On their Twitter account on Monday night, IMPACT Wrestling announced that Taya Valkyrie has officially become the promotions longest reigning Knockouts Champion. A record that was previously held by Gail Kim who at one time held the title for 232 days. According to the record books, Taya has held the title for 240 days as of today. It’s worth noting that Taryn Terrell held the TNA Knockouts title for 279 days and Rosemary held the IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts title for 266 days (although their official reigns are considered much shorter due to tapings and airing schedules).
It's official!
Congratulations to @TheTayaValkyrie on becoming longest reigning Knockouts Champion! #IMPACT pic.twitter.com/m6Fi5dLf6k
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) September 2, 2019
It seems that Taya Valkyrie has had gold for the majority of her career, making her one of the most successful women title holders in the many years. Taya, who began her career back in 2011 as a student of Lance Storm, has nearly had gold for half of her professional career. At a total 1255 days as a world champion, that equates to nearly 4 years as champ if she were to hold the Knockouts title for another 153 days.
Taya’s dominant reign as champ began in only her third year of her pro wrestling career when she defeated a luchadora that can be considered a pillar of the women’s division in AAA Lucha Libre, Faby Apache. It was at Triplemania XXII back on August 17th, 2014 when Taya became the Reina De Reinas champion. What resulted from that win was a historic 945 consecutive title reign as the Reina De Reinas Champion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLyUXKMiwD0
It wasn’t until two years ago when Taya Valkyrie lost her title to Ayako Hamada. Despite the loss, however, Taya would regain her title a little over a month later and would the Reina De Reinas title for another 70 days. Taya would not lose the title after her second reign, however, as some controversy arose with AAA Lucha Libre. Nonetheless, Taya would earn gold yet again 18 months later.
It was on January 6th, 2019, at IMPACT Wrestling: Homecoming when Taya defeated Tessa Blanchard for the title. Tessa had previously held the title for 147 days before being defeated by “La Wera Loca”. Since then, Taya has successfully retained her Knockouts title over such names as Jordynne Grace, Madison Rayne, Su Yung, Havok, and others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcsazvgXu5Y
There is no doubt that where ever Taya ends up, gold follows her. Taya is back in the title hunt for the title that may arguably belong to her, The Reina De Reinas title when she faces her long-time rival, Tessa Blanchard at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on September 15th this month. Will Taya be able to get the title for the third time and hold the title for another lengthy amount of time? One thing is for sure, based on her track record, Taya could very well walk out the champ.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. Catch IMPACT Wrestling on Friday nights at 10pm on Pursuit Channel or their Twitch Channel.
