It certainly can't be easy to be prominently featured in front of a camera for any length of time, especially for women, who tend to be judged far more harshly on their looks, hypersexualized, and held to a different standard for their appearance than are men in similar situations. Add to that the living exaggeration that is professional wrestling, where everything is over the top, sensationalized, and made to be as visually appealing as possible, and the way one looks tends to carry way more importance that it probably should. On top of all that, in TNA (formerly known as Impact Wrestling), the name for their women's division being "Knockouts" raises the bar even higher.
The reality is, however, in wrestling just as it is in life, one simply cannot stay looking exactly the same forever. And when it comes to in-ring presentation, that might not even be a bad thing, as reinvention every now and then helps wrestlers stay fresh in the minds of the audience, evolving sometimes after time away, to help facilitate a turn from babyface to heel or vice versa, a as part of gimmick change, changing promotions, or just to break the status quo.
With that in mind, the list we're putting forth here today is less about physical appearance and more about the evolution of these particular looks over the span of the careers of four specific talents who spent significant time in TNA before spreading their wings and branching out elsewhere, some in other corners of the wrestling world, and others to side ventures and new life experiences well outside of the squared circle.
After a few one-off appearances in TNA in the early to mid-2010s under her given name, Allie finally arrived for good in 2016, first as a heel in an apprenticeship alongside Maria Kanellis, and then as a fan favorite, setting the stage for her first of two reigns as Knockouts Champion. At the storyline wedding of Laurel Van Ness and Braxton Sutter in 2017, Allie served as ring bearer, but the ceremony went sideways when Sutter (Allie's real-life husband) rejected Van Ness and added a storyline love story to the real one he and Allie shared outside of the ring.
Another shift in Allie's character and look came when she was intertwined in a storyline with Su Yung and Rosemary, frequenting The Undead Realm, "getting possessed" at one point, and eventually "dying" as part of the on-screen story. In reality, that closure took place at the end of her contract with Impact, and soon after, Allie would arrive in AEW.
While at first, she portrayed the Allie character for Tony Khan and company, eventually she'd align once again with Sutter (now The Blade) and The Butcher, adopting The Bunny as her new character. (And hey, what doesn't scream "new look" more than a bunny mask?) A broken orbital bone, unfortunately, suffered in a match against Jamie Hayter, would alter Allie's look once more toward the end of her AEW run, which finished up in late 2023. She'd make another spot appearance in TNA in May of 2025, donning the colors of her native Canada while helping to lead Team Canada at Border Brawl.
The real life Kia Stevens, whose wrestling career spanned the better part of 20 years all over the world and for a hoard of promotions including TNA, WWE, AEW, and Ring of Honor, was a two-time TNA Knockouts Champion as Awesome Kong. After running into a bit of trouble backstage, suspended at least once in 2010, Kong would leave TNA and end up in WWE as Kharma. Most notable from that run was her appearance in the 2012 Royal Rumble, where she became only the third female ever (at that time) to compete in the match, joining memorable names Chyna and Beth Phoenix. Sadly, her time in WWE was sporadic, wth the Rumble serving as her only official match, in part because of time she needed to take away from the company, due to becoming pregnant.
Kong would take part in a total of five matches for AEW in 2019 and 2020 before leaving to film Netflix's "GLOW," a series based on the 1980s all-female wrestling promotion, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, where she made perhaps her biggest image change in playing the role of Tamm "The Welfare Queen" Dawson. The character was popular with fans and allowed Kong to expand her acting chops in the beyond over-the-top role, But even that story ended abruptly for Kong, as the show was canceled in October of 2020, largely due to financial issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite a mostly positive critical response.
Kong announced her retirement from in-ring competition at NWA's 2021 all-female pay-per-view Empowerrr.
As Victoria in WWE, Lisa Marie Varon made a major impact on the women's division, quickly feuding with WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, and adopting a sadistic, deranged persona. She would become Women's Champion, defeating Status in a hardcore match within her first year, and enjoying a second title run, beginning at WrestleMania 20. She'd finish up her full-time WWE run in 2009 and adopt a whole new name and persona in TNA that very same year.
Tara, short for "Tarantula," was pitted against TNA's key female players right away, much like she was with Stratus and others in WWE, and would feud with the trio of Angelina Love, Madison Rayne, and Velvet Sky, known collectively as The Beautiful People. She experienced a similarly quick rise to success in TNA as well, capturing her first TNA Knockouts Championship less than two months into her tenure with a win over Love.
In 2021, she'd return as Victoria at the Royal Rumble, albeit at "The Thunderdome," in front of a bunch of TV screens rather than a slew of adoring fans, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. And on an episode of "Impact Wrestling" in early 2023 she'd appear in TNA once more, teaming with Gisele Shaw to challenge Death Dollz (Jessicka and Taya Valkyrie) for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championships. While the challenge was unsuccessful, the appearance was a memorable one for Tara, who to this day, as Victoria, still has her name whispered in Hall of Fame conversations each year come WrestleMania season.
Rounding out our quartet of former Knockouts who have reinvented themselves time and again is a stalwart of WWE television these days, the first ever WWE Women's United States Champion, Chelsea Green. After a pair of one-offs with TNA earlier in the year, Green officially signed with the company in 2016, debuting as Laurel Van Ness, feuding with Allie as part of the romantic storyline with Braxton Sutter. When that on-screen wedding went sideways, with Allie and Sutter an item, Van Ness became "The Hot Mess," appearing a disheveled half-wedding dress, smeared lipstick and makeup on one side of her face, and a generally unhinged demeanor. There are elements of that character in her presentation to this day; namely, her "Hot Mess" entrance music.
In 2018, Green would leave TNA and appear once for Lucha Underground, wrestling as Reklusa in a match against Penta (then known as Pentagon Dark). Though she had previously appeared on WWE television as Daniel Bryan's therapist, Megan Miller, and competed on the sixth season of "Tough Enough," Green's official WWE debut wouldn't come until 2018 when she parlayed a successful tryout into joining the ranks of NXT.
While that first WWE run seemed a bit cursed, with a broken wrist in her debut on "NXT" TV, breaking the same wrist on her "SmackDown" debut, and ending in her release (as part of a mass set of cuts) in 2021, her eventual return in 2023 has been nothing short of magic. Starting with a five-second elimination in her surprise Royal Rumble re-debut, Green has become the epitome of "maximizing minutes," now paired with The Secret Hervice, Alba Fyre and Piper Niven, enjoying a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship run in addition to the US title success.
