Gail Kim

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Gail Kim Flag of Canada
An image of Gail Kim .
Statistics
Ring name(s) Gail Kim
La Felina
Billed height 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Billed weight 125 lb (57 kg)
Born February 20, 1976 (1976-02-20) (age 31)
Toronto, Ontario
Resides Tampa, Florida
Billed from Tampa, Florida (TNA)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada (WWE)
Trained by Ron Hutchinson
Rob Etchevarria
Fit Finlay
Debut December 2000

Gail Kim (born February 20, 1976) [1][2] is a Korean Canadian professional wrestler, valet, and actress. She is currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling where she is the current reigning, and first ever TNA Women's Champion. She is also a 1 time WWE Women's Champion, having won the title on her debut match for WWE.

Contents

Kim attended the York Memorial Collegiate Institute in Toronto, partaking in numerous sports and twice being named "Athlete of the Year". Upon her graduation, she began studying kinesiology at the University of Toronto, but later switched to nutrition at Ryerson University.

After obtaining her degree, Kim decided to become a professional wrestler and joined Ron Hutchison's "School of Pro Wrestling" in Toronto. She received supplementary training from Rob Etchevarria at the "Squared Circle Pro Wrestling Gym". She debuted in December 2000 under a mask as "The Queen of the Cats" La Felina in the Southern Ontario-based Apocalypse Wrestling Federation and was eventually unmasked by Tracy Brooks in a "mask versus hair" match. Kim worked on the Canadian independent circuit for two years, wrestling for promotions such as Border City Wrestling. On September 27, 2002, Kim reached the semi-finals of the WXW Women's Elite 8 Tournament in Danbury, Connecticut, defeating Nikki Roxx and April Hunter before losing to Tracy Brooks.

Kim was introduced to World Wrestling Entertainment employee Nora Greenwald by Jason Sensation at WWF Fan Axxess in 2001 and gave Holly a videotape of herself to show to WWF officials. In October 2002 she was hired by WWE. She spent eight months training in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and appearing in house shows and dark matches before being called up to the main roster in June 2003. After several weeks of vignettes showcasing Matrix-like effects aired on RAW, Kim debuted on the June 30, 2003 episode of RAW as a face, with a Matrix-like gimmick including shades and a long trench coat.

Her first televised WWE match was a seven-woman battle royal in Buffalo, New York with the WWE Women's Championship, then held by an injured Jazz, on the line. Kim won the match by lastly eliminating Victoria. It made history for being the quickest acquisition of the title by any female, and because she was the first female with a Korean background to win the Women's Championship. It also made her the first WWE Diva to win the Women's Championship on her WWE debut. Kim held the title for four weeks, feuding with both Victoria and Molly Holly. Kim lost the title to Molly Holly on the July 28, 2003 episode of RAW. Following the bout, Stratus was double teamed by Holly and Victoria until Kim ran to the ring. Kim helped Stratus up, but then turned heel by leveling Stratus with a spinebuster.

Kim forged an alliance with Holly, and the duo defeated Stratus who partnered with both Ivory and Jacqueline on two separate occasions. The following week, on the September 15, 2003 episode of RAW, they defeated Stratus in a handicap match. Following the match, Kim and Holly were prevented from further assaulting Stratus by the returning Lita, who had previously been absent since injuring her neck in 2002. At Unforgiven 2003 on September 21, Stratus and Lita defeated Kim and Holly in a tag match. The four women continued to feud until November 10, 2003, when Kim was sidelined with a broken right collarbone that she suffered after tripping off the top rope during a Sunday Night HEAT match against Stratus.

Kim returned to RAW on April 5, 2004 and immediately reforged her alliance with Holly. She dropped her high flying style (possibly to avoid further injury) and adopted a new submission-based offensive technique. She even dubbed herself "wrestling's submission specialist". At Bad Blood 2004 on June 13, she faced Lita, Stratus, and WWE Women's Champion Victoria in a title match which was won by Stratus. Kim continued to compete in the women's division, receiving several more shots at the title (including a battle royal on October 19, 2004 at Taboo Tuesday) and joining fellow heel divas Stratus and Holly in a feud with diva Stacy Keibler. Her last appearance in the WWE was aiding Trish Stratus in an attack on Lita on the November 1st edition of Raw. Gail was released on November 2, 2004 by WWE.

Following her release and the expiration of her ninety-day no-compete clause, Kim made sporadic appearances on the independent circuit, wrestling matches in Mexico, South Korea, and Australia. She posed for several magazines, and appeared topless in a mobile phone advertisement.

On September 6, 2005, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling announced that they had signed Gail Kim to a contract.

On the October 8, 2005 edition of TNA iMPACT!, Kim made her debut, aligning herself with Jeff Jarrett and America's Most Wanted by attacking Team 3D. Shortly thereafter, she helped AMW regain the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Naturals. On November 26, Kim was attacked by the debuting Jackie Gayda. She spent the remainder of the year and early 2006 filming her part in the film "Royal Kill" before returning to TNA and rekindling her feud with Gayda.

Between February and April, Kim was the guardian of Jackie Gayda, who had been blackmailed into joining the Planet Jarrett stable. The two women frequently fought one another during matches featuring members of Planet Jarrett as Gayda attempted to cost them the match. Gayda was "fired" by Kim at TNA Sacrifice 2006 on May 14, after announcing that she was pregnant.

On May 15, Kim wrestled Traci in a dark match to be featured on the TNA Knockouts DVD. The match was the first women's match in TNA in over a year and Kim's first match on American soil since her WWE release. Since then, Kim was attacked at TNA Slammiversary 2006 by Sirelda. The weeks after this, the two traded blows until TNA Victory Road 2006, where Sirelda's team defeated Kim's team. At TNA Hard Justice 2006, they faced off against each other in a one-on-one match, which Kim won.

On the October 19, 2006 iMPACT!, Kim was (kayfabe) injured in the ring by Hernandez when he gave her a Bordertoss following a loss in an eight man tag match where Latin American Exchange (Hernandez and Homicide) teamed with America's Most Wanted. At Genesis 2006, America's Most Wanted lost to LAX after James Storm was hit with a blowtorch can. After the match, Homicide tried to use Da Gringo Killa on her, but she was saved by Petey Willams, who beat LAX with a lead pipe. AMW got another shot against LAX in a flag match at Turning Point 2006 where James Storm accidentally hit Chris Harris with the beer bottle allowing LAX to win again. AMW then got one more shot in a Title vs Team match where if AMW lost they would have to disband. AMW would lose when Storm would hit Harris with the beer bottle this time on purpose. Kim went by Harris' side as Storm left.

At Final Resolution 2007, Kim accompanied James Storm who defeated Petey Williams with his feet on the ropes. However, she helped Williams from further assault by taking Storm's infamous beer bottle out of his hand and giving him a low blow. Kim was then jumped from behind by a returning Jacqueline Moore, who became Storm's new manager. In response, Kim became Williams' new manager.

Kim then had a mixed match against Storm at Against All Odds 2007 which Storm won when Storm collided into Kim. After the match "the Wildcat" Chris Harris returned to chase away Storm and. A rematch with Kim against Storm was made in a Double Bullrope match which Storm won. At TNA Lockdown Kim faced off with Moore in a TNA Cat Fight Steel cage match. Kim would win the match after a flying crossbody pin from the cage. This was the first cage match in TNA with women in the match. Gail & Moore would have a rematch in a street fight which Kim once again defeated Moore after a running front dropkick on Moore who was holding a chair. This dropkick resulted in Moore losing some teeth.

Kim made her return at Slammiversary when Kim kissed Eric Young to get him to concentrate for his match as he was being seduced by Ms. Brooks, she also aided him by taking out Brooks allowing Young to defeat Robert Roode. Kim later defeated Brooks in a match on iMPACT by order of Jim Cornette. Kim would then go on to team with Eric Young to defeat Ms Brooks and Robert Roode at TNA Victory Road 2007. She would then reappear to help Eric embarrass Ms Brooks at TNA Hard Justice 2007 by tarring and feathering her. On one episode of iMPACT! Kim lost to BG James in a mixed match. At Bound for Glory, she became the first ever TNA Women's Champion, when she won a 10 Woman gauntlet elimination match last defeating Roxxi Laveaux. She defended the title one month later against Roxxi Laveaux, ODB and Angel Williams in a four-way match on TNA's Genesis PPV and retained the title when she pinned ODB with the Happy Ending.

  • Finishing moves
  • Signature Moves
  • Double team signature moves
  • Wrestlers managed by Kim
  • Music Themes
  • International Woman (WWE)
  • Anime Girls
  • Unstoppable (TNA) (Introduction revamped following Kim's TNA Knockouts Championship win in October of 2007)

  1. ^ Gail Kim. Kim's MySpace. Retrieved on March 27, 2007.
  2. ^ LuchaWiki. Gail Kim's Profile. Retrieved on March 27, 2007.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Kim"
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