Gail Kim is forever grateful to Jeff Jarrett for giving the Knockouts a shot in TNA Wrestling.
Wednesday’s episode of Busted Open Radio saw Dave LaGreca, Tommy Dreamer, and Mickie James welcome Gail Kim to the show. The seven-time Knockouts Champion took time to praise Jeff Jarrett and said that she owes him a lot because Jeff gave women a chance when he ran TNA Wrestling.
“We owe everything to Jeff Jarrett, to be honest. I still tell him to this day he gave us the opportunity. And you know, it’s funny because walking into TNA at that time, I had other wrestlers tell me Jeff hates women’s wrestling. So it’s like, oh, and you know, fans don’t want to see women’s wrestling; it’s a bathroom break. And I was like, I refuse to believe this. And sometimes it’s scary, but you have to take these chances on yourself. And I did say, ‘Okay, I couldn’t manage anymore.’ I couldn’t watch the guys doing what I loved and be ringside. And I was appreciative of that role,” Gail Kim explained, “but I knew that’s not what I had to give to the business.
“And so it’s like, okay if we’re not going to wrestle soon, I need to leave because it’s been a year and a half,” she said. “And so you know what, at least they thought I was valuable enough to give that chance. And so they said, and they kind of tested the waters, and they said, ‘Can you work Jackie Moore?’ And I said, ‘Bring in anybody; bring in Jackie!’ They tested the waters with that. And then once they were happy with that, they said, ‘We’re going to bring in a women’s title. We’re going to bring in all these girls.’ And then, a lot of people think oh, what’s going to happen when you’re bringing 10 Girls overnight? You know it can be pretty crazy.”
Gail Kim also looked back on her rivalry with Awesome Kong, noting how Jeff was a huge fan of the work they did together. Gail shared how Kong first got on their radar and said they had chemistry from the start.
“Low Ki was the first one to tell me about Kong. And I was so intrigued. And I never saw her work. And I just told Dutch like, ‘We don’t have anyone like this. We need to have someone like this. I trust what he’s saying. She’s a force to be reckoned with.’ And I can just tell just, based on his description, we need someone different. And Kia ended up being more than we ever envisioned or hoped for. Because she was like, magical. The presence, from the first entrance, when she walked out, and I always say people have always tried to duplicate her. And they’ve never been able to do it because it was everything. It was the presence, the skill, the facials. They were on another level,” Gail Kim explained.
“And Jeff just saw something magical that even though, like you said, we didn’t realize at the moment, we’re just trying to prove ourselves, to be honest, to get to that next match just to get to the next match, not just what had happened for the division. And he saw it in us and Scott D’Amore; I remember him telling me, ‘Jeff just loves you and Kia. Just loves you and Kong. He loves what he’s seeing.’ So they kind of saw it in us before we really realized. Like you said, we’re just trying to prove ourselves every single time.”
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