Female Wrestlers Before They Were Stars - Part 3

Rhaka Khan
Trenesha Biggers was into basketball and volleyball before wrestling.
Before TNA, she wrestled for Deep South Wrestling (DSW), Japan's Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX (as Panther Claw), Full Impact Pro, Women's Extreme Wrestling (as Black Barbie), Professional Girl Wrestling Association (as Naomi Banks) and NWA Great Championship Wrestling.
She also worked for non mainstream female wrestling companies like Slammin' Ladies, Lady Victoria and Sleeperkid's World.


Roxxi
Yes Nicole Raczynski is back in TNA.
But before she wrestled in TNA she was trained by the great Killer Kowalski and worked for wrestling promotions like Shimmer Women Athletes, Squared Circle Wrestling, Women's Extreme Wrestling (WEW), Professional Girl Wrestling Association, New England Championship Wrestling, Defiant Pro Wrestling, World Women's Wrestling, Chaotic Wrestling, Eastern Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor (ROH) and Mexican promotions Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libre Femenil.


Sarita
Before TNA, Sarah Stock wrestled for Top Rope Championship Wrestling, Can-Am Wrestling, Real Action Wrestling, Main Stream Wrestling, Afa Anoa'i's World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW), Hybrid Wrestling Coalition, Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, Monster Pro Wrestling and Premier Championship Wrestling.
Normally thats enough right?
Not in Sarah's case.
She went to Mexico, donned a mask and became the very popular "Dark Angel".
While in Mexico she wrestled for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Federación Internacional de Lucha Libre and Lucha Libre Feminil.


Sojournor Bolt (Sojo Bolt)
Before TNA, Josette Bynum worked for Ohio Valley Wrestling, 3X Wrestling, Midwest Intensity Wrestling, NWA Midwest, World League Wrestling, Impact Zone Wrestling, Shimmer and Ring of Honor and I'm sure I missed a few.


Tara
I'm sure I dont have to tell you much about Lisa Marie Varon's background.
Of course she was Victoria in the WWE and started wrestling in June of 2000.
But before that she was a fitness and figure competitor, competeing in several major contests like the Debbie Kruck Fitness Classic, the ESPN2 Fitness America Series, the Lifequest Triple Crown, the National Physique Committee's Inland Empire and Team Universe competitions and the 1998 Ironwoman Tri-Fitness.
And NOW she wants to get into MMA.

To be continued.......

Female Wrestlers Before They Were Stars, Part 2

In the last entry I did the WWE Divas who scored a poor 7 out of 17 as far as wrestling background goes.
Expect the TNA Knockouts to do much better.


Raisha Saeed-Alissa Flash-Cheerleader Melissa
Please, do I even have to list her credits?
Pro wrestling debut in 1999.
Ultimate Pro Wrestling, All Pro Wrestling (APW Future Legend Champion twice), ChickFight (ChickFight Transatlantic Women's Champion), Pure Wrestling Association (PWA Elite Women's Champion), Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Queen's Cup 2007), Shimmer, Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA: Mid-South).
Not to mention the Cauliflower Alley Club's Future Legend Award in 2004.


Angelina Love
Lauren Williams debuted in August 2000 and has wrestled for Mexico's Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, Full Throttle Wrestling, Impact Wrestling Federation, Old School Pro Wrestling, Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling, PGWA, WAW and IWA Mid South.


Awesome Kong
Kia Stevens made her pro wrestling debut in 2002 and has wrestled for AWA Superstars of Wrestling, All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, SHIMMER, NWA, ChickFight, GAEA Japan, HUSTLE, Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling, NEO Ladies Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling WORLD-1 and last year Kia was named number 1 in PWI's best 50 female singles wrestlers.


Christy Hemme
Okay, okay I know she started out as the winner of the 2004 Diva Search.
But before Christy hit the ring in TNA, she faced Trish Stratus, Victoria, Melina, Beth Phoenix and Shelly Martinez in the squared circle, and she has participated in the Queens of Chaos shows in France, Heavy on Wrestling and Women Superstars Uncensored.


Daffney
Shannon Spruill started out in 1999 in WCW.
She has also worked for Xtreme Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Women's Extreme Wrestling, NWA Wrestle Birmingham and Shimmer Women Athletes.


Madison Rayne
Ashley Simmons or Ashley Lane or Lexi Lane debuted in 2005 and worked for Ohio Championship Wrestling (first ever OCW Women's Champion), SHIMMER Women Athletes, Ring of Honor before ever setting foot in a TNA ring.


ODB
Jessica Kresa debuted in 1998 and worked for Midwest Pro Wrestling, Ohio Valley Wrestling, Steel Domain Wrestling, Texas Wrestling Federation and United States Wrestling Organization before winding up in TNA.
Jessica also did some MMA fighting.

To be continued......

Female Wrestlers Before They Were Stars, Part 1

Many women from the Indy ranks have made it into the "bigtime", the WWE and TNA.
So lets look at some Divas and Knockouts that got to where they are today the hard way.....

First up, the Divas of WWE, Raw, Smackdown and ECW.
Out of about 17 female wrestlers, I only found 7 with real wrestling cred.


Beth Phoenix
Besides being a varsity wrestler in high school (Beth was the North-East Wrestling Women's Champion (72 kg weight class) and the New York State Fair Women's Champion (72 kg weight class) in 1999) , Beth worked for Far North Wrestling, GLORY Wrestling, Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling (C.A.P.W) and Shimmer Women Athletes.
I'm not counting Ohio Valley Wrestling here though maybe I should.


Gail Kim
Before the WWE, TNA and the WWE again, Gail worked for Apocalypse Wrestling Federation (she wrestled there masked as La Felina, Queen of the Cats and lost her mask to Traci Brooks)


Jillian Hall
Before the WWE, Jillian had a really good career in the Indys.
As Macaela Mercedes she wrestled for Blue Water Championship Wrestling, Canadian International Wrestling, GLORY Wrestling, Hoosier Pro Wrestling, Mid–States Championship Wrestling, Professional Girl Wrestling Association, Southern States Wrestling, Superstar Wrestling Federation and Women's Wrestling Alliance.
On theWWE she sings...badly.
Go figure.


Mickie James
As Alexis Laree she wrestled for CyberSpace Wrestling Federation, Delaware Championship Wrestling, Impact Championship Wrestling, Premier Wrestling Federation, Southern Championship Wrestling, Ultimate Championship Wrestling and Ultimate Wrestling Federation.


Melina
Melina Perez worked for Empire Wrestling Federation as "Kyra" (EWF officials said that she had the most natural ability of any woman who came through their school), Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) and I really think she worked for more, but I cant find any proof of that right now.


Natalya
Natalie "Nattie" Katherine Neidhart, the first third-generation female wrestler in the world, wrestled for Stampede Wrestling, NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, Prairie Wrestling Alliance, Great Canadian Wrestling, Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), AAW Wrestling, Shimmer Women Athletes and she toured the UK and Japan.


Katie Lea Burchill
Katarina Waters had a really good career going in the UK, working for promotions like Trans-Atlantic Wrestling, Queens of Chaos, Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA), NAWA (in Germany), German Stampede Wrestling (GSW) and Shimmer Women Athletes.
Now she's pretty much just a valet.

Womens Pro Wrestling - Memphis Ladies Wrestling

    MLW Champion and 2008 Rookie of the Year Su Yung

Here is another female wrestling promotion I ran across online.
Memphis Ladies Wrestling (MLW)

(Update: MLW has changed from Memphis Ladies Wrestling to Magnificent Ladies Wrestling.
But all the links are the same. )

Here is their "mission statement" from their website....
"Welcome to Memphis Ladies Wrestling. We love ladies wrestling and have for more than 40 years. We decided in 2007 to start this old-school ladies promotion. We are not about T and A. We are about WRESTLING – the way I loved seeing it done. We love seeing ladies WRESTLE, not just strut around the ring half naked. We are what ladies wrestling should be about – showing off their talent and ability. Thanks for visiting our site. We hope you find something you like. We offer downloads, DVDs, custom matches, and many other things that just might surprise you. The thing you are sure to find is one of the most talented group of young ladies in wrestling. That, I can guarantee."

And from what I can see of their talent roster, I think I will have to agree as well.
Check this out....

Miss Rachel
Constance
Sex Kitten Kathy
Crystal Fire
Rock N Roll Rock C
Lillie Mae
Amy Love
The Great Cheyenne
Kristin Flake
Tracy Taylor
Camron Star
Kayla McMahon
Sin D
Tasha Simone
Su Yung
Pink
Simply Luscious
Mary Kelly
Kassie Rains
Josie
Tiffany Roxx
Genni Wright
Brandi Wine
Alere Little Feather
Hellena Heavenly
Molotov
Sarah Lynn
Jessie Belle
Destiny
Debbie Johnson
Angelina

Now I have done profiles on a LOT of these ladies and I have to give special props to two of them, Pink and Kristin Flake who actually did some Q and A for me on my blogs.

You can check out MLW's website here:
http://www.mlwonline.com/

And you can check out their MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/memphisladieswrestling

So if you like female wrestling, go out and check out one of their shows.



Womens Pro Wrestling - Memphis Ladies Wrestling, posted to http://womensprowrestling.blogspot.com/ on 8-21-2009

UK Female Wrestler - Faith Diva Lehaine

Moving on with my female wrestling list, we have a young lady that works in the UK, but was born in my home state.
Faith Diva Lehaine was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, but she has made her name in wrestling promotions in Great Britain.
Besides being a female wrestler, she is also a dancer, singer and actress.
Faith started out as a valet and manager, but she has gotten into the wrestling ring enough to win the UCW Women's Championship three times.

I usually post a couple of links where you can keep up with the female wrestlers I profile here, and Faith really seems to know how to keep in contact with her fans.

You can follow her on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/FaithLehaine

And also keep up with her on Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/FaithDivaLehaine

Hopefully one day we will see her in wrestling here in the US.

Female Wrestling - Allison Wonderland

This lovely young lady is Indy female wrestler Allison Wonderland.
(How cool is that name?)
Allison was born on born January 28, 1987 in Minnesota.

She's 5'4, 120 pounds and was trained by one of my favorites (and fellow Minnesota native) Rain.
Allison has worked for Absolute Intense Wrestling, F1RST Wrestling, All American Wrestling, and Ring of Honor.

Her Yahoo Group:
 http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/miss_allison_wonderland/

Rayna Von Tash - Womens Pro Wrestling

This lovely young lady is Indy female wrestler Rayna Von Tash.
Besides being a drop dead gorgeous redhead, she is the first graduate of the SHIMMER Wrestling Academy.
Besides Shimmer, she has wrestled for CHIKARA
Rayna has teamed with Rachel Summerlyn and Tenille, and gone up against her former teacher, Daizee Haze.

Female Wrestling: Tenille

Melbourne, Australia native Tenille Dashwood is another Aussie poised to make a dent in the female wrestling scene.
She is known as Tenille Tayla in Australia and simply Tenille in North American promotions.
This young lady was bitten by the wrestling bug at the age of 10, and decided pro wrestling way the way she wanted to go.
After she graduated high school, she took some business management courses at a university, but wrestling was what was on her mind.

So she traveled to Calgary, Alberta, and attended Lance Storm's Wrestling Academy.
She trained there for three months before moving back to Australia and getting into the wrestling scene there.
After wrestling there for a bit, she and fellow Aussie Jessie McKay caught the atttention of SHIMMER promoter Dave Prazak (via Sara Del Rey who worked with Tenille in Australia) and she was soon in the US making her debut in SHIMMER.

Besides SHIMMER, Tenille has worked for PWA Queensland, PWA Australia, SWA Newcastle, Nightmare Wrestling, Pro Wrestling eKlipse and Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW).