Professional wrestling legend and a former 7 times TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim who is also a former WWE Women’s Champion recently talked about the impact Knockouts division and discussed the current state of the division.
TNA wrestling started its journey from 2002 but they took more than five years to start a proper women’s division. They named their women’s division as the Knockouts division and it had been one of the greatest attractions of the promotion throughout its time period.
Gail Kim Discusses The Current State Of Impact Knockouts Division
TNA has produced some of the greatest female wrestlers throughout the years. Most of the rejected wrestlers from WWE became big stars in the TNA Knockouts division. One of the biggest example was Gail Kim herself who could not get any recognition in WWE, but TNA made her a huge star.
Apart from Kim, the division produced other big stars as well such as Angelina Love and Awesome Kong. Even during their worst time period, the Knockouts division of the promotion had been one of the biggest attractions throughout. A lot of big WWE starts also joined Impact wrestling and became even more famous, Mickie James and Victoria aka Tara two name a few.
Gail Kim who is also a former WWE Women’s Champion recently spoke to NBC Sports Boston where she talked about the impact Knockouts division and discussed the current state of the division. He said;
“I guess if you’re going to look at it in a mainstream perspective in terms of casual fans, they may not know [the history], but I definitely feel like we get the respect from within the industry, from the very hardcore, loyal fans who have been watching wrestling of all types, every company across the board for years. I feel like we get a lot of respect and the props for that, and I appreciate it.”
“Listen, I’m just happy that it happened, to be honest. I’m happy we [Kim and Awesome Kong] got the opportunity that we did that they brought in that title and ten girls in 2007 when nothing was happening for women’s wrestling.
“The fact that TNA got behind that, Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter at that time gave us that chance. That’s all I wanted. And then it was up to us to carry that ball and run with it. Right? And it was just a magical chemistry with me and Awesome Kong and will forever be grateful for that.”
“The company has been nothing but consistent in terms of pushing the women, giving them opportunities. Since 2007, it’s never stopped and 2022 is no exception. We have about 20 girls on the roster. They all have a prominent role on the show or have some type of role in the show.
“I think that’s important because when people are valued and used in the show, it’s less cutthroat, I guess you could say in a sense. People really support each other in terms of just creating the best match possible, giving their all to be the best in order to show that they have a platform to shine, basically.”
H/T and transcribed by WrestleZone