Gail Kim Discusses Reasons For Retirement, Reveals If She'll Ever Wrestle Again

TNA Hall of Famer Gail Kim has recalled the exact moment she knew she had to retire. 

Kim, in an interview with "Toronto Sun," stated that watching others wrestling and feeling their pain is when she knew she had to call time on her career. 

"I wish that my body felt like what I felt like in my 20s or even my early 30s because I remember feeling invincible, as a lot of them do. You know, you see them doing crazy stuff and then as the years go your body starts — that's how I knew I was going to retire because right at the very end, in the last couple years, I would watch, say, the monitor of someone else wrestling and I go, 'Oh [grimaces]' and I'd react like I felt the pain. I was like, 'Why am I reacting like that? I never had that reaction before,'" she said. "So once I started to feel the pain of other wrestlers watching them do something that looked painful, it was kind of my first red flag, you know, 'Why am I reacting that way before?'"

Kim stated that while she misses wrestling and hasn't closed the door on a return to the ring, the prospect of training for a match feels daunting to her. 

"Of course, I miss the sport of wrestling. I miss having that adrenaline rush. And I don't mind doing some physicality spots here and there if I'm ever booked for anything. A full match is something entirely different. I guess I would say 'never say never,' but it would have to be something really, really special. And for me to get conditioned for a full match, I don't think people realize how hard it is to train for the cardio of a professional wrestling match," she added.

The TNA legend recalled training for her last singles match, which took place in 2019 against Tessa Blanchard, saying her cardio sessions were intense, even climbing 60 flights of stairs multiple times, which she still felt wasn't enough.