The importance of Trinity as IMPACT Knockout’s Champion

Trinity Fatu has an important place in professional wrestling and her moment as IMPACT Knockout’s Champion is a major deal.

Trinity Fatu, FKA as Naomi, is a wrestler who previously wrestled for WWE. After what many would say was the best move, including myself, Trinity went on to sign with IMPACT wrestling under her real name. There she went on to win the Impact’s Knockouts Championship and is currently in her first reign. While there are many things Trinity has accomplished over the years, I will dive into Trinity’s importance as Knockouts Champion.

Trinity’s History:

Before I get into Trinity in IMPACT, let’s take a quick look back at her accomplishments previously. Under the name Naomi, Trinity would sign with WWE in August of 2009. There she will go to their developmental brand/territory that was named Florida Championship Wrestling. She would work down there and become the inaugural FCW Divas Champion. Not only she was the inaugural one, but she was also the first Black woman to be the FCW Diva’s Champion. The only other Black woman to win this title was Caylee Turner aka Christina Crawford, Alicia Fox’s younger sister.

Trinity will be one of the participants of season 3 of NXT, an all-woman season in 2010. Kelly Kelly was her pro. Ultimately, she would place second to Kaitlyn. She would then lose the FCW title to AJ Lee in 2011. Trinity would go on to be part of the Funkadactyls, TEAM BAD, and even become the inaugural winner of the WrestleMania Battle Royal in 2018.

In 2017, Trinity won the SmackDown Women’s Championship at Elimination Chamber after a match with Alexa Bliss. This would mark her first title reign as the SmackDown Women’s Champion, and also the historic moment of being the first Black woman to hold that title. She would have to relinquish the belt after an injury. Later in the year, during WrestleMania 33, Trinity returned to defeat Bliss again and regain that title.

Leaving WWE

In April 2022 during WrestleMania 38, Trinity will team up with Sasha Banks/Mercedes Moné to compete against other women in a four-way tag team match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship belts. The other teams were Zelina and Carmella, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan, and Shayna Baszler and Natalya.

Unfortunately, the joy I had about them winning will be short-lived as on May 16th, it was reported that they walked out of the venue which was revealed to be over a creative dispute. Both of them were suspended indefinitely and the belts were vacated. Trinity would stay quiet about this for a bit, before saying in March 2023, she had left WWE.

I had said I didn’t like the way this situation was handled for a few reasons. One there have been so many men involved with not liking creative decisions and doing things that were considered “disrespectful”. Those men were praised. There have even been women recently who had gripes about things and weren’t dragged the way Trinity and Mercedes were. Even Michael Cole saying that they were unprofessional left a sour taste in my mouth. To be clear, I believe both women did the right thing. Regular people leave their jobs every day, but when they do, it’s now wrong.

"“There was a lot of hate and negativity in this situation, but the fans were always there to counter it, speaking for me when I couldn’t speak for myself,” -Trinity Fatu (Sports Illustrated)"

They were being dramatic, They were being problematic. There is so much wrong with the narrative, but that is a debate for another day. However, Mercedes would go on to win the NJPW IWGP Women’s Championship, while Trinity would reach her own success.

IMPACT Wrestling

After the situation with WWE, many wondered where Trinity would go. I for one thought out of all the other promotions available to her, IMPACT was the place to be because of the importance the Knockouts Division had in women’s wrestling.

Ultimately, she would sign with IMPACT. Trinity would make her debut there on May 4, 2023, though it was taped on April 28th. I was so happy for her new promotion, but also happy to see what she would be able to do in IMPACT. She will eventually get into a confrontation with Deonna Purrazzo and Jordynne Grace making it known she wanted the Knockouts title.

At Under Siege, she would defeat Gisele Shaw. This was her first PPV match since WrestleMania 38 the year before. During, Slammiversary Trinity would take on Deonna and beat her via submission to become the IMPACT Knockouts World Champion for the first time. This is when everyone started to see Trinity’s Importance as Knockouts Champion.

Why is it so important to see Trinity as Knockouts Champion?

Many wanted Trinity to fail. I saw the nonsense on social media so many times I lost count. I saw how many of the complaints brought out some bigots, with so much negative racial undertones in their commentary. Many of those same people swore up and down she wouldn’t succeed without WWE. They were wrong.

I was fortunate to see Trinity in person again at IMPACT 1000. The crowd adored her. They cheered for her. They praised her as they should’ve. Not only that, but she has been able to become the champion when very few Black women held the title in IMPACT.

When I think of moments that made the little Black girl in me happy, I think of Mercedes main eventing NXT with Bayley, Trinity’s first SmackDown title win, Mercedes and Bianca Belair main eventing WrestleMania, and now Trinity becoming the Knockouts World Champion. This was important to her, but to all the people who loved her through it all. Through all the negativity thrown her way. Through the battles, she faced in silence.

Trinity is someone I always thought shined brightly, even before she picked up the GLOW gimmick. She always carried herself with poise and grace. Even on Total DIVAS, she was pretty unproblematic when thinking of the “drama” that was on that show. She was athletic in part due to her background as a professional dancer, but she was also versatile which showed in her in TEAM B.A.D., the Funkadactyls, being in the Mixed Tag Team matches with Jimmy Uso, and more.
Trinity has always deserved her flowers for this. She was treated as well as she should’ve been in WWE. I’m so glad that now she is in IMPACT where she can thrive and GLOW. I’m happy she is the current Knockouts World Champion and I can’t wait to see what else she does this time.