Tasha Steelz made history at IMPACT Sacrifice, defeating Mickie James to become the new IMPACT Knockouts Champion. In doing so, Steelz became the first-ever Afro-Latina Knockouts Champion in the company.
Steelz had previously won the IMPACT Knockouts Tag Team Titles alongside Kiera Hogan.
Speaking on Women's Wrestling Talk, Steelz explained the importance to her of the being the first Afro-Latina Knockouts Champion.
"It feels great. I'm going to take this back to Ring of Honor, when I had an opportunity to become the first-ever Afro-Latina Ring of Honor Women's Champion and, unfortunately, I can up short. That has been eating away at me. That's something I wanted to do, I wanted to become the first champion, somewhere. I want to be able to go back home and say that I was the first. I want my culture and my nationality and my race to be proud of me. I know they already are because I'm getting to this point, but I want to put that extra cherry on top and say, 'I want the first to do it.' I want other girls and guys, who want to be the first as well, to say, 'Look at Tasha, she did it, she didn't give up. I'm going to do the same thing too.' It feels so good to finally say that I am the first Afro-Latina Champion and the first Afro-Latina Champion at IMPACT as the Knockouts World Champion. It feels great. I'm always smiling from ear to ear every time the subject comes up. There will be many Afro-Latina Champions in the future, but they will never compare to the first, which is me," she said.
Steelz has made plenty of history in IMPACT as she was also the first-ever woman to win the Women's Ultimate X match. Though she lost her initial match against James at IMPACT No Surrender, she was victorious in the rematch.
Fans can find results from past IMPACT shows at Fightful's results section.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
