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DVD REVIEW : TNA WRESTLING : KNOCKED OUT –  Pro Wrestlings Greatest Women’s Division

Reviewed by : Steve “Rockamaniac” Wilson of MainEventRadio.com

There is no doubt that over the past 12 months, TNA has taken women’s wrestling to a whole new level with the addition of their Knockouts division and now the Knockout’s story is told in the latest TNA DVD release “Knocked Out : Pro Wrestling’s greatest women’s division”

Knocked Out is a fitting title for this DVD because for once, TNA knocked it out of the park when it comes to a solid DVD package. A nearly 3 and a half hour main feature accompanied with a special bonus disc featuring “Gail Kim’s Final TNA Interview” has finally taken TNA DVD production to another level.

The main feature offers interview segments with every member of the Knockout division , with the exception of Awesome Kong, who instead is covered by the other knockouts, each of them speak on their beginnings in the wrestling business, what the knockouts division has meant to them, why the knockouts division is better than the Divas, and even the personal stuff like their personal hobbies. Peppered throughout the interview segments is actual photo’s and video footage of the knockouts from their pre TNA days, which is something that TNA has only included on their DVD’s on the rare occasion. Another improvement is the natural progression of the feature, Often on previous TNA DVD’s featuring interview segments you would be interrupted by a constantly repeating 5 seconds of music with a graphics board to introduce the next segment, this time however you have a smooth transition cutting with just a graphic board. For anyone who saw the original TNA Knockouts DVD from a few years ago this is no comparison as it blows the original out of the water and uses a very different format.

Also in the main feature is some of the best matches from the knockouts division over the past year, beginning with the obvious choice of the “match that started it all” the TNA knockouts battle royal from Bound For Glory 07 which crowned Gail Kim as the first ever Knockouts champion, Next up is Roxxi Laveaux vs Gail Kim vs Angel Williams vs ODB  from Genesis 07, Then we have the two knockouts matches from Turning Point 07 in The Beautiful People vs Roxxi Laveaux/ODB, and the first battle between Awesome Kong & Gail Kim, which is followed up by their subsequent battles at Final Resolution and Impact in January of this year. The So Cal Val-Jay Lethal wedding from Slammiversary 08 is next up, followed by the Sacrifice 08 Knockouts Makeover Battle Royale in which the loser had her head shaved bald. The Lockdown Tag Team Grudge match between Gail Kim / ODB and Awesome Kong /Raisha Saeed as well as the Awesome Kong vs Taylor Wilde 25,000$ Challenge for the knockouts title from Impact  wraps up the match lineup..

The DVD bonus disc features Gail Kim’s final TNA Interview, which is an audio only interview set to photos and videos of the knockout which was recorded on August 21^st 2008 at 4:30pm, Running 3 minutes in length, Kim expresses that she has been debating with one of the hardest decisions of her life and had made the tough choice to leave the company. She goes onto speak of her favorite memories of her run in the company. There is obviously no mention of the WWE and why she chose to leave, and when I got the DVD, I wondered why a bonus disc hyping her departure was included, obviously it was added late in production thus the need for it to be on a second disc. A bonus match is included on this disc as well as Gail Kim takes on Awesome Kong in a street fight on Impact. This would turn out to be her final match on television for TNA and keeping with wrestling tradition she goes out on her back, Whether or not she returns is unknown at this point but if she does depart to return to the WWE then this is a nice added touch to complete the package because the documentary portion does put over Kim often as a huge part of the success of the division and the impact she has had on those around her.

I’d definitely recommend picking this DVD up, its one of the best DVD’s ive seen from TNA. Recently it was announced that TNA was near completion of it fully  featured and dedicated production studio, and if this DVD was any indication of where they are going then TNA has finally “crossed the line” into a major player in the wrestling dvd market.

“TNA Knocked Out : Pro Wrestling’s Greatest Women’s Division” will be available nationwide on October 7^th , Check out your favorite DVD retailer to get your copy or head over to ShopTNA.com to order online. (Also Amazon has it up for pre order for only 12.99$ - It's a steal at that price!)