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.

Nicole Matthews - Women's Pro Wrestling

This beautiful young lady is Indy pro wrestler Nicole Matthews.
And yes, like Trish Stratus and Gail Kim and others to numerous to mention, she is yet another Canadian wrestling beauty.
Nicole was born on January 15, 1987 in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
She was trained by Gorgeous Michelle Starr, Scotty Mac, Vance Nevada, Aaron Idol and Artemis Spencer, and made her pro wrestling debut in February of 2006.
Nicole is one half of the Canadian Ninjas with Portia Perez.
And she's a "heel".
Don't you just love heels?
Nicole has held the ECCW SuperGirls Championship (twice) and wrestles for Shimmer and NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling.

You can find out more about Nicole at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/nikkimatthews

And you can check her out at Shimmer here:
http://visuex.com/shimmer/

TNA: Gail Kim 3

Gail Kim (born February 20, 1976 ) is a Korean Canadian professional wrestler, valet, and actress. Kim is perhaps best known for her appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment between October 2002 and November 2004. She is currently working for TNA Wrestling.

Kim attended the York Memorial Collegiate Institute in Toronto, partaking in numerous sports and twice being named "Athlete of the Year". Upon her graduation, she began studying kinesiology at the University of Toronto, but later switched to nutrition at Ryerson University.

After obtaining her degree, Kim decided to become a professional wrestler and joined Ron Hutchison's "School of Pro Wrestling" in Toronto. She received supplementary training from Rob Etchevarria at the "Squared Circle Pro Wrestling Gym". She debuted in December 2000 under a mask as "The Queen of the Cats" La Felina in the Southern Ontario-based Apocalypse Wrestling Federation and was eventually unmasked by Tracy Brooks in a "mask versus hair" match. Kim worked on the Canadian independent circuit for two years, wrestling for promotions such as Border City Wrestling. On September 27, 2002, Kim reached the semi-finals of the WXW Women's Elite 8 Tournament in Danbury, Connecticut, defeating Nikki Roxx and April Hunter before losing to Tracy Brooks.

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