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I watched Impact this week for the first time in over a month. To be honest, I stopped watching because after Raw, NXT, and Lucha, by the time I got to Friday I was done with wrestling for the week. If Impact was a must-see show it would be a different story, but for the time being, TNA is the product that got the short end of my viewing straw. I tuned in this week because of all the hype for “Night of Knockouts” and I wanted to see if the show delivered on its promise in the title. It half did.
I don’t read Impact spoilers, so I had no idea what was to come on the episode. Maybe this is my fault for making an assumption after not watching the product for four weeks, but when I heard “Night of Knockouts” I thought it would be an entire episode dedicated to the female roster. What actually aired was about a 50/50 split. The opening and closing of the show were both male in-rings. EC3 had a long (and awesome) in-ring segment. The women had three matches on the show and an in-ring with Mickie James. While that is more coverage then the female talent usually receive, it was hardly enough to warrant the title of “Night of Knockouts.” Without all the hype, it would have come across as a normal episode of Impact.
As for the Knockout content that was on the show - I liked the Dollhouse. It was very weird and came off well. An idea may sound great on paper but if the performers can’t pull it off then it will fail. Jade and Marti Belle deserve a huge amount of credit for bringing someone’s cool idea to life. The swerve later on with their new member and possible leader has me curious to see what happens next. Laura Dennis (Cherry Bomb) debuted and looked great in the ring, although we didn’t get to hear her talk. I was puzzled, though, as to why TNA decided to have her wear Cherry Bomb on her tights, cherry arm bands, mention that she is called Cherry Bomb elsewhere, but then call her Laura Dennis.
Taryn Terrell and Awesome Kong had a good match. The four-way match was pretty decent. If TNA truly wanted to, they could have used the entire broadcast for the Knockouts. Rebel wasn’t on the show. Havok was nowhere to be seen. The four-way could have been split into two matches. Did we really need to see another angle where one guy wants to fight another guy at the top of his game to have a good match and let the best man win? That gets old fast. We saw it with Bobby Roode and Lashley. We saw it with Bobby Roode and Eric Young. We saw it with Kurt Angle and Lashley. And now we saw Kurt Angle trying it with Eric Young. It could have waited. It wasn’t must-see. Maybe some people don’t consider the Knockouts must-see, but it was the reason I tuned in. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
I know TNA isn’t a company of just women. They have more males on their roster than females - but they were the ones who decided to name an episode “Night of Knockouts.” I wish they would have fully followed through with it. Hopefully someday we will get to see a promotion dedicated entirely to women’s wrestling on a national scale. I believe the market is there. I know the talent is there.
Follow Jeff on Twitter: @JeffLane22
