Former TNA Knockouts champion Velvet Sky was one of the many superstars who participated in IMPACT’s Knockout Roundtable discussion, where Sky spoke highly about Vince Russo due to his support for the division. Highlights of Sky’s thoughts are below.
Says Vince Russo was a huge supporter of the Knockouts Division:
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 and 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 like, he’s like, s**t, we have something here, let’s feature the girls more on the show. So whether it was in the ring with matches or backstage segments, or whatever the case was, in-ring promos, he was the one, Vince was the one responsible for really supporting the girls as far as getting us on the show as much as possible.
Says problems in the Knockouts division started happening when John Gaburick was brought in:
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 was just like a no-no. Sorry.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)