TNA Knockout's Knockdown

So, this is the latest in TNA's One Night Only PPV series, which airs free in the international markets. Markets like the UK, so this was a free show on Challenge. I enjoyed the TNA Knocked Out DVD I reviewed last year, so I went into this with some, admittedly minor, hopes that it might be good.

Gail Kim vs Alissa Flash
Gail is a a bit cocky early on, at least until she gets planted by a Flash German suplex. Flash tries a giant swing into the safety rail, but Kim grabs the rail to stop it, and instead rams Flash into it to take control. Gail retains control with some fun offence including the slick corner cross body. They also show Kim's smarts, as she grabs the ropes to break a deathlock variation, then delivers a quick kick to the head before Flash can react to regain control. Flash comes back with some nice aggression, culminating with curb stomp for 2. Ultimately, Kim is victorious, as she avoids a corner charge, before hitting Eat Defeat for 3. Fun match to open up.

Lei'D Tapa vs Ivelise
Tapa is substantially bigger than Ivelise. Because of this, Ivelise has to fight from below, using a quick flurry of kicks to try and take control. Tapa is not at all graceful, but her size means moves have a bit more oomph than they would otherwise. Tapa hits a really sloppy press slam, bearly getting Ivelise up. Tapa hasn't got much offence so keeps using clothelines to stop Ivelise comebacks. An Ivelise comeback rana looks awkward as Tapa struggled to bump for it. Ivelise locks in a guillotine and bizarrely what I thought was an Ivelise DDT turns out to have been a shonky looking Tapa slam for 3. This wasn't great, but Ivelise looked really good

Tara vs Mia Yim
Tara uses her relative strength early on to dominate, but spends a lot of time flirting with Jesse Godderz at ringside, which allows Yim back into the match. Some Godderz interference gives Tara the advantage, and I like how Tara shows a bit more aggression, as if Yim has embarrassed her by getting in some offence. We do get one odd blown spot, where Yim runs the ropes and barely touches Tara, before getting back on track with Yim getting her knees up on a standing Tara moonsault. Yim hits a nice Asai and a German suplex for two. Some more Godderz interference causes Yim to miss a corkscrew moonsault and Tara hits the Widow's Peak for the win.

Miss Techmacher vs Santana
Santana dominates and takes Tessmacher to the mat early. This is the first match where the outside talent has dominated a good chunk of the match, as Santana works over Tessmacher's arm and . Tessmacher has to fight back to get back in and, even after hitting a running corner charge, she goes back on defence as Santana quickly regains control. A missed handstand moonsault by Santana gives Tessmacher the chance to hit a facebuster to win, but Santana really was in control for most of this and looked good doing so. Fun match.

ODB vs Trinity
First time Trinity has been in TNA for years. Some early ODB advantage sees Trinity leave the ring, but ODB chases her out there to dish out a bit more. A missed splash by ODB gives Trinity the advantage, though nothing much really happens. It's pretty unexciting until ODB comes back with a meaty looking clothesline. ODB gets pissed up from her hipflask, and hits a corner splash, a bronco buster and a TKO for an easy win. Pretty much a squash.

Taryn Terrell vs Jackie Moore
The announcers hype up how tough Jackie is, and she in in charge early to prove this, just throwing Taryn around the ring. A lot of Jackie chinlocks do nothing to help make this match exciting. Taryn gets back on offence and, though not everything looks too crisp, she always looks suitably fired up which covers up a lot of flaws. Spear gets two for Taryn. Taryn misses a bulldog and Jackie dropkicks her in the face for three. Pretty brief and not too good whilst it lasted, though I liked Taryn's energy.

Sojo Bolt vs Taeler Hendrix vs Hannah Blossom
Sojo and Taeler look to be teaming up early, and fool Hannah into joining a three way lock up, only to double team her. A double team submission on Blossom looks particularly nasty. However, their partnership breaks apart as they clearly hadn't planned ahead to realise only one of them could win, and they too start to fight. This allows Blossom to fire back on Hendrix, though her offensive flurry doesn't last long. More miscommunication between the heels allows Hannah to nail a big boot to Hendrix for the win. This was ok, played mainly for comedy, but perfectly fine.

Velvet Sky vs Jillian Hall
Jillian treats us to some pre-match singing. Even early on, this is pretty poor as Velvet's offence is paperthin. They clumsily tumble to the outside, where Jillian throws Velvet into the steps in a tough looking bump. Jillian retains control, which is probably for the best, as at least her offence is better. I love Taz telling Velvet off for kicking out of a pin, when grabbing the rope would've used less energy. A terrible suplex-facebuster gives Velvet an opening, but Jillian hits one of the shittiest victory rolls in history for a two. Velvet gets In Yo Face for three. This was really bad.

Serena Deeb vs Mickie James
Nice hug to start, which sort of previews the story of the match. The opening sees both girls battling for position, trying to get control of the match. They shake hands again, and the second stage features a bit more aggression and a higher pace, highlighted by a few Serena elbows to the face. The third handshake is more of a hand-slap as a bit more edge comes into their exchanges. Things start getting really good, with a nice knucklock exchange before Mickie sends Serena out of the ring. I love Serena subtly showing how the Mickie chants are getting to her with her facial expressions, and she grabs a headlock instead of accepting the next handshake. Having sent Mickie to the floor, she kicks Mickie as she climbs back in the ring, before unleashing a flurry of blows. This aggression goes against her though, as she misses a corner charge at full speed and Mickie hits a desperation neckbreaker. James hits the top rope Thesz press and the DDT to win. Easily match of the night.

Queen of the Knockouts Gauntlet
As with usual TNA rules, it's through the rope elimination to start, before the final two face off in a normal match. Hannah Blossom and Gail Kim are the first two. Gail blitzes her from the get go and, despite a small flurry of offence, Hannah is swiftly eliminated. Tapa is next in, and provides more of a test to Gail, though it's more a case of dominating her with size than offence, as Gail doesn't seem to be in trouble. Tara's entry provides a break for Gail, as Tara and Tapa face off, though Tara can't life Tapa up due to her size. By the time Mickie comes in, Tapa is dominating both. Mickie takes over on Tapa with a bit more success, though soon Tapa is dominating all three. Her offense isn't great, but she's got a great look. That said, she's soon eliminated as all three team up on her. Tessmacher comes in, as Tara and Kim start to team up on Mickie. Tessmacher goes straight for her ex-tag partner Tara in a nice bit of continuity. Jackie Moore is next up, and the heels start to work over Tessmacher and James. Not much is really happening, and ODB is in, which at least livens things up. Jackie is removed at roughly the same time as Velvet Sky enters. Velvet and ODB end up fighting on the apron, leading to Velvet outchopping ODB to eliminate her, before Gail and Tara swiftly eliminate Velvet and Tessmacher, leaving Mickie 2-on-1. Mickie manages to eliminate Tara with a kick to the midsection, and we end up with the pinfall section of the match between Gail and Mickie. Top rope Thesz press gets two for Mickie, but Gail feigns ankle injury after falling from the ropes. Mickie, clearly not having watched any wrestling in the last 30 years, falls for this and Gail rolls her up from behind to win. This was so boring, if they'd gone through the eliminations quicker and given us a longer Mickie/Gail match, this would've been so much better. The only effective bit of the battle royal was the early bit to make Tapa look like a monster, the rest was average at best.

TNA Slammiversary 2013

Kenny King vs Chris Sabin vs Suicide

This is an Ultimate X match for King’s X Division title. This is essentially a spotfest to warm up the crowd, but it’s a pretty good one. A couple of spots look a bit too contrived and require a bit too much co-operation, but everything was crisply executed. I liked a few of the details in the match too, such as how early on Suicide sent both opponents to the floor as if to set up for a dive, but instead ran for the corner to try and climb the structure. Similarly, I enjoyed Sabin realising both men were down, thinking about going for the belt, then suplexing Suicide onto King to make sure both men were incapacitated. This was the first time I’d seen TJ Perkins as Suicide, and he was great, with his series of feints and fakes before hitting a top rope dropkick to the floor being exceptionally good. No-one manages to make it to the cables in the first 5 minutes of the match, which allowed the tension of the match to build up. This had a rather abrupt ending, with King going for Suicide’s mask to stop him getting the title, before Sabin appeared from nowhere to down him and grab the title himself, but this was a fine opener,

Magnus, Samoa Joe & Jeff Hardy vs Mr Anderson, Garrett Bischoff & Wes Brisco

With all due respect, there isn’t a great array of talent on the heel side here, so it’s impressive that this is a perfectly decent 6-man tag. For example, there is no greater mismatch in this bout than Joe against Bischoff, but that segment was plenty of fun, due to both Joe’s onslaught and Bischoff’s surprisingly good selling. Magnus and Joe show their chemistry with some double-teaming on Anderson, but Magnus soon becomes face-in-peril after Anderson yanks his arm over the top rope. The heels wisely stick to an easy formula by using quick tags and focusing on the injured arm of Magnus, so this is all fun. The hot tag to Hardy comes a bit prematurely, but we at least get a hot finishing sequence, as Joe chokes out Anderson on the ramp, a distraction that leads to Brisco low-blowing Magnus and rolling him up, only for Hardy to strike with a Swanton during the pinfall. This gets three for the faces. Of note: Jeff Hardy looks surprisingly good with a beard.

 
Jay Bradley vs Sam Shaw

This really didn’t belong on PPV and did neither guy any favours as the crowd was dead for them, though they did rally a bit behind Shaw at the end. Shaw seemed to work like a poor man’s RVD, with some generic flippy offence, but I did quite like Bradley, whose offence at least looked like it hurt, as he slowed down proceedings with some measured blows. The Boom Stick lariat won the match for Bradley.

Devon vs Abyss

This was supposed to be Devon vs Joseph Park, but Devon and Knux destroyed him in the back, leading to Abyss coming out in his stead. Oddly, the majority of the match is spent with Devon dominating Abyss, until he misses a diving headbutt. Abyss wins with a chokeslam and a Black Hole Slam, but this feels like it should have been a 30 second squash. Having Abyss selling almost all match takes away any monster aura he may have.

Bad Influence vs Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez vs Bobby Roode  & Austin Aries vs James Storm & Gunner

I’ve long felt that Gunner is underrated (check the No Surrender 2011 review if you need proof), so I’m glad to see him getting a bit of a push at last. There was some nice continuity early on, with Roode wanting no piece of Storm and goading him about his choice of partner, yelling “He’s no Bobby Roode”, but cowering away when Gunner gets in. This broke down quickly, with team taking it in turn to clear the ring of each other. I did love Guerrero and Hernandez sprinting down the ramp to nail Bad Influence with flying shoulderblocks. Curiously, the only wrestler to really play face-in-peril is Hernandez, the largest guy in the match, as Roode, Aries, Kazarian and Daniels take over on him. Bad Influence are the first team eliminated, as Roode turns the ref round so he catches Daniels hitting Chavo with a belt for the DQ. Brilliantly, Aries swiftly pins Chavo seconds afterwards. This leaves Aries/Roode vs Storm/Gunner. The Storm/Roode segments are as good as you’d expect. Gunner gets isolated by the heels, who blitz him with a corner dropkick, spinebuster and 450 in quick succession, but he kicks out. This is played up huge, rather than just a finisher no-sell, which makes Gunner look great. Storm superkicks Aries into the Gun Rack, and Austin taps to give Storm & Gunner the titles. Decent little match, I suspect there’s a great match between the final two teams in the coming months.

Taryn Terrell vs Gail Kim

During the opening minutes of this match, where Terrell was throwing some terrible looking forearms, I feared for the worst. Well, that soon went out of the window as these two just went Hell for leather. It started with Terrell hitting a crossbody from the top onto Gail, who was holding a steel chair. It continued when Kim went hurtling across the ring into a chair propped up in the corner, sending her flying from the ring. Terrell added to the insane bumps with a missed dive sending her onto the entrance ramp. Finally, they decided to share the honours for brazen madness by both leaping from the ramp to oblivion (as it looked from the camera angle) as Taryn hit an Ace Crusher on Kim for the win. Just an absolute spectacle, and both wrestler deserve a load of credit for what they were willing to do. For Terrell to enter the match to a minimal reaction and to leave to “This is awesome” chants shows they were doing something right.

AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle

I’d not seen much of the “new” AJ before this match, and I was quite impressed. He seemed to be laying in his blows a lot more stiffly than before, and his kicks in particular looked good. I also liked the initial story work, with AJ targeting the injured leg of Angle, with his springboard dropkick to the leg looking great. At first, Angle sells the leg well, taking his time getting up again after levelling Styles with a clothesline. Soon, however, Kurt stops selling the leg all together, and just goes through a usual Angle match, which I’d have quite enjoyed if they’d just gone for that instead of focussing AJ working the leg early on. By the time Kurt nails AJ with 3 German suplexes, you’d forget he even had a leg injury. Even more bizarrely, they kill off AJ’s new Calf Killer submission by having Angle escape it, despite his “injured leg”. The end comes when AJ misses a springboard 450 and Angle downs him with a double-leg for the pin. The action was fine, but the decision to work an opening around a body part then totally ignoring it seems ridiculous.

Bully Ray vs Sting

Before the match, Bully threatened to hit Sting with a piledriver, which they hyped up as the deadliest move in wrestling. I loved Sting taking the fight to Bully right off, nailing the Stinger Splash at the bell. I also loved Sting whipping Bully with the title belt, which looked nasty. Tazz does a great job of putting over the danger of the piledriver, talking about how it affected his own career. Sting is busy wasting Ray with a chair, when an odd Brooke Hogan appearance distracted him and gave Bully the advantage. Bully hits the piledriver as threatened, which gets 2. A powerbomb through a table also gets 2. Bully then removes the canvas to leave only bare boards in the ring for a second piledriver, but Sting just kicks out. Bully is great at selling the shock here, and this really showed Sting’s desire to win. Sting suddenly hits the Scorpion Death Drop on the boards, but Aces & 8’s attack to stop him winning. Sting tries to fight them off (with Garrett Bischoff taking a huge bump to the entrance ramp), but Bully nails him in the head with a hammer as he dives from the top rope to win. Really fun match, even with the ending, as it really highlighted how dangerous Aces & 8’s are as a faction. I would have had an issue with no TNA wrestlers coming to help, but they seem to be making that part of an angle, so at least they acknowledge how odd it seems. Pretty darn fine PPV on the whole.