This week on Between the Ropes, former WWE women’s champion, Ivory joined Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci to talk about her career in wrestling, her departure from World Wrestling Entertainment, the current state of women’s wrestling, and her upcoming appearance at the NWA Legends Fanfest in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend at the Carolina Championship Wrestling booth. 

She mentioned that she has been doing a lot of landscaping since she left the WWE.  It is a good way to deal with issues in her life.  She said that she could give the National Enquirer some good material because of all of the bathing suits that she has from the Diva shoots.  She tells everyone who visits her house to have a luxurious bath in her house.   The house is so remote that she only had to change her number once when people from Vancouver called her for advice.  She told the people who wanted to get into the business.

She joked that she blames the Guerreros for her getting in the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.  Mondo Guerrero was doing stunt work as well and was hired to organize the audition for good looking girls to do what Mondo wanted them to do.  There were twelve girls to shoot the pilot.  She got dragged in by a girlfriend who was an actress.  She thought her friend was crazy.  She expected everyone to be three times her size, and she did not watch a lot of wrestling when she was growing up.  She did wrestle with her brothers and sister, but that was all she knew.  Mondo was a great trainer and he was passionate about the project.  Some of the girls were disrespectful about the situation.  He told them three things:  1) pay attention so they don’t hurt anyone else, 2) don’t lean on the ropes, and 3) don’t laugh.  When they were being taught to sell in the ring, they were leaning on the ropes and were laughing when someone was trying to sell.  Mondo put one of the girls in an arm bar submission and made that girl cry.  Ivory said that she loved that.  Her first match was in Vegas and she mentioned that there were times when she was unsure where she was in the ring.  People would emulate the wrestlers during Tough Enough, but they could not do it.  Ivory wondered if they really looked like that.

She went on the WWE website this week and she saw the information about the winner of the Diva Search, then she went to the Diva page.  Ivory was sad that she was no longer on the page.  Ivory thought at first that they had a good group of girls.  It helps that they have athletes right now like Michelle McCool and Melina.  She thinks a lot of the MNM characters and their gimmick.  She also likes Jillian Hall, and when Alexis Laree comes up, everything will be fine with the women’s division.

Things were different when she started in the company because of the women who were there compared to today.  In the time that she was in the WWE, there were a lot of huge shifts in the business.  She is proud to be a part of the Stone Cold/Rock/Foley era.  The only thing she would have changed would have been to spend more time in the division when Molly, Jazz, Trish, and Lita were all working there.  Along with Victoria, they were the ‘real’ Divas.  Despite being called ‘Divas’, half of them would not be classified as ‘Divas’.  She suggested that a ‘diva’ would never stay at a Red Roof Inn, eat at a Waffle House, carry their bags up stairs because there are no elevators, or drive 3 hours to the middle of nowhere with a bump on their head with ice packs all over their bodies.

There are people there who are going to be good, but are not there yet.  You would watch the guys in the ring, and you wanted to be them because they have it and have been in there long enough to feel comfortable.  There are some people now who might be intimidated by the system.  During the Russo days, they didn’t give the wrestlers specific things to do or say.  She was only told by Russo to ‘be a bitch’.  She would think about the heels to emulate.  If things are not scripted, it will be more natural.  If she does not know what she is going to do in the ring, it is more of a ride for the people in the crowd.  She wanted to have good storylines, and things are getting better.  If you are going to be a television show, you need to have television production.  People told her during interviews for other media sources that things were very professional.  She would talk to Todd Grisham about why he does certain things, and also makes suggestions to do things for his interviews.  She suggested that instead of standing there and wait for interviews, he should be trying to track people down for interviews.  There needs to be a vibe to make it as good of a television show as everything else on television.  She wants everyone to be as impactful as MNM.  They have a solid gimmick, they meshed well as a team, and they are all part of the gimmick.  She is happy to see them succeed because they are WWE talent. 

Between the Ropes airs every Wednesday from 10:00 p.m. until Midnight on 740 The Team in Orlando, Florida with hosts Brian Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci. Check out www.betweentheropes.com to listen to the live stream of the show every week. Archives of past interviews with Paul Heyman, Mike Tenay, Terry Funk, A.J. Styles, Rob Van Dam, Tully Blanchard, Mick Foley, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Matt Hardy, Jerry Lawler, Bobby Heenan, Steve Corino, Shane Douglas, Elix Skipper, Harley Race, Bubba Ray Dudley, and many more people in the world of professional wrestling can also be found on www.betweentheropes.com.