Mia Yim Details Her Horrific Experience Surviving Domestic Abuse, How Shelton Benjamin Was There For Her

On the latest edition of the Chasing Glory podcast, Mia Yim discussed having to deal with domestic abuse in 2014 and 2015 from the man she was with (who she noted was also a wrestler) and how Shelton Benjamin was there for her. Highlights are below.

On how the domestic abuse started: “I moved to Florida for him. And to me, it was like, ‘OK, I can be in Florida for him, but then there’s also WWE, TNA, I’ll be able to pursue my dream better, I can get a job here.’ So I moved down here in about 2013 and the first couple of months was great, but it always is. There were flags there, and it sucks because even though me and my sister, we’re really close now, but we were OK back then, but like my sister, my dad, my mom, they were just like, because I’ve met him once, and then we talked all the time, so I didn’t really, but this was only within like, couple of months. So they could see the flags, the stuff that he was saying and the stuff that he was promising, they could see the flags, and they’re like, ‘You’re an adult, you can make your own decisions, but this is not healthy, and we just want to let you know that this is not right.’ And of course, me being stubborn, was like, ‘It’ll be fine, I’m going to live happily ever after, it’ll be fine.’ So the first couple of months was great, there were flags everywhere. It always starts out small and gets bigger and bigger. It was the arguments that turned into being called different names. The competition between our careers. I was doing more traveling, I had the WWE tryout. I was just about to get into TNA. These different things. My opinion, I felt like, he probably felt like he was in competition. So, he would bring me down mentally at first, verbally. Ya know, I’m not good enough, and why would I ever sign there, and why don’t you bring me there, stuff like that. So it was that at first, and it became, during an argument, I remember the first time, I was drinking a protein shake, and then he slapped the protein shake out of my hand and then put me in a headlock, like a real headlock. And after that happened, I’m looking around, and I’ve never been in that kind of a situation before so I didn’t know what happened, but the first thing that I did was to clean up the protein shake. So I immediately just start cleaning and as I’m cleaning, I’m like what just happened. So I’m trying to make sense of everything but it still, I’m like I know this is wrong but he loves me. Apologies happen, it’ll never happen again, the whole cliche, the whole generic crap. And I believe him.”

On how the abuse escalated from there: “And then it just became more consistent and became more extreme like there was a point where I got locked in a closet. There was a point where I hurt my knee at a show so it was kind of tender, and he, I got pushed against the wall and he kneed the inside of my knee. So it just became more consistent.”

On how the abuse continues to impact her life: “It changed me as far as, when things start to escalate as far as voices are being raised and stuff, I would automatically get into defense, I’d back up against the wall, squaring up, just to be ready for something. Which, sucks because there’s still some things now that I’m trying to break habit of but there’s still some things now that I’m trying to work on as far as the changes that was made in that situation. Little things like that. Anytime I’m arguing with someone, I’m automatically thinking I’m going to get hit so I’m already on the guard. And there was a situation I remember, after him, I was dating someone else, and we started arguing and I immediately started squaring up and he was like, ‘What are you doing? Are you going to hit me?’ I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to hit you but I’m not going to just sit here and get hit and not do anything.’ It’s things like that that make me realize that this is not normal. I adapted to having to survive at home to my life now. And it sucked.”

On Shelton Benjamin being there for her while she was in her abusive relationship: “I remember Shelton [Benjamin], who is my brother, he’s my big brother, I hate saying it out loud, I love him so much, because we have this thing going where we always pick on, it’s big brother little sister tussle, just online we always go at each other, but he’s my big brother, and I love him so much. He pretty much offered up his home for me the minute he found out, immediately he was like I’ll get you a plane ticket, you get out of there, I got you. And at this point, I wasn’t ready yet. So I told him everything was fine, but he knew. My family didn’t know, I hid it from a lot of people, but Shelton, my best friend Blake, they knew the changes. I’ve known Shelton, pretty much since the beginning of my career. So when both Shelton and my friend Blake, they are both men, but I’m close with them, but I was not allowed to talk to them, I was not allowed to be friends with them, if they were to text me, I would have to send it to my boyfriend at the time to make sure it was appropriate. And then me and Shelton were just having a regular conversation just through text and he flips out, and he’s like I don’t want you to be friends anymore, he’s trying to get with you. So I sent him a long text, of course, ‘Hey, we can’t be friends anymore, just can’t be friends with you.’ And so Shelton, knowing something was up, didn’t know what was up, but something was up, he respected that because he didn’t want me to deal with more stress, so he backed off, but it was comforting to know that he would still just randomly be like, ‘Hey I’m still here for you, I’m still here for you.’ This was before he knew anything. He just knew my ex was controlling and possessive.”

On how she tried to fight back against her abuser: “I would fight back, I’m not guilty of fighting back, but as a guy, he’s always going to overpower me, so I tried.”

On when it clicked that she couldn’t stay in the relationship: “I remember he cheated on me with one of my then friends, found out about it, and would still accuse me of cheating, and then would take it out on me. And that’s when I was like, something just clicked, to the point where I knew this wasn’t love. We were living together at the time, and after being locked in the closet, I legit had to break out of the closet to get out of there, there was a point where he pushed me on the bed and there was a towel, and so I fell on the towel, and then he wrapped the towel around my neck and started choking me, so it was never, which is what I tell everybody, I would never have a black eye or I would never have anything you could see, but it would always be choking, or locked in the closet, or something like that, headlocks. So it was at that moment where he’s choking me with the towel and then the only thing I could do or even like think of is to gouge his eyes and that’s when he got off, and then he got mad at me for doing that. That’s when it was like, you know what, it just all clicked at that point. You’re cheating on me but you’re accusing me of cheating on you constantly. I can’t have any friends. I barely talk to my family anymore. And you’re treating me this way? I’m not doing this anymore. And especially since I was starting to get real momentum in wrestling. You’re not going to be the reason why the police is going to call my parents telling them that their daughter passed away. So I finally left.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Chasing Glory with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

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