wrestling / News

Gail Kim On The Premise of Her Kayfabe Series With Christy Hemme & Lita, Telling Wrestling Stories From a Woman’s Perspective

March 17, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Gail Kim Image Credit: Impact Wrestling

Speaking with Jeffrey Harris for the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast, Gail Kim discussed the premise of her Kayfabe series with Christy Hemme and Lita that is currently crowdfunding. The three former wrestling stars announced the series earlier this month and have been raising money to get it off the ground. It will be a scripted drama described as “an edgy, racy, cinematic television series about a female led professional wrestling start up. This show is a dramatization and collection of female stories inspired by real life events.”

Speaking with Jeffrey, Kim talked about how they were trying to tell a show about wrestling from a female perspective and how it will differ from the likes of Netflix’s Glow and Showtime’s upcoming Heels series, as well as how they put together their creative and production team that includes former WWE writer Tom Casiello, Jimmy Jacobs, Chavo Guerrero, Dave Sahadi and more. You can support the show via Kickstarter here, and check out the discussion highlights and full podcast below:

Gail Kim on the premise of the show: “Well to sum it all up, to keep it nice and simple it’s a scripted drama inspired by female professional wrestling. And it’s the first time, I think it’s been a very male-dominated industry and so female stories or perspective has always been told from the lens of a man. And we just felt like, you know, women’s wrestling has progressed so much. And we thought ‘Well, what’s the next step to advance it and do something great for women’s wrestling?’ We just thought it would be great to hear it from our point of view.”

Gail Kim on wrestling stories making for good drama: “Oh definitely. I mean, between all of our years together and decades of being in this business combined — I think Christy said it was over 50 years or something like that. [laughs] I mean, we just have so many stories and so many sources of inspiration. And you know, those two shows that you’re talking about [Glow and Showtime’s upcoming Heels], that’s great and we love more and more for wrestling and we don’t feel like we’re competition. We’re just adding to the great pile of wrestling products. But it’s never been told through a women. Even the projects that you’re talking about, they were run by males, right? So I think this is going to be refreshing, it’s going to be something that women can relate to. People in our business, outside the business. And there’s so many layers of stories that you don’t get to see and we just want to tell them.”

Gail Kim on if the show is dramatizing actual events in their lives: “No, you know, I think that that was a misconception when we put that out. And a lot of people saw the trailer and they see the girls in the trailer and were like, ‘That’s the character.’ This is a scripted drama like we said. We have a creative team, a small team of writers. I think it’s going to be natural for people to go, ‘Oh my God, is that Christy?’ or ‘Oh my God, is that so and so.’ But it’s not. It’s not Christy’s story, it’s not Amy’s story, it’s not Gail’s story. These are all just all the women’s stories in wrestling, and also in the world. You’re seeing it happen all over the world, and these are our sources of inspiration, to give them a voice and create these specific characters, and take you along for the ride. That’s where we had to explain, ‘Okay, it’s not our stories.’ We are the executive producers of this show, and we’re creating this magical thing.”

Gail Kim on assembling the production team: “Yeah, you know, when we started this project, we really wanted to create the best A-team possible. Through all our years working in this business, we had people in mind. Of course, some of us hadn’t worked together. Most of us have worked together at some point or another. But in the case of say, I never worked with Tom Casiello. He was there and he was a key factor in the women’s revolution and writing during that time. So Amy had worked with him, and she had highly recommended him. And I worked with Jimmy Jacobs in Impact Wrestling and I just think he’s a genius. So you know, we all had our different suggestions, and everyone that we approached, they were all our first choice. And they all were on board right away, and that was a very positive, encouraging feeling that everyone wanted to do part of this, and that they saw the vision as we did. And they just had the same attitude and you know, support of women’s wrestling, and saw the great things that we wanted to do and bring it to the next level.”

In the full interview, Kim discusses her Kayfabe project with Christy Hemme and Lita that you can support via Kickstarter here, winning the WWE Women’s Championship in her debut match, whether the TNA Knockouts paved the way for the Women’s evolution in WWE, ending her career on her own terms, her storyline with the Bella Twins and Daniel Bryan, whether she would accept a WWE Hall of Fame induction and much more.

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0:00: Introduction
0:56: On the premise of Kayfabe, the uniqueness of the project being wrestling told from a women’s perspective
3:14: On the stories being told and how it’s scripted with writers, whether the stories are coming from Kim, Hemme and Lita’s lives
5:00: On the production team for the show including Chavo Guerrero, Dave Sehadi and more
6:23: On Kim’s WWE Women’s Championship win in her debut for the company, her reaction and why she has mixed emotions about it
9:14: On whether what she and Awesome Kong did in TNA with the Knockouts paved the way for WWE’s Women’s evolution
12:47: On her return to WWE in 2009 and how it didn’t go the way she hoped, not feeling she was used to the best of her ability, being happy with her career
15:39: On her storyline with the Bellas and Daniel Bryan, her initial reaction to it and how she was about to quit before she got that storyline, why she ultimately left
18:34: On the ‘catfight’ era of women’s wrestling and how wrestling is moving away from that in a positive way
20:21: On ending her in-ring career on her own terms with the match she wanted to have, how certain she is that she’s done in the ring
22:05: On if she ever had any conversations with Vince McMahon and not getting feedback in WWE, how that led to her quitting
24:25: On if she would accept a WWE Hall of Fame induction
25:34: On dealing with high-stress emotional issue in the industry and how she handles that
27:18: On her favorite aspect of Kayfabe and working with Lita and Hemme
28:25: On if she’s ever been cooked anything by her husband Robert Irvine where she had to ‘grin and bear it’
29:04: On where to find her and where to contribute to the Kayfabe Kickstarter, how you can help out

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