The Lei'D Tapa Gut Check Choice Was BS

[jtolliver23]

Ok, I'll admit, for the most part I have been enjoying the Gut Check segments. It has been something new and interesting to see people who are new attempt to get a shot in one of the major companies. But tonight on Impact, I have to call BS. What the hell was that? Ivelisse Valez was head and shoulders better than Lei'd Tapa last week. Not only were her moves better, and crisper, but she won the actual match. So what justification is there to keeping Lei'd Tapa over Ivelisse Valez? Yes I know its fake, but Ivelisse was more entertaining than Lei'd, and if the goal is to get the more entertaining up and comers, then why not keep Ivelisse? Honestly I think this was just a way to keep a second generation wrestler. So what do you guys think about the results of Gut Check this week and the decision to keep Lei'd Tapa?

 

[SpecialFNK]

this really pissed me off.
the last thing TNA needs is Kong 2.0, someone who is so big they just don't fit in the division. Lady whatever really had no business even competing in Gut Check to begin with.
Ivelisse was so much better. she was not only hot, but she could wrestle. she had a different background with MMA.. and oh yeah, she won the fucking match last week!

 

[Stewmaga]

I'm suprised by the pick as well.

To me the Knockouts division could actually use both ladies, but if you seriously had to pick one...they picked the worng one.

 

[ECPirate37]

This is far and away the worst gutcheck moment so far. I am a HUGE fan of Impact, but what the eff? I'm thinking they must be getting ready to bring a Joey Ryan angle into this.

 

[stepnmeka]

OK I agree with all of you that the wrong wrestler got picked. But in reality who cares. How many Gut Check winners do we really see on tv anyway. I think they did this to get the second gen wrestler her shot for their satisfaction but I think we will see Ivelisse on Impact again before we see any of the winners. Just my opinion.

 

[stepnmeka]

And before anyone says Wes Briscoe is one of the winners I don't count him because again in reality he probably already had his contract signed and they just did the Gut Check with him to add another piece to the D'Lo Aces and 8's storyline.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

I'd probably agree with the sentiment that it was a poor decision if we were comparing the two in a vacuum, but we have no idea what potential conflicts there were here with Ivelisse. Yes, she has the MMA background. Yes, she has the better look and style, but she's also a full-time MMA fighter from what I understand. How do we know she was actually available to sign a contract with TNA right now?

That said, one match isn't enough to judge T'apa on. Not yet. I'll say this much in her favor, though — she brings something fresh to the division that's largely filled out by similar sized women. T'apa has a look that's very nonconformist and quite unique, similar to when TNA brought in Awesome Kong years back.

 

[Remix]

I'd probably agree with the sentiment that it was a poor decision if we were comparing the two in a vacuum, but we have no idea what potential conflicts there were here with Ivelisse. Yes, she has the MMA background. Yes, she has the better look and style, but she's also a full-time MMA fighter from what I understand. How do we know she was actually available to sign a contract with TNA right now?

If by "full time MMA fighter" you mean she signed a contract with a small MMA company with her first fight being cancelled to do Gut Check, you'd be correct. As it stands Ive is a better wrestler than Tapa, a better talker, a more marketable look, a more marketable gimmick, more relevant (she was on Tough Enough and had a WWE contract. Who the fuck is Tapa?) but isn't related to a midcarder from the 80s/early 90s.

That said, one match isn't enough to judge T'apa on. Not yet. I'll say this much in her favor, though — she brings something fresh to the division that's largely filled out by similar sized women. T'apa has a look that's very nonconformist and quite unique, similar to when TNA brought in Awesome Kong years back.

I fucking hated Kong. Yes she was very good in the ring, however because she was three times the size of everyone else in the division nobody could do a fucking thing with her resulting in dull matches. Tapa doesn't even have the "legit, undeniable ring skills" to fall back on.

When your response to the crowd saying you aren't good is to say "I could be great in two years" you're kind of making the argument why Ive should have won for her.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

If by "full time MMA fighter" you mean she signed a contract with a small MMA company with her first fight being cancelled to do Gut Check, you'd be correct. As it stands Ive is a better wrestler than Tapa, a better talker, a more marketable look, a more marketable gimmick, more relevant (she was on Tough Enough and had a WWE contract. Who the fuck is Tapa?) but isn't related to a midcarder from the 80s/early 90s.

I was under the impression she was a full-time fighter. My mistake. If she's not actually held back by outside ventures, this decision is that much worse — I agree.

I fucking hated Kong. Yes she was very good in the ring, however because she was three times the size of everyone else in the division nobody could do a fucking thing with her resulting in dull matches. Tapa doesn't even have the "legit, undeniable ring skills" to fall back on.

When your response to the crowd saying you aren't good is to say "I could be great in two years" you're kind of making the argument why Ive should have won for her.

For the record, remember, I wouldn't have gone with T'apa. Not by a mile.

I actually just saw the promo she cut (twice), and it totally soured my opinion on whatever potential she may have had. That line about seeing what she can do in another two years was pathetic.

 

[Olan]

So Tapa loses the match. Not only loses the match but the monster loses by tapping out. She obviously was not favored by the fans. Her mic work was awful. And yet she 'wins' the Gut Check. How does that make any kind of sense? This was Ive's second tryout so they obviously liked what they saw the first time.Unless this plays into some kind of s/l like Ive joining Aces and 8's then I agree with calling it BS

EDIT: I was surprised by how anti-Tapa the fans were. That got more of a reaction than the KO Champion did.

 

[SpecialFNK]

That said, one match isn't enough to judge T'apa on. Not yet. I'll say this much in her favor, though — she brings something fresh to the division that's largely filled out by similar sized women. T'apa has a look that's very nonconformist and quite unique, similar to when TNA brought in Awesome Kong years back.

i would think this is why Tapa should not be in TNA. she doesn't fit with the other Knockouts.
I think of all the other Knockouts. the only one to me that stands out different is ODB. and then ODB isn't really much of a factor in the division. I don't think she has had a title match since returning. she has a prop tag team title belt with EY, and is playing his wife. other than that she isn't much of a factor in the title scene, and IMO rightfully so. all the other Knockouts are at least attractive and appealing on TV. Tapa not so much.

IMO this Tapa has no place in this current Knockouts division now or in the future.

 

[The Eighties]

I haven't seen the show yet but as soon as I saw this bit of news I immediately figured they are going to put Ivelisse in Aces & Eights

She has plenty of attitude and was a good heel in FCW, putting her in the group gets her actively on the roster and into the mix from the jump off. She can get her character over and be the heel Velvet will need once she beats Kim.

As for Tapa, I love her look, I think divisions need variety and a monster wouldn't hurt as when booked well they always work. She'll go away to OVW and hone her craft and hopefully will return as a polished monster heel within a year.

 

[Con T.]

Yes, she has the better look and style, but she's also a full-time MMA fighter from what I understand. How do we know she was actually available to sign a contract with TNA right now?

Two things:

1. She doesn't have any fights scheduled.

2. Even if she did; don't they have King Mo under contract, a guy who is under contract to TNA and Bellator?

This actually was the most annoying part of Impact this week; it was clear Tapa was rattled by the crowd, and now this character has no chance of getting over. Those "no" chants you heard in the impact zone? Those may just follow her, frankly. It just seemed like TNA was trying to say, "don't like this? Well, fuck you"

Also, why was Brooke not a judge? Isn't this her division? Shouldn't she get a say in this, at least in kayfabe?

 

[NotoriousMEAT]

I haven't seen the show yet but as soon as I saw this bit of news I immediately figured they are going to put Ivelisse in Aces & Eights

She has plenty of attitude and was a good heel in FCW, putting her in the group gets her actively on the roster and into the mix from the jump off. She can get her character over and be the heel Velvet will need once she beats Kim.

Finally someone said it! Though TNA's Gut Check felt pretty real at first (minus the Joey Ryan angle) it's progressively become more and more of a work. Now they bring it two contestants. I guarantee you they already know which one they wanna sign, and the other one is legit getting a try out. In this case, I think TNA wanted BOTH girls. The Knockouts Division is getting stale, at least in my opinion. It's been the same crop of girls for awhile now. They've all feuded, they've all had the belt, it's time to add some new blood. From the moment they chose Tapa, Ivelisse started working it. They kept the camera on her, and Taz even mentioned how unfortunate that was for her. Aces & Eights is obviously going to continue, and if they really wanna completely take over, and Knockout wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[ABMorales787]

This actually was the most annoying part of Impact this week; it was clear Tapa was rattled by the crowd, and now this character has no chance of getting over. Those "no" chants you heard in the impact zone? Those may just follow her, frankly. It just seemed like TNA was trying to say, "don't like this? Well, fuck you"

Of course this is going to follow her. Velez has experience in AAA, Perros Del Mal, Tough Enough and has an appearance later in WWL. The Facebook poll they do for these Gut Check people had her with over 500 votes while Lei'd had a pathetic 50. Right now, it's flooded with people calling BS. That was one of the stupidest decisions ever. Stupider than Immortal, D'Lo Brown, or anything. TNA had it written in their face that the fans wanted Velez and did not give a shit about Lei'd. They still went the other way.

 

[DX Mols]

TNA must have just wanted their version of Tamina. No idea why they didn't go with the hot Latina.

Odd. TNA making a bad roster move. (That was sarcasm of course as the TNA roster is littered with garbage)

 

[D-Man]

Both women had intriguing qualities that set them apart from other Knockouts in the division. Both provide a breath of fresh air and bring a lot of uniqueness to the table. If anything, both should have been signed.

However, you guys need to understand that Velez has been turned away from every major promotion in the world. That doesn't happen unless something is going on behind the scenes that makes her undesirable. Sure, she's hot and I'd fuck the shit out of her but (from a business standpoint) she must have many qualities we don't know about that make her undesirable enough where she isn't getting signed to a major promotion.

 

[ABMorales787]

Both women had intriguing qualities that set them apart from other Knockouts in the division. Both provide a breath of fresh air and bring a lot of uniqueness to the table. If anything, both should have been signed.

However, you guys need to understand that Velez has been turned away from every major promotion in the world. That doesn't happen unless something is going on behind the scenes that makes her undesirable. Sure, she's hot and I'd fuck the shit out of her but (from a business standpoint) she must have many qualities we don't know about that make her undesirable enough where she isn't getting signed to a major promotion.

Turned down from every major company? WWE released her. That's as far as it goes. She appears in AAA and Perros Del Mal and has appearances for WWL scheduled so I don't see where this "she's been released from every major promotion" thing comes from. This just looks like a case of TNA pulling a McMahon and going for the look rather than the talent. Regardless of how very obviously green she is.

 

[D-Man]

Turned down from every major company? WWE released her. That's as far as it goes. She appears in AAA and Perros Del Mal and has appearances for WWL scheduled so I don't see where this "she's been released from every major promotion" thing comes from.

I define major companies as WWE, TNA, ROH, and the WCW and ECW of the past. While AAA is a major promotion in Mexico, it is of my opinion that if it's not global, it's not "major." Just my opinion.

And yes, the WWE released her... on more than one occasion. She was eliminated from Tough Enough (yes, I know she was injured) and she was cut from her developmental contract. So the WWE had two reasons to cut her loose. And now she didn't make the cut in TNA.

This just looks like a case of TNA pulling a McMahon and going for the look rather than the talent.

I disagree completely. She is a fit, gorgeous woman with obvious shades of charisma. These are qualities that WWE looks for in their Divas division.

Regardless of how very obviously green she is.

Green? She's been wrestling all over the US for almost ten years. She's far from being green. That's just like when people said Sheamus was "green" when he got to WWE. If people actually did some research, they would have realized he had been wrestling for YEARS in Ireland prior to joining WWE's developmental.

 

[VencomHardcore]

I define major companies as WWE, TNA, ROH, and the WCW and ECW of the past. While AAA is a major promotion in Mexico, it is of my opinion that if it's not global, it's not "major." Just my opinion.

And yes, the WWE released her... on more than one occasion. She was eliminated from Tough Enough (yes, I know she was injured) and she was cut from her developmental contract. So the WWE had two reasons to cut her loose. And now she didn't make the cut in TNA.



I disagree completely. She is a fit, gorgeous woman with obvious shades of charisma. These are qualities that WWE looks for in their Divas division.



Green? She's been wrestling all over the US for almost ten years. She's far from being green. That's just like when people said Sheamus was "green" when he got to WWE. If people actually did some research, they would have realized he had been wrestling for YEARS in Ireland prior to joining WWE's developmental.

I do follow what you are saying but YOUR DEFINITION OF MAJOR is COMPLETELY WRONG.

ECW at its height wasn't a major player. They never did major numbers in ppv's and never sold out any major arena. And they didn't have any GLOBAL reach outside the work they did with FMW in Japan. CZW has the same arrangement with a Japanese Promotion that they did and they are not major . ECW WAS NOT MAJOR.

ROH hasn't broken a 10,000 person attendance record. Their house shows here in Baltimore barely gets 1500 people. They are not on MAJOR television networks. They are NOT MAJOR.

TNA is a Major company but AAA is Just as Big ! AAA has more people at its taping than TNA. AAA has more people at it's major pay per view than TNA. So how can TNA even be considered major when they don't surpass AAA on a country by country comparison. Yes TNA has a Major fan base in the UK but If AAA did shows where there were latinos, they would have the same response.

WCW was major. But If you are looking at numbers: ROH and ECW are not / were not bigger than New Japan. ROH is a glorified indy fed with a tv deal.

So her being in AAA is a good because that market is hard to break for a US talent.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Ivellise was the right choice, she was also the choice on Twitter the fans made so there was probably some inner-conflict.

Velez is an awesome wrestler for a woman - I say that ignoring the women who can actually wrestle (Sara Del Rey, MsChif, Serena, Tara etc, etc) and mostly comparing her to those who can't or simply aren't very good. She has skill, she was selling her opponents pretty weak offense quite well, having seen her in FCW and her brief tenure on NXT she checks as someone who WWE dropped the ball on so I don't know why they took the T'apa route.

Could be because she wants to perform for AAA, maybe they'll pay her more? She was released from WWE for undisclosed issues and considering they were pushing her on NXT at the time she could have attitude issues. Who knows.

ROH hasn't broken a 10,000 person attendance record. Their house shows here in Baltimore barely gets 1500 people. They are not on MAJOR television networks. They are NOT MAJOR.

But If you are looking at numbers: ROH and ECW are not / were not bigger than New Japan. ROH is a glorified indy fed with a tv deal.

Final Battle 2010 (Steen vs. Generico) which was hosted on iPPV drew more buys than nine TNA televised pay-per-views that year and broke the iPPV buyrate record which was then broken by another Ring of Honor pay-per-view in 2011 titled Best In The World, something they hold to this day - no MMA event has beaten the number, nor has any other wrestling event, so based on "the numbers" Ring of Honor is pretty major under your definition.

I being a loyal ROH fan don't see it as major, but wrestling has always had a "big three" and as far as the big three of today stands the list goes WWE, TNA and Ring of Honor. Considering so many top talents (CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Hero etc, etc) made their names and gained their biggest exposure in Ring of Honor it also does gain ROH more press.

May want to retract your statement about the numbers, otherwise your a hypocrite, your call.

 

[D-Man]

I do follow what you are saying but YOUR DEFINITION OF MAJOR is COMPLETELY WRONG.

ECW at its height wasn't a major player. They never did major numbers in ppv's and never sold out any major arena. And they didn't have any GLOBAL reach outside the work they did with FMW in Japan. CZW has the same arrangement with a Japanese Promotion that they did and they are not major . ECW WAS NOT MAJOR.

ROH hasn't broken a 10,000 person attendance record. Their house shows here in Baltimore barely gets 1500 people. They are not on MAJOR television networks. They are NOT MAJOR.

TNA is a Major company but AAA is Just as Big ! AAA has more people at its taping than TNA. AAA has more people at it's major pay per view than TNA. So how can TNA even be considered major when they don't surpass AAA on a country by country comparison. Yes TNA has a Major fan base in the UK but If AAA did shows where there were latinos, they would have the same response.

WCW was major. But If you are looking at numbers: ROH and ECW are not / were not bigger than New Japan. ROH is a glorified indy fed with a tv deal.

So her being in AAA is a good because that market is hard to break for a US talent.

So what you're trying to say is that my opinion of the definition of "major" differs from your opinion? Considering that "major promotion" is nothing more than a term made up by fans and the online community, none of this has any relevance. I already stated that it was my opinion. Trying to throw numbers at me and make up terms that make your opinions look like facts is just plain wrong. Stop trying to sound smart because it's not working.

To pacify you, I could say "internationally televised" promotions. Or I could say "promotions that more Americans know about." Or how about "promotions that I give a shit about." All of these are valid opinions.

Regardless, my point still stands. Ivelisse has not been able to grow major legs with these companies. Once again, internet fans think they know more than they actually do. She could be a complete personality conflict with other superstars and just because it hasn't been on dirt sheets doesn't mean it's not true. Either way, I'm not going to sit here and make up facts that I cannot back up.

PS - Thanks, Dragon Saga for pointing out a lot of things I was about to write.

 

[MWRedskins]

honestly, i thought Ivelissa Valez should've won the Gut Check yesterday, BUT i didnt think Tapa deserved to lose either. i thought BOTH showed alot to me. Valez showed that she has a ton of potential to work a good to great match in the future while Tapa showed Kong-like potential and had a very nice reaction with the crowd who clearly werent fans of hers. personally, i was hoping for some sort of way for both to get spots, if i were TNA, i would somehow make it a story where Valez gets a contract in TNA too. as for Tapa, i think she has potential as a heel.

 

[Remix]

And yes, the WWE released her... on more than one occasion. She was eliminated from Tough Enough (yes, I know she was injured) and she was cut from her developmental contract. So the WWE had two reasons to cut her loose. And now she didn't make the cut in TNA.

Once. She didn't have a contract on Tough Enough. Whe was cut from developmental allegedly because of backstage issues. Supposedly WWE thought she was ready for the big shows but politics got involved.

I disagree completely. She is a fit, gorgeous woman with obvious shades of charisma. These are qualities that WWE looks for in their Divas division.

They should also be properties that TNA looks for in the KO division. Velez talks better, wrestles better and was the fan's choice. I don't get the decision to pick Tapa at all.

Green? She's been wrestling all over the US for almost ten years. She's far from being green. That's just like when people said Sheamus was "green" when he got to WWE. If people actually did some research, they would have realized he had been wrestling for YEARS in Ireland prior to joining WWE's developmental.

Pretty sure KJ's talking about Tapa being the green one.

 

[Leakee]

I haven't seen the latest episode of Impact wrestling yet, but if this is correct it is an absolute shocking decision. I thought Ivelisse Velez was 10x the wrestler of Lei'd Tapa, she pulled off some brilliant moves last week. Frankly, I don't remember Lei'd pulling off one move other than a clothesline! I thought for sure Velez would advance but it seems it was only to get another 2nd Gen wrestler into the business.