Former WWE Diva Kristal Marshall sat down recently with Ring the Belle and had an in-depth interview about her career. Her time in wrestling started during the 2005 Diva Search where she came in fourth place. The winner that year was Ashley Massaro who Kristal spoke openly about during this interview.
Many different topics were discussed including how she was exposed to wrestling through a bonding experience with her grandmother. She spoke on her time on Deal or No Deal and going the route of the Diva Search instead during that time in her life.
They speak further on the rivalries she had with Jillian Hall, Layla, and Ashley. She touched on her first match which was a Divas Uncovered match.
“I was training at Deep South. I was learning holds, I was learning how to fall, I was learning all these things. But I still hadn’t pieced it all together. I had no idea how to follow a leader in a match. I was green as green and that is a true testament to Jillian Hall. Let me tell you, Jillian does not get the credit that she deserves. But she is probably one of the best – the best – teachers out there. Especially for the women. She did the best she could. I can’t say it was my best match. You know it’s one of those things that you can never really explain the feeling – going to the arena and seeing the stands full of people and being expected to perform. That is the most terrifying and important feeling and it’s something that you can try to chase for the rest of your life through various platforms but you’ll never ever, ever, be able to compare it to the feeling of being in a ring. It’s something that just cannot be explained.”
Kristal opened up about her relationship with Ashley. What it was like then, how they remained friends and how her passing has affected her.
“You know, Ashley and I have always been pretty close especially through the Diva Search experience and rolling that into our time on SmackDown. Her and I, you know, we still kept in contact through the years. I shared a hotel room with her last January before she passed. You know what’s really cool about the business is that even though you might not have worked on a specific brand with somebody you have like a familiar sisterhood, brotherhood relationship with them.”
“You know it was, it still affects me. It’s really really hard. A lot of things don’t make sense but I think with suicide in general it’s just one of those things that no matter how hard you try to think about it and explain it away and dissect it – it’s never going makes sense why.”
Some more serious topics were talked about as well. These included how women were used during the Diva Era, how she personally felt during those times, and how people of color are represented. WWE has been criticized for years and years about being partial to white blonde women. Some of these women include Trish Stratus, Sable, Michelle McCool, and even Charlotte Flair.
When asked how she feels WWE has handled this, Kristal responds:
“I’m going to say this, I’ve been in the entertainment business for a long time in different facets of it and this is not a WWE thing. Across the board, in entertainment for a very long time, there has not been representation of attractive, powerful, smart, beautiful women of color. There just hasn’t been. So to sit here and say that oh it’s just WWE, it’s not. It’s not. But the thing is the world now is diverse. The world now looks like you, it looks like me, it looks like many other people who are multi-ethnic and I think that this is the first time that I can say I think that they are doing a great job. It is diverse. It is changing. You don’t see a bunch of people with perfect bodies. There are all kinds of different body types, shapes, and I’m for it”.
Kristal reflects on how different the environment is now as well. Women’s wrestling today is different than it was back then. With the Performance Center and NXT, there are so many more opportunities. She mentions that she would be willing to step back in the ring again. She says her full athleticism wasn’t touched on.
“I know for a fact if I had the opportunity to train more and to have bigger matches and to have what the women in NXT have which is a forum to grow and develop as a character and as an athlete, the sky was absolutely the limit for me. You know if the opportunity ever comes again that I’m given those same opportunities to do that.”
You can check out the full interview above. Credit goes to Ring the Belle. If any transcriptions are used from this article please do credit Diva Dirt.
“
