Kia Stevens
Kia Michelle Stevens (born September 4, 1977) is an American actress and semi-retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with TNA Wrestling under the ring name Awesome Kong. She also worked with Ring of Honor (ROH), Shimmer Women Athletes, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), and with WWE under the ring name Kharma. Stevens began her professional wrestling career in 2002 after appearing on a reality television show. For the first five years of her career, she primarily wrestled in Japan and held numerous championships there. In 2006, she began wrestling in her native United States again, wrestling on the independent circuit before appearing on national television with TNA, where she was a driving force in the foundation of their Knockouts division. During her time with TNA, she became a two-time TNA Knockouts Champion and one-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Hamada. She later signed with WWE, where she became the third woman to enter the men's Royal Rumb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gene Petit
Gene Petit (c. May 19, 1949 – September 29, 2013) was an American professional wrestler best known for his portrayal of Cousin Luke in the World Wrestling Entertainment, World Wrestling Federation. He also competed under several other gimmicks and competed for several Professional wrestling promotion, promotions in the United States as well as Australia, Japan, Nigeria and Puerto Rico. Career Early career Petit attended the University of Tampa, where he played for the American football, football team. While there, he met former Olympic Games, Olympic wrestler Dale Lewis (wrestler), Dale Lewis. They became friends, and Lewis paid Petit to drive him to his bookings at professional wrestling events. Petit stated that he began wrestling after spending a couple of weeks practising in a gym. At one of Lewis' events, the company did not have enough wrestlers and Petit was asked to fill in. He teamed with Lewis and Gypsy Joe Rosario in a Professional wrestling tag team match types#Mul ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ayako Hamada
is a Japanese Mexican professional wrestler. During her 20-year career, Hamada wrestled for various promotions, including All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, Gaea Japan and Pro Wrestling Wave in Japan, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide in Mexico and Shimmer Women Athletes and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the United States. She is the daughter of Japanese professional wrestler Gran Hamada and the younger sister of fellow Mexican wrestler Xóchitl Hamada. Hamada has won several titles in women's pro wrestling, including the WWWA World Single Championship and the AAAW Single Championship during the early 2000s and the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship two times during her time with TNA. She is also a former AAA Reina de Reinas Champion. Early life Hamada was born in Mexico City, Mexico, as the daughter of Japanese professional wrestler Gran Hamada. Her elder sister is wrestler Xóchitl Hamada. Professional wrestling career Japa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Professional Wrestling In Japan
Professional wrestling in Japan has existed for several decades. The first Japanese person to involve themselves in catch wrestling (the basis of traditional professional wrestling) was former sumo wrestler Sorakichi Matsuda. There were subsequent attempts before and after World War II to popularize the sport in Japan, but these generally failed until the advent of its first big star, Rikidōzan, in 1951, who became known as the "father" of the sport. Rikidōzan brought the sport to tremendous popularity with his Japanese Wrestling Association (JWA) until his murder in 1963. Following his death, professional wrestling thrived, creating a variety of personalities, promotions and styles. It has also created a mass of other cultural icons in Japan including: Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, Jyushin "Thunder" Liger, Tiger Mask, Keiji Mutoh/The Great Muta, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Kenta Kobashi among others. Throughout the years, several promotions have opened and closed, but a few ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publishing until May 2021, when it was acquired by Alden Global Capital, which operates its media properties through Digital First Media. David D. Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, closed a deal to buy the paper on January 15, 2024. History 19th century ''The Sun'' was founded on May 17, 1837, by Arunah Shepherdson Abell and two associates, William Moseley Swain from Rhode Island, and Azariah H. Simmons from Philadelphia, where they had started and published the '' Public Ledger'' the year before. Abell became a journalist with the ''Providence Patriot'' and later worked with newspapers in New York City and Boston.Van Doren, Charles and Robert McKendry, ed., ''Webster's American Biographies''. (Springfield, Massa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jim Ross
James William Ross (born January 3, 1952) is an American professional wrestling commentator, sports announcer, and podcaster, better known by the ring name Jim Ross (often shortened to JR). He is signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he serves as a commentator as well as an analyst and senior advisor. Ross is best known for a long and distinguished career as a play-by-play commentator for WWE. Known affectionately by WWE fans as "Good Ol' JR", Ross has been labeled as the greatest wrestling commentator of all time. Ross, while in WWE, was occasionally involved in storylines and also participated in nine wrestling matches from 1999 to 2011. After years of working various jobs in the professional wrestling industry, Ross became the primary play-by-play announcer for Mid-South Wrestling in the early 1980s. He went on to do commentary for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s World Championship Wrestling territory, before jumping to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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WWE Tough Enough
''WWE Tough Enough'' is an American professional wrestling reality competition series that was produced by WWE, wherein participants undergo professional wrestling training and compete for a contract with WWE. There were two winners per season for the first three seasons, all of which aired on MTV. A fourth competition was held in 2004, with only a single winner, who was integrated into (at the time) UPN's '' SmackDown!''. As revealed in October 2010, the USA Network, revived ''Tough Enough'' to air it immediately prior to '' Raw'',USA to Expand Into Reality Programming and Bring Back "WWE Tough Enough" ''Deadline Hollywood'', October 18, 2010 starting on April 4, 2011, a day after [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of largest California cities by population, 18th-most populous city in California. San Bernardino is the economic, cultural, and political hub of the San Bernardino Valley and the Inland Empire. The governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico have established the metropolitan area's only consulates in the Downtown San Bernardino, downtown area of the city. Additionally, San Bernardino serves as an anchor city to the 3rd largest metropolitan area in California (after Los Angeles and San Francisco) and the 12th largest metropolitan area in the United States; the San Bernardino–Riverside MSA. Furthermore, the city's University District, San Bernardino, California, University District serves as a college town, as home to California State ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Empire Wrestling Federation
The Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) is an professional wrestling promotion, independent wrestling promotion based in Covina, California. It is owned and operated by Jesse Hernandez. The EWF is also tied to Hernandez's wrestling school, ''The School Of Hard Knocks''. The EWF is the longest running promotion in Southern California, running continuously from 1996. The EWF is a former affiliate of the National Wrestling Alliance. History EWF was founded in 1996 by Bill Anderson (wrestler), Bill Anderson and Jesse Hernandez. The promotion's name comes from the Inland Empire, the popular name of the area surrounding San Bernardino. It saw its first show in May 1996 at the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino as Bobby Bradley (wrestler), Bobby Bradley defeated Tom Howard (wrestler), Tom "Zuma" Howard to become the first EWF Heavyweight Champion. In 1999, Bill Anderson left the EWF and formed his own promotion and wrestling school, the International Wrestling Council in Riverside, Cali ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lita (wrestler)
Amy Christine Dumas (born April 14, 1975) is an American professional wrestler and singer. She is best known for her time in WWE under the ring name Lita. She is often regarded as one of the greatest and most popular female wrestlers in history. She is known for her extreme style of wrestling which has made her an inspiration for many female wrestlers. Initially using the name of Angelica, Dumas started her wrestling career in Mexico with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in 1998, followed by briefly working on the US independent circuit in early 1999, and then working for six months in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Dumas then signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed to WWE in 2002) in August 1999, debuting in February 2000 as Lita. She was originally paired with Mr. Águila, Essa Rios, but she achieved her greatest push (professional wrestling), push alongside Matt Hardy, Matt and Jeff Hardy as Hardy Boyz, Team Xtreme, and in 2005–2006 was a heel ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Florida, Broward, and Monroe County, Florida, Monroe counties. It once circulated throughout Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The ''Miami Herald'' has been awarded 24 Pulitzer Prizes. Overview The newspaper has been awarded 24 Pulitzer Prizes since beginning publication in 1903. Well-known columnists include Pulitzer-winning political commentator Leonard Pitts, Leonard Pitts Jr., Pulitzer-winning reporter Mirta Ojito, humorist Dave Barry and novelist Carl Hiaasen. Other columnists have included Fred Grimm and sportswriters Michelle Kaufman, the late Edwin Pope, Dan Le Batard, Bea Hines and Greg Cote. The ''Miami Herald'' participates in "Politifact Florida", a website that focuses on Florida issues, with the ''Tampa Bay Times''. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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GLOW (TV Series)
''GLOW'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch for Netflix. The series revolves around a fictionalization of the characters and gimmicks of the 1980s syndicated women's professional wrestling circuit Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (or GLOW) founded by David McLane. The first season consists of 10 episodes and was released on June 23, 2017. In August, Netflix renewed the series for a second season, which was released on June 29, 2018. The third season was released on August 9, 2019. The following month, the series was renewed for a fourth and final season, but Netflix canceled it in October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a production shutdown. Premise In Los Angeles in 1985, Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress, auditions along with many other women in a fledgling professional wrestling promotion called the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW). Traditionally minded in her approach to acting and highly idealistic, she clash ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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TNA Hall Of Fame
The TNA Hall of Fame is a hall of fame that honors professional wrestlers and wrestling personalities who contributed to the history of the American based professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It was established in 2012, and created as part of the celebration of the promotion's 10th anniversary. Inductees are usually announced at either the Slammiversary pay-per-view event or on episodes of ''TNA Impact!'', and the ceremony takes place prior to Bound for Glory (wrestling pay-per-view), Bound for Glory. It has been an annual tradition for TNA since 2012 with the exception of two years (2017 and 2019). As of 2024, there have been 16 inducted in total; 12 individually, and two group inductions. Ceremony dates and locations Inductees Individuals Group inductions References External links The TNA/Impact Hall of Fame {{Professional wrestling halls of fame 2012 establishments in the United States Awards established in 2012 Total Nonstop Ac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |