The way Vince McMahon has run WWE over the past few years has been a widely debated topic amongst the masses, and Gail Kim thinks the company can be much different in a post-Vince world.
Women’s wrestling legend Gail Kim recently appeared on Wrestling With Stereotypes and discussed the issues with diversity in WWE. Co-host Andreas Hale noted that there’s been some recent success with The New Day and Sasha Banks but there are still issues with representation and diversity in the company as a whole, noting that it seems like women of color in WWE also have a ceiling at times.
Gail was asked if the product can change when Vince McMahon is no longer around or if she sees it as more of an institutional problem. Gail Kim said that she doesn’t keep up much with the WWE product but believes the company can change, feeling like most of the issues stem from Vince McMahon ‘just not getting it.’
“I think that it definitely could change. I don’t know if [Triple H will take over in the future], like is that a known fact? I think that is an assumption, but listen—I’m a firm believer that you’re a product of how you were raised the majority of the time, and I think that Vince just doesn’t get it. I’ve heard many times that one of his biggest heroes is Martin Luther King Jr. I’ve heard this from a few people and it’s a known fact, but it still makes me scratch my head in a sense that if he truly believes that, it’s almost ignorance of not knowing that you’re—I think in their minds they may think, ‘Oh, if I hire ethnic people, that makes not racist.’ It’s like that person saying ‘I have a black best friend, so I’m good’, right?”
Gail Kim went on to say that she never experienced this issue in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling as a wrestler and knows it’s a point of frustration, but says she’s glad the topic is at least being discussed.
“I mean, if you look at all the Asian wrestlers they have in that company… please give [IMPACT] one of them, I’m begging you! [laughs] Their only logic, the majority of the time is to put them together and I just don’t understand why you can’t have two individual Asian girls or two black girls who are really talented,” Kim explained, “take the skin color out, take out the ethnicity, look at their talent and give them a chance to take that ball and run with it. That’s the frustrating part of it all, you know? When I worked at TNA, that was never a question. We never even thought about that Awesome Kong was black and that I was Asian. We never thought about that, it was just me and Kia, you know? Gail and Kia doing their thing.
“Maybe it’s getting better there, but I agree with you. Naomi is a great example; how long has she been there? She’s a great athlete, the fans love her, so why couldn’t she have been the face of the company at one point? Those kinds of things irk me a little bit as well, but I guess it’s not a deal-breaker for a lot of fans. I don’t know what to say. It’s a very frustrating thing at times but I’m glad we’re discussing it.”
Gail Kim is retired from in-ring competition and currently works as a producer for IMPACT Wrestling.
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