Laurel Van Ness Talks Influences On Her Character, Dating Zack Ryder, If There Are Issues With It
WrestlingINC.com owner Raj Giri was on a media conference call with Laurel Van Ness from Global Force Wrestling this week and asked about what influences she's had on creating her character.
"My character has kind of been the brainchild of everyone," said Van Ness. "Dutch [Mantel] and I worked on the character when I cut a promo after I was left at the altar. And Dutch kept kind of pushing me to get a little bit crazier and a little bit crazier. And the finished product was a promo where I was drinking champaign and singing the Song of No Tomorrow and it blew up."
Van Ness, whose real name is Chelsea Green, was a contestant on WWE Tough Enough in 2015 after being brought on as a replacement for Dianna Dahlgren. She made her debut with what was then TNA Wrestling last year. In March, here maniacal gimmick started.
"Like I did not realize how insane I would look or how much people would love it. But from then on, everyone has kind of given me their input and their take from what this character is or what crazy people come into their life or what they've done that maybe I can include in my character," said Van Ness. "And I really appreciate that because every single person has a take on what this crazy hot mess jilted bride should be like and I've been able to include some of those things in my promos, in backstage segments and in the ring. And I love that, I can't totally take credit for it because it really has been every single person in the locker room and backstage working on this with me."
Another caller asked what Laurel's real-life boyfriend and WWE superstar Zack Ryder thinks of her character and what it's like dating someone who works for a separate company.
"We call it the inter-promotional relationship but he loves the character, he thinks it's absolutely ridiculous and he absolutely loves screenshotting pictures of me being crazy and sending them to me to be funny. So it's kind of a running joke we have going where every Thursday I get a new picture of myself and I didn't know I could look, you know, that crazy."
"On the relationship side of things, it really doesn't matter who we work for or what company we work for or even if we were both wrestlers or not. At the end of the day when we come home we don't take work home with us and we talk about normal things that you know, what flowers we're going to plant in the garden or what tile is going to go in the house, you know. We're not sitting there at the dinner table talking about what spots we can do in our next match so I think surprisingly you would be very bored if you sat with us and listened to our conversations."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the GFW media conference call with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.