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Impact Wrestling is celebrating their 20th anniversary at Slammiversary on June 19th in Nashville, Tennessee. One of the major matches taking place that night is the first ever Queen of the Mountain match, where Tasha Steelz will be defending her Knockouts Championship against Deonna Purrazzo, Chelsea Green, Jordynne Grace, and Mia Yim. I had the opportunity to chat with Yim ahead of Slammiversary.
Yim is no stranger to Impact, having worked with the company prior to signing with WWE in 2018 under the name Jade. She held the then TNA Knockouts Championship and even wrestled in a Monster's Ball match.
I asked Yim what led to her decision to return with Impact after having been released by WWE. One of the people she credits for convincing her to sign with the promotion is Gail Kim, who is currently working as the head of the women's division.
"I am close friends with Gail and I’ve been talking to her ever since I left Impact the first time,” she said. ”So we’ve been talking. I originally didn’t want to sign anywhere, I didn't want to be on TV. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. But Gail was putting over the company, putting over the talent, even Scott [D’Amore], putting over everything. I have no questions, no second guesses, no hesitation that if I were to go to Impact under Gail’s leadership everything is gonna be fine. There’s no drama, I didn’t want to deal with drama, politics, if I was gonna wrestle, I just wanted to wrestle and hang out with my friends. And I have a lot of friends [in Impact], I know that I would have a lot of wrestling opportunities, so it was a no brainer to me. I don't want people to remember me for what I’ve done in the past year or two. I want people to remember me as Mia Yim, that I’ve had decades worth of work under my belt before I had [the WWE run] happen. I want people to remember that I am not just a manager for a group or whatever, I can go. Once I decided I am gonna give wrestling a try, I was like ‘count me in Gail.’ I know that at Impact I am gonna be okay."
Yim then opened up about how the last two years with WWE, she felt that she was a 'joke' and she explained why she did not wrestle for several months following her release last November.
"A lot was going on in my mind. It’s hard to pinpoint one or two specific things,” she said. “Me and Keith [Lee] got released on the same day. It was a lot of figuring out. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to in my career, everything that I set a goal for myself I’ve done it all. So, do I even want to wrestle anymore? Just with the toxicity of social media and with what I did the last time like I was a joke, I was a joke, so it was like do I even bother? So [me and Keith Lee] got married, we moved two weeks after, bought a house, so a lot of real life stuff was happening. Keith, right after the wedding he went to work, so I am like alright, let me take a couple of months to kinda just hold down the fort, and get everything together with real life first so he doesn’t have to worry about anything and everything will be taken care of at home. So I took a couple months off to do things in my real life, but also to figure out if this is what I wanted to continue to do. It was a lot."
One of the things Yim also dealt with was anxiety to get back into the ring.
"So my first match back was with Athena, and it was so emotional at the end. I just needed to have that match, not to do a bunch of crazy stuff or whatever but just to have a match to get over that mental block,” she explained. “I didn’t even go train inside of a ring, my anxiety wouldn’t let me. It was a slow progress, where okay I got through my first match, now let me focus and see if I can still lead somebody. So then I had my match with Janai Kai, which went great. Just talking to Keith and Gail, it was like I am getting older, I don’t move like I used to anymore, but I just need to get over it. And either I continue or I don’t, and if I continue I have to go balls to the wall. I don’t like doing things half ass, so if there’s an opportunity that comes I am gonna take it and make something of it."
Yim also credits the support she received from her husband and friendships with Shelton Benjamin and Mustafa Ali that helped her find the will to return to wrestling.
"I know I bust Shelton’s balls all the time, but he and Keith and even Ali...I had a lot of support," she said. "Shelton was like ‘Don’t let them define you. Go do what you’re known to do.’ So it was just having the support of others, kinda pushing me, because if it wasn’t for them I probably wouldn’t even be back. Even everyone that is still there like Ali, saying, ‘Yo, you’re a badass, you’re a f'n badass.’
When asked what her goals are for the future, she explains that she wants people to understand who Mia Yim is.
"As far as goals, I just want people to respect and understand Mia Yim. I want people to know who I am and what I can do in the ring. They can watch my range and see that I can do anything if given freedom to. I want to retire at Impact, they have treated me so well thus far, they always have back in the day. “I've done everything that I wanted to when I started wrestling."
You can check out the full interview with Mia Yim below.
