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#4 Christy Hemme vs. The Big Fat Oily Guy
The story behind this match was that Christy Hemme wanted to wrestle and not be eye candy (this was before TNA had the Knockouts Division), and was lambasted by her male counterparts for wanting to do this. As punishment for ‘stepping out of line’, Hemme was given the match she was asking for. Except it was a ‘tuxedo match’, which involves disrobing your opponent. And her opponent was…a Big Fat Oily Guy (that was his actual ring name).
This ended up being a lose-lose situation. If Hemme lost, all the bad things said of her would’ve been proven true. If she won, we’d have to see the Big Fat oily guy get his clothes ripped off, and nobody wanted to see that.
The only good thing about this match was that it was short, and in terms of long-term storytelling, the right person (Hemme) won. It only went about three minutes, which is fine given the gimmicky nature of the contest, but by no means was this entertaining or enjoyable. Inter-gender singles matches are rare, and they’re awkward more often than not. This felt less like a wrestling match and more like a Vince Russo-booked softcore porno, complete with the crotch-in-face segment.
Whoever said TNA would save wrestling following WWE’s victory in the Monday Night Wars clearly had no idea what was to come.
