Winners, and NEW Knockouts Tag Team Champions: Angelina Love & Winter
Angelina looks surprised, but this is obviously the happiest day of Winter’s life as she’s now champions with her new best friend. So the moral of the story, kids, is that you don’t ever need to get wins or anything to win a title, just wait for somebody who IS getting a title shot to get taken out and then walk out and take their spot.
The Pope is backstage, talking on his cell phone and telling whoever’s on the other end that he wants to make sure that things go down the way they need to go down, and…wait a minute, Orlando Jordan and Eric Young walk over and donate some money to Pope’s Congregation. Except that Orlando’s wearing a very revealing Santa costume and Young is wearing one of those giant cartoon character suits you see people walking around theme parks in. If it’s a real character, I don’t recognize it. Pope thanks them and tells them to keep up the good work, then goes back to his call and says they just got a donation and to make the deal happen.
Back to the ring…
Ironman Match for the TV Title: Douglas Williams vs AJ Styles
They exchange hammerlocks to start the show and AJ tries to escape by picking Williams’ ankle, but Williams escapes himself and takes AJ down with a side headlock. AJ tries to roll Williams to his back but Williams manages to keep his shoulders off the mat so AJ tries to roll through and kip up, but Williams catches him on the way up and drops right back into the side headlock. AJ reverses to a headscissors but Williams posts his knee on AJ’s ankles and slips out and catches a front facelock on AJ, then transitions that back into the hammerlock and bridges on his head, putting more pressure onto the arm. AJ back to the corner and gets a cheap back elbow on Williams, but Williams comes back with a running knee and then a second, but AJ hits a low blow as we go to commercial.
When we come back, AJ has Williams in a rear chinlock and we learn that AJ hit the Styles Clash to go up 1-0 during the commercial break. Doug reverses an Irish whip to a shoulderblock and a hard European uppercut and AJ bails to the floor to try and run the clock down. Doug goes after him and AJ nails him coming out and rams him into the stairs, then goes back in the ring as the referee lays the count on Williams and the clock continues to run out. Williams makes it back in and AJ keeps putting the boots to him, then gets the indy snapmare/kick to the back combo and covers for 2. It would be helpful and would add a bit of drama to this match if we saw a clock somewhere. And it would be nice if they hadn’t taken 5 of the 15 minutes out of the match with the commercial. AJ with the Big Fancy Knee for 2 and then gets a neck vice as Tenay informs us that we have four minutes left. Williams fights out of the hold and whips AJ to the ropes, AJ rolls over Doug’s back but Doug gets a backdrop and AJ immediately rolls back out to the floor and makes Williams chase him. He heads back in and Williams tries a sunset flip back into the ring and gets 2, then a backslide for 2, then a crucifix for a very close 2. Williams continues the assault with European uppercuts but AJ leapfrogs Williams on a whip into the corner and nails him, then charges Williams and gets backdropped to the apron. AJ tries a springboard move into the ring but Williams catches him and delivers a Gargoyle Suplex with two minutes left on the Tenay clock. Williams begins the comeback rally after laying around for nearly a minute and we now have less than 60 seconds as he takes a run at AJ and gets tossed to the floor, but he lands on his feet and immediately comes back in and hits the Chaos Theory to get a win and tie the match at 1-1 with 20 seconds left. Doug crawls over and tries another cover on AJ, but AJ’s foot is under the rope so no count as time runs out. Referee Earl Hebner checks with both men, AJ says he wants five more minutes and Williams smiles at him and says he only needs one. Earl has Jeremy Borash announce a five minute overtime, and we’re at commercial again.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
