Gail Kim Talks Leaving TNA For WWE When The Knockouts Division Was Hot
WrestlingINC.com owner Raj Giri was on the latest Impact media conference call with former Knockouts Champion and TNA Hall Of Famer Gail Kim. Giri asked Kim about the time she left TNA to return to the WWE.
After being released from the WWE, Kim's popularity rose when she joined TNA and established herself as one of the best women's wrestlers in the world. She chose to return to the WWE in 2008, which she says was difficult for her. At the time of her departure, the TNA Knockouts Division had seen an influx of talent that led to a newfound spotlight on women's wrestling.
"It was great because you just never know what will happen when a company brings in 10 girls all at once, it can probably get ugly in some instances," she said. "It was just this magical thing that happened, all these girls just kind of clicked and had their own personality or character. You saw girls from Awesome Kong to Sheely Martinez with LAX, then myself and Jackie Moore and Roxxi Laveaux. It was just a wide, vast array of characters, and we all had our different wrestling styles.
"It was hard to leave at that time, I literally balled my eyes out because I didn't want to leave," she continued. "It was just a business decision at that time, and I had talked to every single person in the office and they understood my decision. Hey, I ended up back home though, so it all worked out."
Kim returned to TNA in 2011 and has been a staple in the company ever since. She became the first woman to be inducted into the TNA Hall Of Fame in 2016 and is tied with Angelina Love with a record six reigns as Knockouts Champion. She was asked about her favorite matches from her career and recommended three of them, which fans can check out on the newly launched Global Wrestling Network.
"I might meet people through my husband (celebrity chef Robert Irvine) at events and they're like, 'Oh, you're a pro-wrestler? I have to Google you,' and I'd say, 'Don't watch my WWE matches! Go watch some TNA matches,'" she said. "I would say my top three favorite matches of all time would be with Awesome Kong, I had a no-disqualification pay-per-view match, it was Final Resolution, so I'm very proud of that match with her. And of course with Taryn (Terrell), the Last Knockout Standing match and the ladder match. All of those matches just came with the perfect build, we really took our time with all of that and I'm just really proud of them."