WWE veteran recalls ex-AEW star and Gail Kim setting a record until Hulk Hogan beat it "by a little bit" (Exclusive)

A WWE veteran has recently revealed that Gail Kim and former AEW star Awesome Kong set a record in TNA Wrestling that wasn't broken until Hulk Hogan joined the company, and even then, it wasn't by much.

Gail and Kong's rivalry over the TNA Knockouts Championship is often regarded as one of the greatest rivalries in women's wrestling, at least in North America. They were able to prove that women's wrestling could be competitive in an era of lingerie contests, bra and panties matches, and degrading angles.

The rivalry was so successful that Dutch Mantell recently revealed on the latest edition of SmackTalk with Sid Pullar III. He said that the two ladies set a ratings record for TNA Impact that wasn't broken until Hulk Hogan joined the company in 2010.

“When I booked Awesome Kong, you just had to book her the right way, she was unstoppable, plus she was big. And I told her, I said ‘do not go off your feet until I tell you to.’ Then some people inside the office said ‘when’s she going to go off her feet?’ I said ‘when I tell her to.’ We did a main event with Gail Kim and Awesome Kong that set a record in TNA, except for [Hulk] Hogan, when Hogan came in, he beat it just by a little bit, but here we have these two girls we booked in the main event and they did a 3.45. See if it got to a 3.5 it would almost—I think it automatically jumps to a 4 I don’t know, that’s what I heard. But a 3.5 for TNA in those days.” [7:15-8:14]

Mantell went on to say that the girls were performing so well that the ratings would often drop when their matches finished and that they were outdrawing big names like Sting and Kurt Angle.

“They drew the ratings to pay Sting and Kurt Angle, and Gail Kim and Awesome Kong were making nowhere near the money that those two were, and they were outdrawing them by a whole percentage point. That showed me that those girls were so easy to book, because I’ve had people to tell me they didn’t like the other wrestling, but when the girls came on, they would sit down and watch the show. When the girls left, they left, and the ratings reflected that because when the girls left, let’s say we were doing a 2.4 and the girls come on, it automatically jumped to a 2.7, I don’t care who you had out there. Then when the girls leave, it would jump back down to a 2.4, but what do I know? I asked for the girls, got them, and I made it work.” [8:16-9:18]

You can watch the full clip from SmackTalk right here:

What episode of TNA Impact did Gail Kim and Awesome Kong main event?

Gail Kim and Awesome Kong had a rivalry that spanned nearly ten years in TNA Wrestling, but what match, in particular, was Dutch Mantell talking about when he says they set a ratings record?

That would be the main event of the January 10th, 2008 edition of TNA Impact on Spike TV, where Kim put her TNA Knockouts Championship on the line against Kong.

The match lasted just under ten minutes and ended with Kong picking up the victory over Gail Kim and, in the process, she became the new TNA Knockouts Champion. She was also only the second woman to hold the belt at the time, as it was only introduced in October 2007.

Did you enjoy Awesome Kong and Gail Kim's rivalry? Let us know in the comments section down below!

Please credit "SmackTalk" and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.