Kia Michelle Stevens (born September 4, 1977) is an American actress and semi-retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with TNA 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 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 TNA Knockout. During her time with TNA, she became a two-time TNA Knockouts Champion and one-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Ayako Hamada. 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.
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 TNA 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.
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 Mika 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. 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 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.
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. She was placed in a Four-Way Contendership match on Volume 21; during the match Mercedes Martinez used her Fisherman Buster finisher on Cheerleader Melissa but before she could be pinned, Kong dragged Martinez to the floor and the two battled it out while Ariel stole the win to receive a championship match. This incident led to a grudge match between Martinez and Kong on Volume 23, which Kong won. On the following show, instead of a Shimmer Championship match, Kong was put in a contendership match for the Shimmer Tag Team Championship, forming a brief alliance of convenience with Del Rey, who herself was having issues with their opponents MelissChif (Cheerleader Melissa and Shimmer
Champion MsChif). After winning the match, they faced the reigning champions Madison Rayne and Nevaeh in the following match, and once again Kong was disqualified after using chairs on her opponents. An assault continued until Martinez and Serena Deeb, who was feuding with Del Rey, appeared to help out the Tag Team Champions. This occurrence led to another tag team match with Kong and Del Rey picking up a victory over Martinez and Deeb.
Wanting to focus on her singles career again, Kong wrestled LuFisto on Volume 27 in a match to take on the Shimmer Champion. It ended in a double count-out, with the two brawling outside the ring through the building and even during the next match in the show. This meant the championship match on Volume 28, in November 2009, would be a three-way elimination match including the champion MsChif. Kong eliminated LuFisto early on with an Amazing Bomb, essentially leading to a rematch of Kong and MsChif's critically respected Volume 9 match. In this match, however, MsChif took a return win after kicking out of the Amazing Bomb and delivering all of her signature finishing moves on Kong to become the first woman to pin Kong in Shimmer. She appeared for one more appearance in September 2010 for the Volume 35 event, answering an open challenge by Kellie Skater with an emphatic victory.
Kong returned to ROH on May 8, 2010, to take part in the promotion's annual Supercard of Honor V. Once more she wrestled Del Rey, this time in a singles match which she lost after Del Rey used a weighted elbow pad thrown to her by Kings of Wrestling stablemate Chris Hero, sparking a rivalry between the two. Kong returned to settle the score with Del Rey two months later at Hate: Chapter II on July 23. The Kings of Wrestling were in the midst of a rivalry with The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark), and so Kong teamed with them in a six-person tag team match, where they defeated Del Rey, Hero and their stablemate Antonio Cesaro, though Kong did not secure the pin. Consequently, they had a singles rematch the following night, with Kong finally defeating Del Rey one-on-one. At the end of the year, ROH held their live PPV Final Battle 2010, which saw Del Rey challenge Daizee Haze to bring more competition to ROH. Haze responded by bringing Kong back for the December 18 match against Del Rey and her partner Serena Deeb. In the match Del Rey pinned Haze, while Deeb successfully neutralized Kong with a spear.
In June 2007, Kong toured Great Britain under the ChickFight promotion, wrestling guest matches under that banner for other promotions. The tour started on June 15 in Wales for Celtic Wrestling, where she picked up a victory over ChickFight stalwart Cheerleader Melissa. The following day Kong debuted for Real Quality Wrestling (RQW) and took part in a Four-Way RQW Women's Championship match, that saw Wesna win the belt from reigning champion Eden Black, with Jetta also coming up winless. The following day Kong competed in Chickfight IX, the ninth and final all-women knockout tournament under the ChickFight banner. She received a bye via forfeit, owing to a severe injury Cheerleader Melissa had given her opponent Sweet Saraya at RQW the night before, which allowed her to be fresh against Blue Nikita. After defeating Nikita in the semi-final, she faced dethroned RQW Champion Eden Black and won the trophy.
After achieving notoriety on national television, Kong received more bookings including for the all-female company Women Superstars Uncensored in March 2008. She appeared at their First Anniversary Show answering an open challenge made by Rick Cataldo and Roxxie Cotton, defeating them both in a handicap match within a minute. Later in the same event she teamed with Amy Lee and defeated Angel Orsini and Shimmer rival Mercedes Martinez. Despite picking up the victory, Kong felt that Lee stole the glory of a win from her and went to attack Lee; this led to an Amy Lee's Rules match in the main event of Dawn of a New Day which Kong won after Lee passed out, refusing to submit. The two had a rematch at Army of One which Kong lost by disqualification after hitting a referee leading to a deciding rubber match contested under Last Man Standing rules. At the Second Anniversary Show, Kong narrowly beat Amy Lee after charging at Lee with a chair only for Lee to pass out to the ground and Kong to hit the ropes and knock the chair back into herself. Judging Lee to have been down one count before Kong, Kong won the match but bowed to Lee afterwards out of respect.
After winning this match, Kong was given a match against Martinez for the WSU Championship in December 2009 at a WSU and National Wrestling Superstars co-hosted event. Kong received another chance at the title at Evolve 5: Danielson v Sawa for the Evolve promotion but still could not bring an end to Martinez's two-year reign.
On the 8 May episode of Impact! Kong began a regular $25,000 challenge to females in the audience who wanted to challenge her for the Women's Knockout Championship. The audience members, played by planted wrestlers, failed to defeat her but one challenger, Taylor Wilde, kept returning and on 10 July she won both the $25,000 and Women's Knockout Championship on her third attempt. Kong then failed to regain the championship from Wilde during a rematch at Victory Road. On October 23, during a live episode of Impact! Kong defeated Wilde to become a two-time Knockout Champion. Two weeks later Wilde's tag team partner Trenesha Biggers turned on her and aligned herself with Kong and Saeed. The alliance of Kong, Saeed and Khan became known as The Kongtourage, with a fourth wrestler named Josette Bynum joining later. Wilde then found a new partner in Nicole Raczynski, who helped her defeat Kong and Saeed in a tag team match at Turning Point. Going into 2009, Bolt became the contender for Kong's championship and left the Kongtourage with Khan. Kong retained her title against Bolt at Destination X in April.
On the March 26 episode of Impact!, Kong and Saeed were defeated by villainous tag team The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky), and after the match The Beautiful People tried to cut Kong's hair as part of their makeover gimmick. They continued to target Kong's hair and eventually accomplished the task on the April 16 episode of Impact! which transitioned Kong into a fan favorite by attempting to retaliate. The tension built to a Three-Way Cage match at Lockdown for the Women's Knockout Championship with Kong defending against Angelina Love and continual rival Wilde. In the match, Kong lost the championship after Velvet Sky, on the
outside, tied Kong's hair to the cage preventing her from breaking up Love's pin on Wilde. After losing the title, Kong defeated Love's allies Sky, Madison Rayne and Monty Sopp in separate Stretcher matches ahead of their rematch. Love, however, retained the title against Kong at Sacrifice.
On the December 17 episode of Impact! Kong formed a tag team with Ayako Hamada as they won a three-way non-title match against The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) and the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions Taylor Wilde and Sarita, when Kong pinned Rayne. On the first Impact! episode of 2010, Kong and Hamada defeated Sarita and Wilde to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship.
In a non-storyline incident Bubba the Love Sponge claimed on his January 19 radio show that Stevens had attacked him while backstage for the tapings of Impact! the previous day due to his negative comments concerning the Haiti earthquake relief project. Kong, who had been a driving force in the wrestling community in raising funds for Haiti, was reportedly sent home from the tapings following the altercation. It was later reported that the same day as Bubba's radio show, Stevens asked for her release from TNA, but it was not granted. After she refused to take part in TNA's January 2010 tour of the United Kingdom, the company suspended her. The following month, Stevens filed a lawsuit against Bubba for an alleged threatening phone call. She was reportedly released from TNA on March 1. On the March 8 episode of Impact! it was announced that Kong and Hamada were stripped of the Knockouts Tag Team title after allegedly failing to defend them in 30 days, even though their previous defense had taken place just 21 days prior, against Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky. On March 22, TNA confirmed Stevens' release, while also claiming that she had requested her release for personal reasons, but she later said it was due to monetary issues and recent changes to TNA management.
In March 2013, Stevens turned down an offer to take part in a special all Knockouts pay-per-view held by TNA.
The following week, Kharma spoke for the first time to reveal she was pregnant and thus forced to take a leave of absence from WWE. During her absence, she was included as a downloadable playable character in the WWE '12 video game.
Kharma made a surprise return in the 2012 Royal Rumble match as the twenty-first entrant. She intimidated Michael Cole into eliminating himself before eliminating Hunico only to be thrown out by Dolph Ziggler. With her entrance, she became the third female, after Chyna and Beth Phoenix, to participate in a men's Royal Rumble match. This also marked her first and only official WWE match. In July 2012, Stevens confirmed that she had been released by WWE. On August 19, she was added to the list of the playable characters on the main roster in the WWE '13 video game. In September 2013, Stevens revealed that she had been released because she was not ready to return in the time allotted to her. She also confirmed her interest in returning to the company, stating she was ready.
On April 6, 2013, Kong returned to Shimmer at the Volume 53 internet pay-per-view, defeating Mia Yim in the opening match. The Amazing Kong returned to Shine Wrestling event on July 12, 2013, in a losing effort to Ivelisse Velez in a four way to qualify for Shine Championship tournament among the participants were Angelina Love and Kimberly. Then at Shine Wrestling 12 on August 23, 2013, she defeated Mercedes Martinez in a singles match. On September 27, 2013, Kong and Jessicka Havok were in a losing effort against Allysin Kay and Ivelisse. On October 25, 2013, she defeated Madison Eagles in a singles match and later in the night she was announced the next challenger for the Shine Championship. On December 13, 2013, she was defeated by Bonnie Maxon for the Shine Championship by count-out. On January 24, 2014, she defeated Taylor Made and on Shine Wrestling 18 Kong defeated Nikki Storm and Shine Wrestling 19 she defeated Athena. On August 22, 2014, Kong was part of a #1 contender four corner survival match to challenge Ivelisse for the Shine Championship the other participants in the match were Leah Von Dutch, Su Yung, and Nevaeh. Nevaeh would emerge victorious in the #1 contender match but was unsuccessful on capturing the Shine Championship. On September 21, 2014, Stevens was part of Smash CANUSA Classic where she was captain of Team USA, Stevens would lose in her tournament match against LuFisto who was team captain of team Canada which lead Team Canada victorious.
On August 26, 2015, Kong returned to Japan to work the first ever event of Nanae Takahashi's new Seadlinnng promotion, which saw her and Meiko Satomura lose to Takahashi and Ayako Hamada in a main event tag team match. At the end of the show, Kong reformed the W Kong tag team with Aja Kong. Stevens was supposed to return to take part in Seadlinnng's November 25 event, but on November 22 Takahashi announced that she had pulled out of the match due to "poor health" and claimed she had decided to retire from professional wrestling. Stevens later stated that she had wrestled her final match in Japan and retired the Amazing Kong name, but was for the time being still working as Awesome Kong.
Despite her previous announcement that she had wrestled her final match in Japan, Stevens, again working under the name Amazing Kong, returned to the country on July 18, 2016, to work Aja Kong's 30th anniversary event, promoted by Oz Academy. In the main event of the show, Kong teamed with Aja Kong and Ayako Hamada to defeat Chihiro Hashimoto, Hiroyo Matsumoto and Rina Yamashita.
In mid–August, Kong, representing TNA, started a brief feud with Lei'D Tapa, who represented Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling. The two faced off on August 12 in a match, that ended in a double count-out. On the September 16 episode of Impact Wrestling, Kong competed in a fatal–four-way match against Brooke, Gail Kim and Tapa for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship, which Kim would win. At Bound for Glory, Kong received a match against Kim for but was unsuccessful in regaining the championship. During October and November (taped in July), she participated in the TNA World Title Series, where she ended first of her block, tied with Gail Kim, advancing to the finals where she lost to Jessie Godderz.
On January 5, 2016, during Impact Wrestling's debut on Pop, Kong allied with The Dollhouse (Mia Yim, Marti Bell and Tanea Brooks) and became their new leader after she attacked The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) and Gail Kim, once again turning heel in the process. On February 5, TNA announced that Stevens had been released from her contract following a backstage real-life physical altercation with Reby Sky just a week before TNA's tour in the United Kingdom.
Kong returned for one night only at Bound for Glory along with Taryn Terrell, Christy Hemme and Dixie Carter to induct Gail Kim into the TNA Hall of Fame.
Seven years after her last match in TNA Wrestling, Kong made her in ring return to Impact Wrestling during the celebrations of Impact 1000. Taking part in a 10 Knockout Tag Team match where she sealed the victory for her team after pinning Gisele Shaw.
Stevens plays Tammé "The Welfare Queen" Dawson in the Netflix original comedy series GLOW from producer Jenji Kohan (creator of Orange Is the New Black), which was inspired by the 1980s female professional wrestling league Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. She also appeared in the third episode of the first season of 2020 Netflix sketch comedy series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun.
Stevens also made an appearance in Katy Perry's "Swish Swish" music video.
On May 30, 2011, Stevens revealed that she was pregnant with her first child. On December 31, 2011, she suffered a miscarriage. After competing in the 2012 Royal Rumble, false reports claimed that she had given birth to a baby boy named Jamie. Stevens revealed the truth about her miscarriage in March.
On August 6, 2012, weeks after she confirmed her WWE release, Stevens stated that she was on a mission to lose weight. She recruited a team of fitness experts and a therapist so she could get back into wrestling shape. She also showed interest into turning the experience into a reality show. Photos from August 2012 revealed a much slimmer Stevens.
Shimmer Women Athletes
Championship pursuits (2006–2010)
Ring of Honor (2007, 2010)
Independent circuit (2007–2010)
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Knockout Champion (2007–2009)
Knockouts Tag Team Champion (2009–2010)
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE (2010–2012)
Return to the independent circuit and Japan (2012–2016)
Return to TNA (2015–2016)
All Elite Wrestling (2019–2021)
Retirement and sporadic appearances (2021–2023)
Other media
Personal life
Championships and accomplishments
Mixed martial arts record
Filmography
2017–19 GLOW Tammé Dawson Recurring role (Season 1)
Main role (Season 2–3) 2020 Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun Herself Guest star, 1 episode ("'Lympics") 2023 Contributor, 1 episode ("Chyna")
External links
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