When TNA Knockouts and WWE Divas were One

(4 votes, average 2.75 out of 5)

Written by Daris Brown

Thursday, 12 November 2009 09:00

Owned and operated by Danny Davis, Ohio Valley Wrestling has produced a who's who list of Grade-A talent when it comes to professional wrestling. It's been one of the main positives to come out of Vince McMahon's territory takeover, which took place the better half of two decades ago. A developmental system where talents from across the country could come to train together and compete against the best. But for whatever reason we've only seen two great classes of graduates, the Valley Girls and a group I'll discuss later. The focus of today's spotlight shines on the WWE Divas and TNA Knockout class of 2004-2008.

Women's wrestling has not always been the most respected segments when it comes to professional wrestling. For a while, it seemed like bra and panties matches, gravy wrestling, and paddles on a pole bouts where about the only way the ladies could get on TV post-Miss Elizabeth days. Yeah, there was a glimpse of great women's wrestlers that came in with the likes of Chyna, Lita, and Trish Stratus, but outside of that we've got nothing.

But little did we know that there was a performance institute that was prepping new talent. For a period of four years Ohio Valley Wrestling produced the most prestigious class of women wrestlers in the history of the sport.

In 2004, the WWE was working with two different "territories", Deep South Wrestling in Georgia and Ohio Valley Wrestling in Ohio. Together, they created and nurtured the talent you now see on WWE and TNA TV. But then they were just babies in the biz. They worked on their game, day in and day out, with the hopes of one day getting called up to the main roster. And the women in the system had great sparring partners.

The year of 2004 was the year we first got a glimpse the future Glamazon. Beth Phoenix arrived in 2004 on the arm of Chris Masters, who she would valet for a short time before clinging to Austin Idol. For the most part, 2004 was pretty uneventful for women's wrestling.

Despite a slow 2004, business picked up in 2005. We know how good female talent is hard to find, 2005 was the year of a crazy number of great talent under the WWE banner. Let me qualify my idea of great. Whether it be for your entertainment value or actual wrestling skills, the women of 2005 would go on to make an impact one way or another.

The WWE Diva Search in '04 allowed the WWE to find a number of good prospects. Christy Hemme and Michelle McCool were sent to DSW, while Maria was sent to OVW. Eventually, they would all make stops in OVW before being called up for good to the main roster.

If the WWE Diva Search wasn't already stellar, OVW also had women come in from the indy scene. Melina, Mickie James and Jillian Hall also made their way to study under the wing of Danny Davis and Paul Heyman, while Angelina Love was assigned to DSW.

Jillian Hall feuded with Mickie James before moving on to manage the OVW tag champions. Mickie James feuded with Beth Pheonix and then went to jump kicking a feud with Shelly Martinez. It was a crazy time for OVW.

2005 was a great time for woman's wrestling in general, and they got better in 2006. This is the year ODB, one of TNA's top Knockouts made her way to OVW. She kicked OVW in another gear as she "introduced" the OVW Womens Championship...by declaring herself the first ever champion. She eventually lost that crown to Serena, who's now in FCW, only to get another. With the help of current WWE Diva Alicia Fox, ODB was the upset winner in the Miss OVW contest.

While ODB was inventing championships, Taylor Wilde was feuding with Angelina Love...down in DSW, long before they met in the six-sided ring in TNA.

2006 brought in a new wave of talent as OVW saw the birth of the careers of Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes and Katie Lea. Katie Lea made an immediate impact winning the OVW women's title from ODB, while Alicia Fox won the belt but it wasn't counted. Mendes didn't really get started until 2007 where she made Lea kiss her foot. But let's not forget recent WWE Diva's Champion Maryse, as the former Playboy model also debuted in 2006.

In 2005 Melina and Jillian were assigned to Smackdown!; both would start working with Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro.

Overall, there has never been as much female talent in one place as there was in 2007. It was the make or break year for many of the ladies as Christy Hemme was already called up to the main brand, released and added to the TNA roster. Angelina Love was released from her contract just one day after the DSW talent was moved to OVW. Not to worry, she only spent a couple of months on the indy circuit before being snatched up by TNA. The Glamazon Beth Pheonix was called up the year before where she made her presence felt by attacking Mickie James who made the jump the previous year.

Michelle McCool was brought up to SmackDown! where she hit the Faith Breaker on the Undertaker's heart—and won a couple of titles along the way. Maria worked her way onto Raw as a dimwitted interviewer, while Maryse got her breakthrough moment starring in Timberland's music video "Throw it On Me."

ODB, the former WWE Tough Enough reject, quietly disappeared from OVW in 2007 until she was bounced out of the 10 Knockout Gauntlet. While Taylor Wilde took her cut from OVW a bit harder, as she reportedly gave up the business, until TNA picked her up as the upset winner of the year with her victory in 2008.

2008 was also the year we saw Alicia Fox was called up to SmackDown! and Rosa Mendes and Katie Lea were placed on Raw.

It was the greatest time for the development of women wrestlers, whose talent is picked apart with a fine tooth comb by wrestling fans across the globe. Unfortunately, Florida Championship Wrestling is the only developmental territory, the WWE Diva Search is a thing of the past, and our chances to see a huge selection of talented women come through in such a short amount of time have dropped from slim to none.

Although some of these women are still working on their craft today, as they split time from the main roster and FCW, there's no doubt that wrestling's in a better place because of the surge. We've yet to see the rise of women's wrestling like when we had Trish and Lita on the main card, but with a stacked women's locke rroom we're only one good feud away.

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