You Come and Go

As most of you know, I've been following professional wrestling for a little while now. I've also explained that the reason I started following in the first place was because of a new wrestler to the WWE, named Kharma. She's also wrestled as Awesome Kong and Amazing Kong, while friends and family call her Kia Stevens, and her wikipedia page does a pretty good job of summarizing her career, but that's not so much what I want to talk about.

Awesome Kong at TNA Wrestling with her Manager, Raisha Saeed

On the surface, sure, when I saw pictures of Awesome Kong, in relation to a dispute with radio "personality" Bubba the Love Sponge, my initial reaction was something along the lines of, "Whoa, who is this vicious vision?" I tend to make no secret of my preferences regarding women, and had to admit she was a sexy beast. I read about her work with All Japan Pro Wrestling and other promotions, and got the impression that she was actually kind of a big deal. I think she was at TNA at the time, but I was still in denial in terms of pro wrestling fandom, and I also knew a little something about how often women's wrestling gets buried in most American promotions. Let's face it, also, most of the so-called wrestling on display in women's divisions tends to amount to little more than Rock'em-Sock'em Barbies. Anyway, I figured this would be the first and last time I would see or hear much of anything about her.

That changed when she signed with WWE last December, and took the name Kharma. I actually surprised myself with how excited I was, and over a period of weeks I watched her blaze a path of unchallenged dominance through the Divas division. Finally, this was a female wrestler who demonstrated actual physical prowess, who had presence and a kickin' rad theme song, and who seemed set, in my vivid and delusional imagination, to turn the tide of bullshit women's wrestling toward a brighter tomorrow. That's a whole lot of hope, and I fully grasped the unlikelihood of my hopeful prediction coming to pass.

Even so, I remained cautiously optimistic that it wouldn't all be over in a matter of weeks at the indecisive and often bafflingly ignorant hands of Vince McMahon. As much as I was interested in possibly seeing more powerful ladies throwing each other around, I knew there were deeper concerns at stake. Kharma stood to become a symbol, not only to female wrestlers, but to wrestling fans of both sexes. I knew by then that the work she'd done as Awesome Kong, and before that when she was Amazing, was exemplary in terms of both skills and psychology. Sure she had size on her side in most match-ups, but there's more to wrestling than being huge (Vince McMahon, take note!). She sold the "story" of every match at a level where she was just a whole lot of fun to watch, even while she never said a word. She and her opponents made each other look awesome, and I wanted to see that brought to the long-languishing Divas division.

Alas and alack, it was not to be, well, not yet. Last week on Raw, Kharma sauntered in to break up an 8-woman tag match. She climbed into the ring, fuming and glaring like always, only to drop to her knees and cry. After two cuts in and out of commercial, with Kharma still sobbing amid the dumbfounded Divas, the action shifted on the second cut back from commercial to a match between Kofi Kingston and another buried mid-carder. All week since, fans and reporters have been abuzz about the rumor of Kharma's pregnancy, citing an overheard comment that she would be out for at least nine months. Well, last night this was proved true when Kharma spoke to the audience at Raw about her pending absence.

I'm sad that she's going away, but wish her the best, and can't wait for her return. Hopefully her parting shot at the Bellas bears not only the fruit of their destruction at her hands, but also points the way to that brighter tomorrow I mentioned. Despite their swagger, the Bellas are terrified like the rest of the Divas (it can be assumed from their reactions at her entrance last week, although some formidable opponents like Beth Phoenix and former TNA rival Gail Kim have yet to face her in the ring) at the thought of confrontation with Kharma. If WWE Creative can spin this into a shonen-manga-style training arc, with the Divas stepping up their game in preparation for the monster's return, we might have something really cool in the meantime and certainly in a year. It's about time Diva matches became something more than a signal to a bathroom break.