10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (July 6)

9. Nakamura Almost Angered Awesome Kong

Awesome Kong TNA
TNA

When he isn't ball-shotting AJ Styles, Nakamura is accidentally raising the ire of wrestling's biggest female stars.

Kia Stevens told The Ringer that she didn't take too kindly to her new Awesome Kong ring name when working in Japan at the start of her career, but only because she didn't have a clue she even had one. That's why, when Shinsuke Nakamura repeatedly called her "Kong", the future TNA, WWE and GLOW star took it as a racial slur.

After confronting Nakamura about the name, she then found out that management had given her the moniker during a prior press conference. At that point, Stevens weighed up whether it'd be worth her while packing up and going home. To her, the name was disrespectful and might send the wrong message.

Upon returning to the States, she heard the rap group N.W.A on the radio, figured they were comfortable in their own skin and decided to put her all into making the Kong name mean something.

Poor Nakamura was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.