Mia Yim has been back in WWE for roughly three weeks, and what a three weeks it has been. Initially emerging as “The Answer to The OC's Rhea Ripley problem,” Yim has worked one singles match, was asked to work WarGames by both Team Damage CTRL and Team Bianca Belair – she chose the latter – and then took part in the namesake match of Survivor Series WarGames in a winning effort roughly three years after she was unable to work the match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames in 2019 due to a backstage attack by Dakota Kai that, curiously enough, put “King Kota” in the match in her place.
Yim had high hopes, great external expectations, and even greater international expectations on how to make the most of her second opportunity in WWE following her release in November of 2021. Would it work? Would Yim go over in the biggest match of her career and prove that Ripley isn't the only superstar in waiting on the RAW roster? Or would the moment prove too big and see the woman repackaged as Michin for about a day and a half sent back to the drawing board in need of a new, new, new gimmick?
Fortunately, Yim delivered, and while she didn't steal the show in Becky Lynch's first match back since SummerSlam, she did wrestle well enough that a return to the Reckoning gimmick, thankfully, does not appear to be in the cards.
"A second chance. A real opportunity. … I'm not going to drop the ball on this."
Go behind the scenes of @MiaYim's full circle #WarGames experience ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/sQYVvdVh2b
— WWE (@WWE) November 28, 2022
Mia Yim details her experience at WWE WarGames in a digital diary.
Preparing for her first-ever match on a WWE “Premium Live Event,” Yim reflected on the journey that took her from NXT back to WWE.
“Everything is freaking me out, everything from being the first time in a WarGames officially,” Yim said. “The people who didn’t really get to now me from NXT, this is going to be the first time they really see what I can do. I’m trying to make sure that everyone is glad that I’m there and it wasn’t a regret bringing me back.”
“This time last year, I wasn’t with the company. Coming all the way full circle, I think it was 2019’s WarGames, and now it’s 2022 and I get to be a part of it? It’s (head nod). Let’s go to WarGames.”
After looking like such a promising star back in NXT, Yim was brutally cast – or should I say miscast – into Retribution, where she lasted for a short but unfortunately memorable time with the faction before she was removed from the group, drafted onto RAW and ultimately released after “creative didn't have anything for them.” From there, Yim worked indie matches, signed with Impact Wrestling, and watched as her husband, Keith Lee, signed with AEW and became a tag team champion with Swerve Strickland. Still, once Yim's run in Impact was done, she was offered a spot back in WWE to fill out The OC, and before even working a match with the team, she was already in WarGames, the match that she was booked for but never appeared in earlier in her career. Would Yim take her new opportunity for granted and look at the show as no different than any other? That certainly wasn't her intention.
“When I started wrestling, this was something I always dreamed of, but I’m very realistic, and there’s like a one percent chance it’s ever going to happen,” Yim said. “Just walking out to this match alone, I’m living that one percent. It was always cool, my dad would always talk about ‘oh my god, it was the WWE,’ and I always thought that I failed, so I felt like, now being back, telling him ‘hey, I’m on survivor series, make sure you watch it’ and he’s texting back ‘oh, we’ll be watching.’ Its, its slowly righting the wrongs, I really feel that way. I’m able to get a second chance, a real opportunity and I’m not going to drop the ball on this.”
After the match, which was universally deemed a success, Yim reflected on her efforts, her past, and the bright future ahead of her.
“From not being a part of the first but now being part of this one, it makes me wonder sometimes what could have been if I was in the first but for this to be my actual first, yeah, it’s definitely redemption. I want to do more and keep doing what I do best,” Yim said.
While only time will tell what's next for Yim, it's clear she entered WWE with a plan this time around, which is way more than could be said for her first run in the company, when Vince McMahon thought she should hide her face behind a mask and pretend to be a disgruntled star out for retribution.
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