TNA's Brooke Tessmacher

With so much attention generally directed towards WWE these days, it’s only fair to take a look at TNA’s take on women’s wrestling: The Knockouts’ Division.

I haven’t really been following the Impact Wrestling broadcasts, for obvious reasons:  generally, puncturing both ear drums with an ice pick is a preferable activity by comparison. That being said, I didn’t have very high hopes of HardCORE Justice 2011. I’m not completely done with the show, as I’m watching Beer Money defend the TNA World Tag Team Championship against Mexican America. However, so far, the Knockouts have had some of the most entertaining–to me at least–matches of the night.

I’m not sure if this is speaking highly of the Knockouts or lowly of the male wrestlers, and I suppose that’s a matter of a glass half-full or half-empty. To give TNA the benefit of the doubt, I’ll go with half-full.

Earlier in the night, we saw Mexican America unsuccessfully challenge Tara and Misss Tessmacher for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship. It was a solid match and Tessmacher really surprised me. Tessmacher countered a running powerslam into a small package. It was my first time seeing a Rosita match and my first time seeing a Miss Tessmacher match and they both made a great impression. It’s worth being noted Brooke Tessmacher was a member of “Extreme Expose” with Kelly Kelly in WWE. I don’t even remember her wrestling back then, yet she progressed to be miles ahead of Kelly in terms of talent.

TNA’s still playing the ‘sex sells’ card, naturally, and all four of these Knockouts deserve to be called knockouts in that sense, but it’s nice to see an emphasis on the in-ring action rather than emphasis on the knockouts getting INTO the ring.

The second Knockouts match of the night featured two former WWE ‘Divas’ facing off for the TNA Knockouts’ Championship. Katie Lea Burchill, now billed as ‘Winter,’ took on Mickie James. Now, there’s a lot I don’t like and have never liked about Mickie James. Her entrance music is one thing, and her clumsiness in the ring is reminiscent of John Cena. There’s just something ‘off’ about how she executes most of her strikes.I’d never noticed anything special about Burchill, quite possibly because WWE never allowed her to do much.

While it wasn’t an amazing match, it still blew WWE’s Divas matches out of the water, easily. It felt like a pay-per-view match with actual thought put into it. Burchill worked on Mickie’s back as she bent her over her knee, and it’s the type of planning that you rarely see in womens’ wrestling in the United States. The match ended with Mickie James getting Great Muta’d in the face by Winter. James then writhes in pain as it burns her (supposedly). If it was in Winter’s mouth, how is it burning her? Well, it’s TNA. Baby steps, I suppose.

One great move TNA DID make, however, is constructing the Mexican America stable. Rosita & Sarita accompanied Hernandez & Anarquia to the ring for their title shot against Beer Money, and it reminded me of another missed opportunity for WWE. WWE never uses its Divas in stables. If they do, it is at the expense of their in-ring careers, because WWE’s writers ‘don’t know how’ to write angles for stables with female in-ring competitors. TNA is doing a great thing with Mexican America, because Rosita and Sarita are getting additional exposure by being associated with them in major angles with Beer Money.

WWE could benefit from a similar situation, but unless someone clues the McMahons in on the need for improvement, things will never change. TNA, however, is finally returning to two of their strong points: the X-Division and the Knockouts. For that, I applaud them.