Women’s Wrestling History: Gail Kim

In honor of Women’s History (Herstory) Month, I’ll be spotlighting four women who contributed to women’s wrestling but are often overlooked.

In my first Women’s History Month spotlight, I wrote about Luna Vachon. She was a wrestler but mostly used as a valet.

Gail Kim has been a manager, a wrestler, and a special guest referee. She is a producer and an IMPACT Hall of Famer.

Kim won the WWE Women’s Championship in her debut, making her the first woman to do so. Unfortunately, she only held the title for four weeks. It would be her only title reign in two stints with WWE.

She debuted for TNA in 2005 after wrestling in Japan, Mexico, and Korea. In 2007, Kim became the inaugural Knockouts Champion. There she became the most decorated Knockouts Championship, holding the title seven times. She also held the Knockouts Tag Team Championship with Madison Rayne.

While in TNA, she was embroiled in a feud with Awesome Kong. Many have called this one of the greatest women’s feuds in women’s wrestling in the 2000s. Kim retired in 2018 and became the first Knockout inducted into the IMPACT Hall of Fame in 2016.

Her post-wrestling career has also been about the continuing advancement of women’s wrestling. She is a producer for IMPACT’s Knockouts division. She also had an on-screen role during the feud between Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie. This led to her being a special guest referee at Homecoming in 2019. Kim then entered into a feud with Blanchard, leading to her final match with the company at Rebellion.

Last summer, she was invited by Mickie James to be a producer for her all-women’s event, NWA EMPOWERRR. She produced the show along with James, Jazz, LuFisto, Madusa, & Christy Hemme. During the event, she came to the ring to talk to the crowd when was attacked by another TNA rival, Taryn Terrell’s cronies, Jennacide and Paola Blaze. She was saved by none other than Awesome Kong.

Kong officially announced her retirement from in-ring competition. The two embraced and shared tears in the middle of the ring. It was a fitting ending between two pioneers of women’s wrestling.

Before the pandemic began, she was set to do a show with Hemme & Lita called KAYfABE. It was going to combine wrestling with scripted drama. Unfortunately, they didn’t meet their Kickstarter goal.

Kim gave so much to wrestling in her in-ring career and continues to blaze trails behind the scenes to grow, improve, and shape women’s wrestling. Let’s give her her flowers while she’s still here to enjoy them.