Gail Kim: IMPACT’s Knockouts Tag Titles Have Been In The Works For Over A Year
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Gail Kim says IMPACT Wrestling planned on bringing the Knockouts Tag Team Championship back a lot longer than you might think they did.
IMPACT recently brought back the Knockouts Tag Team Championship, with Tasha Steelz and Kiera Hogan winning the belts at Hard To Kill to reign as the first champions after nearly eight years of the titles being inactive. Gail Kim was a guest on the Wrestling With Stereotypes podcast and said the company had planned on bringing the titles back for more than a year, and it was all about execution.
According to Kim, (transcription via Fightful), IMPACT always looks for talent and in this case, the women’s wrestling boom gave them a huge talent pool. She said the company discussed the move for over a year before making the announcement the titles were returning, and she’s happy for the women’s roster more than anything.
“With women’s wrestling being so prevalent, there are so many women. We’re using everyone, but when you’re using everyone and there is only one title, it’s hard. We’re good at building storylines, but of course,” Kim said, “everyone wants to compete for the title. Bringing the tag team titles, the girls were so excited. We’ve been talking about it for over a year before it happened. Then we were like, ‘Yes! It’s finally happening!’ I’m happy for the girls more than anything. I remember when they told us we were getting the Knockouts Championship, I screamed out loud.”
Gail Kim’s comments echo recent remarks made by IMPACT’s Scott D’Amore, who told WrestleZone that IMPACT took the proper amount of time to build their women’s tag team division so they have the depth and the ability to prosper for many years to come.
“Right now, we feel like with the depth of the—not just the numbers, but of talented performers and athletes in our Knockouts Division—that these tag team titles this time are here to stay. And now that we have that depth, and as we continue to look to see people come in and out, like you’ve seen Jazz, who is a legend and getting to watch the excitement in some of our Knockouts and male wrestlers as well, getting an opportunity to interact with someone like Jazz, who I’m sure was an instrumental part of these people as they were, their formative years of watching and growing up with wrestling, and you’ve seen Renee Michelle and other athletes and Killer Kelly, who maybe aren’t part of the full-time Knockouts roster yet, at this point,” D’Amore said, “but you’ve seen that the depth of talent is there, both in the full-time roster and in the people that we’ve been able to bring in. The fans have wanted it and I know sometimes it’s frustrating for the fans to want something now and then have to wait for it but one thing that myself and Don Callis and Ed Nordholm have been very consistent in, from when we took the reigns at the beginning of 2018, to now, is that we were not going to be about quick fixes.”
“It would have been great to say, ‘Hey, the Knockouts Tag Titles are coming back’ but we weren’t ready for it, so we took the time, and like we talked about, step by step, you build it. You build a building brick by brick, and now we have the foundation that’s so important when building anything, and we’ve put in the work and the labor, and we now have the depth and the ability that this division and the knockouts tag team division, can thrive. Not just now, but long-term.”
Check out WrestleZone’s full interview with Scott D’Amore below: