Kristina Laum (born November 23, 1976) is a Korean retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...

, and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Extreme Championship Wrestling Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was an American professional wrestling promotion that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and operated by its parent company HHG Corporation. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as Nationa ...

and

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National W ...

. She used the names Kimona Wanalaya in ECW and Leia Meow in WCW.

Professional wrestling career

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996)

Laum was asked by her friend

Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

to go into professional wrestling while she was working as a go-go dancer at a club. She made her debut in

(ECW) on January 27, 1996, as Raven's new valet under the name Kimona Wanalaya (a play-on-words for "Come on, I wanna lay ya") and she managed Raven to win the

ECW World Heavyweight Championship The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling Professional wrestling championship#World championships, world heavyweight championship originally used in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and later, WWE, World Wrestling Ent ...

on the same night. According to the storyline, Raven used her to replace

Beulah McGillicutty Trisa Laughlin (née Hayes; born March 14, 1969) is an American author and retired professional wrestling valet, better known by her ring name, Beulah McGillicutty. She is best known for her appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1995 ...

, his former girlfriend and valet, who had announced that she was pregnant with

Tommy Dreamer Thomas James Laughlin (born February 13, 1971) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and professional wrestling promotion, promoter better known by the ring name Tommy Dreamer. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestli ...

's child on January 7 at ECW's

House Party A house party is a type of party held at the home of the party's host. Organization A house party might be organized several months or just a few hours in advance. News of a party may be spread by personal invitations, word of mouth, pos ...

event. Wanalaya left Raven at

Massacre on Queens Boulevard Massacre on Queens Boulevard (sometimes written as Massacre on Queens Blvd) was a professional wrestling live event A house show (also commonly called a live event) is a professional wrestling event produced by a major Professional wrestling ...

on April 13 after he slapped her for remonstrating with him, causing her to vow revenge. On April 20, 1996, at Hostile City Showdown,

Shane Douglas Troy Allan Martin (born November 21, 1964) is an American professional wrestler, manager, and promoter, better known by his ring name Shane Douglas. He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship ...

, with Kimona by his side, called out Dreamer to inform him that Beulah had been cheating on him. While Dreamer was wondering who the person could be, to which Douglas replied “it's not a he”, Kimona snatched the

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

from Douglas's hand and shouted "It's me!" Moments later, Beulah made her way to the ring and she and Kimona shared a racy kiss and fell to the mat together before Dreamer decided to date both women. The segment is widely believed to be the first

sapphic Sapphic may refer to: * Sappho, Greek poet of the 7th century BC who wrote about her attraction to women ** Sapphic stanza, a four line poetic form * Sapphism ''Sapphism'' is an umbrella term for any woman Interpersonal attraction, attracted ...

angle in a major wrestling promotion.

Jersey All Pro Wrestling

Laum later left ECW and worked for

Jersey All Pro Wrestling Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) was an independent wrestling promotion based in New Jersey, United States. History 1997 Jersey All Pro Wrestling was an independent wrestling promotion that was founded by "Fat" Frank Iadeavia and Angel Surit ...

(JAPW) for a while as Kimona. While in JAPW, she wrestled

Missy Hyatt Melissa Ann Hiatt (born October 16, 1963), better known by her ring name, Missy Hyatt, is an American retired professional wrestling valet, commentator, model and occasional professional wrestler. She is best known for her appearances with Wo ...

in a series of mixed tag team matches and a steel cage match.

World Championship Wrestling (1999–2001)

She was signed by

(WCW) in 1999, and she eventually debuted alongside Varsity Club ( Kevin Sullivan,

Mike Rotunda Lawrence Michael "Mike" Rotunda Jr. (born March 30, 1958) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s under the r ...

and

Rick Steiner Robert Rechsteiner (born March 9, 1961) is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Rick Steiner. Steiner is best known for his tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he wa ...

) as the cheerleader, Leia Meow. This angle soon ended and she became the manager for the Jung Dragons ( Jamie-San, Yun Yang, and

Kaz Hayashi , best known by the ring name , is a Japanese business executive and retired professional wrestler who last competed in Gleat and serves as the company's chief technical officer (CTO). He is best known for his work in World Championship Wrestlin ...

), thus turning heel. She would interfere in matches with a flying bodypress off of the top rope onto their opponents. She also had a

dominatrix A dominatrix ( ; or dominatrices ), or domme, is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. The BDSM practice is called female dominance, or femdom. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily l ...

gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand out ...

and carried a riding crop. She used it to attack Pamela Paulshock after Paulshock had won the "Miss WCW" contest that Meow participated in on September 25, 2000. She was then attacked by

Midajah Melinda Midajah Flores (; born March 23, 1970) is an American personal trainer, Model (profession)#Fitness models, fitness model, beautician, former Manager (professional wrestling), professional wrestling manager and actress, better known by her ...

and had a brief rivalry with her leading to a fight on the following Thunder during

Mike Awesome Michael Lee Alfonso (January 24, 1965 – February 17, 2007) was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the American professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

's ''Lava Lamp Lounge'' segment. She also had a short feud with Tygress and threatened to cut her hair off. By the time WCW was sold to

Vince McMahon Vincent Kennedy McMahon ( ; born August 24, 1945) is an American businessman and former professional wrestling promoter. McMahon, along with his later-estranged wife Linda McMahon, Linda, is a co-founder of the modern WWE, the world's largest ...

in March 2001, she had been fired from WCW along with the majority of the other female talent due to roster cuts.

Independent circuit (2001, 2022)

She went to the

X Wrestling Federation The X Wrestling Federation (XWF) (later referred to as the Xcitement Wrestling Federation) was an American professional wrestling promotion that operated from 2001 to 2002. The previous number two and three American promotions, World Champions ...

(XWF) where she was known as Kris, a member of the X-Girls, a dance team that included

Gorgeous George George Raymond Wagner (March 24, 1915 – December 26, 1963) was an American professional wrestler known by his ring name Gorgeous George. In the United States, during the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1940s–1950s, Gorgeou ...

and Chiquita Anderson of the

Nitro Girls The Nitro Girls were a dance team in World Championship Wrestling introduced in July 1997. Centered around Kimberly Page, the group generally consisted of a roster of seven members, all of whom had some degree of professional dance experience. T ...

. When XWF ended, Kristina Laum retired from wrestling. On April 1, 2022, she made an appearance at ICW No Holds Barred 24 in Newark, New Jersey.

References

External links

Online World Wrestling Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laum, Kristina 1976 births American female professional wrestlers South Korean female professional wrestlers LGBTQ characters in professional wrestling Living people Sportspeople from Seoul People from Maple Shade Township, New Jersey Professional wrestling dancers Professional wrestling managers and valets South Korean emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women 20th-century female professional wrestlers 20th-century American professional wrestlers 21st-century female professional wrestlers 21st-century American professional wrestlers Professional wrestlers from New Jersey