TNA Knockouts Korner No. 5: Do We Need a Knockouts Monster's Ball?

The women of TNA's Knockouts Division have proven they're willing to go all out to entertain the fans.

We've seen women fighting in a cage, competing in ladder matches, and taking it extreme with a variety of weapons in hardcore matches.

These women have shown audiences everywhere they're about more than dance-offs and bra and panties matches, and now, TNA is stepping up to the plate again.

At this month's Sacrifice pay-per-view, the women of the Knockouts Division will participate in their first Monster's Ball match.

The question has become: Is it necessary, or beneficial, for women to put themselves through these matches?

Monster's Ball

When the Monster's Ball matches started, it was under the premise that all the participants, usually four of them, were locked away for 24 hours prior to the match with no food or human interaction.

This was supposed to unleash the monster inside of the men and lead them to become brutal savages.

Then, that gimmick kind of wore off, and Monster's Ball became one big hardcore brawl.

Last year, at Bound for Glory, TNA decided to turn the annual Monster's Ball into a tag team battle, pitting Team 3D vs. Matt Morgan and Abyss vs. Beer Money, Inc vs. LAX.

Many fans questioned the decision of making it a tag team match, but being there live in person in Chicago, I can testify for the amazingness that was that match.

Without drifting too far back to one of the greatest nights of my life, it was me and the guy next to me who started the "Flaming Tables" chant in between chants of "We Want Tables."

Anyway, the match transitioned well to tag teams, but will it be able to do the same with the women?

The set-up

This match has basically been started because of a brewing feud between Daffney, apparently trying to establish herself as a psychotic heel, and Taylor Wilde.

On Impact Thursday night, Wilde was supposed to meet a "blind date" for dinner, but it ended up being Daffney, who attacked Wilde in the restaurant and challenged her to Monster's Ball.

If the match will continue in the spirit of Monster's Balls past, there will be two other competitors added. Roxxi would have been a likely candidate because of her hardcore nature and alliance with Wilde, but her release from the company prevents that.

There's just not that many other females who seem like they would fit into this match. ODB will likely be added somehow, possibly by having an interaction between her and Daffney as well.

But who would be the fourth? Angelina Love and Awesome Kong are tied up in their title match, as are Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne who will almost assuredly help Love retain the gold.

Christy Hemme is still out with injury, and no one really wants to see Rhaka Khan or Sojourner Bolt.

That leaves one realistic option: Abyss will be the fourth competitor.

While it's unlikely, TNA may try to pull it off. But for right now, let's ignore that thought and hope it goes away.

Women with weapons

Last year, in an interview with ODB, she told me that women shouldn't be going through all these extreme matches.

"We put the T and A in TNA," she said. But TNA continues to do it. Why?

Money and shock value.

Everyone wants to see women do more than dance and look pretty, and TNA tries to maximize that. It may work out for them, as long they don't take it too far.

Let the women have an all-out brawl, but for Pete's sake, we don't need to see women being put through flaming tables or being laid out on a bed of thumb tacks.

Here's to hoping we'll see an interesting match with some exciting moments. Let's hope it doesn't come across as overly cheesy, overly brutal, or completely underwhelming.

Without knowing all the participants, it's hard to gauge who will win, but if it boils down to just being Wilde and Daffney, TNA should retract the use of the name Monster's Ball and save it for those special occasions each year.

In closing

A little hardcore in the women's division can help bring attention to the company and its women, but it can also be a very damaging maneuver.

Let's hope this ends well. More analysis may be coming in a general Sacrifice preview, once the card has been finalized.