Former WWE wrestler Victoria on retiring from the ring, who she wished she could have worked with, pitching Vince McMahon on the idea of working with younger talent, whether she resented being labeled a Diva or the Divas Championship belt

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Ring The Belle interview with Victoria (a/k/a Lisa Marie Varon)
Interview available at Ring The Belle Youtube Page (or below)

On her reason for her recent retirement from pro wrestling: “I took a big bump. I took a suicide dive, which I’ve never taken a suicide dive in my career. I shouldn’t have done it, but my ego, man. The next day when I landed at home, I looked at my boyfriend I said, ‘I can’t do this.’ This is my last year. I still want to be good out in the ring and people to remember and not feel sorry for me. I and I want to be healthy when I get older. I want to stay healthy. Twenty years, it’s a long career. My body hurts, man. Not to say I won’t be able to wrestle next year and the following or something like that, but I just want to go out on top.”

On one WWE wrestler she wishes she could work with: “Nattie Neidhart. She and I only had one single match when she started, and it wasn’t even televised. I think it was a dark match. Then we became tag team, so we really never fought each other since we were tag partners. I wanted us to break up and then get into it. Because that girl—there’s a saying in our business—she can wrestle a broomstick and make that broomstick look really good. She’s an amazing wrestler.”

Pitching to Vince McMahon on working with rookie Divas: “I wasn’t being used too often on TV. They wanted to push Christy Hemme and I went to Vince McMahon and I said, ‘Give me Christy. I’ll make her look like a million bucks. She doesn’t know how to wrestle. I’ll get here early and help her out.’ We used to get there early with Ricky Steamboat, Fit Finlay, and Arn Anderson to learn the basics. She worked her butt off man. We got there so early. At house shows, we didn’t have to be there until 4:00 or something like that. We would get there at noon.”

Why she moved to TNA: “There were girls I’ve never wrestled with. I didn’t go there to crap on WWE. I just saw the girls and went, ‘I’ve never wrestled her. This is new. This is bright and shiny.'”

Thoughts on the WWE’s Diva branding and the Divas Championship: “Did you hate being called diva? Not at all. It’s entertainment, you guys. And the butterfly belt, did I hate the butterfly belt? It was a championship belt. We’re not gonna complain about the style of it. It’s the championship.”