Crowning a New Knockouts Queen

On the November 16, 2017 episode of Impact, Gail Kim officially retired, relinquishing the Knockouts Championship in the process. While this columnist has definitely commented through the year that the Retirement Tour was a bit of a slog and taking opportunities away from up and comers, there is absolutely no denying what Gail Kim means to women’s wrestling in the 2000s, especially when it comes to TNA/Impact Wrestling.

While her retirement definitely leaves a hole in the division, Impact Wrestling was ready to get to work on rebuilding the division around its current stars, now that it no longer has to acquiesce to the desires of one of their all-time greats.

With that, a mini tournament to crown a new Knockouts Champion was announced! Six women were named, which at first seemed odd, until it was revealed that the tournament would be comprised of two separate Triple Threat matches, with the winners of each match then facing off in the tournament final!

So, with that lined up, we here at ZeeWI thought it’d be a good idea to take a look at all six women participating in the tournament, and break this whole thing down until we had picked a winner.

On to it!

Sienna

The three-time Knockouts Champ (and one-time GFW Women’s Champion) has to be considered the favorite of the bunch, and with fair reason. Sienna has been pretty consistent in her dominance since joining the ranks of Impact Wrestling in the Spring of 2016. Those three title reigns in 18 months speak to that. She’s also earned big wins over many of the top Knockouts, including Gail Kim, Rosemary, and Jade.

It was hardly a surprise that she was almost immediately announced for the tournament, as she was the one that lost the title to Kim at Bound For Glory, and clearly wanted her belt back. She’s going to have to get over the idea that it was Allie’s fault that Sienna lost the belt, though – it was her own choice to not pay any attention to Kim, and she was forced to Eat Defeat.

It seems like a really tall order to expect anyone to be able to stop Sienna, but she’s already shown an ability to lose focus in a triple threat match, which makes the first match in the tournament quite possibly her most dangerous one as well.

Still, the former champion appears focused and confident about her chances to regain the belt, and we really can’t blame her for that.

Allie

It’s easy to discount Allie. It’s easy to think of her as “in over her head,” or not mean enough to compete with the sharks in the Knockouts Division. It’s also easy to forget that she’s already been the Knockouts Champion, even if it was but for a brief moment in time.

The truth is, Allie is a competent competitor. She’s been plagued by constant distractions during her time in Impact, whether it was from her former boss Maria Kanellis doing everything in her power to humiliate and derail Allie, to more recently having to deal with her boyfriend Braxton Sutter’s insecurities. The bottom line is, Allie has never been able to worry only about herself at any point during her tenure in Impact Wrestling, which makes judging her past results a bit tricky.

What is not tricky, however, is realizing the heart that she has, and the dedication to being the best that she holds so dear. Most people would have simply given up after dealing with the run that Allie has been handed, but for the most part, the little cherry bomb firecracker has continued trucking along, trying to put her best face forward, and showing love to those that show it to her. It’s quite contagious, actually.

She’s going to have to put it all together, but there is no reason that, when it’s all said and done, Allie can’t begin her second reign as Knockouts Champion!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHNEhLNB598
Rosemary

Another former champion, Rosemary seemed poised to rule the division for years to come as 2017, Rosemary ran rampant during the first half of the year. Unfortunately, she ran into Sienna at Slammiversary, where the GFW Women’s and Knockouts Titles were unified. There’s absolutely no shame in losing to Sienna, but the shame lies in Rosemary never really getting an opportunity to reclaim her crown, as she was sucked into a feud with Taya Valkyrie almost immediately upon Taya’s arrival.

Rosemary has shown all the skills needed to be a top champion, along with an incredible bloodlust and killer instinct. If she has to put you through a table, she will. If she needs to burn your eyeballs and flesh with her poison mist, that’s not a problem, either. If she needs to torment you for weeks behind the scenes before the match ever takes place, that’s something she’s into as well.

It’s hard to really point out a place where Rosemary has a weakness, as she is a pretty complete competitor, but her lack of size, especially if she’s in the ring with Sienna, can possibly be her one weak spot. Rosemary remains a huge favorite in the ZeeWI offices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A51WMW-CgG0
Laurel Van Ness

If we’re being honest, we don’t see Van Ness as a big threat in this tournament at all. That isn’t to discredit her skills or abilities, but to say that she’s been a little unfocused this year would be a bit of an understatement.

Instead, the talented Knockout has been focused on love. First, she failed in her attempt to woo Braxton Sutter from Allie, which led her to breaking down and losing her mind. This continued for months, with Van Ness forgoing even a simple shower in that time, because she was so unglued. She would then almost regain her sanity when a fling with Grado turned into something serious, but again lost it when Grado realized that marrying her would not help his status as a US Citizen, since Van Ness is Canadian (which, with the current circumstances, it sure seems like Grado made a huge mistake now).

At no point in 2017 has Laurel Van Ness made this columnist believe that she wants to be a champion, and in a field like this, it’s hard to make her a top pick. She’s absolutely capable, but she’s going to have to show a desire for something other than a man if we’re to take her seriously.

Madison Rayne

Ah, we just love that song here at the ZeeWI headquarters. Any excuse to share it is a good one, indeed.

The naming of Madison Rayne in the tournament was a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one. The five-time Knockouts Champion, two-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion, and former Queen of the Knockouts brings a huge level of prestige to the tournament, as well as a supremely skilled veteran who has seen and done it all at this point.

Rayne hasn’t been seen in Impact since July of this year, but one has to assume that she’s stayed busy and kept in shape, or else there’s no way she’d enter this tournament. Madison Rayne is too smart to put herself in a position as bad as that, so yours truly has to believe that she is ready to win it all.

If Madison has that evil edge to her, then this tournament has to be considered wide open, as she has shown in the past that she will do whatever it takes to win, no matter how low the tactics. If she’s coming back to play nice, well, she’s still a threat, but it’s hard to consider her a favorite.

KC Spinelli

The big surprise of the bunch, KC Spinelli will be making her Impact debut in the tournament! She’s been seen on Impact (in a loss to Allie via another promotion), but this new Knockout is getting an opportunity that many only dream of! There’s a definite possibility that after only her second match with the company, this woman will be a champion!

I won’t lie – I don’t know much about Spinelli, as I’ve not seen her wrestle. I did some research, and she appears to be a tough out for anyone, with a roughhouse style that might throw a few of the Knockouts through a loop. She also gutted it out in a series of matches with Courtney Rush, though we’re not sure how that would help her in a match against, say, Rosemary.

Without knowing much about her, it feels slightly unfair to completely count her out, but looking at the other five women in this tournament, it’s also pretty hard to consider Spinelli an absolute threat. Perhaps she makes the most of her first match and proves us here wrong, and that’d be fine by ZeeWI.

For me, the big surprise was the lack of Taya Valkyrie. Yes, yes, she was pulled from Bound For Glory due to supposed visa issues, and that’s apparently going to continue to be a problem for the forseeable future. One would think that Impact would have moved mountains to make sure that their very best were available for the tournament, but I can understand that some things just aren’t possible, and holding up the entire division for one competitor isn’t actually the fairest decision, either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WtL5uuC0U

Tonight on Impact, we will see the first match in the tournament, which will pit Madison Rayne, Laurel Van Ness, and KC Spinelli against each other. We thought the matchmaking was odd, as one match seems to be a bit more top heavy than the other. That’s not a knock on Van Ness, Rayne, or Spinelli, but when it was announced, Rosemary vs. Sienna seemed like a match that could be take place in the finals. Instead, one will be eliminated right away. Regardless, we decided that we can see Van Ness squeak out a mild surprise victory here, due to Spinelli’s big stage inexperience, and possible ring rust on the part of Rayne. Don’t sleep on Madison by any means here, but don’t be surprised if she falls short, either.

Prediction: Laurel Van Ness advances to the final.

That will of course leave the other triple threat that pits Rosemary, Sienna, and Allie against each other. This one may be a rough night for Sienna, as she’s not exactly friendly with her two opponents, who have worked together in the past. The smart play would be for Rosemary and Allie to unite and remove Sienna from the match, and then go at it with everything they’ve got. After much deliberation, I broke from the rest of the staff, who wanted to pick Sienna for the win. I, on the other hand, am leaning on Allie stealing one, and getting herself into the finals as well.

Prediction: Allie advances to the final.

Of course, I can only make a final prediction based off who I think will be in that match, so for now, I’ll just say that I think Allie beats Laurel Van Ness to cap off a pretty crummy year with a big victory. However, we will definitely reconvene on the final match once the actual participants are named. Let’s not forget, ZeeWI got one whole match right at Bound For Glory. One. But at least the one we got right meant that we weren’t dummies. Yeah.

No matter who ends up Knockouts Champion, these next few weeks will definitely be the time for the ladies to demand the spotlight, and show that the division will be just fine without Gail Kim, thank you very much.

Editor’s note, if you are an asshole and post spoilers, you will be banned. Just be cool and enjoy Dino’s work.