Gail Kim vs Miss Tessmacher

Gail goes right after Brooke’s arm, but Tessmacher gets a quick jackknife rollup for 2, then dodges a charge in the corner and unloads with forearms and stomps in the corner. Brooke gives Gail a stinkface, then knocks her to the floor when Gail tries to roll to the apron to escape. Brooke rolls her right back in but gets caught with a DDT, then Gail hits a back suplex for 2. Brooke blocks a top rope Frankensteiner and she gets Gail in a hanging Dragon Sleeper on the top rope, then releases Gail and wipes her out with a top rope clothesline for 2. Gail catches Brooke with a boot to the face and whips her to the corner for the charging crossbody. Now Gail rubs her ass in Brooke’s face and goes for another back suplex, but Brooke converts it to a bulldog. Brooke nails Gail with a series of running clotheslines and forearms, then nearly turns Gail inside out with a Frankensteiner. She mounts Gail in the corner and goes “OH YEAH GAIL UH UH UH” while humping her face. What a sense of humor that Brooke has. Brooke hits an inverted bulldog and then goes to the top, but takes so long that I just know whatever she’s going to try won’t work. Indeed, Gail rolls out of the way of Brooke’s top rope elbowdrop and hits Sole Food for the win.

Winner: Gail Kim

Diva Dirt presents its second annual Writers’ Choice Awards, the awards that celebrate the year in women’s wrestling, as decided by the editors and contributors of Diva Dirt. The Diva Dirt team has watched hundreds of episode of wrestling television this year, as well as hundreds of live events on DVD, additionally, we’ve followed a countless number of wrestlers over the year, and reviewed tons of matches. Now, as we come to the end of 2012, we have picked the best of the best to be awarded our Writers’ Choice blue ribbons.

Most Improved: Brooke Tessmacher

So precise, she wins it twice! Despite taking home the 2011 Diva Dirt Writers’ Choice Award for most improved female wrestler, we felt that Brooke Tessmacher continued to up her game to new levels that overall she deserved to win the prize for the second year in a row.

Last year, Brooke rose to prominence as one half of tag team, TNT, alongside veteran wrestler, Tara. This year, however, she stepped into the limelight as a singles competitor and took a completely different route in targeting the Knockouts Championship. It wasn’t an easy road to get there, but Brooke got her first big opportunity at the company’s May pay per view, Sacrifice, when she and Gail Kim delivered what some fans feel is one of the strongest televised female bouts of the past year.

Despite not leaving with the title that night, both Gail and Brooke delivered, with the latter showing off a variety of new moves we had not previously seen from the Texan native before. She proved a lot of people wrong… but that wasn’t good enough for someone with their eyes on the prize.

The following month, Brooke got one more shot against Gail at Slammiversary, which coincidentally emanated from her home state of Texas. It was there that she scored the big upset and pinned Gail’s shoulders to the mat for the three count to leave as the new Knockouts champion. For someone so new in a roster filled with veteran talent, this was a huge step in her career, and further spoke for how skilled she had become in that she could now hold her own in matches with or without having Tara by her side.

Even though Brooke’s time as Knockouts Champion came to an end, we have no doubt that she can win the title again, and in an even better showing than before. Champion or not, no one can deny the amount of hard work and dedication that shows each time she steps into the ring.

Due to her continuous drastic improvement over the past year, as well as the fact that she’s now able to stand toe to toe with the best of them and not come off looking anything less than a million bucks, we simply could not think of any candidate more deserving for the title of “Most Improved” than Brooke Tessmacher.

Diva Dirt presents its second annual Writers’ Choice Awards, the awards that celebrate the year in women’s wrestling, as decided by the editors and contributors of Diva Dirt. The Diva Dirt team has watched hundreds of episode of wrestling television this year, as well as hundreds of live events on DVD, additionally, we’ve followed a countless number of wrestlers over the year, and reviewed tons of matches. Now, as we come to the end of 2012, we have picked the best of the best to be awarded our Writers’ Choice blue ribbons.

Best Feud: Brooke Tessmacher vs Tara

As a teacher, what does one do when one sees their pupil, their student… their best friend capturing all the success in the world? They snap and claim it all for themselves, that’s what! At least according to Impact Wrestling’s own Tara, who took it upon herself to bring a screeching halt to the accolades Brooke Tessmacher was racking up around the middle of the year.

It all began on August 3rd, as Tara called Brooke out during an edition of Open Fight Night just seven days after Brooke reclaimed the Knockouts Championship for the second time. What began as a friendly encounter actually ended up being the beginning of the end for the BFFs, as just three weeks down the road, the veteran decided that enough was enough. She couldn’t live another day watching Tessmacher take the glory and success, when in her mind, Brooke wouldn’t even know a roll-up that didn’t involve fruit existed, nor that a bulldog could reference more than either an animal or a Georgia based sports team, without her guidance and tutelage.

Ultimately, Tara would put her money where her mouth is and end the second reign of Brooke Tessmacher as champion when she defeated the Texan at Bound for Glory to claim her fifth Knockouts Title.

This deeply personal feud provided some of the most exciting television of the year in WWE or TNA as we saw the one-time BFFs and Knockouts Tag Team Champions implode. It’s a story as old as time — tag team partners breaking up and feuding — but sometimes it’s the simplest things that are most enjoyable.

Brooke vs Tara was the ultimate embodiment of good vs evil, and the pair, knowing each other so well, took each other to the limit.

Diva Dirt presents its annual selection of women who have been most newsworthy and talked about in 2012. The 12 women selected have embodied the zeitgeist of the year by hitting the headlines, breaking boundaries, stopping the show, and becoming trending topics. The Diva Dirt editors and contributors have picked one woman as the Diva Dirt Woman of the Year, as well as 11 runners-up who have helped define 2012. Join us as we count down our runners-up before unveiling the Woman of the Year on December 31st.

BROOKE TESSMACHER
Model Behavior

When Brooke Tessmacher first popped up on Impact Wrestling in the spring of 2010, majority of the fan response was underwhelming. “Of all the women they could have hired, they chose a dancer from Extreme Expose?!” In just two short years though, that dancer and model has undergone an evolution unlike almost any other we have seen before.

Brooke Tessmacher got her first glimpse of wrestling when she tried out for the WWE Diva Search in 2006. While she ultimately did not reach the final eight participants, Adams was signed and received her first crack at TV in early 2007. As a part of dance troupe, Extreme Expose alongside Kelly Kelly and Layla, she danced and took part in a few battle royals from roughly January to November, when she was unceremoniously let go from her WWE deal. Like the majority of the “models”, many fans believed this would be the last we ever heard from her… but how wrong they were.

Over two years went by without so much as a peep from the Texan native, when out of nowhere during a special live Monday edition of Impact Wrestling, she debuted on screen as the secretary to Eric Bischoff. Known simply as Miss Tessmacher, she went through quite the ride of power until attaining a jaw injury in December that left her status in the company unknown.

She returned to Impact a few months later, and after a series of matches, found herself forming a team with veteran, Tara, dubbed TNT. The two would go on to become Knockouts Tag Team Champions, that of which they held for about four months. Following the loss, Brooke was pretty much MIA for a while, which brings us in to 2012 — without a doubt the most monumental year in defining her career as a legitimate competitor and athlete.

Tessmacher appeared for the first time in the new year as part of an eight Knockout tag team match, culminating in her attaining the victory over champion, Gail Kim. Over the following two weeks, she would go on to claim more victories over the champ, which resulted in Brooke getting a title shot at Sacrifice. Kim would ultimately leave with the title still intact after some tomfoolery involving the ropes, but Brooke stepped up to the plate and delivered what some feel is her best performance to date at the time.

Three days before Impact’s following pay per view, Slammiversary, she took part in a fatal four way alongside Mickie James, Tara and Velvet Sky to determine who would face off against Gail at the event. Tessmacher certainly went into it as the underdog in terms of experience, but Brooke proved we can never count her out, as she secured the victory and another crack at the title.

And so came the night she had been working nonstop for — Slammiversary. Emanating from her home state of Texas, Brooke defeated Gail to win the first singles championship of her career. It was a feel good moment for the woman everyone seemed to count out for so long, but the hard work and dedication finally paid off. Brooke would go on to hold the title for 63 days, before losing it to Madison Rayne and then winning it back four days later to become a two time champion.

Her next challenger was best friend and trainer, Tara, who wanted to prove that Tessmacher was the real deal in a straight fight. If Brooke could surpass her teacher, she was ready for all comers. Brooke ultimately did just that at No Surrender, which infuriated the veteran and caused her to snap on her protege. The two faced off once more at Bound for Glory, where Brooke’s second reign as champion came to an end at the hands of her mentor.

Title or not, no one can deny the impact Brooke Tessmacher made throughout the past year. In a field where women are looked down upon for coming from a certain background, Brooke Tessmacher has been an inspiration and proven that the “models” can kick ass too.