TNA Impact: Mickie James-Tara cage match steals the show
The feud between Mickie James and Tara in TNA is reminiscent of the Awesome Kong-Gail Kim program that put the Knockouts Division on the map several years ago.
Like Kong and Kim before them, James and Tara did something on Thursday’s TNA Impact that women wrestlers rarely get to do on national television – wrestle in the main event.
They also did something that’s even rarer for the ladies, as they faced each other in a steel cage match.
Coming on the heels of Tara’s victory over James in a Falls Count Anywhere match at Sunday’s Final Resolution pay-per-view, the two women delivered another entertaining match that was much more physical than the typical Knockouts or Divas matches.
It wasn’t always pretty – as there were a couple of high spots that resulted in scary landings, and both James and Tara were banged up as a result – but you certainly have to give them credit for their toughness and fearlessness.
The finish saw James do a breath-taking Thesz Press off the top of the cage for the victory. James legitimately hurt her knee doing the move. Tara suffered a torn ligament in her elbow during the contest, but she kept going and finished the match.
Earlier, Tara powerbombed James while standing on the middle rope, but she appeared to slip a little bit and the two women came crashing down on the mat at an awkward angle.
It’s hard to believe that during the end of her run in WWE, Tara was jobbing to everyone and being made out to be a klutz with no sex appeal (remember when she dressed up as a banana for Halloween?)
It appears that this was the blow-off match to the James-Tara program, as James is likely moving on to a program with TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne. I’d like to see the James-Tara feud revisited at some point, only this time with the Knockouts title at stake.
On a side note, James talked about this being the first women’s steel cage match on TV. I’m not sure if she meant it was the first time for TNA or first for any company, but here has been at least one women’s cage match on WWE TV. Tara (then known as Victoria) was in that one, too, as she took on Lita in on Raw in 2003.
Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:
Eric Bischoff booked Matt Morgan and Mr. Anderson to face each other at next month’s Genesis pay-per-view, with the winner getting a shot at TNA world champion Jeff Hardy. So what’s Hardy going to be doing at Genesis then? I wonder if Dixie Carter will somehow regain enough power to get the match changed to a threeway for the title. ...
I loved the bit with Tara “singing” (she was actually doing an intentionally bad job of lip-syncing) her “Broken” song while Generation Me danced on stage with her. As expected, James interrupted her performance and they started brawling. ...
I could have done without Eric Young getting involved in that segment. After Generation Me helped Tara get the upper hand on James, Young made the save and singlehandedly took care of both Max and Jeremy Buck. That set up a match for next week between Generation Me and the team of Young and Orlando Jordan. So Generation Me will go from having a TNA world tag team title program with The Motor City Machine Guns to facing the comedy duo of Young and Jordan. Ugh. ...
Speaking of The Guns, their next title defense will be against Beer Money. Now that’s a program worth getting excited about. ...
A tournament began for the vacant Knockouts tag team title after it was announced that Hamada and Taylor Wilde had been stripped of the belts because of Hamada’s visa issues. In reality, TNA recently decided to release Hamada, and the visa issues are just the story line reason for her departure. In the first match of the tournament, The Beautiful People defeated the odd couple pairing of Sarita and Daffney. ...
Like me, the crowd at the Impact Zone was definitely happy to see Daffney back in action, as they chanted for her throughout the match. I really hope the TNA creative team heard the fans reacting to her and they give her something meaningful to do on the show. ...
Sarita, who for some reason seems to really dislike Velvet Sky, appears to be a heel again. A little consistency with her character would be nice. ...
Jeff Jarrett continues to do a great job with his MMA gimmick. He issued an open challenge to the crowd, saying that he would pay $100,000 to anyone who could make him tap. Ring announcer Jeremy Borash pointed out a couple of big guys in the crowd, but in typical heel fashion, Jarrett rejected both of them and selected a dorky-looking guy instead. The guy came into the ring wearing glasses, which Jarrett promptly slapped off of him. ...
What in the name of all that’s holy was that garbage with “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero? When a gospel choir came out and began singing and the casket at ringside was opened to reveal a bright, flickering light, I actually thought it was going to be good. I was expecting Dinero to be lowered from the ceiling in a flashy white suit and then perform an energetic musical number ala Carl Anderson as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Now that would have been awesome. Instead, Dinero never even appeared. We just heard his voice, as he delivered a sermon about donating to the less fortunate. The odd segment went too long and went over like flatulence in church. ...
Douglas Williams is really on a roll. After defeating A.J. Styles for the TNA TV title at Final Resolution Sunday, Williams successfully defended the title by pinning Abyss with a roll-up after Abyss charged into an exposed turnbuckle. It’s nice to see the talented Williams getting a push. ...
After Styles was chastised by Bischoff in front of the other members of Fortune and Immortal, Styles said on Reaction that he was angry at Bischoff for embarrassing him like that. We’ve already had Morgan and Williams leave Fortune, so we really need more dissension among the heels this early in the story line? ...
Bischoff reneged on his promise of a contract to Rhino, so it appears that Rhino is done with the company for now. ...
The backstage interview with James shouldn’t have made it onto the show. As with a lot of TNA’s backstage interviews, this was taped while the show was going on, and you could hear Bischoff cutting a promo in the Impact Zone. It was very distracting and made the production look amateurish. ...
The bit with Brother Ray bringing out an imposter Devon (it was one of the students from Team 3D’s wrestling academy) to team with him against Ink Inc. was pretty entertaining. Of course, it was obvious that “Devon” was going to lose the match for his team and Ray was going to beat him up afterward. ...
Quick thoughts on Reaction: This was one of the best episodes of the show in a while. Mr. Anderson, Brother Ray, Morgan, Styles and James Storm all did a great job of speaking in character but doing so in a realistic manner. That’s exactly what this show should be about every week. It was so refreshing not to hear any references to “working,” “shooting,” “fake story lines” or “kayfabe.”
Comments
Good for Mickie. WWE made a mistake letting female wrestlers take a back seat to eye candy.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 11, 2010 8:35 AM
Have to salute both Mickie james and Tara for their performance. Looks like M. James twisted her knee on the landing. Hope shes ok!
Posted by: Adriam Hung | December 11, 2010 9:34 AM
Kev in the 30 years Ive been watching pro wrestling Mickie James vs. Tara might of been the best womens match ever! In the top 5 for sure. I wonder what the divas thought about that.As for the rest of the show seemed kinda weak. The Pope segment was horrible. JJMMA was ok.Next week should be interesting
Posted by: sean lang | December 11, 2010 9:47 AM
Not only was the Mickie James promo rough to listen to, but since Bischoff was cutting a promo behind her, that means she cut that promo BEFORE she jumped Tara & challenged her to the cage match she was cutting a promo about, since Bischoff's promo opened the show.
Bush league.
Posted by: JF | December 11, 2010 9:53 AM
I know Mickie James hurt her knee doing the Thesz Press. Any word on whether or not she hurt her "vag-bone"?
Posted by: Pete | December 11, 2010 9:54 AM
An outstanding wrestling show! Glad to see a great main event with the Knockouts as well as having Daffney back. Too bad they released Hamada. She has always been over with the crowd due to her wrestling ability. If talking was a problem they should have found her a manager.
Can't wait for Guns/Beer Money to go at it again. Hopefully Morgan gets the belt soon. Hardy and Anderson don't really cut it for me. I can envision Angle taking up an MMA challenge in a disguise from the crowd soon, making him tap, thereby setting up their rumored program.
Back to the Helms interview, when do we get Steiner part 3?
Posted by: Flair | December 11, 2010 10:18 AM
Any original and new talent headed to tna ?
Posted by: whutman | December 11, 2010 10:19 AM
I agree about Mickie James/ Tara in the cage. Tough to get worked up about a women's match, but I enjoy watching those two and they put on a GREAT show. By the way, didn't Jarrett offer up $100,000 for the MMA challenge?
RESPONSE: Yes. I forgot a zero. Thanks.
Posted by: Clint | December 11, 2010 10:57 AM
Just 1 thing Kev, Tara didn't really hurt her elbow during this match. She said weeks ago on her FB account that she needed surgery on her elbow but was holding off till they taped all the shows to be used over the holidays so she wouldn't be off TV.
So the 'injury' during the match was just to 'sell' the scar she'll have
RESPONSE FROM KE: Really? I know about her previous elbow injury, but I thought this was her "good" elbow that was injured during the cage match.
Posted by: Dave | December 11, 2010 11:20 AM
Tara also took Kong in a cage match last year. Why is there selective memory in pro wrestling?
RESPONSE FROM KE: Yes, you are right, but that was on pay-per-view, not on Raw, Impact or Smackdown -- which is what I was talking about.
Posted by: Frank King | December 11, 2010 1:13 PM
This was one of TNA's better shows. The idea of Mickie vs Tara in a cage match sounds good on paper, but I thought the execution showed why women shouldn't be in cage matches. It was sloppy and cringe-inducing more than it was entertaining. Also, they both legit hurt themselves. I'm a big fan of both those ladies, but their match was a train wreck.
Posted by: Jay | December 11, 2010 2:45 PM
"Tara also took Kong in a cage match last year. Why is there selective memory in pro wrestling?
RESPONSE FROM KE: Yes, you are right, but that was on pay-per-view, not on Raw, Impact or Smackdown -- which is what I was talking about."
Sorry about that. I noticed that right after I submitted my comment.
Posted by: Frank King | December 11, 2010 5:02 PM
"Tara didn't really hurt her elbow during this match"
I suggest you check the reports again. Tara even tweeted that the torn ligaments are in her "good elbow", meaning that she now has two bad elbows.
Posted by: WWevil | December 11, 2010 6:05 PM
im feeling styles vs hardy at the next bound for glory- similar to sting vs hulk at starracade.
what do you think?
RESPONSE FROM KE: It's a good thought and I'd love to see a program between them, but BFG is 10 months away. I wouldn't be making any long-term plans involving Hardy at this point.
Posted by: alex | December 11, 2010 6:19 PM
Mickie James and Tara have had several good, entertaining matches the last few months. They've certainly shown what female wrestling can (and should) be.
By the way, did you see the Eve Torres vs Alicia Fox match on WWE Superstars this week? That was one of the best WWE diva matches in some time. Maybe they're going to push the diva division a bit again :)
RESPONSE FROM KE: I didn't see it, but I'll check it out on wwe.com.
Posted by: Are | December 11, 2010 11:46 PM
Kevin, I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking of a Carl Anderson-esque moment was possible during that ridiculous gospel choir/casket/sermon hot mess with the Pope.
I think the Pope is actually a terrific performer and i'm happy for him after getting no push on ECW, but that was just ridiculous. Rev. Slick thought that was ridiculous.
BTW, love the blog and glad others see pro wrestling as a legit medium.
Posted by: tim | December 12, 2010 2:38 AM
Only one word discribes these two magnificent wrestlers ,Awesome! Consider myself a new Tna fan. ladies take a bow cause that match will be talked about for years to come.thx you mickie and tara
Posted by: Cman | December 12, 2010 9:10 AM
I don't think it's bush league to have production errors. With so many things going on backstage, it's bound to happen. I'm amazed that it doesn't happen more often.
I still remember laughing when Rock and Foley were caught backstage on camera going over the match they were about to have. I wished I remember the PPV, so I can look it up again.
RESPONSE FROM KE: Happening on live TV is excusable. Happening on a taped show is inexcusable.
Posted by: Jack Windham | December 12, 2010 7:34 PM
I thought this was a pretty good show. Still loving Jeff Jarrett. I thought the interview with him on Reaction was good stuff. Bischoff looked silly during the interview. Jarrett looked and sounded like a main event level heel. I will seriously consider buying the PPV where Jarrett eventually faces Angle as I think that should absolutely be the main event.
On that thought...I think TNA has done a good job with the build up to the eventual Jarrett/Angle match. We all know there is legit heat between the two and TNA has played on that. They have also delayed the match and given it time to build steam. I am really stoked about seeing them in a match now.
I am also really starting to love Doug Williams. I think the Chaos Theory is becoming one of the best finishers in wrestling. It is an awesome move and takes a lot of strength I'm sure. I can't remember...did he do it on Abyss? I would have freaked if he got Abyss with that.
Great main event too...loved the show all the way around for the most part.
Posted by: Nathan | December 13, 2010 1:38 PM
The Knockouts Division is really good from top to bottom at this point. The last time women's wrestling was this good was in the movies 30 years ago when Peter Falk was managing a tag team in "All the Marbles." Too bad about Hamada she was really good. Any news on the whereabouts of ODB?
Posted by: Johnny Valentine was great | December 13, 2010 8:23 PM