One of the first wrestlers to sign with AEW wasn’t a fan of how her run in AEW went down.
Upon AEW opening its doors in 2019, many talent outside of the WWE was immediately snapped up by Tony Khan. One of these talents was Awesome Kong, who made a surprise debut at Double Or Nothing 2019. Kong would align with Brandi Rhodes and Luther to form the Nightmare Collective. While the faction was split up in early 2020, Kong took up a backstage role in the company until she left in mid 2021 upon her contract with the company expiring.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Kong was asked about her time in AEW and being part of the Nightmare Collective.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing the crew over there at AEW, especially since we were just up and running. We are all new executives and trying to think outside the box and really give it to y’all. Something new, something that hasn’t been seen. We’ve seen it all. We were trying to give you something that you haven’t seen. I felt unheard. I wasn’t in control. All I could do was say, ‘I have this idea of XYZ.’ I couldn’t get in the room where final decisions were made. Believe me, Kia [referring to her real name Kia Stevens] stalked that room. I would stay there after big meetings and pick up the water bottles and cups like, ‘Huh, Y’all need…you need me to go? Okay’ [Laughs]. I tried to get into that last meeting where decisions were made,” she said. “Never had a chance to. ‘That’s just not going to happen, so I’m not going to push it.’ When you see this [makes a box with her hands] is who they are comfortable with making decisions, that’s not a read or a critique, that’s just who was comfortable making decisions. What do you do? It’s out of my control. If I had control, give me 15 minutes of Kia. Kia’s 15 Minutes of Fame. ‘Go out there and steal the show from them boys. You, you, you. Nyla (Rose), go steal the show from the boys.'”
Awesome Kong On Insight With Chris Van Vliet
While her run in AEW wasn’t bad by any means, it was clearly not an enjoyable experience in the promotion for the former WWE star.
H/T to Fightful for transcription
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
If you enjoy Bodyslam’s content, you can help donate to the site here. You can also visit our PWTees store and buy Bodyslam official merchandise here.
You can listen to all of Bodyslam’s podcasts by following us on Spotify and subscribing to our YouTube Channel, or any of your favorite podcast platforms.ⓘⓘⓘ
