Gail Kim, Christy Hemme, and Lita launched a Kickstarter today for a new wrestling TV show, one they say would “tackle subjects that have never been spoken about in our business before publicly.”
The project is called “Kayfabe” (stylized “KAYfABE”) and its video outlines the project. Lita says it’s “a professional wrestling series about women, made by women,” with stories Kim says are “inspired by true events.” However, it’s not just a show about wrestling – it’s, in Kim’s words, “still truly a wrestling show with some of the best wrestling talent in the world and yes, in-ring, action.”
A short trailer for a show depicts a woman deciding to start her own wrestling company and gives you the idea of the type of issues the show wants to address, with voiceover audio mentioning healthcare and using “protecting the business” as an ominous phrase. In a livestream on YouTube, Kim, Lita, and Hemme were interviewed by DS Shin of the Chicago Tribune and Ring The Belle women’s wrestling YouTube channel. Hemme said the series is about “what it takes for a woman to behind the scenes” to achieve things in wrestling.
While the women they say want the show to be “compelling and fun to watch” without “shoving down your throat” the social issues it addresses, KAYfABE is definitely meant to address social issues. Hemme says “all the stories that are going on in the world right now, we want to show them in wrestling” and she wants to tell “stories as close to the truth as wrestling gets.” Lita points out that there are no wrestling stories currently being told from a women’s point-of-view, or if they are, they’re not told “on women’s terms.”
The show’s production team, as listed on its Kickstarter page, includes people with experience in the wrestling world, elsewhere in entertainment, and both. Kim, Lita, and Hemme are involved in the writing process, but there’s also a team of writers that includes Impact’s Jimmy Jacobs and Tom Casiello. Chavo Guerrero and Alisha Edwards are also involved in the project behind-the-scenes, and the one name revealed from the cast so far is Karlee Perez (Lucha Underground‘s Catrina/NXT’s Maxine.)
A lot of elements of the project are still in development; the series isn’t going to drop online tomorrow. Casting is underway, and Lita, Kim, and Hemme say they will be scouting indie wrestlers at an upcoming RISE seminar. The team says the goal of the Kickstarter campaign “is to make a pilot,” and money raised above the cost of the pilot will go towards the rest of the series. The goal fundraising amount is an ambitious $400,000, and at the time this article was written, about two hours after it launched, KAYfABE had already raised about $22,500.
