PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

THE ALL KNOCKOUTS EDITION OF TNA EPICS TV REPORT

We have a focus on the Knockouts this week starting with the Knockouts Gauntlet match from Bound For Glory 2007 to crown the first ever TNA Knockout champion. We start with ODB interviewing Talia Madison (Velvet Sky), Shelly Martinez (Salinas) and Angel Williams (Angelina Love) before Awesome Kong scared everyone off. Ms. Brooks and Jackie Moore are the first two out and new entries are every minute. Some basic brawling before Jackie hit a German Suplex and Shelly was next out. She hit an awkward Inverted DDT on Ms. Brooks before Kong comes out. Kong takes pretty much the entire minute just making her entrance as ODB is coming out as Kong hits the ring. Kong eliminates Martinez and Ms. Brooks, hits an Implant Buster on Jackie and eliminates her too.

After the break Angel Williams comes out and hits Kong with an enziguiri and her and ODB try to double Suplex Kong but Kong counters and hits a double Suplex on both Williams and ODB. Hemme is up next but Kong gets her into a Torture Rack position and touches Hemme's head with her own feet and follows it up with an Awesome Bomb. Gail Kim is out and hits a Missile Dropkick on Kong while Hemme is being attended to on the outside (I'm not entirely sure was she officially eliminated but she was taken out of the match). Kim, ODB and Williams all teamed up to eliminate Kong (as Kong was eliminated she had an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction and Don West giggled). Talia Madison was out next as ODB  and Kim teamed up to eliminate Williams and Roxxi Laveaux was the last person out. ODB hit a Fall Away Slam on Madison and Kim eliminated her, Roxxi eliminated ODB leaving just Kim and Roxxi left with the winner decided by pinfall or submission.

Roxxi hit a Fall Away Slam on Kim. Kim got Roxxi in the Octopus Stretch but Roxxi got to the ropes. Roxxi countered a Gail Kim hurancanrana into a Powerbomb for a near fall, Kim hit her variation of the Celtic Cross for the win and became the first ever TNA Knockout Champion. While the match is nothing special, it's only average really, it is still historic.

We have a TNA Webography on Velvet Sky followed by an ad break before we come back to Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong for the TNA Knockout title from the January 8th, 2008 iMPACT!  This was the first time the Knockouts main evented iMPACT! and it started with a highlight package of their excellent No DQ match from Final Resolution 2008. This match also featured the debut Raisha Saeed who was unnamed at the time. Kong knocked Kim off the apron to the floor with a Spinning Back Fist and rammed Kim into the steps. Kong then ran at Kim by the stage past the announcers desk but Kim moved and Kong went through the wall.

We then had a sizeable edit (which may have been accommodating for an ad break on the original broadcast) and we were back with both women in the ring. Kim hit a Top Rope DDT on Kong for a near fall and followed up with a Top Rope Backsplash for a near fall. Kong hit a big chokeslam on Kim and hit an Implant Buster for a near fall. Kim went for a hurancanrana but Kong countered into two powerbombs followed by an Awesome Bomb to become the second ever TNA Knockout champ. This match is a great match by any standard and a superb match by the general standards set by most women (both Divas and Knockouts) that came before them but only half as good as their match the Sunday before at Final Resolution.

We had a Webography on Traci Brooks followed by an ad break as Foley talked about how watching women in cages is fun and introduced our final match, the Queen of the Cage match from Lockdown 2008 featuring Christy Hemme, Salinas, Jackie Moore, Traci Brooks, The Beautiful People, Rhaka Khan and Roxxi. All women start outside the cage and the first two to get in have a one on one match with the winner crowned Queen of the Cage and No. 1 Contender to the title. Basic brawling by everyone around the ring as Love and Roxxi are the two that get in the cage. Roxxi hit a backsplash on Love in the corner followed by a running boot. Love hit Roxxi with a Jawbreaker and then her Bicycle Kick for a near fall. She hit a Roxxi with the Lights Out for another near fall but Roxxi recovered enough to hit a Voodoo Drop for the win. An average match, nothing great but nothing offensive.

Closing Thoughts: A lot of filler this week as in general Knockout matches aren't that long and they had to fill the show by showing entrances (which they normally leave out) and the Webography segments. It was the weakest edition of Epics so far but the Kong/Kim match is certainly worth a look. Next week's show focuses on the Hulk Hogan controversy from 2003 when Jeff Jarrett brought TNA to Hulk Hogan.