The creation of the championship was announced on August 20, 2009, during a backstage segment on TNA's primary television program TNA Impact!.[1] Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a scripted match. Sarita and Taylor Wilde were the inaugural champions. They won a four-week tournament to be crowned the first champions. The longest reigning champions were Eric Young and ODB, who held the titles for a record 478 days before the 2013 deactivation of the titles due to Eric Young being a male talent.
On the August 20, 2009 episode of Impact!, backstage interviewer Lauren, who was standing with and about to interview Christy Hemme, Tara, Taylor Wilde, and Sarita, announced that TNA were planning to host an eight-team single elimination tag team tournament to crown the first-ever TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions.[4] After a four-way match consisting of Hemme, Traci Brooks, Sarita, and Awesome Kong, TNA commentators Mike Tenay and Taz announced that the tournament would begin on the August 27 episode of Impact!.[4][5] The first champions were crowned at No Surrender, where Sarita and Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People.[6][7]
During the first years of the title, it was vacated twice due to one half of the champions being released. On March 8, 2010, Awesome Kong left TNA after an incident with Bubba the Love Sponge. In December of that year, Hamada was released. On February 28, 2011, ODB and Eric Young defeated Gail Kim and Madison Rayne to win the titles. Young also became the only male to win the championship. They only defended the titles two times, but held the belts for 478 days. On the June 20, 2013 episode of Impact Wrestling, Knockouts Division Executive Brooke Hogan stripped ODB and Young of the title because Young is a male. This ultimately resulted in the titles being deactivated.[8]
On October 24, 2020 at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, Madison Rayne announced that after nearly eight years of inactivity, Impact Wrestling would revive the Knockouts Tag Team Championship.[9][10] It was also announced that an eight-team tournament would take place over the next two months to determine the next champions. The brackets were announced in November, with the final taking place at the Hard To Kill pay-per-view on January 16, 2021.[11][12] At the event, Fire 'N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) defeated Havok and Nevaeh in the tournament final to win the revived titles.[13]
Championship Tournaments
Inaugural championship tournament (2009)
Round One TNA Impact! (August 18, 31 and September 1, 2009)
* Madison Rayne had rejoined the Beautiful People and replaced Angelina Love due to her release prior to the finals.
Vacated championship tournament (2010)
On the December 9, 2010, edition of Impact! TNA vacated the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, after one half of the previous champions, Hamada, had been released by the promotion, and set up a four–team tournament to determine new champions.[17] The finals of the tournament would take place on the December 23 edition of Impact!.[18]
The original design of the Knockout Tag Team Championship from 2009 to 2013 has red leather, a gold center plates and two side plates with red and black designing and wording in the middle of the center of the gold middle plate that reads 'Knockouts Tag Team TNA Wrestling Champions' with red and silver diamonds in the middle and on the side plates as well as a globe on each of the side plates.[22]
Overall, there have been 28 reigns shared between 36 wrestlers and 21 teams. The inaugural champions were Sarita and Taylor Wilde, who defeated The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) in the finals of an eight-team tournament to crown the first TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions.[7] At 478 days, Eric Young and ODB hold the record for the longest reign in the title's history. MK Ultra (Masha Slamovich and Killer Kelly)'s second reign holds the record for the shortest reign in the title's history at 14 days. Young is the first and only male wrestler to have held the title.
↑Boutwell, Josh (August 21, 2009). "Impact Results - 8/20/09". WrestleView. Archived from the original on August 12, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2009. In the back Lauren says that next week will be the start of the 1st Round to crown the very first TNA Knockout Tag Team Champions!
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