Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida.Birthday: January 15, 1987.
FavoUrite Wrestler: Stone Cold Steve Austin. “He’s always been my idol.”
Guilty Pleasure: “I’m obsessed with fast food. Nuggets, fries, hamburgers – everything.”
Embarrassing iPod Song: “Probably ‘MMMBop’ by Hanson.”
Desired Christmas Present: “Shoes. I love Louboutin and YSL. Just putting that out there.”
Desired Celebrity Opponent: “Lindsay Lohan. She needs some sense knocked into her.”
College student Barbara Jean Blank didn’t bat an eyelash when her modelling agent asked if she’d be interested in wrestling. Less than a year later, she became the youngest Diva in WWE history when she debuted as ultra-babe Kelly Kelly. Quickly winning fans with her megawatt smile, Kelly was chosen to participate in the WWE’s USO [United Services Organisation; a group that provides morale-boosting entertainment to American troops] tour that year, travelling to Iraq to show off her killer moves. Since then she’s been overseas three more times, and crushed her competition to become the Divas champion (a title she’s currently trying to reclaim). The former high school cheerleader has come a long way!
Were you always a fan of wrestling?
Oh, yeah, since I was a kid. My mum thought it was too violent, but my dad would sneak me into the bedroom to watch with him. It never crossed my mind I could do this kind of stuff. I thought wrestlers were larger than life, so when WWE called and asked if I wanted to train, I was like, “Oh, my God, yes!”
Did you feel you had to prove yourself?
Definitely. A lot of the guys there didn’t like me at first, because they were used to training with girls who had wrestling experience. I was the youngest Diva they’d ever had, and one of the first models, so I was like, “I’m gonna work my butt off.”
Well, the fans certainly warmed up to you, thanks to your routine stripteases.
It was funny, because I’d only been training for two months when I found out I was going to start appearing on TV – as an exhibitionist! When [WWE CEO] Vince McMahon showed me the routine, I was in shock, but, you know, anything to get my foot in the door. It was the most nerve-wracking minute of my life.
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