TNA Impact Wrestling’s Gail Kim took some time to participate in an exclusive interview with PWMania.com to discuss her first and second run in TNA as well as what was different between those two runs.
What stood out during your initial singles run with the promotion?
He (Scott) said we want to build the women’s division and but the only thing is we only have an hour of programming and realistically it won’t happen for a little while and he said we want to bring you in and we want you to manage and they wanted to give me a prominent role, this was Jeff Jarrett and America’s Most Wanted and I said oh, I’d love to do that and I did that for over a year and that was really fun. All the guys in that company were always so supportive of the women including women. Sometimes you may remember back in the day women come down there and really did nothing and would just hope to be a part of it and get camera time. They always included me and then eventually I just have a passion for the sport of wrestling was very hard for me to just stand on the outside and watch the guys do what I’ve loved.
Eventually I said, you know guys you said that you wanted to have a women’s division and I’ve been waiting and you know I just can’t wait anymore so luckily Jeff (Jarrett) said can you work with Jackie Moore and I said yeah, absolutely. I can work with whoever you want me to work with she’s absolutely amazing and the toughest women I’ve been in the ring with so we just had some amazing catfights as you would call them, physicality and people loved it and people were like oh, holy crap these girls are beating the crap out of each other and so just went slowly with Jackie and brought in Jamie D from the Independents and they would bring in girls slowly one at a time and then all of a sudden they said they wanted to bring in a title and bring in 10 girls and it was just a success overnight virtually and it just happened so perfectly I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
How have you found your character progression during your second run with TNA?
I would say that I’ve always been either a heel for a long time or a babyface for a long time. I’ve never really gone one year on and one year off. So it’s been a lengthy amount of time and I love the fact that I came in as a heel and I hadn’t been a heel for a really long time and I think before that (previous run in the company) a babyface for at least 4 years through TNA and WWE and it’s just easier to have a character honestly as a heel so, I loved the fact that I could work with the two best heels in the company when I first came in and find my stride and get in the zone with Karen Angle and Madison Rayne. It was so easy to play off of them and they made it so easy and it was fun and wrestling wise I like wrestling as a heel or a babyface so for me it didn’t really matter. It’s just about finding my comfort zone and after you’ve been a babyface for so long until I found that stride. I think my main thing is fans they identify with someone who they like or dislike or whatever they may be through getting the character and may identify with the character.
Mickie James, she’s the girl next door, seems so approachable and that’s what they love about her and she’s a great wrestler as well. For me, the wrestling fans could really identify with the passion for the wrestling industry and see my passion for wrestling and so I think that’s where my progression has come in terms of my character which is actually, really me. With TNA, they have always allowed me to vocalize that and show that through storylines and it was harder to do that in WWE with 3 minute matches and 6 girls going out there at once and there were no storylines virtually. I did a lot of gimmick matches which is not really my cup of tea. When you’re uncomfortable on that kind of stage it shows. I just think it was a better fit here where they kind of let the girls come and do what their strengths were and for me it was wrestling.
You can read the entire interview here.
