Turning the Knockouts into the Divas?

[Pedro08]

I somewhat stunned and disappointed at what TNA did to the Knockouts last night in what appears to be a desperate move for a ratings pop. While the match itself had a somewhat decent premise, the choices inside the boxes was incredibly lame.

Instead of settling the Tara-Daffney feud in a cage at Lockdown, they have it so Tara could either get back here spider, retain her title, or possible lose both without having a match. In the end she gets her spider back, but loses the Knockouts title. Anyone else find this incredibly stupid?

On top of that, they have the stipulation that one of the Knockouts is forced to strip at the end of the show. Then throwing Lacy out there just to strip down to her underwear and following it up next week with a 'Leather and Lace' match just screams desperation. Resorting to 1990's WWF crash tv-style booking.

What made the Knockouts stand out from the Divas is that they could work and didn't need to resort to this kind of booking. More and more it seems that TNA is just becoming WWE-lite and I'm disappointed that they are going down this road with the Knockouts and am really surprised that Dixie would be ok with this.

 

[philbrooks]

I agree with your post.

At a general product level what was more alarming to me is that it seems that the writers believe that Wrestling isnt what draws of the end of the day.

 

[psykohurricane]

Ever since Bischoff took over, The Beautiful Peoples have been the focal point of the division while talented wrestlers like Taylor Wilde and HAmada are getting the shaft. The match last night was the last nail in the coffin of what the knockout division was all about.

Now instead of having talented woman's wrestling great matches we are going to have T&A matches and the title who was once the most predigious woman's title in the wrestling industry as become a joke right now. The WWE diva's have a better division right now then TNA especially the smackdown side of it. No crappy gimmick no giving away title the divas are just wrestling and the fans are starting to give a damn about the diva's.


I hate to see what was once the most talented woman's division in the world become such a joke because Bischoff and Russo don't see how marketable having a woman's division not based around t&A is but i'm not surprised since these are the same 2 guys that actually love orlando jordan bi-sexual angle.

 

[gd]

Was the whole KO thing really stupid last night? Of course. One of the most ridiculous matches in TNA history, and considering their history, that's saying a lot. However, I don't think it's the worst possible thing they could have done by any stretch of the imagination.

First off, I don't see how the KO's are being turned into the Diva's in any way whatsoever. Sure, Lacey was out there stripping, but that's her character. The KO's are still far more interesting/entertaining/useful than the Diva's because you can actual distinguish between them and they give you a reason to care about them.

The one good thing about the match last night was that Tara, who is pretty shit, lost her title. Don't want to be seeing too much of her, now do we? And however illogical and clusterfucky the match may have been, at least it was something different and interesting. The shock TV works sometimes and keep you guessing. I'd rather watch what was going on last night than a normal match between Tara and Angelina for the title, or something like that.

 

[Smooth Sexual Chocolate]

WWE would not waste that mush time on divas.

I'm pretty sure that booking a bunch of knockout matches is not going to help TNA with the ratings.

 

[MeanGene]

Divas or Knockouts...that is time to change the channel, bathroom break, go up and get refreshments..bottom line.
Theses matches are a complete waste of time. Back in the day, their were more managers....that is what TNA and WWE need, not divas....classy Freddy blassie, captain lou albano, paul bearer, jimmy hart, etc...they couldn't wrestle either but made the storylines 10x better

 

[shattered dreams]

The whole thing was kind of eye opening for me. How many of the wrestlers have received a positive boost from the new guys running tna? Maybe a handful. Practically the rest of the roster has taken a drastic turn away from the product people used to enjoy. If they were drawing ratings I would relent but they are failing miserably. Up until Doug Williams promo last night I was convinced the x-division was dead. Since I thought that was good work I will hold out some hope.

But the knockouts? WTF. The most annoying thing to me was that there were plenty of ways to accomplish those same goals and have the women actually wrestle. Not to mention have what happened make at least some sense. Exhibitionist is lazy booking, losing the title in such a way is a big FU to everything the division stood for over the past couple years, having a spider in one of the boxes (did that really happen?) and this is your main event clusterfuck that someone botches a striptease in while we had longer watching daffney pull at her straps and make funny faces? This is why you want me to watch the second hour of your product? Let us top it off by saying just in case you thought this was a one time ratings ploy gone wrong, next week we turn your knockouts into attitude era divas for sure!

Sad part is that they could have had that Angle-Anderson match instead of that atrocity as the main event. If you are concerned that people will not watch a ladder match in arguably your most compelling feud more than a striptease, that should maybe tell you something about the state of your product.

 

[Pedro08]

Was the whole KO thing really stupid last night? Of course. One of the most ridiculous matches in TNA history, and considering their history, that's saying a lot. However, I don't think it's the worst possible thing they could have done by any stretch of the imagination.

First off, I don't see how the KO's are being turned into the Diva's in any way whatsoever. Sure, Lacey was out there stripping, but that's her character. The KO's are still far more interesting/entertaining/useful than the Diva's because you can actual distinguish between them and they give you a reason to care about them.

The one good thing about the match last night was that Tara, who is pretty shit, lost her title. Don't want to be seeing too much of her, now do we? And however illogical and clusterfucky the match may have been, at least it was something different and interesting. The shock TV works sometimes and keep you guessing. I'd rather watch what was going on last night than a normal match between Tara and Angelina for the title, or something like that.

That's fine that Tara lost her title, but after building the feud between Tara and Daffney for the past few weeks why have her lose her title in this way and abruptly ending the feud? Why not build the feud to the Lockdown PPV, which would fit in with Daffney's personality and end it there?

If they wanted to put the belt on Angelina, then why not have Daffney win the belt at Lockdown and have Angelina beat her the following week on Impact?

You're right that shock tv does work sometimes. However I didn't find this shocking, I found it pretty weak. The fact that someone can lose the title just because they picked the wrong key is just plain lame.

 

[philbrooks]

Sad part is that they could have had that Angle-Anderson match instead of that atrocity as the main event. If you are concerned that people will not watch a ladder match in arguably your most compelling feud more than a striptease, that should maybe tell you something about the state of your product.

They'd rather set up a leather and lace match next week for ratingz rather than build up some properly to make people buy their PPV.

 

[mikeyboy]

Divas or Knockouts...that is time to change the channel, bathroom break, go up and get refreshments..bottom line.
Theses matches are a complete waste of time. Back in the day, their were more managers....that is what TNA and WWE need, not divas....classy Freddy blassie, captain lou albano, paul bearer, jimmy hart, etc...they couldn't wrestle either but made the storylines 10x better

ive always changed the channel during wwe womens matches but have enjoyed tnas womens div. but now they are lowering themselves to wwe style divas crap and i dont like it at all.

 

[Guilty]

Sex sells..Simple as that

I agree though....TNA does have woman that can wrestle. Their not just eye candy. BUTTT. would fans really wanna see Tara and Hamada put on a technical womans clinic or see Lacey Von Erich showing off what mama gave her. Ill go with the latter

 

[AJM]

I much rather watch the Beautiful People than listen to lame ass old Hogan on the mic. Who are these ******s who cheer his name? They get in for free, correct? No way anyone would pay to see this garbage.

 

[NatureBoyFig4]

I had a couple of problems with that so-called match:

First, putting the belt in a lock box as a mystery prize was pretty lame. It completely devalued the belt. It might as well have been the WWE's "fallen competitor's belt in a suitcase title" or WCW's "found in a trashcan by the janitor championship." They should have had a title shot in there instead, and then had someone actually wrestle for the belt.

Second, I'm all for seeing some female skin on TV, but a "strip in the ring NOW or be fired!" clause is sexual harassment &/or abuse. They didn't even have a villain character "man up" and own that stipulation either, which would have been bad enough, but now TNA itself is made to look like a sexual predator. What were they thinking?

 

[Guilty]

I had a couple of problems with that so-called match:

First, putting the belt in a lock box as a mystery prize was pretty lame. It completely devalued the belt. It might as well have been the WWE's "fallen competitor's belt in a suitcase title" or WCW's "found in a trashcan by the janitor championship." They should have had a title shot in there instead, and then had someone actually wrestle for the belt.

Second, I'm all for seeing some female skin on TV, but a "strip in the ring NOW or be fired!" clause is sexual harassment &/or abuse. They didn't even have a villain character "man up" and own that stipulation either, which would have been bad enough, but now TNA itself is made to look like a sexual predator. What were they thinking?

I dont know if u were listening to commentary but they did say all the women agreed with the stipulations before the match. Thus meaning Daffney was forced to strip or be fired on the spot. Nothing wrong with that

 

[WhyTravisFelt]

I like Natureboy's idea. You're right, it's hard to go along with the kayfabe when it's something obviously illegal for a company to do. They should have Daffney and Atty. Stevie (he has a lot of degrees) sue the crap out of them next week. @guilty: I'm pretty sure it's still illegal to put a clause into a situation like that...if this were real life and this was a real company's employees.

Seriously though, I think alot of people here are either being too serious or simply being wrong.

Serious people: There is absolutely, and I mean ABSOLUTELY, no way the KOs will ever be as awful as the WWE divas unless they cut every single one but Lacey and hired nothing but softcore porn stars to replace them with. The segment was a very E thing to do; but WWE would never use a Divas segment as a main event and would never give them that long a time slot. WWE views women as sexual objects to briefly distract the audience with and occasionally put on jilted, hair-pull matches. The Knockouts wrestle, and eight of them wrestled tonight, albeit briefly.

The wrong people: The KOs have consistently through TNA's history been their highest rated segments and yes, that means most people (of TNA viewer's at any rate) would rather watch a good wrestling match between women than a bad non-wrestling segment between men (I think we can blame MEM for alot of those rating train wrecks though; did those guys do anything but sit in the ring and chit-chat?).

Unfortunately last night that wasn't the case. I'll admit first that I'm very impressed to see that Bischoff and co. finally figured out that the KOs were drawing better than the men and used them in the main event. But, the way this was done was kind of awful and would've been done better if it were more like the Feast or Fired match and included all KOs with the same four random suitcase options they did last night. I would've been very interested to see Daffney do a strip tease, but I wasn't surprised that Lacey interrupted...oh well, she's hot too. The fact that they are going with Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky for the world title (probably the prettiest two of the capable KOs in most men's eyes), tells you a little of their direction; especially seemingly ending the Tara-Daffney feud that was starting to get pretty good tells us that maybe they have some different ideas about what they want to do with the KOs. But the timing is really bad considering lockdown is close-at-hand. I think every one was expecting Tara and Daffney in a cage for the title because they are two crazy bitches; Hopefully they can work this into a three way dance with Tara and Daffney (assuming Love retains after next week) and maybe that would put you guys at ease.

 

[jaxx]

Wow, I can't believe what actually took place last night on impact. In one segment the ko title was devalued and basically told every fan that being ko champ is meaningless. What a ridiculous way to take the title off of someone and it really pisses me off as a fan. When I think of all the hard work these women have put into distinguishing themselves from all other womens divisions and all of the good matches they have put on to entertain us.

It sucks that they would take the title off of tara without finishing her feud with daffney which was actually a good feud. Why not put the title on daffney and let angelina chase her for the title. This is the kind of nonsense that continues to alienate TNA's core fan base. I'm trying to be optimistic, but I just don't get it. I'm seriously just thinking about taking a break from the product for a while and its not just because of what happened last night. Its a combination of everything and i'm pulling for tna to get their shit together, but for every step they take forward, they take 2 fucking steps back.

 

[DaleBryan]

I was pissed i wasted my time last night i Recorded Raw, so i would flip back and forth between impact and the national championship and i saw that it was almost 9 so i went to impact... and how does TNA expect to compete w/ Raw when the end their show w/ the Knockouts!?? sorry if thats off topic but i had to say it.

 

[Vintage]

The Knockouts were the one thing TNA didn't need to change going into January. All they needed was more focus on the tag titles and a fresh face or 2 in their singles division. I sure hope they get enough complaints about last nights booking to realize they are really making a big mistake with some of the recent developments in the division. The knocked up title has about as much prestige as the Global Title right now, even the KO Tag Titles seem more legit. At one point it was second only to the World Title in TNA

 

[ITrippedTheShockmaster]

I'm in total agreement that the Knockouts "Lockbox" angle was dumb, mainly for these reasons:

First, they put the opening as the final segment of the program. Seriously? You want this to be what you go out on for the night? You start an hour early in an attempt to pull the RAW crowd in early, and you end on a very weak segment. Poor choice in programming, IMO.

Next, why in the hell do you put the Knockouts title in one of the boxes? I can understand putting the open contract, but the title? Did they just want a way to pull the title off Tara without making her look weak? It backfired either way, because it also skews Tara and Angelina's characters. Angelina's supposed to be a face now, right? So is Tara, right? Well they had Angelina come off as kind of a heel last night, then had Tara look heel-ish by throwing a temper tantrum after losing the belt. Again, poor programming. (Although I'm always happy to see Lacy von Erich show the goods.)

Plus, they put the spider in there? Why? The spider is attached to Tara's character and serves no other purpose to any one else. That was a total waste.

And honestly, while Daffney is kinda cute underneath all that makeup, I don't think she's the one people would like to see do a strip tease, which I agree is bringing the Knockouts division down.

It's obvious that the new regime does not really take the Knockouts division seriously. They have some beautiful women and some very talented wrestlers (and some of them are both). It's a shame and very disrespectful what happened last night.

 

[Klown_Karnage]

The truth is, I've seen things turning this way for some time. I have always had a lot of respect for TNA in the way they handled their female wrestlers as opposed to the WWE. They're the only major promotion I've known of that has had a females singles match as a PPV main event (Kong vs. Kim), a ballsy move that paid off. Unfortunately, since then, things have been going downhill for the Knockouts.

I can recall a time when they were allowed be almost as brutal as the guys. Anybody recall the Bimbo Brawls? Moose I think her name was who participated in most if not all of those severely hardcore matches? Not anymore.

The Knockouts were systematically weakened over time, less and less hardcore, but things got the most obvious in my opinion when they ousted the Awesome Kong. To be honest, Kong was the last undeniably powerful female on the roster. Any of the others could be weakened gradually to become pretty much what the WWE Divas are now, but Kong had to go. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened right after Hogan/Bischoff took over and the "altercation" between her and Bubba was likely a staged excuse to make it happen. My theory: ODB will be next to be tossed off the roster followed by Hamada. Tara's still capable of the magazine model look, so she's still safe for now, but I expect that the Knockouts will be given less and less air time and then only to show the ones with the look the corporate sponsors think is most likely to sell their products.

Just goes to show Hogan's not that different from Vince, doesn't it?

 

[DRock99]

The whole thing was kind of eye opening for me. How many of the wrestlers have received a positive boost from the new guys running tna? Maybe a handful. Practically the rest of the roster has taken a drastic turn away from the product people used to enjoy. If they were drawing ratings I would relent but they are failing miserably. Up until Doug Williams promo last night I was convinced the x-division was dead. Since I thought that was good work I will hold out some hope.

But the knockouts? WTF. The most annoying thing to me was that there were plenty of ways to accomplish those same goals and have the women actually wrestle. Not to mention have what happened make at least some sense. Exhibitionist is lazy booking, losing the title in such a way is a big FU to everything the division stood for over the past couple years, having a spider in one of the boxes (did that really happen?) and this is your main event clusterfuck that someone botches a striptease in while we had longer watching daffney pull at her straps and make funny faces? This is why you want me to watch the second hour of your product? Let us top it off by saying just in case you thought this was a one time ratings ploy gone wrong, next week we turn your knockouts into attitude era divas for sure!

Sad part is that they could have had that Angle-Anderson match instead of that atrocity as the main event. If you are concerned that people will not watch a ladder match in arguably your most compelling feud more than a striptease, that should maybe tell you something about the state of your product.

I totally agree. I thought the KOs were supposed to be WRESTLERS and not STRIPPERS! If TNA is trying to go the Monday Nitro route they should just eliminate the Knockout division altogether and make them all dancers and ring candy like the Nitro Girls.

 

[rubberman]

They devalued the devision in one go with that match last night. They could of kept 3 of the boxes the same, with the fourth being a contract for the tag titles.
Tara could've retained the title, with Daffney winning the Spider, setting a cage match at lockdown, with Tara winning the title back, and Angelina cashing in on the open contract, winning the title, setting up a new fued.
But the way it was done last night, the title was used as a prop like what Russo did in WCW, and devalued the belt.

 

[Leonas]

Wouldn't it make sense for TNA to turn the knockouts into divas? I thought that TNA was trying to advertise to an older auidance. Still maybe uncle hogan and papa bichoff will see the errors of their ways and take their wallets out of their mouths....or quit listening to the million dollar man's theme song and listen to the fans.

 

[tasha16213]

i use to somewhat enjoy tna i will always be a die hard wwe fan but i must admit that i did watch tna every once in awhile while i was very disappointed at jeff hardy going to tna i thought this could be fun but i was sadly mistaken ever since hogan took over tna is going down hill they dont use the divas to fight anymore i havent seen taylor wild in forever and she is a knockout that really did wrestle they need to go back to what they were doing before because there is no way tna can compete with wwe they way things are going now

 

[Dagger Dias]

I somewhat stunned and disappointed at what TNA did to the Knockouts last night in what appears to be a desperate move for a ratings pop. While the match itself had a somewhat decent premise, the choices inside the boxes was incredibly lame.

I disagree. I thought this was a cool segment. Let me just ask you this.... did you tune in to TNA to find out who got what box? Exactly. Questions needing an answer will often equal better ratings. People "had" to know who won what.

Instead of settling the Tara-Daffney feud in a cage at Lockdown, they have it so Tara could either get back here spider, retain her title, or possible lose both without having a match. In the end she gets her spider back, but loses the Knockouts title. Anyone else find this incredibly stupid?

No, it's not stupid. This segment did what it was supposed to do. Lots of fans would be interested in knowing which Knockout won which box. Would Tara get her spider back? Would she get her title? Would she have to do the strip tease? It works. People watched.

On top of that, they have the stipulation that one of the Knockouts is forced to strip at the end of the show. Then throwing Lacy out there just to strip down to her underwear and following it up next week with a 'Leather and Lace' match just screams desperation. Resorting to 1990's WWF crash tv-style booking.

Lacey strip teasing is a bad thing? Newsflash. Lots of straight men watch wrestling. If they have the choice between watching a match on Raw where we often predict the result before it even airs, or Lacey Von Erich wearing almost nothing, what's going to win? Lacey, easily. However, I do agree that the "Leather and Lace" match for next week is stupid, Velvet could have cashed in for a title match and ignite a feud with Angelina! It's not like the "Leather and Lace" match couldn't have still happened! Other than that, I really enjoyed this segment.

What made the Knockouts stand out from the Divas is that they could work and didn't need to resort to this kind of booking. More and more it seems that TNA is just becoming WWE-lite and I'm disappointed that they are going down this road with the Knockouts and am really surprised that Dixie would be ok with this.

I too thought the Knockouts were a great division. Guess what? They still are! Now the more attractive girls are getting more time onscreen, but TNA's girls still have infinitely greater in-ring ability than WWE's divas do. Despite you thinking this was bad booking, this segment did what it was supposed to do because it got people asking questions and curious enough to watch to find out which Knockout won which box.