Gail Kim Reveals She Once Tried To Resign From IMPACT Wrestling Via Fax

While IMPACT have one of the best women's divisions in professional wrestling today with the Knockouts division, then-TNA Wrestling were initially reluctant to dedicate time and money to women's wrestling before the division's launch in 2007.

One of the pioneers of the division was IMPACT Hall Of Famer Gail Kim and Kim revealed she sent TNA management her resignation via fax after she became sick of waiting for women's wrestling to be spotlighted within the company. This came after Kim had been with TNA for 18 months but had solely been used as America's Most Wanted's manager. 

"Obviously, I'm very invested. Because when I joined this company, there was no women's division and they did draw me towards the division saying, 'We would like to have a women's division one day, we just don't have the time for it. But that's what we're looking to,' and I said, 'Okay, great.' So I waited and waited it was like a year and a half and everyone knows kind of the story in terms of the battle to make it happen. I think some people don't know that I did try to resign. Once I got fed up. I was like, 'Okay, I've been waiting a year and a half,'" Kim said on Oral Sessions.

"It was very hard for me to manage and watch all the guys doing what I loved while I was ringside, I knew what my talent was in the business and that's just wrestling, right. It wasn't like the promos or anything like that. So it's like, I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting my time. I don't know how much longer I can wait. But when I did try to resign, that's when things started to happen and then a couple of months later, they just brought in 10 women and a title. 

"It just kind of, you know what I think the true key to the success was that they brought in all these women, but they didn't overthink it, they just kind of did everything very basic, the proper way, I think, for storytelling, and they almost left it alone in a sense. That's what made it so great. That all these women were passionate about wrestling and really wanted to prove themselves. Like I've been saying, right, it's a constant, we got to be as good as the guys, we got to prove that we can be on TV and do this as well," she continued.

"They just ran with it. They've never stopped since then. So I'm really happy that they haven't. Through all the management changes that we've had throughout all the years. That's one thing that they haven't stopped. Thank God. I'm still happy about that. Now, it truly is a cornerstone of our company. You know, one of the things that people recognise."

Kim later further detailed sending her resignation, revealing she did so ahead of TNA's biggest pay-per-view of the year.

"It was the biggest pay-per-view of the year and they had laid us all out and they said, 'Okay, you're not coming to the biggest pay-per-view of the year.' Plus, I wasn't wrestling I was like, oh, gosh, what the hell have, okay, I'm useless here, you know, in my mind back then you got to remember some immaturity back then of course, too," Kim added.

"So I sent in a fax to the hotel where they were staying. The story I was told was that, at the time, Bob Ryder, rest in peace, picked up the fax and gave it to Terry Taylor, because Terry and Scott I think were in management at the time. Terry or Scott, one of them tore it up. Then they called me and they're like, 'That's a breach of - you can't just quit and resign, you're under contract.' I don't think anyone knows the story, to be honest. I became like, 'Well, I want to wrestle,' and they're like, 'Well, you can't quit, you know, you're in a contract.' But after that, they brought one woman at a time just to test the waters. Then we did prove ourselves one match at a time. Then they brought in the division. So sometimes I'm like, 'Okay, did I act like a brat?' But then sometimes I'm like, 'Well if I didn't fight that hard, it wouldn't have happened.'"

Kim would go on to have a legendary career in TNA and IMPACT Wrestling, holding the Knockouts Title a record seven times and the Knockouts Tag Team Championship once with Madison Rayne.

H/T to Fightful