Taya Valkyrie Says She Wants To Defend Impact Wrestling's Knockouts Title Against Men

There have been more and more intergender matches happening in wrestling as of late including in Impact Wrestling. There Scarlett Bordeaux defeated Rohit Raju, and also on the card Taya Valkyrie held onto her Knockouts Championship by defeating Jordynne Grace.

Valkyrie spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast about intergender wrestling and also coming up victorious against Grace.

"I believe this is the third time I stepped in the ring with Jordynne Grace. The first being in Las Vegas and then the mixed tag in Windsor. Obviously it had its challenges, but I defeated many a competitor in the past and this wasn't any different. I was able to get the victory and she went from being an undefeated Knockout to being a defeated one," stated Valkyrie.

When asked if Grace could have a rematch, Valkyrie opened the floor to all of the Knockouts Division as she realizes that she is the hunted.

"I believe that every Knockout has the championship in mind. So absolutely I'm prepared to if she wants to face me again. She can have her rematch if she earns it," said Valkyrie. "As a champion, you have to be prepared that people are going to come after you. The target is on my back and let's see what happens moving forward."

In regards to intergender wrestling, Valkyrie was asked if she would defend the title against men.

"Absolutely, I have zero problems doing it," revealed Valkyrie. "If you look back at the history of the Triple A women's title, it has also been put on the line against men in the past. So I don't understand why the Knockouts Title couldn't be doing that too.

"Everyone knows that I have faced many a men in the ring before via Lucha Libre AAA, Lucha Underground and I have absolutely no problem doing it in Impact."

Also at Rebellion, Valkyrie's husband Johnny Impact lost the Impact World Championship to Brian Cage, and Valkyrie was asked if she would like to avenge her husband's defeat in a title vs. title match with Cage.

"AB-SO-LUTELY! Listen, I have my own history with Mr. Brian Cage, the so-called Machine. So, I have absolutely no problem facing off against him. We have years of history and animosity against each other. I would absolutely love to face Mr. Brian Cage in a match," said Valkyrie before adding that the two of them faced off in Lucha Underground Season Two.

"It's been done before and I know I'm a completely different person than I was when we wrestled that first time and Brian is as well. I believe I was the first person to face Brian in an intergender match, so let's do it again. Why not?"

It has to create a weird situation for Johnny Impact to no longer be champion while his wife still has her belt. Valkyrie talked about her husband losing his title.

"Johnny Impact will be a champion in my heart forever," stated Valkyrie. "It doesn't matter to me. But I know it has made him really upset. At the same time it's been motivation for him to get back to the drawing board and see how he can get that championship back where it belongs which is with us."

Taya Valkyrie is the current Impact Wrestling Knockout's Champion. She can be seen every Friday night at 10 pm EST as part of Impact Wrestling on Pursuit and Twitch.

VIP tickets for Slammiversary (July 7 in Dallas) will go on-sale on Friday, May 17, at impactwrestling.com; and all tickets for Slammiversary will be on-sale on Monday, May 20.TV Tapings for the weekly TV show, Impact!, will be held June 6-7 at Melrose Ballroom in NYC.

Taya's full interview with Wrestling Inc was included on Wednesday's edition of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard in the embedded player at the bottom of this post. In it Taya discusses her successful title defense against Jordynne Grace at Rebellion, Gail Kim's backstage contributions to Impact Wrestling, the lack of female voices in pro wrestling management, the indies not embracing the women's revolution and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here.

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