Diva Dirt presents its annual selection of women who have been most newsworthy and talked about in 2012. The 12 women selected have embodied the zeitgeist of the year by hitting the headlines, breaking boundaries, stopping the show, and becoming trending topics. The Diva Dirt editors and contributors have picked one woman as the Diva Dirt Woman of the Year, as well as 11 runners-up who have helped define 2012. Join us as we count down our runners-up before unveiling the Woman of the Year on December 31st.
GAIL KIM
The Constant
There’s not much better validation of your work than getting ranked as the number one female wrestler in the world on Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Female 50 list for 2012, so what better choice for one of Diva Dirt’s Women of the Year than the lovely Gail Kim?
Kim started off 2012 as both Knockouts Champion and Knockouts Tag Team Champion (a title she co-held with Madison Rayne). By doing so, she became only the second woman in TNA history to achieve this feat.
From there, she only kept racking up victories and adding names to her victim list. It seemed as though she was unstoppable. Although she and Rayne would drop the Knockouts Tag Team Titles to the crazy team of ODB and Eric Young in March, Kim held onto the singles title with an iron grip, fending off all challengers (including a Steel Cage Match in April with the woman she beat to win the championship, Velvet Sky) in a string of successful title defenses, by any means necessary.
On May 20, Gail broke yet another record when she became the longest reigning TNA Knockouts Champion in the company’s history (having won the belt in November 2011), beating Madison Rayne’s previous record of 188 days.
She ended up losing the Knockouts title on June 10 – clocking her entire reign in at a whopping 210 days – in a match with Brooke Tessmacher that Kim will gladly classify as a “fluke”.
Gail might not have regained her title since her loss mid-year, but she remains one of the most talented and accomplished wrestlers in the Knockouts division. Her graceful high-flying skills coupled with her years of experience make for a valuable asset to the company.
Kim’s also not only had several professional successes this year, but a big personal one as well – in May, Gail married celebrity chef Robert Irvine in a surprise wedding that he planned all by himself (her only input was picking out her dress). Their nuptials were documented on an episode of Irvine’s “Restaurant: Impossible” program.
Receiving the high distinction of #1 in the world surely shows how much the WWE misused her during her second run there – and just how right she was in returning to TNA, where she been an ever-present and consistent influence in the Knockouts division over the past 12 months. A constant, you could say.
More Women of the Year: Lita | Saraya Knight | Brooke Tessmacher | Jazz | Ronda Rousey | Beth Phoenix | Kim Nielsen | Sara Del Rey | Alpha Female | Eve Torres
