Kelly Kelly

Early life

Barbara Jean Blank was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Blank was a fan of professional wrestling as a child, and cites Stone Cold Steve Austin as her favorite wrestler. While growing up, Blank participated in gymnastics for ten years, before she was forced to quit due to an injury. She later took up cheerleading. Blank studied broadcast journalism, hoping to become a news anchor. She was also a Hawaiian Tropic and Venus Swimwear bikini model.

Developmental territories (2006–2007)

In 2006, while working as a model, Blank was scouted by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) official John Laurinaitis, who was interested in signing her to a contract. As a result, WWE contacted her modeling agency and invited her to their then-developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), for a tryout. Despite having no previous wrestling experience, she was offered a contract, which she signed in May 2006. Even after being called up to WWE's main roster, she continued to fly back and forth to OVW's base of Louisville, Kentucky once a week to work shows; first as a ring announcer and referee, then as a wrestler. One of her first matches took place at the September 6 television tapings, where she participated in a Divas battle royal, which was won by ODB. In late 2007, she also made appearance in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), another developmental territory.

Extreme Exposé (2006–2008)

Blank debuted for the ECW brand as Kelly Kelly. Originally, she was to be named just 'Kelly', but her ring name was expanded to 'Kelly Kelly' by WWE chairman Vince McMahon. She made her debut on the first episode of ECW on June 13, 2006, becoming the youngest Diva on the WWE roster at the age of 19. Her character, an exhibitionist, was introduced performing a striptease for the crowd. The next week, while performing another striptease, Kelly was interrupted by her on-screen boyfriend, Mike Knox, who came to the stage and covered her with a towel before dragging her backstage. Her stripping became a weekly segment known as Kelly's Exposé and usually followed the same routine; Kelly would dance and strip until she was interrupted by Knox, who was upset by her exhibitionism and showing off her body to others. Originally a solo segment, Kelly was joined by the villainous Candice Michelle on the July 11 edition of ECW.

Knox began forcing Kelly to accompany him to ringside so he could keep an eye on her, making her his de facto valet. As a result, she found herself involved in the feud developing between Mike Knox and partner Test with Tommy Dreamer and his partner The Sandman, including being inadvertently hit with a cane by Sandman when Knox used her as a shield. She made her in-ring debut for the brand on the August 22, 2006 episode of ECW on Sci-Fi in a losing effort, as part of a six-person mixed tag team match which saw herself, Knox, and Test lose to Dreamer, Sandman and Torrie Wilson, in what was the last match of the feud.

Following the feud, Kelly and Knox were moved into a storyline with CM Punk in September, in which Kelly was shown to have developed a liking for Punk, and Knox was shown to be increasingly protective and jealous. During the next month, Kelly continuously flirted with Punk and was shown watching his matches from the crowd, until Knox stopped her. Subsequently, Kelly's character dressed as Punk for ECW's Halloween Costume Contest, enraging Knox and leading to a match between the two, during which Kelly cheered for Punk. At December to Dismember, Kelly and Knox took on the team of Ariel and Kevin Thorn in a mixed tag team match, during which Knox refused to tag in before abandoning Kelly, leaving her to be beaten down by Ariel. On the following episode of ECW, Kelly defeated Ariel with a roll-up on her first ECW singles match, after which Knox came to ringside with flowers, only to throw them in Kelly's face and perform his signature swinging reverse STO on her, ending their relationship and giving her a scripted injury, removing her from the program for six weeks.

She returned to television on January 16, 2007 and cut a promo announcing that she was newly single and bringing back Kelly's Exposé. The following week, she joined Layla and Brooke to form Extreme Exposé. The trio performed a weekly dance segment on ECW for the next several months, as a successor to Kelly's Exposé. In June 2007, The Miz was moved to the brand, prompting a storyline in which all three members of Extreme Exposé were attracted to him. When Kelly shifted her attentions towards Balls Mahoney, Layla, Brooke, and Miz mocked her, and Miz later prevented her from going on a date with Mahoney, stating that he owned her contract and would fire her if she did so. On November 1, Brooke was released from her WWE contract, and Extreme Exposé dissolved as a group, leaving Kelly and Layla to enter an ongoing rivalry with more active wrestling roles. On the October 29 episode of Raw, Kelly won a battle royal to earn a match against the WWE Women's Champion, Beth Phoenix. After the match however, Kelly was attacked by Phoenix and lost the subsequent match between the two the following week on Raw. Kelly continued to feud with Layla, and they were on opposite sides of a 10-Diva tag team match at Survivor Series, which Kelly's team won. In December, Layla formed an alliance with Victoria, which expanded to include Lena Yada in January 2008, and Kelly continued to feud with the trio. At WrestleMania XXIV, Kelly was a "lumberjill" for the Divas' tag team lumberjill match. The following month, Kelly was part of the losing team in a five-on-five Divas tag team match at Backlash.

Various feuds (2008–2011)

Following the 2008 WWE Draft, Kelly was moved to the Raw brand on July 7. Kelly had her debut match as part of the brand that same night, teaming with Mickie James to defeat Layla and Jillian Hall. She quickly became involved in a feud with Beth Phoenix, facing her on multiple occasions in both singles and tag team matches with a variety of opponents, including Mickie James and Candice Michelle. During this time, Phoenix was aligned with Jillian Hall, and in late September, Kelly transitioned into a feud with Hall. At Survivor Series in November, Kelly was part of the victorious Raw Diva team which defeated the SmackDown Divas in a five-on-five elimination match; she eliminated Victoria, before being eliminated by Maryse. The following month at Armageddon, Kelly teamed with Maria, Michelle McCool and Mickie James in a winning effort against Jillian Hall, Maryse, Victoria and Natalya.

On April 5, 2009, Kelly competed in a Divas battle royal at WrestleMania XXV, which was won by Santina Marella. On the May 18 episode of Raw, Kelly won a battle royal by eliminating Beth Phoenix and Mickie James, to become the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship. The following week, she challenged Maryse for the championship and won by disqualification, allowing Maryse to retain. Kelly lost a subsequent rematch on June 8. Three weeks later, she competed in a fatal four-way match to determine the number one contender, but the match was won by Mickie James. Throughout the remainder of mid-2009, Kelly unsuccessfully competed in several number one contender's matches. At Bragging Rights in October, Kelly, Gail Kim and Melina comprised Team Raw, but lost to Team SmackDown, consisting of Beth Phoenix, Natalya and Michelle McCool. The following month at Survivor Series, Kelly participated in a five-on-five elimination match; she eliminated Layla before being eliminated by Phoenix, however her team went on to win the match.

In January 2010, Kelly participated in the tournament to determine a new Divas Champion, after Melina was forced to vacate the championship due to injury, but was eliminated by Alicia Fox in the first round. Throughout early 2010, Kelly was involved in several backstage segments with the guest hosts of Raw. At WrestleMania XXVI, Kelly teamed with Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim, Mickie James and Eve Torres in a losing effort to Michelle McCool, Layla, Maryse, Alicia Fox and Vickie Guerrero. The following night on Raw, the teams faced off in a rematch with the opposite result. The following week, Kelly took part in a 10-Diva "Dress To Impress" battle royal, to determine the number one contender for Maryse's Divas Championship, but the match was won by Eve Torres.

During the 2010 WWE draft on April 26, Kelly was drafted to the SmackDown brand. She made her debut on the April 30 episode of SmackDown, teaming with Beth Phoenix to defeat LayCool (Michelle McCool and Layla). She went on to feud with LayCool, gaining an ally in Tiffany. Over the next several weeks, Kelly and Tiffany faced LayCool in tag team matches, with LayCool winning on both occasions. On the June 4 episode of SmackDown, Kelly made her singles debut for the brand, defeating Rosa Mendes, despite being distracted by Layla and McCool. After defeating both Layla and McCool in singles matches, Kelly received a WWE Women's Championship match at Money in the Bank in July, but was unsuccessful. On August 31, Kelly announced that she would be a mentor on the all-female third season of NXT, with Naomi as her rookie. Throughout the second half of 2010, Kelly continued to feud with LayCool, and gained an ally in Natalya in October. In November, Kelly's NXT rookie, Naomi, was named runner-up to the winner, Kaitlyn, during the season finale.

In December, Kelly started a storyline with Drew McIntyre, who had developed an on-screen romantic interest in her. She rebuffed his advances on several occasions, stating that he was too aggressive and vindictive. On January 30, 2011, at the Royal Rumble, Kelly prevented the Acting General Manager Vickie Guerrero from interfering in the World Heavyweight Championship match between Edge and Dolph Ziggler. On the following SmackDown, Kelly and Edge defeated LayCool and Ziggler in a two-on-three handicap match to retain Edge's World Heavyweight Championship, with Kelly scoring the pinfall. Following the match, Guerrero fired Kelly in storyline. At Elimination Chamber later that month, Kelly was re-hired by SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long, and made her return by attacking Guerrero. She was stopped by LayCool, who were in turn stopped by Trish Stratus. On the following episode of SmackDown, Kelly gained revenge on Guerrero when Kelly and Edge defeated Guerrero and Drew McIntyre in a mixed tag team match, causing Guerrero to be fired in storyline per the pre-match stipulation.

Divas Champion (2011–2012)

On April 26, Kelly was drafted back to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 supplemental draft. On May 22 at Over the Limit, Kelly unsuccessfully challenged Brie Bella for the WWE Divas Championship. The following month, on the Power to the People special edition of Raw on June 20, Kelly won a fan vote to determine the challenger for the Divas Championship that night; Kelly went on to win her first Divas Championship by defeating Bella. Her win later garnered her a Slammy Award for "Divalicious Moment of the Year". At Money in the Bank in July, Kelly made her first title defense, successfully defeating Brie Bella in a rematch. On August 1, Beth Phoenix won a battle royal to become the number one contender to Kelly's championship, and afterward attacked Kelly to provoke a feud between the two. Kelly went on to successfully defend her championship against Phoenix at SummerSlam on August 14. Following SummerSlam, Kelly continued to feud with Phoenix, defeating her at Night of Champions, before dropping the championship to her at Hell in a Cell on October 2, ending her reign at 104 days. She failed to reign the championship on the October 14 episode of SmackDown in a rematch. Kelly again challenged Phoenix for the Divas Championship at Tables, Ladders & Chairs, but was unsuccessful.

At WrestleMania XXVIII in April 2012, Kelly and Extra correspondent Maria Menounos defeated Beth Phoenix and Eve in a tag team match. In June, WWE granted Kelly a period of time off, and she returned on Raw on August 6, defeating Eve in singles match. On September 28, Blank was released from her contract. In a December 2012 interview, Blank stated she needed time off to heal a neck injury, and had plans to be a model.

Independent circuit (2012)

Blank was set to appear at her first independent wrestling show in Waterbury, Connecticut at a North East Wrestling event on November 4, 2012, followed by a house show event on November 5, but her appearances were canceled due to Hurricane Sandy. Blank eventually made her first appearance for North East Wrestling on December 4.

Return to WWE (2017–present)

Since February 2017, she has served as an ambassador for WWE. Blank visited backstage and was interviewed for WWE.com at the February 13 edition of Raw. She later appeared during Wrestlemania weekend at Axxess and the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. She appeared on the June 19, 2017 edition of Table for 3 on the WWE Network along fellow wrestlers Maryse and Eve Torres.

Media appearances and acting roles

In April 2007, Kelly, along with Ashley Massaro, Layla El, Brooke Adams, Torrie Wilson, and Maryse Ouellet, appeared in a music video for the Timbaland song "Throw It on Me", featuring The Hives. In August 2007, all three members of Extreme Exposé took part in a photo-shoot for FHM Online.

On April 11, 2008, Blank along with Mickie James, Melina Perez, and Layla El appeared in an episode of Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp as trainers. Six days later, she appeared as a "Soccerette" on the British football show Soccer AM. She appeared a second time on Soccer AM in 2009. On June 14, 2011, Kelly and The Bella Twins appeared on an episode of The Price Is Right. Blank was nominated as 'Favorite Butt Kicker' for the 2012 Kids' Choice Awards.

In 2011, Blank was ranked number 82 in Maxim's Hot 100. Blank was later featured on both the front and back covers of Maxim in December 2011. In 2012, Blank ranked number 38 in Maxim's Hot 100.

She has appeared in seven WWE video games. She made her in-game debut at WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008 and appears in WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2009, WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2010, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 and WWE '13 .

Blank is one of the cast members of the E! reality television series WAGS, which began airing in August 2015 and features a look into the personal lives of the wives and girlfriends of sportsmen.

Blank made her acting debut on the January 30, 2017 episode of Days of Our Lives appearing in a scene as a waitress who gives information to one of the show's main characters.

Personal life

While training at OVW, Blank lived in Kentucky. Following this, Blank lived in Tampa, Florida prior to moving to Miami. She then returned to living in Tampa in 2010. As of 2015, she resides in Malibu, California. She describes Trish Stratus as her inspiration in wrestling.

Blank was in a two-and-a-half year relationship with wrestler Andrew Martin, that had ended prior to his death in March 2009. In August 2014, she became engaged to former ice hockey player Sheldon Souray. The couple were married in Mexico on February 27, 2016.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments