The Rock may be the one opening huge blockbuster summer films (and no shade on him for that), and Dave Bautista seems destined to be a star even if Stuber wasn’t a hit, but personally the wrestler-turned-actor I’m most invested in at the moment is Kia Stevens, who’s part of the AEW roster as Awesome Kong while also playing the fictional wrestler Tammé “Welfare Queen” Dawson on GLOW, Netflix’s highly acclaimed comedy series about women’s wrestling in the 1980’s, which drops its third season on August 9th. Doing both things at once puts Stevens in a unique position to draw new viewers to wrestling, and to blur the lines between wrestling and the rest of the entertainment business.
In an interview with Wrestling Inc, Awesome Kong reveals that her castmates in GLOW, most of whom had no connections to wrestling before the show started, have become fans in the years since:
Sometimes the girls come to work and are like, “Hey did you see such-and-such last night?” They’ll then describe a wrestling event or show that they watched and it makes me giggle. I’m like, “Oh my gosh! They’re actually following wrestling storylines.” I think it’s the cutest and if the show brings more eyeballs to wrestling that maybe never watched before, that’s awesome.
She also talks about how much she enjoys working with legendary legacy wrestling Chavo Guerrero Jr., who serves as the lead wrestling trainer on GLOW.
It’s great because we will collaborate and think of things the girls will take to their physical attributes and capacities. It’s fun to bounce ideas off Chavo because he’s so respected and makes us feel included.
Stevens also talks about how a pro wrestler like her working on something like GLOW helps the rest of the entertainment industry see pro wrestlers as performers like any other.
Before it was like we were in the bowels of the entertainment industry and I think that showing the range that wrestling performers have, I think I’ve opened [some eyes]. I think people are sitting up and taking notice and actually respecting wrestling performers as performers.
You should check out the whole interview, where Awesome Kong also talks about her future projects, and whether or not she played a role in the evolution of women’s wrestling (spoiler alert: she did).
