KiLynn King reflects on her decision to bet on herself and discusses her return to AEW.
King often competed on AEW Dark and Dark: Elevation in 2020 and 2021. Alongside Red Velvet, she represented the company at NWA EmPowerrr in 2021, but her appearances on AEW programming started to dwindle. She began to focus on opportunities elsewhere, and she has frequently competed for the NWA in recent months. King has challenged for the NWA World Women's Championship on two pay-per-view shows. She also wrestled at NJPW Rumble on 44th Street in October; she challenged Mayu Iwatani for the SWA World Championship.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, King discussed her decision to bet on herself and described how getting opportunities with NWA, returning to AEW, and debuting for NJPW showed her that she made the right choice. She also revealed that she will be doing more work with STARDOM and/or NJPW in 2023.
"It’s the best because there’s always that crazy feeling in your brain when you start to back away from one place, you’re like, ‘Am I making the right choice? Is work going to come?’ There was a month period where I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ Then, thankfully, one booking happened and they all just took off. Yeah, I’ve been working a lot with NWA, I got to return to AEW and have that really cool two week, back- to-back moment. Then New Japan just happened recently. I got to wrestle Mayu Iwatani. Debut with STARDOM and New Japan with immediately a title match, I was like, ‘That’s really frickin’ cool,’ and actually I’m going to be returning [to] work with them next year," King said.
King continued by emphasizing that she felt like her hard word paid off when she was given a meaningful match against Iwatani in her debut with STARDOM and NJPW. King stated that this opportunity showed her that her work speaks for itself, as it demonstrated a level of trust from the company.
"It not only shows you—yes, I’m getting work—but when they give you the first time off a match of that caliber, you’re like, ‘Okay, my work and my work ethic speaks for itself because they’re trusting me with round one of booking you to have that kind of match,’ and that says a lot. That makes me feel good. That’s one of those things, I think I said this to you last time, I just put my head down and I just keep working, keep hoping that it’s paying off. So when I have moments like that, it’s like, ‘Okay, it’s paying off. It’s working," King said.
King returned to AEW for a few shows in August 2022; she faced Toni Storm on the August 17 episode of AEW Dynamite, and she also clashed with Britt Baker on the August 24 episode. In the interview, she looked back on this experience and compared it to a family reunion. King noted that she was happy to see Jerry Lynn, Billy Gunn, and other members of the women's division.
"Oh, it was great. It was like a little family reunion. I’ve been doing a lot of work with NWA. I think they weren’t sure if I was still a free agent. So I got a text just saying, ‘Hey, are you available?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Okay, cool. We want to book you on Dynamite against Toni.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. Yeah. Let’s do that.’ Yeah, it was so great. I got to see Jerry Lynn, Billy, bunch of the girls backstage. I got to see [Kris Statlander] and she just got hurt, so I was like, ‘I need to see her. I need to give her a big ol’ hug.’ It was like not missing a beat, you know what I’m saying? Coming back after, technically, it’d been four or five months and as soon as I walked backstage, it was like I never left. People were just so happy to see me and I was happy to see them," King said.
King recently discussed the potential for another NWA EmPowerrr event. Check out her comments here.
In a previous interview, King reflected on her time with AEW. Click here to see what she had to say.
Check out King's comments about representing AEW at NWA EmPowerrr here.
