Velvet Sky has revealed that Vince Russo was a fan of the Knockout’s in TNA and was the one responsible for giving them more air time.
The former 2-time TNA Knockout’s Champion was speaking on a Knockout’s Round Table released by IMPACT Wrestling. She was joined by former Knockouts: Gail Kim, ODB, Christy Hemme, Brooke Tessmacher, and Taryn Terrell to discuss their careers and time in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling.
While discussing the difficulties the Knockouts division in TNA had to overcome to be successful. Velvet Sky pointed to one man as having a hand in their success: Vince Russo.
Sky explained:
“Maybe not everybody was a big Vince Russo fan, but Vince Russo was a huge supporter of the girls and the Knockouts. To the point where he was starting to give us 2-3 segments on the show. Then fast forward to when Vince left and John Gaburick came in. I’m sorry, the truth is the truth, that’s when s**t started to go south. That’s when the girls started to take a back seat.
When we had Vince there, I don’t care, love him or hate him. He was always the number one avid supporter of the girls, he went strictly by the numbers. He saw the ratings that were coming in for the girls, and the girls were most of the time the highest-rated segment on the show. Once he went by the numbers, week-by-week-by-week because the numbers don’t lie, he’s like, ‘s**t, we have something here, let’s feature the girls more on the show.’
Sky continued:
So whether it was in the ring with matches or backstage segments, or whatever the case was, he was the one. Vince was the one responsible for really supporting the girls…getting us on the show as much as possible. Again, when Big [Gaburick’s nickname] came in, whatever your opinion is on him, that’s when everything went [two thumbs down]. Big and Dixie [Carter] together were just like a no-no. Sorry.”
Vince Russo is a controversial name in the wrestling industry. Attracting both love and hate for his work, in particular, in WWE and WCW during the fabled ‘Monday Night Wars.’
One half of the popular ‘Beautiful People’ tag team with Angelina Love. Sky wrestled her last match in TNA in 2016.
Credit: IMPACT Wrestling Knockout’s Round Table
h/t Fightful for the transcription