You'd likely not guess Gail Kim was in her 4's and over 15 years into pro wrestling by looking at her. But in late 2017, the women's wrestling star announced she'd called it quits.
While many wrestlers are competing beyond the 42 years old that Kim is right now, the Canadian decided to hang up her boots on her own terms. When speaking to the WPW Podcast recently, Kim explained when and why she made the call to retire from the ring.
"My back was starting to deteriorate and basically what happened was I just couldn’t walk after a couple of matches here and there. I never had an MRI and I never knew what was going on in my body for so long, and then it was coming to point where I was always wrestling and not being able to walk after. And I was like ‘ It’s time, I need to know what is going on. It’s a scary thought, but you have to know so you can help it’.So, I got an MRI done and I guess, I’m grateful it wasn’t worst. My L4 and my L5, pretty much the discs, was just basically all gone and there was just a thin layer left to the point, it could be bone on bone soon. Basically, I made the decision that I didn’t want to keep on going, where I had to have that major surgery because that minor surgery; he (the doctor) told me I can get back in the ring in 7 weeks and that 7 weeks turned into 7 months."
Kim wrapped up her career by defeating Allie and Sienna on Impact Wrestling's Bound For Glory show, and winning the Knockouts Championship for the seventh time.. She would wrestle select dates until February 2018, when she beat Kasey Owens in the UK.
You can see the full interview with Kim above.
