Hamada: How a Lesser-Known TNA Knockout Became a Sensation After Being Released

If you were to browse through a million "most popular female wrestlers" lists last week, very few of those would have Hamada's name on there.

There's not too many fans in North America who know about her.

Throw out the names Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Mickie James and Tara out there, and fans would know. WWE divas such as Michelle McCool, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly and Natalya Neidhart are well known. Former divas such as Lita, Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson would still be recognized on the streets.

Hamada is simply not on that level in terms of popularity.

Well, minutes after being released by TNA, Hamada's popularity soared. Fans are upset, and they're not afraid to show it.

Message boards and blogs have been bombarded with comments lambasting TNA for releasing her. The show of support has been rather overwhelming.

Sadly, though, the show of emotion really has nothing to do with Hamada. These particular fans aren't upset because one of the most underrated female performers won't be wrestling on TV any more.

They're also not all that upset that the talent base in the Knockouts division just got a little bit weaker. In fact, a lot of these fans probably had no idea that her first name is Ayako and her finishing move is the Hamada Driver.

No, they're complaining because they found a legitimate mistake that TNA made, and they just wanted to jump all over the company. This is about TNA and not Hamada.

That's truly a shame because Hamada truly does deserve sincere adulation from the fans because of her hard work.

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Jack Windham is the lead writer at WrestlingRevealed.com.