Former TNA Knockouts Champion Awesome Kong, formerly of AEW as well as TNA, who was also previously known as Kharma in WWE, had a career that spanned numerous other promotions across almost two decades. From her time in TNA alongside Dixie Carter, to her work in Japan, Kong has plenty of stories, and recently sat down on "The Rich Eisen Show" to speak about her career.When asked just when she got "bit by the wrestling bug," Kong said she had always been a fan. When she worked in a foster home, she and the children would watch together. They watched so often, a friend of hers told her she should be a wrestler."'You know, your personality, you should go out for wrestling. You like it so much.' I was like, 'No,'" she explained. "Then also, Trish Stratus started wrestling. And if you remember at the beginning, she's a goddess now, but at the beginning, Trish wasn't that good. So I saw through wrestling. I could see the mistakes and whatnot. I was like, 'Well if she can do it, I could do it.' I'm like, 'Okay. I want to do it.'"Kong said her brother-in-law wanted to try out for "Tough Enough" and asked her to print the application. She said she printed two, and WWE asked her to come out to Vegas for a tryout."I did like this dramatic promo. 'Next!'" she said. "And I said, 'No, y'all going to ask me some questions.' [Jim Ross] was like, 'No, next.' It was Bob Holly that was like, 'No, let's ask her some questions.' Because I was like, 'I took off work... Y'all asking me something...' I will never forget JR saying, 'Well, I'm sorry, but I don't believe a girl of your size could ever be successful in wrestling.'"
Kong said she thanked Ross and left, but when she got back to her hotel room where she was staying with her mother, the pair started to hatch the plan that would get her to Japan, and eventually, Shimmer, TNA, and beyond. Her wrestling journey started on a weight loss show through Discovery Health."I went on the weight loss show and they hooked me up with School of Hard Knocks," she explained. "They introduced me to New Japan dojo in Santa Monica and they sent me to Japan, essentially. That's the short story. And this all happened within months of each other. I was still working, my job wouldn't let me go the second time around, so I had to make a decision, and quick. I sold my business and I put all my money on me. I said, 'I'm going to take five years and just go balls out on wrestling.'"Kong would go on to win the WWWA World Single Championship in All Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2004, two years into her professional wrestling career. She returned to America in 2006 to work for Shimmer and worked for other independent promotions until signing for TNA, the promotion she's perhaps best known for, in October 2007.Despite Ross' comments on her size, she would go on to sign with WWE and debuted as Kharma in May 2011. She'd have a short stint in the company, but wrestled in the 2012 Royal Rumble as the third woman to participate in the men's battle, after Chyna and Beth Phoenix.If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Rich Eisen Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
