The Women’s Wrestling Weekly team sent the following transcribed highlights from the episode to WrestleZone. You can hear the full episode in the embedded player at the top of this post or via the links at the bottom of this post.
Allysin Kay Talks About Being Contacted for the Mae Young Classic:
“Once I got the email asking me if I were interested in being in the Mae Young Classic. ( I want to say that was probably June). So, in my mind, I’m thinking I’m cleared in July, so that gives me one month to go hard. Granted, I had been back to working out and doing physical activity and dieting and things like that for months prior. It was probably about 1 or 2 months after I was diagnosed that I wasn’t able to do anything. But, after that, I was back to doing something… I just couldn’t do my normal MMA workouts. I could not spare with anyone or roll in jiu-jitsu, I couldn’t wrestle, I couldn’t get in the ring and roll around and jump because when you are on blood thinners….. It wasn’t that I was physically unable to get in the ring and work out or anything like that…It’s just when you are blood thinners, you are at a very high risk of internal bleeding. So, if I were to get hit in the head and had a hemorrhage; I’d be done. So, I would lift, nothing too crazy, I couldn’t power lift right away or anything too heavy and once I was cleared, then I went balls to the wall. I was doing every workout I could. I had that feeling like, I only have a month to go hard because even though I knew I was in. I still physically couldn’t go as hard as I could until I was actually off the blood thinners. So, yes and no.
“I had not wrestled in 7 months. The Mae Young Classic was my first match back since my injury. If I could have done something differently, I would have gotten in the ring before that.”
Allysin Kay’s Thoughts On Being in A Match With Mia Yim For The Mae Young Classic:
“To be honest, I thought it was a joke. I thought the agent who was telling me the match, was joking. I thought she was ribbing me or something. Then I realized she wasn’t I was shocked. I was surprised. I did not think that they would book that match.”
“I really enjoyed my time there and I say that totally honestly. In a way… it wasn’t what I was expecting and I guess because you hear a lot of horror stories …I went there and I realized I know almost everyone there. And the majority of the people I was dealing with I had met on or during my try out or I had wrestled with them on the indies; even down to the coaches.”
“Maybe I’m just bias, but I think I have a special relationship with Gail. My first match at Impact was with her at the Knockout Knockdown 2016 and we were on first and that made me nervous. Cause they were like you are wrestling Gail and you are on first. That was my first taste working for Impact and working for TV on that set and in front of that audience and things like that. And I now know that was her feeling me out and scouting me and I credit her ( I mean I credit a lot of people) but I also give her a lot of credit for me being signed to Impact. All those girls were going through a try out on the Knockout pay-per-view. I was given to her, so she can feel me out and determine if I were ok. And, I like that process and I wish people did that more because I feel like it’s kind of slipping and that doesn’t happen a lot very often. She was sent out there to make sure I knew what I was doing, that I was respectful, that I was a good worker and I know that she also asked a lot of people behind the scenes if I was a good person and I really wished that happened in every locker room. …“Gail also had very nice things to say about me for the Mae Young Classic. I sat down with Beth Phoenix because she was one of the people doing commentary. She asked a lot of questions to get to know me better and she had asked Gail about me. I had no idea. I wish I could repeat verbatim… she gave me a quote that Gail had said to her about me .. and I was like .. Gail!”
“I am the Shine Champion, so I’m very excited about that and it has been a long time coming. I have been with the company since the very beginning… 6 years now. As the champion I so excited to bring that everywhere and defend that championship not just in Shine but I want to defend it in its sister company Evolve. I want to bring that championship to other promotions and possibly other countries.”
“As far as Impact goes, I have a good relationship with Impact. I left on good terms. I will always have a relationship with those people. A lot of my friends are still there.”
