Barbie Blank, fka former WWE Superstar Kelly Kelly, was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet. Blank talks her training in Ohio Valley Wrestling before her main roster debut in WWE, her role on E!’s WAGS reality show, how reality TV compares to pro wrestling, the time Vince McMahon asked her to show her ‘bad guy’ face when she wanted to turn heel, the storyline with Kharma that never played out, who she still keeps in touch with in wrestling, the fundraiser for Ashley Massaro’s daughter, upcoming appearances, who she would want to step in the ring with if she returned to WWE and more.
On who came up with the Kelly Kelly name:
“So Vince came up with the name. The first episode of ECW, it was going to be Kelly. He had given me a list of names … so I picked Kelly because I thought that was cute. I couldn’t be Barbie. I guess Vince had seen an episode of ‘Cheers’ and the girls’ name on it is Kelly. Her boyfriend on it did a song called Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly. So in Vince’s mind, that’s how it came to be.”
Barbie talks about Kelly’s exhibitionist character during her early days in WWE ECW:
“Paul Heyman called me and said we have this idea and it’s this gimmick and you’re gonna come out and you’re gonna do this striptease and then your jealous boyfriend is gonna come out and wrap you in a towel … Vince is like ‘it’ll be fine, I’ll teach you the moves.” I was like ‘well, whatever I have to do get my foot in the door.’
My first day, I remember Triple H and Vince were all in the room and they were just like ‘alright, these are just the basic moves that we need.’ I’m like sitting there and I’m watching Vince McMahon, who I watched when I was 13 years old and I just idolized, and he’s got a chair and he swings his jacket around.”
On her debut on WWE ECW TV:
The funny thing is I go on and we’re on live television, my first night. We rehearsed hours with this chair. The prop is the chair. I walk on the stage and there’s no chair. I stood there for a few seconds and I was like I guess I’m gonna have to just dance. I get to the back and Vince is like ‘Oh my God I’m so sorry but you did so good, you took it on the fly!’
On if she would like to return to WWE:
“I don’t think I can do it full-time because it’s a lot. You’re on the road 300 days a year. It gets to be a lot. I would definitely come back for a run or two. I miss the fans, I miss performing. I love doing what I did. It’s the most amazing feeling that you’ll ever get, walking through the curtain and having all those people chant your name.”
On defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship alongside Edge and then getting fired by Vickie Guerrero:
“That along with winning the [Divas] Championship was one of my favorite matches because there’s all this pressure on it. There was so many different things that were happening … Before we went out – I love Layla and Michelle and I told them to kick the living sh*t out of me. When I get fired, I’m going to have to cry and I so I want to be able to hold of these feelings inside and the second she says it I want it to be like [Barbie makes a crying sound]. They gave me all they could but it was great. I wanted it that way.”
On resentment from other wrestlers when she was signed by WWE:
“We got a lot of people who were not happy about it. You have to give so much respect to the people who have been there and worked for years to get in this spot. I tried to come in as respectful as I could by shaking everyone’s hand and standing back too and don’t be in anybody’s way and keeping my mouth shut. I did the best I could because a lot of women couldn’t stay around because they didn’t have the thick skin and they weren’t able to take it. It’s a lot. It’s a very male-dominated business, especially back in 2006 and me being so young you just kind of take it on the chin and keep it moving.”
On some of the hate she got from fans when she started in WWE:
“I just got so much hate. After every match or after every time I was on TV I would look on my phone and I was like Oh my gosh. [It was] ‘you’re terrible, you suck, you’re a whore, you’re this.’ So you just take it after a while with a grain of salt and you just get used to it. As people got to see my character and they got to see the real me, I didn’t have to deal with it as much.”
Her favorite feud:
“Definitely Beth Phoenix. She brought out the best in me, we had the best matches together. Our match at SummerSlam for the Divas Championship at the Staples Center.”
Her storyline with Randy Orton that was quickly dropped:
“They wanted to do this storyline, I think it had to do with Kane too. I don’t know, it lasted for two weeks … I remember we had this script one night and he was going to say all these mean things [like] ‘I used you and you were nothing to me and blah blah blah.’ I think maybe they were going to debut a guy and have him come save me. I don’t know but they kiboshed the whole thing.”
Why she left WWE in 2013:
For me, I had never been hurt. I had never really been out, [I had] never taken time off. From 19 until 26 years old, for 7 years basically, I was on the road straight 300 days a year. I was tired, my body was tired. Your heart has to be in it, you have to go out there and give it your all and the fans can feel if you’re not into it. It just got to a point where you’re just dreading having to get on the plane. I just wanted some time off at that point. They were very supportive of it. They said to take as much time off as you need so I took a few months off. I kind of wanted to come back but I wanted to come back part-time. Where we were at back then it was like ‘no, it’s either all or nothing kind of thing.’ They were like ‘the door is always open.’ We ended on good terms, there was no bad blood. It was just my time. I was just ready to be at home and put focus into my family. It wasn’t anything bad that happened.”
