Former WWE Women’s Champion Gail Kim has commented on the possibility of a return to the company after her 2011 departure.
Signing with WWE in 2002, Kim was released in November 2004, making a return in 2008 with her relationship with the company ending in September 2011.
In the run-up to her departure, Kim was in a battle royal to determine the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship in August 2011.
Having been instructed to get eliminated early, she chose to eliminate herself and would attempt to leave WWE only for her release to not be granted.
Her contract would eventually expire, seeing her leave WWE and head back to Impact Wrestling in October 2011.
During a virtual signing on K&S WrestleFest, Kim discussed the possibility of a WWE return, saying:
“I don’t think they (WWE) would have me back (as an in-ring performer). I mean, there’s a lot of reasons why. I don’t know how much they hold grudges or anything like that.
“Listen, we all grow from your situations and I have grown obviously. I’m a 47-year-old woman now. I was in my early 30s I think then (when I eliminated myself from the Battle Royal) and… you know, when you care so much about women’s wrestling and it’s just not treated right… And I just felt like, oh my God, I gotta get out of here. I only have a certain amount of time. I was in my 30s.
“I knew I felt like I was in my prime and I felt like I had more to give to the fans and I was just like, I can’t sign another three-year deal here. I can’t waste three more years of my life and my career and so, yeah, that was the way it just all ended up.”
Kim’s success in TNA Wrestling has seen her hold the TNA Knockouts Championship on seven occasions, including being the inaugural champion.
She has also held the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship with Madison Rayne and was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2016.
On the subject of an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, Kim said:
“I don’t think I would go in. That’s why I laughed (at the question of if I’d accept WWE Hall of Fame induction). That’s how I answer it.
“100 percent (my legacy is in TNA Wrestling). My career, all my accomplishments — I mean, besides the fact that I won the title on my first night. I will always be appreciative of that fact. I wouldn’t take it away now, but I think if you asked me back then, I was very green when I started and when I won that title, it was just off of a lot of hype and I’ve never been a babyface before.
“I’d work as a heel in the independent scene. So, to be babyface and to be thrown as the champion on your first night out in WWE, it was crazy. I wasn’t ready and so when you start at the top and you’re not ready, I mean, it’s just hard. You’re gonna go down. There’s nowhere else to go if you start off at the top.”
Kim won the WWE Women’s Championship on the June 30, 2003 episode of Raw in a battle royal holding it until her loss to Molly Holly on July 28 of that year.
In the virtual signing, she would say that, if she were to join the WWE Hall of Fame, she’d like Molly Holly to do the induction.
Kim currently works in a producer capacity in TNA Wrestling and as a member of the creative team.
Transcript from Post Wrestling.
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