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Showing posts with label Allie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allie. Show all posts

AEW Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament: The Deadly Draw - Night 1 (Aug. 3, 2020) & Night 2 (Aug. 10, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



On the July 22, 2020 episode of Dynamite, AEW announced a women's tag team tournament consisting of eight teams that would begin that summer. The winning team will be awarded the tournament cup trophy. The rules of the tournament were that all sixteen women had to draw a random color with the matching colors becoming a team; all selections were final. This concept is similar to World Championship Wrestling's BattleBowl tournament where the teams were drawn at random in a "Lethal Lottery". The tournament began on August 3, 2020, airing on AEW's YouTube channel, and will conclude on a special Saturday Night Dynamite episode on August 22.


Keep that first rule in mind as you will quickly see that there's not a goddamn thing random about these draws.



Night 1 (Aug. 3, 2020)





Glad to see Veda Scott on my TV screen again. Last time I've seen her on a wrestling program was on one of IMPACT's Knockouts Knockdown PPVs. 


The best thing about this tournament for me right off the bat was hearing Veda Scott's voice on commentary alongside the legendary Tony Schiavone. Veda is no stranger to calling women's tournaments and women's wrestling in general, so it's a pure delight to have her on board to call the action.


Madusa (WWE Hall of Famer Alundra Blayze) made her return to TNT programming in 20+ years with her AEW debut as the introducer for this tournament. That really came out of left field, but I can't be too surprised when Madusa has had similar roles for other promotions over the years, such as recently for Stardom.




Shaul Guerrero makes her AEW debut here as the ring announcer for this event. I'm glad to see someone pick her up as I thought she wasn't bad in the role when she filled in for Melissa Santos in Lucha Underground's final season.


The Nightmare Sisters (Allie & Brandi Rhodes) def. Mel (Melanie Cruise) and Penelope Ford (w/ Kip Sabian)


I didn't notice this during the initial airing until a friend of mine pointed this out for I could rewind and rewatch this clip, but Allie CLEARLY cheats to get on the team that she wanted for this tournament behind Brandi and Dasha's backs.



The Nightmare Collective has been dead and buried for months, but apparently Mel didn't get the memo that she has permission to grow her hair back out. Allie did majority of the work on offense for her team until she could tag in Brandi, who had a minor "reunion" of sorts with Mel that turned ugly - much like the most of this match. For the first match in this tournament, this was NOT a great start at all. Sloppy moves and botched spots left and right. The more I see of Brandi in the ring, whether it was in IMPACT, ROH, and now here in AEW, I can totally see why WWE opted for keeping her in the role of a ring announcer. I thought she was best as Cody's valet, but she seems deadset in proving people wrong.


Allie had the EXACT same look on my face as I did when I was watching at home.

(Shrugs) It's not my money Brandi's wasting. It's Tony Khan's since he's keeps funding these constant vanity projects of hers.

I swear though... If Brandi and Allie win this whole thing, I'm going to roast Brandi over the coals about it. I didn't tear into her like most did about that AEW Heels thing but if she shoehorns herself into being the winner of this tournament just to add cloat to her resume, then I'm calling her out on her bullshit.


In all seriousness, if I was Allie, I wouldn't trust Brandi Rhodes. She's the one who's suddenly acting like a heel in interviews but babyfacing it in matches and for her Chief "Brandi" Officer position. Pick one alignment and stick with it. This isn't musical chairs. Isn't that what people make fun of The Big Show for doing all these years?



Anna Jay (w/ The Dark Order) and Tay Conti (formerly NXT's Taynara Conti) def. Ariane Andrew (formerly WWE's Cameron) & Nyla Rose (w/ Vicki Guerrero)


I HAD to make this meme after seeing her show up on Dynamite the week prior...

(Whistles) Boy, did I get a good laugh when it was announced that Cameron (AKA the woman who said the best match of all-time was between Alicia Fox and Melina) was debuting for AEW and would be Nyla Rose's partner for this tournament.


Nyla, I would appalled too if Cameron was my partner in this.

To her credit, she was nowhere as bad as she was back in her WWE days here, but that's not saying much. Anna Jay shines more in singles matches than clusterfuck tag team matches like this, but she's a lot better than one would expect for one with so few years into the business. Conti's training from the Performance Center shines as a lot of her movements look polished and methodical, instead of doing stuff to do them like how 90% of the AEW roster goes about a match. I still don't see what was the big fascination about Conti though, but she has a platform here in AEW to show why she should have been a bigger star in WWE.

I shook my head at how much selling Nyla did for Jay and Conti after tearing through both women. I loved the finish here though. I had to replay it twice because I loved it so much. Excellent finish to a very bland match. I can totally get behind this JayTay pairing.

Post-match, Nyla Rose laid waste to Ariane Andrew and took out the trash like she is - rightfully so  after costing her team the win there.


Tournament Brackets updated following Night 1 results.


Night 2 (Aug. 10, 2020)





Big Swole (Ariel Monroe) and Lil' Swole (Nicole Savoy) def. Leva Bates (w/ Peter Avalon) and Rache Chanel


The first thing to come out of my mouth when they said Big Swole was teaming with "Lil' Swole" was WTF. Then I got a closer look and went "Isn't that Nicole Savoy?" Jesus. More and more time has gone by and I wonder why she hasn't followed Mercedes Martinez and Shayna Baszler into WWE for a Trifecta reunion following her stint in the Mae Young Classic. If AEW can sign her to a contract, I say go for it. It's not like she's doing anything with Shimmer, Shine, or any other promotions that would get in the way of her on-screen appearances right now. Savoy can add some more technical finesse that is severely lacking in terms of talent in that women's division.

Savoy gets cool points from me just for merely wearing that One Punch Man shirt though.

This match was fine for what it was. No, wait... I'll give these ladies props, even though I think that Big Swole is the same amount of entertaining as Baron Corbin to me. This was the best match out of the two weeks of this tournament so far, but that's not a high compliment to give these ladies when there wasn't much to write home about this tournament so far. I don't know what the fuck was going on with Rache Chanel's gimmick. Wasn't she the one standing in the crowd with MJ Jenkins on one episode of Dynamite a few months ago?

How are the Librarians still a thing and still employed in this company? I just don't get it at all. This company had enough common sense to realize that the Nightmare Collective had go-away heat from every scope of their fanbase, but yet this gimmick (along with the Dark Order) is still a thing? I would love to see Leva Bates fall back into her lovable cosplayer gimmick that everyone knew and loved from her indie days. The hardcore indie fanboys are the bulk of AEW's fanbase anyway, so you can't tell me that wouldn't have gone over.


Diamante and Ivelisse def. Dasha and Rachael Ellering


The backstage interview where Madusa came up to Dasha and let her know that she was going to be able to compete in this tournament was SOOOO goddamn cringe-worthy from Dasha's FORCED acting here. To say that she left WWE to get away from that, it's even worse to see her doing the same thing here in AEW.

That being said, she wasn't bad at all in this match, especially to say that she hasn't been wrestling very long. Her biggest misstep was towards the end of the match where it looked like she was a deer in headlights trying to keep up with what was going on for the finish. Speaking of that finish, she had absolutely no idea how to take those moves, but it was more shocking to see a Canadian Destroyer actually end a match and not be a goddamn transition or throwaway, common spot. I'm sure someone will correct me, but wasn't Ivelisse using that as a finisher in Lucha Underground?

I hate to make fun of anyone's weight, but it was pretty noticeable that Ellering had put on some considerable weight since her appearances on NXT and IMPACT programming. I remember her being a beast of a woman in terms of stature, but she was more toned and muscular than her better half in Kassius Ohno. Now it's looking like they are on the same diet - or lack of thereof. All jokes aside, Ellering is still a great for AEW if they could sign her to that women's division. They are extremely lacking in strong hands to be enhancement talent and Ellering did a great job in that position when IMPACT's Knockout division was in a transitional period a few years ago.

Much like Ivelisse and Diamante's first two bouts in AEW, this wasn't their best work, but I'm confident that we will see a better showing with them by the time this tournament is all said and done.

As for Dasha, I don't know if she's more interested in being a backstage interviewer and occasional ring announcer or being an in-ring talent, but she's got a lot of promise. I'm anxious to see how far her talents could grow within the right environment. Sadly, I don't think this women's division is the place to go if she's looking to challenge herself.


Updated brackets following Night 2.



Afterthoughts:


I'm sure that the AEW diehards don't want to admit it, but the first night of this tournament was NOT good at all. The standout performance above the rest was Veda Scott on commentary with Tony Schiavone. I really hope they have enough brains to sign her to some type of contract after this tournament is over. Veda is a Jack (or Jane rather...) of All-Trades - she can talk her ass off. She can act as a manager/valet as needed and she can wrestle too if needed. Veda's not going to be pulling five star matches out of her hat, but I always thought she was an asset to whatever promotion managed to bring her in. I thought it was a massive disservice that her talents aren't being used in any company right now, even before this pandemic started. 

I do like that AEW is using this as a platform to introduce some new women onto their roster, but at the same time, it's a double-edged sword when they should be using this tournament to establish and feature more of the women who aren't booked on Dynamite regularly, like Abadon, Bea Priestley, or Sadie Gibbs - even though the latter two have been released by the company as of this posting. 

Night 2 was a better pill to swallow than Night 1 was by a mile. I'm dreading going into the semi-finals I don't think the match-ups will be very good outside of the team of TayJay against Ivelisse and Diamante. That's the only match I'm really looking forward to in the next round of matches. 

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AEW Fight For The Fallen (July 15, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



Fight for the Fallen was a professional wrestling television special episode produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was the second event in the Fight for the Fallen chronology. The event took place on July 15, 2020 and was broadcast on TNT as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite.

In June 2019, AEW stated that all of Fight for the Fallen's gate proceeds would be donated to victims of gun violence. AEW and event sponsor Farah & Farah, a personal injury law firm located in Jacksonville, Florida, raised more than $150,000 and the proceeds from the gate were donated to the Jacksonville Victim Assistance Advisory Council.

During Night 1 of Fyter Fest, it was announced that instead of airing on pay-per-view (PPV), the second Fight for the Fallen event would be broadcast as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite, on July 15, 2020. The show will be raising money for COVID-19 relief, which will be added to the $1 million already donated by Shahid Khan and Tony Khan. AEW launched an online donation drive and released a limited-edition Fight for the Fallen t-shirt on ShopAEW.com with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Florida’s First Coast Relief Fund and Feeding Northeast Florida.

On July 13, Chris Jericho was announced as appearing in a non-wrestling role at the event.



Results:


Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship
Cody (c) (with Arn Anderson) def. Sonny Kiss


I had Monday Night Nitro flashbacks during Sonny Kiss' entrance with him dancing better than the cheerleaders accompanying him onstage. It was the inverse of Kimberly Page dancing with the rest of the Nitro Girls who actually knew how to dance professionally. This match wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was a standout performance for Sonny Kiss either. I've seen a lot better from him back when he was XOLicious in Lucha Underground and this match seemed like a far cry from that. Cody seems to be going harder into this heel turn instead of teasing it subtly whereas in this match he was easily the heel on offense for majority of this match with Kiss playing the part of the underdog. Kiss got some good spots in here and there, but ultimately came up short. This isn't a knock on the talents involved, but Cody's title defenses since winning the TNT title have been nothing but bland and boring to me. The longer they drag this out, the more I am adamant in my opinion that Cody shouldn't have beaten Lance Archer for it in the first place.


Orange Cassidy Dumps orange juice on the Inner Circle



Seriously... I wanted to slap the shit out of Ortiz flopping around like he was a fish out of water after this. This wasn't the Kurt Angle milk truck scene on the Alliance during the Invasion storyline, so I don't understand why he was overselling this to the point that it made this whole segment stupid.

I know that I knock the guys in The Elite for lowering their own stock values in this company, but Jesus Christ, Santana and Ortiz have absolutely no credibility anymore at this point. They came into this company as bad ass top tier tag team and now a year later, they are just another pair of goofs on this traveling circus. Chris Jericho is already a legend in this business. No matter what he does here, he'll still be welcomed back to WWE with open arms for his Hall of Fame induction. He knows that. He just wants to rub elbows with the Elite in this company and stay relevant in the modern wrestling bubble.

Call me crazy, but Orange Cassidy might be the smartest man in this entire company to get these guys to devalue their own worth in this business to put over Cassidy's to minimal effort from him.



Tag Team Match
FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) def. Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix)


This match was really rough around the edges at a lot of points of this match as it seemed like the Lucha Bros. were adamant about wrestling their type of match and weren't going to conform to doing anything but their type of match. It even looked like they started working stiff with FTR as I saw Cash and Dax were bleeding out of nowhere before the break. FTR returned the favor with a few stiff shots of their own as the tag team rules went out of the window. I did enjoy the finish here though with FTR snatching off Fenix's mask, forcing him to cower and cover up out of fear of getting his identity exposed thanks to how sacred the mask is in traditional lucha libre. This allowed FTR to pick up the win off a quick rollup shortly thereafter.

This should have been a great match on paper, but unfortunately the clash of styles and possible the language barrier held this match back from being a true spectacle.


Six-man Tag Team Match
The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, and Marko Stunt)

At this point, I think it should be said that AEW needs to stop doing this shit where they have to have everyone be "competitive" and equal across the board. It's damaging your talent long term, just like WWE's infamous 50/50 booking, where no one gets over, but everyone has to look good and have a chance. Tony Khan needs to take a hard look at his roster and determine who in the blue hell that he wants to push for the next year or so then deem who else on that roster is just coming in to get beat. This shit where everyone and their grandmother gets the "participation award" and is competitive with even your alleged main eventers and top stars is fucking comical.

I liked Marko Stunt back in MLW because when he would come in there, he got some shit in but ultimately, he got the bricks beat off of him like a drum. In this company, he's been in the ring with some of the top acts in this company and hanging with him as if they are equals. Just all kinds of no. This kid should be carrying their bags at best. Either that or getting shoved into a locker at every arena.

I know people want to come to the defense of Kenny Omega, but that's one guy who has completely devalued his own stock in the United States after coming to AEW - at least to the casual fans. The people who followed him in New Japan still have hope that he's going to show signs of that "Kenny Omega" again, but I'm not buying it. Here in AEW, he has been exposed to an extent. Kenny Omega doesn't have some of the best wrestlers in the world over in New Japan leading him through matches. He's been off to his own devices in AEW and it has been mediocre at best. Correction... I'll give him and Hangman that tag team match with the Young Bucks but that's about it. I get that he's in this "giving" mindset now that he's not main eventing in New Japan, but he's giving so much that it's devaluing his own stock. Think about it. Kenny Omega has nowhere near the amount of buzz and name value that his own stock had prior to signing to AEW. In the past year that followed, he's a shadow of his former self. Who knows, maybe he can turn things around and prove me wrong, but I don't give a flying fuck about this version of Kenny Omega.




Tag team match
The Nightmare Sisters (Allie and Brandi Rhodes) (with Dustin Rhodes) def. Kenzie Paige and MJ Jenkins


I dunno what the fuck this was supposed to be and nor do I care. I get that they have to keep the QT Marshall and Allie storyline going, despite the fact that he's at home recovering from COVID-19, but the formation of this tag team between Brandi Rhodes and Allie just feels like another "vanity project" much like the Nightmare Collective before this. They still haven't explained by Allie went back to being Allie instead of being The Bunny, who was managing The Butcher & The Blade. Like no one is pointing that out either. It's stuff like this that baffles me that gets a pass from the AEW loyalists and marks, but are VERY quick to point out stupidity everywhere else.




Singles match for the AEW World Championship
Jon Moxley (c) def. Brian Cage (with Taz) by technical submission

The longer I see Moxley with the title, the more I'm starting to side with WWE on their assessment that Moxley isn't very good as a World Champion. All of his title defenses to date have been stale and boring. This match was also hindered by the finish, where Taz threw in the towel. You're going to tell me that after Taz talked all of that shit to hype up this match, he didn't have a shred of confidence in Cage's skills to endure that hold and turn the match around into his favor? I wasn't too crazy about Cage's undefeated streak in the first place, but throwing him in there against Moxley for his second marquee/significant match on the roster just seemed like ass-backwards booking to me. They could have done this match down the road in a few months after Cage has accumulated a few more wins onto his resume. Beating Cage here took the wind right out of Cage's sails just like Lance Archer's loss to Cody for the TNT Championship did to him. Big guys get over by beating people in a convincing manner, not being beaten like it's trivial as if they are the same as every other guy on the roster.

Darby Allin would return following the match to attack Brian Cage with his skateboard to close the show. Why couldn't Darby just cost Cage the match if he was going to come out here and attack him anyway? All of this mess tacked onto the finish just felt like putting a hat on top of a hat.


Closing Thoughts

After two weeks of Fyter Fest, I didn't think it was beneficial to do another "special" episode of Dynamite for the third week in a row. Even NXT went back to their normal routine this week; although, it was to their detriment not to mention that Keith Lee was putting both of his titles up for grabs. That being said, the show's profits were for a good cause, so I can't knock them in that regard.

From start to finish though? I can't say that I was overly impressed with this show. Much like a lot of modern wrestling these days, there's a lot of very talented athletes on this show, but in terms of the actual wrestling aspect and key component of this show, it's not very good as a concise and coherent package. You can rant and rave about the demographics and viewership ratings all you want, but this isn't a good wrestling show. It's a very mediocre one that a lot of people are too jaded and delusional to point out as such only because they either have a wrestling podcast/YouTube channel to keep viewers engaged/subscribed to or they are just that happy to have something that's NOT WWE and will make all of the excuses in the world that it's so much better and different. In reality, it's not - it's the exact same shit you see in the other company (WWE) on Mondays and Fridays with a different cast of characters. 

I'm just wondering when people are going to wake up and get fed up of having their intelligence insulted on a regular basis with these weekly wrestling broadcasts. 
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Impact Wrestling: ReDefined (August 30, 2018) -- Results & Afterthoughts; Bonus Comments on Slammiversary XVI


On August 30, 2018, Impact Wrestling featured their television special, ReDefined, in the place of their usual television episode/taping to feature several title matches and marquee matches, highlighting and focusing on various feuds up to this point in preparation for the road to their next PPV event, Bound for Glory.

I've been meaning to do a write-up on Impact Wrestling's PPV event, Slammiversary XVI, from July 22, 2018 for about two months now, but keep getting sidetracked. Ultimately, the opinions all around are unanimous about that event though - amazing show from top to bottom. I can't put this event over more. Even if you haven't checked out Impact Wrestling in a long time or even just new to their product, this show is a great spot to start before checking out ReDefined.

Quick Results from Slammiversary XVI:


Johnny Impact defeated Fenix, Taiji Ishimori and Petey Williams in a barn-burner to kick off this show in style. -  Definitely go out of your way to watch this match. 

 Tessa Blanchard defeated Allie - Continuing to show off why Tessa Blanchard belongs at the top spot of the Knockouts division going forward

 Eddie Edwards defeated Tommy Dreamer - House of Hardcore rules match - First of many hardcore themed matches on this show. Wasn't too crazy about this but they got the point across. 

 Brian Cage defeated Matt Sydal (c) - Singles match for the Impact X Division Championship - Wasn't expecting anything less than a win for Cage here. Solid performance from both men, even though Sydal botched the Shooting Star Press towards the end. 

 Su Yung (c) defeated Madison Rayne - Singles match for the Impact Knockouts Championship - Even though they did some great storytelling in the build to this match, I can't admit that this match lived up to the hype. Another decisive win for Su Yung in her reign as champion, but I have to say that Rayne might have to step aside when it comes to all of these title shots she's been getting in not only Impact Wrestling but in Ring of Honor and other promotions as of late as she's on her road to appearing in WWE's Mae Young Classic II. 

 The Latin American Xchange (Santana and Ortiz) (with Konnan) (c) defeated The OGz (Hernandez and Homicide) (with King) - 5150 Street Fight for the Impact World Tag Team Championship - Crazy match right here. Only thing that held this back is that this was the second hardcore match on this card and there was a lot of "been there, done that" in terms of hardcore spots when you've seen LAX kill it with oVe earlier this year. 

 Pentagon Jr. (mask) defeated Sami Callihan (hair) - Mask vs. Hair match - Match of the Night IMHO. Pentagon Jr. is the king of these hardcore deathmatches in the modern day landscape of professional wrestling. Just do your favor and watch this match if you want to see the pure insanity that both Pentagon and Sami put their bodies through in this match. I wouldn't be surprised to see either of these men going for the Impact World title come Bound for Glory. 

 Austin Aries (c) defeated Moose - Singles match for the Impact World Championship - After that excellent video package to highlight and promote this match, I thought Moose was a shoe-in to pick up the title here. Boy was I wrong. Moose took one good Brainbuster from Aries and that's all she wrote. Too bad though as I thought this was a solid affair for both men. 


Why Are These Events Important Going Forward?


Between Slammiversary XVI back in July and ReDefined last week, both shows creates a sense of new and fresh that the new, current regime running the company needed going forward once the mistakes of Dixie Carter and her entourage left the minds of fans that they turned away to show them, "Look we got our shit together now. Give us another chance."

Plus with all of the talent from House of Hardcore and more importantly, Lucha Underground, calling Impact Wrestling their home as of late, you can't really go wrong from the in-ring product. Seriously speaking though, TNA/Impact Wrestling's problem has NEVER been the actual in-ring wrestling part. Almost every wrestler who has stepped into one of their rings has held it down when push came to shove.

Before someone brings it up, I'm not talking about that Jenny Morasca versus Sharmell clusterfuck or that Rebel vs. Shelly Martinez botchfest either...

I mean that statement as their talent has more consistent standout performances than flops is all that I'm saying. You cannot deny that Impact Wrestling as a whole are beating WWE (as a whole as we can't just look at NXT on it's own as it's only measuring stick of match quality) in terms of their in-ring product on a consistent regular basis.

Currently, both their in-ring product and behind the scenes work is really shining. I was just talking with a friend the other day, discussing about how well that they have been building up Su Yung as this monstrous force of nature with her horde of zombie brides doing her dirty work. Her feuds with Allie, Rosemary, and recently with Madison Rayne have been great to see unfold on Impact TV tapings over the past few months. If that's not enough, Tessa Blanchard hasn't been in the Knockouts title hunt yet, but she's been having her presence felt throughout this division as a constant reminder that she has that title in her crosshairs. I'm wondering who is going to be that one Knockout who is going to give her the standout performance in-ring that she really needs to get up to the next level in Impact Wrestling. A lot of people are calling her ascension on the indies, similar to how Charlotte Flair rose to dominance in WWE and I can easily see why on that comparison. Both women are second/third generation wrestlers with relatives who hold an impressive pedigree to live up to. It's either come out guns blazing or sink to the bottom of the talent pool like a brick.

Moose was diagnosed with a concussion after this event and haven't seen at the Impact TV tapings that took places that following week. Even though I was shocked that Austin Aries didn't drop the title to Moose there, especially after that great build and video package that preceded the match on PPV to sell Moose up as the next big thing and flag bearer for the company going forward. The other news coming out of this event after recent weeks is that Austin Aries is going to be one of many featured talent on the upcoming wrestling show that WGN America is set to air this fall season. I'm guessing Impact had a change of heart and saw it as the opportunity to have Aries continue to carry the championship with even more exposure on another network as Aries has been making rounds popping up to challenge for Ring of Honor's Television Championship as well. I'm not saying that he's bad at the role in the least. I'm just surprised that they haven't taken the title off him by now, that's all.

Enough going off-topic on Slammiversary XVI coverage though, let's switch gears and focus on what you're really here to get my thoughts upon and that's ReDefined.


X-Division Championship Match - Brian Cage (c) def. Fenix





Really scary moment here as Cage almost botched the Jumping Powerbomb from the top rope during the finish. Fenix was able to get his neck up in time before the landing but damn that was scary to look at. Other than that spot, this was a solid opener.



Best spot of the entire match was Cage catching Fenix out of the suicide dive and suplexing him to the floor. Man, I wish more big guys would do that to all of these cruiserweights and lightweights throwing themselves around recklessly.



Eli Drake def. Brandon Tidwell


I have no idea what this was about but it ended up being a complete waste of time. Complete squash here. I don't understand why they are wasting Drake in a spot like this on this card, but whatever.



Knockouts Championship Match - Tessa Blanchard def. Allie and Su Yung (c) to become the NEW Knockouts Champion





Kinda sloppy starting off, but once they got on the same page, this wasn't a bad match at all. My favorite spots were the three way submission holds and the Military Press Tessa performed to toss Su Yung out of the ring and into the crowd of Undead Brides standing at ringside. Allie had Su Yung laid out in the finish, but Tessa rolled her up to steal the win.



I wouldn't call this a win in dominant fashion (that's why her post-match promo seemed a bit off to me when she was acting like it was afterwards), but that Knockouts title belongs on Tessa right now. She's their biggest female star on the rise and it would make more sense to have everyone chasing and challenging her going forward.



The Smoke Show w/ Scarlett Bordeaux, featuring Grado, Catalina, and Joe Hendry




I couldn't help but crack up laughing at Grado here in this. Catalina has a right to fear Scarlett as she's better at "manipulating" her boys more than she is. Can I mention that this whole storyline is a clever call back to Katie Lea's previous Impact Wrestling gimmick as Winter who was manipulating Angelina Love to do her bidding? Here, she's playing Joe Hendry and Grado potentially against each other. I wonder how many people caught the vulgar references on the walls of the scene/studio where they were having this segment.

Crazy how well Scarlett's gimmick is getting over to say she hasn't wrestled a single match in Impact Wrestling and it's all been just mere segments and vignettes for her since she made her debut. I think Impact Wrestling are sitting on a potential goldmine with this character if they continue to play this up properly.



Rich Swann def. Petey Williams

The whole story to this match was that Swann had the Canadian Destroyer scouted and had a counter to it every time that Petey went for it. This made for a fun match here. Too bad it was over pretty fast, but there was a lot of great spots here to look out for. My personal favorite was the counter to the Destroyer to a powerbomb followed by a pin. From the annoyed look on Petey's face, this isn't over by a long shot.




After all of the hot water Swann found himself in last year, I'm glad to see him enjoying wrestling again. He's definitely right at home in the X-Division.



Update following Little Richie getting run over by the OGs




I had a few friends ask me what I thought about this last week, but I didn't see it live at the time and didn't catch up on the past two weeks worth of Impact Wrestling until earlier this week, so I'll give my thoughts now. The kid getting run over was a little in bad taste BUT it's entertainment. I've lost track of the death toll on Lucha Underground this season and you don't see anyone moaning about that. Glad to hear that the kid is okay, but watching it at the time didn't bother me in the least. As long as we're not doing stupid shit like 12 year old Izzy taking chokeslams on the indies then I'm fine with this for the sake of the storyline.



Austin Aries and Killer Kross def. Eddie Edwards





Moose allegedly assaulted backstage before the start of this match, so this match was started as a handicap match instead. Surprisingly enough, "crazy" Eddie Edwards was able to hold his own for most of this match until the numbers game caught up to him. Moose raced down to the rescue, only to turn on his alleged best friend Eddie Edwards.



I'm sorry but this didn't make a lick of damn sense to me. Aries was the one who gave Moose a concussion at Slammiversary and prevented him from becoming the new Impact World Champion. Did that Brainbuster scramble his brains or something? It makes no sense to me on why Moose would align with Aries and Kross. At this rate, I honestly can't see who is going to overthrow Aries unless they pull the Pentagon/Sami Calihan stuff into the main event picture. You could have Eli Drake somehow find his way back into the title picture, but I think that ship has sailed at this point. I wasn't crazy about this finish at all, but I won't pass final judgment on this until I see how they follow up with this on tonight's episode of Impact. From a narrative standpoint, I did like the final shot of Alisha Edwards coming out and slapping the taste out of Moose's mouth for his betrayal though. Shows that no matter how far off the deep end her husband has gone, she's still standing by his side.
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Impact Wrestling: Bound For Glory 2017 (November 5, 2017) -- Results & Afterthoughts



Bound for Glory (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on November 5, 2017 at the Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa, Ontario. It was the thirteenth event under the Bound for Glory chronology, the second and last Impact pay-per-view event of 2017. It is also notable for 8-time womens' champion Gail Kim's final match, retiring from professional wrestling after the event.

6-Way Match for the X-Division Championship - Trevor Lee (c) def. Desmond Xavier, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt, Garza Jr., and Matt Sydal to retain


I'm glad that this wasn't one of tired and cliched Ultimate X Matches that tend to open these BFG PPVs with all of the X-Division guys just dumped in there with no storyline nor reason. This match has a story - Dutt wants to end his feud with Trevor Lee once and for all that has been spanning the last few months with the rest of the division wanting a piece of this action as well.

Desmond Xavier shocks the hell out of me every time I see this dude do something nuts in these X-Division matches. Garza Jr. is slowly winning me over with his antics and ringwork while everyone else in this match, especially Matt Sydal and Petey Williams, made this a fun match to kick this show off. I was a little disappointed that they let Trevor Lee retain when this crowd was red hot for Petey Williams in this match, especially after he applied the Sharpshooter and Canadian Destroyer.


Taiji Ishimori def. Tyson Dux


I thought it was in bad taste to have Laurel Van Ness distracting the live crowd during this match. Ishimori and Dux were having a pretty sweet hard-hitting match here. No need to distract from that when this match was far from the drizzling shits. A little too short for my taste.


Alberto El Patron Shoots ON TNA Management


Up next, we have a worked shoot with Alberto out in the ring talking about how he was wrongfully accused for what went down with his suspension. I don't see how people were buying into this as if it was legit, someone would have cut off his mic and sent someone down there to shut him up instead of allowing him to ramble on and on this long. He threats to make an example of an "impact" out of JB but backs off, ending this segment awkwardly as it started.


Monster's Ball - Abyss def. Grado


Abyss is taking a page from Kane these days with it looking like he's gluing hair to his mask too. I got a good kick out of Grado dressed like Mick Foley for this match. It would've been more hilarious if he came out in protection gear like Norman Smiley in WCW from his hardcore days. I enjoyed how they worked Rosemary and Laurel Van Ness into this match. I freakin' love how Rosemary's facepaint has evolved over the past few years that she's been in TNA to the point now where she looks like a cross between Venom/Carnage, Finn Balor's Demon, and so many other things that go bump in the night. Don'tcha love how Abyss always finds a way to bring Janice into these matches but never actually hits someone with that damn thing? If this one of those crazy Japanese deathmatches, someone would've been sliced apart with that thing by now.


Glad Grado didn't win here as he was botching left and right here. He didn't know where the weapons were at times and the few limited moves he could do, he was half-assing them. Just put him out of his misery and end this storyline for all of our sakes despite the few good laughs we've gotten at his expense. Despite the fact that I liked Rosemary and LVN's involvement towards the end, this was easily the weakest match to this point.


Team Impact (Grand Champion Ethan Carter III, James Storm, and GHC Heavyweight Champion Eddie Edwards)  Team AAA (Texano Jr., Pagano, Hijo del Phantasma)


EC3 played it off for the first half like he wanted nothing to do with his team, but it was only a swerve to create a sense of doubt that Team Impact wasn't going to be on the same page here. Much like the X-Division match that kicked off this show, this was a match with a lot of fun spots, but it dragged a lot at the beginning. Crazy to see James Storm throwing himself out of the ring doing high spots like a cruiserweight though.


5150 Match for the Impact Tag Team Championships - oVe (c) def. LAX


As you can see here, Lucha Underground's Sami Callihan/Jeremiah Crane made his debut tonight as the impromptu third man to oVe. 


Simply put, this was a crazy as fuck of a match here in terms of high risks spots. Do yourself a favor and watch this match just to see the pure insanity that these men put their bodies through in this match from bell to bell.


Knockouts Championship Match - Gail Kim def. Sienna (c) and Allie


I get what they were trying to do here, but it looks like Sienna is just sitting on Gail and Allie's backs while Gail's hugging Allie LMFAO...

Allie getting her Trish Stratus on with a Stratusfaction here and later in this match does Chris Jericho proud with a Codebreaker. 

Kinda sloppy on the execution but I liked the Top Rope Eat Defeat for the win here.

Gail Kim decided to wear see-through bottoms... 'Nuff said. Loved that ringside Stratusfaction spot by Allie and the Double German Suplex on Allie and Gail by Sienna. The Top Rope Eat Defeat for the win was a nice touch even though Allie didn't need to take that AK-47 to the ringside floor. I just cringe at the amount of unnecessary BRUTAL bumps people on this roster


Lashley and King Mo (with American Top Team and Dan Lambert) def. Moose and Stephan Bonnar

This match was a LOT better than I was expecting it was going to be going in, especially for King Mo and Stephan Bonnar. They made sure to keep their in-ring involvement to a MINIMUM while Lashley and Moose did the bulk of the heavy hitting. I wasn't sold on the American Top Team storyline at first, but over the build up for the last few months truly won me over. If Impact Wrestling wants to position these guys as their top heel faction for years to come, then I'm perfectly fine with that. This was one of those few MMA meets pro wrestling crossovers that didn't feel forced like teased Horsewomen vs Horsewomen feud during WWE's Mae Young Classic or Rampage Jackson and King Mo's initial appearances in TNA Wrestling in the past.


Eli Drake (c) (with Chris Adonis) defeated Johnny Impact

I felt that this match dragged on FAR too long for my taste, despite their chemistry and some slick acrobatics by Johnny Impact here. The interference from El Patron didn't do anything for me here, especially for a show that seems to ALWAYS have a shitload of interference in these Bound for Glory main events.
That was a slick spot, but damn I've seen FAR too many memes making fun of it. 
It was kinda sad too because all signs were pointing towards a feel good moment leading up to this match where Johnny Impact picks up the win and walks out of this event as the new Global Champion. I guess they wanted to plug Alberto back where he left off in the main event picture prior to his suspension make him part of the feud at the top of the card. Drake isn't a bad champion, but I really didn't agree with the decision here. At the same time, I understand why they did it here with Drake retaining as they want to show that they have confidence in him in the role, but on the other hand, I don't Anthem is wise here in this booking. If they want to draw in more fans, they should have put the belt on Johnny Impact (of course this will continue to encourage "the only ex-WWE stars get pushed" stigma that their haters seem to point as negatives) but Johnny's got name recognition right now as God knows when are we going to get Season 4 of Lucha Underground or if Johnny's coming back at all.

*** BONUS: *** Thoughts on Gail Kim's Farewell Speech & pending Knockouts Championship Tournament





Sad to see Gail Kim go, but rarely wrestlers get to go out on their own terms before being sidelined to the point where they HAVE to retire. Gail pulled a Trish Stratus and won the title once more (breaking the record at most Knockout title reigns to date) while simultaneously being the first in TNA to do so on Canadian soil to book. I'm going to miss seeing her compete but I hope this means that she stays in the game as a trainer/mentor. She shouldn't allow her great mind for women's wrestling to go to waste. A LOT of women can learn from her and help the sport continue to thrive and evolve for the ladies. #ThankYouGailKim

Closing Thoughts

Bound for Glory wasn't a bad show, just a rather overbooked show at some points. They started off with a great opener with the X-Division then that singles between Ishiimori and Dux that showed off a lot of good in this company before El Patron dragged the momentum down with that worked shoot of a promo. What followed that was a botchtacular Monsters' Ball match followed by ANOTHER two matches of guys throwing each other around recklessly. The girls did a little too much for my taste too, but it was Gail's last match so I can understand that. The Steel Cage Match was fine for the most part while the main event fell into the tired trend of too much interference like I mentioned above. This is a show that seems to try too hard, but at the same time, I feel like their efforts went mostly on deaf ears and won't bring in any new viewers outside of the loyalists who have been with them through everything at this point. 

I want to see Impact Wrestling continue to survive and grow in 2018, but at this point, even I'm wondering what changes would they have to do to get back into the good graces of the wrestling fans. 
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Impact Wrestling One Night Only: Victory Road 2017 (Knockouts Knockdown 2017 - April 14, 2017) -- Results & Afterthoughts


Impact Wrestling's Victory Road event for 2017 was held on April 14, 2017 and served as this year's Knockouts Knockdown all-female One Night Only Pay-Per-View special for 2017.

Also, despite being in the graphic above, Mia Yim/Jade is nowhere to be found on this show.

Introductions


Great to see Gail Kim acting as the "talent scout" and co-host for this event, even though she's still sidelined from her injury. I thought most of the girls, especially the newcomers and returning faces, didn't take the ball and run with it on their chance to cut a promo, except for Rebel who knocked it out of the park. She really surprised me on that one. In terms of personas, I think her and MJ Jenkins impressed me the most here.

When WWE does their Women's Tournament later this year, I hope they take a few subtle nods from this annual show where they take the opportunity to give these ladies a chance to show more personality. If they were smart, they'll fill up the brackets with ladies from the main roster who are struggling with getting over on the little time that they have on WWE programming and give them a bigger platform on that tournament to shine. Look at what it did for the bulk of CWC guys, especially for Gargano and Ciampa.


Angelina Love (w/ Davey Richards) def. Kayci Quinn


Quinn's pretty green, but showed promise by the time the match was over. I'm sure as one of Jay Lethal's students she'll get better with time as she gathers more experience underneath her belt. She's fairly new to wrestling on TV from what I've heard. It started off pretty bad (definitely that opening exchange between her and Love) as I think it was the nerves kicking in but her and Love found their chemistry for each other by the time this was over.

I was just disappointed at the finish was just a damn Clothesline/Forearm Smash by Love for the win. No Botox Injection or any of Angelina's other signatures? It just seemed like a lame way for the newbie to go out.

Can someone verify, but wasn't this Angelina Love's first "official" match back since coming back to Impact after her pregnancy?


Diamonte (w/ LAX) def. Amanda Carolina Rodriguez


To say that I follow AmandaxCR on Twitter, I'm surprised she's put on a bit of weight. That's not a bad thing, but I suggest changing her ring gear to accommodate that. If I can nit-pick here, I just can't stand seeing people (especially Mexican/Latino wrestlers doing this...) doing the Eddie Guerrero hip roll trifecta suplexes, but can't roll their hips. I'm glad Chavo stopped embarrassing himself doing it but you'll still see Rey Mysterio and even Sasha Banks bust it out from time to time. Here, you see Amanda doing it and it's not a pretty sight.

The more I see Diamonte (formerly Angel Rose) work, the more I'm becoming a fan of her work. At first, I was questioning why Konnan picked her for this iteration of LAX, but now I see that she definitely fits their unorthodox style.


Leva Bates def. Allie


The opening bits of this match was just freakin' adorable. Bayley could take notes here from Allie on how to be a bubbly, squeaky clean babyface. It's hard NOT to love Allie's innocence here. I found myself chuckling at Allie's remark of "You're pretty good!" at Leva's performance. Allie's selling herself short as she seems to be pretty deadset on not turning up her ring work up a notch until the inevitable feud between her and Rosemary at some point. I'm guessing that Impact Wrestling are saving that for Bound For Glory since those two killed it in their rivalry on the indies prior to joining the company. I'm glad that Leva Bates was able to show off more of her in-ring talents here other than being a comedy act here, even though that came to play by the end.

If I had anything to knock on this match is that it's the second match on this card with a distraction finish. I get they are trying to continue/play off the fallout of the Maria Kanellis-Alllie storyline, but these one-off iPPVs need to have some closure in my eyes, especially if you are going to sell these as stand-alone affairs.


Rosemary (w/ Crazzzy Steve) def. MJ Jenkins


The more I see of MJ Jenkins, the more I like her persona and her ring work. I like that she got a chance to cut a promo here to show that she wasn't afraid of the Decay. I just fear that she might fall into that tired "sassy black girl" trope that Sojo Bolt fell into and a ton of black female wrestlers find themselves trapped into in WWE.

Rosemary's awesome, simply put. From her persona, appearance, mannerisms, and in-ring ability, she's a force to be reckoned with and there's room for more growth too. Her and Jenkins had some great chemistry here and I would love to see them square off again later down the line. I hope Jenkins is a lock to be a mainstay for this new crop of Knockouts.


Alicia Edwards (Alexxis Neveah) def. Sienna


I haven't seen too much of Alicia's work prior to coming to Impact Wrestling as much as I should have but what I have seen here wasn't bad. It just seemed like your run of the mill Knockouts match. Alicia seemed a bit nervous to be working in front of the Impact Zone's fans but she managed to keep up with Sienna.

Much like my earlier complaint to the matches on this show, there was another distraction finish here, bringing the total count to 3 in one show. C'mon, TNA, don't be as bad as WWE with the roll-up being the strongest finisher in the company...


Santana Garrett (formerly Brittany) def. Brandi Rhodes


A strong candidate for the match of the night with Brandi surprising everyone by keeping up with Santana, move for move. Even I was pleasantly surprised here by Brandi's performance.

I get sick and tired of hearing WWE marks saying that WWE needs to sign Santana. They had MULTIPLE opportunities to do so and didn't jump on it. Besides, WWE has more than enough talent that they don't know what to do with 95% of them most of the time. I rather not see Santana go there and end up being a waste to her talents when she's lost in the shuffle. At least Impact Wrestling dropped her previous gimmick and is acknowledging her by the name that she's made for herself since leaving the promotion. She's one hell of a worker and a women's champion for roughly every promotion she's appeared in. She would be a solid talent to be a part of this new generation of Knockouts to build this division around.

She's got a great, marketable look and talented to boot. She's not bad on the mic either from the few indie promos I have seen her cut on YouTube for various promotions, so I don't see any downside on offering her a spot on the roster. If I were TNA, I'd jump at the chance to have her as a lock on my women's division.

I don't want to sell Brandi short here either. This was definitely her best performance out of her few matches on Impact Wrestling to date. I know people have been shitting on her talents so far, but give this girl some time. It's not like she had the chance to do this in WWE regularly. She's coming along in her growth better than a lot of the girls currently in NXT and some of the newer faces on the main roster to boot. Given some time, I'm sure she'll be as impressive as Taryn Terrell and Brooke Tessmacher at the height of their careers.


ODB def. Rebel


I remember seeing something similar to this when Rebel and ODB fought on Impact Wrestling's TV tapings a few weeks prior to this and there was a bit too much comedy here for my taste. It seems like these two love getting Earl Hebner involved into their "sexy" antics in their matches and it was pretty hit or miss here. I felt this was a wasted spot on this card as I was honestly looking forward to see how much Rebel has improved after cutting that promo earlier tonight and how she would bounce back from embarrassing herself during last year's Knockouts Knockdown event against Shelly Martinez/Salinas.

From what she did here was solid for the most part, but doesn't scream anything groundbreaking to blow away critics of her performance last year. If both of these ladies are looking to be taken seriously as mainstays of the Knockouts division, they might want to dial it back a bit with the comedy bits.


Laurel Van Ness def. Rachel Ellering


Now THIS is the Rachel Ellering I want to see as part of the Knockouts division. From the way that the commentary team was pointing out that TNA Management could sign anyone on the roster to the Knockouts division on the spot, I was thinking Rachel was going to get a spot from her hard work here, despite her shoulder injury. I dunno why she sold herself short on Impact Wrestling's TV tapings a few weeks ago, but she put on one hell of a performance here. I wouldn't mind seeing more from a full blown feud between her and Laurel Van Ness. Who knows, Impact might end up giving her the contract that NXT never offered her, despite her dad's brown-nosing over there and being forced to manage a shitty tag team.

Sucks that LVN came out with the win, but whatever. I hope Impact are wise to sign Rachel Ellering to a full-time contract after this because I would like to see what else she can do given a full-time deal.


Alicia Edwards, Santana Garrett, Leva Bates, and ODB def. Angelina Love, Rosemary, Diamonte, and Laurel Van Ness


By this point, I mentally kicked myself that they were going for a heels versus faces main event since they scrapped the usual battle royal finale for the previous Knockouts Knockdown events. This was a welcome change of pace, but it didn't really do much for everyone involved. It came down to be your run of the mill Knockouts match, with a few sweet spots thrown in. TNA seems to love that spot where all of the girls get their finishers in though until someone gets the win. Even the WWE girls are starting to recycle that one.

I wasn't too crazy about Alicia Edwards picking up the win here as I felt they should have let Santana Garrett or Leva Bates get the full-time contract, but I guess it can't be helped since roughly everyone in this match were already signed with the company anyway. Since they didn't let Leva or Santana pick up the win, I'm guessing that they didn't sign deals with the company (yet... I hope) so they went with the sure bet since they have to give Alicia a means to get payback on Angelina Love's assaults on her legally within kayfabe, so I can't complain in that aspect.

Karen Jarrett must be shopping in stores for that Stephanie McMahon authority figure collection, huh?


Closing Thoughts


I was taken back that Anthem abandoned the Knockouts Knockdown moniker for these annual Knockouts specials for Victory Road, but by the time it was said and done, it didn't bother me. This is still a Knockouts-themed event from top to bottom and I can't complain with what was offered here. The ladies - old and new - were given plenty of time to shine and show off their various personas and in-ring ability, while some were even able to cut a few promos to boot. I can only hope and pray that WWE takes some nods from these events (and possibly ChickFight) for their upcoming Women's Tournament later this year and for their three women's divisions as a whole.

Is this the best Knockouts themed event that Impact Wrestling has held to date? No, but they are still in this rebuilding/restructuring phase in the right direction. Showcasing these new Knockouts who will be staples to the division moving forward is the right way to go. I just wish Impact did a better job of promoting this event as I had NO idea that this was available until I saw the pirated upload of the entire show on my YouTube timeline over the weekend.
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