Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: Gail Kim
Date: November 1, 2005
Your Hosts: Chuck D, James Walsh, and Francine
Recap By: Patrick Kelley
Wrestling Epicenter recently had the honor of sitting down with one of Total Nonstop Action’s “Knockouts” and a former WWE Diva, Gail Kim.
Also on this show, we welcomed 3 Live Kru member “K-Dawg” Konnan as well as the very sexy “Queen of Extreme” Francine from http://www.MissyHyattandFrancineTV.com. If you thought Candice Michelle was hot in her Cat Woman outfit, you need to see Francine dawning her cat ears and tail…. Insert your own tail joke here!
All of this and so much more can be heard right how at http://www.WrestlingEpicenter.com. Also check us out on Wednesday, November 2 at 10:30 EST as we welcome NWA Heavyweight Champion RHINO as well as “The Alpha Male” MONTY BROWN!
GAIL KIM:
– The interview begins with Chuck D and James welcoming TNA Knockout Gail Kim to the show. She says she prefers TNA Knockout over WWE Diva because it sounds “less spoiled”
– She feels that her winning the WWE Women’s Title on her first night was rushed, and she would have liked more time to be built up. “When you start off at the top, there’s nowhere else to go but down” However, she also says she’s grateful for the opportunity she got.
– Gail says that she always got along with the girls in the WWE locker room, and her winning the title right away didn’t bother them too much. “They understand that it wasn’t my decision”
– She felt that she wasn’t given enough time on the mike, and she also feels that it wasn’t until the tail end of her stay in the WWE that fans started to get to know her.
– “I didn’t foresee it at all” when she talking about all the female wrestlers getting released. She says that the last thing she did was a run in involving both Trish and Lita, and then the next day she was released. Gail says that she still keeps in touch with Victoria and she has told her that the women are starting to wrestle more often now. However, Gail feels it can’t be as good as it once was.
– “She won the contest. She’s a pretty girl, and if they want to do the T&A thing with her, they should use her that way” Is her response to Raw Diva Search winner Ashley. She says that it’s not fair for Ashley to win a contest and then get thrown into a match with no experience. “She could get hurt if she’s not trained properly”
– She thinks that TNA might be interested in a women’s division, but she’s being realistic right now. Right now it’s just her and Traci and they only have an hour of programming, so building a women’s division is unlikely. She is very excited about being with TNA, and she loves working with guys like Jarrett, Team 3D, and AMW.
– When comparing TNA to WWE, Gail says that TNA is more like a family because the roster is smaller while WWE is like a high school where you only hang around with you group of friends. She says there is a legitimate excitement in the TNA locker room.
– When talking about her friend Traci Brooks, she says she loves being with her again, and that she would like to work a program with her in the future. She then discusses their history together, from their training, to their work in the Indy scene.
– “Fit Finlay is the person I miss the most” She says that Fit Finlay deserves a lot of credit for building up WWE’s Women’s Division. Gail says that he encouraged the woman to be more aggressive and more physical. She gives him credit for helping her improve in the ring, and she also says that he helped her develop a more submission based style which seemed to suit her more.
– When comparing herself to other Canadian wrestlers, she says she looks up to Chris Benoit for being aggressive and technical, Bret Hart was someone that she looked up to back in the day, while she first saw Trish as a fitness model, and that inspired her to get into good shape. She doesn’t feel any pressure from being Canadian though.
– She would have loved to wrestle Wendy Richter and Sherri Martel. She says those were the two that she watched back in the 80s which Gail feels was when wrestling was at its best. Gail then says that she met Sherri at an Indy show and could not believe how nice she was.
– When asked if she feels if there is a lack of respect in the young people today, she feels that a lot of the young guys are being brought up to WWE without the training, and maybe they are not aware of how they are supposed to present themselves in the locker room.
– When asked if understanding the business helps with working a crowd, she says “defiantly” She says some crowds are harder to please and some are easier to please. “In England, you do an arm drag and they get excited, but when you come to the United States, they are so used to the high flying that they are harder to please”
– When asked about the Diva Search, she says WWE is doing it for a reason. They are just trying to get a pretty girl to have their roster, and she doesn’t blame these girls for wanting to win it, but as a wrestler it can be upsetting to watch people get a contract very easily while wrestlers work hard their whole life to get to the WWE.
– When asked if her not being of the blonde haired, blue eyed girl image has hurt her in anyway, Gail says “I like to be different” She likes to look good, but she likes to be more than just T&A.
– “I’m so glad I didn’t use another name now” She is one of few former WWE stars that got to keep her in ring name because Gail Kim is her real name. She said that she gives advice to people today to just use your real name if you go to WWE.
– She’s open to wrestling in other feds. After leaving WWE, she felt women’s wrestling was a dead end because there wasn’t much going on for women, but she’s happy with TNA right now.
– “Don’t believe everything you hear” Chuck had heard that Nidia was completely disenfranchised with wrestling, but Gail says that she’s going on tour in Italy at the end of the month. She says she tries to keep herself away from the negativity of the internet. However, she does have her own website and she loves reading E-Mail from the fans that write her.
