Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Kia Michelle Stevens (Awesome Kong / Kharma)

Kia Michelle Stevens (born September 4, 1977), better known by her ring names Amazing Kong, Awesome Kong and Kharma, is an American professional wrestler. She is signed with WWE, currently performing in its Divas division. She is best known for her work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and has also worked for Shimmer Women Athletes, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Lucha Libre USA, and various independent promotions in the United States and Japan.

She is a former two-time TNA Knockout's champion, a former WWWA World Women's champion in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, a former NWA World Women's champion and a former AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Women's champion. Her success is not limited to singles wrestling, as she frequently teamed with Aja Kong to form the tag team Double Kong who held tag team championships in four different promotions, along with winning the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship with Hamada. She was also ranked first in the inaugural list of Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 50 Females.

She began her professional wrestling career in 2002 after appearing on a reality television show. She primarily wrestled in Japan for the first five years of her career, holding numerous championships there. In 2006 she began wrestling in her native United States again, appearing on the independent circuit before appearing on national television with TNA Wrestling where she was a driving force in the foundation of their Knockout division.

Joanie Laurer, known during her WWF career as Chyna, served as Stevens' primary inspiration to become a professional wrestler. In 2002, Stevens appeared on the Discovery Health Body Challenge as a contestant trying to lose weight in hopes of becoming a professional wrestler. Afterward, 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.

On December 29, 2010, it was reported that Stevens had signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). From April 11, 2011 onwards, vignettes aired during WWE television with Stevens, whose face was concealed by shadows and her signature braids, dismembering female dolls while cackling maniacally. During the April 25 episode of Raw, Stevens' face was shown for the first time in the vignettes, and her new ring name was revealed as Kharma. Kharma made her debut on May 1 at Extreme Rules, attacking Michelle McCool after a match where she had lost her WWE contract, and she continued to attack different WWE Divas on both Raw and SmackDown in the following weeks. On the May 23 episode of Raw, Kharma interrupted a tag team match but rather than attack everyone, she uncharacteristically broke down crying. 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. Despite not having wrestled a match for WWE at the time, THQ made Kharma available as a downloadable, playable character in the WWE '12 video game.

Kharma made her return at the 2012 Royal Rumble event, becoming the third woman to enter a Royal Rumble match (after Chyna in the 1999 Rumble Match and Beth Phoenix in the 2010 Rumble Match). She eliminated Hunico before being eliminated by Dolph Ziggler

Stevens grew up in Carson, California and has a younger brother. Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, she was employed as a social worker. She also owned a business that put vending machines in several high schools. Stevens' family and friends helped her fund her career in wrestling, when she went to train in Japan. She is also an investor in Nu Skin Enterprises, a line of skin and nutritional products.

On December 22, 2010, Stevens was arrested in Hillsborough County, Florida for driving without a valid license. She was charged with a second degree misdemeanor and released less than two hours later on $1,000 bond.

On May 30, 2011 Stevens announced that she was pregnant with her first child. Later that year, on December 5, TMZ.com published a story about her wrestling themed engagement ring, announcing both her engagement and the likelihood of a June 2012 wedding. On December 31, 2011, Stevens gave birth to a baby boy named Jamie.

 
 

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