Awesome Kong Discusses Her Depression Issues, Being Karma, more
On a recent Talk is Jericho, Awesome Kong talked about her brief run in WWE, how it ended and coming up with the Kharma character. Kong entered WWE in late 2010 after her TNA run, debuting as Kharma. She had a period of time where she was booked as a monster heel, destroying several Divas, but had to take time off when she discovered she was pregnant. She ultimately suffered a miscarriage and was unable to return to the company when postpartum depression prevented her from being able to get in condition to return.
Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:
On the development of the Kharma character: “I think they wanted to keep what I was already doing the same, just change the name and freshen it up a little bit. So Triple H asked me, ‘If you had a magic wand, what would you want to do?’ And I thought about it, and I submitted a bunch of names that I thought WWE would want me to have. And I mean, y’all, these names were embarrassing. It was like, ‘Barcissa B. Strange’ — or ‘Barcissa B. Wicked.’ I came up with names that had like, the initials BBW and stuff. I’m talking about tacky and shticky, you know what I mean.’ I don’t know what I was thinking! And then the one name I wanted for myself that I felt was kind of [intriguing], I was like, ‘Okay, Kharma.’ So I just threw that in there [thinking] ‘They’re never gonna want that. They’re gonna want me to be something freaking weird. And they came back and they were like, ‘Yeah okay, Kharma.’”
On if she was given input by Vince McMahon on what to do: “Not really. I think we were all on the same page, that’s to do what I know. You know, stick with what I know.”
On her short run in WWE: “I was there for all of — I was there for technically a little over a year, but I was only on TV that first time for about two months. And didn’t know that whole time that I was with child that whole time. Had no idea, no clue … so when we found out, then that’s when I went on maternity leave. And then came back for the [Royal] Rumble. And that was it.”
On why she left the company: “Well, I lost my son. So that took an emotional toll. And they had asked me, you know, they wanted me to get into a certain kind of shape which, you know, I agreed to do. But they asked me how could they help. They said, ‘We’ll do anything you need to get back.’ And I let them know, ‘This is what I need.’ And then it was like, ‘Well, how about we just send you down to FCW?’ And I was like, ‘[sighs] I’m not really in an emotional, mental state to go down there and be amongst people right now.’ But that’s what they asked, that’s what I’m doing. And I got there, and I was just like a zombie. I would just stand there, watching people train and stuff. And then I actually asked if they would bring in Sara Del Rey to help me get ready. And I guess they brought her in eventually. Like, literally two or three weeks after they let me go, I guess she was in the process of coming on before but I got let go before she got there on an official capacity.”
On her depression at the time: “Well, it was postpartum depression and it was chemicals. There was like, nothing really I could do about it. It’s a real thing, it was literally — you know how great the money is over there at WWE. You literally could not pay me a million dollars to get out of bed on some days. It just wasn’t happening. And it was like, ‘Oh, I just have to wait it out. I don’t know what else to do. I wish I could.’ There was nothing I could [do], it was out of my hands.”
On how she ultimately got past it: “Just time, and a good exercise regimen, good diet. And just — time, really. I mean, I still have blue days, you know what I mean? That’s an experience you’ll never ever really get over. But at least I’m at the point where it’s not at the forefront of my day every day, and it doesn’t navigate my day.”
