Impact Wrestling Hall of Famer Gail Kim has been off Impact Wrestling television since the start of 2017 and last competed inside Impact’s six-sided ring back in October when she took on Maria Kanellis in a No DQ match.
Despite not being contracted by Impact Wrestling, the six-times Knockouts Champion has always called the company her “home” and in a recent interview with Kevin Eck of PressBox Online, Gail discusses the nature of her injury, looks back at her time with the WWE and helping train the current Knockouts division. Highlights of the interview below.
On the nature of her injury: “My back was injured just basically from wear and tear over the years. Luckily, Impact has been so good to me in terms of letting me take time off to make sure I’m healthy and never making me feel bad about it. I’ve been ready to come back for a little while but [Impact Wrestling] has had some time off because we film a bunch of shows once a month or once every other month, so that’s the only reason why I haven’t been back in the ring, but I’m going to be back shortly.”
On helping rebuild the current Knockouts division: “Obviously, I’m just as passionate about what I do in the ring and the quality of the wrestling I put out there. But now I do feel like I want to help the younger talent coming in. Like I said, we’re in a rebuilding stage. Some of the girls are very polished and some are green, but there’s a lot of potential. I saw Chelsea [Green], who’s Laurel Van Ness, when she tried out the first time [with Impact]. She was fresh out of “Tough Enough” and hadn’t been working that long. She had a tryout match with us in Bethlehem, Pa., and I remember how green she was back then. She has just come so far, and I always tell her how proud I am. Her in-ring work is solid, but you don’t even get to see much of that right now because her character work is just so over the top and great. I feel like she is the future. Rosemary is already very polished. I love what she does in the ring and in her promos and character work. And then there’s a couple girls that we just picked up that I’m working with one-on-one outside of the company, and I will continue to do that with some of the girls who come in and hopefully help them learn at a faster pace. Right now, it feels like WWE is basically trying to take over the industry, so it’s almost hard to get talent.
On Vince McMahon believing ‘no one wants to see the girls fight like the guys’: “It wasn’t politically correct to say out loud, nor would they say that straight up, but — I’m not going to say which agent said it — but they would tell us that Vince doesn’t like that. I remember specifically a match I had on “Superstars” with Jillian [Hall]. We got seven minutes, which was rare back then — we usually got three minutes. There’s no way to tell a story in the ring in that time, so when we had a match on “Superstars” it was like a pay-per-view match [laughs]. Jillian and I had awesome chemistry, so we’d want to wrestle. We wanted to do a superplex off the top rope, and the agent — again, I’m not going to name names — said, “Go ahead. I’ll take the heat for it,” because he knew Vince wouldn’t really be happy with that. Now I heard WWE has announced a Money in the Bank match for the girls. I honestly feel like [Triple H] has done so much for the girls, because he started that whole thing in NXT with the Four Horsewomen. When I left WWE, he was one of the people who was so positive. He told me, ‘You’re talented and don’t let anyone else tell you any different.’ I was very flattered and glad that he respected women’s wrestling.”
Gail also shares her thoughts on Jeff Jarrett returning to head of creative, how much longer she’ll continue to wrestle and recently meeting Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks.
You can read the full interview here.
What did you think of the interview? Do you agree with Gail’s point of view? How would you book her Impact Wrestling return? Let us know in the comments below!
