Jeff Jarrett says he never wanted the TNA Knockouts Division to resemble women’s wrestling in WWE. Speaking on The Wrestling Classic, the TNA founder said he set out to build a women’s division rooted in competition rather than how WWE was presenting its women at the time.
“Obviously the X-Division is a huge calling card, but I knew at the time, on the other channel, as they say, on WWE, bra and panty, diva, that was what they represented, and I knew that I had no interest in going that direction. I wanted to create a women’s division that is athletically based, competitively based, given the right perspective and the right time and the right placement in the main event when it made sense, and we did that.”
Jarrett credited the people who built it, recalling Gail Kim pushing to get in the ring and Dutch Mantell’s patience in laying out the Gail Kim versus Awesome Kong program.
“I think back to Gail Kim. ‘Jeff, I want to wrestle. I want to wrestle.’ ‘Gail, we’ve got to create the division. We can’t rush this. It’s got to come along.'”
He also pointed to The Beautiful People and ODB among the personalities who filled out the division.
