IMPACT: Are the Women in the Knockouts Division Currently Better Than the Men?

Velvet Sky and ODB opened IMPACT with a backstage brawl that erupted into the ring and eventually was broken up when Ms. Tessmacher.

The fight, which lasted a good five minutes in the first segment, shows how important the women wrestlers are to IMPACT and the lengths the network, the hierarchy and its writers will go to continue with a good thing if fans are buying into it.

The current feud with Sky and ODB is new and fresh and while the angle of Winter and Angelina Love is wearing thin since the transparency of the who trance really has no teeth in it. Love does face Mickie James for the Women’s Title at Slammiversary on June 12^th.

The women’s division has always been vital to the success of the company and now with changes in programming, style and “impact”, they continue to pick up speed and head toward the top of the food change on Spike TV.

It also begs the question of whether the women may be a little more exciting and controversial than the men at this current pace.

 Three weeks ago, Mick Foley announced a heady, sharp and different turn in how wrestling “mattered” to IMPACT and the edge the show currently has is felt throughout the arenas and on cable. But it also has taken a beating the past few weeks.

Members of Fortune have been injured. Bobby Roode has a shoulder injury and will not compete with partner James Storm against the British Invasion at the pay-per-view. Alex Shelley will take his place.

Immortal seems more content with destroying the X-Division and wrestlers such as Kazarian and Brian Kendrick are wrestling each other to see who will face Abyss for the championship. Eric Bishoff’s puppet strings are getting caught and the storylines at times does not sense.

But the women continue on.

The world championship held by Sting is being contested by several opponents, but the Icon is feeling the most heat from “Old School Sting”, Mr. Anderson. The promos and the “work” is a good one in trying to bring back wrestlers and scenarios from the Stinger’s past, much like the Horsemen tried to do this with the Black Scorpion in WCW in the mid-1990s.

While the white hair and face paint it refreshing, the match needs to be on point and far more superior than anything else on the card, or it will fall flat and fans won’t buy into the new look and image Foley and the “network” has built it to be.

And as the “network” acts in the same capacity as the anonymous RAW general manager, the women still show they can hold their own weight.

Even on a night when Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett wrestle (again) with tag partners this time, the first segment hold IMPACT. They also hold their own when Bully Ray and AJ Styles face off in the ring and nothing happens but a stare down.

This is just the kind of IMPACT that TNA has been looking for.