On the January 26, 2012 episode of Impact Wrestling, Tara, Mickie James and Velvet Sky faced off in a match to determine who would face Gail Kim at Against All Odds for the Knockouts Championship, and Angelina Love & Winter faced ODB & Eric Young in an intergender Tag Team Match…
Knockouts – January 26, 2012 Impact Wrestling Match:
Triple Threat Number One Contenders Knockouts Match
Velvet Sky vs. Tara vs. Mickie James
-The very first match of the night saw Velvet Sky, Mickie James & Tara face off in a triple threat match to earn the right to face Gail Kim at Against All Odds for the Knockouts Championship. All three woman got their own individual entrances and before the match started shook hands, but after that it was no holds barred. The almost seven minute match saw great back and forth action from all three women and some unique spots including Tara back bending out of a Mickie James clothesline, which ends up taking out Velvet Sky instead and Velvet hitting some mighty impressive chops on James and some mid kicks to Tara in sequence. The false end with James hitting a Mick Kick on Tara, only for Tara to grab the ropes kept the drama high. The ending saw Tara hit a Spider Web on Velvet Sky onto Mickie James, with Tara pinning James to claim a shot at Gail’s Knockouts Championship.
Post match: Tara celebrates in the ring, while Gail is show backstage and congratulates Tara, before stating that she will retain her titles, as she’s the best Knockouts Champion ever.
Winner: Tara
Thoughts: Nice fast paced match. In some spots it felt a little too fast paced. A couple times it felt like people were out of place and the flow of the match was messed up a little bit. I love watching Mickie and Tara work together. They are seriously two of the best mainstream women in wrestling today. I was pretty impressed with Velvet as well. I’ve never been a huge fan of her in ring work, but these last six months she has really been impressing me. I would have maybe liked a couple more minutes and some nifty double team maneuvers, but none the less: Nice job ladies!
Latter on back stage: Tara talks about facing Gail Kim at Against All Odds and having to add some moves to her repertoire.
Knockouts – January 26, 2012 Impact Wrestling Match:
Mixed Tag-Team Match
Angelina Love & Winter vs. ODB & Eric Young
- Angelina Love and Winter enter first followed by ODB and her boyfriend (?) Eric Young. After wasting time with Eric’s stupid shenanigans we finally get a match when ODB blind tags herself into the match and we finally get some wrestling. As always ODB works over her two Knockout opponents with power moves until Eric distracts the referee, allowing a cheap shot to reverse the tide of the match, until ODB hits a series of shoulder blocks and then a Fallaway Slam, Winter then comes in, prompting Young to come in as well. The two love birds hit synchronized Air Plan Spins, ODB then finishes off Love with a TKO and secures the win for her team.
Part One: (Skip to 4:35)
Part Two:
Winners: ODB & Eric Young
Thoughts: Yet again Eric Young ruined another Knockouts match with his shenanigans. I know a lot of people are loving this little Eric Young/ODB pairing, but to me it’s just annoying. I hate that the Knockouts are losing screen time to a big ole’ goof, just because he’s super over with the crowd. I’d rather it be one of the other Knockouts, but alas it isn’t.I’m very much ready for this “feud” to be over.
Overall I really liked the triple threat match and am really looking forward to Tara vs. Gail Kim.