It wasn’t very long ago when the Knockout division in TNA was a place where women wrestlers wanted to step foot in the ring. There was a time where WWE could not, or rather would not, put on quality matches for the women. A lot of TNA Knockout matches from years past were miles ahead of Diva matches in the WWE. Matches such as Ladder, Last Knockout Standing, Steel Cage, and Hardcore matches were happening in TNA while WWE was barely allowing the women to even have a standard one on one match.
Lately, Impact has been losing a lot of their female talent, with the most recent departure of Laurel Van Ness. It is a shame that Impact, a place where women used to want to compete, has become a place that many women have been leaving the promotion. As we have seen with the WWE it takes more than just 3 to 4 talented women to carry the whole division. Eventually, the same matchups between Rosemary, Sienna, Allie and Taya Valkyrie will get stale. Talents such as Tara, Mickie James, Gail Kim and Madison Rayne may have stayed with the company for multiple years at a time, but within the past few years, most of the talent doesn’t last more than a year or two.
Let’s take a look at some of the matches that made the Impact (TNA) knockout division what it was:
In 2014, TNA hired two popular female talents from the indies, Brittany (Santana Garrett) and Havok (Jessicka Havok). As quickly as they debuted, they quickly were gone. Neither woman lasted more than a year in the promotion. In September of 2014, Havok was able to capture the Knockouts championship, however, she lost it just 3 days later to Taryn Terrell. Havok is a 2 time former Women Superstar Uncensored (WSU) champion for a combined reign of 789 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJIlV3A-T0&feature=youtu.be
Brittany and Havok were not the only two women that were from the indies that did not last too long in the company. Jade (Mia Yim) and Marti Bell (Marti Belle) were in the promotion for two short years from 2015 to 2017. Both Jade and Bell have won titles in the indies, but Jade did hold onto the TNA Knockouts title for one reign. She won the title in a triple threat match against two veterans of the company Gail Kim and Madison Rayne. Jade and Bell were originally put into a heel stable with Taryn Terrell known as the dollhouse.
With Laurel Van Ness going from champion to leaving the company and Hania debuting and then promptly getting released, the turnover is still happening. Recent hopefuls to the roster are Su Yung and Kiera Hogan. As optimistic as this author is about these two putting on amazing matches, the biggest question is, will they help to break the turnover rate?
What is your opinion on the current state of the knockout division? Is there any way for Impact to start keeping their talent? Sound off in the comments.
Editor’s note: We understand this story may have upset some Impact wrestlers or fans, this was not our intention. Impact has a high turnover rate in all talent (not just female), this is a fact. We are fans and supporters of all female wrestling and hope the management team at Impact can find a way to keep talent from leaving for WWE or the indies. We stand by the facts in this story.
