Gail Kim Comments On TNA Hall Of Fame Induction, How Women's Wrestling Has Grown, If She Knows When She'll Retire

Gail Kim recently spoke with Ring Rust Radio while promoting the upcoming TNA Bound For Glory PPV; you can read a few excerpts, and listen to the interview below:

Gail Kim on what fans can expect from her TNA Knockouts Championship match against Maria Kanellis:

First off, the Impact Wrestling roster is the one roster that goes through ups and downs and people always report about our morale. I will tell you every time we come together and put more than a 100 percent out there. We come together as a family, and no matter what happens we always give the fans the best performance we can every time. Bound for Glory will be no exception for us. In terms of my match with Maria, casual fans may know us from our WWE days even though she hasn’t really wrestled a lot since then. I think the people who have been watching the storyline will be so looking forward to the moment when I finally get her in the ring. It honestly has been almost eight months in the making; to finally get in the ring with her. To have the title has always been special to me and I would love to win the title. For me it’s more about getting her in the ring on that day, and I think everyone just wants to see me give her a major beat down. I am really looking forward to it personally.

Gail comments on possibly entering the TNA Hall of Fame as TNA Knockouts champion:

I think that would be the icing on the cake if that happens. In terms of being honored at the TNA Hall of Fame, I think that’s something that every pro wrestler dreams about. You don’t think about it as your career is going on. For this moment to come it was almost surreal. To have the appreciation from your peers, the fans and the company you work for is the ultimate reward. For me, that has always been ultimate because respect has always been the most important thing to me in this business. I am very old school in that mind set and thinking that way. The business has changed a lot, and I love when I go to a show and see the up-and-coming talent being taught respect. For me, the Hall of Fame and being respected that way is the ultimate and top of what I can achieve in this business. I don’t know how much longer I can go and what I can achieve beyond that.

What does the shift in focus on women’s wrestling in 2016 mean to Gail?

Way back before all this women’s wrestling happened for us back in 2007, people would always tell me that fans don’t want to watch women’s wrestling. I always refused to believe that. I could have listened to all these people who were my friends and other fans who thought they didn’t want to see it because they had a perception of what women’s wrestling was. I always believed and I was always passionate about women’s wrestling. I think the fans at the time saw us deliver and felt our passion. I always tried to think about why I wasn’t connecting with the fans in my early WWE days, and there were a lot of aspects to that at the time. Maybe I didn’t have a great story line, maybe I just wasn’t relatable, but I feel like ultimately in this business I connected with the fans because they felt my passion for this business. We shared that passion for wrestling. I am so glad that they appreciated everything from the beginning. Like the feud I had with Awesome Kong, they were the reason it was such a success. Yes, we took the ball and ran with it, but they truly believed in it. It took a long time for women’s wrestling to come this far since looking back at 2007. Now in 2016, the strides women’s wrestling has taken is great. I have said this in other interviews because people see us as competitive with WWE girls, but I support them. I want them to have that opportunity and the stage I never got to have back then. I can appreciate how bad they want it. When I see them accomplish what their dreams are it’s an unbelievable feeling. I know what it feels like and I want that for them as well.

Gail comments on being a locker room veteran and working with the new faces in the Knockouts division:

I love the whole new group of girls. It’s funny, between us, Madison and I are the only ones leftover from the Knockouts of the past. At every TV taping, we joke around and say, “Wow, this is the first time I feel almost like an outsider,” even though we get along with the girls. Obviously we are a very close locker room. I am at the point where I go out there and give the best performance I can, but I am also at this stage where I feel like I just want to help as much as possible to rebuild this division. The new girls are all friends and came up through the indies together, which is great. To see girls like Chelsea and Gabby who have had very little experience, but they are so eager to learn. They have a thirst and passion for it and I love that. We are all working together to make this division great, not just themselves. It’s a powerful thing and I love it. I want to go on and in the next couple of years finish up my career and transition to behind the scenes where I can continue to help these girls out and pass on my knowledge. I think they all know my personality and that I am very straightforward. I am a perfectionist in the ring and I want that for myself as well as them.

Why does Gail’s ladder match with Taryn Terell stand out as one of her best matches?

The same thing with Kong and Taryn apply when I talk to them. It was almost like a magic chemistry I had with them. So every time I wrestled them in a big match or an Impact TV match, we always felt the pressure to top the last match. To have that kind of magic chemistry with Kong and then after her I didn’t think it would happen again. Then Taryn came along and the magic was there so we had the pressure to do it again and again. With the ladder match, it was supposed to be another Last Knockout Standing match, but fans don’t really know about that. We just successfully had the Last Knockout Standing match and they thought because it was so successful we should do it again on TV. I literally begged for something different then I started asking for a ladder match. Taryn agreed and that was a pretty high pressure situation. That day couldn’t have gone more perfect than we envisioned and it turned out to be one of my top three matches of all time.

Is there anyone Gail hasn’t faced yet that she’d like to?

Yes, yes, many people! Most of them are from my past like Beth Phoenix. She is probably, from my recollection, the best person I have been in the ring with from a worker’s point of view. She is always so calm and collected and really knew what she was doing in the ring. She was a great leader as well. Beth, Natty and Alicia Fox are probably my top three. There are so many girls that are really talented like Sasha Bank and Bayley. I have been lucky enough to work with many generations of girls, so every time you see someone really talented you get that urge to make some magic with that girl. There are definitely a couple of girls I would still like to work with.

Does Gail know when she’ll step away from wrestling?

A lot of people have been asking that. I am almost 40 years old. I am grateful to have been in this business for 16 years which not a lot of women can say they have been fortunate to do that kind of run that many years in a row. I would say in the next couple of years, I will have to retire. I have always said that I will retire when my body starts giving out on me. I would never want the fans to see me deteriorate in performance at any time. I am such a perfectionist that I wouldn’t want them to see me loose a step. I always said when that day comes, I am going to retire. In terms of future plans, I would like to work behind the scenes and help the girls build their division even more. I want to see the next generation be as successful as I was.