EP.11 - Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong - “I just have to be me”

PODCAST SCRIPT DOC

EP: 11

TITLE: AWESOME KONG VS GAIL KIM

INTRO:

January 10th 2008. TNA Wrestling is televising their Impact! Television show from the infamous Impact Zone from Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The unstoppable behemoth that is Awesome Kong is facing off in the main event for the third time with the chiseled Knockouts prototype Gail Kim. …do I need to spell it out more? Two women are main eventing wrestling shows while actually wrestling in 2008. We’re hopping right into this one, let’s hit the music thing and roll this back with a rewind

theme music

Chapter 1:

In the early and mid 2000’s I was graduating high school and entering adulthood; it would be intellectually dishonest of me to say that my impression of women’s wrestling during that time was that it was more on the “entertainment” side than the “sports'' side, so to speak. Generally, this had what been on my tv growing up with WWE and WCW in the house. Remember, up until the mid 2000s, women’s wrestling on the mainstream American stage was…let’s say not terribly flattering at times when viewed under the prism of today’s standards. Granted, women’s wrestling history is overfull with supremely talented individuals such as Mildred Burke and Mae Young, and while I was very young when they were featured in WWE, I do remember Bull Nakano and Allundra Blayze trading blows back and forth from my youth. However, I was mostly accustomed and conditioned to assume that most of the women talent were either managers/valets, ie eye candy for the most part, or a talent that would compete in the numerous “bra and panty” matches during this era of wrestling. People like Chyna, Trish Stratus, Lita, Jackie, and Molly Holly were soon featured as more than just managers; I remember Jacqueline in particular looking like a bad ass motherfucker in that ring. Instinctually, I knew that women could compete; this is where i have to reference my ignorance as a younger person that thought that, once again, there was only two wrestling games in town. Little did i know that there was another company, weirdly enough with a six sided ring, that would be featuring not Divas, not just women, but an entire division dedicated to women’s wrestling: The Knockouts. And if we’re talking about the Knockouts, we have to start with the very first Knockout champion; a women that is synonymous with that moniker, and the main protagonist of our rewind for this week; Gail Kim.

Gail Kim was born in 1977 in Toronto, Canada. A child of Korean immigrants, Kim was athletic from an early age, showcasing her skills in a variety of sports including volleyball and basketball. She would continue pursuing her love of sports in her collegiate studies, first majoring in kinesiology before transferring into the nutrition program at Ryerson University. Upon obtaining her degree, Kim realized that there was a faint voice beckoning her to a new career path in both sports and entertaining; wrestling. She soon enrolled in Ron Hutchison’s School of Pro Wrestling in Toronto; following in the footsteps of previous graduates such as Edge, Christian, Tristh Stratus, and Beth Phoenix just to name a few. Kim would originally debut under a mask as La Felina, “The Queen of the Cats”, in the Apocalypse Wrestling Federatoin that Hutchison promoted, and would make the rounds on the Canadian indie wrestling circuit for the first two years of her career. After persuasion by Molly Holly to send her tapes into WWE for a tryout, Kim was hired by WWE in October 2002 and sent to their developmental territory at the time OVW. After spending 8 months honing her craft and learning a new system, Kim would debut as a babyface with Matrix inspired ring gear. Her first televised WWE match was on June 30 2003; it was a seven woman battle royal for the WWE Women’s Championship, which Kim would win. For the next 16 months, Kim would help elevate the Women’s Division with skill and inring talent that were way ahead of their time. One would think that the top brass would be nothing but ecstatic about this situation; however, you can read between the lines when you have a situation that includes the year 2004, Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis, and women. Kim was future endeavored in November of 2004, and would soon find greener pastures down in Florida at The Impact Zone. 

During her time in between WWE and TNA, Kim did travel to gain more experience, wrestling in locations such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia. She made her TNA debut on October 8th 2005, aligning herself with Jeff Jarrett and the America’s Most Wanted tag team of Chris Harris and James Storm. Her first few years in TNA saw Kim debut as a manager, albeit regularly getting involved in matches physically, and then morph into a standalone singles competitor after a feud with Jacqueline came to a conclusion via a Street Fight Rules Match. During this time, Kim would stand in both singles bouts with women and various mixed gendered matches as well, showing an  indomitable spirit and willingness to showcase a brand of physicality that American audiences by and large weren't all too familiar with. And to be perfectly fair and transparent, it wasnt just Kim that was displaying abilities that often time exceeding their male counterparts. Indeed, the first wave of the American Women’s Wrestling revolution was upon us, and we were gonna give them their own term; Knockouts. 

The brainchild of noted old man yelling at clouds Dutch Mantel, the Knockouts Division ostensibly was just a “normal” women’s division; I would suggest that given the talent involved, if you gave them any leeway to work in that ring, these ladies would, and sweet sassy molassy did they. It was announced that a ten women gauntlet match would take place at Bound for Glory 2007 to determine the inaugural TNA Knockout Champion. Traci Brooks, Jackie Moore, Shelly Martinez, ODB, Angel Williams, Christ Hemme, Talia Madison, Roxxi Laveaux, and Gail Kim would battle for just over 12 mins. 9 women would be ejected over the top rope for elimination, with Gail Kim being the last sole survivor in this match. With the new Knockouts Championship raised above her head, the athletic never-say-die Kim was positioned to take this new division, and women’s wrestling in general, into a new stratosphere. In order to make this accomplishment possible, she really needed a larger than life badgirl. A spectacle of heel, the likes of which we’ve hardly ever seen in women’s wrestling. Well, I’m not sure if you noticed before, as i know numbers are hard in an audio only format, but I only named of 9 of the 10 women in that gauntlet match. You see, it was the 10th entrant that would soon become Gail Kim’s biggest foil in her march towards greatness, but also the competitor who it could be argued her career is indebted to; Awesome Kong.

Kia Stevens was also born in 1977 like Kim, albeit thousands of miles away from Kim’s native Toronto. Growing up in Carson, California. The daughter of a fledgling actress, Stevens’ big heart and infectiously warm personality made her perfect fit for her first career in social working. Stevens grew up with a younger brother than constantly put her in the Camel Clutch; she would sneak away to her bedroom in order to watch film to learn moves to get back at her brother. I dunno about you, but i did the exact same thing. Indeed, it seems that seed was planted early on. After giving up her business providing vender machines to schools in order to train at The School of Hard Knocks in San Bernardino, California, Stevens would wrestle on the California indie circuit, before submitting herself to tryouts for WWE’s Tough Enough tv competition. Stevens stands closer to 6’ tall than most women, and is more on the voluptuous side of life; due to these factors, she would fail her audition with the WWE because, as Jim Ross callously put it at the time, “shes too fat”. Always stepping forward, Stevens would be invited to train overseas at the All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling dojo. Becoming fluent in Japanese and undergoing the infamously rigorous Japanese training schedule, she soon debuts as Amazing Kong, as promotor Masatsugu Matsunaga needed a replacement for legendary joshi wrestler Aja Kong. The “Kong” name came with many potential connotations, especially given Stevens’ stature as a voluptuous African American woman. To her credit, Stevens would embrace the name Kong, vowing to “...make it a name of respect so that when people hear it, they either tremble in fear or stand up straigther”.

Stevens would quickly endear herself to the Japanese fans with her size and strength, as while the Japanese crowds have seen women like Aja Kong in particular perform before, Stevens produced the same type of rarified air that was usually reserved for gaijins such as Big Van Vader. Historically, that in and of itself isnt too bad of a comparison. Graduating her nom de plume to Awesome Kong, Stevens would have great success in the promotions AJW, Gaea, and SHIMMER. At one point, Kong would hold the prestigious WWWA Championship; this title shared a direct lineage to the aforementioned Mildred Burke. The wrestling public in general had never seen a women’s competitor quite like Kong; in addition to her size and strength, she was quick and agile enough, especially early on, for her not to become too much of slog in the ring, albeit with a superheavyweight competitor, a crisp ring pace is typically not par for the course. Kong was set up much like the aforementioned Vader; an unstoppable force, the likes of which we’ve never seen. 

Awesome Kong had paid her dues worldwide, and the buzz surrounding where she would end up was keeping evyerone’s LiveJournals in a perpetual state of readiness for a new blog post. And yeah, i just casually namedropped LiveJournal. If you know what I’m talking about, youre lower back hurts, and its probably time to schedule your next yearly mid life physical, but i digress. Finally, there was a competitor that for Kim, a noted hard hitter that enjoyed a much higher level of physicality than most women at the time, could handle. The scene was set for Kong to make an appearance, and it would be in the Zone of the six sided ring where she would finally make her television debut.

Chapter 2

Kong would make her debut in TNA October 11th 2007 in a match against Kim that was forcast things to come. In a little over 4 minutes, Kim unleashes a fury of technical offense against the debuting Kong, the ring surrounded by most of the women that would be entering the gauntlet match, with almost everyone’s jaw on the floor. 

Kong was the 10th woman in that Battle Royal Gauntlet Match at Bound For Glory, needing to be eliminated by the cumulative efforts of ODB, Angelina Love, and the eventual winner Kim; in fact, this would be considered the genesis of this feud. Kim was presented as the the prototype female competitor for the Knockouts Division, one that was constantly fighting an uphill battle. Kong was the perfect counterpoint as the larger than life heel that needed multiple competitors banding together in order to be defeated. 

Kim would make her first defense of the TNA Knockout’s Championship at the Genesis PPV on November 11 2007, defeating Roxxi Laveaux, ODB, and Angel Williams. Kong, meanwhile, would start squashing opponents at will, growing her status to that of must watch television; indeed, she would provide to be a ratings draw during her tenure in TNA. No other promotion had talent such as this at the time, and for that, TNA had the wrestling world’s undivided attention.

Part of what makes the magic between these two so great is that Kim is a top level seller, sometimes in such a way that it makes it hard to differentiate when she’s legitimately hurt; and that Kong is presented as such a monster force, that it makes sense for her to be able to easily womanhandle an opponent that quite possibly is half to maybe one third her size. Special pairings like this only happen every so often, and when you can catch that lightning in a bottle, you get feuds like this. 

Our two focal stars clash together for the first time in our feud at Turning Point. The December 2nd 2007 PPV event would feature Kim and Kong facing off on the 5th match of the card. The two had previously had a brawl a few weeks prior on a November 15th episode of Impact!, and it was deemed that Kong was deserving of a title shot. The match itself lasts just over 8 minutes, with Kim doing her best Shawn Michaels impersonation and selling her arse off from Kong’s nonstop punishment . It’s important to note that viewing certain events, moments, or periods of time through the prism of today can lead to a skewed memory of the past; held to modern standards, what these women were doing wasn’t necessarily outstanding. Importantly, this was still in the time of lingerie matches, so 8 minutes of legitimate female wrestling was not only refreshing, but inspiring. One of Kong’s personality traits was a somewhat short temper; despite numerous pleas from referee to abide by the rules, Kong would snap and perform her Awesome Bomb manuever on him. The bell would ring, and Kim would retain her championship over Kong via disqualification; the feud score set 1-0 in favor of Kim, but the tenuous relationship was just getting started. 

The following weeks saw Kong jump Kim multiple times, including once after a match wherein Kim loses to ODB, albeit not for the championship. It is announced on December 20th that Kim and Kong will face off once again at the following month’s PPV to see if Kong can finally squash her relatively pintsized foe, or if Kim can continue to exude pure excellence and once again defeat her Goaliath-esque counterpart.

The calendar turned to 2008, and our first rematch is to happen at the Final Resolution PPV. Due to Kong’s actions at their previous encounter, our special stipulation for this match is that it was to be fought under No Disqualification Rules. This match begins by Kim not even being able to make it into the ring as Kong starts her assault to the outside and near commentary. Kong would continue her historic difficulties with authority by Awesome Bombing the referee, following this by assaulting him with a steel chair. Kim steals the chair and hits what can be described as a sickening head shot to Kong for a near fall counted by replacement ref. As Kong is quite literally foaming at the mouth with rage as she attempts to Awesome Bomb this second referee, Kim utilizes his cunning by performing a quick roll up pin for the surprise 1-2-3 victory. 12:44 seconds of unhinged violence that we hadn’t seen from women on an American promotion’s programming to such a degree was both a little shocking, instantly attention grabbing, long overdue for the women competitors, and above all else, fucking awesome. Kim and Kong would continue to battle after the bell on the outside of the ring before security had to be called in for assistance. The feud is 2-0 for Kim, which is definitely not a tenuous situation for Kong to be in. Typically you dont see the undersized (by comparison) babyface go up 2-0 in a rivalry with the overpowered heel; what makes this work is this showcases Kim’s intelligence in letting Kong, in essence, beat herself in these bouts. Kong’s inability to control her emotions is one of her calling cards that makes her a gravitational force for the fans; at times, she appears borderline psychotic with pure enraged emotions. Kim can essentially play the long game, and just wait until Kong’s emotions inevitably get the better of her. Strength and size differences can be overcome to an extent; sometimes, its much better to let the bull tire itself out instead of trying to wrangle it.

The final match in this feud, canonically, takes place on the January 10th episode of Impact! In another progressive move, especially for the time, these women are going to be featured in the main event of the show. Kong pounces on Kim mid-entrance on the rampway, and backfists Kim straight into the ring. Taking the fight to the outside of the ring, Kong slams Kim against the wall of the ramp. Kong sets up to bodyslam Kim through the wall, but Kim moves at the last minute, giving us one of Kong’s most iconic moments. Kim attempts to mount various comebacks, but a combination of Kong’s associate Raisha Saeed causing a distraction, and Kong’s unhuman strength, provide too much for Kim. Kim attempts a hurricanrana from the top rope, but Kong catches her. Three consecutive Awesome Bombs, with the final one being particularly emphatic, seals the championship win for Kong. Our feud is at a score of 2-1 for Kim, but it is Kong that ultimately reigns supreme at the end of this, with Kong holding the Knockouts Championship high above her head, while Kim lay in the ring being attended to my medical officials.

Chapter 3

The fallout from this feud would be felt for years to come. While unfortunately suffering a concussion in her conclusive match with Kong, Kim would shortly be named TNA Knockout of the Year. She would go on to have stories with Knockouts legend ODB and The Beautiful People. Somewhat appropriately, her last match of her first TNA run would be her Awesome Kong herself on August 21st of 2008. Kim would go back to the WWE for a second run with the promotion, however with somewhat similar results to the first. At the time, WWE was still in full on Divas mode with their women’s division; they had competitors like Beth Phoenix, for example, that were more than just swimsuit fodder, not to say that all women are more than just that. The WWE at the time was still behind the curve, and not truly a place for a highly physically in ring competitor like Kim. She would infamously eliminate herself from a women’s battle royal match on RAW to determine the number one contender for the Divas Championship; her subsequent firing end her second WWE and would lead her back to TNA for another storied run as a no doubt first ballot Hall of Fame talent.

Kong, meanwhile, would begin a $25,000 challenge to any female in the audience to come challenge her for the Knockouts Championship. This would eventually lead to the debut of Taylor Wilde, and further stories with the aforementioned Beautiful People. Kong and Hamada would go on to form a partnership and win the TNA Knockouts Tag Titles. Unfortunately, an incident involving Bubba the Love Sponge over earthquake relief efforts in Haiti would start a series of events leading to Kong’s TNA release in March 2010, albeit some of the issues with Kong and TNA were over monetary disputes. Kong would finally make it to the WWE, and be badly mishandled, as one again, WWE was still behind the curve as far as it’s handling of female talent at the time. She would in due time return to the beloved independent and Japanese joshi wrestling scenes where Kong Lore was still was known and much respected. She would have a return herself to TNA in 2015, reuniting with Kim in both united fronts against opponents such as The Dollhouse and once again against each other in bouts over the Knockouts Championship. Time had caught up and passed them in some ways at this point, as the bar for women’s wrestling had been raised to such heights that even world level talents such as Kim and Kong couldnt match, nor come close to eclipsing, their pioneering first feud.

I’m going to cheat this time, and not give you Three Memorable Moments. In such a unique feud, where a division is being built before our eyes, with almost no control to judge this rivalry and matches against, especially in the late 2000s when women were still fighting for every minute of television time, I advise that you go watch all three title bouts and the Impact segments with these women. In what little screen time these performers are given, they’re able to drum up an uncanny amount of emotional collateral. I can only imagine how much more acclaimed this feud would be if each match got even 2-3 more extra minutes, maybe if these ladies got some more promo time, even though part of Kong’s presence was due to a lack of mic time. This feud is the rise of Gail Kim as the spotlight talent for really a new version of wrestling for lot of the audience that was still used to seeing the lingeries matches in other promotions, and that spotlight hitting a brick wall of a antagonist that looks like a create-a-character in videogame. It hits really hard and fast, and for a rewatch, doesnt take up too much time, which is the only positive i’ll give management for not giving these women, or any women, more screen time.

Conclusion:
Change doesnt happen without some sort of discomfort, or maybe better said, vulnerability. Complacency is the hallmark of comfort, and you cannot expect respect from a culture that subverts you. In this case, two women, whether they realized it at the time, as almost everybody can get lost in the moment, took it upon themselves to put it all out there to see if what they loved would resonate with the general public. Two femme fatales who were not only polar opposites of each other, but were also “unconventional” in a traditional wrestling sense, in that they were both women of color. Even giving Kim credit for having a more “mainstream” body type and some success in her first run in the WWE, it was this rivalry where both Kim and Kong were able to fully embrace their own strengths and faults, each having overwhelming in ring ability, each reveling in not only having a squared circle…i mean, a hexagonal mat based stage on which to display their prowess, but also with having a fully capable dance partner that was reciprocal in their knowledge of storytelling and seeing the bigger picture for the greater cause. Truly beautiful, and I want to thank both Gail Kim and Awesome Kong not only for the moments they created at the time and for the memories on rewatch, but for also being strong empowered women that are pillars in women’s wrestling history.

This takes us to the end of our feud for the week.

Thank YOU for listening.

Be sure to follow, like, and subscribe. If you have a feud you’d like to see rewound, or any other comments, please feel free to reach me at feudrewind@gmail.com. We’re on all the socials as Feud Rewind as well.
Fellow fan, im’ your host Benza Lance, and I’ll roll it back with you next week, on the Feud Rewind.