8 Interesting Observations From TNA Live In York, PA

8. Booking Has Robbed Awesome Kong Of Her Aura

There was a time when Awesome Kong had an aura unlike any other performer in professional wrestler. A woman with the size of most male heavyweights, she was the destructive force of TNA's Knockouts division. A performer who struck fear in the hearts of her fellow competitors, and many of the men on the roster, she entered arenas to intimidating theme music, stalking toward the squared circle and almost certain victory. Kurt Angle even expressed interest in putting Kong over in an intergender match at one point. Unfortunately, years of questionable booking by TNA officials has tarnished that aura and left her just another knockout on a roster of overused and overexposed wrestlers. Thursday night, she entered the arena to a solid reaction but hardly the awe-inspiring one she did years early, when this writer witnessed her stomp through the entrance for the first time. There is no sense of danger surrounding Kong. The character has been irreparably damaged by too many losses in too many inconsequential matches. Rather than preserve the star power and aura of one of the most imposing and intimidating performers of the last decade, the company has allowed her to descend into mediocrity. Even a post-match fit of rage in which she tossed chairs into the ring and around the audience came off as tame and comical rather than dangerous and frightening. The disappointing match with Gail Kim did not help matters.