Phil Johnson sent this in.
TNA Impact Wrestling’s Gail Kim took some time to participate in an exclusive interview with PWMania.com. The former WWE Women’s Champion and TNA Knockout champion revealed her thoughts on her time in WWE, #GiveDivasAChance, TNA, what the future holds for her and more. Check out some highlights from the interview below:
Her time in WWE: Fans generally know about how I feel about the whole experience. I’ll put it down to this, it wasn’t the place for me. I think it’s a different work environment there. My first run, I was just green. I learned really quickly, I will say that. When you are thrown into that kind of environment, you have nowhere to go. I started at the top and won the title on my first night and there’s nowhere for me to go but down, really. Not necessarily, but pretty much, especially when you are at that level of experience. It was a lot emotionally for me to handle.
I definitely believed that first experience with them made me a stronger person and I didn’t realize how that experience could form who I was later on. I got released and then I lost my passion for wrestling almost completely and I wanted to leave the business and I did, on and off I may have done a few independent shows maybe 2 or 3 during that year off and then I started getting into stunt work and then TNA came in to the picture and people I knew there were people and being around the people that you start with and being passionate and one’s you’ve started on the indies with and why you’re so hungry for the business you get affected. I walked into that situation and oh my gosh, that passion just came flooding back and knowing that they were going to support women’s wrestling in the future it was very hard to pass by and it happened years later. This all happened for a reason and like I said I don’t regret anything being in both companies twice definitely gave me longevity in this business and it kept me fresh.
If TNA capitalized on #GiveDivasAChance: I don’t think it’s ever really changed. The true wrestling fans that watch TNA Impact, I think they’ve always known. I don’t want to say they take it for granted in anyway but they always just know that TNA and Impact Wrestling are going to give them women’s wrestling. It’s almost like they want to see it in the WWE and this is why they are so vocal as well. I don’t know if anything really changed.
I think we’ve always been strong with women’s wrestling and I think the fans have always known that. I think that’s a lot of the reason why they would tune in from the feedback I get from it through social media or meeting fans or that’s one of the things that I think that they love is that they would always say Impact Wrestling treats the women really well and one of the reasons they love watching it is because the women’s actually wrestle. I’m just glad when I was fighting for us to wrestle I would always have people tell me Gail, women’s wrestling is for the bathroom breaks, you know they really don’t want to see it. I would get discouraged a little bit but I was very adamant so I’m glad that we girls proved them wrong.
What the future holds for her: I think, I definitely still want to continue making magic in that ring and I’ve wrestled a lot of the girls. I will say I am looking forward to wrestling some fresh new talent and someone like Mia Yim who is Jade on TNA. I want to make magic and I know people are saying, Gail, isn’t it around retirement time? I’m saying not yet because my body is still pretty good. At the same time, I know it’s not the beginning of my career right now. I want to definitely work with some young talent and give the greatest matches that I can and unforgettable matches like I have in the past. I feel as though I want the fans to remember me for my wrestling and I want to just continue to do that in this upcoming year.
Kim also talks about her early training, her rekindled passion for the sport, more on her time in WWE and #GiveDivasAChance, TNA and more. You can read the interview in its entirety at this link.