Beth Phoenix is the epitome of World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) next generation of female wrestlers. In the ring, she’s dominant, quick with counter moves, and obviously strong enough to wrestle with the boys. Why she has not been the dominant female wrestler for WWE is a mystery.
Real Name : Elizabeth Koncanski Carolan
Alias(es) : Beth Phoenix, The Glamazon, Firebird, The Phoenix, & Fabulous Freebird
Date Of Birth : November 24, 1980 Height : 5′6 Weight : Approx. 150lbs
Pro Debut : May 2001
Wrestling Organization : World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Trainer(s) : Joey Knight & Robin Knightwing, Ron Hutchinson, & Ohio Valley Wrestling
Finisher(s) : The Glam Slam, Down In Flames, & The Beth Valley Driver
Early Pro Wrestling Promotions
Elizabeth, was a successful wrestler in high school and was trained by the All Knighters. She was featured as the first GLORY Champion and appeared in early SHIMMER promotions. While in Cleveland All Pro Wrestling, Apocalypse Wrestling, and Far North Wrestling (FNW) she wrestled men due to a lack of competition in her gender. She won the FNW Cruiserweight title in 2003 beating both Joey Knight and Kevin Grace in a Triple Threat. She appeared in World Xtreme Wrestling twice during their annual Women’s Elite 8 tournaments, both times making a great showing.
Ohio Valley Wrestling
In May of 2004, Elizabeth began working for Ohio Valley Wrestling after accepting an offer to tryout for WWE. She made her first televised appearance in OVW as Beth Phoenix, girlfriend and valet of “The Masterpiece” Chris Masters, but after approximately one month with Masters, she began managing Aaron “The Idol” Stevens. Shelly Martinez briefly joined the two, but her and Beth soon became rivals. On October 20th, 2005, Phoenix signed a developmental contract with WWE and continued to wrestle in OVW until her debut in World Wrestling Entertainment on May 8th, 2006.
This, however, was not the end of Phoenix’s appearances in OVW. Due to a serious injury that damaged her jaw, she had to fore go surgeries that shelved her for a a few months after her WWE appearance. So, she re-joined the OVW roster on August 16th, 2006, beating Serena Deeb to celebrate her return to the ring, then Phoenix began to focus on the OVW Women’s Championship. Her first attempt was foiled by ODB and Victoria Crawford in a Battle Royal. In her second attempt, she lost a Fatal Four Way that crowned Serena as the new champion. But, you know what they say about the third time being the charm. On October 4th, 2006, Beth Phoenix won the OVW Women’s Championship defeating Serena, but lost it approximately one month later to Lea in a Gauntlet match. The following week, on November 1rst, Beth brought her own championship title to the ring claiming to still be the Women’s Champ. This led to a ladder match between Lea and Phoenix to determine the “Undisputed Champion”. Phoenix lost the match, but continued her title pursuit until her final showing in OVW on August 15th 2007.
Beth Phoenix in World Wrestling Entertainment
When Beth debuted for WWE on the May 8th, 2006 edition of Raw, she came to the aid of Trish Stratus during a post-match beatdown by Mickie James. She allied herself with Stratus for approximately a month before suffering a broken jaw during a match with Victoria. To her credit, Beth not only finished the match, but beat Victoria. This was the last time Beth Phoenix was seen in WWE for over a year. Two months after the incident, she began working again for OVW, but was sidelined in WWE due to the severity of her injury and spent most of the year ungoing various recontructive surgeries.
Beth Phoenix – The Glamazon
On July 9th, 2007, Beth returned to WWE competing as tag team with Jillian Hall to face Candice Michelle and Mickie James. While her first return match was not so successful, she won a diva Battle Royal during SummerSlam making her the number one contender for the Women’s Championship. She began calling herself the “Glamazon” becoming one of the most dominant women in professional wrestling. Beth Phoenix battled Candice Michelle at Unforgiven for the women’s title, losing due to a quick backslide pin-fall on Candice’s part. She re-challenged Candice on September 24th, and pinned her in a non-title matchup allowing her to proceed to No Mercy and another shot at the women’s title belt.
Beth Phoenix – WWE Women’s Champion
In October, at the pay-per-view, Beth Phoenix started her first Women’s Championship reign. The re-match occurred on the 22nd of October, Phoenix retained the title in a Two Out Of Three Falls match. Candice was knocked off a turnbuckle during the match sending her to the floor and breaking her clavicle. At Survivor Series, she was the chosen captain of the her team in a Ten Diva Tag Team match losing only after James pinned Melina Perez. Phoenix successfully defended her title against James at Armageddon, and again on December 31rst in a Triple Threat match with James and Perez. Melina and Beth began a partnership that showcased them both at Wrestlemania 24 where the duo beat Ashley Massaro and Maria Kanellis in a Playboy “Bunnymania” Lumberjill match. Beth’s reign as champion continued until April 14th, 2008, after six months, she was beaten by Mickie James.
Weeks later, Phoenix enacted her re-match clause losing to James again due to “backfired interference” on Melina’s part as she accidentally knocked Beth out with a boot. The following week, Melina and Beth tagged against Mickie and Maria. Again, Melina’s unintentional actions wound up getting Beth knocked off the ring apron, so she abandoned Perez during the match allowing James and Kannelis the win. This started a feud between Phoenix and Perez that ended their alliance. She tried to regain the title at Judgment Day facing both Perez and James, but was unsuccessful.
Phoenix and Perez’s dislike for each other culminated at One Night Stand where the two competed in the first female “I Quit” match. She defeated Perez at the event and partnered with Katie Lea Burchill a week later to defeat both Melina and Mickie in a tag team match. WWE then promptly removed Phoenix from television for approximately one month, setting her up for her next story line.
Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella – Glamarella
On the July 14th, 2008 episode of Raw, Phoenix made her return to television by pinning Santino Marella fairly quickly after he issued an open challenge to any one backstage. The following week, the two began fighting again, but wound up kissing and “The Glamazon” and Marella became known as “Glamarella”. They were hilarious together! Marella would get himself in strange predicaments and she would come to his “rescue”.
Beth Phoenix – WWE Women’s Championship reign #2
She set her sights once again on the title belt wrapped around Mickie James’ waist. An inter-gender tag team match was setup at SummerSlam that stipulated both the Women’s and Intercontinental titles would go to the winning team. Glamarella won both titles as Phoenix rolled up James to score the pin-fall victory. Santino became even more arrogant after gaining the Intercontinental Title and Phoenix backed him up. They appeared together in October at No Mercy where she successfully defended her title against Candice Michelle. She appeared at Marella’s side during Cyber Sunday where he defended the Intercontinental belt against The Honkey Tonk Man. During the match, Marella was disqualified because the referee sighted Beth trip up The Honkey Tonk Man during the match. In November at Survivor Series, Beth Phoenix captained the Raw divas to victory over the Smackdown brand. The match ended as Phoenix used the Glam-Slam to gain the win over Maryse. Later in November, Melina Perez returned from an injury and began assaulting Phoenix during and after her matches. This backfired for Melina one night, when during an assault, a fan ran in from the audience and attacked Melina. The fan claimed to be Phoenix’s #1 fan and followed her for the next few weeks attacking Melina every chance she got. After some coaxing on Marella’s part, Rosa Mendes was finally introduced into Glamarella as a trainee of Phoenix.
Beth Phoenix – Diva Of The Year
On December 8, 2008, Beth Phoenix received a well deserved Slammy Award for the “Diva Of The Year” category. Things began to sour for Glamarella at the beginning of 2009. At the Royal Rumble, after a second six month title reign, Beth lost the Women’s Championship to Melina. Her boyfriend, Santino, became obsessed with trying to make the Wrestlemania 25 card and failed. As a last ditch effort, Santino entered a preliminary match the week before Wrestlemania in which he was ousted by all the divas immediately after the match started. Undaunted, Marella dressed as a woman and claimed to be his twin sister “Santina”. He not only entered the 25 Diva Battle Royal, but eliminated Beth to become the first “Miss Wrestlemania”. Beth was furious with Santino and, the following week, she unsuccessfully fought Marella for the “Miss Wrestlmenia” title. The two broke up after the match, but Phoenix got her revenge in the following weeks setting Santina up with The Great Khali (who was smitten with the whole sister look) for the kiss cam. Beth took a short hiatus from performing but returned on July 24th, participating in a three on three match with Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes against Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Kelly Kelly. Beth was impressive against both Gail Kim and Mickie James for her part in the competition. On August 7th, Beth Phoenix competed in a Fatal Four Way for the number one contender spot to the Diva’s Championship at SummerSlam. While she performed wonderfully during the match, showing her physical dominance of Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, and Alicia Fox, the Diva’s Title continued to elude her grasp. On August 24th, Beth was involved in a six-diva tag team match pitting her team of Rosa Mendes and winner, Alicia Fox against the team of Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Kelly Kelly.