Lisa Marie Varon Tells Backstage Chyna Story From Early In Her WWE Career
The Wrestling Inc. Daily welcomed former two-time WWE Women's Champion Lisa Marie Varon onto the podcast where she talked about her beginnings in WWE with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman. She revealed that fellow former Women's Champion Chyna helped her get a tryout with WWE.
"I met Chyna at a health club in LA," Varon recalled. "I was a personal trainer there, and I said, 'Oh, I have two friends, Trish Stratus and Torrie Wilson, from the fitness industry. And she goes, 'Oh my God. You have a really good look. Are you a wrestler?' And I go, 'I think I could do what the guys do.' I was a gymnast. I'm a tomboy.
"Did a little bit of bodybuilding and stuff like that. And so I go, 'I think I could do it,' and she goes, 'You have a really good look for it. You should really look into it.' Sent my stuff in. I heard back in 30 days. I got lucky. I'm not saying I'm all it. I mean, that was a silver platter for me. Of course, going into the industry where people are struggling to try to get in the company and try to get anything with a platform, and I presented an awesome tryout video."
Varon revealed more details about her tryout saying she spent $600 on her tryout video. She also revealed that WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler wanted her to move to Memphis to continue her pro wrestling training, but Jim Ross did not know that she had ambitions to be a wrestler.
"I spent $600 on my tryout video getting it edited, professionally done, music [and] special effects of me punching the screen," Varon revealed. "It says 'Lisa Marie Varon.' I paid someone to do that. I did not do that myself, but JR called me, and Kevin Kelly said, JR has never seen a tape like this. This is so professional,' and I go, 'I'm living in Los Angeles. Everybody presents themselves way more than what they.' So I had a meeting and started going to UPW. I Googled 'pro wrestling school,' and Godfather was looking for two permanent ho's on his 'Ho Train.' And so me and this other girl from UPW, that was our foot in the door, and they didn't know exactly that I was going to wrestling school.
"Jerry Lawler was saying 'you need to move to Memphis. We have a school down there that's WWF developmental territory.' So I went to talk to JR like, 'Everyone's saying I should move to Memphis,' and he goes, 'Oh, do you want to wrestle?' And I go, 'I'm going to wrestling school on my off days. Did you not know this?' He goes, 'No,' and so they had a meeting. And they gave me a week to move to Memphis, and my ex-husband and I packed a U-Haul and moved there for a year. And then that Memphis school closed down and then Louisville, Kentucky, I got transferred to OVW."
Hausman noted the timeline of when Varon entered WWE and when Chyna's run in WWE was winding down. However, Varon said that Chyna did think her time in WWE was winding down. She then recalled Chyna going up to her and asking her if she wanted to grapple in the ring together, something that she did not commonly do. Varon admitted that she missed out on the chance due to accidently spilling some soda onto her before she was set for a backstage segment.
"I don't think she thought she was winding down," Varon noted. "I think she still thought she was still there, but when I got brought up and I was going through training, all that stuff happened. She was very nice. She wasn't a friend that I can go, 'Hey, can I talk to you about a problem.' She did call them and say, 'Hey, you need to look at this girl.' I just took her word. I have a good look for it. I think I can do it, and so Chyna said I would look good for that kind of thing. We didn't know each other before.
"That was my intro. She was very nice to me, and there was one day, she came in a locker room. She goes, 'Lisa, put your boots on and your knee pads. Let's go grapple in the ring. Let's go roll around.' And she left, and everybody in the locker room was going, 'She's never done that before.' And I was like, 'Oh, maybe she wants to have an angle with me.' I was so freaking stoked, and I marked out.
"I got so excited I spilt something on her, some soda pop or something. 'I'm so sorry.' And I'm like, 'I'm the new chick, and I just spilled it all over Chyna.' And she's like, 'It's okay,' but then she got called to a pre-tape, a backstage segment. And I was like, 'Oh s–t. I was gonna go grapple with her,' but she was always nice. She always paved the way for us people that were not normal shapes and bodybuilding girls that don't look like a model."
Varon is also one of the hosts of GAW TV along with WWE Superstar Mickie James and SoCal Val. Hausman and Varon noted how talented Val is, and Hausman asked why Val is not signed with a major company.
"She does a blog about fashion, she does her own Patreon, she has all this other stuff on her own and she's handling GAW," Varon listed out. "And Mickie and I are going, 'How can we help you?' And she'll say, 'Just watch. I just sent you the show. Can you watch it for editing problems.' We always feel a little guilty not contributing more, but we're not computer savvy.
"But she's hilarious too. She's so funny and Mickie. I'm having a great time honestly. Wednesday's our favorite day because it goes on 5 p.m. est, and we're in the live chat with everybody on the side. We pre-tape, and we watch it first, so we can be more active on the the live chat instead of going, 'Okay, I didn't see this episode. I got to pay attention.'"
Lisa Marie Varon co-hosts GAW TV alongside WWE Superstar Mickie James and SoCal Val. You can follow them on Twitter @TheGAWTV or watch them on YouTube HERE.
Lisa's full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.