"TNA Impact gave me great wrestling moments" - Exclusive interview with TNA Knockouts champion, Gail Kim

TNA Knockouts champion, Gail Kim

Gail Kim is the current TNA Knockouts champion, and won the WWE women’s championship on her very first night on RAW a decade ago. She is also married to a celebrity, Chef Irvine, and has been enjoying her time “back home” in TNA.

Recently, my colleague Ratish Menon and I had the pleasure of catching up with Gail and we asked her a few questions, regarding the direction of TNA and what she thought about the six-sided ring coming back. We also asked her a few questions regarding her time with the WWE, and below is an excerpt from the interview.

RM: Regarding the direction in which TNA is going – Back in ’10, TNA changed their outlook and changed everything about the organization – including the ring, bringing in new talents and letting the TNA originals go. Do you think the company is going in the opposite direction from the work they had done since 2010 till now?

GK: Oh yeah. If you look at any organisation in pro-wrestling, through the years, it is always going to change, kind of like a roller-coaster. I have been wrestling for, I think 15 years running now...I lost count (laughs) and I have seen both the companies go through a lot of changes. In TNA, you are right, we have had a lot of TNA originals let go and the company is in a phase where it is trying a lot of new things, including younger talent and in the past couple of months, we have also had established names in short storylines which has been successful.

Like I said, we are kind of in an experimental phase, but in the last couple of months, or since Slammiversary, we have been on this amazing roll and the product has been awesome with the fans loving everything that we are doing right now. In terms of the ring, the six-sided one is coming back and that is an exciting thing for us as the fans voted for that and I think it is going really really well right now. I am really happy to be a part of the organisation right now, with the women’s division being really strong right now and who knows what will happen in the next couple of weeks or months, with the Bound for Glory coming up and we are going to have the our first PPV in Tokyo Dome, Japan and we would love to come to India one day. So I see things improving and getting more positive for us.

AG: Talking about the 6 sided ring being brought back, some of the wrestlers, including Austin Aries expressed their disapproval, with the fact that it takes more toll on the body and is relatively harder to work with. Do you think it is a wise decision to bring the 6 sided ring back?

GK: At first, I was talking to Austin Aries and kind of agreed with him, especially for the wrestlers who do moves of the top ropes, given the change in the footwork and space etc. Honestly, it is a physically more demanding ring and the toll that it takes on the body too is more. But, the guy in charge of the ring here in TNA is aware of that fact, we have talked to him, and he has been working on it since the time the new ring was installed. And compared to when we worked on it initially, it is much better now and with him still working on it, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Like I said, we had left that in the hands of the fans, that’s what they wanted and so, if it is causing too much of problems for the wrestlers then the company would work on it, but as of now it is going to be fine.

RM: With the resurgence of the KO division in the past year, did that happen because of Vince Russo being rehired as a consultant? And why was it kept on the backburner under the Hogan – Bischoff regime?

GK: I mean, I was only there during the Hogan-Bischoff regime towards the end of their time with the company. But anybody who has met me, knows that I have this strong opinion about women’s wrestling and I am not saying that it is because of me, but when you come in and it is almost like, someone who is so passionate, can rub off on the others. Like, when Madison came back after having a baby, for her she was always a strong entertainer, though she was a good wrestler, she never got to show that side of her. But, this past year, she was having more skilled promos, and then she became this amazing wrestler that people never saw before.

Like I said, I would like to have a very strong women’s division and have been very vocal about it. Eric Bischoff was one of those people; I have never had a problem with him. For example, the ladder match that I had with Karen a couple of years ago, that wasn’t even a ladder match. I had to beg for it to be a ladder match. And, Eric was the first one to say yes. For people to say all the negative things about Eric’s attitude, that is not true. He was the first one to say, “You are passionate about it, how can I say no?” So, I don’t know because I don’t remember how it was before I got here, but as far as I know they have never really wavered from having women’s wrestling on the show.

Vince Russo, well..he wrote for us. But honestly, it was the girls. I mean, when I was there and they were going to start with the knockouts division, there were no girls, probably just the 3 of us. Then, I patiently waited when it became a 2-hour show as I wanted to wrestle. So, it took them about a year and half with me being with the company and me asking them, “Can I wrestle?” to the point where they were getting annoyed. But I couldn’t wait anymore, as my talent was in the ring, as much as I appreciated all the opportunities like being a manager etc, but I had this urge to wrestle. So, after hearing about it for so long they decided to create a title, bought in 10 girls and they ended up hiring all the ten of us, so it worked out pretty well.

AG: What do you think about the negativity and flak TNA receives from the IWC and do you think it is justified?

GK: I only stick to Twitter with social media, but I obviously do hear a lot of things as Twitter is a huge social media thing. I think society in general is very negative these days; while there are people who are loyal to both companies. While WWE is the bigger company and is huge in size, on the other hand they could never do what we do, sorry! If they step in the ring and try and do what we do, they would fail, that’s something I have figured out over the years.

In the beginning of my career, I would let the negativity get to me and pull me down, but as I got older, I started to take things in my stride because they can’t do my job. I do the job to the best of my ability, I think I do a great job and so does the entire roster, we give a 120% every time we are out there. I think there is a lot more positivity than negativity and I choose to focus on that and that is how I live my life. If someone wants to hide behind a keyboard, be negative and get others to be negative, then let them do it. That is their life.

AG: There is also this constant talk about wrestlers having a low morale backstage in TNA. What do you think of these so called inside reports which claim to be from people who have seen it first-hand?

GK: Like I commented earlier, we have been really busy and have been packing in 2 shows into 1 in New York City for our TV tapings. It has just been amazing and I would just ask the wrestling fans to stop believing what they read on the internet. Because it is amazing that one time, during a meet & greet with the fans, we struck up a conversation and they were telling me wrestling gossip. I was like, ”How do you know that?” and they go, “Oh we read it online” and I went, “Oh my god, really?” Are you going to believe what you read online? I am not saying that whatever is posted is not true, maybe some may be true. But it is crazy to think that they believe everything because I can guarantee you that a lot of it is not true.

RM: During your last match with the WWE, you made your statement loud and clear when you eliminated yourself from the Diva battle royal. Can you please explain what was going through your mind at that time and why you did what you did?

GK: I have talked about it in a lot of my interviews, but I was very frustrated with how the company wasn’t doing anything with all the talent they had who were not being used to the peak of their abilities. Maybe, I didn’t handle it as best as I could, though I don’t regret anything I did, as I maintained the professionalism of the match wherein I didn’t do anything to affect the outcome of the match, but I had made up my mind that I am going back to Impact Wrestling, as I didn’t want to deal with such stuff anymore. I wouldn’t have had so many great wrestling moments had it not been for Impact wrestling, and I am sure many people agreed with my decision to do what I did.

Make sure to catch the latest shows of iMPACT! Wrestling, and for Bound for Glory, which will be the first PPV of a major North American promotion to take place out of the United States in a long time, when they visit Tokyo, Japan. Also, be sure to follow Gail on Twitter and make your voices heard!