Awesome Kong

Kia Stevens (born September 4, 1977) is an American actress and semi-retired professional wrestler.

She is best known for her time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling/Impact Wrestling under the ring name Awesome Kong.

She also worked with Ring of Honor (ROH), Shimmer Women Athletes, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), and with WWE under the ring name Kharma.

Stevens began her professional wrestling career in 2002 after appearing on a reality television show.

For the first five years of her career, she primarily wrestled in Japan and held numerous championships there.

In 2002, Stevens appeared on the Discovery Health Body Challenge as a contestant trying to lose weight in hopes of becoming a professional wrestler.

Afterwards, Stevens trained at the School of Hard Knocks out of San Bernardino, California.

Soon, she was able to have her first professional match in the Empire Wrestling Federation.

Stevens also auditioned for Tough Enough 2, a competition in which the winner earned a World Wrestling Federation (WWF) contract, but failed her audition after Jim Ross told her that she was "too fat."

Stevens, as Kong, worked for multiple women's promotions in Japan, and she defeated Ayako Hamada for the WWWA World Single Championship in late 2004.

Later, Stevens cited Hamada as one of her favorite opponents.

In 2004 Kong debuted for the joshi promotion Gaea Japan in a match against Aja Kong.

At the promotion's ninth anniversary event Aja Kong won the match but gained enough respect for Amazing Kong that the two attacked both competitors in the main event, revealing themselves as a new tag team named W Kong.

The duo soon made their presence felt when they challenged Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka for the AAAW Tag Team Championship on May 5 and won.

The team defended the championship successfully all Summer, eventually losing to Manami Toyota and Carlos Amano on September 20.

Going into 2005, Kong main evented the final Gaea show before the promotion closed down.

In the final match of Fifth Anniversary, Kong teamed with Ayako Hamada and Mayumi Ozaki in a winning effort against Akino, Dynamite Kansai and Gami with Ayako picking up the victory.

After the closure of Gaea, W Kong went on to wrestle for a number of Japanese promotions including Hustle, where they were given the comedic gimmicks of Margaret and Erika which involved, among other things, wrestling in a yellow tutu.

In 2006, she began wrestling in her native United States again, wrestling on the independent circuit before appearing on national television with TNA, where she was a driving force in the foundation of their Knockouts division.

During her time with TNA, she became a two-time TNA Knockouts Champion and one-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Hamada.

They won the predominantly male Hustle Super Tag Team Championship from June until October 2006.

They were also the final team to hold WWWA World Tag Team Championship before AJW shut down.

in Kong's homeland from May 2006.

Her debut came on Volume 5 with a win against Nikki Roxx.

She defeated Roxx again on Volume 14: Hot Summer Nights in a rematch.

In early 2007, Kong also won the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Women's Championship in Tokyo, Japan and held it from January to May.

She lost it to Nanae Takahashi in a three-way match, which also included Wesna.

Her success in Japan attracted the attention of United States promotion Shimmer Women Athletes, who began regularly booking her for their DVD tapings

The rematch was Kong's fifth successive win which led her to challenge for the Shimmer Championship in October 2007 against inaugural champion Sara Del Rey, for the Volume 15 taping.

Del Rey retained to give Kong her first Shimmer loss, albeit via count out.

Kong then began another winning streak, losing only to Ariel by disqualification after using a chair on Volume 17 which set back her chances of being given another championship match.

Stevens was ranked first in the inaugural list of Pro Wrestling Illustrated's PWI Women's 100 in 2008.

She retired from professional wrestling in 2021 and was subsequently inducted into the Impact Hall of Fame.

As an actress, she is best known for playing Tammé "The Welfare Queen" Dawson in the wrestling-themed Netflix original comedy series GLOW.

Kia Stevens was inspired to become a professional wrestler by Amy Dumas, known during her WWE career as Lita.

After being signed to WWE in 2010, Stevens defended Ross, stating that "If [Ross] hadn't shot from the hip all those years ago, I wouldn't have had the fire to succeed as much as I did."

After putting on an impressive showing at a tryout, Stevens was invited to further her training in the dojo of joshi puroresu (female Japanese wrestling) promotion All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW).

While there she underwent a rigorous training schedule, became fluent in Japanese, and engaged in training for mixed martial arts but chose to pursue professional wrestling.

She was given the ring name Amazing Kong by Masatsugu Matsunaga, who needed a replacement for Japanese female wrestler Aja Kong in several matches.

She later signed with WWE, where she became the third woman to enter the men's Royal Rumble match in 2012, and she began making appearances for then-upstart AEW towards the end of the decade.