In a college classroom, a professor was going about with the usual spiel giving a lecture to students likely told 100 times before. The topic could’ve been about philosophy, economics or history. It could’ve been about the moon landing or what led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Whatever it was, Painesville, Ohio native KiLynn King was in the classroom, but her head was miles away. She was daydreaming about body slams, running the ropes, cutting promos and anything and everything it was going to take for her to become a professional wrestler.
“All I could think about was wrestling,” King said. “I couldn’t focus on anything the teacher was saying — anything I was supposed to be paying attention to. All I could think about was wrestling. I remember just feeling anxiety of the idea of not being a wrestler. That’s when I knew I wanted to do it for a living.”
A few weeks later, King ditched college, told her parents of her plans and within the year she was off to Florida to begin her wrestling journey. Since debuting in 2018, the 26-year-old King has made a name for herself on the independent wrestling scene, has appeared numerous times in AEW and is currently in the mix for the NWA World Women’s Championship. She got her training at Team 3D Academy from the likes of The Dudleyz, Billy Gunn, Jon Cruz and Jay Rios.
“It was one of those things where my parents weren’t crazy about it, so I ended up pursuing a lot of different things in life,” King said of her early career goals. Those pursuits turned out to be a blessing in disguise. “I did theater, dance, I studied creative writing and I did martial arts for six years,” she said. “Which ended up being perfect, because it really set me up for when I finally did get into wrestling. All the things you need to learn, once I made the transition, it helped me to be a little more comfortable.”
Recently, King talked all about her wrestling journey, working for Billy Corgan and the NWA and the state of the business in this Web Is Jericho exclusive.
What wrestlers stood out to you watching it as a kid? “I was always a Shawn Michaels fan. I loved his confidence, I loved his outfits and his promos backstage. The fact that he could go from super serious to super idiotic, I just loved it. That’s very much how my brothers are. One week they’re really intense, and the next week it’s jokes galore. There’s a lot of the boys from the Attitude Era I look up to. I loved Undertaker. I was a big Triple H fan. I have to say, usually when people ask me this question, my answer forever has always been Chyna. It was what she represented to me at the time she was introduced. When I was growing up, I was always a foot taller than all of my girlfriends. Even before I started learning how to lift weights, I always had some kind of build to me. I was tall and had big bright red hair. I was very pale. I talked a lot, and I was loud and I was weird. All these things about me, I thought were incorrect, and that nobody liked it. It just made me weird. I look on TV one day, and I see Chyna, this gorgeous woman who doesn’t look like anybody else. She’s very big and very muscular, bigger than half the dudes she’s in the ring with. I just remember thinking, there was a lot of similarities to what she looked like compared to other people and what I looked like compared to other people. I thought to myself, ‘This woman is so unique looking and so different looking, and people love her because of it. She’s making so much money because of it. She’s on TV because of it.’ For me, as a young girl going through all these ups and downs mentally and trying to figure out where I fit in the world, that was the first time in my life I felt comfortable in my own skin because of what she represented. It truly was mentally a game changer for me.”
What was your first match like? “My first match was at an outdoor, Cinco de Mayo taco festival. It was in downtown Miami, and I had just gotten cleared, and they just happened to need some wrestlers for this show. So a couple kids from my school and I, we drove to wrestle outdoors in the blazing hot sun all afternoon. It was a bunch of people just out having fun for Cinco de Mayo. I remember I looked back on it, and I was so excited and so nervous, but it was such a silly scenario for your first match. It was one of those festival shows, and it was just chaotic and fun. That’s when I was the ‘Queen of Crazy,’ so I wore a sports bra, and some shorts and some Converse, and I walked around with this little stuffed bunny rabbit. It was bizarre and fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
How did you get on the NWA’s radar? “I was with AEW during the pandemic, and I think my time with them came close to almost two years. The ‘forbidden door’ was starting to be talked about, and Thunder Rosa had made her way to AEW (from NWA). The connection between AEW and NWA was very strong at that point. They were getting ready to do the first all women’s pay-per-view, ‘EmPowerrr,’ and they were going to have people from each and every company come in. So me and a select few others from AEW came in and were asked to represent the company at the NWA ‘EmPowerrr’ pay-per-view, and it was such a wonderful experience. I thought that was gonna be the end of my journey with NWA, because I wasn’t sure what was going on with AEW at the time. I wasn’t contracted to them, but I was working with them every week almost consistently. Once we all started going back on the road, I was a free agent, so I wanted to see what else was out there. I reached out to Mickie (James), and a couple weeks later, I heard from NWA.”
“I’ve always been a big believer in signs. Don’t try to force things. Work hard for what you want, but if something’s not happening, don’t try to force it. Find the next step. The next step was NWA. I got an email from them, and I showed up there, and I didn’t know what to expect. For the last two years, I had just shown up and I was enhancement talent. When I showed up in NWA, I talked to Billy, and he said ‘I’m really excited that you’re here, and I’m gonna put you in all these matches.’ I was like, ‘This is awesome.’ I’m very excited to see what happens.”
What’s it like working for Billy Corgan? “That whole atmosphere there, Billy just wants hard-hitting, good, quality wrestling, and that’s what a lot of us there are all about. We just want to tell stories and entertain and have really good, hard-hitting matches. He’s created a really awesome environment. It’s very professional, and it’s just a cool, calm and chill space. We’re all there to put on a good show. Every time I’ve had the opportunity to sit and talk with him for a few minutes, he’s just been the most pleasant and awesome person to talk to. He’s a very cool dude, and sometimes you forget what he does for a living. I love the fact that just being there the few times that I have (so far), I can see that he’s already got a lot of ideas on how he wants to shape and grow our women’s division.”
What was the experience like working with AEW? “I joke about this sometimes — it got to a point where I was there every week, and sometimes I forgot how crazy it was the people I was getting to hang out with on a daily basis. I remember I got to train with Dustin Rhodes in the ring all the time. After a little time, Cody kind of took me under his wing a little bit and said, ‘Whenever I’m having practices, come by.’ Even Billy Gunn, he was my coach before AEW, but getting to see him in the work environment and how he handles himself, you learn a lot from that. All the big boys always pulled me aside, and would be like, ‘Hey, I watched your match, and this was great. But with you and the way you look, handle yourself more like this.’ There were so many different minds coming at me. One of my favorite people to hang out with backstage was Jerry Lynn. He was just one of those people from the moment I met him, he was just the sweetest person to me. We would all just be standing around figuring out what we were doing for the day, and he would stand there with me for 30-plus minutes and just talk wrestling and tell old stories. One day he was just talking about his workout routine and when he had something big coming up, and how he needed to cut weight and needed to be or look a certain way. I remember pausing for a moment and thinking, ‘How wild is it that I’m having a regular conversation with Jerry Lynn about his training routine?’ I thought that was so cool. Jerry Lynn is infamous. Everybody loves him.”
What’s your take on the state of professional wrestling today? There are definitely a lot more options and paths for wrestlers to take then even just a few years ago. “I think over the last four or five years the independent scene has started to realize the value of itself. It’s only as much as we make it. I know in my perspective ever since I’ve been working with other companies more and more, I’ve started to understand the concept that if nobody is gonna put a camera in front of you and let you tell stories and let you build and grow as a performer, do it for yourself. Because of that, I have slowly but surely started to do more business with cinematographers and make sure that every show I go, if there’s a photographer there, I find them to make connections with more of the people that are gonna help you create content that is TV quality stuff. I think a lot of pro wrestlers and promoters and promotions started to have that same mindset even before I had it. ‘OK, we started this promotion because we love wrestling and it’s fun. How do we take it to the next level so it’s not just something fun that we’re doing, it’s something that we thrive off of?’ Anybody who works in wrestling in the long haul, they want to live off of wrestling. I think a lot of independent wrestlers are starting to understand that as much opportunity and as many companies as there are, it doesn’t mean that we’re all gonna eat at the end of the day. So we have to make sure to create that content that’s gonna help us. I think that’s why you’ve been seeing the independent scene blow up so much more, because there’s been so much more storytelling and history making that they’re doing on the independent scene as opposed to before.”
What’s next for you in NWA? You came close to dethroning NWA World Women’s Champion Kamille, so I have to think a re-match might be in the cards for when the NWA 74 pay-per-view rolls around later this year. “If anybody has been keeping up with what I’ve been doing in the NWA so far, they know that Kamille and I had one hard-hitting match, and I pushed her to her limits. I truly believe that if I hadn’t taken my eye off the ball, we would have a new champion right now. And I told that to Kamille straight to her face. My intention with the time that I have in the NWA is to make sure that the opportunity comes again for me. So I’m definitely gonna be keeping my eye on Kamille and keeping myself in the title picture as much as I possibly can.”
Where do you see yourself in five years? “Whether I’m contracted or not, I would like to be the face and the champion of a major company and somebody who is synonymous as a big card player. When they hear the name Kilynn King, they think ‘main event’ or ‘champion’ or ‘one of the best in the world.’ I haven’t been in this business that long, but I haven’t wasted a single moment since I got into wrestling. Within the next five years or even less, that’s the end game. I want to make this a career and thrive off it. It’s the only thing I want to put my focus on.”
Looking to the future, do you have a dream match or opponent? “I feel like this is the question I know the answer to, but when someone asks, my brain freezes up. I don’ know if I can narrow it down to one person. I do have to say, I want to go to Japan. I feel like my style is very hard-hitting, but I know it could be even more so. I know a lot of girls who have gone to Japan, and they’ve gone through such a transformation. Some of the best female wrestlers in the world are in Japan. If we’re talking about people from companies, I would definitely say (from WWE) Rhea Ripley or Charlotte Flair. In Impact, I would love to go against Jordynne Grace. I got to wrestle her in a triple threat match, and that was fun, but it’s always a different experience when you get to wrestle someone one on one. And if we’re talking AEW, Ruby Soho or Toni Storm.”
Follow KiLynn King on Twitter: @KiLynn King; and on Instagram: @kilynnking.
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