When I heard that Lacey Von Erich was signed to TNA Wrestling, I immediately thought she would be like Lauren or So Cal Val. You know, one of the people there to look good, occasionally ask questions, and stay away from in-ring action.
But, when I saw she was taking the place of Angelina Love in "The Beautiful People", I immediately was taken back.
Love was released for contract issues; her Visa was not handled correctly since day one in TNA, when TNA realized they could have the law on their back, they were forced to release the former Knockout Champion.
If she would have stayed in TNA, she and Velvet Sky were going to be the new Knockout Tag Team Champions, but as we know Sarita and Taylor Wilde ended up winning them because they were the next best in line.
It is unclear who will win the titles in the future, but many think Sky and Rayne could at Bound for Glory. I highly doubt it, but you never know.
Love was considered the best female talent in the company, and she was given a Knockout Title reign and leadership in the Beautiful People faction because of it. With her release, it basically killed the Beautiful People.
TNA couldn't make Rayne or Velvet the new leader, nor could they dominate the Knockout Division like they did before. Because of the way their characters are, it wouldn't work if they did.
This was the reason TNA wanted to get a new leader for the group, but they chose the wrong person with Lacey Von Erich.
While she fits the mold as far as being Beautiful goes, her in-ring work is less than stellar, which should not be because this group is supposed to be the one that dominates the division.
The once seemingly unbeatable group now looks like they can be beaten by a high school cheer squad.
In any case, TNA probably realizes that LVE is not the best in-ring talent, as she has yet to have a match in TNA Wrestling. This could be why she was not put in the tag title hunt with Sky and why Rayne was.
As we have seen in the past few weeks, LVE is just attacking the Knockouts from behind to help Sky and Rayne. And while that is good as far as making the faction look ok, it is not great to watch.
Her first night on iMPACT, she used the legendary Von Erich Claw. I like kayfabe as much as anyone, but lets be honest, this move should die like other finishers have that are just not believable.
Ok, the claw is applied to one's forehead with the palm of same hand the top of the nose. All the while the pressure forward is put on the hand (which supposedly puts more pressure on the forehead and nose) by the other free hand, pushing into the face.
At this point, one hand is on the face pushing forward while the other hand adds more pressure while being on top of the first hand applied.
The hand directly on the head has to push and squeeze, all the other hand does is push to help add so much pressure that it is "unbearable", and the person has no choice but to pass out or tap. Sometimes the hand rotates to sort of hurt the face more.
The issue is that while one hand is pushing forward, all a person has to do is move back to get out.
The way to keep them in is to squeeze the one hand on the forehead, but there is no possible way anyone could keep a person in with that unless the hand was the size of the Great Khali's or The Big Show's.
It was never believable for me when I watched all the Von Erich's do it over 15 years ago, and it is especially stupid now in 2009 with a woman doing it.
I am not sexist, so please do not report me or lash out at me for saying this. But, there are certain moves that a woman does that are not as impactful as when a man does it.
One of those moves is the Claw. Look, I know you want to bring out the Ol' Claw because of her last name, but did it ever look crappy. It was so fake, a 5 year old next to me at the time said, "That lady must be weak, cause the other lady just put her hand over that lady's face."
Then, he proceeded to put his hand over my face, and asked me if it hurt. I truthfully said no, and he said, "Then why did it hurt that lady?"
This put me in a bind, because like Santa Claus, you don't want to give things away to ruin something someone loves. I said it hurt that lady because the lady doing the move was stronger than you.
While it did make him feel weak, and it could hurt him inside thinking he is less than a woman, (believe me ladies, guys can't be weaker than a woman) I felt it was better than telling him it was absolutely fake. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen my words more carefully there, but I digress.
The fact is, the move is dumb in today's wrestling, and should be taken out of just about every wrestler's playbook. Because unless your a very large individual, the move is stupid at best.
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