While WWE likes to push the idea that they kickstarted the women's evolution, the fact is that long before that TNA was doing great things with its women. The Knockouts division has always been one of TNA's strongest points.
The company pushed the women and some of the all-time greats have had the honor of holding the Knockouts Championship. However, while names like Awesome Kong and Gail Kim are well-known Knockouts Champions, others have been forgotten.
Within this list, we will take a look back at the history of the Knockouts Championship and reveal 10 wrestlers that you forgot had held the title in the past.
10 Havok
We will kickstart this list off with an incredibly talented woman who held the Knockouts Championship just once during her career. That person is Havok, who has dominated everywhere she has been with her aggressive style.
Havok picked up the Knockouts Championship in 2014, defeating Gail Kim on an episode of IMPACT. However, she only actually held the title for three days, which is why so many people forgot about it.
Her run wasn't exactly memorable and therefore it makes sense that many fans have forgotten she held the title. Although, she is now back in IMPACT and therefore could have a longer run down the line.
9 Mickie James
Mickie James actually held the Knockouts Championship on three separate occasions, but because WWE likes to push its own history, this is something many fans aren't aware of. Lots of people only think of Mickie James as a WWE Superstar, but that's simply not the case.
Because she had such a legendary run with the company and then returned once again, some fans have forgotten the excellent time she had in between that.
Mickie James' run with TNA is arguably greater than her time in WWE as she really got the chance to show what she could do in the ring. She proved that she was one of the greatest of all time, and that's why this time in her career deserves to be recognized.
8 Miss Tessmacher
Miss Tessmacher held the Knockouts Championship twice during her career with TNA, and both of her runs were fairly lengthy. It proved that she wasn't just a one and done type of character, but that doesn't mean everyone remembers her time with the title.
Perhaps her matches weren't quite as memorable as others that have held the title, but Miss Tessmacher really was a great wrestler. She proved to be a hit during her time with TNA, and her two runs as champion deserve more recognition than they get.
7 Velvet Sky
Velvet Sky is certainly one of the bigger names to have come from TNA, and she is someone that most wrestling fans are fairly familiar with. However, she isn't often thought about as someone who held the Knockouts Championship.
That's because she is best known for her work in The Beautiful People. The group was incredibly memorable throughout TNA and they were top heels.
However, they did a lot of dominating without titles, and also spent a lot of time wrestling in the tag team division, which is what fans remember.
6 Tara
One of the big reasons that Tara's time as Knockouts Champion is often forgotten about is because when wrestling fans think of her, they instantly think of her being Victoria.
Her time in WWE was very well-known, and she did have a really great run with the company. However, she also had a solid spell with TNA during a period of time when the company was happily hiring former WWE talents.
She managed to pick up the Knockouts Championship during her time with the company and had some very memorable moments, but her WWE career just overshadows it.
5 Laurel Van Ness
Laurel Van Ness, who is currently working in NXT as Chelsea Green, made a big mark in TNA. This is where she burst onto the scene and is how she made her name within the wrestling industry.
She quickly became a popular character and worked her way towards the title scene, defeating Rosemary to pick up the vacant title. Perhaps because the title was vacant and she didn't end a reign didn't help her run become memorable.
However, the main reason people forget that Van Ness held the championship is that her gimmick was so compelling. People remember her time in TNA for the character, not so much the title run.
4 Taylor Wilde
Taylor Wilde was the third person in TNA's history to hold the Women's Title and you'd have thought because of that people would remember her time. However, that simply wasn't the case.
She held the title for over 100 days, but the fact that during this period the likes of Gail Kim and Awesome Kong were dominating did mean she got overshadowed.
Wilde also held the title in 2008, and by 2010 she was gone from TNA, retiring from wrestling just a year later. Because so many women took the division to new heights afterward, Wilde gets forgotten about.
3 Winter
Winter is someone that WWE fans will likely be very aware of, as she wrestled for the company under the name of Katie Lea Burchill. While she was given a dreadful gimmick in WWE, during her time in TNA she was able to flourish more.
Winter got to compete more and wrestle as a top tier talent and she quickly proved herself. During her time with the company she managed to have two fairly short runs as champion, and even though it was a step up from her time in WWE, it still wasn't quite enough to be as memorable as other runs.
2 Jade
There's a reason that many people have forgotten that Jade was a Knockouts Champion and that is because many people have already begun to forget about her run in TNA. That's because she's become such a hit in WWE.
Mia Yim has quickly become one of the most popular members of the NXT brand. It also didn't help that the majority of her run was spent in The Dollhouse, so people remember her TNA run from that, not as a singles talent.
However, her in-ring abilities shone through during her spell in TNA and she got her well-deserved run as a singles wrestle and she managed to capture the Knockouts Title.
1 Maria Kanellis-Bennett
When it comes to Maria Kanellis-Bennett, for some reason a lot of fans seem to think she stopped actively wrestling after her initial WWE run. That's because a lot of the time afterward, fans only saw her as a valet to her husband, Mike Bennett.
However, that wasn't the case and while she was never seen as a top title threat in WWE, over in TNA, the company pushed her strongly. Focusing on her excellent promo abilities, she managed to get a run as the Knockouts Champion.
Maria managed to defeat Allie on an episode of IMPACT Wrestling, just one day after she had won the title. Maria managed a solid run as champion, holding the title for 50 days.