| Serena Deeb | |
|---|---|
Serena Deeb wrestling in Paris in March 2009 |
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| Ring name(s) | Mia Mancini[1] Paige Webb[1][2] Serena[1][3] Serena Deeb[4] Serena Mancini[1][5] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)[4] |
| Billed weight | 130 lb (59 kg)[4] |
| Born | June 29, 1986 [6] Fairfax, Virginia[1] |
| Resides | Tampa, Florida[7] |
| Billed from | Fairfax, Virginia[4] Seattle, Washington[8] |
| Trained by | Al Snow[9] Rip Rogers[9] Danny Davis[9] Robert Gibson[9] Greg Gagne[9] "Dr. Death" Steve Williams[9] Lance Storm[9] Les Thatcher[9] Tom Prichard[9] Terry Taylor[9] |
| Debut | March 2005[6] |
Serena Deeb (born June 29, 1986)[6] is an American professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with World Wrestling Entertainment, appearing on the SmackDown brand and also known for her time with the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling.[5] under the ring name Serena. Deeb also made appearances in Ohio Valley Wrestling, where she was a six-time Women's Champion, and in Shimmer Women Athletes.
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Deeb started her wrestling career in the OVW Wrestling School, training from March until November 2005 after relocating on her own money from Virginia to Kentucky to attend the school.[10] She debuted on the November 4 OVW house show, teaming with Fuji Cakes in a losing effort against Shelly Martinez and Beth Phoenix.[11] Phoenix and Martinez also defeated her in the beginning of January even with the new tag team partner of Venus (Rosa Salvage). She picked up her maiden victory over Martinez in a singles match in February and then Phoenix the following month. Her misfortune in tag team action continued though, as she and Fuji Cakes lost to Cherry Pie and Roni Jonah. Unhappy with the loss, Deeb changed her partners and teamed with Roadkill and Kasey James for a mixed tag team match with The Untouchables, including Cherry Pie, but lost once more. Later that month, a dark match between her and Phoenix went to a no contest after interference and was changed into a tag match, where Deeb alongside Martinez lost to Phoenix and Maria.[12]
Deeb then began to feud with ODB.[1] In early June, Martinez guest refereed a tag team match where she and Daisy Mae defeated ODB and Sosay. At OVW's Six Flags event, ODB scored a return victory as she and Venus defeated Deeb and Mae. This led to Deeb's television debut at the June 21 tapings during OVW's first bikini contest. Though she did not participate in the contest, she was nevertheless irked by the manner in which ODB attacked all of the women without provocation and ran out to save them, laying out ODB. She defeated ODB in a singles match at another Six Flags show at the end of June but the two continued to feud, exchanging victories in mixed tag team and six-man tag team matches.[12] Eventually, ODB declared herself the inaugural Women's Champion after winning a fictitious tournament in Rio De Janeiro.[13] ODB retained the title in an eight-woman Battle Royal on the September 6 television tapings[12] but in a four-way match, Deeb finally managed to win the Women's Championship during the main event of the September 13 episode of OVW TV involving ODB, Beth Phoenix and Katie Lea.[1][13][14]
When she became champion, Deeb became the target of Beth Phoenix and managed to defend her belt successfully against her once on September 16's house show[12] but lost a televised rematch on October 4.[13] Serena instantly set her sights on winning back the belt and commandeered an all female six-man tag team victory over Phoenix and her team three days later before interfering in Phoenix's title defence, Spearing her to end the match in disqualification just as Phoenix was about to pin ODB.[12] Though she would continue to interfere with Phoenix, Deeb never had the chance to win back the title as Katie 'The Kat' Lea won the championship in the penultimate round of a gauntlet match Phoenix had to contest, losing on the sixth match while a refreshed Kat only had Deeb to defend against.[12][13] Deeb tried to contend with The Kat once more for the belt but the match ended in disqualification after interruption by Phoenix and Deeb closed out the year with a no-disqualification three way, with the belt not on the line, to settle the dispute between them which Deeb won.[12]
During 2007, Deeb spent many weeks in a variety of tag team matches in an attempt to gain an opportunity at the Women's Champion and Phoenix too before competing in the Miss OVW Divalympics, though ODB would eventually win this competition. Deeb went on an undefeated streak in March and April but this was brought to a halt by Lea in May. On May 11 she and her team lost a 2/3 tug of war contest, but beat them in the wrestling tag match immediately afterwards.[15] It would not be until September before she received another shot at the belt. Milena Roucka picked up the victory in this six-way match-up,[13] while Deeb also lost a non-title singles match the following week in an attempt to prove her contendership.[15] After spending the opening months of 2008 on a losing streak, Deeb disappeared in February from the promotion.[16] During her hiatus Deeb got a nose job and breast implants in an attempt to get closer to a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment.[17] Deeb made an unnannounced return in late May when reigning champion Josie issued an open challenge, which Deeb answered to win her second title.[13] At the June 4 TV tapings, Deeb made a speech announcing her intentions to defend the belt at all times, under 24/7 rules; during the speech Josie made her intentions clear by assaulting Deeb. Josie took advantage of the rule in early July when Deeb defended her belt successfully against Reggie,[16] only for Josie to attack her straight afterwards and win the belt under the new ruling. Serena avenged this loss by similarly attacking Josie during a speech and winning the title back. The ruling proved too chaotic – at one point Deeb gave a speech during which Josie and Melody attacked her, almost double-pinning her only for Reggie to come out and pin all three of them to win the belt for a matter of minutes until Deeb speared Reggie and won it back[16] - and by August the 24/7 ruling was deactivated after Deeb won the belt back for an unprecedented sixth time.[13]
After this Deeb was scripted to take part in a brief story where wrestler Moose sought her affections, eventually winning a right to a date after defeating Lumpy Magoo in late September. After being rebuffed by Deeb on the date, Moose turned sour and tried to interfere in a championship defence against Josie only for Magoo, who was accompanying Deeb, to make sure his interference did not cost her the title. On October 29, Deeb teamed with Magoo and defeated Moose and Women's Championship contender Reggie in a tag team match.[16] On November 12, Deeb lost the championship to Melody in a four-way match with Josie and Reggie.[13][16]
In 2009, Serena became a villain for the first time in her career. This was signalled when she appeared on January 14 with The Insurgency (Ali Akbar, Turcan Celik and Bin Hamin) to help them win a non-title match against the Southern Tag Team Champions Totally Awesome. With Deeb in their corner, The Insurgency went on a winning streak, though Deeb herself could not emulate this as her title match with Melody on February 25 saw Melody retain the belt via disqualification.[18] On the 500th episode of OVW, she challenged Melody once again, this time in a steel cage match, but failed to win the championship.[19]
On October 22, 2006, Deeb began working for Shimmer Women Athletes at Volume 5 where she lost to Amber O'Neal in her debut match after O'Neal used Deeb's tights to keep her down. She gained a victory in a rematch during Volume 6 with a roll-up pin.[20] Despite this win, she went on a losing streak in both tag team and singles competition[21] until she reversed Lexie Fyfe's Attitude Adjuster into a roll-up during Volume 10.[22] Later at Volume 14: Hot Summer Nights Fyfe defeated Daffney and, after exposing her long-suffering knee injury, proceeded to assault her after the match with Experience tag team partner Malia Hosaka. Daffney's friend MsChif and Deeb, having history with Fyfe, came to clear the ring leading to a match-up between Hosaka and Deeb after the others had been chased off. Deeb pinned Hosaka after a spear[23] but her revenge was short lived as The Experience pinned her after a double inverted suplex slam, despite help from Allison Danger.[24]
On route to the tournament to crown the inaugural Shimmer Champion, Deeb was involved in a car crash and thus could not participate. An interview with her opened Volume 12, where she revealed her desire to challenge the eventual Shimmer Champion having missed out on her tournament opportunity, but still could not maintain a winning streak, falling victim to Rain[25] and later her tag team partner Jetta.[24] After being eliminated from a 20-woman Battle Royal to determine the Shimmer Championship contender during Volume 19, Deeb pinpointed former champion Sara Del Rey for her next match, but came up short.[26] Following this, Volume 21 opened with another interview where Deeb maintained she was championship material and blamed her loss to Del Rey on an injury. Her attempt to demand another match resulted in Del Rey calling her bottom of the barrel and refusing but an impromptu brawl turned into a sanctioned match where Deeb once again put up a strong effort, but lost. The event closed with Deeb talking backstage about how the defeat would not stop her in trying to become champion at which point MsChif, the Shimmer Champion, commended her drive and ambition and offered her a match on the condition of beating Del Rey.
At Volume 22 Del Rey's manager, Larry Sweeney, announced she did not need to face Deeb having beaten her twice already and that Del Rey's only goal was to reclaim the Shimmer Championship. After the main event closed, Del Rey hit the ring and attacked MsChif until Deeb appeared to fight in MsChif's corner; the referee quickly declared their impromptu bout another match where, after taking yet another severe beating, Deeb finally managed to defeat Del Rey. After another post-match assault, MsChif came to save Deeb making the event end with the Shimmer Champion raising Deeb's hand.[27] Despite a storied build up over the years, including a seldom used video package to hype the main event, Deeb was unsuccessful in her match.[28] Though she failed to win her title match, it seemed her rivalry with Del Rey wasn't over. As well as bouncing back over Cat Power,[28] she had a competitive victory over Mercedes Martinez. After her match, Del Rey and Amazing Kong had a Shimmer Tag Team Championship shot against Ashley Lane and Nevaeh, which ended when they started using chairs against the champions. Despite having just wrestled, Martinez assisted Deeb in clearing the ring and keeping Del Rey at bay. Their attempts at Volume 26 to form a successful tag team saw them come undone against Del Rey and Kong's brutish power.[29][30]
On the May 19, 2009 episode of World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW on Sci Fi, Deeb was seen standing backstage while Finlay was walking to the ring.[31] Though Deeb initially denied she signed with WWE,[32] Shimmer promoter Dave Prazak confirmed that a contract had been negotiated on July 1, 2009.[1][10]
Serena made her debut on July 15, 2009 at a Florida Championship Wrestling house show where she teamed with Maria and Angela Fong to win against the team of Natalya, Layla and Alicia Fox in a six Diva Tag match.[1][33] In her televised debut match, Deeb defeated Layla.[34] Her ring name was soon changed to Serena Mancini and once again to Mia Mancini,[35] portraying the character of a mafia boss' daughter.[36] On 14 August, Mancini pinned April Lee in a four-way match during the TV taping for FCW's fiftieth episode to win a future opportunity to compete against Angela for her Queen of FCW crown.[1][37][38] She followed up on September 3, though it would not air until October 4, with a win over Angela to become the second Queen of FCW.[1][39][40] While defending her crown, Mancini began taking on WWE Divas from the televised roster, defeating Tiffany,[41] Natalya, Savannah[36] and Gail Kim.[35][42][43] Later in September, Mancini was involved in a backstage segment which was unacknowledged by the commentary team where a mysterious man told her to lose her match against Angela, though she would refuse to.[44] At the February 4, 2010 FCW television tapings, AJ Lee defeated Serena, who incorporated her SmackDown character into the Mancini role, to become the new Queen of FCW.[1] When Matt Martlaro announced that there would be a creation of the FCW Divas Championship, Serena competed in the tournament to determine the inaugural Champion, during which she defeated Aksana and AJ Lee en route to the final where she was defeated by Naomi Night.
On the January 22, 2010 episode of SmackDown, Deeb appeared, playing the part of an audience member, before jumping over the crowd barrier to join CM Punk's group of straight edge followers; as part of the initiation, she agreed to have her head shaved bald.[45] In a later podcast interview with wrestling journalist Brady Hicks, Deeb would say of the head shaving: "It was a really unique opportunity. Seeing a woman getting her head shaved was so rare, you don’t see it all that often in the history of wrestling. Getting to do it as my debut was really, really cool, and really powerful. I was also very scared about what I was going to look like. There were a lot of uncertainties, but it ended up being really, really great for my career."[46]
One week later, she reappeared with Punk and Luke Gallows, now as a member of villainous group the Straight Edge Society, for their match against D-Generation X for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. However, Theodore Long changed the title match and instead set up a singles match between Punk and Triple H, during which she and Gallows attacked Triple H, disqualifying Punk in the process. On the July 2 episode of SmackDown, Serena unwillingly showed video security footage of her drinking alcohol at a bar as an alibi for Punk's whereabouts,[3] raising the ire of The Society;[47] she was forgiven by Punk the next week, though Gallows showed signs of disapproval.[48]
This incident was the first of many signs of trouble within the group, leading to Serena's first televised match in WWE on August 20 (taped August 17). In a match where she and Gallows would be expelled from The Society if they lost, the duo took on Big Show and Kelly Kelly in a mixed tag team match, where Serena used a gutbuster to pin Kelly.[49] On August 20 Deeb was released from her WWE contract, reportedly for not "living out" her straight edge persona in public.[50][51][52] Because SmackDown was pre-recorded, her release was not revealed immediately, which gave her one last appearance, airing on August 27 as a valet to Punk and Gallows in separate matches.[53]
On September 11, 2010 at the Volume 33 taping for Shimmer, Deeb made an unannounced return to the promotion, answering Kellie Skater's open challenge and defeating her in a singles match.[54] She then had a verbal confrontation with former partner Portia Perez who accused her of selling out by going to WWE[55] which led to a match at Volume 35 where Deeb tapped to a crossface after the referee was distracted from seeing Serena's rope break.[56] She then rekindled her rivalry with Sara Del Rey, who made a speech criticizing her, leading to Deeb main eventing Volume 36 in a Four-on-Four Tag Team Elimination match where Deeb was eliminated second after Tomoka Nakagawa.[57]
Due to Shimmer's working relationship with Ring of Honor, Deeb began to make occasional appearances for ROH in 2007 as part of February's Fifth Year Festival, she teamed up with MsChif in a losing effort to the Dangerous Angels (Danger and Del Rey).[58] In the middle of the year she was similarly unsuccessful against Lacey at United We Stand and afterwards received a beating from her Age of The Fall partners Rain and Jimmy Jacobs until Haze saved her.[59] She also came out on the losing end of a Shimmer guest match at 2008's Southern Hostility in a four corner survival match.[58] She returned to ROH for their year-end internet pay-per-view Final Battle 2010 teaming with long-term rival Del Rey against Daizee Haze and Amazing Kong, winning the match after taking out Kong with a spear to let Del Rey pin Haze.[60]
Deeb appeared at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's pay-per-view Slammiversary in June 2008, where she took part in Awesome Kong's $25,000 Fan Challenge in a three minute squash match, as did fellow OVW and Shimmer wrestler Josie, who signed a contract with the company.[1][61]
In November 2008 at a Pro Wrestling Syndicate show, Deeb wrestled Daffney for the vacant NWA France Women's Championship, which she won. After winning the title,[62] Deeb travelled to France to defend the belt under the International Catch Wrestling Alliance the following month. At Revolution V in Lille, she defended the belt against three time champion Bella Punk.[63] Despite landing her Spear finisher, Punk's accomplice Gangrel turned the lights out in the arena from which Punk took advantage and pinned Deeb after a spike DDT. Deeb accompanied Joe E. Legend in the main event against Gangrel, which the latter won.[64]
Deeb found herself back in France during March 2009 for American Wrestling Rampage's nine-day tour of France. For most of the events, Deeb wrestled fellow Shimmer wrestler Portia Perez, who was the only other woman on the tour. After two losses, Deeb managed to pick up a victory[65] but would only gain one more from their eight singles matches.[66][67] On the final night, she teamed up with Scotty The Hotty to gain a third victory over Perez and Chris Masters in a tag team match.[68]
Also in early 2009, Deeb appeared in the fledgling all-female Wrestlicious promotion. In the camp show, Take Down she was known as "Webmistress" Paige Webb and debuted on the second episode of their television show which, while being recorded in early 2009, was not broadcast until March 2010 after she had begun to appear in WWE. In her first singles match she lost to "Ice Princess" Autumn Frost[2] and won her first match on the fifth episode, where she teamed with Charlotte to take on the team of Hope and Faith.[69]
In November 2010, Serena debuted for Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) with a victory over Traci Brooks on WSU's first internet pay-per-view (iPPV). Serena followed up by winning a Four Way match over Alicia, Portia Perez and Jana to become number one contender to the WSU Championship. Deeb would target WSU Champion Mercedes Martinez by attacking her after a title defense late that evening and cutting some of Martinez's hair. Serena received her title shot in the main event of WSU's 4 Year Anniversary show where she was defeated by Mercedes. On June 25, 2011 at The Uncensored Rumble IV event Serena defeated Nikki Roxx but was eliminated from the eponymous match by Lexxus, having made it to the final two.[70]
In January 2011, Serena made her first excursion to Japan. While working for Yoshihiro Tajiri's promotion Smash, she wrestled Syuri at Smash.12 and won the match.[71] She remained undefeated by beating Makoto on Smash.13, Kana on Smash.17, Tomoka Nakagawa on Smash.19 in the first round and Syuri on Smash.20 in the semifinals of a tournament for the Smash Diva Championship.[71] On September 8, Serena suffered her first loss in Smash, when she was defeated by Kana in the finals of a tournament to crown the first ever Smash Diva Champion.[72]
On April 19, 2011 Deeb wrestled a dark match in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, however she lost to Winter.
On October 22, 2011, Deeb announced that she was taking an indefinite break from wrestling, following her doctor's instructions after suffering a serious concussion.[73]
Deeb's love of wrestling began when she was 11 after watching a World Wresting Federation show.[14] Despite her love of wrestling, her main passion as a child, from the age of five until she actively pursued wrestling at 18, was association football.[1][9] Serena Deeb graduated from Oakton High School, located in Vienna, Virginia, in 2004. Though she began training wrestling at 18, she coupled this with an academic career, reading for her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish until graduating in 2008 from Indiana University Southeast.[1][9] She has a desire to learn more languages than Spanish and also enjoys Arabic, Thai and Italian food which matches her interest in travelling.[14]