From January 6, 2019 to January 18, 2020, Taya Valkyrie held the Impact Knockouts Championship for a record-setting 377 days. Not only was the reign the longest in Knockouts Championship history, but the single longest title reign in Impact Wrestling history, period.
Valkyrie recently joined me to discuss a variety of topics, including her record-setting run as Impact Knockouts Champion.
Being the longest-reigning champion in Impact/TNA history
SL: “We’ll leave that one for the uncensored podcast. It’s so cool to me because you obviously say your first match was on World of Hurt. (You) starting out in Alberta. It’s one of the things that I love most about independent wrestling is you really get to see people at the start of their careers and then obviously, getting the opportunity to speak to not only the longest-reigning Impact Knockouts Champion but the longest-reigning champion in Impact and TNA history. How much pride you take in the fact that that one of the premier wrestling organizations in the world not only had the faith in you to put a title on you, but literally be the person who held the championship the longest?
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TV: “I mean, it’s crazy. I remember when everything was starting to happen, (it’s) like ‘you’re like only a few days away from breaking this record’, and I just kept going in, and I was just like – I watched TNA and I looked up to so many people, and that generation of Knockouts in early TNA, like was so inspirational to me in becoming a wrestler. I remember just being like ‘these girls get a lot of time,’ and they (got) to show so much more than the girls were getting in WWE at the time. I mean, obviously, things have changed and evolved, and women as a whole are just getting a lot more respect and opportunities than we ever have, and it’s because of women like that, the women that started at all in TNA.
I am so blessed to even be working for this company that I looked up, you know, wanted to be part of for so many years, and also to be put in a category with some of the top women and men in professional wrestling as the longest-reigning champion in Impact Wrestling history. So, I take that with – I am very proud of that, and I hope that everybody from those older generations is proud of me and hoping that I represent him as well as I can.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
