Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2015 23:54:07 GMT -5
Recently, Barbie Blank, also known as Kelly Kelly, talked with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin on the Steve Austin Show podcast. On the show, Blank discussed her entrance into WWE and the origins of her ECW exhibitionist character.
Although Blank spoke positively of her experience training with Al Snow and Beth Phoenix, Blank indicated that other developmental talent made her time in OVW challenging.
Blank explained, "the guys were pretty rough because the guys had been there for a long time, the ones who had growing up wanted to wrestle for WWE for their whole lives and they had been working their whole lives to be here, and they see me and Alicia Fox come in as these models, so we definitely got not the best treatment from the guys - they definitely gave us a hard time, so that was rough too."
As for Blank's exhibitionist character in ECW, Blank said that Paul Heyman pitched her the concept only after two months of training at OVW. Blank recalled receiving a call from Heyman where he explained that he wanted her to be an exhibitionist and have a dance segment. Blank told Heyman that she had no rhythm and was "the whitest white girl," but Heyman reassured her that she would be fine. After Heyman pitched the idea for the exhibitionist character, Vince McMahon demonstrated for Blank the dance he wanted her to perform as part of her dance segment.
Blank remembered, "my first day I was in Vince's office and he's like, 'I have this whole idea. I have this whole plan for the dance I want you to do.' So he showed me this whole dance. I was dying because I was like 19 years old and watching Vince McMahon and WWE for my whole life and now I'm sitting here with Vince McMahon and you're showing me how to dance. It was the funniest."
With respect to the Kelly Kelly name, it was McMahon's idea based on a joke from an episode of Cheers. Apparently, Blank wanted to use her real life nickname, Barbie, as her WWE name, but she was told that she could not use it since the name has already been trademarked. Blank was given a list of 20 potential names and the name, Kelly, appealed to her. From there, McMahon extended the name to Kelly Kelly.
"I guess there's a Cheers episode where one of the guys is singing about the girl and the song is like, 'Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly', so that's what I've always heard," Blank stated.
As for whether Blank still watches WWE programming, she said she is still a WWE fan and will always be a fan. Blank admitted that she thought the Divas division had gotten a little stale since the departure of AJ Lee and was glad to see Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch get called up to the main roster.
"I love seeing those girls definitely come up to the main roster and kind of give a fresh, new look and kind of liven up the Divas division a little bit," Blank continued, "I think Charlotte's amazing and she was a big gymnast too, for a long time, so I love that she incorporates a lot of gymnastics into her moves too."
Blank went on to say that her time with WWE was the best six years of her life and "a blessing for sure." Blank indicated that a return for one more run is quite possible.
"I feel like if they ever are like, 'okay, Barbie, you have one more run in you', I may do that," Blank said. "I would definitely come back for maybe one more run. You never know. I'm still young and my body's doing okay, so you never know."
