LG
02-27-2017, 07:16 PM
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Beth Phoenix, whose dominating physical style was a precursor to the current women’s wrestling revolution, is heading to the WWE Hall of Fame.
Phoenix, a Divas champion and three-time WWE women’s champion, will be inducted March 31 in Orlando as part of the Class of 2017 with Kurt Angle, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Teddy Long and Diamond Dallas Page.
“When you are in WWE, you dream of that moment (in the future) when you get to reflect on your career and the things that you did and you get that wonderful individual honor,” Phoenix told For the Win in an exclusive interview. “It seemed so far off in the distance for me (when I was wrestling). I didn’t know when — or if — I’d ever experience that feeling. I certainly didn’t think I’d have that opportunity this early in my life. It’s amazing and very, very humbling.”
Phoenix, who retired in 2012 at age 31, said she received a call from Mark Carano, WWE’s vice president of talent relations, in January with the news. Carano said WWE boss Vince McMahon and executive vice president Paul “Triple H” Levesque made the decision
“To hear they find my career was worthy enough and that I did well enough in the ring to be honored among the greatest of all time was incredible and the biggest compliment I could ever ask for,” Phoenix said. “It’s still sinking in and is very surreal.”
Her first move was to head to the next room and share the news with her husband, who knows something about the WWE Hall of Fame. Adam “Edge” Copeland was inducted in 2012. Phoenix, his then-girlfriend, was in the audience. Now, they will be the only spouses to be WWE Hall of Famers. The two married in October 2016 on Edge’s 43rd birthday.
“He was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ He wasn’t shocked by it at all,” she said. “He’s like, ‘Of course, you deserve it.’ I was shocked by that response, too. I said, ‘You think I deserve this? Is this the right time?’ He was 100 percent confident and he made me feel like a million bucks about it. He is super excited. We’re still celebrating it and looking forward to seeing everyone at WrestleMania and enjoying the experience.”
Phoenix broke through at a time when much of the WWE women’s division consisted of models who had not dreamed of being wrestlers. Her lifelong passion was to wrestle.
She was on the wrestling team in high school. She tells the story of how she and her college roommate had a giant poster of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on their dorm room door. She worked her way up through the independents, including in Ohio Valley Wrestling (then WWE’s developmental territory).
While in OVW, she worked as a waitress as well as wrestled to help pay her bills until her break came. She signed a developmental contract with WWE in October 2005.
“For a long time when I was working to get a job and in OVW to create an image to get hired by WWE, they kept saying we’re looking for the next Trish Stratus,” Phoenix said. “We want that look — that beautiful, feminine fitness model that kicks butt, and you just don’t fit the mold. That was holding me back for so long. I felt like a square peg trying to go into a round hole.
“I kept trying to dress like Trish, trying to be cheerful like her. I tried to emulate her a lot. It never worked, because that wasn’t me. I was fumbling and not really finding my groove.”
That’s when Candice Michelle helped change Phoenix’s fortunes. Michelle was the WWE women’s champion at the time, and while noted for her toughness, she had come to the company via the Diva Search and was known as the “Go Daddy Girl” in the Super Bowl commercials.
“They were giving me a trial as an opponent for her at a live event,” Phoenix said. “I said to her, ‘I have this chance. Would you be willing try some things?’ Luckily, she was an amazing opponent and willing to try anything and a super, super tough girl. We tried some stuff that hadn’t been done before. I was catching her and pressing her and chucking her around the ring. I wrestled like a wrestler and that caught everyone’s notice.”
That led to her first WWE title match on pay-per-view at Unforgiven in 2007. The video before the match showed Phoenix beating up a succession of opponents. During the match, the camera panned to shots of strands of Michelle’s hair in the ring after Phoenix had pulled them out. Michelle won, but it was presented as more of an escape with the title and less of a victory. Phoenix beat Michelle a month later for the title.
“That was a make-or-break moment for me,” Phoenix said of Unforgiven. “I know going out there, it was going to be really, really special. When we got to the back, everyone was standing and applauding. I get goosebumps just talking about it. It was one of the greatest validations of my career — that I went out there and was myself. I wasn’t trying to be Trish. I was being me. I was being Beth. Things started happening from there. That was the night the Glamazon was born.”
Along with her success as a singles wrestler, she and Santino Marella formed “Glamarella.” Phoenix played the straight man to Marella’s humor and gags.
“That was probably the most fun I had during my entire run with WWE because of the person that I got to play opposite,” she said. “I love those times. I look back on them so fondly. They were a huge part of what made me memorable in the WWE.”
She walked away in 2012 when her contract expired, ready to start a new chapter: The Glamazon is now the Glamamom.
Phoenix and Edge have two daughters: Lyric, who is 3; and Ruby, who is nine months.
“It was heartbreaking to have a complete change of direction after that was all I had wanted to do since I was a little girl,” Phoenix said. “But I also had accomplished everything I wanted to do. I won both championships at the time. I had been in the Royal Rumble, which was something special because I had admired Joanie Laurer as Chyna for so long. (Laurer was the first woman in the Royal Rumble.)
“I was at a point in my life where I had found a wonderful person who was looking for the same things. My contract was up so I finished out and decided I had fulfilled all my dreams in the way I had wanted to.”
But Phoenix, 36, gets questions often about whether she would consider stepping back in the ring. The cheers of “one more match” from the audience at the Hall of Fame ceremony are a given.
“I know it’s not a great answer and not what people want to hear, but never say never,” she said. “If there was an opportunity and it would benefit my family – first and foremost, that’s the most important thing to me – sure, why not? …
“There are a couple of girls that I love watching. I love watching Charlotte. She gets better and better with each match and she is becoming a legend in the making. … Nia Jax is an untapped resource where it would be interesting to see her have an opponent in there that can give her a run for her money.”
Even if she never steps in the ring again, she will be immortalized in the Hall of Fame, and her legacy will be part of putting the emphasis in women’s wrestling back on wrestling.
“I would say at leaner times in the women’s division, I feel like there were certain girls who tried to keep the torch going for women’s wrestling,” Phoenix said. “If I was one of those women then I feel like I did my job.
“There were times where the trend wasn’t to have wrestling matches. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t the style, it wasn’t the brand, it wasn’t the flavor of the month. If these girls today have an easier time because of what we did in the past, that’s the point.
“I have two little girls. Who knows what they want to do in the future? But if they want to be wrestlers someday and I helped forge a path for them be more successful than it was all worth it. I’ve done what I wanted to do.”
Beth Phoenix, whose dominating physical style was a precursor to the current women’s wrestling revolution, is heading to the WWE Hall of Fame.
Phoenix, a Divas champion and three-time WWE women’s champion, will be inducted March 31 in Orlando as part of the Class of 2017 with Kurt Angle, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Teddy Long and Diamond Dallas Page.
“When you are in WWE, you dream of that moment (in the future) when you get to reflect on your career and the things that you did and you get that wonderful individual honor,” Phoenix told For the Win in an exclusive interview. “It seemed so far off in the distance for me (when I was wrestling). I didn’t know when — or if — I’d ever experience that feeling. I certainly didn’t think I’d have that opportunity this early in my life. It’s amazing and very, very humbling.”
Phoenix, who retired in 2012 at age 31, said she received a call from Mark Carano, WWE’s vice president of talent relations, in January with the news. Carano said WWE boss Vince McMahon and executive vice president Paul “Triple H” Levesque made the decision
“To hear they find my career was worthy enough and that I did well enough in the ring to be honored among the greatest of all time was incredible and the biggest compliment I could ever ask for,” Phoenix said. “It’s still sinking in and is very surreal.”
Her first move was to head to the next room and share the news with her husband, who knows something about the WWE Hall of Fame. Adam “Edge” Copeland was inducted in 2012. Phoenix, his then-girlfriend, was in the audience. Now, they will be the only spouses to be WWE Hall of Famers. The two married in October 2016 on Edge’s 43rd birthday.
“He was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ He wasn’t shocked by it at all,” she said. “He’s like, ‘Of course, you deserve it.’ I was shocked by that response, too. I said, ‘You think I deserve this? Is this the right time?’ He was 100 percent confident and he made me feel like a million bucks about it. He is super excited. We’re still celebrating it and looking forward to seeing everyone at WrestleMania and enjoying the experience.”
Phoenix broke through at a time when much of the WWE women’s division consisted of models who had not dreamed of being wrestlers. Her lifelong passion was to wrestle.
She was on the wrestling team in high school. She tells the story of how she and her college roommate had a giant poster of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on their dorm room door. She worked her way up through the independents, including in Ohio Valley Wrestling (then WWE’s developmental territory).
While in OVW, she worked as a waitress as well as wrestled to help pay her bills until her break came. She signed a developmental contract with WWE in October 2005.
“For a long time when I was working to get a job and in OVW to create an image to get hired by WWE, they kept saying we’re looking for the next Trish Stratus,” Phoenix said. “We want that look — that beautiful, feminine fitness model that kicks butt, and you just don’t fit the mold. That was holding me back for so long. I felt like a square peg trying to go into a round hole.
“I kept trying to dress like Trish, trying to be cheerful like her. I tried to emulate her a lot. It never worked, because that wasn’t me. I was fumbling and not really finding my groove.”
That’s when Candice Michelle helped change Phoenix’s fortunes. Michelle was the WWE women’s champion at the time, and while noted for her toughness, she had come to the company via the Diva Search and was known as the “Go Daddy Girl” in the Super Bowl commercials.
“They were giving me a trial as an opponent for her at a live event,” Phoenix said. “I said to her, ‘I have this chance. Would you be willing try some things?’ Luckily, she was an amazing opponent and willing to try anything and a super, super tough girl. We tried some stuff that hadn’t been done before. I was catching her and pressing her and chucking her around the ring. I wrestled like a wrestler and that caught everyone’s notice.”
That led to her first WWE title match on pay-per-view at Unforgiven in 2007. The video before the match showed Phoenix beating up a succession of opponents. During the match, the camera panned to shots of strands of Michelle’s hair in the ring after Phoenix had pulled them out. Michelle won, but it was presented as more of an escape with the title and less of a victory. Phoenix beat Michelle a month later for the title.
“That was a make-or-break moment for me,” Phoenix said of Unforgiven. “I know going out there, it was going to be really, really special. When we got to the back, everyone was standing and applauding. I get goosebumps just talking about it. It was one of the greatest validations of my career — that I went out there and was myself. I wasn’t trying to be Trish. I was being me. I was being Beth. Things started happening from there. That was the night the Glamazon was born.”
Along with her success as a singles wrestler, she and Santino Marella formed “Glamarella.” Phoenix played the straight man to Marella’s humor and gags.
“That was probably the most fun I had during my entire run with WWE because of the person that I got to play opposite,” she said. “I love those times. I look back on them so fondly. They were a huge part of what made me memorable in the WWE.”
She walked away in 2012 when her contract expired, ready to start a new chapter: The Glamazon is now the Glamamom.
Phoenix and Edge have two daughters: Lyric, who is 3; and Ruby, who is nine months.
“It was heartbreaking to have a complete change of direction after that was all I had wanted to do since I was a little girl,” Phoenix said. “But I also had accomplished everything I wanted to do. I won both championships at the time. I had been in the Royal Rumble, which was something special because I had admired Joanie Laurer as Chyna for so long. (Laurer was the first woman in the Royal Rumble.)
“I was at a point in my life where I had found a wonderful person who was looking for the same things. My contract was up so I finished out and decided I had fulfilled all my dreams in the way I had wanted to.”
But Phoenix, 36, gets questions often about whether she would consider stepping back in the ring. The cheers of “one more match” from the audience at the Hall of Fame ceremony are a given.
“I know it’s not a great answer and not what people want to hear, but never say never,” she said. “If there was an opportunity and it would benefit my family – first and foremost, that’s the most important thing to me – sure, why not? …
“There are a couple of girls that I love watching. I love watching Charlotte. She gets better and better with each match and she is becoming a legend in the making. … Nia Jax is an untapped resource where it would be interesting to see her have an opponent in there that can give her a run for her money.”
Even if she never steps in the ring again, she will be immortalized in the Hall of Fame, and her legacy will be part of putting the emphasis in women’s wrestling back on wrestling.
“I would say at leaner times in the women’s division, I feel like there were certain girls who tried to keep the torch going for women’s wrestling,” Phoenix said. “If I was one of those women then I feel like I did my job.
“There were times where the trend wasn’t to have wrestling matches. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t the style, it wasn’t the brand, it wasn’t the flavor of the month. If these girls today have an easier time because of what we did in the past, that’s the point.
“I have two little girls. Who knows what they want to do in the future? But if they want to be wrestlers someday and I helped forge a path for them be more successful than it was all worth it. I’ve done what I wanted to do.”