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.

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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)

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&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.

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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 right here 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 check out her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/lovefaithxxx

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.

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Female Wrestling: Rayna Von Tash

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.

If you want to keep up with Rayna, check out her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/raynafyre

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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).

You can keep up with Tenille on her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/tenille777

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Female Wrestling: Rachel Summerlyn

Rachel Summerlyn is an indy female wrestler that wrestles for promotions like Shimmer, Pro Wrestling Evolution, IWA-Mid South and Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW).
Her hometwon is Austin Texas and she made her pro wrestling debut in November of 2006.
And this young lady has mixed it up with some of the best.
Her very first match was against the imposing Vanessa Kraven!
And Rachel won!
She has also faced Mickie Knuckles, MsChif and Daffney, just to name a few.

You can visit Rachel's MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/rach_ill and there is also a "Best of Rachel Summerlyn" DVD there you can buy.
The DVD has her wrestling stars like Portia Perez and Sara Del Ray among others.

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Kimberly Kash

This blond haired 5'5 118 pound beauty is female pro wrestler Kimberly Kash.
Kimberly may look slight, but don't let that fool you.
She's held the VWAA Women's Wrestling Championship, the Adrenaline Rush Wrestling (ARW) Women's Championship and the PCW Women's Championship twice.
Kimberly was trained by Vito Thomaselli, Sal Thomaselli, and Mike "Acid" Nolan, and made her debut in June of 2005.
Her favorite wrestling moves are The Stock Market Crash (a double knee drop off the top rope), The Kash Flow ( a running swinging neck breaker), The Liquidation ( triangle choke armbar) and her finisher, The Face Blower (face buster).

You can keep up with Kimberly at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/kimberlykash

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Kellie Skater

This young lady from Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia is Indy wrestler Kellie Skater.
She was trained by George "Hitman" Julio and Mike Burr / Mike Manson (Alpha) and she made her pro wrestling debut in March of 2007 in a battle royal.
As Kellie she is a clean scientific wrestler, but when she switches to the "Rate Tank"....watch out!
Besides wrestling in Australia, Kellie has wrestled for SHIMMER here.
SHIMMER seems to have a fair amount of Australian wrestlers.

Her finishing moves are the "Skate and Destroy" (Code Red, Leg trap sunset flip powerbomb) and the "Skate or Die" (an inverted STF).

You can follow Kellie at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/moppyakacallee

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Shimmer Women Athletes

The awesome Rain

I talk a lot about Shimmer here, but I have never really taken the time to highlight just what it is.
Shimmer is called Shimmer Women Athletes or SHIMMER Women Athletes or just plain SHIMMER.
It is a Chicago based female independent pro wrestling promotion created by Dave Prazak and run by him and Allison Danger.
Shimmer held it's first event on November 6, 2005.
SHIMMER is closely affiliated with ROH (Ring of Honor) and is the home of probably the best female wrestling you will see.

And the list of SHIMMER wrestlers from the past and present is long and stellar.
Just a few of the female wrestlers that have worked for the company are Rain, Ariel, Jetta, Cat Power, Nevaeh, Daffney, Lorelei Lee, Cheerleader Melissa and Jennifer Blake.

Of course many SHIMMER stars ( like Amazing Kong (Awesome Kong), Cheerleader Melissa (Raisha Saeed) , Daffney, Nikki Roxx (Roxxi) and for a short time, Rain, as Payton Banks ) have gone onto work for TNA.

And Beth Phoenix and Nattie Neidhart (Natalya) also worked for Shimmer at one time.
.
I really cant say enough about this organization, so the best thing to do is check out their website here:
http://www.visuex.com/shimmer/index.php

Or you can go to their MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/shimmerwrestling

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Aurora

This beautiful young lady is Canadian female wrestler Aurora.
Aurora has not only torn up the rings in Canada and the United States, but Mexico as well.
In Mexico she wrestles for CMLL.
Down there she has wrestled masked as "Goddess" until she lost her mask to Mexican Luchadora Princess Sugey.
I have done several entries on her on my Lucha Libre Women blog.

Aurora was trained by Rob Fuego, Silver Star, Garringo, Profe Cachorro Zapata and Diluvio Negro 1.
She made her pro wrestling debut on February 18, 2005.
Aurora has held the PWA (Pure Wrestling Association) Elite Women's title and the PWX (Pro Wrestling Xtreme) Women's title.



If you want to find out more about her, you can check out her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/auroramyspace

Or her "Goddess" page here:
http://www.myspace.com/la_diosa_wrestling

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Miss Elizabeth

Although not really a wrestler, Miss Elizabeth had a big impact on female wrestling.
Just check around with some of the female wrestlers of today, and you'll see that she was a role model for a lot of them.

Elizabeth Ann Hulette was born on November 19, 1960 in Frankfort, Kentucky.
While she was working for International Championship Wrestling, an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky, she met Randall Poffo, better known now as "Macho Man" Randy Savage.(ICW was run by the father of Macho Man, Angelo Poffo)
The two married on December 30, 1984, and Randy went to work for the WWF soon after.
On the August 24, 1985, edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling, Miss Elizabeth officially debuted as the manager of the Macho Man.
She became integral to the story lines with Randy, but she always maintained a sense of style and class.
Even when she once ripped off her skirt to revel a red bikini bottom that distracted André the Giant and Ted DiBiase, allowing Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man to win a match at the very first SummerSlam.
Except for a few small catfights with the late Sherri Martel, Elizabeth didn't do much in the ring except advance the story lines in the WWF.

In the WCW however, Elizabeth wrestled in her first official match against Daffney on May 8, 2000.
After that, she competed in a few matches against Rhonda Singh and Madusa.

On August 17, 2000, WCW released Elizabeth from her contract.

Miss Elizabeth passed away on May 1, 2003.

Besides Randy Savage, she managed Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake.

The WWE has a nice Alumni page about Elizabeth here:
http://www.wwe.com/superstars/wwealumni/misselizabeth/

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Sassy Stephie

Yet another young lady that wrestles for Shimmer, Sassy Stephie.
Stephie stands 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 122 pounds.
She was trained by "Big Gunns" Jeff Cannon and made her pro wrestling debut in March of 2007.
Besides Shimmer, Sassy Stephie has wrestled for Ohio Championship Wrestling (OCW), Ring of Honor (ROH), NWA Underground, Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA) and
Insanity Pro Wrestling.
She was also the first PWR Womens Wrestling Champion.

You can see more of Stephie at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/sassystephie

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Cat Power, Haley Rogers

This lovely young lady is another Shimmer wrestler, Catherine Power (Cat Power).
Cat was born on November 15, 1985, in North Sydney, Canada.
Besides Cat Power, she also wrestles under the name Haley Rogers.
Besides Shimmer, Cat has wrestled for Blood Sweat and Ears, Border City Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Xtreme and Women's Extreme Wrestling.
Cat was bitten by the wrestling bug so hard, she left University College of Cape Breton to go to the Can-Am Wrestling School in Windsor, Ontario.

Here is a video of Cat's Shimmer debut against the awesome Allison Danger



You can keep up with Cat by going to her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/haley_rogers

Or by going to Shimmer's homepage here:
http://visuex.com/shimmer/

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Nevaeh

Female pro wrestler Nevaeh.
In case you didn't notice, Nevaeh is heaven spelled backwards.
Anyway, Nevaeh is 5'4 and weighs in at 130 lbs.
She made her pro wrestling debut in February 2005.
Nevaeh is one half of a tag team with her real life friend Ashley Lane (TNA Knockout Madison Rayne).
She and Ashley were the first ever Shimmer Tag Team Champions (they defeated "The Experience" in the finals of a Six Team Gauntlet match) .
Ashley and Nevaeh recently lost the titles to Portia Perez and Nicole Matthews, the Canadian Ninjas.

Besides Shimmer, she has worked for Ohio Championship Wrestling.

You can find out more about Nevaeh at the Shimmer website here:
http://www.visuex.com/shimmer/

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Miss Natural

Miss Natural is another young lady that works for Shimmer Women Athletes.
She is from Golden Valley, Minnesota and stands 5'4" and weighs 145.
Her wrestling training is to be envied, she was trained by Ken Patera and Harley Race!
Miss Natural made her pro wrestling debut in 2000.

Besides Shimmer, she has worked for WLW (World League Wrestling), Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) and World of Hurt Wrestling.

You can find out more about her at Shimmers site, or her Yahoo group here:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/ms_natural/

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Jessie McKay

Another lovely young lady from the Land Down Under.....Jessie McKay.
Jessie trained at the Eagles Wrestling Academy and made her pro wrestling debut in June 2007.
She often teams with another OZ beauty, Madison Eagles.
Madison is 6'1 and Jessie is 5'10.
Jessie has worked for the PWA Pro Wrestling Alliance, PWAQ Pro Wrestling Alliance Queensland, RCW Riot City Wrestling, CZW, Ring of Honor (ROH), SHIMMER and Chikara Pro wrestling promotions.
You can learn more about Jessie at her MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/jessie_mckay

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Nicole Matthews

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".
Dont 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/

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Madison Eagles

Back in 2007 I did a write up on a 6'1, 160lb young lady that wrestled in Australia named Madison.
I thought she had vanished, but someone was kind enough to comment and let me know that she was still going strong in her homeland.
So imagine my surprise when I ran across her again, this time wrestling for Shimmer as Madison Eagles.

Come to find out, Madison has not only worked for Shimmer here in the US, but Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA),World Class Extreme Wrestling (WCEW), EGO Pro Wrestling, New England Championship Wrestling(NECW), ACE, Ring of Honor (ROH), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and Chikara.

She also runs an all female pro wrestling company in Australia called PWWA, and she co-owns PWA and the PWA training school.

Madison has a MySpace page up here:
http://www.myspace.com/madison_eagles

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Melanie Cruise

Melanie Cruise is a Indy female wrestler that has worked for Purely Obsessed Wrestling World (POWW) and Shimmer Women Athletes.
Not only is Melanie a wrestler, but she is also an aspiring model.
She stands 6 feet tall and weighs 170 lbs.
Melanie was trained by Jimmy Blaze, Ruff Crossing and Scott Spade.
She made her pro wrestling debut on April 26, 2008 in Oswego, IL, teaming up with Kanoa to go against Traci Brooks and Chris Cairo.

You can watch Melanie Cruise wrestling The Great Cheyenne on a video posted by POWW on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ-ijifLR-s

And you can visit Melanie's MySpace page here:
http://www.myspace.com/cruise53

And if that's not enough, you can take a look at her Model Mayhem page here:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/721539


technorati tags: female wrestling list, wrestling matches, wrestling rumors, female wrestling pics

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Wrestlin Wally's Wide World of Women's Wrestling

Okay, Now I'm gonna take a minute off doing entries on female wrestlers and do something I rarely do.
Gush about another site.
I have run into Wrestlin Wally's work now and then on the web, and I was delighted to see that he has his own wrestling website.
Its called Wrestlin Wally's Wide World of Women's Wrestling.
If you like really good, close up candid shots of the ladies of Indy wrestling, you really need to check him out.
We're not talking long distance fuzzy pics you can barely make out here.
This is really good, great even, close up pics and action shots.
Wally really needs to think about a "coffee table book" kinda like what Theo Ehret did.
Wally's work is not only good, but it captures the look and feel of these beautiful ladies plying their trade.
And no Wally's not paying me to write this...LOL.
But if you wanna read up to date info and see the latest pics of these beautiful ladies of wrestling, head over to his site.
And just think how much better the WWE Diva's section or TNA's Knockouts would look with Wally doing the pics.
So head on over to http://www.wrestlinwally.com/ and look around.
You won't be disappointed.


technorati tags: wrestling matches, wrestling information, wrestling website, wrestling blogs, wrestling promotions

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