TNA Wrestling: Another Solid Night from the Writers of IMPACT

New story lines and the continued influence of women within the Knockouts Division headlined what was a very strong Impact last night.

All the buzz from this week’s rumblings in the ROH and WWE forced TNA to up the ante a bit and deliver what was a solid show, featuring two Bound for Glory matches and two Knockouts matches. These featured new Knockouts Tag Team Champions and a real look at the depth within the women’s ranks.

The women’s match of the night was supposed to be a Knockout’s Championship match between Velvet Sky and Mickie James. It turned out to be more of a statement match where more division was drawn between twelve competitors, with the reemergence of Miss Brooks back into the fold.

The James/Sky match was interrupted by Winter and Angelina Love. The singles match turned into a brawl with all four women in the ring. Ms. Brooks interjected herself with ODB and Jackie hit the set and then the ring.

The match or confrontation was so wild, showing Jackie hitting security and ODB proving her dominance outside the ring, that police escorted the two out in handcuffs.

The match before, putting Tara and Ms. Tessmacher against Rosita and Sarita, with the members of Mexican/America dropping the tag titles.

With more than an handful of women vying for Knockout’s gold, you have to wonder if the division is as strong or stronger than the men’s division right now.

For weeks, we have seen good matches and more importantly, solid wrestling from these ladies. It is not just a beauty contest (take that, WWE). I would hope with all the chaos created from last night, a tournament for resolution would be best suited to make the fans happy.

At least it would make me happy.

I’d like to think there is an art to women in the ring. We haven’t seen a lot of women lately using arm bars, drop kicks and real submission holds where matches last longer than five minutes. And the writers in TNA understand the need for compelling drama, and story lines are written that appear real.

If the resurrection of the X-Division can get the fans excited, seeing Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne in the ring for a few hours can do the same thing.

In other action, the four-man ladder match between Gunner, Matt Morgan, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe was pretty good, but not spectacular. I thought Joe would win the match, taking the ten points, but Morgan climbed the ladder and moved into second place in the point standings. I am now puzzled and confused about the state of Samoa Joe.

Joe was the most dominating force in TNA for some time and now is “limited." I assume the writers have a place for him and will work on a new character, face change, etc. But the big man deserves a better fate right now than he is getting.

RVD winning over Scott Steiner wasn’t a shock. Steiner needs to stop wrestling.

And can someone explain to me what happened with Alex Shelley and Brian Kendrick?

The match looked odd and slow. They looked like it was thrown together. I had thought it would be a great match where the athleticism of both athletes would have been Final-X caliber.

I was wrong.

The interference by Austin Aires threw another wrench in the division. I knew when he won the four-way at Destination X; he would stir the pot even more.

And the final segment between Sting and Angle taking on Anderson and Bully Ray has some meat to it.

I’ll comment on it in my next column.