Former Divas Champion Beth Phoenix recently spoke to CAC Radio about her road to wrestling, her storied career with the WWE and her upcoming appearance at the 2015 CAC reunion, at which she’ll receive a 2015 CAC Women’s Wrestling Award.
Being the first female varsity wrestler at her high school: “Well when I decided to do that, it was a lot of heart and a little bit of ignorance…I wanted to be a pro wrestler one day…and that was my childhood dream and I knew that a lot of my favorite wrestlers had backgrounds in mat wrestling, you know, collegiate wrestling. So I was like, at some point I think this is going to help me. I don’t know how, but it’s going to help me. So that was my main motivation for going out for the team, and they mopped the floor with me.”
Overcoming her injuries: “When I broke my jaw, I went through a lot of emotions. What happened was, it happened on a Monday night but they couldn’t get me in for surgery until Wednesday…so I had basically 2 nights in the hospital just stewing on my life completely taking a turn. You know I’d worked out so hard…it was kind of, you know, the theme of the phoenix, my name has kind of become a theme in my life where I really have gotten burned a few times and then had to pick myself back up. I stewed on it. I had a good cry, and then basically after my surgery they flew me home and when I got to Louisville I drove straight to the building to practice.”
The inspiration for the Glam Slam: “I came to WWE and they wanted me to do a strength move that showed I could pick up the girls. So I started doing a Fisherman Buster, but it never had the “oomph” that I wanted. I felt like when I did it, this isn’t it. I did it several times, but something about this, it’s just not it, you know. I used to do a move out of a wheelbarrow, so the babyface was giving me a wheelbarrow, and I would just sit down, essentially giving them the Glam Slam, and I always loved that. And I’d pop’em right back over. It was just a really nice looking spot. And then I remember Jazz had done a move called the Bitch Clamp where you would hold the person over your head and just kind of toss’em down like a pancake. And I kind of thought to myself, wow, if you had an impact at the end of that move, gosh, that would be awesome.”
Competing in the 2010 Royal Rumble: “I gotta tell ya, it’s hard to put any sort of priority on these moments that meant a lot to me, but the reason that that in particular was so special, I looked up to the character that Chyna was while she was in WWE because that character was just empowering to women. Just something really, really special. And there was something about me that felt I could do that in my own way. I could just be an example for girls that you don’t have to just accept the minimum, shoot for the stars!”
Beth also talks about Total Divas, her friendship with Natalya, life on the road and working with Mickie James, Candice Michelle, Lay-Cool, and other top stars. You can listen to the full interview on CACRadio.com.
