RISE of the Knockouts Brings the Best of IMPACT to RISE

Credit: Rise-Wrestling.com

RISE of the Knockouts pitted IMPACT’s best female talent against the women of RISE. Great storytelling, compelling match-ups and some of the best wrestling you’ll see anywhere made this show a triumph.

One of the biggest challenges of being a fan of women’s wrestling is that you just don’t get a lot of chances to see it live. We’re in a golden age of streaming, of course; you can access hours of content from awesome promotions like Stardom and Pro Wrestling EVE for the price of a decent lunch.

I watch wrestling from around the world every week, and it’s great, but there is just nothing like a live wrestling event. Being there in person, feeling the energy in the room, getting to cheer on your heroes in person and buy a t-shirt from your favorite wrestler- that’s the best part of being a wrestling fan.

It’s also a joy that you don’t always get to experience if you’re a fan of women’s wrestling. Stephanie McMahon might think that wrestling is no longer a male-dominated profession, but I am willing to bet she doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to see her favorite wrestlers down at the legion. Even the most well-meaning companies typically don’t book a ton of women’s matches.

Promotions will usually try to book one or two women’s matches at major shows, but if travel schedules and calendars don’t line up, it might not happen at all. If you’re like me and you live about three hours from your local promotion, you will occasionally find yourself driving a six-hour round trip in one night and spending a ton of money just to see one wrestler you love. (Tenille Dashwood was worth it.)

Of course, there are also great women’s promotions you can follow. I’m not unbiased here; RISE is one of my favorite promotions right now. The mix of established talents and developing homegrown wrestlers makes it feel like I’m always about to see the next big thing in women’s wrestling.

They take women’s wrestling seriously, but not in an overly-serious way that robs it of the fun. The roster boasts an incredible variety of competitors and matches, so no matter what kind of wrestling you’re watching for, you’re going to see it- be it a twerk-off or a technical wrestling showcase.

RISE has been strategic in building partnerships with IMPACT and Stardom, and giving wrestling talent opportunities to work behind the camera as well as in the ring, and it pays off. Sienna’s commentary is a weekly highlight on ASCENT, and it’s been awesome to see Courtney Rush (AKA Rosemary) and Gail Kim involved in production as well. Credit is also due to writer Jimmy Jacobs, the zombie princess who guides the storylines with a confident hand.

I started reviewing the show because I had high hopes for weekly content from an independent women’s promotion and I wanted to support them from the ground up. As you can probably tell from my glowing reviews, RISE has blown my expectations out of the water. I look forward to watching every week.

But the best thing about RISE is the live events. Like I mentioned above, it is rare that I get to go to a show where the women’s wrestling is given the same amount of attention and importance as men’s matches. RISE is different. There’s no asterisk on the women’s matches there. They aren’t the “bathroom break”, they aren’t the sideshow attraction. They’re the main event.

And they kill it every single time. If you don’t think women can main event, or if you don’t think women go as hard as men in the ring, or if you just don’t know anything about women’s wrestling to begin with, you should be checking this promotion out. As an American women’s wrestling fan, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than a RISE show.

This is why whenever RISE is taping in driving distance of my hometown, I load my car up and drive a couple states over to see it in person. And yes, I have to drive for like six hours to get there and I usually end up crashing in some stranger’s basement AirB&B, but when I go I get to see hours of my favorite women’s wrestlers kicking ass and taking names in a ring. It is simply not possible for me to do that anywhere else, which is what makes it worth the trip.

So I was thrilled to find out that RISE and IMPACT would be partnering to present RISE of the Knockouts  in Naperville on the weekend of July 6th. IMPACT was sending their best female wrestlers to take on RISE talents, including a title defense from Su Yung. I had to see that in person. So I went.