Impact/GWN/TNA/Nick Gulas Promotions/Whatever posted this on their YouTube channel a few days ago, possibly as a quiet rebuke to all the Stephanie McMahon back-patting about WWE’s Evolution PPV. That’s certainly how many of the commenters take it: lots of “This was the REAL women’s revolution!!” stuff.
But it’s possible to enjoy something without openly disparaging another thing, and this match is really worth watching regardless of your thoughts on WWE’s pivot to women-friendly branding.
Part of it is the context: 2008 was a deep trough in the ignoble history of women’s wrestling in the United States. The sexxxy underwear battles of the Ruthless Aggression Era ended that year, because Linda McMahon made her first run for the U.S. Senate and they needed to clean up their image. The WWE Divas championship was born that June, as the women on the roster, freed from the strip club antics of before but without any kind of other direction, floundered in the five-minute matches and Miss Wrestlemania pageants that were their lot.
Meanwhile, in TNA, you had stuff like this.
A fifteen-minute brawl in front of a huge, hot crowd (and what a reminder that TNA used to draw in the neighborhood of 1 million weekly viewers, and how badly they squandered all of that good will), this is an old-school match in the best way: the premise is that these two hate each other, and they’re going to beat nine bells of shit out of each other to settle the issue.
Kong’s vastly superior size and strength give her the upper hand for most of the match, as they brawl through the crowd and Gail’s aerial offense falls flat. Gail has to rely on speed and cunning to get back in the ring; the latter comes in handy when Kong can’t contain her fury at the ref, and, in this no-DQ match, starts whaling on him, giving Gail the time she needs to get back in the match. A couple of great near-falls, a crowd that pops huge for the finish, and then a pull-apart brawl after the winner’s hand is raised, rather than the stupid GREAT MATCH I RESPECT YOU FELLOW GLADIATOR handshake that’s become so common today.
Good commentary from Don West and Mike Tenay as well: no “puppies! Puppies!” no catfight stuff, no horndog salivating, no playing to the hard-up dudes in the crowd. The only discordant notes, from the perspective of 2018, are two totally unprotected chair shots to Kong’s head. But otherwise, on a WWE show, this would be a match people raved about for days.
For all the (deserved) shit TNA gets, they did at least manage to get this kind of thing right: they realized the best thing to do with women’s wrestling was to have, you know, women wrestling.
Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong (Knockouts Title): FULL MATCH (Final Resolution 2008) | IMPACT Full Matches
Misfits Welcome 