The Rise and Fall of Victoria
By Bobby Lange
December 16, 2005
Victoria has come along way since joining the WWE back in mid-2002. She went from a Godfather Ho, to a psycho, to a dancing babyface, to a badass. Victoria debuted in the year 2000 as one of the Godfather’s Ho’s, and later became known as the head Ho and lead the Save The Ho Campaign. But on August 7, 2000, The Godfather got furious and threw her through a table; but then, the WWE noticed that Victoria had a lot of potential, so they sent her down to Ohio Valley Wrestling and Memphis Championship Wrestling to train, where she worked with Ivory and managed Doug Basham and Damaja – who made up the faction known as the Revolution.
Victoria re-debuted in WWE television on July 7, 2002 on Sunday Night Heat where she squared off with Trish Stratus. Trish won the match, but Victoria then started the feud in which she was given a psycho gimmick. She was finally able to defeat Trish in a Hardcore Rules Match at Survivor Series 2002 to win her first Women’s Championship, after spraying Trish with a fire extinguisher, and nailing a Snap Suplex.
Victoria then aligned herself with Steven Richards, and they were one of the oddest couples the WWE had ever seen. Steven then began leading Victoria to victories on RAW. At the following Pay-Per-View, Armageddon, Victoria defended the women’s title in a Triple Threat Match against Trish Stratus and Jacqueline, where she won the match to retain the title.
Then at Wrestlemania 19 Safeco Field, she again faced a Triple Threat Match stipulation against Trish Stratus and Jazz. This time, however, Victoria lost to Trish Stratus, thus ending her five month title reign as the Women’s Champion. She then began losing her push and rarely ever got title shots and when she did she usually lost.
In 2003, she won the first ever women’s Steel Cage Catch at Raw Roulette on November 23, 2003, defeating Lita by escaping the cage. Then, on the Sunday Night heat before the Royal Rumble 2004 she squared off with the Women’s Champion Molly Holly and won, thus giving her the right to a title shot.
So when she officially turned face and got that title shot, it was in a Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match – which she won – regaining her 2nd Women’s Championship. She then continued her feud with Molly Holly, which eventually lead to a Hair vs. Title match at Wrestlemania 20 at Madison Square Garden. On the line was Victoria’s Title, or Molly’s hair. As most of us know, Victoria won the match, and Molly’s head was shaved.
She then defended her women’s title at Bad Blood 2004 in another Fatal 4 Way Match where she lost to Trish Stratus, despite not being the one pinned. So she then started a mini-feud with Trish Stratus, but never regained the title from her that whole year. On May 30, 2005 Raw opened up with a Memorial Day Bikini Challenge which ended with Victoria snapping because she lost. She assaulted everyone in the ring, and gave Christy Hemme a Widow’s Peak. So Victoria and Christy started a feud which had Victoria smashing a bottle over Christy’s head, Christy getting disqualified in a match because she wouldn’t quit choking Victoria, all of which resulted in a match at Vengeance 2005; a match that Victoria would win.
Victoria then joined Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle in their feud with Ashley Massaro, giving her a devastating Widow’s Peak. So, for the next couple of months they feuded with Ashley Massaro and Trish Stratus until in a title match which pitted Trish against Victoria, a cute mystery woman showed up [Mickie James] and beat the tar out of Victoria, resulting in the current feud.
Which leads us to today, where Victoria has now been relegated to jobbing little matches against Trish and Mickie.
Credit: Obsessed With Wrestling
