A Pay-Per-view event by Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling, and even it’s predecessor TNA Wrestling was always at the forefront of women’s wrestling as far as the last 20 years are concerned. When other big name companies relegated women to holiday-themed “bra and panties” matches, Impact had a stacked women’s product that rivaled and even surpassed the men’s matches at their various big shows. Knockouts Knockdown 2021 is not the first all-women show Impact has done, but it’s the first in a while. It harkens back to the time period when the company had dropped the monthly Pay-Per-View model and swapped for a handful of big shows, and 6-8 themed special shows that were inexpensively priced and taped vs being live. I enjoyed a lot of these shows that I was able to watch simply because they were allowed to do some crazy stuff that they couldn’t do on the main shows.

This show is part of the lead-up to Bound For Glory, which airs on October 23rd, and is arguably the biggest show of the year for Impact Wrestling each year. While the match outcomes didn’t do much to really affect the card for that show, it acts as a showcase of female competitors for the company and somewhat re-shuffles the rankings for many upcoming shows. The main draw is a 8 woman, single elimination tournament to award a future Impact Knockouts Championship match, but that match has not been announced as of yet as to when it is scheduled to happen.

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far. I signed up for the monthly membership to keep up with ROH and some indy feds on there, so far I love it! Your 10 dollars in Fite credits would make this show free!!

The Card:

• 1 Rachael Ellering defeated Lady Frost by pinfall Knockouts Knockdown tournament quarterfinals 11:54
• 2 Chelsea Green defeated Renee Michelle by pinfall Knockouts Knockdown tournament quarterfinals 8:28
• 3 Mercedes Martinez defeated Brandi Lauren by pinfall Knockouts Knockdown tournament quarterfinals 2:09
• 4 Tasha Steelz defeated Jamie Senegal by pinfall Knockouts Knockdown tournament quarterfinals 11:04
• 5 Deonna Purrazzo (with Matthew Rehwoldt) defeated Masha Slamovich by submission Singles match 12:01
• 6 Mercedes Martinez defeated Rachael Ellering by submission Knockouts Knockdown tournament semifinals 12:30
• 7 Tasha Steelz defeated Chelsea Green by pinfall Knockouts Knockdown tournament semifinals 12:23
• 8 Savannah Evans defeated Alisha Edwards, Jordynne Grace, and Kimber Lee by pinfall Shannon “Daffney” Spruill Memorial Monster’s Ball match 10:04
• 9 Mercedes Martinez defeated Tasha Steelz by pinfall Knockouts Knockdown tournament final The winner will receive a future Impact Knockouts Championship match. 10:58
• 10 Decay (Havok and Rosemary) (c) (with Black Taurus and Crazzy Steve) defeated The Influence (Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood) (with Kaleb with a K) by pinfall Tag team match for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship 10:43

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

Remembering Shannon “Daffney” Spruill

Aside from a ten-bell salute, Daffney was honored quite a bit throughout the night. Most notably, the card contained a match in her honor – a “Monster’s Ball Match” between Savannah Evans, Alisha Edwards, Jordynne Grace, and Kimber Lee. Monster’s Ball is basically a no disqualification weapons match, but there have been little alterations to it in the past depending on who the company’s main “Monster Heel is at the time. At point poit they even pretended that the competitors had to stay locked in dark rooms with no food for 24 hours! Daffney was one of the first women in the company to ever do a Monster’s Ball match against Taylor Wilde in 2009. Wilde recently came back to wrestling and Impact Wrestling, but sadly Daffney lost her fight against depression and possibly concussion-related issues last month. She will forever be missed.

Mercedez Martinez

I remember being very excited when Mercedez Martinez signed with WWE NXT prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. She had appeared at one AEW show, but gave it up to live her dream of being a WWE wrestler. Suddenly she’s wearing a dumb mask in a dead-end stable that was dismantled almost immediately, then disappeared. WHAT. A. WASTE! I could speculate on why WWE gave her a raw deal, but let’s get real – it was likely because of her veteran status and age. Vince and his yes-men are notoriously ageist when it comes to female competitors, and she’s better off somewhere else where she can really shine. I’m excited to see what Impact has in store for her.

Awesome Kong Hall of Fame Announcement

I mentioned in my review for NWA Empowerrr that Awesome Kong is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. She was the absolute first female wrestler that I tuned in to see. In a world where dudes used women’s matches as “pee breaks” I would show folks clips of her feuds with Gail Kim and change their minds. She is amazing and her induction is well-deserved!

The Monster’s Ball Match

Maaan, Kimber Lee as a monster heel is ruthless. After being “turned” by Su Yung, she has taken a hardcore side I’ve never seen her have. I’ve followed her off and on during her years in Chikara and even NXT, and she’s never been like this. At one point she goes face first into a barbed-wire chair and comes out bleeding all over the place. There were kendo sticks, thumbtacks, trash cans, and chairs – basically anything that would have made a late 90’s ECW match amazing. I haven’t even mentioned the awesome contributions of Alisha Edwards, Savannah Evans, or Jordynne Grace – all four hit one out of the park here.

The Main Event

Being a huge fan of Decay and especially Havok and Rosemary, I was very happy with this match. Both looked like amazing badasses the entire time, and it really helped showcase the diversity of styles, body-types, and everything that makes the Impact women’s division arguably the best on TV right now. solid end to the show.

#Tagmeinunited

As someone that suffers from depression, it is very cool to see wrestlers from multiple companies teaming up to normalize mental health disorders and show there is a way to get help. In honor of Daffney, a new initiative was announced at this show that will have a fund-raising component on Pro Wrestling Tees. Way to go Impact, this is something I can get behind.

Conclusion:

Solid offering from Impact Wrestling. This was by no means a legendary show, but it was a solid showcase of women’s wrestling and a great value for what you got. I actually like these inexpensive shows that some companies do from time to time as they allow for creativity and let some wrestlers show off that perhaps don’t get to do so very often. With this and NWA Empowerrr, here’s hoping AEW can build their women’s division up a bit and do something similar in a while, I’d love to see their take on this concept. I’d love to see this become more common for the company, perhaps on a quarterly basis. I’d say NWA Empowerrr was the better show overall, but this was great in it’s own right!