3. TNA had the ‘First Ever’ Women’s Gauntlet Match.
Yes, I know that WWE had the Bra & Panties Battle Royal at the 2006 New Year’s Revolution but come on… Mae Young came in and failed to take off Victoria’s bra, I’m sure we can look over that one. I’m also aware of OVW’s Gauntlet match in November 2006, but this had a very regional tiny audience, compared to the international reach of the bigger brands. If this still bugs you, then come at me in those comments!
In June 2017, WWE’s Main Event on RAW was billed as the ‘First Ever Women’s Gauntlet’ featuring Bayley, Emma, Dana Brooke, Mickie James, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks ‘running the Gauntlet’ to win an opportunity for Alexa Bliss’ RAW Women’s Championship. Nia Jax ran through the division in dominant style but fell victim to the last entrant Sasha Banks.
However, a whole 10 years earlier, TNA held the TNA’s first Knockouts Gauntlet Match, which was particularly special as it was the moment when the Knockouts Division was born. At the 2007 Bound For Glory event, 10 Knockouts competed to become the inaugural Knockouts Champion with Gail Kim coming out on top. At that time, it was the longest ever Knockouts match at 12:12 and gave all 10 women a time to shine – even for the 4 women (Angel Williams aka. Angelina Love, Talia Madison aka. Velvet Sky, Shelly Martinez aka. Ariel/Salinas and ODB) who were making their debut that night!
The following day in WWE, Candice Michelle defeated Jillian Hall in 44 seconds… I’m pretty sure we could tell which division was the hot spot at that time.
If you want to be technical and say that this Gauntlet match isn’t a ‘traditional’ one, since they essentially work like a Royal Rumble in WWE, the Knockouts did take part in a classic Gauntlet one on one endurance match at Genesis 2013. Velvet Sky was the last entrant and managed to beat Gail Kim at the very end, after Gail had eliminated 3 competitors prior. That was still 4 years earlier than the RAW Gauntlet match!
What other ‘firsts’ have WWE decided to ‘re-write’? Click next to see more!
