Awesome Kong (Kia Stevens) recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Bill Pritchard ahead of the GLOW season three premiere on Netflix. Stevens is back as Tammé Dawson, aka “Welfare Queen” and she’s also making her presence felt in All Elite Wrestling as Brandi Rhodes’ ‘insurance policy.’ One of the storylines in GLOW’s latest run includes Stevens’ character dealing with the wear and tear of being on the road, and how injuries can affect professional wrestlers.
Stevens had back surgery herself last year, and spoke about how this season of the show almost took on an approach of life imitating art and how it was more difficult to act in that situation than you’d think.
“It was just like ‘Hey, let’s just open the curtain and let them see what goes on.’ Which was actually harder than one would think, because I always tend to act like nothing’s bothering me. I don’t want people to be concerned about my back. I don’t want them ‘Oh, are you OK?’ and coddling me. So it was kind of hard to be vulnerable at that moment and let people see that one thing that makes me venerable. It wasn’t as easy as you think it might have been.”
Stevens has been seen in the ring at All Elite Wrestling’s Double Or Nothing pay-per-view, as well as an on-air appearance as Brandi Rhodes’ ‘insurance policy’ at Fight For The Fallen. Kong says she’d definitely entertain taking on a managerial role once her in-ring days are over, noting that wrestling never leaves you.
“Definitely, if it’s something that would keep me in the realms of wrestling. Once wrestling gets in your blood, it doesn’t really leave it. You can try to get as many transfusions as you like; once it’s in there it’s in your bones.”
Stevens has been featured more in each new season of GLOW, something she says was more organic and not necessarily because of her accolades in wrestling. She said she felt blessed that the writers treated her as a serious actress and not just a background character, and also talked about how close the ensemble cast has grown over the past three years.
“Are you kidding? Yes. We’re all on we keep in contact basically every day. We’re like sisters, and when I say we’re like sisters I mean we’re like sisters. We love like sisters, we play like sisters, we fight like sisters. We’ve been roommates and whatnot. So yeah, there’s a good bond there.
My husband was in an episode in Season 1, this year you can really see him in an episode, I think episode 5. That’s when, I won’t give it away, but that’s when we talk about my back and she’s trying to wrestle and hide her injury. He had to stay there for three days in a row and watching all of us interact in the ring and on the sidelines and just being silly and goofy to the point where the directors are like “OK Girls, calm it down” He’s like “Gosh you guys really are like friend.”
Related: GLOW Season 3 Review: Plenty Of Action Outside Of The Ring, But Still Brings The Fight
