Maryse Ouellette, the French Canadian glamor model turned professional wrestler originally made the top eight finalists in the 2006 WWE diva search. After being eliminated she was invited to join OVW for training with no guarantees of success. Three years later, Maryse became the WWE Diva’s Champion.
Real Name : Maryse Ouellette
Alias(es) : Maryse
Date Of Birth : January 21, 1983 Height : 5’8 Weight : Approx. 125lbs
Pro Debut : July 10, 2006
Wrestling Organization : World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Trainer(s) : Ohio Valley Wrestling & Florida Championship Wrestling
Finisher(s) : The French Kiss & The French TKO
On August 24th 2006, Maryse was officially signed to the WWE and sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling for training. At first, she was used in the promotion to take part in bikini contests and do interviews. She participated in the 2007 “Miss OVW” contest and the “OVW Divalympics” and wrestled many dark shows for the promotion. Her first professional match, consisting of a ten diva tag team that partnered her with Katie Lea, Kelly Kelly, She Nay Nay, and Victoria Crawford against ODB, Melina, Josie, Beth Phoenix, and Melody, was successful. Florida Championship Wrestling debuted in mid-summer of 2007 and Maryse was transferred to continue her training. She began by being a valet for Ryan O’Reilly and moved on to Ted Dibiase Jr when he captured the FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship. She started wrestling live matches in FCW and participated in a series of tag team matches with Michelle McCool against Victoria and Katie Lea Burchill during the WWE European Tour.
She appeared many times on Smackdown and Raw over the next several months, mostly in swimsuit competitions and such. It wasn’t until May 16th, 2008 that she made her in ring debut losing to Cherry. For weeks, she teamed with Natalya Neidhart and Victoria feuding with McCool, Cherry, and Maria. During one of these matches, she suffered a broken nose from being bulldogged by Maria. Her first pay-per-view performance was on September 7th, 2008 at Unforgiven losing against Divas Champion Michelle McCool. The following week on Smackdown Maryse , unsuccessfully, tried to gain the title from McCool. The following week in ECW, she beat McCool, but in a non-title matchup and promptly disappeared for a month. At Survivor Series 2008, Maryse returned and participated in a five-on-five Smackdown vs Raw diva elimination match. Her team did not survive but she was the last diva eliminated.
Her career took a dramatic turn on December 19th, 2008 when Maryse defeated Maria to gain number one contendership. On the very next episode of Smackdown, Maryse beat McCool (with Maria as referee) for the WWE Divas Championship belt. Two days later in a house show her knee was dislocated during a tag team match against the Bella Twins that sidelined her for a few weeks. Returning to the ring, she and McCool started tag team wrestling against Maria and Eve Torres. As part of the WWE draft, Maryse was sent to Raw, and with her, the Divas Championship. Since, she has been avoiding Mickie James who has been fervently trying to gain the championship title. Maryse and Mickie’s confrontations continued to heat up over the next few weeks leading up to Night Of Champions. At the pay-per-view, she was soundly beaten by James losing the Divas Championship. On August 1rst, 2009 Maryse was sideline due to a knee injury that was surgically repaired. She should return in a few months.
I’m not really sure, as a wrestler, what to make of Maryse Ouellette yet. I’m not sure if she’s interested in a professional wrestling career or just looking for televised attention. Either way, she has the “it” factor with a strap around her waist and an attitude only the WWE could love.