M By Elegance Wins Tournament To Become First TNA Knockouts TV Champion

M By Elegance is the inaugural TNA Knockouts Television Champion after beating Jada Stone in the tournament final.

TNA Hall of Famer Traci Brooks unveiled the championship on June 28 during the Countdown to Slammiversary pre-show at Agganis Arena in Boston. Brooks announced that a 16-woman tournament would begin four days later and confirmed that the title would be defended exclusively on Impact.

The Knockouts Television Championship becomes the third championship in the history of the Knockouts division, joining the Knockouts World Championship and Knockouts World Tag Team Championship. The former was introduced at Bound for Glory on October 14, 2007, with Gail Kim becoming the inaugural champion, while Sarita and Taylor Wilde became the first Knockouts World Tag Team Champions after winning a tournament final at No Surrender on September 20, 2009.

The match aired on the August 27 episode of Impact from the CAA Centre in Brampton, Ontario, bringing the 16-woman tournament that began on July 2 to a close. Every previous match in the tournament carried a 10-minute time limit, but no time limit was placed on the final.

M By Elegance reached the final by defeating Rosemary in the first round before receiving a bye into the semifinals after Wendy Choo and Elayna Black went to a 10-minute time-limit draw, eliminating both women. She then defeated Indi Hartwell in the semifinal to secure her place in the final.

Jada Stone reached the final by defeating Alisha Edwards in the first round, Jody Threat in the quarterfinals, and M By Elegance’s brand partner Heather By Elegance in the semifinals.

The Columbia, South Carolina native is a graduate of the Palmetto Wrestling Academy, and the final marked the first singles championship match of her TNA career. M By Elegance, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa native who trained at Seth Rollins’ Black and Brave Wrestling Academy, is a two-time former Knockouts World Tag Team Champion and now adds her first singles championship in TNA.

Stone opened the match with a series of quick pinning combinations, all of which M escaped before scoring a near fall with a missile dropkick and standing moonsault. The action spilt to the outside, where M took control by dumping Stone onto the apron. Back inside, M kept Stone grounded before connecting with a fallaway slam.

From there, M zeroed in on Stone’s taped left shoulder, which had been banged up during the Lethal Lockdown match at Sunday’s pay-per-view. Stone caught her with a surprise pinning combination for a close near fall, but M responded with a dropkick, snapmare, and another dropkick to the spine for a two-count of her own. She followed up with a big boot and the Tower of Elegance for another near fall.

M went for a moonsault, but Stone avoided it, and after M missed a charge in the corner, Stone fired back with a dropkick, a 619, and a double stomp to the midsection that M kicked out of. Stone then connected with a kick to the face and went for the split-legged moonsault, only for M to cut her off and bring her down with a standing Blue Thunder Bomb before catching Stone with a superkick in the corner.

Later in the match, Stone went back to the split-legged moonsault, but M got her knees up. M then climbed the ropes herself, only for Stone to slow her down with a superkick. The pair ended up on the top rope, where Stone landed a Spanish Fly, but M rolled onto her stomach before Stone could make the cover. Stone finally connected with a corkscrew moonsault, but M got her foot on the ropes to break the count at two.

In the closing moments, M connected with an impressive piledriver to finally secure the three-count, making her the first Knockouts Television Champion in TNA history.

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As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for the Knockouts Television Championship as soon as we hear more.