The tapings for this coming Thursday’s episode of GFW Impact Wrestling took place on Monday Night at Universal Studios in Orlando. One of the biggest news items coming out of the tapings relates to Gail Kim. She announced that 2017 would be her final year as a wrestler and she would be retiring soon. There had been rumors in recent months about her status because she has not wrestled in several months.
Gail got her star in the business on the Canadian independent circuit in 2000. She was signed by WWE in 2002 and was the first woman to win the Women’s Championship in her debut match. She was released by WWE in 2004 and would later pop up in TNA in 2005 where she would eventually be known as the person that kick-started the Knockouts Division. Many will point to her matches with Awesome Kong as the true start of the women’s revolution in wrestling because those were some of the early matches in the United States to be treated seriously on a national stage.
She returned to WWE in 2008 and while she did get a decent push at first, the company eventually started featuring hear less and they used her for out of the ring storylines. In 2011, she was scripted to be Daniel Bryan’s on-screen girlfriend and would often accompany him to the ring as his manager/valet. Towards the end of her run with WWE, she was mainly featured on B-shows like WWE Superstars. She later told the UK Sun that she was not happy about female talent being held back.
She returned to TNA in 2011 and hasn’t looked back since then. Gail is a 6-time Knockouts Champion, a former Knockouts Tag Team Champion, a former WWE Women’s Champion, and she was voted as the Knockout of the Year in 2007. She was inducted into the TNA Wrestling Hall Of Fame last year.
We will have more spoilers up on the site shortly.
Gail said 2017 will be her last year wrestling #ImpactWrestling pic.twitter.com/VKJ0OhtiCj
— Josh (@joshua7520) July 4, 2017
Gail Kim on the mic now #ImpactWrestling pic.twitter.com/VzYrVy3pXe
— Josh (@joshua7520) July 4, 2017