Former IMPACT Knockouts Champion Mia Yim returned to the company at Under Siege, and she couldn’t be happier.
Mia Yim recently sat down with Denise Salcedo to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about her decision to return to IMPACT Wrestling, Yim revealed it came down a lot to her relationship with IMPACT Hall of Famer Gail Kim who kept putting over the company to her following her WWE release.
“A lot was going on in my mind. It’s hard to pinpoint one or two specific things,” Mia Yim began. “Me and Keith {Lee} got released on the same day. It was a lot of figuring out– I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to in my career, everything that I set a goal for myself I’ve done it all. So, do I even want to wrestle anymore? Just with the toxicity of social media and with what I did the last time like I was a joke, I was a joke, so it was like do I even bother?
“So we got married {Keith Lee}, we moved two weeks after, bought a house, so a lot of real-life stuff was happening. Keith, right after the wedding he went to work, so I am like alright, let me take a couple of months to kinda just hold down the fort, and get everything together with real-life first. So he doesn’t have to worry about anything and everything will be taken care of at home. So I took a couple months off to do things in my real life but also to figure out if this is what I wanted to continue to do. It was a lot, it was a lot.
“I am close friends with Gail {Kim} and I’ve been talking to her ever since I left IMPACT the first time. So we’ve been talking. I originally didn’t want to sign anywhere, I didn’t want to be on TV. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. But Gail was putting over the company, putting over the talent, even Scott {D’Amore}, putting over everything. As the head of the women’s division, I have no questions, no second guesses, no hesitation that if I were to go to IMPACT under Gail’s leadership everything is gonna be fine.
“There’s no drama, I didn’t want to deal with drama, politics, if I was gonna wrestle, I just wanted to wrestle and hang out with my friends. And that place I have a lot of friends, I know that I would have a lot of wrestling opportunities, so it was a no brainer to me, ‘okay I am going to give it one more try.’ I don’t want people to remember me for what I’ve done in the past year or two. I want people to remember me as Mia Yim, that I’ve had decades’ worth of work under my belt before I had the whole thing happen. I want people to remember that I am not just a manager for a group or whatever, I can go. Once I decided I am gonna give wrestling a try, I was like ‘count me in, Gail.’ I know that at IMPACT I am gonna be okay. ”
Mia Yim revealed that she’s having fun in IMPACT Wrestling right now because she’s enjoying the creative freedom that comes from being part of the roster.
“Freedom!” Mia Yim said. “Not that we weren’t free before but the minute that I signed my contract I got a text that was like ‘hey, what do you want to do for your character? What do you want to do for your tron?’ It was like what? {laughs} I was like these are just suggestions we don’t have to go for it, but I’ve been sitting on these ideas for like the past two years. So I just toss it to them and they are like ‘okay, great, we’ll set everything up.’ And it was like this is so cool… It was different like you’re used to pitching ideas but then nothing ever happens right? So this was an idea that I pitched but nothing ever happened, so in my mind I was like, the fact that they straight up asked me what I wanted to do says a lot, and the fact that they actually went about and did it, it was like I want to retire at IMPACT like this is where I want to stay forever at this point. It was definitely a different feeling, I felt like I was being heard and being listened to and they really took my ideas, and even with little tweaks they ask ‘ how would you feel about this?’ and it’s like ‘Are you really asking me?’ So it’s nice to feel like I am respected as a human.”
READ MORE: Mia Yim Wants To Retire At IMPACT Wrestling; Shares The Support Of Gail Kim, Shelton Benjamin & More
What do you make of Mia Yim’s comments? Have you enjoyed her time in IMPACT Wrestling so far? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
