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Mike Johnson: This weekend, Impact Wrestling returns to the music city of Nashville, Tennessee. They're going to be taping a number of television episodes as well as a number of pay-per-views over several days at Skyway Studios, for full details on that, you can check out impactwrestling.com for tickets. Perhaps the coolest thing that was announced is the return of the Knockouts Knockdown pay-per-view, which is going to be airing this October. The woman who announced the return of this great event, Gail Kim, is our guest at this time. It's great to talk to you again. First of all, how are you doing? How's family? How is everything in your world?
Gail Kim: I am great. Thank you so much. Just keeping busy with the women's wrestling world, obviously, and just as happy as can be. I'm very lucky. How are you, Mike?
Mike Johnson: I'm doing excellent. I'm happy to sit down and talk to you. Before we talk about the Knockouts pay per view, let's just talk about the entire periphery, the landscape of women's professional wrestling. Over the last couple of months we have seen a lot of great talents pop up in AEW and a lot of great moments there. We've seen the NWA promote their first ever all women's pay-per-view, EmPowerr, which you were at, and we'll talk about that in a second. We've seen Ring of Honor just crown their first ever world women's champion. We're seeing a lot of veterans who worked in different places at the same time, assisting each other and supporting each other as they're in executive levels now. Now, for you, as someone who has been through the ups and downs of women's professional wrestling when there were times where in certain companies, it wasn't looked upon as an asset. It was kind of looked upon as, as sort of a side attraction, but now we are seeing the roots of all this starting to really entrench in the ground. So, what's it like for you as someone who's gone through your career and now you are in an executive position and you see how much things have changed from when you were first breaking into WWF on a national basis?
Gail Kim: It's honestly been a big rollercoaster Mike. I got into the business because I was watching strong women's wrestling, like Trish, Jazz, Lita, Ivory, Molly Holly, all those girls, Victoria, too many to name. And that's what inspired me. And hopefully my generation inspired all these girls that are coming along, because there's so many now. I think, just like with me, I was like, wow, these girls can really go in the ring. I love that. And I fell in love with that. And I think I honestly, all these girls felt the same and to watch it be consistent. And this year, especially, I said there on other interviews where this is the year of women's wrestling. I truly believe that. As you know, people like Nikki Jane, who took the initiative to really fight for it as well and bring in other women, I've always said that women's wrestling and actually really anybody when you work together is stronger together instead of competing together and you've seen that with the forbidden door being opened. And I feel like fans just love it. I think when people are open to working with each other and just want others to succeed, I think it's a winning formula. I love watching these women and to see some of them come in, for example, Su Yung, who started with us years ago and to see what she's developed into to this day, three different and characters and to see them grow and succeed is just truly beautiful to me. It's all the reasons why I came into this business and why I love it.
Mike Johnson: When you look at how things have changed, does it make you wish that maybe you hadn't retired at all? Obviously you have to listen to your body and Father Time is going to beat all of us down at some point, wrestlers quicker than others because of the physicality. You have to listen to your body and you have to make the best decisions for yourself, but, that sad, do you look at things like EmPowerr or the Knockouts Knockdown pay-per-view and go, maybe I shouldn't have locked that key that quickly, perhaps a couple times a year I can do this? Or, do you feel confident that you had your time and these opportunities are in place for someone else and you're happy where you are.
Gail Kim: Yeah. Exactly, the second part. Of course, there are times you get little urges, you hear the crowds, you see that you feel that adrenaline, that the girls, you get that, you catch it from them and you miss those moments for a split second. But my aching body is a daily reminder of why I retired. And I truly do believe in the past that is paved for you is what you're supposed to. And just like when people say, oh, WWE never used you properly. I said, but I never would've gone to Impact or TNA and done all the things that I did if they didn't treat me in the way that I wanted to be treated, or they didn't treat me well in that regard. So I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe that, that was my time and now is all these talented women's time. And there's so many girls having success right now. And it's great. And a lot of companies are having, which was unheard of before, two to four matches on each show and all these storylines for women and even in our company, Impact, they're so great at using women in different roles. If they're not wrestling, then they're doing something else. And I just love it. Cause you know, women just love wrestling as much as the men. And now it's finally kind of all coming to some beautiful, what's the word...
Mike Johnson: Some climax or apex, perhaps?
Gail Kim: Yeah, climax. It really seems like it's happening this year. And I think it's just going to get better because everything has been really successful.
Mike Johnson: Let's talk about Knockouts Knockdown, which is going to air in October. It's going to be taped this weekend in Nashville. Obviously there's some unique names that have been announced, some names that are returning like Christy Hemme, some new names like Mercedes Martinez. As you sit down, you work with Scott D'Amore and everybody else behind the scenes at Impact Wrestling. At what point is there a decision that, hey, this is going to be our October pay-per-view for Impact Plus and the Ultimate Insiders on YouTube? How quickly does this come along and what's the process of figuring out what outside talents are going to come in?
Gail Kim: Well, this one, I will say we talked about it earlier, a couple months ago, but it only really sprung into action in the last couple of weeks. I'm in an office working with many people and some people make certain decisions in terms of dates and locations and things like that. And we had thrown around names that we were interested in looking at, but then really what it comes down to is what kind of format you want to have for the show. And that determines how many women, outside women, you're going to use. So it's all come together in the last couple weeks, but I don't think that, that's anything odd in our wrestling world if people knew what really happens behind the scenes. I'm just super excited. I feel like it's all come together. I've been on the phone constantly with Christy Hemme and the team and discussing all the final details. I'm really excited for him to see everything. There's a lot of great things that are happening, that people are surprised by, or excited about, but there's still a few more surprises that we have planned.
Mike Johnson: When you look at the past of the Knockouts Knockdown pay-per-views they were kind of presented as sort of like a side project when Impact had to fill pay-per-view commitments. What's going to be the difference between this one and some of the past installments?
Gail Kim: We are definitely changing up the format. Like I said, before we always kind of stuck to the same kind of, and we had less girls back then, so let's just say our full roster was eight to 10 girls. So we could have every girl in the roster having a single match with eight to 10 girls on the independent scene at that time, because that forbidden door wasn't open and then we'd always have a gauntlet at the end of that. So this year we decided to do it completely different. We're going to have different types of matches. We're going to have a Knockouts title match. We're going to have the number one contenders of singles tournaments, and we're going to have other matches to fill the part as well. And probably other special moments that we haven't talked about just yet. So I think it's going to be pretty new, but we still wanted to have the sentiment of what it truly originated from, which was the Knockouts Knockdown. We changed the name of it, because it's a new whole fresh thing, but I think people knew what it was. And we wanted to bring that back as a sentiment to that and not to our old.
Mike Johnson: One of the things that was announced is the Monster's Ball in memory of the late Daffney. Memories of working with her and being around her and why do you think the Monster's Ball was the best way to kind of present a tribute to her on this pay-per-view?
Gail Kim: She was the very first person to want to do those custom matches and she was the first person with one of our current knock ups for a while, that had the Monster's Ball at the beginning. So we thought that, that would be a great dedication to her. We spoke to a couple of the people that were very close with her to get their input. Do you think that Stephanie would've loved this and they all agreed that she would be watching them, that they think she would be very happy and mostly all the girls just wanted to come together. And honestly, I feel like the whole show was dedicated to Daffney, because that's all the girls have been talking about and coming together for in the last week and a half. Once they found out about the show too it's been nonstop Daffney talk. I think we know where everyone's hearts and minds are right now and I think it's going to be beautiful because of that.
Mike Johnson: Well, speaking of beautiful, at the NWA EmPowerr show, just a couple of weeks ago, you had that moment with Awesome Kong. The two of you really were the ones that I feel put the Knockouts Division on the map. To me, the proof of concept was there with the Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim series and that kind of set the pace for a lot of the way that professional wrestling for the women who compete followed in the years after. How important was that moment with you where Kong announced that she was retiring from professional wrestling and what was it like to share that moment with her one last time?
Gail Kim: I didn't know that she was going to say that she was retired. I really didn't know that. I just knew I was going to share that moment with her to kind of almost just have closure because we never really got to say thank you to one another and that's really what it was supposed to be. And obviously you could see our genuine emotions that night and it was in every way, just everything I wanted at the last moment with her, I couldn't have asked for more, because I have the utmost respect for her. I love her. I love what we did together and it will forever be cherished, forever. The day I die. And I think for her too, we really express more behind the scenes. We couldn't talk all night in the ring, but I'm very grateful that Mickie James and Billy Corgan and everyone gave us that final moment.
Mike Johnson: We have seen Deonna Purrazzo, who has really risen and ascended within Impact Wrestling, have her issues with Mickie James of late. Thoughts on that situation? Is it possible we're going to see that complete itself at Knockouts Knockdown or do you think maybe that's something that's such an issue Bound for Glory could be the place for it?
Gail Kim: Oh, it could be either or, let's see. I think everyone needs to tune in to see. Well, let's just say that Deonna Purrazzo showed up to NWA Power after her match at EmPowerr. I know Mickie, she is not wanting to let anyone put her around even a champion like Deonna. So I'm pretty sure she will have the last word at some point and it could be at Knockouts Knockdown and could be at Bound for Glory , or it could be both. Is that a tease?
Mike Johnson: That's the whole point of wrestling to get at everybody, to tune in and spend their money.
Gail Kim: I'm really excited for it though.
Mike Johnson: As someone who gets to work, in terms of producing and creative and helping to oversee so many great talents, how excited are you to see a full fledged three hour Impact Women's pay-per-view being taped this weekend? What you do is not an easy job, the producing side is not easy, but when you look at producing and working on that side of things, what's the most rewarding part of seeing such a spotlight put on the women's division?
Gail Kim: You're right. It's very different. Because the last time we had a Knockouts Knockdown in 2017 and I believe I was still wrestling. So I came from being a participant in that to now helping produce it. And it's incredible. I still get the same satisfaction. Yeah, you know what? I Do get the same satisfaction. I was forcing myself for it for a second, but I do get the same satisfaction from producing because you see the happiness and the satisfaction and the work that goes in to all of that. You get the same adrenaline rush after the match that these other girls had because you were involved with it, you're involved in helping guide them. And I have to tell you, I didn't think when I retired, I was nervous about that. I thought that I was going to miss wrestling. That was probably my worst nightmare, actually, that I was going to miss it and that I'd have to come out of retirement and put my body through hell again. But I feel so satisfied. I'm very fortunate to be a woman in this position, in the wrestling business. And I hope that there's more positions in the future for other women to be able to do this.
Mike Johnson: Well, the Knockouts Knockdown pay-per-view is going to feature a bevy of great female performers. I'm going to put you on the spot. Who do you think is the most underrated female talent at Impact right now? Whether it be by the company and how they're used, or maybe even by the audience, that they're not viewing them in the way that they probably should be given the quality of their work or their potential as a performer. Who do you think is the dark horse that fans who tune into this pay-per-view in a couple of weeks should be keeping their eye on?
Gail Kim: I'll pick a couple. I'm going to pick three probably. Off the top of my head. Tasha Steelz just had Kiera Hogan leave her and they were on top of the world with the tag division. So I've always said, I'm very curious to see what Tasha does in the singles division, because I think she's got a lot of talent and we haven't seen that side of her yet. I think we've just tip of the iceberg with Jordynne Grace as well. She's been a great tag team with Rachael Ellering right now and I love that, but I feel like I want to see a little bit more of Jordynne. And I do think she has the capability to go up a few notches as well and I want to see it. And then I would say on the other side for maybe one of the girls I announced was Mercedes Martinez. She's been a veteran of women's wrestling team for so long. She's very well respected. I've never seen her have a bad match in person live. I'm curious to see her match up with some of our girls. I think there are so many possibilities for match ups. I get goosebumps just thinking about some of the matchups that I want to see that we haven't seen yet, or even just, like I said, seeing Deonna and Tasha or Tasha and Jordynne, things we haven't seen yet. That's what I want to see.
Mike Johnson: All right. One last question for you. I'm going to throw a curve ball at you. A couple of years ago, you went on tour with your husband, Robert Irvine for his live show. Obviously the world is starting to open up again. There's some touring again. Do you think that might be in the future again? That maybe that a version of that show could be going back on the road down the line?
Gail Kim: Yeah, he just said that he has one and I don't know where it is. So I think they might do one here and there. And then once the world becomes hopefully more normalized and go to all these cities that we used to go to. We go to Canada. Impact Wrestling would go to New York, go to Mexico City. We were going pretty frequently too. I missed that. So let's hope that we can get over this COVID pretty soon.
Mike Johnson: Let's hope. Normalcy would be a welcome respite from what we deal with these days. I want to thank you for sitting down and talking to us. I want to remind everybody next month Knockouts Knockdown down will be airing on Impact Plus and for YouTube Ultimate Insiders at the Impact Wrestling YouTube page, you can get details on that. The pay-per-view will be taped this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee at Skyway studios. There are still limited tickets available for full details on that you can go to impactwrestling.com and you can see not only that pay-per-view, but also this weekend's victory road show and a number of episodes of Impact Wrestling on AXS being taped. So you get a ton for your money's worth over the next several days in the music city. Gail, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. If you've got any final words for everybody, I'd love to give you that forum.
Gail Kim: Thank you everyone so much for all your support and love over the course of my career and the continued support for Impact Wrestling and women's wrestling, especially. I hope to see you this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the whole weekend in Nashville, Skyway studios. Come check out the Knockouts Knockdown pay-per-view and you will not be disappointed.
Mike Johnson: All right, everybody for full details on everything, check impact wrestling.com. I'll be back very soon. My name is Mike Johnson. We thank you so much for your support. Be safe, be healthy, take care of yourself and your people. We thank you for your support at PWInsiderElite.com and it until next time Gail, when we get a chance to reconvene, I look forward to it and I thank you so much for your time.
Gail Kim: Thank you.
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