TNA signs Sarah Stock

Mike Johnson of PW Insider reports today that TNA has signed Sarah Stock for the Knockouts division. It's been well known for a while that TNA was interested in Sarah but TNA was concerned about jeopardizing their relationship with CMLL in Mexico. Sarah had some injuries in 2008 (a broken arm, I think) but is back in action and will start with TNA after she appears on Fuuka's 5th Anniversary shows this weekend in Tokyo. The Knockouts division has been in a funk since Gail Kim left in August partially due to poor booking but also because none of the other girls have chemistry with Awesome Kong. Sarah is probably a better wrestler than Gail but also has charisma that has been missing since Gail left. Taylor Wilde in particular has suffered from poor booking. Have Jarrett etc. learned their lesson? We can hope but I wouldn't bet on it. If they mess up with Sarah, there's no hope for them.

Sarah Stock is a native of Winnipeg. She started out wrestling across Canada under various names. But her last minute fill in appearance on the 2002 WXW Super 8 tournament in Pennsylvania seemed to get the attention of promoters and fans. She was added to the tournament when Phoenix couldn't make the show due to car trouble. She wrestled as Griffin as a rib on the name Phoenix. It was supposed to be spelled Gryphon. Sarah decided to further her wrestling education by moving to Monterey, Mexico in 2003. Her trainer Eddie Watts suggested she wear a mask. She struggled for a while working for the LLF but she was soon hired by AAA. But she left AAA because they told her she would wrestle and it became apparent they had no intention of using her as a wrestler. At that time, CMLL was just getting back into women's wrestling and Sarah was brought in as the masked Dark Angel. She became one of Mexico's biggest stars and is still very popular there. Sarah also went to Japan to work for A To Z in 2005 and she has also worked for SHIMMER since 2007. Sarah Stock has worked very hard to become one of the most sought after women wrestlers in the world today and has the talent to be an even bigger star as long as TNA doesn't mess up. I expect her to continue to work for SHIMMER as they have an agreement with TNA. But I don't know if she will continue to work for CMLL. I look forward to seeing Sarah on my TV each week. As a special treat for readers of this blog, here's Sarah Stock vs Mariko Yoshida Nov. 27, 2005 in Tokyo. It's a great match so enjoy it!