Velvet Sky: Knockout Centerpiece

TNA's Knockout division has been going in the wrong direction for about a year now. To put it simply, it has been turning into a diva division. They have phased out certain female wrestlers who did not have a certain look and have not been giving the women that much time to compete on Impact recently and not always pushing the best wrestlers the right way.

Even on its worst night, the division still has a few positives above the WWE diva division. Among them, I find it interesting that TNA really does try to find some kind of storyline or use for almost all their female talent. If they cannot find that use, they release them eventually. Nevertheless, they do not keep them around to simply be random jobbers, extras in large tag matches that do absolutely nothing, or random, meaningless backstage segments. For the most part, I like this.

Right now, I want to talk about what I do not like about what has been going on recently. Who in the bloody hell is Velvet Sky supposed to be feuding with? She has issues with Karen Jarrett, a storyline with Winter and Angelina, I saw her randomly attack Sarita and Rosita at Lockdown, and now ODB returns just to feud with Velvet? This mess is going all over the place. Nowhere are her feuds being developed properly. If her last encounter with Winter and Angelina was supposed to be the end of that feud, for now anyway, it was weak. The build was not really there. As I just said, I have nothing against TNA trying to find a use for as many as their women as possible, but I believe this is too much for a woman who is not even one of the greatest wrestlers they have. She would fit more with the "diva" image than proving wrestling matters. I know, that is the point of her coming feud with ODB, but her overuse was there before this and I do not see why it will go away that easily after it ends. While so much is devoted to build this woman's character, not enough is being done for other women. They are being pushed a lot more linearly than Velvet.

In the end, there is a reason that the Knockout segment no longer typically gets the most viewers of any given Impact. Aside from TNA women's involvement in the Jarrett/Angle elaborate storyline, which TNA is purposely pushing and treating as a top draw itself anyway, and so it would be the women who are benefiting from that rub more than Jarrett and Angle getting the ratings for the segment because of the women, a women's match or extended promo has not had the highest quarter hour rating for the show since February. By the way things are going, a match may not be stealing the show on Impact again for a while. Wrestling matters?