The longest Knockouts Champion in the history of IMPACT Wrestling spoke with Fightful in an exclusive interview on the use of their women within the organization. She comments not only on the current state of the division but the women who paved the way. Prior to the organization officially becoming IMPACT, she speaks highly of TNA who always gave their women a platform that other companies weren’t giving.
“It’s an honor, honestly, because the Knockouts since the beginning of TNA have always been given that opportunity to shine and that platform, and been given matches that are more than two minutes long and been shown respect,” says Valkyrie humbly.
She continues, “I’m so honored to represent years of hard work you know from Awesome Kong, to ODB, to Gail Kim, to The Beautiful People, to everybody that came before me, you know, that made this possible for us to be where we are right now and it’s really an honor to represent all those women and the women that we have right now.”
From respecting the women who came before her, to the current roster, the champion explains that there is something for every woman in the locker room. IMPACT does have a history and even currently uses just about every woman that is on their roster weekly in some way.
“On IMPACT, you’ll notice every single woman has a story. Everyone is being used and in a fun creative way from Tessa doing the intergender [wrestling], from me being Knockouts Champion to the undead realm, to Su [Yung] and Havok. You know, there’s just so many crazy stories and we’re being presented properly and I love that. You know, the ‘locker room leader’ Madison Rayne, to the ‘blue flame’ (Kiera Hogan), you know we’re all different and we all are getting a chance to shine and I’m very proud to be representing the Knockouts.”
For comparison purposes, this is a constant gripe to many fans of WWE is that the number of women that are available to them hasn’t been seen on their programming in months. There is certainly enough time to showcase who is currently active on their roster in some capacity.
For the full interview from Valkyrie with Fightful, you can view the video below.
Check back in with Diva Dirt to see if Taya can retain her title against Tenille Dashwood at Bound for Glory on Oct. 20.
