10/22/09 iMPACT
RAISHA SAEED BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-Saeed says she knows Kong so well that she knows what Kong is going to do before Kong does. This is eerily similar to something I wrote in a previous column (KNOCKED OUT: Booking Sarah Stock).
AWESOME KONG BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-Those who have heard her cut promos outside of TNA know that Kong is actually really good on the mic. I never understood why the writers didn’t let her talk until recently. Sure, not talking added to her mystique, but it also hindered her character development. As long as they keep her promos short and sweet like this you get the same effect without needing the pointless Raisha Saeed character.
MEANEST GIRLS: BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, SARITA & TAYLOR WILDE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-Wow, that was incredibly stupid. TBP start a food fight with Sarita & Taylor and then lay them out. I mean, really, what was the point? TBP were beaten easily by the babyfaces on two PPVs in a row. It’s not as if they have any argument whatsoever for deserving a third title shot any time soon. The best thing you could say about this segment was that it was short.
RAISHA SAEED vs. AWESOME KONG
-I hate to sound like a broken record, but this really needed to be a lot longer. This was a break up angle the writers spent months building up for characters that have been partners for two years. To only give this thing three minutes and change was absolutely ridiculous. This match should’ve been three times as long at least.
-They did manage to tell a story with Saeed having all of Kong’s moves scouted, but again, it would’ve been so much more effective if the match had been given more time.
-For some reason, this was the most mobile (for lack of a better word) that Melissa Anderson has ever seemed to me as the Saeed character. Maybe she was excited to finally be getting rid of the Muslim gimmick. I know I would’ve been if I were in her shoes.
-Really cool bump through the stage after the match; you never see the WWE Divas taking bumps like that. They air footage of Saeed being stretchered out of the building after the commercial break. Hopefully, the next time we see her she’ll be beating the hell out of Kong with one hand and tearing off the burqa with the other… unless this was just them phasing out the Saeed character for her to never be seen or heard from again, in which case it will have been an unbelievable waste of a fantastic potential feud.
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10/29/09 iMPACT
AWESOME KONG TEARS APART BOOKER T’S OLD DRESSING ROOM
-That’s one terrifying woman, not to mention one big FU to the departing Booker T.
“FUTURE LEGEND” ALISSA FLASH vs. TARA. AWESOME KONG ATTACKS POST-MATCH
-Solid match that wasn’t overly short like iMPACT matches usually are. Tara kind of botched her finisher a little bit, but it was a good effort from both women.
-There were dueling “Let’s go, Tara!” and “Future legend!” chants during the match. Alissa has been able to get over better than a lot of the other women on the roster despite always being booked to lose. When the hell are they going to get a clue and start pushing this woman?
-Alissa didn’t even get her entrance shown this week. Instead they were airing footage of the Hulk Hogan media conference. I was completely against TNA signing Hogan in the first place and stuff like this is certainly not going to change that.
-Just like they did during her match with Hamada, the announcers emphasized how much a win here would do for Alissa in terms of future title shots. I wonder if they could be going somewhere with this, but I’m not very optimistic at this point.
-Speaking of Alissa’s match with Hamada, what happened to that feud?
-What in the world does Alissa have to do to get a push? Velvet freakin’ Sky can get a push, but Alissa can’t? What manner of horse crap is this?
-Judging from the post-match attack, it looks like we’re in for another run with Awesome Kong as the top heel. I have mixed feelings about that, to be honest. Not that Kong isn’t great in that spot, but the problem is we’ve seen it before. Kong as the dominant top heel got old during her second title reign. The top heel spot really should’ve gone to Alissa. Kong would be much more valuable in the tag team division right now; plus, it would be something new for her.
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE vs. ODB ©, HAMADA & CHRISTY HEMME. KONG & TARA FIGHT POST-MATCH
-If you put the other five women in this match together, they still wouldn’t be half as good as Hamada is. This can’t be all they have planned for Hamada. Losing a 6-woman tag match to TBP when a blind person can see that she could outwrestle all three of them by herself? Playing the babyface-in-peril role? Having Christy Hemme on her team? Are you kidding me? Are they actually TRYING to waste Hamada’s talent? She should be blowing the roof off the place with Kong, Alissa, Sarita and Taylor, not wasting her time with losers like this.
-Lacey did exactly two moves in this match and they both looked awful. I don’t think she could’ve botched that chokeslam more if she’d tried. Seriously, why is this woman on television? She needs to go back to wrestling school in the worst way.
-Why are Velvet, Madison & Lacey STILL being pushed? TNA has several of the best women wrestlers in the world on their roster and THESE are the women who get pushed?! This is intolerable!
-Hamada was calmly kneeling on the ring apron just a few feet away as Christy was getting pinned and yet never tried to break it up. What gives?
-It looks like we’re finally going to get that Tara vs. Kong singles match at Turning Point. It should’ve happened at Bound for Glory, but better late than never.
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11/05/09 iMPACT
MEANEST GIRLS: THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE ATTACK ODB IN THE MAKEUP ROOM
-Dear God… this was even worse than the first Meanest Girls segment a few weeks ago. I didn’t even think that was possible, but they proved me wrong, and something tells me there’s worse to come.
-Why on earth is this push of TBP still not over? Can anyone answer me that? Is it really that hard to make a new tag team for Sarita & Taylor to feud with?
TARA vs. HAMADA
-That’s it? They just throw away Tara vs. Hamada like this? They gave this thing less than three minutes! Are you ###ing kidding me?! Why even do it at all? This should’ve been treated like a big marquee match between two of the top female competitors in not just the company, but the entire industry, and they presented it like it meant less than nothing. What an unbelievable waste.
-I can’t believe they didn’t save this match for PPV. I can’t believe they just crapped all over Hamada like this. This woman was on their list of candidates to be their new top Knockout babyface, for God’s sake. If they wanted Tara to squash some loser before Kong showed up, that’s what they have Sojourner Bolt for. Someone as talented as Hamada should be exempt from garbage like this.
-Why did TNA even sign Hamada in the first place if they obviously have no idea what to do with her?
-Tenay mentions that Tara vs. Kong at Turning Point will be in the 6 Sides of Steel. Um… what? When was that even announced? Not that it doesn’t sound cool and all, but we just had a 6 sides of steel match on iMPACT a few weeks ago. Why the hell would they give us a cage match for free barely a month before they want us to pay to see one on PPV? Mankind has not yet invented a system to properly gauge how counterproductive this booking is.
TARA BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-Good, short interview, but was there something wrong with these women having a regular singles match BEFORE having a cage match. If this feud escalates so damn quickly it’s not going to have any legs and they’ll have nowhere left to go two months from now.
MADISON RAYNE vs. TAYLOR WILDE. LACEY VON ERICH & VELVET SKY INTERFERE. SARITA & ODB MAKE THE SAVE
-They must have cut out the part of that talent meeting that started the show where Dixie Carter issued the mandate that no wrestling match on iMPACT can last longer than the length of a piss break. The match was fine for the few seconds it lasted, but how the hell are matches this short going to sell PPVs? They’re not, and that’s the whole problem.
-Lacey came out brandishing a pink night stick labeled “ugly stick”. I bet they’ll have that on ShopTNA.com pretty soon. You know, if the writers put even half as much energy into marketing the rest of the women on the roster as they put into marketing TBP, the Knockout division would not be in the troubled state that it’s in right now.
-Now they’re saying that all three women’s championships are going to be on the line in a 6-woman tag match at Turning Point. If it wasn’t obvious that the babyfaces are going to win that match before, it is now. I’m sorry, but I just can’t suspend my disbelief far enough to think that Lacey ‘Rhaka Blonde’ Von Erich is going to walk out of that PPV as the Knockouts champion. If it was a non-title match then at least you’d think there was a chance the heels could take that one, but now there’s no chance at all and everyone knows it.
DR. STEVIE & DAFFNEY BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-Daffney actually got to talk this week, but otherwise it was business as usual. Daffney stands next to Stevie Richards and that’s it.
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11/12/09 iMPACT
DR. STEVIE (w/ DAFFNEY) vs. ABYSS. RAVEN RETURNS POST-MATCH
-Another small yet pointless role for Daffney. Not much else to say than that.
-I’m not sure what kind of youth movement involves bringing back Raven again for the sole purpose of prolonging The Feud That Would Not Die, thus providing Stevie Richards with a reason to still be on television.
DR. STEVIE, RAVEN & DAFFNEY BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-Lather, rinse, repeat. Poor Daffney.
“FUTURE LEGEND” ALISSA FLASH vs. TRACI BROOKS
-Holy crap! Alissa finally wins a match! And it’s not even my birthday!
-It was pointed out in the spoilers that this match took place before the taping began. I assumed it would be a webmatch. I’m certainly not complaining, but I do wonder what happened behind the scenes that lead to this match getting on the show. One thing that comes to mind was Dixie Carter asking for the fans’ opinions via her twitter page on who they want to see get pushed. She said she was going to make changes to show based on the feedback she received. I tweeted her, asking her to push (among other people) Alissa Flash. Could this be the start of a push for Alissa based on the fans’ feedback? Damn, I hope so.
-This was a weird segment. Alissa was playing the heel during the match, attacking Traci’s handicapped arm, which Tenay called attention to, and she got a big babyface reaction for it. Then when Traci retaliated after the match, which the announcers were sympathetic about, the crowd booed Traci. Seriously, this was bizarre.
-I think the intention here was to make us feel bad for Traci, and it might have worked if Alissa wasn’t far more over than she is, but that’s not what happened. The end result was Alissa looking like a badass and Traci looking like a sore loser.
-So… is Alissa still a heel or was this a face turn for her? Is Traci still a heel or was she the one turning face? On a show written by Vince Russo it’s not always clear who the good guys and bad guys are. The announcers took Traci’s side, but the crowd was firmly behind Alissa who didn’t technically do anything wrong. Was she supposed to NOT target a weakness her opponent had? I’m confused…
-I liken Alissa to Awesome Kong. She might be a heel, but she’s such a badass that the fans get behind her because they love to see her beat the hell out of people. If only her push matched the response she gets from the fans. They clearly love this woman and the writers have just refused to get behind her so far for reasons I can’t figure out. I can only hope that her win here is a sign that that’s about to change.
-This wasn’t really a match; just a quick squash. But I’m so thrilled that Alissa finally won a damn match that I don’t even care.
THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE & AWESOME KONG vs. TARA, ODB ©, SARITA & TAYLOR WILDE ©
-So Kong isn’t mad at TBP anymore for cutting her hair off a few months ago? Are we just forgetting about that? Kong really doesn’t strike me as the forgive-and-forget type. I’m just saying…
-The first time in three weeks that the production team cuts to a commercial break during a wrestling match and it’s when Lacey Von Erich is in the ring and on the offense. Could there possibly be a clearer message?
-Sarita being made to sell for Lacey makes me want to cry and vomit simultaneously.
-Lacey is awful. Absolutely awful. She doesn’t even belong in the same ring as Sarita. I have no idea why this woman is getting such a push, but I look forward to Turning Point where, hopefully, she will be exposed as the horrible worker she is and this push of TBP will finally come to an end.
-Did we really need to see TBP on the offense for that much of the match? Really? When you have Sarita, Taylor & Tara on the other team what is the point of having Velvet and Lacey carrying so much of the action? When management books a match like that it’s like that actually WANT it to suck. I don’t get it.
-I’m just dreading this 6-woman tag match at the PPV right now. With Lacey on live TV they’re not going to be able to edit out her botches in post-production, which means we’re in for one UGLY match. Madison should do fine and the babyfaces are good enough to carry Velvet, but I can only hope that the bookers will be smart enough to limit Lacey’s involvement to doing absolutely nothing except tagging in and getting pinned. Of course, even if that happens, Lacey would probably still find a way to botch something.
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11/15/09 Turning Point
-Earlier this week, TNA management finally came to their senses and released Sojourner ‘don’t call me SomeJobber’ Bolt. Wow… first Alissa wins her match on iMPACT and now this; this has been the best week ever! Seriously, the only surprising thing about this is that it actually took them this long to figure out what a waste of money Bolt was. She’s been stinking up the ring in TNA for over a year. Why did they wait so long to get rid of her? If even Awesome Kong and Taylor Wilde couldn’t carry her to watchable matches then what was the point of keeping her around, even as a token jobber? Why keep her on the roster when she wasn’t over in the slightest, couldn’t wrestle to save her life and wasn’t even particularly good looking? Beats me.
-So long, Bolt. I’ll miss making fun of your stupid name. Otherwise, I’m not going to lose any sleep over this. No offense.
-With Bolt gone, it frees up some space on the roster and Sara Del Rey’s chances of getting a contract offer just got a little better. Sara had her match at the TNA house show in Wayne, NJ this Friday and Dixie Carter was complimentary about it on her twitter page. I’ve got my fingers crossed…
-If you want Ms. Carter to sign Sara, then tweet her at www.twitter.com/TNADixie and let her know like I did.
ALL TITLES ON THE LINE: THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE vs. ODB ©, SARITA & TAYLOR WILDE ©
-Just before the match started the announcers pointed out that it’s not ALL the titles at stake, but actually the singles title OR the tag team titles, depending on who gets pinned. Why they didn’t bother to explain that before tonight I have no idea, but this new wrinkle made me very nervous that the tag titles might actually change hands here.
-There was a fan in the front row with a sign that read “Lacey Von Botch”. That sounds right to me. Taz actually acknowledged the sign, which was pretty funny.
-Hey, TNA management, I have a question for you. When the fans chant “You can’t wrestle!” at Lacey, don’t you think that’s a sign that you should keep her out of the ring, or at the very least, NOT give her title shots?
-The match was better than I thought it would be, at least when Madison Rayne was carrying the action for the heels. Not surprising, since Madison is the only one of TBP that can wrestle worth a crap. She had a nice little sequence with Sarita early on. Sure, the offense was all Sarita, but Madison did her part too. She also showed a lot of personality here. Madison has definitely grown as a performer since she’s been in TNA. It’s too bad the writers don’t make better use of her, but then you can say that about a lot of people on the roster right now.
-The right team won and the right woman got the pin, but why Lacey wasn’t booked to take the pin for the heels makes no sense. Get a freaking clue, TNA writers. This woman is worthless!
-That makes three title shots, three unimpressive performances and three losses in a row for TBP. This feud HAS to be over now. I don’t care how the writers try to rationalize it -- there is absolutely no way TBP getting a fourth title shot after this would make any sense whatsoever, and if there’s a God, they won’t. It’s high time to bring on some new challengers -- REAL challengers this time -- for the tag titles.
-I think it’s safe to say that the Lacey Von Erich experiment has been a failure, and that’s putting it lightly. She’s just embarrassing herself out there. Get this woman off my TV.
-I’m going to say this one final time: TNA, if you can’t get Angelina Love back, then break up TBP, or at the very least, deemphasize them, because they are nothing without her.
6 SIDES OF STEEL CAGE MATCH: TARA vs. AWESOME KONG
-Strong cage match with some nice high impact moves. I really liked the powerbomb spot. It wasn’t everything I was hoping for, not through any fault of the wrestlers, but because they teased this feud for ages and almost anything less than sheer brilliance would’ve been a let down after all that build up. But I won’t take away anything from the match, which was very good, although it could have been great if not for one nagging problem…
-After all the months of build up, couldn’t they have given this match more time? This really deserved more than ten minutes, but it only got around eight and that simply wasn’t enough. It just ended up feeling like they went for the big finish way too soon.
-I couldn’t believe that missile dropkick from Kong. People always make a big deal out of her size and power, but she’s deceptively agile and it’s easy to forget that. Then when she breaks out a move like that it’s a jaw-dropping moment every time, just like that summersault splash off the top turnbuckle she did at Lockdown earlier this year.
-Great effort from Tara in this match. I didn’t think she was going to dive off the top of the cage. Not to sound sexist or anything, but you just don’t normally expect women to do stuff like that, which makes it that much more impressive when they do.
-Tara going over here gave this a “blow off” match vibe. They definitely sold it like it was. I guess they’re taking the opposite approach to this feud as they have with SariTaylor vs. TBP. Looks like this was one-and-done, whereas the tag title feud is one match after another after another. I don’t know if I agree with that, but it did give this match a special feel.
-The announcers imply that Tara knocked Kong off her perch as the top Knockout in the company tonight. I don’t know what this means for Kong, but it might be a good idea if the writers scaled her back and focused on some of the other girls for a little while. It’s nothing against Kong, but she doesn’t have to be on top of the division all the time. I’d like to see them do something different with her. Even the most charismatic star can become stale if they’re constantly doing the same old thing.
-Post-match, Tara says she’s going after ODB’s title. I’d say she deserves the belt after that match. Plus, this finally gives ODB a program of her own so she doesn’t have to piggyback on other people’s feuds. It’s about time.
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