ come in for the save (why this isn’t a tag match and non-title is beyond me) with DJZ elbowing both heels in the jaw.

Edwards hurricanranas both of them down at the same time but Lee knees him in the face. DJZ pops up and rolls forward into a DDT on Trevor to knock the champ silly. Eddie goes up and pulls down the title, only to have Shane distract the referee so Trevor can steal the belt to retain at 5:59.

Rating: D. I mean, why wait and have the big gimmick match at Slammiversary when you can have it here in a nothing match that doesn’t even last six minutes and somehow includes a false finish? It’s nice of them to throw a bone to the X-Division but the title is still having the same issues that everything else does: not enough focus because other big stories get the time, stories that just keep going because there’s nothing else going on, and of course and older guy who is treated as being above the current stars.

Maria has chosen Sienna to take out Gail Kim by ripping out her heart.

Ethan talks about playing rigged games all his life. There is no honor in what Bennett did but the rematch is going to happen no matter what. Ethan is about to make a phone call he’s going to regret. Bennett was comparing himself to artists but those people had a life’s work. After Ethan is done, Mike isn’t even going to have a life. As usual, really good stuff here from Ethan as he kept it simple and responded to everything Mike said while advancing the story.

Sienna vs. Gail Kim

Allie and Maria are at ringside and Gail’s career is on the line. Sienna jumps Gail from behind but gets knocked away, allowing Gail to hit a quick high cross body for two. A hurricanrana takes both of them outside but Maria helps Sienna up, allowing her to send Gail into the barricade. Back in and a Samoan drop gets two for Sienna but Gail comes back with a reverse DDT. Maria shoves Gail off the ropes, only to have her reverse the spinning faceplant into a sunset flip to pin Sienna at 4:13.

Rating: C-. That’s about as good as a four minute match with two people interfering is going to get. I know the end game of this is Gail vs. Maria but how is that going to be anything other than a squash or Gail having to slow things WAY down to make the match work? The story makes sense here but it’s asking us to be interested in Gail Kim which just isn’t going to happen.

Sienna drops Gail post match and Maria pounds away.

Rockstar Spud begs Tyrus to win tonight for Matt’s sake. Reby comes in and says do it for her sake because Matt is insane over this Jeff stuff. Spud says having Matt back to normal is worth anything.

The BroMans go to meet their guru and it’s….actually a woman, who has purple hair and is in great shape. Her name is Raquel (Gabi from last year’s Tough Enough) and apparently she’s the guru they’ve been looking for. After a hard workout, she says she’ll see them in the pool.

Lashley and Drew Galloway will pick each other’s opponents next week.

Rockstar Spud/Tyrus vs. Jeff Hardy

Ladder match. If Jeff wins, he faces Matt at Slammiversary in a Full Metal Mayhem match and Spud/Tyrus are done associating with Matt. If Jeff loses, there’s no match and Matt is happy anyway. Jeff hands out what looks like CDs during his entrance, which is actually not a horrible idea. Spud jumps Jeff before the bell (because we haven’t seen that tonight) but Tyrus posts himself and gets a chair thrown at his back. Jeff throws in a ladder and we go to a break without the match actually starting.

The match is joined in progress with Tyrus pulling a ladder to send Jeff throat first into the ropes. A legdrop between Jeff’s legs should allow Tyrus to just sit on him so Spud can climb but instead Tyrus picks him up. Spud drops a top rope elbow and goes to get a ladder as Tyrus lifts Jeff up again.

Tyrus splashes Spud by mistake but Jeff can’t follow up. Spud is sent out to the floor and Tyrus tries to climb, only to be too heavy and break the rungs. Jeff laughs at him as Spud comes back in, only to have Tyrus get knocked outside. Spud goes up but gets caught in a Twist of Fate onto the top of the ladder, allowing Jeff to pull down the contract at 5:10.

Rating: F. A five minute ladder match with Tyrus being entirely stupid (just sit on him man) and an obvious ending.

Overall Rating: D-. If Slammiversary isn’t an upgrade (read as the Hardys don’t main event for one thing), I’m taking a break from this company. I’ve sat through years of this place’s nonsense but it’s never been so much of an effort to stick with them. This company has just never learned and it’s the same problem time after time: too much of a focus on stories with only short term value and far less importance being placed on things that could help them.

In other words, I’ve had it with Matt vs. Jeff. This feud has gone on forever (dating back to their WWE days) and TNA doesn’t understand that there is nothing to gain from these two fighting each other. They’ve taken over the show and pushed things like the World Title and the legitimately great Carter vs. Bennett feud (one of the only reasons I’m sticking around) so Matt can be a crazy genius or whatever moniker he’s giving himself this week.

TNA is never going to get entirely better but the least I can ask is for them to be watchable. I’ve given TNA my patience, my time and my money but I’ve had enough. This show had less than twenty six minutes of wrestling in two hours and nearly twelve of those were Matt and Jeff matches. If that’s what TNA cares about, I’m not going to be around to watch them screw this place up even more. I’m not flat out quitting but if Slammiversary isn’t at least a decent show (and I’ll be flexible with that), I’m done.

Results

Ethan Carter III b. Matt Hardy via DQ when Mike Bennett interfered

Al Snow b. Grado – Snow Plow

Trevor Lee b. Eddie Edwards, Andrew Everett and DJZ – Lee pulled down the title

Gail Kim b. Sienna – Sunset flip

Jeff Hardy b. Tyrus/Rockstar Spud – Jeff pulled down the contract

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Impact Wrestling
Date: April 12, 2016
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: D’Angelo Dinero, Josh Matthews

Things have picked up a little bit in recent weeks around here after a strong showing last week. The big story continues to be the imminent Tyrus title shot but first we need to get through Matt vs. Jeff, which is still the biggest feud in the promotion despite Drew Galloway being World Champion. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Matt Hardy losing to Drew Galloway last week.

Here’s the Matt Hardy Brand to open things up. Matt insults the fans that paid to see him (even though they don’t charge for tickets) and says every dollar in his bank accounts was built on the Hardy name. However, there’s a ball and chain around his ankle and it’s named Jeff Hardy. Jeff comes out and says the title is bigger than any one of them because it means who is the best in this business.

Matt claims that he’s carried Jeff over the years and has he’s tired of seeing Jeff ruin their name. Therefore, Matt wants Jeff to go off and do his paintings or music or whatever and leave the Hardy name behind forever. Jeff says no to a match over the name (seriously) but the only thing that really scares him is Reby’s crazy genes infecting the family tree. Apparently the fight is on.

Tag Team Titles: Beer Money vs. BroMans vs. Decay vs. Eric Young/Bram

Beer Money is defending and this is one fall to a finish. It’s a huge brawl to start with Storm heading outside to ride around on the Boozer Cruiser and hit Bram low. Back in and Bram takes the double suplex which means it’s time for the opening bell. It gets annoying to have all that brawling before the match actually starts with none of it really counting.

Anyway Young works on Roode to start before Abyss tags himself in, only to chokeslam his partner onto Bobby for two. Young comes in again and decks Storm but walks into a backdrop for two. Robbie gets the tag instead and it’s a BroDown to set up the Adonis Lock on Eric with Abyss making the save. Everything breaks down and Robbie dives onto Bram and Steve. Young hits Bram by mistake and it’s the Last Call on Eric to retain the titles at 4:54.

Rating: D+. The match was watchable enough but it was a lot of chaos for the sake of Bram and Young screwing up again. I could go for them just splitting the team and giving Bram the title already as it’s not like there’s much left for the title anyway. Maybe Bram can get a small rub off of it but this isn’t doing him anything. Decay and the BroMans were just window dressing here.

Matt comes up to Jeff and says the match is on for next week but he wants it to be an I Quit match. Jeff has no problem with this but wants a tag match tonight with the stipulations on the line. If Matt and Tyrus win then it’s I Quit. If Jeff and his mystery partner win, it’s Full Metal Mayhem. So now the main event is a Hardy vs. Hardy match to determine the stipulations of the next Hardy vs. Hardy match.

Eddie Edwards has been attacked in the back.

Here’s Maria to say it’s time for the genesis of the new Knockouts division. Maria asks Jade to come out here and hand over the title to its rightful owner. That’s not cool with Jade because the champ calls the shot in the division, but here’s Gail Kim to interrupt. We get the traditional “you have to work for this” thing before Maria laughs at the Knockouts and how they’re all barking at her.

This brings out Rebel and Marti Belle to say they run this place, followed by the Beautiful People with Velvet saying they’re the OG Knockouts. Madison says she knows how to lead, which Velvet doesn’t quite get. Maria thinks the division needs a leader so here’s Billy Corrgan to again explain that he has authority around here. He’s been talking to Dixie and in a week there’s going to be one big match over leadership of the division. For tonight though, Madison gets a title shot. Everyone brawls and Maria leaves.

EC3 doesn’t think Mike Bennett is a miracle but he’s certainly talented. Tonight though, Bennett takes a beating.

Here are Shane Helms and Trevor Lee with something to say. Apparently Lee was going to fight Eddie Edwards but that surprise attack has changed plans. There’s a replacement though.

Trevor Lee vs. DJZ

Non-title for whatever reason. DJZ starts fast and snaps off a headscissors before hitting a big flip dive over the top to take Trevor out. A tornado DDT looks to put Lee away but Shane offers a distraction, allowing Trevor to load up his fisherman’s DDT. DJZ is ready though and grabs a small package for the pin at 2:59.

Post match Edwards runs out to save DJZ from a post match beatdown.

Bennett promises to beat Carter tonight.

Drew Galloway will be Jeff’s partner tonight.

Mike Bennett vs. Ethan Carter III

Carter takes him down and hammers away to start before cranking on the arm for some chops. They head outside with Bennett not being able to suplex him onto the ramp, only to have Carter give him one instead. Back in and Maria rakes the eyes while Bennett chokes on the ropes to give Mike his first real advantage.

Carter fights back but Bennett grabs the ropes to block an Irish whip. A jumping Downward Spiral gets two for Ethan and the TK3 gets the same with Maria having to put Mike’s foot on the rope. Ethan gives chase but walks into a cutter for no cover. Instead Bennett brings in a chair, which Carter takes away and uses on Bennett for the DQ at 7:28.

Rating: C+. This was all about setting up a rematch and there’s nothing wrong with that. Carter and Bennett have some chemistry together and Bennett is going to be a good choice for a main event player, assuming he gets past the whole Miracle thing, which really isn’t working for me. At least the match was good and the rematch should be even better.

We look back at Al Snow beating down Mahabali Shera and Grado two weeks back.

Snow is willing to apologize tonight.

Al Snow is in the ring to talk about what he did two weeks ago and apologize. All he wanted to do was make sure that some young talent paid some dues. Cue Shera to get in Snow’s face and yell about how his friend is in the hospital. Snow says he’s been doing this a long time and it’s all he knows. Back in his day, you had to earn your way in here and that’s what he wanted to happen again.

When he was 19, he was beaten in the back of the head so many times that he went blind in one eye for over an hour. Snow was trying to relive those old days and maybe it was out of jealousy but he’s going to pay for all of Grado’s medical bills. Al agrees to try and do better and offers to mentor Grado and Shera. That’s fine with Shera and they go to leave, only to have Snow send him into the steps over and over. The segment worked well enough but was there NO ONE besides Al Snow that could play this role? No one at all?

Drew is getting ready when Tyrus comes in and suggests that Drew get a bodyguard. Bad things happen to good people and he can have his title shot anytime he wants, which makes him very dangerous.

Knockouts Title: Jade vs. Madison Rayne

Madison is defending and gets an early two count off a rollup. Jade comes back with a hard shot to the face and something like a reverse DDT for two. A release northern lights suplex gets the same on Madison but she comes back with a kick to the head for a breather. Some hard chops have Jade in trouble and a discus forearm sets up a loud screech. Jade shrugs them off though and avoids a high cross body, followed by an STO to retain at 5:15.

Rating: C. This was fine and that’s all it needed to be. Rayne is a good choice for a first challenge and gets to put Jade over as the new champion. The division and the title both needed a breath of fresh air after Gail’s latest title reign and Jade is different enough to make it work. It wasn’t a great match or anything close to it but it did everything it was supposed to do.

Matt Hardy/Tyrus vs. Jeff Hardy/Drew Galloway

If Matt’s team wins, next week is an I Quit match but if Jeff’s team wins, next week is Full Metal Mayhem. Tyrus and Jeff get things going but things quickly break down with Drew and Jeff cleaning house. Drew isn’t quite Jeff as he tries some Poetry in Motion but it’s enough to have them in control as we take a break. Back with Matt pounding Drew down in the corner, followed by Tyrus stomping on Drew’s hand.

We hit the camel clutch for a bit, followed by a belly to belly for two on the champ. Drew avoids a charge in the corner and it’s a double tag to the brothers Hardy. Jeff beats Matt down with ease and gets two off a backslide. Matt rolls away before the Swanton is launched though so Jeff dives onto Tyrus instead. A quick Claymore drops Tyrus but Reby slips Matt a hammer, which goes upside Jeff’s chin. Somehow this doesn’t kill him so Matt hits a quick Twist of Fate for the pin at 11:54.

Rating: C-. They really need to cut out these screwy endings, even though they had to do something nefarious here to give us the I Quit match. You don’t want the champion losing so Jeff taking the fall is the only option. I get the idea of not wanting it to be clean, but you can’t hold his foot or use the ropes or something? The only option is HIT HIM WITH A HAMMER? There’s no in between?

Post match the losers are in the ring when Lashley comes in for some spears to Galloway.

Overall Rating: C. This was watchable enough but they need to find some more fresh blood in the main event. Matt vs. Jeff over the Hardy name really isn’t enough to make me care about whatever they’re doing. Lashley vs. Galloway for the title is interesting and Bennett vs. Carter should be good. In other words, this would be setting up a good pay per view card but that’s not what they have around here so we’re likely getting a big TV taping instead. Lucky us.

Results

Beer Money b. Decay, BroMans and Eric Young/Bram – Last Call to Young

DJZ b. Trevor Lee – Small package

Mike Bennett b. Ethan Carter III via DQ when Carter used a chair

Jade b. Madison Rayne – STO

Matt Hardy/Tyrus b. Jeff Hardy/Drew Galloway – Twist of Fate to Jeff

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Ring of Honor
Date: October 29, 2015
Location: Shrine Auditorium, San Antonio, Texas
Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuinness

Last week was a good show for ROH as they addressed several stories while also giving us some good action. Tonight we have some fallout from last week with the Kingdom facing ReDRagon/Michael Elgin in a six man which has some potential. We’re also getting the return of Dalton Castle for the first time since he lost the Boys. Let’s get to it.

Just like last week the announcers’ audio is really low and I can barely understand them to start. They talk about King Corino facing repercussions for their actions last week.

Donovan Dijak vs. Moose

Dijak’s shoulder blocks don’t work early on so Stokely Hathaway tells Moose to go for it, meaning it’s a big dropkick to put Dijak on the floor. That’s fine with Dijak who chokeslams Moose onto the apron and follows with an Asai moonsault of all things (ok so he hit Moose’s shoulder but it still looked cool).

Back in and Moose headbutts him in the chest and dropkicks Dijak to the floor, followed by a suicide dive. Men this size should not be able to do these kind of things so easily. Moose scores with a bicycle kick but walks into a chokebreaker for two. Feast Your Eyes is broken up so Moose casually runs up the corner and comes off with a spinning kick to the face. The spear ends Dijak at 4:42.

Rating: C+. Well that worked. Yeah it was a spot fest but guys this young being able to do this kind of stuff isn’t normal. Moose looked like an athletic freak out there and Dijak showed why he’s considered such a top prospect. This was really fun stuff and I was impressed by a lot of what Moose did, even if it didn’t look as crisp as it could have.

Dalton Castle vs. Cedric Alexander

Castle is just in a t-shirt and trunks and Alexander is banged up from All-Star Extravaganza. Alexander pokes him in the chest to start but Dalton grabs him with a t-bone suplex. He deadlifts Cedric off the mat and then throws him right back down in a surprising display of strength. Veda Scott has to intervene by grabbing Dalton’s leg and Alexander gets in a kick to the face to take over. Chops just seem to tick Castle off and he catches a springboard in midair. Alexander gets kicked in the face and the Bat-A-Rang puts him away at 3:35.

Rating: D+. This is the kind of character evolution that works best in wrestling. Castle has a reason to be all angry and aggressive and it gets him away from the over the top style while still letting him showcase his charisma. That opens more doors for Castle going forward and was a very necessary adjustment for his career.

Post match Veda yells at Nigel for putting Alexander in an unsafe working environment and caused her unfair distress. Lawsuits are promised.

Here are Truth Martini and Jay Lethal with something to say. The fans chant for AJ Styles but Martini says that’s not his name. Cue Roderick Strong and please for all things good and holy don’t let him talk. Roderick congratulates Lethal on beating him the last time they “faced” but he shakes Martini’s hand because he’s the only reason Lethal has those titles. Lethal is livid so Strong gets right to the point: he wants one more match. They yell at each other a lot and you can hear the Flair in Lethal’s voice.

Lethal tells Nigel (remember that he’s the boss) to get in the ring and explain this to Strong. McGuinness says it’s true that AJ Styles is already the #1 contender to the World Title……but there currently isn’t a #1 contender to the TV Title. The match is quickly made for some point in the future and both guys react as you would expect. This worked far better than I was expecting as Strong seems to work better live instead of on tape.

We look back at the first four matches in the best of five series between ACH and Matt Sydal. The final match will be at Survival of the Fittest.

Kingdom vs. Michael Elgin/ReDRagon

It’s the brawl you would expect to start with Fish diving onto Bennett and Cole, leaving Kyle to grab an armbreaker on Taven over the top rope. Elgin dives on Bennett and Cole as well as McGuinness swoons over Maria (yep). Back in and Elgin Germans Taven into an armbreaker from Kyle as we take a break. It’s back to Elgin holding Taven in a delayed vertical suplex with Bennett’s kicks having no effect. Fish comes in but goes after Cole, allowing Bennett to superkick him into Taven’s enziguri for two.

The Kingdom starts their triple teaming, complete with a fake tag for bad measure. Bennett catapults Fish into a forearm from Cole, followed by a top rope elbow from Taven for two. Taven: “This is why we’re tag champs. Because we’re really good.” A high cross body gets two more but the fans chant for the Young Bucks. Off to Cole for a chinlock and we take a second break. Back with Fish avoiding a triple superkick and suplexing Taven into the corner. The hot tag brings in Elgin for a BIG MIKE chant.

Taven breaks up a superplex attempt so Elgin powerslams both he and Bennett at the same time for two. Bennett’s kicks to the face have no effect on Elgin (gah) so it’s off to Kyle for a top rope double missile dropkick. Everything breaks down and Fish drives Taven into the barricade. Taven is thrown inside for the rapid fire ReDRagon offense, followed by a wheelbarrow suplex for two on Bennett. Elgin takes a double superkick but Fish breaks up the spike piledriver. A buckle bomb sends Bennett into Taven in the corner and Chasing the Dragon puts Bennett away at 15:49.

Rating: B-. This was your fun ROH style main event with a lot of insanity but just enough coherence to keep track of what was going on. The ending is fine and keeps ReDRagon on the Kingdom’s trail while also keeping Cole vs. Kyle fresh for later. Elgin is an interesting addition as he doesn’t really have anyone in the Kingdom to feud with but maybe he and Cole fight later. Or he’s just there to fill in a spot.

Cole lays out ReDRagon post match and the Kingdom goes to leave. Kyle wants Cole next week but Cole is already busy with AJ Styles. Not a problem according to Nigel, who makes it a triple threat.

Overall Rating: C+. I had a good time with this show as they’ve definitely found a groove and know how to keep me entertained for an hour without getting bored. This show doesn’t feel like it goes by as fast as NXT but it’s still an easy hour to sit through with some fun action and tolerable promos. Good show this week and we should be hitting Glory By Honor soon.

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Here’s someone a bit curvier: Angelina Love.

We’ll start things off with Love in her younger days at a WXW show in 2004.

Elite 8 Second Round: Beth Phoenix vs. Angel Williams

Angel is better known as Angelina Love. Phoenix comes in holding her neck so Williams grabs two quick rollups for a near fall each. We quickly hit a chinlock to work on Beth’s neck but Phoenix comes back with a gutwrench suplex. Angel slaps on a dragon sleeper but Tracy Brooks and a chick named Belladonna come out for a distraction, allowing Beth to grab a quick rollup for the pin.

Angel would get a developmental contract with WWE and head to Deep South Wrestling in Georgia. Here’s a TV match from February 18, 2007. I believe this is the first Deep South match I’ve ever seen.

Angel Williams vs. Krissy Vaine

Vaine is GM and brings out some of the other Divas to surround the ring. It’s a catfight to start with neither girl being able to keep control. Vaine tries to crawl away but gets dragged back to the middle of the ring. The catfight continues until Krissy grabs a quick side slam to take over. Vaine poses a lot and throws Angel down by the hair. Williams pops up and fires off some chops as I think MVP is driving me insane on commentary, talking about how he usually has to pay thousands to see things like this. Not that it matters as a chick called the bag lady comes in with a stick (as in a tree branch) and blasts Williams for the DQ.

Rating: D. This was every stereotype of a bad women’s match that you’ll ever find. There was barely any wrestling, there was a lot of catfighting and neither girl looked like she had any business out there. Vaine is mainly an indy chick while Williams would get a lot better. She actually had a better look here though as she looked less freakishly thin and didn’t have her bad tattoos.

It’s off to TNA at Genesis 2007 for a title shot before she had her more famous name.

Knockout Title: Angel Williams vs. Gail Kim vs. ODB vs. Roxxi Laveux

Williams is Angelina Love before she meant anything other than a good looking blonde. She doesn’t have those ugly arm tattoos either. This might be ODB’s debut match. Actually she was at BFG. Good enough. Gail says she isn’t losing the title after a month. The New Age Outlaws (Voodoo Kin Mafia here) are at ringside for Roxxi. Gail fights off all three of them to start and does it pretty easily. One of the Outlaws tries to interfere and they’re out of here.

Now Roxxi is hypnotizing the referee. Gail is taken down on the floor as Love is beaten down. We get the required spanking as my eyes roll. Roxxi and ODB have something like a dance off and ODB rams Roxxi’s head into her crotch. A bicycle kick by Love takes Roxxi down and thank goodness Gail is back. There’s a cross body to the floor to take out Roxxi. ODB beats on Angelina a bit but the blonde gets a pretty sweet counter into a DDT for two.

The Tower of Doom puts out every non-champion. Scratch that idea as Gail hits a missile dropkick to Roxxi and everyone is down. Now they slug it out and I think we’re wrapping things up. A dropkick puts Roxxi down and a middle rope leg lariat gets two. Roxxi spits something in ODB’s eyes and gets speared down. Gail hits a Regal Cutter on ODB to retain.

Rating: C-. This was as plain and basic of a four way match as you could ask for. That being said it’s pretty entertaining and things worked out fairly well here to leg Kim have her first title defense. That being said, any match where we can look at Kim in tiny white shorts for about ten minutes makes it good to me.

Angelina hooked up with Velvet Sky as the Beautiful People for some Knockout tags, including this at Slammiversary 2008.

ODB/Roxie/Gail Kim vs. Beautiful People/Moose

Moose is a chick that is almost as tough as Kong and is the mascot of the Beautiful People. She broke her leg in a hardcore match in an indy company and hasn’t been seen in TNA since. The Beautiful People leave Moose in the ring and she gets triple teamed. Roxie has the really short haircut here due to losing a match at Sacrifice. Gail and Moose officially start us off.

And make that Roxie as everything breaks down quickly. The Beautiful People try to leave but Gail and ODB don’t let them. Moose gets a flapjack for two. Off to Velvet who likes being on top of Roxie. The heels take over on Roxie and Moose hits a bad looking TKO for two. Velvet puts on an Octopus Hold and bites the hand at the same time. Hot tag to Gail who cleans house, putting all three chicks down and hitting a top rope cross body on Velvet for two.

Angelina takes out Kim’s bad knee and the heels take over again. They must have some time to work with here. Love works over the knee and my goodness we have psychology in a match involving breasts. Edit: breasts that don’t belong to Joe. They really are better than the Divas. Half crab goes on for a bit to work on the leg more. Moose comes in for a bridging Indian deathlock as Gail is in trouble.

There’s a Brock Lock (over the shoulder leg bar) but Gail gets the rope again. The referee is in a bowtie and shorts. That’s quite a look. Gail finally breaks free and there’s ODB off a tag. Thesz Press gets two on Moose and it breaks down again. ODB picks Moose up and hits a British Bulldog style powerslam for the pin.

Rating: C+. I liked this and the knee work was a nice touch. Gail has a bad knee coming in and the announcers pointed it out so it’s not like it was hard to miss. Little things like that one can add up a lot of points in a match and this is a good example of it. That made sense for the heels to go after and they did, showing some thinking which is a big part of psychology.

And another at Hard Justice 2008.

Gail Kim/Taylor Wilde/ODB vs. Beautiful People/Awesome Kong

It’s just Angelina and Velvet at this point. Traci Brooks is here as referee. She looks great from the neck down. I guess Kaz closes his eyes. Gail looks good too so at least we have something to look at here. Angelina vs. ODB to start us off. Ok make that Velvet. She sprays perfume to make the ring smell better and ODB in particular. ODB gets it and sprays various parts of herself with it.

Gail comes in and finally gets things going against Sky. Now Angelina gets beaten up a bit. Off to Wilde who doesn’t do as well. Her thing at this point is she shocked Kong in a huge upset to win the title and is champion here. I guess I missed the belt when she came out. Gail vs. Kong now and that goes badly for Gail. Off to ODB who looks small as well. The nice girls triple team Kong to put her down and send her to the floor. That’s good thinking.

ODB tries to pound on her because that went so well the first time. Traci throws Saed (Kong’s handler) out. ODB spits alcohol into Kong’s face and is promptly crushed for doing so. Velvet comes in with a modified octopus hold which doesn’t last long either. Gail vs. Angelina results in Gail going into the railing throat first. This match is missing more than it’s hitting. Angelina keeps choking and Traci keeps pulling her off. Gail finally gets the tag to Wilde and everything breaks down. Botox Injection takes Wilde down but Wilde hooks a victory roll out of the Lights Out for the pin.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t into this and it just went way too long. The Beautiful People didn’t know how to work a long match yet and it was really clear. There wasn’t much of a story either as it felt more like a big collection of one on one matches than a tag match. There was no real segment where one chick got beaten down and that hurt the match a lot. I know it’s a formula but it works better than most matches.

Let’s hit the cage at Lockdown 2009.

Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong vs. Taylor Wilde

I forgot how hot the BP were as the total stuck up villains. West doesn’t even bother hiding that he only cares about their looks. They cut Kong’s braids so she’s a good deal ticked off. Taylor is still hot. I’ve always liked how she high fives people on the way to the ring. Little things like that make big differences as you look like you CARE about the fans. It’s not much but it’s something at least.

Kong goes straight for Love and beats the tar out of her, as does Taylor. Yeah they’re not even trying to hide that she gets the title tonight. She gets out of a powerbomb and avoids the butt drop from Kong. The two blondes go at it with Love winning. She’s underrated in the ring. The total smark crowd wants Gail Kim. Velvet’s never ending smirk is sexy beyond belief.

Giant swing as we go WAY old school. Love dizzy is kind of funny as well. Kong stands on her hair and pulls her up which must hurt. She has dominated the vast majority of this match, which to be fair has only been about four minutes so far. Kong goes up and misses a front flip splash to a huge pop. Love kills Wilde with a kick and then she and Velvet tie Kong to the cage BY HER HAIR.

Instead of just ending it there with a quick move from Angelina like they should, they have a one on one match with Wilde and Love. Wilde goes over to laugh at Kong and gets kicked in the face so Love can pin her. Sweet goodness is it impossible to make a champion look strong here at all???

Rating: C-. Not bad here actually as the ending was a legit surprise and well done. Not the new champion that is but the way they got rid of Kong. I wasn’t a fan of the in ring stuff as it was ALL Kong for the vast majority here and Wilde was just there so that the pin could work, but I’m really liking the ending which is what makes this match work for me. Well that and the girls were mostly gorgeous which is the main perk of the division.

Love had to defend the title against a monster at Sacrifice 2009.

Knockouts Title: Awesome Kong vs. Angelina Love

The Beautiful People have been eliminated by Kong and are also called Mi Pi Sexy here for no good reason. Love has a crown on here and is looking rather nervous to put it mildly. We get a Kong’s Gonna Kill You chant to start things off. Love tries to run which of course fails. There’s a funny visual of her holding onto the railing and Kong pulling her feet which leaves her off the ground.

All Kong to start us off here of course as West talks about how Love is luring her into a false sense of security. Kong misses the spinning back fist into the post though and Love has….well I can’t in fair consciousness call it a chance but she’s not getting beaten on for awhile at least. Love kicks her down and sprints into the ring to get the count out which of course doesn’t work.

Botox Injection kick hits but these shots are clearly not working in the slightest. Kong apparently remembers that it’s supper time and she wants a Knockout for supper. Wow that was corny. Love tries to leave again but Raisha Saed stops her and Kong lands a running splash to end her. Leg drop gets one as Kong lets her up. Love gets out of the way of a middle rope splash and sprays some stuff in the eyes of Kong. A rollup with tights ends Kong.

Rating: D. Well they did what they could here and at least they booked the match properly. Love couldn’t fight Kong straight up and everyone knew it so they didn’t try to. Love stealing the win is ok I guess but this was the beginning of the total dominance by the BP until Tara helped fight them off a bit.

One more title shot at Victory Road 2009.

Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Tara

Tara is champion here and showed up recently, more or less hating the Beautiful People just because I guess. She also took the title on Impact about a month ago so this is the rematch. They’re scared of the spider which I can’t blame them for since I have a spider bite on my arm that refuses to heal. Love is freaking awesome as the hot chick. It just works for her.

Of course the announcers can’t think because there are women in front of them. I love that Broken theme. We stall for awhile as they run from the spider. What was the point of that anyway? Is it supposed to be sexy? I don’t want a freaking  tarantula anywhere near me. Tara starts in the t-shirt early on and then rips it off for a great visual.

Then again I’ve always had a crush on Tara so there we go. Tara busts out the Tarantula move which at least makes sense here. West is mostly heel here also. Love starts dominating after some hot girls interference. We get a Bobo Brazil reference that even Tenay doesn’t get. We go old school with a double clothesline spot. I love that move.

Skye accidently sprays hairspray into Love’s eyes but it only gets two because the referee throws the other two girls out. Tara misses a moonsault and Love covers her, but Tara’s foot is on the rope. Doesn’t matter apparently as Love gets the title anyway. Post match Tara superkicks the referee and beats up Love.

Rating: C-. Not bad, but nothing great. The thing here is that the Knockouts at this time were AWESOME with their stuff destroying the Divas. Somehow in a year that’s completely switched but whatever. Anyway, this wasn’t anything great but it’s certainly not bad. It did the job it was supposed to do though so I have to give it that.

Love would get the title back by pulling it out of a box (seriously) so let’s mix it up a bit at Lockdown 2010.

Knockout’s Title/Tag Titles: Beautiful People vs. Tara/Angelina Love

Ok so it’s your standard two singles wrestlers vs. tag champions. You know the rules I’m sure. Yep Tara is gorgeous. Velvet and Angelina start us off. Taz is rather annoying on commentary to say the least. Some nice double teaming from the BP there. Make jokes amongst yourselves. Tara pulls an Angle and totally misses a moonsault. Good to see that the accuracy is there still.

Angel is better in the ring than she’s given credit for. Madison takes the Widow’s Peak but Velvet makes the save. Lacey gets in somehow and drills Tara in the head with a belt to give Madison Rayne the Knockout’s Title. So that’s two straight title changes with the champion not getting pinned. Ok then. I do love the BP being the focus of the division. That’s intelligent and not sarcastic actually.

Rating: C-. Not terrible actually. Love is underrated in the ring and Tara is always solid. The booking is right here and we don’t get the wacky tag partners which is never any good. I’m rather happy for the first near hour of this show. I must be coming down with something. At least the match didn’t go on that long.

Another shot at a title at Victory Road 2010.

Knockouts Title: Madison Rayne vs. Angelina Love

If Rayne wins then Love retires and she can lose the belt by DQ. We start with a big slugout. Rayne is in skin colored clothes. And remember people: these chicks are WAY better than the Divas and don’t you forget it. I really can’t stand this division anymore as it’s somehow more of a joke than WWE.

Rayne wraps her legs around Love’s head and slams it face first into the mat. Her finisher doesn’t work and Love makes her comeback. Rayne brings in a chair and gets it kicked into her face. Can we get on with this? And here’s a chick on a motorcycle. She jumps Love and the referee determines that since she’s either Velvet or Lacey (she’s in a helmet) Rayne is disqualified and Love is champion. Rayne leaves with the chick that just cost her the belt of course. Allegedly it’s Tara, because she retired recently and therefore has to come back immediate.

Rating: D-. This was somehow less interesting than the previous match. This is the third straight title change that hasn’t involved the champion being pinned. Is there a point to this title anymore? Same with the girl tag titles. This is even more of a joke than I could have imagined. Whatever man.

Back to TV for a title shot on Impact, August 12, 2010.

Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne

Now, can we break the streak of title changes without an actual pin? How are we supposed to take this division seriously with the commentary the way it is? Naturally a lot of the moves from Madison are shall we say suggestive? And make sure you get the back shots. Love kills her with a bunch of stuff and here’s the motorcycle chick.

The crowd chants Tara as they know what’s coming. Skye pops up from behind and DRILLS her with a chair. The helmet comes off and she’s wearing a mask underneath. It comes half off but all we see is a mouth. Back in the ring Lights Out ends this and Love is a five time champion.

Rating: D. Crap match but did you expect anything else? Love looked like Mr. Perfect with the outfit and that was more or less the high point. This whole biker thing is going on to not make it look like Tara just returned a week later which is stupid since clearly the crowd knows who she is. This was a really short match but it did the job….whatever that was supposed to be.

And another on Impact, December 23, 2010.

Knockouts Tag Titles: Madison Rayne/Tara vs. Angelina Love

I forgot Madison was champion. That’s just not good at all. Angelina is introduced as being on her own due to Velvet being beaten down. It’s more or less Angelina vs. Madison as Tara can’t go because of her arm. Tara comes in for a few seconds but can’t do much at all due to the injury. She comes in, gets three stomps and a left handed choke and leaves. Not her fault of course but it makes the whole tag title thing a bit of a stretch.

Madison does her head scissors stomp thing and even her shapely figure can’t even get the crowd into this. Winter comes down and cleans house as Angelina tags her in. Apparently she’s taking over. A really bad Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom from a slam position) ends Madison at 4:50.

Rating: D. The crowd was dead as all goodness for this. For a tag match having a total of three tags is a bit of a stretch. These belts don’t need to exist at all and you can see that more and more often every week. This wasn’t interesting at all and with the roster getting slimmer and slimmer, they need to do something with it soon. Winter will help, but they need more girls and fast.

Knockout Title: Angelina Love vs. Mickie James

Fans are totally behind Mickie here. There’s a fat guest timekeeper that Taz makes jokes about. Angelina does her zombie thing and it turns into kind of a catfight. Love works on the arm so Mickie gets a rana out of the corner, only to walk into a snap suplex for two. Mickie blows a kiss at Winter so Winter takes her down. Not into swinging I guess. Mickie gets a clothesline to take both girls down.

And there she goes right back to the floor. Angelina is sent into the steps which gets about a seven on the floor. Back in and Mickie takes over one more time with a bunch of clotheslines. Thesz Press off the top gets no cover. Winter grabs Mickie’s foot again which gets her nowhere at all.

Botox Injection (name totally doesn’t fit anymore) gets two so Angelina goes all psycho on Mickie again. She tries that backbreaker thing she’s been doing which is countered into the DDT attempt. Northern lights suplex gets two. Winter cheating on a rollup gets two. They botch the jumping DDT like never before but it gets the pin anyway. Horrible looking ending and considering Mickie was involved in it, that says a lot.

Rating: D+. The botches were flowing harder than a sorority’s menstrual cycle here and it really hurt the match. They need to get somewhere already with this story because they’re moving like molasses with it. Just get to the lesbian stuff or have Angelina wake up already. Mickie keeping the title here is probably only temporary but whatever.

One more TV match on Impact, September 15, 2011.

Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love

Angelina jumps her during the entrance (the camera was on the wrong end anyway) but Velvet gets something resembling a bulldog to send Angelina to the floor. Back with Angelina getting two off something we don’t see. Sky’s tights now say Let the Pigeons Loose. Oh great. Just what Tazz needs: a thought that it’s catching on. Sunset flip out of the corner gets two for Velvet. Velvet starts her comeback and tells Winter to get up on the apron. Winter clocks Angelina on the head with the belt (Hebner is cool with it) and a DDT (called a BeauDT but screw that) gives Velvet the win at 9:05 counting commercial.

Rating: D. Your usual Knockout mess here and the ending was really stupid. Why wasn’t that a DQ? Because the script didn’t call for it I suppose. Also, why would Angelina want to go fight Winter? Don’t they love each other or something? Also, seriously, the Beau-DT? I hated the Mick-DT but this is even worse.

Love would leave TNA in 2012 and hit the indies for awhile. Here she is at FWE No Limits 2013.

FWE Women’s Title: Angelina Love vs. Maria Kanellis

Maryse and Katie Lea are on commentary. Maria is defending here and is plays quite the villain by not wanting any fan to touch her and kissing her boyfriend Mike Bennett at ringside. She jumps Love at the bell but gets taken down by the hair. A running knee drops drops Maria as the male announcer tries to avoid saying chest. They head outside so Maria can hide behind Bennett and get Angelina to chase her inside.

The plan works for the most part but Maria misses the elbow drop, only to have Bennett offer a distraction so Maria can kick her to the floor. Back in and Bennett offers some choking as we get a CM Punk chant. Angelina’s sunset flip doesn’t work as Maria kicks her in the face to take over again. A backbreaker gets two for the champ and we hit the chinlock.

The girls debate going bald as until Love fights up with a series of clotheslines. Lights Out (lifting downward spiral) plants Maria but she rolls out to the floor. Mike slips her the belt but Love rolls her up for two. It should have been three but Mike shouted STOP, and for some reason the referee did just that. The distraction lets Maria grab a rollup of her own with a handful of tights for the pin.

Rating: D+. You know, Maria is actually really good in this heel role. She was terrible in the ring as a face but this worked FAR better as she nailed how to be a better than you villain. The referee just stopping was dumb, but at least Love looked good in defeat. Not much to see here but I was impressed by Maria.

Love would return to TNA in 2014 and had a title shot at Sacrifice.

Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne

Madison is defending and quickly knocks Angelina out to the floor with a shoulder. Angelina has a meeting with Velvet Sky and comes back in for a headlock and shoulder of her own. Madison takes her down with a nice trip but can’t use the headscissors face slam into the mat. Instead it’s a baseball slide to send Love back to the floor but she sends a following Rayne face first into the apron.

Back inside and the Beautiful People take turns choking on the ropes and in the corner to little avail. Madison gets a quick sunset flip for two but gets sent to the floor where she beats on Velvet a bit. Back in and the challenger puts on a figure four with her legs in a nice touch. An enziguri puts Love down again though and now the face slam works.

Velvet tries to help her friend but the champ dives on both of them in an awesome visual. They head inside again and it’s the Rayne Drop for two. Angelina’s Botox Injection (Brogue Kick) gets the same and the fit is thrown. Madison comes back with a spear but Velvet sprays her in the eyes with hairspray, allowing Love to roll Rayne up with a handful of tights for the pin and the title at 8:15.

Rating: C-. It’s a Knockouts match so you’ve seen the whole thing before at least a few times. Angelina winning the title again makes sense in storyline terms but it’s still nothing new. I don’t really care about the Beautiful People reunion as it feels like we’ve traveled back in time instead of doing something that might get people to care. That almost never works in wrestling, at least when the past act is the focus.

Angelina Love is pretty much the most dominant Knockout of all time and has had some really impressive success over the years. I’m not sure how much good she would have done in WWE, but she more than held her own in TNA and has managed to not get overshadowed by the more popular Sky. That’s more than can be said for most Knockouts and Love’s record for title wins is nothing to be overlooked.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of the Royal Rumble at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Today we’re looking at someone a bit curvier in Maryse.

After a few years in developmental, Maryse debuted on the main roster in 2008. Here she is at Unforgiven.

Divas Title: Maryse vs. Michelle McCool

Michelle is champion. Michelle as a face just never worked. She’s such a natural villain and her pumping her fist doesn’t work at all. She hurts her knee going to the floor and Maryse works on it as we’re waiting for the people to get back from popcorn time to end this. Michelle works on Maryse’s leg in a heel hook but she gets a rope. The fans are all over this match already. A sitout gordbuster keeps the title on McCool.

Rating: D-. Michelle and Maryse are too hot to be a failure but the match was terrible. NO ONE cared and that was very clear. Nothing to see here and we’re moving on. Why this got almost six minutes was crazy but I’d assume that it was due to a long line at the Cena shirt booths. Horrible match.

Time for a TV match on Smackdown, September 19, 2008.

Divas Title: Michelle McCool vs. Maryse

Michelle is defending here and is still just the perky blonde. The title is brand new here too. Michelle takes her down to the mat with a front facelock but Maryse takes over with a headlock. McCool speeds things up and frustrates Maryse who can’t keep up with the champ. Maryse heads to the floor but she trips Michelle up and takes over.

A slingshot dropkick puts Michelle down and Maryse pounds away, only to get rolled up for two. Maryse cranks on a chinlock but McCool uses her height to get back out. Things speed up and a running flipping neckbreaker gets two for the champ. Maryse misses a charge into the corner and McCool hits Christopher Daniels’ Angel’s Wings to retain.

Rating: C-. It’s absolutely amazing how much more interesting a match like this is than the Divas of today. The main difference is that the girls here are athletes who use their athletic abilities in a wrestling ring. Today, we have girls who are mostly models who get some bare bones wrestling training but they look good in shorts. McCool, a chick who had only been wrestling full time for a few years at this point, looked more comfortable than Kelly EVER looked in her entire career. That’s a big reason why the Divas just stopped being interesting at all.

Off to Armageddon 2008 for the main thing the Divas are known for.

Maria/Mickie James/Kelly Kelly/Michelle McCool vs. Maryse/Jillian Hall/Victoria/Natalya

Santa’s Little Helper’s match here. The heels are in green and are elves I guess. Maria’s song is really catchy. I miss Michelle. Mickie vs. Maryse starts us off. Mickie keeps going after her and Maryse tries to pose. Off to Mickie vs. Natalya in the real fight here. Nattie is pretty new at this point. Kelly is Jewish and Striker calls her the Hot Hebrew. That sounds like a really bad coffee shop. The announcers are having a fun time with this. The match is totally pointless of course and it’s off to Maria. Somehow she gets compared to John Berzerker Nord. Everything breaks down and Michelle hits the Faithbreaker (Styles Clash) to end Maryse.

Rating: C+. Don’t bother trying to figure out if the rating is good because it isn’t, but there was a weird energy for this one and I had fun with it. Also Michelle in shorts and Maria with her energetic perkiness are never bad things. The girls looks hot and everyone was having fun in a nice breath of air before the main events. What more can you ask for?

We’ll jump ahead a bit to Night of Champions 2009.

Smackdown Women’s Title: Michelle McCool vs. Melina

This is a rematch from The Bash which was brought on by some bad acting. Michelle’s bra is sticking WAY out here. Melina gyrates like no one I’ve ever seen. Michelle is the first person to use her freaking brain and kicks Melina on her splits intro. And there’s your first botch as they mess up an arm drag. We get some kicks that don’t actually connect as I have a bad feeling about this match.

We hit the floor and are told that a slam of the face into the barricade is a DDT. Riiiiiiiight. Melina is laying on the apron and in a coole counter she pulls up onto the bottom rope to avoid a baseball slide. They’re hitting hard but at the same time, they’re botching the hell out of so many things. Michelle reverses a rollup into a rollup for the pin. At least it was short.

Rating: D. They were trying but this was just a mess and a half. They were botching stuff left and right with there being little flow or psychology at all. Michelle has gotten better which to be fair she couldn’t have gotten much worse. This was really bad as the two of them just do not have the chemistry.

Divas Title: Maryse vs. Gail Kim

Gail Kim is incorrectly called a two time Womens’ Champion. Gail slides to the corner to avoid a charge from the blonde and gets two off a bulldog. Maryse comes back with a kick to the face for two of her own but gets rolled up for another near fall. Kim goes up top but completely misses a top rope cross body to put both girls down. A victory roll doesn’t work for Gail and a quick DDT gives Maryse the title. This was nothing.

She even made it onto Wrestlemania XXVI.

Laycool/Vickie Guerrero/Maryse/Alicia Fox vs. Beth Phoenix/Kelly Kelly/Eve Torres/Mickie James/Gail Kim

Beth is in white here and man alive it REALLY works for her. She’s also a face here which is really rare. Vickie and Gail start with Kim getting shoved backwards. Vickie poses and when she turns around, it’s Beth. All the good girls take their turns on Vickie in the corner so she shouts at them. Michelle breaks up a pin by Kelly and we already begin the parade of finishers (Gail totally botches Eat Defeat), culminating with Beth ENDING Fox with the Glam Slam. Michelle saves Vickie from Beth with a big boot before putting Vickie on the top rope. The “Hog Splash” is enough to pin Kelly.

Rating: D. Laycool and Beth looked GREAT out there so it doesn’t fail for them. No one else was in there long enough to make much of an impression, but again it’s amazing how much better the Divas are at this point. They have personalities and actual emotions instead of just staring at cue cards and botching everything they do.

From Over the Limit 2010.

Raw Women’s Title: Maryse vs. Eve Torres

This is better than I’d expect it to be actually. This has gotten some great build over the past few weeks and due to a lack of matches they have to give it a lot of time. Maryse randomly starts crying for no adequately explained reason. We actually get some near falls. Eve hits some screwed up face plant into a rollup for the pin. Cole, Striker and Lawler make jokes about Eve and just lose it on commentary.

Rating: C-. For what you had to work with here and given what Divas matches tend to be, this was actually decent. I tend to start most Divas matches at a D or so, meaning this was pretty good. There was some actual drama and Eve won with a nice finisher. Solid little match.

From shortly thereafter at Fatal Fourway.

Raw Women’s Title: Maryse vs. Alicia Fox vs. Gail Kim vs. Eve Torres

Eve is in blue again so I can’t complain at all. Everyone is in this at once which does little to get my hopes up on this. Yeah I don’t care at all about this. Everyone goes for submissions at once but everyone breaks them up to play up the whole fatal aspect of this. The ropes can’t be used for breaks apparently.

I’d bet that’ll be compromised about a million times here. Eve hooks a camel clutch and Gail gets a Boston Crab on Alicia at the same time. Maryse runs her mouth off and Alicia blasts her. Gail hits a dropkick which Striker of course calls a Jumping Bomb Angel Double Stomp. I hate him at times. Eve hits a very fast neckbreaker on Maryse and doesn’t cover, instead hitting a bad moonsault. And Alicia Fox wins the title by stealing the pin on Maryse. Oh dear.

Rating: D. Seriously, are we supposed to care about Alicia Fox? She’s been on TV like once this year and is now the champion. I don’t get the appeal of her at all, but I guess someone does. I still don’t care about the division at all, but it needs to be merged with the other one to help it survive.

Maryse was on NXT Season 3, including October 26, 2010.

Maryse/Ted DiBiase vs. Goldust/Aksana

Aksana does look sexy in red. I’ll give her that. And just as the bell rings the video freezes. Ah there we go. The girls start us off. They yell at each other and Cole says his producer told him that if they’re talking let us hear them. AMEN! Maryse knocks off the horns and rips off the tail so now Aksana is just in a skin tight red suit. I’m sold.

It’s a mixed tag so the men have to fight each other. Of course we’re just talking about the wedding here which I guess makes sense here. We head to the floor with DiBiase being all ticked off. Why doesn’t he just grab the belt and run if that’s why he’s here? Maryse helps her man as Aksana plays cheerleader.

Goldust plays Ricky Morton for like a minute until the girls come in. The guys go to the floor and Aksana gets a small package out of nowhere for the pin. Is that her first win? DiBiase goes for the belt but Aksana slaps him and gets it back. The good people get away with it, proving that faces can get away with anything. Ventura and Heenan were right all along! Match ran about 6:30.

Rating: C. Not terrible and fine for a TV main event on a show like this one. This wasn’t your standard match where the guys did the majority of the work and the girls were in there for like 10 seconds. The girls were fairly decent out there which is surprising to me. Not a classic or anything but it did what it was supposed to do and didn’t seem that long.

Here’s a quick TV match from Smackdown on February 18, 2011.

Eve Torres/Beth Phoenix vs. Layla/Maryse

After the faces enter we take a break and get a clip of the first regular episode of Smackdown (remember that there was a pilot about four months earlier) from August of 99. Michelle has a bad foot so is out for awhile. Beth vs. Maryse to start. Michelle is on commentary and wants to know why Eve is the Divas Champion when Michelle got a pin also.

Off to Layla vs. Eve with the champion dominating. Michelle seems a bit irritated by Layla here as we continue to push the split. Eve fires away with kicks and Michelle gets off commentary. She limps up the steps and gets in the face of Layla. Beth hits her in the foot to bring her down. In the confusion, Layla and Maryse hit what I think was supposed to be a double superkick so that Layla can pin Eve at 2:27. No rating as this was mainly Layla vs. Eve but this was no worse than your usual Divas match.

We’ll wrap it up on Raw, July 25, 2011.

Maryse/Melina vs. Kelly Kelly/Eve Torres

At least they all look good. Eve and Maryse start and Eve hits a downward spiral and then dances before trying a standing moonsault for two. Maryse gives her a Stinkface and Kelly comes in. Everything breaks down and Melina misses a charge, allowing the K2 to end it at 2:51. Thank goodness I don’t have to rate it. Match was AWFUL but the girls looked good.

So yeah, Maryse is the definition of a blonde bombshell and that’s all she needed to be. She could have passable matches but she was around to make everyone jealous and do that cool thing with her hand. At the end of the day though, Miz goes home to her every night in one of the most appropriate pairings ever. Maryse was around at a time when you only had to look good and be able to have a decent match to be a top Diva and that’s about as far as she got.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of the Royal Rumble at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Best in the World 2014
Date: June 22, 2014
Location: Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Attendance: 1000
Commentators: Steve Corino, Kevin Kelly

This company’s fans are loyal if nothing else. I get a lot of requests for ROH shows and this is the latest one that people have been asking for. This was their debut on regular PPV and the show has gotten some rave reviews. I do tend to like ROH when I sit down and watch it and I had a great time at Supercard of Honor. Hopefully this is just as good, though I’m worried it’s going to have issues living up to its praise. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video of various ROH stars and a voiceover talking about how great you have to be in Ring of Honor. Everyone says it’s about being the best and World Champion Adam Cole says “in the world”. Not bad.

Kelly and Corino welcome us to the show.

ACH vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Caprice Coleman vs. BJ Whitmer vs. TaDarius Thomas vs. Watanabe

This is a Six Man Mayhem match, meaning two men in the ring and one at every corner with lucha rules, where someone going to the floor allows someone else to replace him just like a tag. The winner gets a future TV Title shot. Whitmer and Thomas are both part of the Decade stable and have ring boy Adam Page in their corner. Ciampa and ACH get things going with Ciampa getting annoyed at ACH’s nipups. ACH misses a kick to the head but has to avoid a big knee to the head, drawing some applause.

Watanabe comes in without a tag but shoves Ciampa to the floor to make it legal. ACH sends Watanabe outside so Coleman comes in, only to have Thomas tag himself in. Both guys miss kicks until Thomas kicks ACH in the head, earning himself a dropkick to the floor. Whitmer comes in to jump ACH and chop away but ACH heads outside to give us Ciampa vs. Thomas. Tommaso suplexes him to the floor but follows him out, leaving us with Watanabe vs. ACH. This is moving too fast and nothing is having time to build.

Everyone heads outside and ACH loads up a dive but Whitmer breaks it up. The fans are ALL OVER him for stopping their fun. The Decade takes over as things finally slow down a bit. Watanabe pushes the referee for trying to stop him in the corner before going to a claw on ACH. Back to Whitmer who runs into a kick to the face, allowing ACH to tag in Coleman. Thomas comes in with a hurricanrana to Ciampa as everything breaks down.

Coleman hooks a double northern lights suplex on Watanabe and Thomas but Ciampa breaks up the pin. Watanabe and Ciampa do the forearm slugout before Ciampa hits something like White Noise for two. Whitmer breaks it up but ACH nails a double stomp to his back. ACH kicks some people to the floor but Whitmer powerslams him to break up another big dive. Watanabe suplexes Whitmer for two with Coleman making a save. Project Ciampa (powerbomb into a backstabber) plants Coleman and gets two on ACH as the Decade makes another save.

Whitmer and Thomas are legal and BJ is fine with suplexing his stablemate. Coleman comes in off the top with a top rope Rough Ryder, only to have Watanabe nail him with a running clothesline. Ciampa hits a running knee to Watanabe in the corner before diving on everyone not named ACH and Coleman. Now Coleman dives on all of them, leaving ACH to hit a HUGE springboard swanton onto the pile. He pops up and throws former partner Thomas back in for a 450 and the pin.

Rating: C. It’s fun and the big spots at the end were good but there was WAY too much stuff going on here and it was just a huge mess for the sake of having a spotfest. That being said it was entertaining and the kind of fun match it was supposed to be. ACH seems to be a solid in ring guy and more than just flips so there may be some potential there.

We recap Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven. This is mainly about Lethal’s manager Truth Martini, who took Taven to the TV Title before they split. Martini sided with Lethal and tried to ruin Taven’s career, so Taven did the old “put on a mask and beat the other guy to prove your worth” deal, though the mask came off during the match. Martini will be handcuffed to the post tonight.

TV Title: Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal

Lethal is defending of course and has some chick named Seleziya Sparx in his corner. It takes forever to get Truth handcuffed. We finally get going with Taven nailing some chops to put the champion down. Taven tries to go after Martini but Lethal makes a quick save. Back in and Lethal totally misses an enziguri but Matt goes outside anyway. They chop it out on the floor before heading back inside for something resembling a Blue Thunder Bomb from Taven.

Matt goes after Martini again, allowing Lethal to nail him with a baseball slide for two. The champion puts on the chinlock until Taven comes back with an enziguri (actually connecting) of his own. A backbreaker gets two more for Matt but his bulldog driver is countered into the Lethal Combination.

Lethal follows up with a Macho Elbow for two but Taven escapes the Lethal Injection and nails another enziguri. A brainbuster gets two and Lethal hits the floor for three straight suicide dives. Taven picks up a chair and goes after Martini but Truth hands the head of security a wad of cash. That earns the security guy a superkick but Sparx breaks Martini’s handcuffs, allowing him to escape. Back in and the Lethal Injection retains Jay’s title.

Rating: C-. This was more about the manager than anything else but we didn’t get the payoff just yet. I still don’t care for Lethal all that much and the Injection is one of the dumbest looking moves I’ve seen in years. Taven isn’t much either but the match was exciting enough, mainly due to keeping things moving like they did.

We recap Cedric Alexander vs. Roderick Strong. This is a feud over respect with the Decade not caring for Alexander standing up to them. They’ve beaten him down time after time but Alexander won’t quit. Therefore, tonight we have a submission match. Cedric is very weak on the mic and made me feel like he was scared of Strong.

Cedric Alexander vs. Roderick Strong

Submission match. Strong, with Page and Thomas from earlier, is aggressive to start but Cedric is able to keep up with him on the mat, sending us to a standoff. Alexander nails a hard dropkick, only to have Strong put a knee in his ribs. A clothesline puts Strong on the floor and Cedric mostly misses a suicide dive. Cedric hammers away but gets backdropped onto the apron in a sick looking landing.

Back in and Strong puts on a reverse chinlock to stay on the spine. That goes nowhere because it’s a reverse chinlock so Strong plants him with a suplex. Alexander gets all fired up and puts Strong in a fireman’s carry before throwing him into the air for a kick to the head. A series of headbutts and a dropkick send Strong outside and Cedric follows with a dive but only hits the ring boys.

Back in and a springboard DDT sets up a guillotine choke on Roderick but he makes a rope. They trade enziguris with Alexander getting the better of it. He hits a few running dropkicks in the corner to set up a dragon sleeper and Strong is in trouble. Page has the towel ready but Strong saves himself with knees to the head. A superplex plants Alexander again and Strong goes nuts with forearms to the head. He loads up his fireman’s carry backbreaker but Alexander counters into a double underhook neck crank.

Cedric has him in big trouble….so he lets go of the hold for some reason. Both guys go up and fall out to the floor and it’s Strong up first. Alexander kicks away from the Strong Hold (Boston crab) so Strong tries a top rope Pedigree. Cedric counters that into a backbreaker onto the top turnbuckle and a quick Strong Hold makes Roderick tap.

Rating: C+. This was a hard hitting brawl with both guys playing their rolls well enough. The story works with Strong being cocky by going with the same stuff he’s always used and Alexander never giving up and using Strong’s own move against him. Solid stuff here and probably the best match of the night so far.

Strong still won’t shake Alexander’s hand.

We recap Matt Hardy/Mike Bennett vs. the Briscoe Brothers. Hardy and Bennett cost Jay Briscoe the World Title at Supercard of Honor, so Cole gave Hardy Briscoe’s custom title. Matt put his picture on the belt and named it the Iconic Title. Tonight is the showdown with Jay’s brother Mark helping his family.

Briscoes vs. Mike Bennett/Matt Hardy

Maria, basically wearing a swimsuit, is with Bennett and Hardy. For some reason, actor Nick Searcy comes out with Hardy as well. Corino is a HUGE Hardy fan, almost to the point of being an MF’er. Mark and Mike get things going and the brothers quickly stomp Bennett down in the corner. Mike finally comes back with a dropkick and tags in Matt. The heels start working on Mark’s arm and a double suplex gets two. Mark dives over to make the tag off to Jay. He finally gets his hands on Hardy and everything breaks down.

Jay hammers on Matt outside but Searcy gets in a cheap shot on Briscoe from behind. Unfortunately Searcy isn’t the biggest guy in the world but it’s enough to get Matt a breather. Back in and Jay pounds in right hands to Hardy’s head before nailing a few neckbreakers. With Matt in trouble, Bennett comes in with the Iconic Title to Jay’s head for the lame DQ.

No rating yet as the Briscoes listen to the fans and want to restart the match. Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness comes out and says let’s keep this going with No DQ. The Briscoes couldn’t be happier and the chairs start coming into the ring. McGuinness comes in on commentary as the brothers are cleaning house. Mark drop toeholds Bennett face first into a chair but Maria trips Mark up, allowing Mike to hit him in the head with a chair.

Bennett pelts the chair at Mark’s head and collapses from exhaustion. Matt brings out a ladder and the fans think this is awesome. Bennett hits a Side Effect on Mark on the floor as Jay hits an AA on Matt, driving him through two chairs in the ring. A suplex sends Matt into the ladder against the ropes to put him on the floor. Mark drops the Cactus Jack elbow and everyone is down. The Briscoes are up first and hit a Doomsday Device to Bennett on the floor. Nice twist on the move there.

Back in and Matt hits Jay with Searcy’s Peabody Award for two. Mark goes after Searcy and ends him with a Froggy Bow (frog splash elbow). The Briscoes aren’t done yet and load up the Doomsday Device, only to have Maria make a save. Matt hits the Twist of Fate for two on Jay before setting up a table and ladder in the ring. Mark takes Bennett to the floor and drives him through a table with another Froggy Bow. Back in the ring Matt is climbing the ladder but Mark sprays him with a fire extinguisher, allowing Jay to superplex him through a table. The Jay Driller is enough to pin the unconscious Hardy.

Rating: B-. This was basically a TLC match minus the title to pull down. They did the big spots well enough and the crowd was WAY into it. The superplex was a good spot, but there wasn’t anything in there that hasn’t been topped before. It was entertaining, but not a masterpiece of any sort.

Maria takes the Iconic Title when Jay isn’t looking.

We look at Adam Cole and the Kingdom (Cole, Maria, Hardy and Bennett) cutting Elgin’s hair at a recent show. Elgin’s wife, wrestler Mschif, came out to beg for her husband, earning her a figure four from Cole.

I’m assuming we’re at intermission now as an interviewer talks to an NFL player that has signed to ROH. The player, now known as Moose, willing to work hard but Veda Scott interrupts and says she’ll handle the interviewer. See, they should have been talking about RD Evans’ New Streak, now at 122-0. Evans is in Osaka, Japan to collect more wins tonight but Scott is here to recruit Moose. He says they can talk about this later.

We recap Silas Young vs. Kevin Steen. Silas isn’t happy with Steen for “stepping away” (read as going to WWE) because Silas is a REAL MAN and he doesn’t like Steen leaving like a coward.

Kevin Steen vs. Silas Young

Steen hits him at the bell but Young bails outside before Steen can try his Cannonball in the corner. He sends Young hard into the barricade a few times but Silas comes back with forearms to the jaw. Back in and a big chop sends Young to the floor again but he counters an apron powerbomb. Steen gets kicked into the barricade and Young takes over with a clothesline to the back of his head.

We hit the chinlock on Steen for a bit before a neckbreaker gets two for Silas. Kevin fights up and hits a powerbomb out of nowhere to put both guys down. Silas comes back with a hard clothesline but ducks his head. Steen’s package piledriver attempt is countered with a good crotching for two. Something out of a fireman’s carry (WAY too popular of a move) is countered and Steen sends him into the buckle for the Cannonball. Even with a bad neck, Steen connects with a Swanton Bomb for two.

Young kicks him in the head and hits a rolling fireman’s carry but Steen avoids a springboard elbow drop. Another shot to the head has Steen in the corner for some quality trash talking, followed by another knee shot. Steen is in big trouble in the corner but he counters a superplex into something like a spinning superplex of his own. Silas is done but Steen Package Piledrives him anyway for the pin.

Rating: D+. This didn’t do it for me actually as we’ve done the physical stuff already. I get that it’s Steen’s style, but it’s coming right after the No DQ tag match and this was nowhere near as violent. The head injury stuff was fine but it only became a big issue for a few moments at the end. Not bad but it wasn’t the best.

Post match Steen praises Young and says he doesn’t have many matches left in this company. He’s looking forward to every minute he gets to spend here in the next month and a half, but he’s very happy that he got to wrestle Young on this stage. Young shakes his hand and leaves peacefully. Fans: “Please don’t go!” Steen: “He has to go. I’m not done yet!” Steen thanks the fans but Young comes in and decks him like a true villain should.

We go to the Fish Tank where Tag Team Champions Red Dragon talk about how much they love Appletinis and don’t like ROH bringing in old people to take their titles from them. Fish talks about his great great granddaddy fighting a war with a musket because he’s kind of out there.

Tag Team Titles: Christopher Daniels/Frankie Kazarian vs. Red Dragon

The champions are Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly. Kyle and Daniels get things going with the fans behind the Fallen Angel. They start on the mat with neither guy able to sustain an advantage. Kyle nails him in the back of the head but Daniels smacks him in the face to come back. A leg lariat puts O’Reilly down and brings in Kazarian for a double stomp and a near fall. Frankie armdrags Fish a few times and puts on an armbar to slow things back down.

Kaz drops a legdrop to the back of the head and brings Daniels back in for a gorgeous Lionsault. Fish finally gets in a right hand for a breather but Kyle walks right into a front facelock from Kaz. The champions finally get a breather though as Kazarian misses a charge into the post. Kyle immediately puts on an armbar before it’s back to Fish for the forearm exchange.

Back to the armbar for a bit before Kyle misses a knee drop. Fish’s distraction lets Kyle hook a standing guillotine, only to have Kazarian drop him down into a spinebuster. Bobby sprints around the ring to pull Daniels down to the floor to keep the champions in control. Fish stays on the arm but doesn’t stay on it well enough to prevent a tag to Daniels. Christopher cleans part of the house and everything breaks down.

A middle rope stomp to the chest puts Kyle down on the floor, setting up a big suicide dive. Daniels hits a slingshot Diamond Cutter on Fish but Bobby avoids the BME. There’s a Samoan drop to Daniels but he avoids a BME from Fish. Kaz comes back in with the slingshot DDT on Bobby but Kyle sweeps his legs out. Daniels hits a quick Blue Thunder Bomb on Kyle and Angel’s Wings on Fish but O’Reilly makes a last second save.

The champions send Daniels to the floor and into a chair next to the barricade, setting up back to back dropkicks from the apron in a brutal looking spot. Back in and Kazarian kicks Kyle in the head and nails the Flux Capacitor (top rope C4) but he lands on the arm. Fish pulls the referee out at the delayed two and the fans aren’t pleased. Chasing the Dragon (brainbuster with a kick to the head) gets two on Kazarian but a cross armbreaker makes Kaz tap.

Rating: B. This was a good but not great match. I still don’t get the massive appeal of Red Dragon though I do like their promos. Bad Influence wasn’t Bad Influence here and it brought things down a little bit. They went with a different style here and it worked, though not at the level people were hoping they would hit.

We recap Cole vs. Elgin. They met in the finals of the World Title tournament last September where Elgin had him pinned but the referee was down. Cole then turned heel and feuded with Jay Brisco for awhile before we could get back to this big showdown. Elgin wants to be remembered as one of the greatest ever and he has to win the title to do that.

ROH World Title: Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole

Cole hasn’t done much for me yet but he’s growing on me. He charges at Elgin to start but gets taken down and hammered on the mat. The champ bails to the floor to make Michael chase him, allowing Cole to send him back to the floor. Adam loads up a dive but Elgin does the Samoa Joe step to the side. I love that. Michael blocks a chair shot and pops Cole with a right hand. He follows up with a running release powerslam on the ramp before taking the champion back inside.

Cole comes back with a jumping reverse neckbreaker (think an RKO with Elgin’s back to Cole) but takes too time going up. Elgin is slammed off the middle rope for two and we hit the chinlock. It doesn’t last long so Cole goes to the middle rope for a headscissors, only to get caught in a gutbuster for a nice counter. Elgin tries a string of power moves but can only hit a tiger suplex for two. A few kicks to the head get two for Adam but Elgin is able to lift him up from the mat into a suplex. Cole knees out of that in a great counter and suplexes Elgin onto his knee for two.

Elgin comes right back with a Crossface but Cole rolls him over for a cover to escape. The Cesaro dead lift superplex into a falcon’s arrow gets two on the champion. Cole counters the Elgin Bomb and tries a hurricanrana but has to counter a super Elgin Bomb to get it. The Florida Keys (arm tap German suplex) get a very close two for Cole. Michael is in trouble so he just kicks Cole in the face. Adam comes back with a superkick but it nails the referee instead.

A buckle bomb followed by the Elgin Bomb should have Cole beaten but there’s no referee. The Kingdom hits the ring for a beatdown but Michael picks them up for a Samoan drop/fall away slam at the same time. The smile on Elgin’s face made that even better. Elgin powerbombs Cole onto the Kingdom in a cool visual, sending Maria’s eyes bugging out of her head.

Maria slaps Elgin in the face, allowing Cole to try a Canadian Destroyer from the apron. Elgin counters that but Bennett hits him with the belt, allowing Cole to hit a German suplex on the floor. The tag team War Machine comes out to fight the Kingdom to the back and Michael barely beats the count back in. Maria throws the belt in, earning her some green mist from Elgin’s wife MsChif. The buckle and Elgin Bombs give us a near fall so close that the streamers come flying into the ring. Fans: “WE F’D UP!”

Cole comes back with a missile dropkick to the knee and wraps it around the post. There’s a Hart Breaker on the leg and Elgin is in trouble. Back in and Elgin rolls through a rollup into the Crossface but Cole hits him in the leg. Elgin’s leg is so banged up that he can’t charge for a clothesline. The middle rope Canadian Destroyer only gets two and the look on Cole’s face is great. He loads up another Destroyer but tries a sunset flip for a surprise. Elgin is ready for it though and counters into a triple powerbomb for the pin and the title.

Rating: B+. This was the kind of match they needed to make the show feel like a big deal, even though the ending was pretty clear about halfway through. They were following a classic formula here of throwing EVERYTHING at Elgin but having him hang through it all. I wasn’t wild about his knee being strong enough for three powerbombs at the end but I can live with it. Cole looked good too as he’s got a higher flying Bobby Roode style working for him right now. Really good match here.

Elgin celebrates to take us out.

Overall Rating: B-. I liked the show but it wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen from ROH. The main event is worth checking out but nothing else was really a blowaway match. There was good stuff on the show though, if nothing else due to the absence of a lot of ROH’s bad habits. The no selling and forearms were almost nowhere to be seen on this show and it made the show far less annoying. It’s a good show and a good first effort on PPV.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of ECW Pay Per Views at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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Most of these should be self explanatory but I’ll caption anything that isn’t clear.  Also note that my camera is well over ten years old so the quality isn’t great.These are from the pre-show autograph signing.  I got handshakes with most of them and everyone was nice.

Dark match.

Steve Corino coming out for commentary.

Bad picture of the titles hanging above the ring.

Opening match.

Maria.  I think that’s all you need said.

At intermission I walked out to get a drink and saw Nigel McGuinness just standing there talking to fans.

Nigel replaces Corino on commentary for the second half.

Matt Hardy promo.

What is with the streamers?  Seriously I don’t get it.  I know Japan but it’s annoying.

The main event setup.

Main event showdown.

Still trying to find a copy of the show to review.  Hint hint to you internet savvy people.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Clash of the Champions at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at: