KiLynn King recently spoke with Spencer Love of Love Wrestling about her match against SWA World Champion Mayu Iwatani at Friday’s NJPW Rumble on 44th Street pay-per-view, her match with Chelsea Green and NWA World Women’s Champion Kamille at the November 12 NWA Hard Times III pay-per-view, and more.
Here are the highlights:
King on training with Billy Gunn in AEW, Gunn being her mentor:
“That man is just incredible. I pray to God that when I start getting older, that I can maintain that kind of build and athleticism and just…he’s a phenomenon, I swear. It’s crazy to think he gets bigger every year. Usually when people get older, they get more frail and stuff. I think every year, he at least puts on like five pounds, in a good way, in muscle! I’m just like, ‘how do you do it, bro?!’”
“That man inspires me so much. Not just as a wrestler, and in fitness, but just as a human being. He’s just a great human being. There was a period of time where I didn’t have a car anymore, and I couldn’t come to class. I would text [him] and be like, ‘Hey, I’m so sorry. I’m not going to be at training this week,’ blah, blah, blah. His response wasn’t like, ‘Okay, thanks for letting me know’. It was ‘Cool. Where do you live?’ I’m like, ‘I’m here’. He’s just like, ‘Okay, cool. I’ll pick you up tomorrow’. And I’m like, ‘What?! Okay!’”
Riding with Gunn:
“Even when I started doing the independents, there was a couple times where he would be like, ‘Hey, I’m doing a local show. You want to hop in my car and come with me and do my merch table, and I’ll introduce you to the promoter?’ And I was like, ‘absolutely’. He would take me on on the road with him a few times, and he would introduce me to people, and he would kind of give me a little bit of knowledge about like, ‘Hey, this is how the indies work.’ Not even that, like, there was just some personal stuff. There was a period of time where I was going through some really hard family stuff, and he was there. I call him my wrestling dad, because he very much looked out for me from day one. I always tell people that from the first day I met him there was this weird, I don’t know if he felt it, but I felt that there was this weird connection, and I was like, ‘This man is gonna play a big role in my life. He’s cool as hell. Sure enough, within a few months, he was my role model in wrestling. He had faith in me, he pushed me, and he really looked out for me during some dark times.”
Gunn being the reason she’s in AEW:
“He’s the reason I ended up in AEW. He was the one who sent me the text messages and say, ‘Hey, where you at? I want them to meet you’. And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure’. Obviously, the rest is history. Fast forward two and a half years later, and that text messages changed my life. So he might be big, and scary, and intimidating. But, he’s the sweetest person I’ve ever met and I’m very, very grateful to him.”
Friday’s NJPW match with Iwatani for her SWA World Title:
“So, I cannot tell you how long I have been sitting on that information. I got asked about this booking months ago! They were they were promoting the show. They were promoting the show [and] they had announced a lot of the matches. So, I’m sitting there, I’m like, ‘is this match actually happening? Like, what’s going on?’ I found that they were just waiting until closer to the show to announce it properly, but I’m sitting here like ‘you guys booked me, and I have this cool information in my head, and I can’t share it! Like, I was going nuts. So yes, I was so excited when they finally announced it last night. It’s been a dream, pretty much since the beginning, since I started, one of my goals has been to go to Japan. I think that’s a lot of people’s goals, usually, because it’s synonymous for being life changing. Everybody knows most wrestlers who either work with New Japan and STARDOM or ended up going to Japan, their careers changed in the greatest way. That’s always definitely been a big goal of mine, so the fact that I got reached out to work with them while they’re here in America and to wrestle Mayu. [It’s] my first time working with them, and it’s a title match against Mayu Iwatani. I was like, ‘come on, guys. This is incredible.’ I’m very excited. I literally leave tomorrow at noon. I can’t wait. I’m a little bit nervous. It’s a different challenge, and it’s one that I wasn’t expecting to happen quite yet. I’ve been doing a lot of studying and a lot of preparation, so I’m hoping that I just don’t let anybody down [and] that we just show up and kill it. I’m trying not to overthink it, because I’m afraid that if I like overthink it, I’m gonna go in and just be like, ‘ahh,’ as opposed to just going in and beating the crap out of each other. I’m excited!”
You can check out the complete interview below:
