Mia Yim On Reason She Didn’t Join Keith Lee In AEW

Whilst many expected Mia Yim to join her husband Keith Lee in AEW following her release from WWE, she has now opened up on the reasons why she didn’t.

In a raft of releases which took place on 4th November 2021, both Keith Lee and Mia Yim were released by the company, alongside the likes of Nia Jax and Karrion Kross.

Once his non-compete clause expired, Keith Lee made the move to All Elite Wrestling, which left many speculating that Yim would swiftly follow suit.

However, in a discussion with Straight Talk Wrestling Mia Yim has explained that there was only one destination on her mind, and whilst they’re married they are still their own separate people.

So the thing that I always tell people, even though me and Keith are together, we are our own separate brands. I never wanted to be one of those couples that are like, ‘If you book my husband, you have to book me’ or vice versa, or we’re a package deal. We’re not like that, so it’s like babe, you go do what you gotta go do.

So I’ve always wanted, like after getting released, IMPACT was the only thing on my mind, just because that’s kind of where I started to flourish. Like my first experience on TV was IMPACT, and then all my friends are there, Gail is there. I’ve gotten real close with Scott. So for me, it was more so trying to get this [points to head] under control and teaching myself that I can wrestle and I am okay in the ring.

Mia Yim went on to discuss how the first few matches following her release were tough, but her time in IMPACT Wrestling helped rebuild her confidence.

The first couple matches, I’m a perfectionist so I’m like I know this wasn’t perfect, but was it okay? Just kind of second-guessing everything. But then the more it was like, you’re doing great. Keep listening to the crowd, go do what you gotta do, like you’re doing awesome, and we’re happy with it. It was a confidence thing for me more so than getting a wider platform or money or anything like that. It was just, I needed IMPACT, and I told Gail this from the jump, that like my mental is not where I wanted it to be, and I knew that they could get me back on track.

In her previous run under the name Jade, Mia Yim was a former IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Champion.

With thanks to Fightful for the transcription.