Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we're really
digging into something significant. More than
just a career, it feels like examining a seismic
shift in wrestling. Yeah, definitely. We are
diving deep into the, well, the massive multi
-decade journey of Kia Michelle Stevens, a performer
known globally, really, under names like Amazing
Kong, Awesome Kong, and Kerma. And she didn't
just participate in women's pro wrestling. I
mean, you could argue she fundamentally shaped
its modern path across, what, three continents?
Exactly. Three continents. And then transition
to Hollywood, too. It's quite the story. So our
mission today really is to take all these sources
we have detailing this incredible life, you know,
from those incredibly tough Japanese dojos all
the way to Hollywood sets. Yeah. And kind of
pull out the blueprint, see how dominance, that
sheer perseverance and adaptability can build
a legacy that's just, well. Undeniable. Undeniable
is the word. We're tracking someone who was a
two -time TNA knockouts champion, a knockouts
tag team champion. Right. And this is key, the
woman who topped the very first Pro Wrestling
Illustrated PWI Women's 100 list back in 2008.
That PWI ranking straight off the bat in the
U .S. tells you so much about her immediate impact.
It really does. And she wasn't done breaking
barriers. She became only the third woman ever
to enter the men's WWE Royal Rumble. That was
2012. Just an incredible resume when you lay
it all out. It's wild. But okay, let's rewind.
The origin story. Because this wasn't like an
easy path. It wasn't immediate stardom. No, not
at all. And what's really fascinating is who
initially inspired her. The spark came from watching
someone completely different in style. Amy Dumas,
you know, Lita. Wow. High flying, edgy, the rebel
figure of that era. Exactly. Which makes Steven's
own path becoming this dominant powerhouse, almost
monster figure. Such a well, such an interesting
contrast, right? It really is. But she committed
early on. Our sources mentioned her appearing
on the Discovery Health Body Challenge reality
show. That was back in 2002. Yeah. And the reason
was explicit. To lose weight specifically for
wrestling. She was actively reshaping her life,
her body, just trying to get her foot in the
door of the industry. That drive to get in, it
leads right to a pivotal moment, doesn't it?
The one that kind of lit the fuse for her whole
career. Oh, yeah. The Tough Enough 2 audition.
That reality show where the winner got a WWF
contract back then. And she got rejected. And
the reason. It's because legendary. Jim Ross
reportedly told her point blank that she was
too fat for the industry standard. I know at
that time. Oof. That's harsh. Just a potentially
crushing critique for anyone starting out. How
did she handle that? Well, instead of letting
it crush her, Stevens actually went on record
later saying she respected Ross for being so
blunt. She said, and this is powerful, that the
comment gave her. The fire to succeed. Wow. Okay.
So she turned it into fuel. Exactly. Rocket fuel.
Yeah. She basically realized, okay, I can't wait
to be picked. I need to go somewhere else and
become so good, so undeniable that they have
to notice somewhere power and size were valued
differently. And undeniable is exactly what she
became by getting on a plane and heading across
the world. Yeah. Japan. Let's unpack how she
built that foundation there. Okay. So Japan.
For the first, what, five years of her pro career,
Kia Stevens. basically immersed herself completely
in Joshi Purosu. That's right. 2002 to 2007,
roughly. And this wasn't just learning the ropes.
This was where she really synthesized that brutal,
powerful style that later, you know, terrified
American audiences. Joshi is known for being
incredibly physical. The training sounds just
intense, doesn't even cover it. Sources say she
trained at the Inoki Dojo and the legendary All
Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Dojo, AJW. Right.
And when you talk about AJW, you're talking about
maybe the most respected pipeline for female
wrestlers historically, known for producing incredibly
tough, technically sound talent. So what was
that training actually like? Well, it's a commitment
to suffering, frankly, designed to grind you
down physically and mentally, excruciating drills,
insane conditioning, and a really stiff, realistic
contact style. Lots of hard forearms, kicks,
submissions that look like they hurt because,
well, they do. Creates a different kind of performer,
I imagine. Absolutely. Someone who understands
ring psychology, the language of struggle, just
implicitly. And get this. During this total immersion.
She actually became fluent in Japanese. Wow.
Fully committed. And she wasn't just training
wrestling. She was also doing mixed martial arts
training, like real combat training. She eventually
chose to focus purely on wrestling. But that
background, that added a layer of credibility
to everything she did later. You believe she
could hurt people. She wasn't just playing tough.
She was trained to be tough. Exactly. And that
immersion led to her first big ring name, Amazing
Kong. There's a great story here, too. Oh, yeah.
A Japanese promoter, Masatsugu Matsunaga, needed
a big, dominant American wrestler, basically
as a replacement for the famous Japanese wrestler,
Aja Kong, in some matches he'd booked. So he
gave Stevens the name, just like that. Pretty
much. Instantly linking her to one of the most
feared names in joshi history, Aja Kong was and
is a legend. That's immense pressure, stepping
into the shadow of a legend like that. Did she
handle it? She didn't just handle it, she owned
it. She embraced the power style, but very quickly
proved she was more than just a replacement.
By late 2004, she beat Ayako Hamada, another
highly respected name for the WWA World Single
Championship. The WWWA title. That was the heart
of AJW, right? Yeah. Historically huge. Absolutely.
Often considered the most important women's title
in Japan at the time. Winning that established
her immediately. She wasn't just the other Kong,
she was a legitimate champion. And it's a nice
touch that Hamada later became one of Steven's
favorites. favorite opponents she mentioned.
Shows that mutual respect forged in that tough
environment. It really does. And speaking of
Kongs, her relationship with her namesake, Aja
Kong, it evolved. It became something really
influential. At a Gaia Japan anniversary show
in 2004, after Aja Sash, both Kongs Amazing and
Aja attacked the main eventers. They announced
right then and there they were forming a tag
team. W -Kong. W -Kong. Okay, visually, that's
terrifying. Two absolute monsters teaming up.
Were they successful? Oh, hugely successful.
They didn't mess around, won the IW Tag Team
Championship pretty quickly, and defended it
all through the summer of 2004. Wow. But here's
the really significant piece of history. W -Kong
were the final team ever to hold the WWWA World
Tag Team Championship before All Japan Women's
Pro Wrestling, AJW, closed its doors for good.
Wait, really? The final holders? The very last
ones. Think about that. They essentially closed
the book on an entire era of women's wrestling
history by holding those final titles. That's
a permanent mark. That's incredible. Okay, so
she's established as this dominant force, part
of a legendary tag team. Yeah. And then the next
step in her persona's evolution seems almost...
bizarre hey yeah it shows incredible range you've
got the super serious historical tag team w kong
and then they pivot to doing comedy in the promotion
hustle hustle was known for being pretty out
there right surreal comedic stuff exactly so
w kong these two terrifying figures they adopt
these comedy gimmicks margaret and erica the
power was still there but now it was wrapped
in like complete farce and the source notes they
wrestled in a yellow tutu amazing kong in a tutu
A bright yellow tutu. It sounds ridiculous, but
it shows incredible commitment to the bit. To
go from that ultra stiff, serious championship
wrestling to pulling off silly comedy that required
timing and performance while still having that
underlying threat. That's real performing talent.
Did it work? Was it successful? It absolutely
was. Margaret and Erica actually won the Hustle
Super Tag Team Championship, which was mostly
men competing for it, and held it for months
in 2006. This period proved she learned comedic
timing, adaptability, skills that definitely
paid off later, especially with the acting crossover.
Right. Good point. And just to circle back on
that combat training. Her actual pro MMA record.
Stands at one win, zero losses. The win was a
TKO, punches, at an event called G -Shuto, Wrestle
Expo 2006. So five years in Japan. Intense training,
championship success, tag team history, comedy,
even real MMA experience. She wasn't just ready
to come back to the U .S. No. She was ready to
take over. She had the style, the pedigree, the
versatility. The U .S. wrestling scene was about
to get a major shakeup. Okay, so Kia Stevens
comes back stateside. Debuts in TNA October 2007.
They tweaked the name slightly. From Amazing
Kong to Awesome Kong. Yeah, a bit more accessible
for the U .S. audience, maybe. And her timing
couldn't have been better. TNA was trying to
launch a serious women's division, the Knockouts.
The idea was for it to be presented as genuinely
competitive, you know, on par with the men's
stuff, which wasn't really the standard elsewhere
then. And she wasn't just part of it. She basically
became the division's defining force, didn't
she? Instantly. The Knockouts division got immediate
credibility largely because of that first major
feud. Awesome Kong versus Gail Kim. Classic dynamic.
Kim the athletic, skilled high flyer, Kong the
unstoppable monster heel. Right. It made for
a must -watch TV right away. It established the
whole division. The first title chase was at
Bound for Glory. That 10 -knockout gauntlet match
to crown the first champion. Kong was booked
like the final boss. Oh, yeah. It took, what,
three other women working together just to get
her out? Gail Kim ended up winning that first
title. But the feud built this narrative, right?
That Kong could really only be beaten by like
unfair tactics or overwhelming numbers. Exactly.
She lost some early matches by DQ for, you know,
awesome bombing the referee or only got pinned
after being absolutely brutalized. The message
was clear. One -on -one, she was unbeatable.
So the title win felt inevitable. Totally. January
10, 2008, on Impact. That's when her manager,
the mysterious Raisha Saeed, debuted to help
her. Kong finally beat Kim and won the TNA Women's
Knockout Championship. And her reign. It was
defined by one of the all -time great monster
heel tactics, the $25 ,000 challenge. Tell us
about that. Oh, the challenge was brilliant.
It wasn't just a gimmick. It was a weekly statement
of her invincibility. Kong would offer $25 ,000
cash to any woman from the audience who could
beat her. Of course, these weren't really random
audience members. Huh, no. Usually planted wrestlers,
enhancement talent. They'd come out, maybe cut
a promo, talk tough, and then Kong would just
demolish them. Usually in under a minute. It
built this incredible aura of fear around her.
The money made it seem high stakes, but her dominance
made her seem like this legendary, unbeatable
monster. That's the key to great monster booking,
though. You need the perfect hero to eventually
overcome the monster. And for Kong, that hero
was Taylor Wilde. Right. The ultimate underdog.
She kept trying, kept failing, kept taking the
punishment. Exactly. Wilde came back multiple
times. Then on her third try, July 10th, she
did the impossible. Pinned Kong. Won the 25K
and the knockouts title. Huge moment. It instantly
elevated Wilde and showed that Kong's dominance,
while terrifying, could be used for incredible
dramatic payoffs. Perfect wrestling storytelling.
But Kong wasn't down for long. She regained the
title pretty quickly, October 2008. Became a
two -time champ. And this led to her backup getting
formalized, right? The Entourage. Yeah, that's
when the alliance with Saeed and Raka Khan, and
later they added Sojourner Bolt, got the official
name. The Kongtourage. The Kongtourage. Love
it. It solidified her status. Top heel, protected,
always had backup. Anyone challenging her had
to deal with the numbers game immediately. Okay,
so the entourage is rolling, but things started
to shift. The really big change in this TNNA
run was her turning into a fan favorite, a baby
face. Which seemed unlikely for a monster like
her. It did, but the execution was masterful.
It happened during her feud with the beautiful
people Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. Their gimmick
was all about makeovers, right? Which usually
meant humiliating their opponents. Uh -huh. They
targeted Kong, kept trying to cut her signature
braids, and eventually they succeeded on a live
impact. They held her down and cut her hair.
Ouch. That's a deeply personal attack for a character
like Kong. That humiliation. That was the linchpin.
It was so brutal, so... disrespectful that the
audience reaction was immediate they started
cheering for kong she became the wronged party
seeking justified revenge so she turned face
almost organically through that feud pretty much
the feud continued even after she lost the title
again in a controversial three -way cage match
remember velvet sky from outside the cage tied
kong's hair to the cage itself yeah Preventing
her from getting involved. Yeah. It cemented
the beautiful people as these conniving villains
and Kong as this noble, if still terrifying,
Avenger. Great stuff. Before this first TNA run
ended, though, she did grab tag team gold again.
She teamed up with Hamada, her old rival from
Japan. Full circle moment there. Yeah. They won
the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship in January
2010. But the end of this TNA period, it got
messy. Real life backstage stuff. Right. The
Bubba the Love Spun incident. Yeah. January 2010.
Yeah. Stevens had a serious physical altercation
backstage with the radio host Bubba. It apparently
stemmed from comments he'd made on a show about
the Haiti earthquake relief efforts. And Stevens
was heavily involved in fundraising for Haiti
relief, wasn't she? Deeply invested. She felt
strongly about his negative comments. Reports
say she confronted him, things got physical,
and TNA sent her home. She was suspended. And
then released in March 2010. TNA cited personal
reasons, but Stevens later said something different.
Right. She later clarified it was more about
money issues and changes in TNA management at
the time. She'd refused to go on a UK tour before
the release. Regardless of the exact trigger,
it highlighted her willingness to stand up for
her principles, even if it cost her job. While
all that TNA drama was happening, we shouldn't
forget her impact on the indies during this time.
She was a major presence in promotions like Shimmer.
Absolutely vital. Shimmer women athletes. She
challenged their first ever champion, Sarah Del
Rey. Lost, but only by count out. That finish,
the count out loss, was deliberate, wasn't it?
To protect Kong. Exactly. It kept her monster
aura intact. She didn't get pinned or submitted.
And her matches with Mischief and Shimmer were
huge. Mischief was the first woman to actually
pin Kong and Shimmer, right? Yeah, on Volume
9, it was a massive deal. Miss Schiff had to
kick out of Kong's finiture, the Amazing Bomb,
then hit, like, everything in her own arsenal
to get the pin. That match is seen as a classic,
establishing Kong as the ultimate gatekeeper
on the indies. If you beat Kong clean, you were
legit. And her NWA run showed similar protective
booking. Perfect example. She beat Miss Schiff
for the NWA World Women's Championship in May
2007. She actually held it at the same time as
the AWA World Women's Championship. title, a
double champion. But when Mischief eventually
won the NWA title back from her almost a year
later, there was a special stipulation. Mischief
could only win via count -out. Via count -out?
Why? It was clever booking to protect Kong's
biggest asset, her invincibility. Mischief gets
the title back, good for NWA story continuity.
But Kong still hasn't been pinned or submitted
on the indies. Her monster status remains totally
bulletproof. Smart. Preserving the attraction.
Exactly. Her value was tied to that unbeatable
aura and that undeniable presence, that stature.
Well, it opened the door to the biggest wrestling
company in the world. So late 2010, Stephen signs
with WWE. This meant a whole new persona, right?
Awesome Kong was known. But WWE wanted their
own creation. Right. Enter Karma. And the approach
was different. Awesome Kong was about physical
dominance, karma. She was booked almost like
a horror movie villain. Pure psychological dread.
The debut vignettes were genuinely chilling.
I remember those. April 2011. You didn't see
her face clearly, just shadows, those distinctive
braids. And that maniacal laugh while she just
systematically destroyed female dolls. Barbie
dolls, basically. Specifically dolls representing
former WWE Divas champions. Yeah. It immediately
established her target and her... unsettling
methods it was a deliberate shift less about
power bombs more about pure menace the name karma
was revealed and then she physically debuted
at the extreme rules pay -per -view may 1st 2011
immediately went after michelle mccool and the
pattern was set for the next few weeks right
show up destroy former champions no mercy total
destruction she felt like this unstoppable force
but then then came that moment the one that completely
flipped the script that aha moment as you called
it earlier may 23rd raw yeah karma comes out
interrupts a diva's tag match gets in the ring
and instead she just collapses sinks to her knees
looks up and starts crying real tears complete
vulnerability it was shocking it totally baffled
everyone why would this monster suddenly break
down that was the genius of it it showed the
monster had Well, maybe not a soul, but something
vulnerable inside, something bigger than her
destructive urges. It instantly made her character
complex, not just a one -note villain, phenomenal
piece of television drama. And the explanation
came the following week. Karma spoke for the
first time on WWE TV, revealed she was pregnant.
Yeah. Which obviously meant an immediate hiatus
from wrestling. What followed, though, was incredibly
difficult for her personally, behind the character.
This was the period of her miscarriage, right?
Sadly, yes. Stevens later confirmed she suffered
a miscarriage on December 31st, 2011. And it
was made even more confusing by inaccurate reports
that came out around the time of her brief return
at the Royal Rumble. Reports saying she'd given
birth to a boy named Jamie. Which wasn't true.
She had to publicly correct those reports and
reveal the truth about the miscarriage in March
2012. Yeah, just an unimaginable situation. Navigating
that kind of personal tragedy while being in
the public eye with misinformation floating around,
it's a stark reminder of the human being behind
the terrifying persona. But despite that heartbreak,
she did give us one hell of a surprise return
moment. The 2012 Royal Rumble. Oh, absolutely
unforgettable. Entering at number 21, Nobody
Saw It Coming. And the sequence was just perfect.
Walks out, stares down Michael Cole at the commentary
table. Cole eliminates himself just by jumping
over the top rope in terror. Cure comedy gold.
Then she actually eliminates a wrestler, Hunico,
showing she's still a threat. Before Dolph Ziggler
eventually threw her out. That short appearance
was huge historically. It made her only the third
woman after Chyna and Beth Phoenix to ever compete
in the men's Royal Rumble match. A massive milestone.
Even though, ironically, that Rumble spot ended
up being her first and only official WWE match.
Yeah. She was released by WWE in July 2012. She
later explained it was because she wasn't ready
to return within the time frame the company had
set after her pregnancy leave and subsequent
loss. But she wanted to return. She stated she
was ready and interested, yeah. But the timing
just didn't work out from WWE's perspective.
So that chapter closed, which led to a period
where she really took control of her own path
again. Okay, so post -WWE release, Stevens didn't
just disappear. She seemed to take a really proactive
approach, especially towards her health. Yeah,
very much so. August 2012, she publicly announced
she was on a mission to lose weight, hired fitness
experts, a therapist, got serious about getting
back into peak wrestling condition. And she was
open about it, right? Yeah. Even considered making
it a reality show. Exactly. That level of openness,
turning her personal health journey into potential
content, showed a real commitment and maybe a
new way of thinking about her career. And she
returned to the ring pretty quickly on the independent
circuit. Back as Amazing Kong. Yep. November
2012, she was already working shows for Shine
Wrestling, beating names like Mercedes Martinez
and Reign. It proved her value on the indie scene
hadn't diminished at all. People still wanted
to see Kong. And that indie run had continued
success, right? Championships, big matches. Definitely.
She won the Vacant Resistance Pro Wrestling Women's
Championship in early 2013. kept having these
hard -hitting rivalries in Shakara, shine against
people like Mia Yim, Martinez again, her presence
still automatically made a match feel like a
main event. But the biggest move professionally
was going back to TNA, wasn't it? Returning to
the place where Awesome Kong really exploded
in the U .S. It was January 7, 2015, the debut
episode of Impact Wrestling on its new channel,
Destination America. She made a huge comeback,
immediately confronting Havoc, who was the current
monster heel of the division. Smart booking.
The original monster returns to challenge the
new one. Classic wrestling story. And the feud
delivered. It was physical, intense. It ended
with Kong winning a steel cage match against
Havoc, firmly reestablishing her position at
the top of the knockout's food chain. Then she
got involved with Taryn Terrell and her group,
the Dollhouse. Yeah. That storyline actually
put Kong in a temporary babyface role again.
She ended up aligning with Gail Kim, her greatest
rival, to fight off Terrell's crew. Rivals becoming
allies against a common enemy. Another classic
trope. Shows the depth of their history. But
that alliance was short -lived. Her final TNA
run saw her turn heel again. She actually took
over leadership of the Dollhouse stable herself,
leading Jade, who later became Mia Yim in WWE
NXT, Marty Bell, and Rebel. So she was leading
the group she was just fighting. Okay. Heel Kong
leading a stable made sense, but this run also
ended abruptly because of another backstage incident.
Right. February 2016, just over a year after
her return, another real -life physical altercation,
this time with Reby Hardy. Matt Hardy's wife.
Yeah. And similar to the Bubba situation, it
led to another non -storyline, sudden departure
from TNA. Despite those rocky exits, TNA clearly
valued her contributions overall. They inducted
her into their Hall of Fame. They did. In 2021,
TNA, by then known as Impact Wrestling, inducted
her. And fittingly, Gail Kim was the one who
inducted her. That feels right. That Hall of
Fame induction really validates everything she
did for the knockouts division, regardless of
the backstage stuff. It cements her legacy there.
Absolutely. It separates the performer's incredible
impact from the unfortunate circumstances of
her departures. Okay, so one final major wrestling
chapter. All Elite Wrestling, AEW. She was there
right at the beginning. Yep. Debuted as Awesome
Kong at their very first pay -per -view. Double
or nothing, May 2019, big surprise entrance.
And she formed that faction, the Nightmare Collective.
Right, with Brandi Rhodes, Mel, and later Dr.
Luther joined too. It was a very dark, kind of
unsettling gimmick. They were cutting locks of
opponents' hair, right? Yeah. With a knife. Yeah,
a karambit knife. Kong would then wear the hair
-like trophies on her gear. It definitely had
shades of the psychological horror of karma,
but mixed with the physical dominance of Kong.
Very intense. But the ankle. It didn't quite
click with the audience, did it? It seemed to
struggle to find its footing, yeah. And it got
dropped pretty suddenly in February 2020. Stevie's
had to take a hiatus from AEW to go film the
final season of the show, GLOW. And she never
came back to AEW after that? Nope. Never returned
to the ring for them, and AEW confirmed they
didn't renew her contract in June 2021. Which
brings us pretty much to the end of her in -ring
career, the official retirement announcement.
That came at the NWA Empower pay -per -view,
August 28, 2021. She formally announced her retirement
from in -ring competition. Close the book on
your 20 years of wrestling. 20 years. Japan,
TNA, WWE. Indies, AEW, what a run. But the story
doesn't end there, because then came the pivot,
the crossover success that maybe introduced her
to the widest audience yet. Absolutely, the acting
career, and specifically her role in the Netflix
series GLOW. Playing Tame, the welfare queen
Dawson, from 2017 to 2019. The show itself, obviously
inspired by the original 80s gorgeous ladies
of wrestling. And that role, Tame, it was like...
It perfectly used everything Stevens had learned
over her wrestling career. Well, Temé, in the
context of the GLOW show within a show, was booked
as a classic wrestling villain, a gimmick designed
to get heat. But the actual show gave the character
incredible depth, vulnerability. complex relationships
anxieties about her son seeing her portrayal
right she had to be the scary heel in the ring
but this multi -layered person backstage precisely
and stevens had already done that she mastered
the switch from monster to comedian and hustle
she mastered the heel to emotional baby face
turn in tna and wwe all that performance experience
allowed her to nail teme dawson menacing and
funny in the ring but deeply affecting and grounded
outside of it sometimes in the same scene that
range is a direct result of her wrestling journey
you can see the through line Totally. And she
popped up elsewhere, too. That Netflix sketch
comedy show, Auntie Donna's Big Ol' House of
Fun, she was in that. And the Katy Perry Swish
Swish music video with the GLOW cast. She really
did transition seamlessly from physical storytelling
to, well, more traditional acting. The whole
journey of Kia Stevens. Yeah. It really is like
a roadmap, isn't it? How that raw physical power,
channeled through performance and drama, can
open doors absolutely anywhere in entertainment.
Hashtag tag outro. Yeah. When you just step back
and look at the whole career, the scope is, it's
kind of staggering. You've got the mastery of
Joshi in Japan, winning the WWE title, the AAAW
tag titles, carrying that Kong legacy. Then being
the absolute cornerstone, the driving force of
the TNA knockouts division, two -time champion,
Hall of Famer, elevating everyone she worked
with, especially Gail Kim, Taylor Wilde, setting
a standard for believable women's wrestling in
the U .S. at that time. Then breaking that huge
barrier in WWE, third woman ever in the men's
rumble. A moment people still talk about. And
capping it all off with undeniable crossover
success, that powerful nuanced role in GLOW brought
her acclaim in a whole new world. We mentioned
earlier how she funded her dream. It bears repeating.
Yeah. She was a social worker, owned a vending
machine business. Right. Practical jobs. And
when she decided, OK, I'm going to Japan to become
a wrestler, it was her family and friends who
helped bankroll that initial training. That belief
from her community, that support system. Yeah.
It tells you something about the person and the
determination they saw in her even then. Absolutely.
The personal sacrifice, the perseverance. That's
the real story underpinning the onscreen monster,
you know? Yeah. We watched Kia Stevens succeed
under these three incredibly powerful personas,
amazing Kong, awesome Kong, Karma, all built
on dominance, intimidation. Which leads to, I
think, a really interesting question for you,
the listener, to maybe ponder. Okay. Think about
the journey we traced. From the pure physical
language of an amazing bomb in Japan, to the
silent psychological menace of Karma's stare,
and then finally to the complex verbal emotional
performance of Tame Dawson on GLOW. Different
forms of expression. Right. So consider what
it actually takes for a performer whose main
tools were physical power and intimidation, often
silence, to suddenly access and convey that raw,
painful vulnerability we saw when karma broke
down crying. And then how do you leverage that
emotional honesty into a whole new successful
acting career on Netflix? That leap from monster
to complex character actor. What does that versatility
tell us? About her depth, her legacy beyond just
being one of the greatest wrestling monsters.
Yeah. What does it say about her artistry? Her
ability to connect, whether through a power bomb
or a subtle glance on screen. She managed to
translate pure physical dominance into compelling
dramatic power across mediums. Definitely something
to think about. Her legacy is truly multifaceted.
Something to chew on until our next deep dive.
Thanks for joining us, everyone. We'll see you
next time.