Gail Kim reveals she almost quit TNA Wrestling via fax prior to the formation of The Knockouts division.
Gail Kim is synonymous with the TNA Knockouts. Gail, Awesome Kong, The Beautiful People, Taylor Wilde, and more helped form the division that is seen today as one of the longest-tenured respected women's divisions in professional wrestling. However, the journey to get there was not an easy one.
Gail Kim joined TNA wrestling after leaving WWE the first time and at first, she was just paired, as a manager, with America's Most Wanted. One day, she became fed up with not wrestling and decided that she was going to quit the promotion.
Speaking on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, Gail Kim recalled how she decided to join the company after they promised her they were working on a women's division.
"Obviously, I'm very invested. Because when I joined this company, there was no women's division and they did draw me towards the division saying, We would like to have a women's division one day, we just don't have the time for it. But that's what we're looking to,' and I said, 'Okay, great.' So I waited and waited it was like a year and a half and everyone knows kind of the story in terms of the battle to make it happen. I think some people don't know that I did try to resign. Once I got fed up. I was like, 'Okay, I've been waiting a year and a half.'
"It was very hard for me to manage and watch all the guys doing what I loved while I was ringside, I knew what my talent was in the business and that's just wrestling, right. It wasn't like the promos or anything like that. So it's like, I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting my time. I don't know how much longer I can wait. But when I did try to resign, that's when things started to happen and then a couple of months later, they just brought in 10 women and a title. It just kind of, you know what I think the true key to the success was that they brought in all these women, but they didn't overthink it, they just kind of did everything very basic, the proper way, I think, for storytelling, and they almost left it alone in a sense. That's what made it so great. That all these women were passionate about wrestling and really wanted to prove themselves. Like I've been saying, right, it's a constant, we got to be as good as the guys, we got to prove that we can be on TV and do this as well. They just ran with it. They've never stopped since then. So I'm really happy that they haven't. Through all the management changes that we've had throughout all the years. That's one thing that they haven't stopped. Thank God. I'm still happy about that. Now, it truly is a cornerstone of our company. You know, one of the things that people recognize," Gail said.
Gail further explained that she was fed up with not wrestling and decided to send a fax on the day of the biggest pay-per-view of the year detailing that she had resigned. Her resignation was promptly denied.
"It was the biggest pay-per-view of the year and they had laid us all out and they said, Okay, you're not coming to the biggest pay-per-view of the year. Plus, I wasn't wrestling I was like, oh, gosh, what the hell's have, okay, I'm useless here, you know, in my mind back then you got to remember some immaturity back then of course, too. So I sent in a fax to the hotel where they were staying. The story I was told was that, at the time, Bob Ryder, rest in peace, picked up the fax and gave it to Terry Taylor, because Terry and Scott I think were in management at the time. Terry or Scott, one of them tore it up. Then they called me and they're like, 'That's a breach of — you can't just quit and resign, you're under contract.' I don't think anyone knows the story, to be honest. I became like, 'Well, I want to wrestle,' and they're like, 'Well, you can't quit, you know, you're in a contract.' But after that, they brought a one woman at a time just to test the waters. Then we did prove ourselves one match at a time. Then they brought in the division. So sometimes I'm like, 'Okay, did I act like a brat?' But then sometimes I'm like, 'Well if I didn't fight that hard, it wouldn't have happened.'"
Now, she is a trusted authority in the division and an IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Famer. Elsewhere in the interview, Gail reveals that she would like to see WWE bring back the Divas magazine. Learn more here.
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