The TNA Knockouts

The TNA Knockouts are like a version of the WWE Divas with one major exception.

Most of these ladies came into the promotion knowing how to wrestle.

TNA's women wrestlers didnt come from Diva Searches of swimsuit magazines, they mainly came from Independent wrestling promotions like Ring of Honor and SHIMMER and some of the big Japanese wrestling promotions

You're not gonna see these ladies mud wrestling or pillow fighting (at least I hope not), these women are wrestlers.

Before coming to TNA wrestling, Kong wrestled for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) and was one half of a tag team with the legendary Jaanese wrestler Aja Kong.

She has held titles in the WWWA, AWA, AAWA, HUSTLE, LLPW, NWA and NEO wrestling promotions.

Kia left TNA in 2010 and went to the WWE.

At one time I had a whole Hub dedicated to Christy, but even though this lady came in through a Diva search, she has worked hard to prove herself.

Before TNA, she was of course with the WWE. But while she was there she also wrestled for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). After the WWE she competed in the Queens of Chaos show in Paris, France.She has had several matches with the famous April Hunter.

Christy is now TNA's backstage interviewer and ring announcer.

Jacqueline wrestled for the WWE before TNA, and was a two time WWE Women's Wrestling Champion, and one-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion. She has also held the IAW Women's Wrestling Championship, the USWA Women's Heavyweight Wrestling Championship and the UWF Women's World Championship.
She worked for TNA in 2004, from 2007 to 2009 and 2011 till November 28th, 2011.

This six foot tall Amazon worked for the WWE, then she went to Japan's Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX, Full Impact Pro, Philadelphia's Women's Extreme Wrestling and the PGWA (Professional Girl Wrestling Association) before signing with TNA.
Trenesha was released from her TNA contract in 2009 and now works for Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors as Tigresa Caliente (Hot Tigress). 

Another TNA Knockout with a vast Independant background is Raisha Saeed or as she is known outside of TNA wrestling, Cheerleader Melissa.

Melissa Anderson's father Doug Anderson was a wrestler and she competed in high school amateur wrestling before she started training with her father's tag team partner (and her uncle) Billy Anderson and Jesse Hernandez (owner of the School of Hard Knocks). She's also had wrestling training from Christopher Daniels, Robert Thompson, American Dragon and Mariko Yoshida. Melissa's pro wrestling debut was on August 17, 1999 (her birthday) wrestling against Lexie Fyfe in Douglas, Wyoming.She went on to train for three months at ARSION in Tokyo, Japan.Melissa has wrestled on all twenty of SHIMMER's Supercards, all ten of the ChickFight events (winning the event twice) and she won the Pro Wrestling World-1's Queen's Cup tournament.She even wrestled Victoria on an episode of WWE Heat. Since her face is covered as Saeed, she's been on a few TNA shows as Saeed and Cheerleader Melissa. Melissa also received the 2004 Cauliflower Alley Club "Future Legend" Award.

Melissa requested her release from TNA on January 21st, 2010, though she did make another appearance on the March 17 edition of Impact! unsuccessfully taking on Madison Rayne for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship.

Angelina Love was born Lauren Williams on September 13, 1981, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Like the other Knockouts, she has an extensive wrestling background.

She has worked for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in their Deep South Wrestling program. She wrestled in Mexico for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración as the Canadian Angel. Angelina also worked for Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling, PGWA, WAW, IWA Mid South and Ring of Honor.

So she is more than just a pretty face.

Velvet Sky was born Jamie Szantyr on June 2, 1981, in New Britain, Connecticut.

Outside of TNA she wrestles as Talia Madison.

Trained by the famous "House of Pain Pro Wrestling Dojo" Jamie had an extensive background in wrestling before joining TNA.

She formed a tag team with April Hunter called T&A and wrestled all over the US and Mexico.

Velvet wrestled a match on WWE Heat, losing to Victoria. She also tried out for the WWE Diva Search but didn't make it.

Before wrestling at TNA, she wrestled for Defiant Pro Wrestling, Georgia Wrestling Alliance, Women's Extreme Wrestling, World Xtreme Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico.

Again, WAY more than just a pretty face.

Taylor Wilde was born Shantelle Larissa Malawski on January 26, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. As with the other knockouts she has a solid wrestling background. She started out wrestling as Shantelle Taylor back in 2003. She has wrestled for Border City Wrestling, SHIMMER, Ring of Honor and the WWE's developmental program Deep South Wrestling. Taylor even wrestled a few SmackDown!/ECW house shows as San-Eye, a masked Japanese wrestler! For awhile, she was the TNA Women's Knockout Champion.

On December 29, 2010, Taylor confirmed her departure from TNA and on January 10, 2011, she announced that she was retiring from professional wrestling in order to concentrate on her psychology studies.
Her last match was February 5th, 2011, at a ChickFight and Pro Wrestling Revolution co promoted event, where she lost to another TNA veteran Alissa Flash.

Josette Bynum is a new addition to TNA as Sojourner Bolt. And again, even though she is new to TNA, she's not new to pro wrestling. She made her wrestling debut on April 11, 2003, and has wrestled for SHIMMER, MIW, PWA, MPW, SDW, ACW, WLW, DCW, NRW, R+R, CCWA, OVW and FLWA. Besides wrestling for these promotions, she's held the MIW Women's Championship, the NWA Midwest Women's Championship, the OVW Women's Championship four times and the WLW Women's Championship twice. She is by no means a rookie.

On November 10th, 2009, Josie was released from her TNA contract and went back to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

Shelly Martinez has gone by a lot of names during her career.  Desire, Shelly, Halloween Barbie, Cle-Ho-Patra, Ariel, Vampira, Koffin Kitten and in TNA, Salinas.  Like the other Knockouts, Shelly had a full background before hitting TNA.  She wrestled for several independent promotions like Revolution Pro Wrestling, Empire Wrestling Federation and Ultimate Pro Wrestling (where she was supposed to be the sister of Kyra, WWE's Melina). When she was in Women's Extreme Wrestling, she played the cousin of Mercedes Martinez. Then she signed a contract with the WWE and went to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), for further training, where she teamed up with Beth Phoenix, as co-manager for Aaron Stevens. In her debut match for OVW, she defeated Mickie James. She also appeared on WWE Heat and WWE Velocity before landing on ECW as Ariel.  On May 18, 2007 she was released from her WWE contract and on October 14, 2007, she appeared at Bound for Glory for TNA. Soon after she began working as Salinas, the valet of The Latin American Xchange At No Surrender on September 14, 2008 Mike Tenay announced that Salinas had been assaulted by Jacqueline and was taken to the hospital.  And that was the end of Shelly on TNA.  

Karen Jarrett is not actually a wrestler, but she is considered a TNA Knockout.
Actually at the moment, she is the Vice President of the Knockouts Division.
You know it's funny that when she first appeared on TNA back in the summer of 2007, her storyline was that she supposedly wanted to divorce Kurt Angle, claiming that he was emotionally abusive toward both her and their children.
Then on October 26th, 2008, she got her divorce.
Then she marries TNA co-founder Jeff Jarrett.