X-Division Championship
Austin Aries vs. Brian Kendrick
As much as I appreciate that Kendrick has been trying to do his own thing on Impact and separate himself from the rest of the X-Division, I don't think it's working. The guy has had a dozen different gimmicks throughout his career, and if he wasn't such a skilled in-ring worker he couldn't find a job wrestling that broom Triple H put on the map last week. Lack of promo ability aside, Kendrick looked strong (finally) with his win over the champion on Impact this week, and at the very least we're going to get some classic X-Division action. Austin Aries is a wrestling god according to the internet and his legion of fans that have followed him all around the independents, so I expect nothing short of a 5 star match between these two veterans of the ring.
Prediction: Austin Aries retains the X-Division Championship. The former champion has put up a good fight, but I don't see him going much further in TNA. Aries on the other hand has a lot more opportunity, fan support (TNA fans rarely care about heel/face orientation), and is fresh since returning to the company.
TNA Women's Knockout Championship
Winter vs. Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James vs. Velvet Sky
Unfortunately, being a WWE fan for most of my life, I am very jaded when it comes to women's wrestling. I understand that the Knockout's used to draw some of the best numbers on TNA programming, and that there have been close to five star match-ups between women wrestlers. But in 2011, I'm not convinced that the KO division is that much better than the WWE's Diva divison. Mickie James was slowed down by the WWE machine and hasn't performed at the level we expected her to since coming to TNA. Madison Rayne is good, but who isn't sick of her on top of the KO's? Winter is again, good, but she's still relatively new and most people just lost interest after they turned her into some sort of witch… And the general consensus online is that if Velvet Sky wins the title, everyone is just going to hang themselves. So my pick to win is of course…
Prediction: Velvet Sky. It's actually quite simple. The event is Bound for Glory and she's the only women in the match never to have held the prize. You do the math…
