IDR's Seven* Ways to Revitalize the Knockouts Division

[It's Damn Real!]

Just like the previous incarnations for IDR's Seven* Ways indicated, I've created a bit of a series here with regard to fixing a number of the bigger issues I see in TNA right now.

You are more than welcome to disagree with any or all of the points I make in any of these threads. In fact, I'd encourage it, as the idea is to spark discussion anyway.

That said, here's the next in line for IDR's Seven* Ways!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

IDR's Seven* Ways to Revitalize the Knockouts Division

----------------------------------------------------------------------​

1. Admit you have a problem.

Just like drug addicts and alcoholics are asked to do, the first step on the road to recovery is always admitting you have a problem to begin with. If the company refuses to see the errors in their ways, fixing said errors will be next to impossible seeing as management won't feel the product actually needs improvement.​

2. Regain your focus.

For most of it's reign, the TNA Knockouts Division (KD) has made a comfortable living off of employing the type of female wrestlers you'd most closely consider "anti-Divas" in that their purpose in the company had very little to do with being eye candy for horny teenagers and lonely dads as much as it did for putting on believable wrestling matches to prove that women were in fact capable of actually doing so – contrary to popular belief. Women like Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, ODB and Tara among others came to the company to raise that awareness, and did – successfully I might add. However, over the last few months since the Hogan/Bischoff inception, the focus of the KD has shifted toward more of a "bimbos with boobies" type of a booking where the quality of wrestling in the matches has dropped tremendously for the sake of selling them as eye candy. Regain your focus here, TNA – go back to the way things were when you were capable of putting on a match between women that didn't make half the audience's ears bleed from the screeching, and subsequently didn't lose you viewers. Bring back the anti-Divas and stop booking your division into obscurity for the sake of trying to sell their fake tits to your viewers.​

3. Hire Mickie James and Bring in New Blood

There is always a silver lining to seemingly dooming events like the recent releases of ODB, Tara, Awesome Kong and Roxxi, no matter how gloomy everyone wants to make it out to be. In this case, three roster spots just opened up to bring in fresh faces/bodies to help to revitalize an otherwise stagnant division. Hiring Mickie James – despite the fact she's an ex-WWE star – never seemed more right IMO. Mickie has a cult following for a fanbase and would be an instant fan favorite with the iMPACT! Zone crowd, and would most certainly be more than capable of feuding with The Beautiful People off the bat to establish credibility much like Tara did. Essentially, she's the prefect replacement for Tara, which let's not kid ourselves here – is no easy feat to accomplish. In addition to James, two new bloods would likely help garner interest in the division again. My suggestions? Rachel Donaldson (MsChif), and Sara Del Rey.​

4. Bail on the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships

Yup – titles for the sake of titles make absolutely no sense and are rarely believable to anyone not actually carrying them. Hell, look no further than TNA's very own "Global Championship" for further proof of that. Now that's not to say titles can't be created and gain credibility/respect – they can. They just need to be booked properly to do so. Considering the size (or lack thereof) of the KD, how exactly is anyone to believe that there are viable competitors for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships outside of Sarita & Taylor? Are we really going to watch the only two tag teams in TNA battle back and forth over the things? And you wonder why no one cares? Either hire more women (and develop a tag division) to allow for those titles to develop value, or bail on them entirely and stick to booking the power struggle around the Knockouts Championship. My suggestion is to run the latter.​

5. Continue booking Madison Rayne as a Career Killer

She needs it. Badly. Rayne has been the lacky for TBP for years now, and until she retired Roxxi (following the Tara retirement), I hadn't given so much as a quarter of a shit about her – let a lone an entire shit. She was as vanilla as vanilla got, the ugliest of the three and equally as boring as any of them in the ring. This career killer gimmick she's started is actually intriguing, and it's a shame ODB was let go before Rayne could further her gimmick by retiring her as well. Now obviously the idea isn't to retire the entire division – that's being done for you already out of the sheer frustrations backstage – but retiring those who are already leaving as part of a kayfabe storyline absolutely works into developing a story line that would see Rayne's dominance established to the point that it instantly elevates anyone who eventually beats her for the strap.​

6. Re-push Sarita & Taylor Wilde as singles competitors

Just as I noted earlier – the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships are pointless, so in the process so too is the face tag team of Sarita & Taylor Wilde. Splitting them is integral, but by no means should it just be done for the sake of being done – wrestling fans love drama, so give them drama. Develop a rivalry between the two after weeks of losing to jobber teams over frustrations over spots in the match, or who should get the pin, etc. This would undoubtedly lead to a feud between the two that would end with a send-off match at a PPV, or a series of matches (best two of three?) that would end with both women back in the singles hunt, which would pit them next in line for a shot at the TNA Knockouts Championship once someone like Mickie James has taken it from Rayne.​

7. Enjoy the success!

Self explanatory.​

* OK, so the seventh doesn't really count, but you get the point!


--------------------------------------------------

Previous IDR's Seven* Ways Threads

• Seven* Ways to Build a Successful TNA product
• Seven* Ways to Revitalize the X Division threads
• Seven* Ways to Legitimize the Global Championship

 

[shattered dreams]

Did you really say Madison is as bad in the ring as Lacey? That is crazy man. I think the demise of the KOs division is greatly exaggerated. Right now they have 6 main players in the TBP, Love, Rosie and Daffney and 3 occassional workers in Sarita, Wilde and Hamada. That is enough for the amount of time they have for the KOs. If someone worth it comes along at the right price of course you add them but there is no reason they need 10-12 workers and tons of money in the division at the moment. I am sure that the IWC liked what the division once was as far as uniqueness but how mass marketable that was is highly debatable and it is not like Rosie and Daffney are cookie cutter divas anyway. There have been some bumps along the way but people claiming the women consistently work matches worse than before are stretching the truth IMO while they have obviously worked at improving sex appeal for the neanderthals. I think right now they have a champion that can wrestle with some interesting stories swirling between TBP and the others.

 

[Kaelthes]

well, for maybe two years that I have been on this site without registering, I have never really seen someone as genius as IDR. You always have something creative and good to say. I think that you would be able to write better than TNA creative. Now to make this a non spam post,

I think Mickie James would have been a good addition, if Awesome kong was here. They could have made Mickie and underdog type women. Now i dont think TNA has any use for her, seeing that TBP are taking over KO Division... Thats eye candy right there.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

well, for maybe two years that I have been on this site without registering, I have never really seen someone as genius as IDR. You always have something creative and good to say. I think that you would be able to write better than TNA creative. Now to make this a non spam post,

I think Mickie James would have been a good addition, if Awesome kong was here. They could have made Mickie and underdog type women. Now i dont think TNA has any use for her, seeing that TBP are taking over KO Division... Thats eye candy right there.

I don't think I'm any smarter than most of the guys working in the industry – I just like to pretend I am on forums because it helps kill time during the day when I'm at work!

James just exited a story in the WWE where she was picked on for her "ugliness" by LayCool, earning the moniker "Piggy James" in the process. Who's to say the same can't be done (maybe not exactly, but on the same level) with the real Beautiful People – the original Beautiful People? Still an underdog type story being three-on-one at all points of the story, no?

 

[Schizophrenic]

Once again have to agree with (damn near) every thing IDR says. The 1 thing I disagree with is that madison is as equal in the ring to Lacey. I don't think SHIMMER (who shares the ROH mindset of wrestling before gimmik) would allow her to bepart of their first tag champs if she was as bad as LVE. But I digress.

I said in another forum that TNA needs to seriously get the ball rollingon their knockout division and make it worthwile or just drop the damn division all together and just use some of the women as eye candy and valets. Cause right now it's nothing worth watching...with the exception of the BP entrance. I think the additions of Del Ray would help tremendiously. MsChif won't happen since she has said numerous times she is fine wrestling when she wants to and not going to TNA or WWE but Del Ray and possibly others like Perez and rehiring Melissa as well as bringing in Mickie would do wonders for the fledgeling divison.

 

[Amarillo del Bosque Verde]

God I love these

Anyway...I really do think them hiring would be a great idea. I always thought of her as the last great WWE diva after Trish and Lita left the comapny. She would bring greatness to the knockout's division and could feud with the Original B.P. not the wwe ripoff's (Lay-Cool)

The SHIMMER idea is also great. I've seen a few of their women wrestle in ROH. They're really good. Having a few new women there like MsChif and Sara Del Ray would help. Alissa Flash was great but they never gave her a good chance.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

I'm gonna have to go back into that first post and edit, I think – I never meant to insinuate that Madison Rayne was as poor a wrestler as Lacey, but rather as poor a wrestler as Velvet Sky, since I don't really consider Lacey Von Erich a wrestler – more of a valet at this point.

Actually, scratch that – I stand by my statement. I don't think she's as poor a wrestler as Lacey, but I do think both Velvet and Madison are both boring wrestlers.

 

[NYJETMET]

Well, my opinion is a complete 360 in some ways...............

1) Rebuild your KO division on the basis of an NWO type thing. Bring in Mickie, and 2 or 3 "E" recent cast offs as a HEEL faction and wipe out the KO division talent pool. How about that for a shake up?!?!

2) On the tails of that, you eventually turn TBP face which I think is an absolute must anyway. They are hot, they get no heat, and they have the coolest entrance music. They can then become your women's version of the 4 Horseman....to save the TNA Women's division from the predator faction led by Mickie. Maybe add Angelina Love back to the group.

Anyone agree? Disagree? Think I'm off my rocker?

 

[mister_b1LL]

1. Admit you have a problem.

Just like drug addicts and alcoholics are asked to do, the first step on the road to recovery is always admitting you have a problem to begin with. If the company refuses to see the errors in their ways, fixing said errors will be next to impossible seeing as management won't feel the product actually needs improvement.​

2. Regain your focus.

For most of it's reign, the TNA Knockouts Division (KD) has made a comfortable living off of employing the type of female wrestlers you'd most closely consider "anti-Divas" in that their purpose in the company had very little to do with being eye candy for horny teenagers and lonely dads as much as it did for putting on believable wrestling matches to prove that women were in fact capable of actually doing so – contrary to popular belief. Women like Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, ODB and Tara among others came to the company to raise that awareness, and did – successfully I might add. However, over the last few months since the Hogan/Bischoff inception, the focus of the KD has shifted toward more of a "bimbos with boobies" type of a booking where the quality of wrestling in the matches has dropped tremendously for the sake of selling them as eye candy. Regain your focus here, TNA – go back to the way things were when you were capable of putting on a match between women that didn't make half the audience's ears bleed from the screeching, and subsequently didn't lose you viewers. Bring back the anti-Divas and stop booking your division into obscurity for the sake of trying to sell their fake tits to your viewers.​

3. Hire Mickie James and Bring in New Blood

There is always a silver lining to seemingly dooming events like the recent releases of ODB, Tara, Awesome Kong and Roxxi, no matter how gloomy everyone wants to make it out to be. In this case, three roster spots just opened up to bring in fresh faces/bodies to help to revitalize an otherwise stagnant division. Hiring Mickie James – despite the fact she's an ex-WWE star – never seemed more right IMO. Mickie has a cult following for a fanbase and would be an instant fan favorite with the iMPACT! Zone crowd, and would most certainly be more than capable of feuding with The Beautiful People off the bat to establish credibility much like Tara did. Essentially, she's the prefect replacement for Tara, which let's not kid ourselves here – is no easy feat to accomplish. In addition to James, two new bloods would likely help garner interest in the division again. My suggestions? Rachel Donaldson (MsChif), and Sara Del Rey.​

4. Bail on the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships

Yup – titles for the sake of titles make absolutely no sense and are rarely believable to anyone not actually carrying them. Hell, look no further than TNA's very own "Global Championship" for further proof of that. Now that's not to say titles can't be created and gain credibility/respect – they can. They just need to be booked properly to do so. Considering the size (or lack thereof) of the KD, how exactly is anyone to believe that there are viable competitors for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships outside of Sarita & Taylor? Are we really going to watch the only two tag teams in TNA battle back and forth over the things? And you wonder why no one cares? Either hire more women (and develop a tag division) to allow for those titles to develop value, or bail on them entirely and stick to booking the power struggle around the Knockouts Championship. My suggestion is to run the latter.​

5. Continue booking Madison Rayne as a Career Killer

She needs it. Badly. Rayne has been the lacky for TBP for years now, and until she retired Roxxi (following the Tara retirement), I hadn't given so much as a quarter of a shit about her – let a lone an entire shit. She was as vanilla as vanilla got, the ugliest of the three and equally as boring as any of them in the ring. This career killer gimmick she's started is actually intriguing, and it's a shame ODB was let go before Rayne could further her gimmick by retiring her as well. Now obviously the idea isn't to retire the entire division – that's being done for you already out of the sheer frustrations backstage – but retiring those who are already leaving as part of a kayfabe storyline absolutely works into developing a story line that would see Rayne's dominance established to the point that it instantly elevates anyone who eventually beats her for the strap.​

6. Re-push Sarita & Taylor Wilde as singles competitors

Just as I noted earlier – the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships are pointless, so in the process so too is the face tag team of Sarita & Taylor Wilde. Splitting them is integral, but by no means should it just be done for the sake of being done – wrestling fans love drama, so give them drama. Develop a rivalry between the two after weeks of losing to jobber teams over frustrations over spots in the match, or who should get the pin, etc. This would undoubtedly lead to a feud between the two that would end with a send-off match at a PPV, or a series of matches (best two of three?) that would end with both women back in the singles hunt, which would pit them next in line for a shot at the TNA Knockouts Championship once someone like Mickie James has taken it from Rayne.​

7. Enjoy the success!

Self explanatory.​

* OK, so the seventh doesn't really count, but you get the point!


--------------------------------------------------

Previous IDR's Seven* Ways Threads

• Seven* Ways to Build a Successful TNA product
• Seven* Ways to Revitalize the X Division threads
• Seven* Ways to Legitimize the Global Championship

In response to #2-I think the only reason why it seems like the "bimbos with boobies" type of booking is because every single segment that involves the Knockouts division involves the Beautiful People because TNA believes that they're the only thing in the KO division that is important. But at the same time it fades the other KOs into obscurity. I mean, what's Hamada doing these days? I think instead of having TBP in 6-KO tag matches all the time, let the members of TBP actually break up and have some separate feuds. This gives more airtime for more KOs to show their stuff and regain their rep as good womens' wrestlers.

In response to #3-Hiring Mickie James is gonna be the most awesome pickup for the KO Division. It can bring that cult following as IDR said and it can also bring a higher level of legitimacy as Mickie James has been a multiple time Women's Champion in the WWE. As for new blood, I would absolutely love to see Daizee Haze in TNA. I think she's a good mixture of pretty and pain, and she could play as a nice middle ground to what TNA needs (solid ladies wrestling) and what TNA wants (eye candy).

In response to #4-That thing needs to be gone. You can't have Saritaylor and TBP fighting for the KO Tag Titles all the time. One title for the KOs is good.

In response to #5-You damn near gave me a heart attack when you said Maddy Rayne is the ugliest. Lemme catch my breath...Okay, I think it would be interesting to see Maddy continue the career killer deal, but the people she retired were planning on going so having Maddy retire them was just convenient. When's the next KO gonna leave? It may not be for a while. I say make Maddy the go to person to retire anybody on their way. It could be something she's known for. Let's say it's a few months from now and Hamada decides to quit. When we find out she's gonna fight Maddy Rayne, we'd be like "Hey, maybe Hamada's quitting." If you're also trying to continue Maddy's dominance with the KO Title, if Mickie James would come to TNA, it would do wonders for Maddy's career if she had a match and defended her Title against James because a win over one of the most recognizable and successul women ever to grace a wrestling ring could definitely make Maddy a legitimate force in women's wrestling.

In response to #6-It's logical for Saritaylor to break up once the KO Tag division is gone, but this idea makes me wonder who's going to be the face and who's going to be the heel when Saritaylor breaks up. I suggest that Sarita, though she seems more like a face, should be the one to turn heel and take out Wilde. Taylor could probably make it on her own as a face because I've seen her singles work in TNA and it's good, but I've never seen Sarita as a singles competitor and I feel without something as dramatic as a heel turn to start her singles career, Sarita will fade into obscurity once Wilde defeats her.

I would like to add one more point: Take all the titles off The Beautiful People. I know that TBP is the most popular thing that the KOs can depend on now, but truthfully, they don't need the Titles to be successful. Even if you put any member of TBP against someone else, TBP will still play some part in the match, and any way you slice it, it gets really repetitive. If somebody beats them for the Titles then the next thing you see is Daffney vs Taylor Wilde for the KO Title. That way two KOs can get the airtime they need and what TBP doesn't require to be popular.

 

[shattered dreams]

Well, my opinion is a complete 360 in some ways...............

1) Rebuild your KO division on the basis of an NWO type thing. Bring in Mickie, and 2 or 3 "E" recent cast offs as a HEEL faction and wipe out the KO division talent pool. How about that for a shake up?!?!

2) On the tails of that, you eventually turn TBP face which I think is an absolute must anyway. They are hot, they get no heat, and they have the coolest entrance music. They can then become your women's version of the 4 Horseman....to save the TNA Women's division from the predator faction led by Mickie. Maybe add Angelina Love back to the group.

Anyone agree? Disagree? Think I'm off my rocker?

It might be fun but I strongly disagree that TBP do not get any heat. If you wanted to turn them face that would be an interesting way to do it but there is not much I see that suggests you have to do that. Especially since when fan favorites debut they are almost always cheered for a while. I think the impressions of the in-ring KO action is at this point a victim of the hype cycle. All they really need to do is with their chosen few healthy focus on stories with a consistent build and they will be fine.


Personally IDR I could not disagree more about Madison. She might be the least attractive of the three but that means little when the other two are so hot. That is kind of like saying the ugliest Dahm triplet or something like that. I find Madison quite attractive but obviously such a thing is subjective, although it seems hypocritical to criticize her looks while advocating not booking based on looks. I could see someone saying her personality was boring until recently because I would probably agree but even that got an interesting boost the last week or two. As far as in-ring work at the very least you have to give her credit for being able to work a more varied moveset from opponents than velvet and definitely lacey. While that might not make her exciting by itself it is absolutely integral in putting on a good match. I do not find her boring at all and am quite interested to see where they take her title reign.

 

[Superstar77]

Continue booking Madison Rayne as a Career Killer

She needs it. Badly. Rayne has been the lacky for TBP for years now, and until she retired Roxxi (following the Tara retirement), I hadn't given so much as a quarter of a shit about her – let a lone an entire shit. She was as vanilla as vanilla got, the ugliest of the three and equally as boring as any of them in the ring. This career killer gimmick she's started is actually intriguing, and it's a shame ODB was let go before Rayne could further her gimmick by retiring her as well. Now obviously the idea isn't to retire the entire division – that's being done for you already out of the sheer frustrations backstage – but retiring those who are already leaving as part of a kayfabe storyline absolutely works into developing a story line that would see Rayne's dominance established to the point that it instantly elevates anyone who eventually beats her for the strap.

I disagree with you here. Madison Rayne has not been with TBP for that long it's been a year but not years. I also disagree about Madison needing the KO title more than Velvet.

Velvet is suppose to be the leader of TBP and is seen as the hottest one (which she is) but the problem is she is not taken seriously because they never put her over as a legit threat to anyone.

I think TNA really dropped the ball on not giving Velvet the KO title. If they would have given it to her and did for Velvet what their during for Madison, Velvet could finally be seen as legit and the top KO.

I'm not saying Madison should never be KO champion but I feel that this should have been Velvet's time. Especially as long as she's been there and a Angelina vs. Velvet feud over the KO title done right could have generated some interest in the division again.

As for the rest of your points I agree with a lot of them. The KO division does need to regain focus and rebuild. Though I still don't think Mickie James if she signs with TNA is not going to be the one save the division like so many seem to think.

 

[MisterRob]

Nice thread, and in theory you have some good ideas, but there's several problems with your thinking here which I feel the need to point out:

1. Admit you have a problem.

Just like drug addicts and alcoholics are asked to do, the first step on the road to recovery is always admitting you have a problem to begin with. If the company refuses to see the errors in their ways, fixing said errors will be next to impossible seeing as management won't feel the product actually needs improvement.​

You're assuming TNA and those behind the scenes actually feel they have a problem at all. The truth is this is a different era for TNA and those behind the scenes may actually want the Knockouts division exactly the way it is. There's a reason WCW never had a women's division really and never used their females as anything more then eye candy and Nitro girls; because they didn't see any benefit in women's wrestling and didn't feel it was even a draw. Those very same minds are behind TNA right now, old mentality's that seem more then happy to use the Knockouts division as just eye candy and not build it as a valid, competitive division like other male divisions. That's not going to change unless those people want it to or those people are gone, so admitting they have a problem isn't really true when they are purposely doing what they are right now to the Knockouts division.

2. Regain your focus.

For most of it's reign, the TNA Knockouts Division (KD) has made a comfortable living off of employing the type of female wrestlers you'd most closely consider "anti-Divas" in that their purpose in the company had very little to do with being eye candy for horny teenagers and lonely dads as much as it did for putting on believable wrestling matches to prove that women were in fact capable of actually doing so – contrary to popular belief. Women like Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, ODB and Tara among others came to the company to raise that awareness, and did – successfully I might add. However, over the last few months since the Hogan/Bischoff inception, the focus of the KD has shifted toward more of a "bimbos with boobies" type of a booking where the quality of wrestling in the matches has dropped tremendously for the sake of selling them as eye candy. Regain your focus here, TNA – go back to the way things were when you were capable of putting on a match between women that didn't make half the audience's ears bleed from the screeching, and subsequently didn't lose you viewers. Bring back the anti-Divas and stop booking your division into obscurity for the sake of trying to sell their fake tits to your viewers.​

This goes along with the first, the focus TNA was giving to the Knockouts division in the past has no relation to the new focus TNA has because those behind the scenes are using the Knockouts division exactly how they want to.
Maybe they're blind to the draw the Knockouts have previously been for the company, or they just refuse to accept the potential the Knockouts division has to be a competitive piece of the shows make up, but it seems all they intend to do is focus on the Beautiful People type atmosphere for the Knockouts division and turn it into something similar to the WWE's divas. They don't want something unique, or anti-divas, otherwise they'd have been using many of the talents they've since gotten rid of and been pushing some of the talents they still have but are doing absolutely nothing with.

3. Hire Mickie James and Bring in New Blood

There is always a silver lining to seemingly dooming events like the recent releases of ODB, Tara, Awesome Kong and Roxxi, no matter how gloomy everyone wants to make it out to be. In this case, three roster spots just opened up to bring in fresh faces/bodies to help to revitalize an otherwise stagnant division. Hiring Mickie James – despite the fact she's an ex-WWE star – never seemed more right IMO. Mickie has a cult following for a fanbase and would be an instant fan favorite with the iMPACT! Zone crowd, and would most certainly be more than capable of feuding with The Beautiful People off the bat to establish credibility much like Tara did. Essentially, she's the prefect replacement for Tara, which let's not kid ourselves here – is no easy feat to accomplish. In addition to James, two new bloods would likely help garner interest in the division again. My suggestions? Rachel Donaldson (MsChif), and Sara Del Rey.​

You're assuming Mickie James is even interested in coming to TNA. It seems for now that she's far more interested in this music venture she's been involved in and likely isn't interested in continuing her wrestling career at this time, and if she was she may not want to even see TNA as an option for her. It would be nice if TNA could add Mickie James to their division, though, in theory.

4. Bail on the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships

Yup – titles for the sake of titles make absolutely no sense and are rarely believable to anyone not actually carrying them. Hell, look no further than TNA's very own "Global Championship" for further proof of that. Now that's not to say titles can't be created and gain credibility/respect – they can. They just need to be booked properly to do so. Considering the size (or lack thereof) of the KD, how exactly is anyone to believe that there are viable competitors for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships outside of Sarita & Taylor? Are we really going to watch the only two tag teams in TNA battle back and forth over the things? And you wonder why no one cares? Either hire more women (and develop a tag division) to allow for those titles to develop value, or bail on them entirely and stick to booking the power struggle around the Knockouts Championship. My suggestion is to run the latter.​

This is one I'll agree with you on. I never understood why they brought in a Knockouts tag team championship in the first place and now that their division isn't even in a place to really push these titles and they're all but forgotten, it seems entirely pointless to keep the titles around. They really need to get rid of them and just focus solely on less titles that mean more.

5. Continue booking Madison Rayne as a Career Killer

She needs it. Badly. Rayne has been the lacky for TBP for years now, and until she retired Roxxi (following the Tara retirement), I hadn't given so much as a quarter of a shit about her – let a lone an entire shit. She was as vanilla as vanilla got, the ugliest of the three and equally as boring as any of them in the ring. This career killer gimmick she's started is actually intriguing, and it's a shame ODB was let go before Rayne could further her gimmick by retiring her as well. Now obviously the idea isn't to retire the entire division – that's being done for you already out of the sheer frustrations backstage – but retiring those who are already leaving as part of a kayfabe storyline absolutely works into developing a story line that would see Rayne's dominance established to the point that it instantly elevates anyone who eventually beats her for the strap.​

I'm still perplexed as to why Madison Rayne is even the Knockouts champion, but I'm assuming she's just a champion waiting for Angelina Love to come back from injury and take the belt off her. I have the suspicious feeling that Madison Rayne was only champion because of circumstance, that being Love's injury and no one else being a valid replacement for Love in this transitional phase. I have a feeling once Madison Rayne loses the title she'll all but be pushed back into the Beautiful People's shadow behind Velvet Sky and even Lacey Von Eric. I find her entirely bland and boring, uninteresting, and her wrestling ability is definitely not on par compared to some of the talents they've gotten rid of.

6. Re-push Sarita & Taylor Wilde as singles competitors

Just as I noted earlier – the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships are pointless, so in the process so too is the face tag team of Sarita & Taylor Wilde. Splitting them is integral, but by no means should it just be done for the sake of being done – wrestling fans love drama, so give them drama. Develop a rivalry between the two after weeks of losing to jobber teams over frustrations over spots in the match, or who should get the pin, etc. This would undoubtedly lead to a feud between the two that would end with a send-off match at a PPV, or a series of matches (best two of three?) that would end with both women back in the singles hunt, which would pit them next in line for a shot at the TNA Knockouts Championship once someone like Mickie James has taken it from Rayne.​

This seems unlikely. I'm more inclined to expect Sarita to be released any time now, and Taylor Wilde used as just enhancement talent whenever the opportunity comes. Clearly TNA is not getting behind either of these women and I can't see any reason for that changing with this new direction the Knockouts division has taken.

But we can certainly wish!

 

[Kaelthes]

I don't think I'm any smarter than most of the guys working in the industry – I just like to pretend I am on forums because it helps kill time during the day when I'm at work!

James just exited a story in the WWE where she was picked on for her "ugliness" by LayCool, earning the moniker "Piggy James" in the process. Who's to say the same can't be done (maybe not exactly, but on the same level) with the real Beautiful People – the original Beautiful People? Still an underdog type story being three-on-one at all points of the story, no?

HAHA well that explains why your always on, well anyway.. Making tbp pick on Mickie? i think they could do better.. (Again not unless IDR is writing). lol. NOW if they could team Rossie And Mickie, TBP can make fun of both of them and Rossie AND Mickie can get a push.. Almost like having them team to put together a force that KO's arent to mess with. If you wanna add ot to 3 on 3 put in rossie, Mickie, and have Taylor put on some weight. Make TBP assault these three putting together a team...

GOSH I LOVE IDR'S WORK