Thursday's TNA Knockout Match Should Teach WWE How to Book Its Women Stars

TNA Wrestling may never be a serious threat to WWE in terms of sports entertainment, but there is one area where the so-called little guy has it all over the big guy.

TNA knows how to handle its women’s division. The Knockouts are knocking it out of the park on its television shows.

Thursday night’s Impact show from Las Vegas featured a match where the winner would be the top contender to TNA’s Knockouts Division Championship. But it wasn’t your typical slapfest between eye candy like we have grown accustomed to seeing in WWE.

No, this was a ladder match, with the contract for the contender’s spot on a cable above the ring. The winner had to climb the ladder to grab the contract.

The match, featuring Taryn Terrell and former WWE star Gail Kim, was pretty doggone good—probably the best of the night’s agenda. It was loaded with all the action you would expect the guys in WWE to be doing this weekend at Money in the Bank, but it featured the women.

Terrell and Kim went back and forth, matching each other move for move. Kim put a figure-four leglock on Terrell while on the ladder. Terrell suspended Kim off the ladder with a choke-out hold and later slammed her with so much force that both competitors felt the brunt of it.

Kim eventually won the match and the right to go after the title held by Mickie “Hardcore Country” James, another WWE alumna. But I guarantee that, even though the outcome of the match was scripted, both women were feeling the effects when they woke up Friday morning.

Now, why can’t WWE do something like that on a regular basis?

Sure, they are giving a great deal of attention to the storyline between Divas Champion AJ Lee and former champ Kaitlyn. A section of Friday night’s SmackDown show (which was taped Tuesday night, but I will not spoil the outcome for you) was devoted to the contract signing for the Lee-Kaitlyn match Sunday for the Divas title.

But is this going to be an exception rather than a rule? Given WWE’s history of fumbling the division, I would say yes.

I just hope for everyone involved that the Lee-Kaitlyn match at Money in the Bank is a good one and not just a time killer in a pay-per-view like most Diva matches are.

It has been quite a while since we actually have seen a WWE Diva with an all-out plot like Lee and her crazy-girl character.

She has gotten the lion’s share of attention among the Diva division lately, but if you think about it, she had to delve into the world of the male roster to get all that attention. And most of that involved the reliable story of sex and coquettish flirtation—one of the oldest tricks of the wrestling trade.

Outside of Natalya Neidhart and Kaitlyn (and Lee, although her wrestling prowess is often overshadowed by her craziness), there are no pure wrestlers in the Divas division. No offense to the rest of the roster, but the focus on them is more about their looks and figures, not to mention silly storylines like Natalya’s flatulence problem or her current “relationship” with The Great Khali.

No wonder Beth Phoenix retired.

TNA used to be all about just the physical appearance of their Knockouts, too. They still do, but it is far more toned-down now.

And they have had their share of silly storylines, too, like Eric Young being one-half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions.

But unlike WWE, TNA management opted to try something completely new and actually hire women who have proven their wrestling mettle. James and Kim are former WWE talent, and I can see why they opted to come to the second-place company. They did not want to die on the vine like so many WWE Divas have done.

Granted, both companies have about the same number of women listed on their rosters. But TNA knows how to use their female talent. And for that, they always will deliver a “knockout” punch to WWE.

Follow Bill Atkinson on Twitter at @BAtkinson1963.