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FORMER WWE Diva Gail Kim has vowed that she will never return after enduring an unhappy second spell with the wrestling giant.

Kim asked for her release from the company on August 5 after being chronically under-utilised, but WWE refused to let her go, and instead made her sit out her contract, which concluded at the end of September.

Kim is now a free agent, and is understandably vehement that wherever her wrestling career from now on takes her, it will not be back to WWE.

In her first free-to-air interview anywhere since she left, she exclusively told SunSport: "I've experienced WWE twice now, and I know that I do not enjoy that place.

"The second time I really had optimistic hopes and dreams, but I know I would never go back there."

Gail requested to be released from her contract backstage during the August 5 live edition of Raw. That night, she had participated in a Divas Battle Royal, in which she eliminated herself straight after the bell.

This would be her last appearance on WWE TV.

Gail said: "The night of the Battle Royal where I eliminated myself, it was ten minutes before Raw ended, and I pulled Johnny (Laurinaitis) aside. It was right after his first on-air segment, and I told him 'I just want to give you my notice. I'm quitting.'

"He was surprised and said 'You're putting this on me ten minutes before Raw ends?'

"There were words between us. Nothing bad – even though you might hear bad things about Johnny, I understand what his job is. I have never felt in any way afraid to talk to him about how I feel.

"So I just told him. I told him I felt held down and just ready to move on. I said 'I don't want your money; I just want to be free. Free to do whatever I want.'

"Johnny said 'I'll have to get clearance for you to quit, it shouldn't be a problem.' Of course it was a problem, and they didn't want me to work anywhere else, so I had to stay at home.

"In my opinion, my perception is that it is a control thing for them. They are very powerful and they like to control certain aspects of the company. That really upset me, and when I quit I said to Johnny 'Stop trying to control me. You guys never really cared about me before, so why do you care now whether I want to quit or not?'"

Her decision to unilaterally eject herself from the Battle Royal caused some ripples in the wrestling world, with some labelling Gail unprofessional, but others feeling the act of rebellion was justified.

"It was a very controversial thing," she said. "A lot of people said that they lost respect for me because I was unprofessional. But unless anyone walks in your shoes they do not what you feel.

"I can admit that maybe it was a childish thing to do. But I would not take it back. I was disrespected many times by the company, and when you get disrespected that many times there is only so much you can take.

"I'm not one to just lay there and take it – at least not now – and they didn't even notice.

"I was fed up that day. There were other circumstances within the company that pretty much made me make the decision that I was done with the company, on the personal side and the professional side.

"I feel that I've worked so hard to gain the respect of the fans and my co-workers. I was just not going to have the company do this to me anymore.

"By the time we got to the match our time was cut so bad they just said 'everybody get out of the ring as fast as you can before the break happens,' which was maybe a minute.

"They said get out of the ring as fast possible, so I did!

"I normally would not do anything like that, but I just got pushed to my limits and pushed the point where I was fighting back for the way I'd been treated."

"The other girls didn't notice. The agents and the office didn't notice. A few fans tweeted me and said 'Did you just do that?'"

Kim was part of the WWE roster from 2002 to 2004, before being released. She surfaced in TNA in 2005 and spent three years there, having a storied and critically acclaimed long storyline with Awesome Kong, who later join the WWE as 'Kharma'.

Despite her TNA success and her sense of belonging in the company, Kim felt compelled to return to WWE for financial reasons, and though she does not regret the decision, she soon realised that her optimism about WWE's creative direction for the Divas division was misplaced.

She said: "It was more the treatment of the women's division I was disappointed with in this last run.

"It's so frustrating to be working so hard and know that it's not going anywhere and it doesn't matter.

Honestly there were times when I felt like if we had a great match, say on Superstars if we had seven minutes and the chance to tell a story, I felt like maybe we'd get punished for having a good match.

"It's sad that when you have a great match you know it won't be rewarded."

Inevitably, now that she is once again a free agent, Gail is being linked with a return to TNA, where she had her finest run and undoubtedly would be welcomed back. She feels that it is likely – someday – but she is in no rush.

"Right now I'm on a little hiatus," she said, "I told myself I'd take a little break. They didn't let me quit so I was forced to take a break!

"I'm not retiring from wrestling, I can say that. I always said – I said it in my last interview with TNA on a Knockout's DVD – that I always felt like I would return there one day. I'd love to finish up my career there.

"I've always known of ROH and have worked with a lot of the workers there, but they've never reached out to me. It's just never happened. But I'm always open to everything.

"We'll just see."