In an exclusive interview for WrestlingNews.co, KiLynn King told Steve Fall that she has signed an exclusive deal with Impact Wrestling. During the interview, she talks about why Impact is a good fit for her, how Chyna inspired her, being trained by The Dudley Boyz, and more. Click below to watch the full interview and scroll down for the transcribed highlights:
KiLynn King on signing with Impact Wrestling:
“I had been trying to get some work there for a while. Tommy Dreamer and Gail (Kim) were both big advocates for me there. So right around December, I had the opportunity to go work with them for the first time and I got to work Taylor Wilde and Gisele (Shaw). About a week or two after I had that interaction with them, I got a call saying, ‘Hey, we want to offer you something’, and I was like, ‘Yeah.’ The moment I got there, the backstage atmosphere was just amazing. Everybody is so uplifting and encouraging. They just want the best product out there and that’s the kind of locker room you want to be in. So as soon as I got the phone call, my gut immediately was like, ‘Yep, you’re gonna do this. This is the next step.'”
On why she feels Impact Wrestling is a good fit for her:
“The moment I worked with them and the contract was in the works and in the talks, the idea of who I was wasn’t questioned. Sometimes you go places and the thing that you’ve been building over the years on the Independents and everything, people are like, ‘Okay, that’s great, but we want you to do this now.’ The moment they talked to me, like, ‘We want to take the King franchise (King is her real last name) and we want to figure out how to make it work in Impact’, and that was the biggest thing for me because I’ve been working for the last two years on how to make KyLynn King, The King, really stand out in this generation and they were really on board with that.”
“So there’s a lot of amazing character work that goes on there. For the longest time, the biggest thing that I’ve done is just like wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, and now I get to dive more into that character work and really get to tap into my acting skills. So I’m very excited for that process.”
Why Chyna was an inspiration to her growing up:
“So for me growing up, I was always at least a foot or so taller than all the girls in my class, sometimes all the boys too. Even before I got into sports and into weightlifting and stuff like that, I always had a bigger frame. I just always looked very different. I’m an Irish, pale girl, like, you just stand out no matter where you go. I remember for the longest time, I thought all those physical qualities about me were bad. Like, I always felt like I was the outsider. So I remember the first time I ever saw her on my television and knowing that she was so big, and she was so tall, and she looks better than some of the Divas on TV and stuff like that, but that was what made her stand out. That was what made people want her to be a part of their company. That’s what made her a lot of money and got her adoring fans, and to me, that was the first time in my life where I ever had a female model like that that I was able to look in the mirror and be like, ‘Hey, all these things about me that people like to make fun of or tell me that I’m different for, this girl is famous and getting paid lots of money because of it, so I think I’ll be okay.’ That was the first symbolism for me that being different is cool. It’s fine. So for me like that was always the biggest thing that she ever did for me was she was the first step for me mentally becoming okay with who I was.”
On being trained by The Dudley Boyz:
“It was very, very intense, but I say that with the meaning like good intense because it was one of those things where sometimes you go to a school and it’s one of those, okay, they want your money, you’re going to train you for like a couple of months, and then, ‘Okay kid. Go have fun.’ But their program was very intense, very serious. They wanted to make sure that once you went out into the world of professional wrestling, and you were representing them, you were representing them to the best of your ability because they didn’t play around with your training.”
I know they moved locations recently, but when I started there, it was a little hole in the back of an old school weightlifting gym in Kissimmee, Florida, with absolutely no AC, one entry way door, and two huge fans, and it was just one little ring. There was barely room to move, but it was just enough space where we could do drills, get in the ring, train, like, it was crazy. You could just sit there in your chair and you are sweating, so imagine once you start running the ropes and all that stuff, like it was intense. The drills, the amount of detail that they put into your training, it truly prepares you.”
“I always say like, if you look at any 3D students who are thriving right now, like, the basics are solid. Their technicalities are great and their understanding of the business. You know, that was one of those things where they didn’t just train us to train us. They also talked to us about business like, ‘Hey, this is the correct way to do things. This is the incorrect way. This is how the Independents are versus working for a company.’ They always had the little in-between conversations to really educate us as to what to prepare for in the world of professional wrestling. So it’s intense, it’s educational, and they make sure that you get every penny’s worth that you pay for.It’s one of those things where if you can say, ‘Hey, I was trained by the Dudley Boyz’, people know, ‘Okay, I can trust that they’re going to be a good worker and stuff like that.’”
“One of the biggest things that we always want to do is we want to represent and make our trainers proud. So the fact that you say something like that, like he’s in an interview that has nothing to do with me, but he brings me up and he says good things, that makes me happy because I remember, you know, all the attention and time they gave me and I always wanted to pay that back and be like, hey, I was a kid who barely had any money to her name who just really wanted to do this crazy dream, and you gave me the time of day, helped me out, and now let me pay that back to you by representing you and showing you what your students look like. So yeah, it’s a mutual love and respect.”
“I’m so grateful that I was able to end up in their school because it was crazy. I didn’t go to Florida for their school. It was one of those things where I just knew I wanted to get into wrestling, my brain said go to Florida, and then fate led me there somehow, and it was the best decision I ever made.”
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