Awesome Kong, who is currently an AEW wrestler and coach, recently spoke to Collider and she detailed the differences between health benefits for a performer for WWE and health benefits as an employee of AEW. Kong was in WWE in the spring of 2011 as Kharma and is now on Netflix’s GLOW.
“From my time in WWE, what I understood was, if you got hurt in the ring then that is something they would take care of. However, your everyday exams and check-ups, that was something that you had to be responsible for. As an individual, it’s hard and expensive to acquire such medical care with the profession we are in. When you have a company like [AEW] that’s behind you and providing [medical care], that really makes it a lot easier on the pocketbook. Just to have that support of, ‘these people don’t see me as this product in a box. They see me as an actual person.’ We had a meeting about concussions and their approach to it was full of humanity and putting yourself and your health first. For old school people, it’s hard to comprehend because we’ll literally break our neck and try to keep going. To have that attitude of care and putting talent before the bottom line is new for us and surprising, but appreciated.”
