The wrestling career of Awesome Kong featured many ups and downs throughout her journey from the independent circuit to Japan to TNA to WWE to AEW and everywhere in between. Kong was a special talent who played a pivotal role in proving that women’s wrestling could thrive with her strong matches and impressive character.

RELATED: 10 Best Matches Of Awesome Kong's Career, Ranked

Quite a few moments behind the scenes have become part of Kong’s reputation as a fascinating figure in the industry. Most fans to witness Kong’s work at her best view her as a legend in the industry. Find out more about what went down behind the scenes during ther best and worst moments.

10 Jim Ross Said She'd Never Make It In Wrestling

Jim Ross

The WWE dream of Awesome Kong saw her attempting to get involved in the Tough Enough reality series. Jim Ross was one of the judges giving feedback to the aspiring wrestlers looking to get on the show to compete for a WWE contract.

RELATED: 10 Backstage Stories About Jim Ross That We Can't Believe

Kong revealed that Ross stated her look would never allow her to make it in wrestling since it was the era of fitness models getting hired. JR claimed he wasn’t that harsh, but he did reveal that he didn’t think Kong could fit into WWE based on the era.

9 Fight With Reby Sky Stemmed From Social Media

Reby Sky

Awesome Kong was involved in a couple of backstage fights during her stints in TNA. One that stood out as more surprising came against Reby Sky in the women’s locker room. Kong reportedly attacked Reby when she entered the room after she put her young child down.

TNA severed ties with Kong and Reby continued working for the company when appearing with her husband Matt Hardy. The issue stemmed from Reby posting insulting comments about Kong on multiple occasions.

8 Refused To Wrestle For TNA After Fight With Bubba The Love Sponge

Bubba Clem

Another memorable backstage fight involving Awesome Kong saw her attacking radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Hulk Hogan convinced TNA to hire Bubba as a broadcaster since the two were best friends at the time.

Bubba made racist comments on social media that Kong took exception to. The incident took place backstage during a television taping when Kong confronted Bubba leading to things getting physical. Kong was the only one to get any hits in before it was broken up.

7 Mick Foley Punching Bubba Stiff Was Done As Revenge For Her

Mick Foley punches Bubba

Mick Foley had an interaction with Bubba the Love Sponge during his final moments in TNA before leaving the company. The storyline saw Foley getting fired since he was planning to leave, and it wrote him out for good.

Foley was a good friend of Kong and had the segment hitting Bubba before walking out of the door. The hit injured Bubba’s nose and many wrestlers shared the inside tip that Foley went out of his way to hit him harder on behalf of Kong.

6 Beat Up Fan At Post-Show TNA Party

Awesome Kong

The shoot interviews of Awesome Kong saw her confirming or shutting down various stories from her career. Kong revealed an old story about getting into a fight with a fan after a TNA show was indeed accurate.

The story went that a fan asked Kong for an autograph and she asked them to wait until she was finished with a conversation. Kong got violent when the fan started initiating an argument with her fiancé due to the delay of the autograph.

5 Booker T Willingly Sold For Her On TNA House Show

Awesome Kong vs Booker T

TNA did not do intergender matches during Awesome Kong’s time in TNA or she would have been the top candidate to receive a push against male wrestlers. However, there was one instance of Kong facing off with a legendary male wrestler.

RELATED: TNA: 5 Reasons Gail Kim Is The Best Female Wrestler Ever (& 5 Why It's Awesome Kong)

Booker T and Kong were on opposite teams during a mixed tag match during a tour in Germany. The radio show of Booker revealed that he told Kong in the ring to hit some moves on him without planning it and TNA uploaded the video with huge numbers on YouTube.

4 Became Unexpected Ratings Draw For TNA

Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim

The Knockouts division was meant to add variety to TNA, but the company didn’t expect it to be a huge financial success right away. In fact, there was a long delay before the women even started to have consistent matches for TNA.

Awesome Kong and Gail Kim became the breakout stars in the first year as stellar talents. The ratings for their matches always impressed to make the Knockouts division an instant success. Kong felt disrespected that she wasn’t compensated the way her success indicated.

3 Showed Up At All In Thinking It Was A Small Indie Show

All In press conference

The All In event run by Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks created a massive success story for the wrestling business. AEW was initially inspired by the event doing well, but Awesome Kong was unaware of the importance despite being booked.

The original Starrcast event featured Kong as one of the guests there to take photos and sign autographs. However, she expected to sell merchandise at the show itself thinking it would be another small independent event. Kong didn’t realize how big the show was until arriving at the Sears Centre as a huge venue.

2 Michelle McCool Turned Down Storyline Dropping Belt To Her

Michelle McCool

Successful ‘90s actor Freddie Prinze Jr. tried his hand at writing for WWE by joining the creative team. The ideas of Prinze were often interesting and he had a great plan for Awesome Kong during her WWE run as Kharma.

Prinze wanted Kharma to defeat Michelle McCool for the Divas Championship with the payoff of a match putting over Beth Phoenix in a WrestleMania moment meant to replicate Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan. The claims of Freddie were that McCool shut down the idea and it ended there.

1 Seth Rollins Put Her Over When Other Wrestler Missed Show

Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins spent years on the independent circuit under the name of Tyler Black to build a reputation. Awesome Kong revealed that another wrestler missing a show left her without an opponent and most male wrestlers did not want to put over a woman.

A young Rollins stepped up to the plate and revealed he wanted to work with Kong. The match took place at NWA Midwest and Kong defeated Rollins in the match of future superstars. Rollins did not have the mindset of other wrestlers at the time who ultimately never made it to a bigger stage.

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