Former WWE Diva Maxine Says Aksana Stole Her Character And Used It For Herself On SmackDown

Speaking to "Headlocks 2 Headlines," Karlee Perez, who appeared as Maxine for WWE, revealed that she was the brain behind Aksana's character when the Lithuanian Diva was promoted to SmackDown in 2011 and put in a storyline to seduce then-brand General Manager Theodore Long.

During her time in Florida Championship Wrestling, WWE's then-developmental branch, Perez wrote the idea for her character?who at the time had the black hair and leather look?and pitched it to officials. According to her, the very next day, Aksana dyed her hair black and was called up to SmackDown to begin the story that she created. Adding insult to injury, she was then asked to assist Aksana with her promos and developing the persona.

Perez explained, "I got myself over with the fans and at the end of the day, there's a lot of politics going on backstage. Aksana was found by somebody important backstage, so that became their girl. That push, it just happened so randomly that one day (laughs), one day I pitched a storyline that I spent time writing?very long time?and I had my jet black hair with bangs, the black catsuit on, which people kinda remember from the FCW days when they see pictures and I was the General Manager of FCW, so it only made sense. I wrote and pitched the storyline of going up to SmackDown and seducing Teddy Long and eventually trying to take over SmackDown. When I pitched that storyline to the writers and the boss man, I had to cut a promo, I had to have a match and pitch the storyline. Within twenty-four hours, the very next day, I walk into FCW and I'm sat down and I'm told that I have to change my hair and my entire look. And I ask why, and they said it was too similar to Aksana. Well, you gotta remember, the day before that, she was bleached blonde, playing the Aksana, kinda ditsy, hosting "The Aksana Show." So within twenty-four hours, she had jet black hair, was wearing a black catsuit and that following week was getting sent up to SmackDown to seduce Teddy Long. So call it what you must, but it was definitely very, very, very extremely similar (laughs) to what I wrote and what I pitched. And then after that, I was asked to actually help her with her promos, so it was a pretty good shot and slap in my face."

She continued, "I got back up; I changed my hair, I changed my outfit, which I ended up wearing; the black full-piece garter outfit, which ended up being my main one and I changed everything and I did what I had to do to make myself different once again. This happened on more then one occasion where my stuff and the stuff I've written and pitched?and I'm not the only one in the business that happened to, but that was pretty blunt and obvious (laughs). To the point that when I walked into the arena of FCW, the boys kinda went silent and were just staring at me because they knew."