“F*ck Him” – Former WWE Superstar Shoots On Hulk Hogan Joining TNA

Awesome Kong was on her way out of TNA by the time Hulk Hogan debuted, but that hasn’t stopped her shooting on Hulk’s arrival into the company.

The trajectory of Total Nonstop Action completely changed in January 2010 with the arrival of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Many have hailed this as the peak of TNA’s failure, with their debut bringing nothing but a terrible product.

At this time, Awesome Kong was on her way out of the promotion, having spent the previous three years helping to build the knockouts division. She was officially released that March after suing Bubba The Love Sponge, who alleged that Kong had attacked him for comments on the Haitian earthquakes.

Speaking at an Inside The Ropes live show, the IMPACT Hall of Famer recalled finding out Hulk Hogan was due to debut in the promotion, seemingly excited at the prospect of putting the company back on the map:

“I think we found out like through maybe a quasi meeting or something, but we found out. It was [common] knowledge of like, ‘Oh, he is coming on this date.’ Then there was this meeting for his first day, I was not at this meeting, I was running late and I got pulled over by the police and I got this ticket that haunted me forever. So I didn’t make that meeting, which is good because I heard that this meeting was BS. Knowing me, I would have probably gotten up and walked out of there being like, ‘This is BS!’

So [Hulk] Hogan came and there was this big hoopla, and I was kind of excited. Okay, Hulk Hogan is coming, and if he is going to buy into TNA the way that I bought into TNA when I first got there, because man, when I first got into TNA, I bought it hook, line, and sinker.

When you’re a wrestler, especially a wrestler at my age, when you first get into wrestling, your goal is, ‘I want to get to WWE.’ That is your goal, so you are working for years and years to go to WWE. Now here I am six years [later], I have been working towards this goal and this company comes along, TNA, and it is like this detour in your career. I was very excited.

So when I got there and if you remember, they hired all of the girls, the Knockouts, at the same time, everybody got there at the same time. We had a meeting back then and there were some disgruntled people back then, and I couldn’t understand that. I’m like, ‘Why are you being like that? We are this new company, taking on WWE, get with the programme.’ And I didn’t get it then, but I get it now. I bought everything that hook, line, and sinker, when Hulk Hogan came in I was like, ‘This is great.’

If he is coming in with the same attitude that I have, it looks like we are going to get back on track and we are going to do some great things and we are going to take over New York. You know, New York is what the outside people call WWE. When I got to TNA, I had this attitude of, ‘F*ck Vince McMahon. If he don’t want to hire fat people, then f*ck him! Let’s just take him over!’ With Hulk Hogan over there, I thought that he was going to have that same attitude that he wanted to build TNA himself from the ground up, I was excited.”

As Awesome Kong continued, she explained when, exactly, she began to suspect Hulk Hogan wasn’t completely sold on the idea of promoting TNA:

“So they had a press conference on the steps of Madison Square Garden. They had this big deal and it was like, ‘Yay!’ A few hours later, Hulk Hogan goes on Larry King and he doesn’t even mutter the word, or the initials TNA. He doesn’t mention TNA, nothing, which got my spidey senses up. I’m like, ‘Wait, that’s weird, three hours ago, you just had this big press conference, did he get hit in the head too many times? Was that a senior moment that Hulk Hogan just had?

I just didn’t understand. And then we kept having moments like that. He went on American Idol, and when he went on American Idol, he was being introduced as the former WWE Superstar Hulk Hogan, and he is at TNA. So I don’t understand why we are sacrificing getting raises and whatnot, and you are giving all of this money to Hulk Hogan, and he is not promoting your product, and he is bringing in his friends and his folks and getting paid.

And yet the people who have built your company, you know at this point, Gail [Kim] and I were the highest rated segment on Impact, and I wasn’t seeing any money. There were times where I would come home from a tour, flick on my lights, and be like, ‘Where the lights at?’ So it’s like, ‘What am I sacrificing all of this for?’

I don’t mind sacrificing if we are all in [this] together, and in the beginning of TNA, we were all in it together. But then the people that built up TNA were not getting the dividends that were due, and that was when the cracks started to show.”

Upon Inside The Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh jokingly remarks about wearing a Hulk Hogan t-shirt, Awesome Kong stated how much of an impact the WWE Hall of Famer had made on many wrestling fans:

“Say what you will about Hulk Hogan, he is a part of a lot of our lives. He has inspired a lot of workers to get into wrestling, so I have respect for him in different ways. There are parts that I am like ‘Ugh’, but Hulkamania forever, so it is like a weird love/hate relationship.”

Awesome Kong signed with WWE after being released from TNA, adopting the moniker of Kharma. She spent less than two years with WWE, wrestling just one match for the company as she entered the 2012 Royal Rumble match, and subsequently being granted her release that July.

Kong last appeared for IMPACT Wrestling over Bound For Glory weekend last October, as she became the second female inductee into the company’s Hall of Fame after her famed rival, Gail Kim.