TNA Impact 2: ECW reunion and Lacey is adorable

Okay, first things first... Sarita is downright awesome in the ring. She can move more crisply and brings more authority with her rolls and strikes than 95% of the male roster. I like her new outfit, too, and not just because--like Uncle Angelo--I'm a butt man (although... wow), but because it shows off her beautiful, dusky skin tone so well, and actually reminds us that Sarita is an Aztec princess and, yeah, we ought to pretty much be worshiping her. The match was pretty good and, although I'm not really an Angelina Love fan, I don't mind everybody being fed to her (I might as well not...) if it's not being done in matches that last 2 minutes, like what happened to poor Daffney a couple of weeks ago. It's good to see Sarita getting some screen time--especially in that outfit--and with a promised Hamada/Daffney showdown on Xplosion in a couple of weeks I can see wonderful things coming from the Knockouts division in the near future. Also... how freaking adorable is Lacey Von Erich? I didn't have that much love for her when I first started watching TNA, but as this storyline has developed I've really started getting into her sweet, very naive, gentle character. More of this Lacey, please! I adore her!

What is a real man? 3: Things to say and/or not say about/to people on the internet

I'm going to grouch a little bit, tonight, I think. Maybe it's because I've been feeling a little sick all day, or because I've been really, really hungry, or because I lifted weights in my gym, which is basically a vinyl box, when the heat index was a little over 100 degrees... although not 113 like it was earlier, today. At any rate, I'm feeling like something of a grouch, so I'm going to grumble a bit more about the way men act towards young ladies--young wrestling workers, since that's who I follow on twitter and interact with some--on the internet.

One, ahem, gentleman on a relatively well known wrestling message board (which is usually readable, well, at least in it's WWE section... it's TNA section is awful) wrote, regarding the TNA Knockouts, "wow I can't tell these bitches apart they all look the same." Really, as the Miz would say, really? Can you really not tell them apart? If we go back a little bit in time, could you not discern ODB--a short, drunk, stocky redneck--from Amazing Kong, a gargantuan woman with dreadlocks and smooth, brown ocher skin from Alissa Flash, a small, well muscled dream girl with long, inky hair and strange eye-makeup? Can you not tell Daffney, a pale, quirky Goth tomato who screams a lot, covered in colorful tattoos, from Hamada, a thickly built, strapping Japanese woman more physically imposing than most of the X-Division? You must be blind, friend.

Or maybe I'm being unfair... I'm bringing into this women who are no longer Knockouts and who were not part of the segment that this fellow was commenting on. Maybe he really couldn't tell Sarita, a sultry Latin brunette, from Angelina love, a tall rocker chick, from Madison Rayne, a ferocious little ferret with a terrible weave, from Taylor Wilde, a large headed blond Canadian midget. Maybe the additions of Lacey von Erich and Vel Vel--who have completely different sizes, builds and bone structures--confused him, or maybe it was the mystery biker woman? Well, the biker woman's helmet and Taylor Wilde's head are of a similar size, so maybe that was it? Heh... sorry... I just cannot resist picking on Taylor; it's one of my fortes.

Anyway, the problem I see in all of this is that a young man who would say this about these young women--about any young women--is that he fails to see them as people. He only experiences these girls as props, something to stimulate his lizard hormonal centers. His gaze, to paraphrase Barbara Kruger, hits the sides of their faces and, not really seeing, doesn't perceive a person; his gaze, his male gaze (see Jaques Lacan and Laura Mulvey) and this, according to thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Martha Craven Nussbaum, is where misogyny, othering and dehumanization begin.

Another issue I'd like to bring up is what I saw on the twitter accounts belonging to Michelle McCool (or would it be Michelle Calloway now? very cool that!) and Miss Layla El (that wonderful little English muffin to all the world): "mslayel

“@McCoolMichelleL: Note to twitterers who hate....it's cool, BUT you're gonna get blocked dropping F bombs....REAL TALK:)” Seriously !!"

Okay, for one thing, to paraphrase Riley Freeman, I don't messes around with ya if ya messes around with Layla, dig? That's one of the cutest chicks in the world, and she seems sweet as she can be, like pie or honey, so how are you going to swear at her on twitter? Michelle has the freaking Undertaker to tape his fists up for her, so I don't feel compelled to say as much, but this is yet another example of people mistreating young women for no reason other than they are bullies, small men by definition, and want to feel bigger. I don't know if the problem is sociological or psycho-sexual, but it doesn't impress anybody when you insult and abuse a girl for a character that she plays... "REAL TALK!" as my dear Flawless Ones would say.

I guess what I'm getting at here, at the bottom of things, is best summed up by John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

Anonymity yields the opportunity to mouth off without getting your face kicked out the back of your head, Kaval style, and with an audience added it can only lead to disaster. So don't be a GIF, friends and neighbors... listen to Gabriel. He's right. Well, there is a first time for everything, after all, eh?

TNA Impact 1: I love confused Lacey

Okay, so my girls the Knockouts didn't have a whole lot to do on TNA Impact, tonight, but they did their best to make an impact (haha) with what little time they had. Madison Rayne is really coming into her own as a nasty little heel, and playing Sarita as her compatriot/bodyguard might be really awesome. Sarita is tough as a nut (and cute as a button with her freckles and little upturned nose... how I love me some Sarita!) but isn't a particularly good talker, so putting her with someone who has an... overabundance of personality, I guess is a way to say it... like Madison seems to be a good idea. Velvet has amazing chemistry with Angelina Love--the amount they communicated with their eyes, alone, tonight, was incredible and their little glance at the end was so, so smoky... ho yay, as the good people at Television Without Pity would say, I guess. Lacey von Erich is growing on me each week, especially playing this role as the 'Rose' of the group, a kind-hearted innocent who just wants everybody to get along and be friends, and I really and truly do like Taylor Wilde, even if I pick on her a lot for being a blond Canadian midget and for having an Amazon wishlist on which I would not be surprised to find a personal space ship, one day. The biker thing is kind of starting to wear thin and they need to reveal who she is, soon... or maybe there should be several bikers? Not sure. I'd like a coalition of bikers, personally, made up of people who have scores of various kinds to settle with Angelina Love and/or Vel Vel. That may be too difficult to pull off, though. I'd also like to see more Rosie Lottalove and Daffney, but I'll just settle, right now, for seeing anyone who isn't a part of the Beautiful People.

Other things I've seen tonight that I've enjoyed have included 1) Angle's four suplexes on Hernandez, 2) the, er... 'incident' during Anderson and Morgan's match and 3) AJ Styles hauling a good match out of Rob Terry's big, stiff butt and no muscles pulling themselves off Rob's bones and 4) Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe in a Fly Boy vs. Fat Boy brawl that took it to the time limit. Shut up, Impact Zone, that was a some good wrestling you bunch of yabbos!

Although, Impact Zone, I do love how bloodthirsty you are. WWE would pay for a crowd that ferocious, man.

Women's Wrestling 4: Blond Canadian Midget Brawl for All

TNA Impact continues to impress me with the quality of the Knockouts and their feuds. Although most of the division has been taken up, lately, with the Beautiful People wrangling over every piece of gold available to a woman in TNA, with a little bit of Tara, Nikki Roxx and Daffney mixed in for fun every once in a while, the feud that I've really been watching has been Taylor Wilde and Sarita.

Mexico City's Sarita is one of the better workers TNA has, male or female, and has been criminally underused lately (probably because she actually requires payment with a check that won't bounce). I love the way she moves, her crisp offense and her sheer intensity. When Sarita bears down after someone with those brown eyes flashing, she sells it so ferociously that you, the viewer, are even a little bit afraid. Add in the fact that Sarita is a solid promo woman and you've got a seriously dangerous package. Taylor Wilde, the first woman in TNA to pin the absolutely amazing Awesome Kong, is no slouch in the ring either. Although I pick on Taylor all the time (often calling her a blond Canadian midget, calling back a great comment of Daffney's on TNA Spin Cycle during their feud during summer 2009, or "an expensive little piece of pookie," due to her Amazon Wish List) there are none of TNA's current Knockouts that I'd rather watch wrestle, including Rosie Lottalove and Daffney. Although those two characters appeal to me more, Taylor's ring work is much better than Rosie's and a little crisper than Daffney's. Although she isn't much to write home about on the stick, she is miles beyond any of the Beautiful People, and her lack of TV time recently is a crime. Hopefully this feud will Sarita will help her to develop her character, get both of these extremely talented women some attention and garner them the pushes they so richly deserve.

The match itself was vicious and exciting. Each strike was stiffer than a board and I could see bruises being raised on Sarita's arms and Taylor's back. Maybe it wasn't the Dreamer/Sandman Singapore Cane match, but it was the rawest, most violent action I've seen between two women since Daffney and Taylor last summer, and miles beyond what WWE is giving us right now. Taylor sold the choke so well at the end, hanging there like she was dead, that I felt myself getting worried for a moment. It was easy to suspend disbelief there and to feel it, to feel that it was a real for a second, and I love that.