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Tag: Awesome Kong

  • Awesome Kong Announces Retirement From Wrestling On NWA EmPowerrr

    Veteran wrestling star Awesome Kong has announced her retirement from pro wrestling during a surprise appearance at NWA EmPowerrr. TNA Hall Of Famer Gail Kim made an unannounced appearance during the all-women PPV. She tried to cut a promo but Kim was confronted by Taryn Terrell, Jennacide, and Paola Blaze.

    Kong, who has had several feuds with the veteran TNA star over the years then also made a surprise appearance on the show. She made the save for Gail Kim and took out the three interrupting women.

    After this segment, the former WWE star grabbed a mic and told Kim that she was her greatest foe. The former Knockouts champion claimed that there was no other way to end her career than being in the ring with Gail Kim. She then announced her retirement saying she was done:

    https://twitter.com/AllEliejohn/status/1431785154960371714
    https://twitter.com/therealzeke7077/status/1431794558283640838

    The 43-year-old started her wrestling career in 2002. Awesome Kong went on to wrestle for promotions such as Ring Of Honor, All Japan Women\’s Pro Wrestling, and more. Though she is probably best known for her stints in Impact Wrestling and WWE between 2007 to 2016.

    She competed under the ring name Kharma in WWE but didn\’t win any titles. She had a couple of runs with the Knockouts title in TNA under the ring name Awesome Kong. She also made several appearances for AEW in the past couple of years.

  • Two Women Gone From AEW After Their Contracts Expired

    Both Shanna and Awesome Kong\’s bios were removed from AEW\’s roster page over the weekend. According to a report from the Wrestling Observer, both wrestlers\’ contracts expired recently and were not renewed by AEW.

    43-year-old Awesome Kong (Kia Stevens) has not wrestled since January 2020. In total, she only wrestled 5x with AEW. Kong\’s 1st match with AEW was a fatal 4-way won by Britt Baker at Double or Nothing 2019. Her second match was in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out 2019. Kong then wracked up 3 straight singles victories while being managed by Brandi Rhodes but would be removed from television shortly after.

    In February 2020, Brandi Rhodes explained Kong\’s absence and how it played into the formation of the short-lived Nightmare Collective.

    \”Awesome Kong was not physically feeling great. And she’s my friend so I would never want to ask somebody to work in a capacity where I know they’re going to hurt themselves so what then happened was more of a greater group discussion of ‘okay well what do we do here’ and the Nightmare Collective came to be,\” Rhodes said on Wrestling Observer Live in February of 2020.

    As for Shanna, the 38-year-old last appeared on Dynamite in a loss to Britt Baker in January. She had been performing on episodes of AEW Dark and Elevation. Shanna dropped her last match in AEW to Leyla Hirsch on April 7th (aired April 12th).

  • Awesome Kong Releases Statement Critical Of GLOW\’s Use Of Racial Stereotypes

    Kia Stevens, aka Awesome Kong, plays the role of Tammé Dawson on the Netflix series GLOW. The show was canceled due to the pandemic but efforts are underway to possibly end the series with a movie.

    According to a recent Instagram post by Stevens, the show does not have any writers who are persons of color. She also stated the show has been irresponsible with how they have portrayed storylines related to racial stereotypes.

    \”It has been problematic to use our faces, oftentimes solely in the context of a racist storyline, and to be brief with our story development to serve the in-depth white storylines,\” she wrote.

    Stevens continued to mention that there are no persons of color on the show\’s writing team.

    \”With zero persons of color in the writer\’s room this season, it\’s a huge oversight to be writing our narratives without anyone else to represent us besides ourselves,\” she continued.

    She also pointed out that a central theme of the show is performers from the original GLOW dealing with portraying characters who are racial stereotypes. She noted that the same thing is happening again with actors on the Netflix series.

    Kia Stevens Statement On GLOW

    \”The meta-narrative of our show — actors dealing with the conflict of perpetuating stereotypes in order to have opportunity — is exactly what is happening in our real life.\”

    \”We can no longer be quiet about the pain this has caused and the harm it has done in perpetuating the representation of people of color as sidekicks to elevate white leads.\”

    Stevens concludes her statement with a call for showrunners to hire an executive producer who is a person of color. They also would like the show to address how portraying racial stereotypes has impacted the performers and amplify their voices and characters in Season 4.

    Stevens\’ comments seem to imply some version of the show will be returning for a new season or a movie. This cannot be confirmed, however. It was also revealed recently that Taya Valkyrie was cast in season 4. At least one episode had been filmed before the pandemic shut down production. The series was always scheduled to end following the 4th season as well.

    Kong returned to the wrestling world last year with AEW. She was briefly a member of Brandi Rhodes\’ Nightmare family before the angle was scrapped.

    Kong\’s full Instagram post is below:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CGiD0sipqUy/?igshid=4c0d1kabaz8x

  • Former WWE Producer Arrested In Indiana

    A former WWE backstage producer was recently arrested in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. According to a report from PW Insider, Sarah Stock was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with aggravated battery, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and resisting law enforcement.

    She was booked and released early Sunday morning by the Vandenburgh Sheriff\’s Department.

    Stock had been with WWE since 2015 but was furloughed this spring and later released due to the ongoing global pandemic. She wrestled as Sarita in TNA Wrestling from 2009 to 2013. She has also competed for companies such as Shimmer as well as CMLL in Mexico. Stock had previously wrestled under the names Dark Angel and Canadian Dark Angel as well.

    While in TNA, Stock won the promotion\’s women\’s tag-team championships twice. She won the inaugural titles in 2009 with Taylor Wilde. They would hold the belts for 106 days before dropping them to Awesome Kong and Hamada.

    Stock would team with Zelina Vega in 2011 and again win the belts. This time her team defeated Angelina Love and Winter to gain the championships. They would hold the titles for 129 days until dropping them to Brooke Tessmacher and Tara. Her 2 reigns and 227 combined days spent with 1/2 of the women\’s tag belts ranks her 5th all-time in the promotion.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lHMPmXeEUo

  • AEW: Awesome Kong Might Not Return To Action After Nightmare Collective Attack

    Awesome Kong\’s days as an active competitor for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) might be over.

    AEW has provided an update on Kong’s \’medical condition\’ following an attack from her Nightmare Collective cohorts, Mel and Luther. This attack took place during this week\’s episode of AEW: Dark, which is available to watch on their YouTube channel.

    Taking to Twitter, AEW says Awesome Kong sustained \’serious injuries.\’ Additionally, they are unsure when she will be cleared to wrestle again, if ever.

    The incident took place after Mel’s loss to Hikaru Shida. Kong confronted Mel over the loss only to be attacked. She was held in place by Luther as Mel assaulted her. She was then sent through a barrier, with the attack continuing until Mel delivered a leg drop onto her on the steel steps.

    It is speculated that AEW has done this angle in order to write Awesome Kong off of television so she can film the final season of Netflix’s pro wrestling drama series, GLOW. It’s worth noting that, although this is the currently believed reason, it has yet to be confirmed.

    AEW’s next pay-per-view, Revolution, takes place on February 29, 2020, from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.