Unified GFW Knockouts Championship

GFW Knockouts Championship

The current Unified Knockouts Championship belt
Details
Promotion Global Force Wrestling
Date established October 14, 2007[1]
Current champion(s) Sienna
Date won July 2, 2017
Past design(s)
Other name(s)
  • TNA Women's World Championship (2007–2008)[2]
  • TNA Women's Knockout Championship (2008–2010)
  • TNA Knockouts Championship (2010–2017)
  • Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship
    (2017)
  • Unified GFW Knockouts Championship
    (2017–present)

The Unified GFW Knockouts Championship[4] is a women's professional wrestling world championship owned by the Global Force Wrestling promotion. It is primarily contested for in Impact's women's division, known as the TNA Knockouts. It debuted on October 14, 2007 at then-TNA's Bound for Glory pay-per-view (PPV) event under the name the "TNA Women's World Championship";[2] it was renamed the TNA Women's Knockout Championship in 2008 through 2010, then simplified to TNA Knockouts Championship until the promotion changed its name in March 2017.

It is currently the only female championship in Impact Wrestling. It had been complimented by the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, which was introduced at the No Surrender PPV event on September 20, 2009,[5] but was deactivated on June 27, 2013.

Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a scripted match. Overall, there have been 45 reigns shared between 18 wrestlers. The first champion was Gail Kim.

History

TNA Knockout

TNA Knockout, or just Knockout for short, is the term used by TNA to refer to its onscreen female performers; this is similar to TNA's main rival World Wrestling Entertainment and their Divas pseudonym. TNA's first women's accomplishment was announced at TNA's first weekly pay-per-view event on June 19, 2002.[6] It was called the "Miss TNA" crown. The holder of the crown was determined in a lingerie battle royal on June 19, 2002, which aired on June 26, 2002. The participants in the match were Alexis Laree, Elektra, Erin Bray, Francine, Miss Joni, Sasha, Shannon, Taylor Vaughn, and Teresa Tyler.[7] Vaughn last eliminated Elektra to win the crown.[8] The TNA Knockout of the Year is another award in TNA given to the knockout who achieved the most or had the best run that year.[9] The most recent Knockout of the Year was Gail Kim in 2007;[9] no award has been given out since.

On the August 20, 2009 episode of TNA Impact!, backstage interviewer Lauren announced that TNA were planning to host an eight-team single elimination tag team tournament to crown the first-ever TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions.[10] The tournament began on the following Impact! and continued on for four weeks, concluding on September 20 at TNA's No Surrender PPV event. There, the team of Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) to become the first champions.[11] Two DVDs on the topic of the TNA Knockouts have been released by TNA. The first was named "Knockouts: The Ladies of TNA Wrestling Vol.1" and was released on August 29, 2006.[12] "Knocked Out: The Women of TNA Wrestling" was the second, released on October 7, 2008.[13]

Creation

TNA first announced in early September 2007 through their TNA Mobile service that they planned to start an official women's division and debut a women's title soon.[14][15] Later that month, TNA began to promote a 10 knockout gauntlet match to be held on October 14, 2007 at TNA's Bound for Glory PPV event to crown the first-ever TNA Women's Champion.[16] At the event, Gail Kim defeated Ms. Brooks, Christy Hemme, Awesome Kong, Roxxi Laveaux, Talia Madison, Shelly Martinez, Jackie Moore, ODB, and Angel Williams to become the first champion.[1][2] The championship was renamed in 2008 to the TNA Women's Knockout Championship until 2010 when it became simply known as the TNA Knockouts Championship.

Belt designs

During the championship's history, it has had two designs. It began with a white leather strap that is covered with two small gold plates that are encrusted with silver. In the center of each plate stands a figure resembling a globe made out of gold. On the outer edge of the plate are red gems, which circle the entire plate. The center golden plate of the belt has TNA's official logo engraved in the very center with the word "Womens" [sic] above it and the word "Champion" below it. At the very top of the center plate is a queen's crown. The word "Knockout" does not appear anywhere on the belt. [N 1]

At the end of December 2014, TNA uploaded a photo on their Instagram account, in which the Knockouts Championship has a new design, replacing the white strap with a black strap, with the red color scheme changed to blue to coincide with the company's color scheme and the plates are now fully gold thus the encrusted silver is removed. As with the previous belt, the word "Knockout" does not appear on the belt, despite its current name.[17]

Since Slammiversary 2017, the Impact Knockouts Championship and the GFW Women's Championship have been carried together, with the unified championship being represented by the lineage of the Impact championship.

Reigns

Inaugural and six-time TNA Knockout Champion Gail Kim

The inaugural champion was Gail Kim, who defeated Ms. Brooks, Christy Hemme, Awesome Kong, Roxxi Laveaux, Velvet Sky, Shelly Martinez, Jackie Moore, ODB, and Angelina Love in a ten Knockout gauntlet match on October 24, 2007 at TNA's Bound for Glory PPV event.

Tara and Allie hold the record for shortest reign in the title's history at 1 day, while Taryn Terrell's first and only reign holds the record for longest in the title's history, with 279 days. Angelina Love and Gail Kim tie the record for most reigns with six.

Sienna is the current champion, who is in her second reign. She defeated Rosemary in a Unification match for the Impact Wrestling Knockouts and GFW Women's Championships on July 2, 2017 in Orlando, Florida at Slammiversary XV.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ This description is based on the current design of the TNA Knockouts Championship, as seen in the images throughout the article

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Sokol, Chris (2007-10-14). "Angle gets stung at Bound For Glory". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  2. 1 2 3 TNA Home Video and Navarre Corporation (2007-10-14). "Bound for Glory 2007". TNA Bound for Glory. In Demand.
  3. ↑ Oliver, Earl; Gonzalo Soto. "TNA Knockout Championship Title History". Solie.org. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  4. ↑ http://www.tnawrestling.com/TNA-Alumni/item/1625-taylor-wilde
  5. ↑ Kapur, Bob (2009-09-21). "AJ Styles wins title at No Surrender". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  6. ↑ Martin, Adam (2002-06-19). "Full NWA-TNA Pay Per View results - 6/19/02". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  7. ↑ "TNA Weekly PPV #2". Pro Wrestling History.com. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  8. ↑ Martin, Adam (2002-06-26). "Full NWA-TNA Pay Per View results - 6/26". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  9. 1 2 Total Nonstop Action. TNA Wrestling: Best of TNA 2007. TNA Home Video.
  10. ↑ Keller, Wade (2009-08-27). "Keller's TNA Impact report 8/20: Results, star ratings, thoughts, observations, quotebook". PWTorch.com. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  11. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (2009-09-21). "TNA No Surrender PPV match-by-match coverage". Figure Four Online/The Wrestling Observer newsletter. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  12. ↑ "Knockouts: The Ladies of TNA Wrestling Vol.1". For Your Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  13. ↑ "TNA Wrestling: Knocked Out - DVD". Best Buy. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  14. ↑ "TNA Mobile Update: Women's Title, Ultimate X At BFG". Sescoops.com. 2007-09-12. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  15. ↑ Martin, Adam (2007-09-12). "Possible Women's Title coming to TNA, + 'Ultimate X' returns at BFG PPV". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  16. ↑ Martin, Adam (2007-09-14). "Scheduled card for TNA Bound For Glory PPV on Sunday, Oct. 14; Atlanta". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  17. ↑ "new TNA KO Championship belt". Instagram. Retrieved 2015-02-16.

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