DOES THE KONG REMAIN THE SAME?
The first time I saw Awesome Kong on TV, I couldn’t find the right words to say.
Having not watched a lot of TNA Impact heading into Bound For Glory 2007, I merely ordered the show and watched it with two of my closest comrades (my brother Josh and our longtime buddy Dave), just because it was something to do (because when you’re bored, $30 is a reasonable amount to spend to quench said boredom)
On the night in question, Kong was working a ten-woman mini rumble to determine TNA’s first “Knockouts” Champion, and would largely be making one of her first appearances in front of a large wrestling audience.
I recall a backstage segment where the likes of ODB, Velvet Sky, Shelly Martinez, and others pretty much introduced themselves and got their characters over, moments before they had to go through the curtain at TNA’s biggest show of the year and perform.
Then Kong walked in.
She didn’t utter a single word. She simply horrified the others with an exaggerated grimace, gnashing her teeth like a self-aware Jaws, bugging her eyes out to almost cartoon proportions, and cleared the room.
The intent of the segment was: “Kong is a scary individual, and you should be very afraid of her.”
But Josh, Dave, and I had the same thought: “…..what IS that thing?”
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Watching Kong that night (and discounting the part when she was eliminated and her top briefly fell off), I found myself parting ways with my original judgment. When she nearly broke Christy Hemme in half with her modified torture rack vice, we were no longer questioning TNA’s hiring of such an eclectic performer, but rather we were pleasantly surprised.
Kong would go on to have a very eventful run in TNA. She was a two time Knockouts champion, reigning with the title for almost six months both times. Her matches with Gail Kim rank among the best women’s matches in a “mainstream” American promotion over the last twenty years (Only Alundra Blayze-Bull Nakano and Lita-Trish Stratus reside in the same wheelhouse).
It got to the point where I was no longer even remotely surprised by Kong’s success. Great match? As expected. Dominant performance? Wouldn’t think anything less. She’s currently the Knockouts Champ? I figured as much.
So why is it that, at Bound For Glory 2007, my friends and I were momentarily perplexed by her?
Because we’re superficial.
And it’s not just us, either.
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Watch a news broadcast from thirty years ago that features a female anchor or reporter. Chances are you’ll find a “plain Jane”, or an older woman, or perhaps a woman who isn’t exactly “aesthetically pleasing”.
Now, turn on CNN or Fox News and take a look at the women you see.
Even the ones in their forties look like they could audition for a Hawaiian Tropic calendar.
Gradually, with each passing year, our tastes in appearance skew more toward “unrealistic”. MTV really got the ball rolling with their faux “reality” shows of the 1990’s, screening potential housemates and contestants rigorously until every male was tanned and muscular, and every female was thin, pretty, and possessing the sluttiness of a drunken Tara Reid.
The rest of TV began to follow suit.
Wrestling is no different.
Check out WWE in the 1980’s. Are Wendi Richtner, Leilani Kai, and Velvet McIntyre the kind of women you’d carouse message boards and newsgroups looking for rare nudes of? They wouldn’t have made it past the “cellulite alarm” that WWE installs in every venue these days.
That’s why, in 1996, WWE decided “enough with the competitive women; in with the skanks!”
In came Sunny, Marlena, and Sable. Attractive as they were, there was still a hint of subtlety to their schtick, and WWE wasn’t out-and-out promoting them as T&A.
Now, let’s look at the Attitude Era and beyond.
Diva searches featuring tawdry competitions. Bikini contests. Implied nudity. ACTUAL nudity. Storylines featuring oversexed females, cheating on their men. More plastic surgery and Botox than the set of “Real Housewives of Atlanta”.
I wonder if Gloria Steinem would have been so fast to burn her bra if she knew that life in the 2000s would have ended up like this. Maybe she would have just set herself ablaze.
So, when you consider all of this in regards to the image that professional wrestling has carved out for women, you can understand why somebody like Awesome Kong strolling into TNA would be a bit of a shocker to fans used to seeing a steady parade of bikini models.
Of course, Kong did nothing wrong.
Awesome Kong is merely a woman who trained to be a professional wrestler, and followed through on her training without yielding to the increasingly plastic demands of the pop culture landscape.
And since WWE is an accurate reflection of those “plastic demands”, it’s actually astounding to hear that WWE has signed her to a contract.
You know, the same WWE that encouraged fans to laugh at Molly Holly, Vickie Guerrero, and Mickie James for not being a size 2.
I figure I’m not alone among wrestling fans when I wonder just how WWE is going to book Kong. One of the last women in WWE that even approached 200 was Bull Nakano and, while she was booked as a ferocious competitor, she was subjected to mocking commentary by the likes of Macho Man Randy Savage for not being model-esque.
That, of course, was 1994. In other words, this was well before WWE ditched tact in favor of becoming a peep show on basic cable.
And it’s not just wrestling, like I said. I understand that “hotter women = bigger ratings”, and those bigger ratings lead to more ad revenue for the network. I’d have to damn Fox News for giving me Julie Banderas and Jane Skinner, as well as ESPN for giving me Erin Andrews, Molly Qerim and Hannah Storm (mid-forties, but looks great in hooker boots), but I don’t want to damn anyone here.
Just because not everyone can look like the conventional “hottie” doesn’t mean you have to go the opposite route and mock them.
And that’s the big fear for Kong’s run in WWE.
Someone like Kong, who’s wrestled for over eight years, has toured the world, and clearly takes pride in her work, is running the risk of becoming a punchline, a laughingstock for WWE to trot out on TV, just to continue playing to the unfair belief system of the media at large.
Of course, I’m jumping the gun here. WWE may actually portray Kong as what she’s supposed to be: a fierce fighter who uses her size and strength to her advantage, fights hard, doesn’t show up just to try and pick up horny men, and fears no one.
But what are the chances that happens? Recently, the biggest babyface of the last five years (John Cena) was used to taunt Vickie Guerrero for being fat (which is only true if you stood her between Kelly Kelly, Eve, and Maryse 24 hours a day), and WWE seemed oblivious to the idea that this might not be a good idea, considering that there’s a large female audience, and women (well, at least a good number of them) can be self-conscious about their appearance.
But this is a chance for WWE to make up for it.
For once, they can buck the trend of our modern entertainment standards, and they can choose to portray Kong as a strong woman who doesn’t need to be a sexual icon in order to succeed.
In fact, she can be an icon of another kind.
A couple years back, a village woman from Scotland named Susan Boyle appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent” and, while looking frumpy and disheveled, stunned the world by singing a selection from Les Miserables, displaying a beautiful voice that had an entire audience cheering; the same people who minutes earlier laughed when she walked onto the stage.
Awesome Kong can be wrestling’s answer to Susan Boyle.
For any young woman who felt she wasn’t “pretty enough” to be an actress or a singer or an entertainer of any kind now has a role model in addition to Boyle.
In fact, WWE once had just such a woman. Her name was Chyna.
Chyna was strong-willed and dominant, beating a number of the men in WWE, and the women in the crowd loved her for it.
And then, of course, she had a litany of plastic surgery and became a sexual self-parody that nobody respects. In fact, WWE pushed her even HARDER after the surgery.
Don’t make this same mistake with Kong.
The fans wanna see something new, so why not change things up and give us the woman who we respect more than we lust after? It’s so revolutionary in 2011 that WWE may actually get hailed as trailblazers for going that route.
Vince McMahon said that “anything can happen in WWE”, and a woman being marketed for her courage and dedication wouldn’t just be anything.
It would definitely be something.
Justin Henry
