As seen on last night’s episode of Impact Wrestling, new Knockouts Tag Team Champions were crowned when ODB and Eric Young defeated Gail Kim and Madison Rayne for the straps.
The title switch comes in the midst of a storyline between Gail and Madison, who are due to face off for the Knockouts Championship next week.
The decision to put a Knockouts belt on a male wrestler will certainly be controversial, but it isn’t the first time this has happened in TNA. In fact, the other time it happened also involved ODB as her then-boyfriend Cody Deaner claimed to be Knockouts Champion in 2009.
The title win marks ODB’s first Knockouts Tag Team Championship reign. She is a former three-time Knockouts Champion.
Thoughts: As mentioned on Diva Dirt Live last week, I’m not really fussed by this switch or offended that a male wrestler is holding the belts. Frankly, ODB and Young have been built up as a team for the past few months and are over with the crowd. While others haven’t even been seen on Impact, they’ve been fairly consistently used over the past few months, so why not put the belts on them instead of a team who hasn’t been used for a long period of time? Additionally, there are a lot of storyline opportunities with ODB and Young as champions such as having other Knockouts tag teams be offended by him holding the belt and feud with the new champions.
