KiLynn King On the Worst Advice She Got In Wrestling

In an interview with Wilde On (via Fightful), KiLynn King spoke with Taylor Wilde about the worst advice she’s ever been given in her wrestling career. King and Wilde are the current Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Champions. Here are highlights:

On the worst advice she ever got: “I think the worst piece of advice somebody gave to me, and this was very early on. Because when I when I got into wrestling, like I said, I have a very rich background in sports, and especially in martial arts. I did that for almost six years before I transitioned into wrestling. So I knew coming in, like, yes, I’m six foot, I’m a strong girl, but that’s not what I want to be known as solely. I want to have depth. I’m athletic. I can move. I can do things.”

On why it didn’t work for her: “I did a lot of grappling, so I kind of somewhat understand the use of the body, and I’m still constantly learning that stuff. But there was one person who kind of told me I was — They weren’t the ones teaching, but somebody was teaching and I was like, ‘Oh, I need to learn this.’ And they were like, ‘You don’t need to learn that. You’re too big.’ I had people there that could base me, so I wanted to learn some lucha stuff. Then I had somebody there who was very technically gifted, and they were showing us transitions, and they said, ‘You’re too big. You don’t need to learn this stuff.’ I said, ‘Even if I never use it, I should still learn it.’ It helps me understand both sides of what it needs to be, and like understanding the mechanics behind all of it. So even if it’s something I never use, and to be quite honest, if I ever have matches with girls who are my size, some of that stuff I can tap into. Some of that stuff I can use and people would never expect it of me and that could be what raises the stakes of that match.”

On how she made it work after someone rephrased it: “Again, that’s somebody’s perspective of it. But for me too, like to tie into that, somebody re explained it to me in a different way, but they were like, ‘It’s not that you shouldn’t learn this because you’re big, but you need to understand how to use this to your size.’ I love chain wrestling. I love getting on the mat and going around and stuff but I was enlightened that some of the stuff that I was liking and doing in my matches made me smaller. So I had to learn how to take this cool technical stuff and bring it up to my size and find a different level for it. The advice started off bad with, like don’t do it, but then eventually somebody else kind of made a comment about that but they said it’s not that you shouldn’t do it, it’s you need to understand how to do it for you. So that’s something I’ve been trying to figure out over the last year or two.”