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#2 Gail Kim reveals Mercedes Martinez's role at IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Knockdown event
Gail Kim previously announced that former WWE NXT Superstar Mercedes Martinez would be making her IMPACT debut at Knockouts Knockdown.
Kim admitted that she was incredibly anxious to see Martinez face off against several members of the IMPACT roster:
"Yeah, I mean I already love our knockouts roster but there's so many great women wrestling out there and wrestlers. Of course Mercedes is a very respected veteran of this business. I think she's been wrestling longer than me and I'm already retired. I'm so anxious to see her face anyone of our knockouts, to be honest."
The IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Famer also dropped an exclusive piece of news, revealing that Mercedes Martinez will participate in a Knockouts Championship Number One contenders tournament at Knockouts Knockdown:
"I will drop a little nugget of surprise then, I will announce what she's doing there. Besides the Monster's Ball, we're are going to have a number one contenders tournament for singles matches for the number one contender to face the champion after Bound For Glory. She will be a participant in that tournament."
#1 Did NWA Empowerrr get the ball rolling for IMPACT Wrestling's Knockouts Knockdown event?
IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Knockdown comes off the heels of the incredible NWA Empowerrr in August, produced by Mickie James.
Gail Kim was asked if the success of Empowerrr influenced the announcement of Knockouts Knockdown. The IMPACT Wrestling producer revealed that there were discussions several months ago to bring back the event, however a date at the time wasn't finalized:
"We did talk about it months ago, we honestly just didn't have a date set. But once Mickie announces that, of course, we're going to give our support and everything we've got towards that. Because that 'Forbidden Door' has been opened for a while now, it just hasn't really been opened for the women. When Mickie called me and she already had the green light with actual dates, events and location and everything. I went, 'Yeah, let's go.' I thought it was a huge success, I think this whole year has been amazing for women's wrestling. In my announcement I said 'it's the year of women's wrestling' and I truly believe that."
The former Knockouts Champion stated that the timing was a coincidence but IMPACT Wrestling was more than happy to support Mickie James and NWA Empowerrr:
"So I was just excited that Scott [D'Amore] mentioned a couple of months ago that he wanted to bring it back and I said, 'Great. Finally it's been since 2017.' So, it was kind of a coincidence with timing, we just waited which is fine, absolutely fine because they're two very different events but just as special in their own regard."
