10 WWE Attempts To Capitalise On Popular Culture
5. Gail Kim's Debut - The Matrix
In the middle of 2003, the Wachowskis were busy disappointing the entire world, with two sequels being released for the cyber warfare hit The Matrix in the same year. As is expected, WWE’s creative team attempted to capitalise on the financial success of the franchise and vignettes began airing for the company’s new Neo, Gail Kim. With red code falling down the screen and a computer generated model telling us to ‘Stop Looking’ and ‘Control Your World’, a haphazard gimmick had been created, and Gail Kim was pushed on to Raw to make an impact on the 30 June 2003.
Despite winning the championship on her debut, Kim quickly realised she had been thrown down the rabbit hole, later admitting that she had no idea what her character represented, and therefore didn’t really do anything other then wear a tight trench coat and some black shades (is there any reason for Matrix characters wearing sunglasses other than big guns and nu-metal being the ‘00s cool?).
Adding to the fact that Kim had no real Mr. Anderson to face and no phantom SmackDown hacker to side with, the first instance of Kim being allowed promo time was on 11 August 2003, nearly two months into her run. In this promo, she stated that the world would finally know who Gail Kim is. This did not happen, and the cyber gimmick was dropped without a single promo to ascertain its root cause.
In 2011, Gail Kim would purposely eliminate herself from a women’s battle royal, shunning the red pill of the WWE once again for the comfortable reality of Impact Wrestling.