/ UNPOPULAR OPINIONS /

The Knockouts Division Was Ahead of The Times

so i was watching bunch of tna knockouts videos today because i was bored and i found this playlist filled with knockouts matches. so i binged watched a bunch of knockouts matches on youtube and i realized i did not appreciate the knockouts as much as i should have. they were so ahead of the times. i just want to clarify the knockouts im talking about are the ones circa 2007 to about 2012, no offense to the newer knockouts but im talking about those first knockouts like angelina love, velvet sky, gail kim, obd, awesome kong, roxxi laveau, madison rayne, and others.

i want to appreciate right now how much womens wrestling has been elevated. 

now womens wrestling is actually respected and wanted. im old so i remember the days of the bra and panties matches and the lingerie contests. hey, if you like that stuff, i aint going to judge you. you like what you like, we dont judge over here. 

but its nice we are living in times where womens wrestling isnt treated as a joke anymore, people dont get up to use the bathroom while the womens matches are going on. now women can have good matches, and main event, and work a ppv by themselves. 

but that didnt happen over night.

i feel like the knockouts were really ahead of the womens revolution.

im not saying they were better than the divas or whatever, im not comparing. im saying when it comes to matches and shows they were ahead of that years before it was popping.

the knockouts put out some really good "serious" matches and what i mean by that is... well... lets be totally honest... womens wrestling back then was pretty basic. like it would be 10-15 minutes of 2 women, pulling hair and doing a couple moves here and there. then the finisher and that was basically the match. we didnt have constantly serious intense matches (at least in my opinion). i liked that the knockouts had more serious matches, they had cage matches and hardcore matches. they got to do so much more. 

the knockouts got to do womens only ppvs, way ahead of the times right there. a whole ppv just with women, that is honestly a huge gamble for a company in a male dominated industry, they didnt know it was going to be successful. and they did it more than once. 

and the knockouts got to wrestle with the men a few times, like gail kim and a few other girls got to actually get matches with the men. i will even add the fact that a man was knockouts champion too, eric young was knockouts tag team champion with obd. 

i also loved how... edgy... the knockouts were. i liked that they werent afraid to be sexy and dirty and tough. i loved that they were sexy on their own terms. there is nothing wrong about being sexy, absolutely nothing wrong with that. but i cant stand sexyness being shoved down my throat. thats why i never liked those goofy segments where women wrestlers would rip off each others clothes off and do pillow fights. we all know thats to catch male gaze and its used for fan service. its basically to keep the boys in the seats so they dont go to the bathroom like they usually did during women's segments. i dont need to be told or reminded every 5 seconds that a girl is hot, im not blind. i understand that obd always played with her titties and angelina love and velvet sky were always shaking their booties (and i aint talking about shoes) but i feel like they did that on their own terms. it never came off as desperate, at least to me. 

i feel like the knockouts were so underrated, they were really ahead of the industry. if you take away anything from this, its how much we should really appreciate the knockouts division when it comes to womens wrestling.