Madison Rayne: Was She A Filler Or Is This Permanent?

[Viola Moonlight]

On TNA's "No Surrender" PPV, the Beautiful People consisting of the tag team of Angelina Love & Velvet Sky were to compete for the TNA KnockOut's Tag Team Championship against Sarita & Taylor Wilde. Due to the legal issues & little time to make a substitute reason/match for another team to enter the match, they decided to pair Velvet Sky with former member Madison Rayne. Mike Tenay explained the situation & told the viewers that Rayne made peace with Sky & rejoined the BP to capture a title she wanted. The match was pretty good for a TNA opening PPV contest & delivered something. Both Wilde & Sarita were in good showing as well as Rayne, with Sky being her usual self & being the pretty one. There were a couple of sloppy moves when Sky entered, but was good for a tag match. Wilde/Sarita earned the titles & everything was fine & dandy.

Now, when I first saw the decision to place Madison Rayne as the new Angelina Love for the tag match, I thought of the beat downs & Rayne turning face ideal. It didn't really make sense to make her the new member, but the more I saw her work & thought about it, something clicked. Both Angelina Love & Madison Rayne are good wrestlers, similiar to each other. It was clear that Rayne was the most talented member of the group in-ring wise. Compared to Love whom is the complete opposite in the following regard, what Rayne lacks in charisma she makes up for in Beauty. Since this is "The Beautiful People," I figured that Rayne was a great replacement in the group as she legitimately is a beautiful person.

My question is, should this current team of Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky continue to go forth along with the KnockOut's tag team division keeping the legacy alive or should TNA scratch the Beautiful People stable? My opinion is to keep this going as Sky has no chance as a singles wrestler & she has great charisma to lead a tag team. She also has sufficent tag team experience & Rayne has been known in her indy career to tag with others & actually won tag titles before.

Any thoughts?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think it's too soon to tell if it's permanent or really even if it's going to work in the long run. Velvet Sky has the entertainment value that Angelina does, she's hot, she's fun to listen to on the mic but she doesn't have the in-ring ability of Angelina Love. She does have charisma and I think it's possible that TNA could keep it going if Madison Rayne is able to pull her weight.

Rayne is a bit of a dark horse really. Since she's been in TNA, she really hasn't done anything of note other than be the proverbial third wheel of the Beautiful People. While she was part of the group the first time around, she mostly just had to look pretty and keep her mouth shut and that's no longer sufficient. Since we really don't know what she can or can't do overall, who knows.

Sky and Love had great chemistry together and that's not easy to replicate with new partners no matter how much a company may try to shove someone down the fan's collective throat but it can happen.

Overall though, I think the whole future of the group is in question. If Love gets all the visa issues squared away, I think it's going to be a few months at least, then what happens when she comes back? Could she just rejoin the group? And, if she does, will Rayne have stepped up and cemented her own place and make the BP even better? At any rate, I think TNA should do what they can to keep the group going even without Angelina Love. The BP segments are often the highest rated part of TNA Impact, so they should at least give Rayne a chance and, if she can't cut it, maybe consider replacing her.

 

[Badstreet]

Madison Rayne hasn't really shown anything yet. Velvet is miles ahead of her in personality and her ring work hasn't been anything to write home about.

Personally, I thought last night would have been a perfect time to have Taylor Wilde turn heel and join The Beautiful People. I think she's grown stale as a face.

Instead of having Madison Rayne go back to the Beautiful People, they could have had Velvet Sky come to the ring by herself. She then introduces her partner, Taylor Wilde. Taylor lays out Sarita, Velvet pins her, new champs and new Beautiful People. Taylor explains herself on Impact by saying she's felt overlooked. TNA keeps debuting all these knockouts and continuing to forget what she's done. She's a former champion and tried to elevate the belt. Now look at it being fought over by a trailer trash couple. So she's going to bring prestige to the tag titles and when the time is right, bring the Knockout title back to the Beautiful People.

That's just me though.

 

[MaciniRocks]

what Rayne lacks in charisma she makes up for in Beauty. Since this is "The Beautiful People," I figured that Rayne was a great replacement in the group as she legitimately is a beautiful person

You are kidding right?? That horse-faced chick (assuming its a chick but you never know these days).... is BEAUTIFUL???? Did I fall off a cliff and end up in hell? She's about half-decent in the ring. And I guess that gets by, after all Velvet is still in the ring and as much as I love looking at her and the attitude and all that, her work isn't up to par with the majority of the knockouts.

Now before I get lambasted for this, I actually watch women's wrestling. I nearly came on myself when I heard Sara Stock was coming to TNA. And from what she's done, including introducing us to Cheerleader Melissa's new character Alyssa Flash in her debut... to every match and move since... has brought the Knockouts division to a new level. My best friend said it before Tenay quoted Scott D'Amore that her and Taylor remind him of the Rock'N'Roll Express. It's just pure goodness and they have great and I mean GREAT chemistry with each other.

They'd have been better off bringing back Mickie "Moose" Knuckles. Since IWA-MS is now closed, she needs a steady paycheck and WAS in the Beautiful People for a little bit till she injured herself. And I'd MUCH rather watch the in-ring and the overall look of Mickie than dogface.... I mean Madison.

They had Rain as Peyton Banks. They had Daziee Haze in a tryout match. They need to bring them both in, with MsChif, Lufisto, Sara Del Ray and Candace LaRae.... any of the above would be a million times better of a fit than Madison. And Candace is probably the most beautiful of the group next to Rain. Granted MsChif wouldn't work in BP and Lufisto probably would be better suited as an ODB feud/friend... but anything is better than Madison.

It was interesting to hear Tenay talk about Angelina's legal issues though. They normally stay away from stuff like that if it can be helped. But then again I don't think it could be...

So now does that mean I get to see my lovely Roxxi kick the horseshit out of her since she's the one who brought her back in (kayfabe) to go against BP in the tournament?? A man can dream can't he?

 

[JBK2008]

Madison Rayne needs to pick it up in the ring. She's got everything else going for her but that. We'll see what happens and hopefully this wasn't filler for her.

 

[Kenny Powers]

I would say its temporary but who knows. Isn't Angelina Love still in the United States wrestling? I don't understand it. I'm not a Madison Rayne fan but TNA could try to come up with a new version of beautiful people. It just won't be the same. Just like DX wasn't the same when Michaels and Triple H weren't in it. Angelina Love has huge shoes to fill and I don't think Madison can do it. I will still watch and support the Beautiful People V2 but it won't be the same.

At least they had a pretty decent tag match with Sarita and Wilde. I hope Madison can show something special in the ring in the next few weeks. Velvet may not have the skills in the ring but she has the "assets" elsewhere. Velvet has charisma and she is great in her promos. Hopefully Madison can step it up in the ring and in her promos because her looks alone can't cut it.

 

[gd]

If Love is coming back soon, I'd say keep 'em together so there is still something for her to come back for. However, if she isn't coming back soon, I don't really see the point. The Beautiful People with Rayne instead of Love just isn't the same at all. Rayne isn't as talented, charismatic, or as interesting as Love, it's not even close.

You know how many matches Rayne has won in TNA, 0. This includes tag matches and everything. She has been that worthless. There really is no point in continuing the Beautiful People with her when it clearly isn't the same and Sky can spend her time doing bigger and better things.

 

[Pedro08]

I disagree with those who are saying to split the BP up. There is a natural fued right there with Sarita/Wilde who beat them for the championship. If they are going to push Sarita/Wilde as a female Rock 'n' Roll Express then you need a Midnight Express/Four Horseman to fued with. Throw in a couple backstage attacks and build up the fued.

Without Angelina, this incarnation of the BP is better as a tag team. Velvet, while great with promos is not to the level as some of the other knockouts. And while Madison might be better in the ring, she needs work on promos, so they are a good combination. If it's expected that Angelina is coming back, they should build up the BP to be as strong a tag team as possible and when Angeling comes back, you can have a female version of the Freebirds.

Plus remember that tv time is limited with only 2 hours, so I think the best way to keep Velvet and Madison on tv is as a tag team.

 

[NSL]

When I heard everything that happened with Angelina, I knew that Madison would be the replacement. It's the only choice that made sense. She definitely fits in with the stable's look, and I'm sure Velvet can coach her to fit the attitude. Her in-ring work was the weakest of the 3, so there may be a step back in ring time or pushes, but at least they'll stick around and give us some eye candy for a few minutes every Thursday.

 

[Барбоса]

As mentioned on another thread, the rumoured imminent debut of Lacey von Erich could be used to reinvigorate The Beautiful People. Von Erich certainly has the look and from reports is a lot better in the ring than Velvet, Rayne or Love.

With Von Erich as the singles competitor and Velvet/Rayne as the tag team, I think the Beautiful People still has some mileage. When/if Love returns a feud over the leadership could be developed.