Former TNA Knockout Discusses Her Time In TNA, Leaving WWE, More

In a live shoot interview tonight, former TNA Knockout Gail Kim spoke on record for the first time about why she quit WWE, the Divas division and walking out of a battle royal on Raw in her final appearance.

A few highlights below:

* Gail reveals that the Divas today are told: “You’re getting too physical” and “You’re getting too good”, indicating that they don’t want the women to upstage the male wrestlers.

* Gail says she got the opportunity to be in a documentary about successful Korean people but WWE wouldn’t let her do it.

* Gail says winning Knockouts Title meant more than winning Women’s Title because it wasn’t just handed to her. She says she was part of building the division and that made it more special.

* Low-Ki told her about Awesome Kong (Kharma). When they were talking about who to bring in for the division, Gail said why don’t we bring in Kong — she had never seen her work or even a picture of her but thought she would be unique for the division.

* As far as she knows, she never knew of ideas for her to work with Kharma in WWE in a storyline, but they had plans to have her work Kharma’s first singles match.

* Gail says the plan was for Kharma to feud with Beth Phoenix.

* Gail says the Knockouts never talked about their pay in TNA. Any frustration was between talent and office, not with each other.

* Gail on leaving TNA: She was in contract negotiations, but was having financial issues. She says the pay she was being offered, she couldn’t accept at that time. WWE reached out and offered her more money. She said she spoke to everyone in the TNA office and bawled when she spoke to Jeff Jarrett. She says: “When life takes over, you have to do what you have to do to pay your bills.”

* On re-signing with WWE, Gail says Johnny Ace told her that the creative team was so excited to have her back and had ideas for her. Hmm… really?

* Gail says she was offered a training position in FCW but turned it down because she felt she still had a lot to offer in her career.

* Gail says every week there’d be a new rule for the Divas like “no kicking”, “no punching” etc. “It was so frustrating.” WWE wanted “more girliness” in Divas matches.

* Gail says it’s sad that the Women’s Title was retired. WWE needs two titles for both shows. She says the Divas were sad about it.

* Gail reveals that she had four boob jobs. She says she never felt pressure from WWE to do it and even asked her mom in high school to have breast implants. “No pressure.” Never heard a story about there being pressure.

* Gail says she heard rumors that the Daniel Bryan/Bella Twins storyline ended because the network thought it wasn’t heading in a very PG direction, so she was brought in as his girlfriend to end the storyline. Gail says fans, Vince and Kevin Dunn loved the Gail/Bellas catfight when she was revealed as DB’s girlfriend.

* Gail says she was ready to quit the day that she was revealed as Daniel Bryan’s girlfriend, but prolonged it because she was finally being used.

* Gail says she felt slapped in the face and disrespected by a series of events and doesn’t take back her action of eliminating herself in the Divas battle royal. She recalls one instance when she went out to the ring with Daniel Bryan as his manager, but when she got to ringside, she was told to go to the back. She had just stood in 10 minutes in gorilla position with Vince and others there, however she wasn’t told she wasn’t supposed to go out. Agents told her she was going out. However, when she went out there, she was told to go back. She felt disrespected and spoke to Johnny Ace.

* Gail says she felt frustrated in WWE. She had been approached about re-signing by Johnny Ace but said she definitely wasn’t going to re-sign. She didn’t know how much longer she was going to last. The night of the battle royal came on Raw. She felt that the Divas were treated as a joke but tried to make the best of every situation. She says the battle royal came and they were told, “Everybody has to get out of the ring as fast as possible in the first minute”. She says other things happened that day but won’t reveal what happened. She felt disrespected at that moment and wanted to be disrespectful back, thus eliminating herself. She does admit it was childish. She went to the back & none of the agents or higher-ups noticed that she had eliminated herself. Later on in the night, she quit and told Johnny that he eliminated himself and he laughed! They didn’t notice or care.

* She says when she quit, Johnny Ace offered her the training role in FCW again but she turned it down. She says he wouldn’t let her quit. She said she wanted walk away & offered to give up the money. They told her she has to wait for her contract to run out. They didn’t want her working for any other wrestling companies.

Gail says she went into the locker room at Raw and announced to the Divas that she had quit. Everyone was shocked and sad.

Gail says she told Johnny to stop controlling her. She just wanted to be free. She says she told them to keep their money but they wouldn’t let her walk. They had a lawyer call her and explain the ‘legal repercussions’ of her quitting.

* Gail on WWE hiring models instead of independent wrestlers: She says that’s what it is right now. Girls like Beth and Natalya are a rare breed. She thinks women can be a draw & have kick ass matches.

* Regarding “that match” with Mickie James: They were very excited to have the match and planned too much. She wasn’t injured. They tried to call it on the fly but it didn’t work. She says, “We’re human”.

* Gail says she’d love for the girls to be treated equally. She wants to see them be given the same opportunities as the men. It’s frustrating being held down. She says the Knockouts division is proof that people want to see women’s wrestling.


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