WWE & IMPACT LEGENDS LITA, GAIL KIM, AND CHRISTY HEMME TALK ABOUT THEIR NEW SHOW KAYFABE AND THE MAE YOUNG CLASSIC
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WPW Weekly Hosts TK Trinidad & Emily Mae Heller Break Down Women Wrestling News For The Week on Wednesday, March 11, 2020
PRESS RELEASE - Los Angeles
THE LADIES TALK ABOUT FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN THE INDUSTRY AND ON THEIR NEW SHOW KAYFABE
Christy: "We're putting these stories together, and it's just going to be telling female stories within the business, stuff that we go through in the locker room."
Lita: "But with around 20 years of experience each, it is what we know, what we love, we are very comfortable with all of the source material and could be giving limitless inspiration, um, but definitely, collaborating with our writing team and just wanting things to be really well thought out and layered and have a little bit more accurate representation of the layers that we are, as women, as opposed to the kind of tropes that the storylines that you've seen....there's so much more to us than that, we want you to see what we go through and what we are dealing with outside of the ring."
Gail: "And I think a lot of people are like; oh is that her story, or your story. It's like no, it's wasn't any of our stories, you know. It's just inspiration."
Lita: "But we can relate to the stories and go, okay, I can see a little bit of myself in that character, I can see a little bit of myself in that character, and it just feels like there's representation."
THE STRUGGLES OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION VERSUS REALITY AS WOMEN IN THE WRESTLING INDUSTRY
Gail: "I said, where is this coming, I thought I was always professional. Well, it's cause you're serious backstage and you never smile. Because I'm in the zone, my work zone and I'm very serious about my job. I will admit that because I want to be perfect and I'm trying to do my best and then perceived it as spoiled or whatever, it was, and I was like "Wow", so I really did take that advice and then I went into work and had a smile on my face and I did notice how people perceived me. So I didn't want to change completely who I was but I had to really be open-minded to how I was perceived."
Christy: "For me, it's a lot to do with the tape. That tape for me. The representation for me was I feel like I always have to think about how I am. I know who I am but I think a lot about how I'm going to present, you know what I mean, and I think we do it because it's the like a lady....don't be this, don't do that, if I do this then I'm this... women are constantly doing that. And I feel that pressure or that tape over my mouth that I have to think about things so much. The whole point of all of these, this, past couple of years and all this change and women saying they don't want to be silenced, I would like other people to see that that is what we are trying to peel back and come out of."
Lita: "Yeah totally, And also that, you know, being in a room or being one of the only women, or the only woman, it's a lie we can't, we're so passionate about wrestling right, that's why we're there. That's why it's worth fighting for. That's why it's worth making little changes but, so we are passionate but then you're leading, "Don't lead with your emotions..Don't be emotional." But I'm so passionate, I really want to do this for the greater good, or this person that I know who is working so hard, I would love for them to be presented differently and it can come across as too aggressive or too assertive...It's a hard balance."
Christy: I've been writing for a really long time. I went to screenwriting school and then we have a lot of friends that are writers and people that we admire and respect and we pulled together a small writing team right now. Once we get picked up and once we are going to develop a whole season; we will pull in more expression, more perspective. I think the writing room should be very diverse and that's going to be the reach of having the money to pay people."
DIVERSITY IN WRESTLING
Gail: "I think it has definitely gotten better from the time that I started. So we have made some progress. I would like to see where someone is just seen for who they are and not really necessary for their ethnicity or a business standpoint of, 'oh we need someone from India or someone from China or whatever that's going to help our business' . But you know the talent of the person and what they have to contribute and I would love to see someone of ethnicity if they're talented enough and if they're capable of it to be the face of the company. I would love to see that one day."
LITA TALKS ABOUT BRINGING BACK MAE YOUNG CLASSIC
LITA: "Dude why isn't it back? Let me work on that...So, Mae Young felt like it got so much positive feedback. Evolution was sold out...Granted you can't look on your own timeline for how people feel because they are like, 'You're so great!'....But from what I got everyone responded positively to it. Even financially it was sold out. I don't understand why there is not another evolution or why it didn't make the regular pay-per-view cut was really shocking to me."
THE LEGENDS SPEAK TO THE CORONAVIRUS EFFECTING LARGE SPORTING EVENTS INCLUDING HALL OF FAME
Lita: "So, I think wrestling with no crowd is super weird. I think they could still do a cool, classy, Hall of Fame thing in a closed set that could still feel like you did it justice...let's just say, Hall of Fame could still happen."
LEGENDS SHARE THEIR ADVICE TO FUTURE WRESTLERS
Gail: "You just want to make sure you have back-up and maybe you can have a full career and then go on and produce. Hopefully, we'll create some change where there's more opportunities for more women to have the post-in-ring career....but I always just tell everyone to go to school, have a skill and then follow your dreams."
Lita: "I don't have a plan B planned because I will only have a plan A and it's getting into the ring. What I tell young, younger women or men...is to see what ports you gravitate towards just cause that hand-eye coordination, I'd say pick a martial art that you like, I did muay thai I didn't connect with that, I did Judo and connected with that. You know, any of those martial arts will help you have a background. Working out in the gym, and just being athletic, like, will give you a jump once you are, even if you are before you're 18, or before you can start into a wrestling school....the other thing I say, and this is hard because for you to be a wrestler you have to watch wrestling like a student and not as a fan, it's more fun watching it as a fan...You have to dissect it and go why did they do that? why was this put here?"
