Shawna Elizabeth

Shawna Elizabeth (born September 15, 1986) is an American professional wrestler, manager and valet, known by her ring name Vyper. She has worked primarily for Coastal Championship Wrestling, a Florida-based promotion which showcases students from Jimmy Snuka's Body Slam University and Team 3D Academy, and had managed several former Total Nonstop Action and World Wrestling Entertainment stars on the Southeastern United States independent circuit including D-Lo Brown, Jerry Lynn, Raven, Tomko, Maven, Joey Mercury, Norman Smiley, Demolition (Ax & Smash) Jesse Neal and Team 3D (D-Von & Bubba Ray Dudley). In addition to these appearances, as well as several magazine and internet radio interviews between 2006 and 2008, she has been referred to by at least one sportswriter as "the hottest female free agent in pro wrestling".^[1]

She is also an accomplished professional model having appeared in Axis Magazine, Bayou Vixen Magazine, Choice Magazine, Fitness Model Magazine, FHM, Hellions Magazine, Hollywood Model Magazine, Indy Circuit Pulse, Maverick Illustrated, Model Vanity Magazine, Naked Paper 7, Piledriver Magazine, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Real Gainz Fitness Magazine, VBlazin Magazine, Wrestling Time Magazine and Zoo Weekly. In 2008, she became a centerfold for Fighting Spirit magazine and posed as the official model for Princess Peach in Official Nintendo Magazine.^[2]

Career

Shawna Elizabeth was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She often watched televised wrestling matches with her grandfather and eventually became interested in professional wrestling as a child. Among her favorite wrestlers growing up were Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, The Undertaker, Bret "the Hitman" Hart and "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. It was while following the series of matches between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit that she considered a career in professional wrestling.^[1][3] and she began calling up promotions in her area. After her first meeting with a local promoter, he agreed to use her on his next show. Much of her early experience was spent working as a ring girl and as part of the ring crew.^[2]

Around 2002, Elizabeth was modeling in a local fashion show with another wrestler, "Showtime" JB Cool. It was Cool that gave Elizabeth her initial training,^[2] later followed by Jimmy Snuka and Soulman Alex G,^[4][5] prior to making her debut. Her in-ring debut was a battle royal but she later had her first wrestling match against Angel.^[1] She used various ringnames during her early career, most often Shawna or CJ Vyper, prior to using Vyper as her regular ringname. The name originated from a childhood nickname Elizabeth's mother used for her.^[4][6]

During the next three years, she spent time in both the Florida and California "indy circuit" as well as balancing a modeling career. She modeled for a number of magazines including Axis Magazine, Bayou Vixen Magazine, Fitness Model Magazine, FHM, Hellions Magazine, Hollywood Model Magazine, Indy Circuit Pulse, Model Vanity Magazine, Naked Paper 7, Piledriver Magazine, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Real Gainz Fitness Magazine, VBlazin Magazine, Wrestling Time Magazine and Zoo Weekly.^[2][7] In 2005, she was offered a role in Ring of Honor but declined due to her then heavy work schedule.^[2] On November 22, 2006, Elizabeth made her first internet radio show appearance when she was interviewed on The Masked Maniac Show with Anthony "Don Tony" DeBlasi and Kevin Castle.^[3]

In 2007, Elizabeth became a regular manager and valet in Coastal Championship Wrestling, a promotion based in Coral Springs, Florida which featured students from Snuka's Body Slam University and Team 3D's wrestling school, Team 3D Academy.^[8] At one point, she worked for numerous independent promotions including FPWA Wrestling, Division-1 Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Dynasty and Larry Goodman's UXW Pro Wrestling but left to concentrate on her career in CCW. In later interviews, she explained that many of the indy promotions she had previously worked for were "not on the up and up" and chose not to be associated with them.^[2] She was a regular valet for independent wrestler Lou Cypher, who often used her outside interference to win matches, as well as for more high-profile wrestlers such as D-Lo Brown, Jerry Lynn, Sabu, Raven, Tomko, Maven, Joey Mercury, Norman Smiley, Demolition and Team 3D. Elizabeth has credited many of these wrestlers, most especially the Dudley Boys, for helping her during her early career.^[2]

On May 3, 2007, she made a second appearance on "Masked Maniac Show" in which she discussed her modeling career, including an offer from Maxim, and upcoming managerial debut in UXW Pro Wrestling. She also expressed her desire to work for Total Non-Stop Action in the near future.^[7] On June 16, Elizabeth appeared at a UXW house show as the manager of Goldust in his match against Sabu.

On September 29, Elizabeth was abducted by Mister Saint Laurent during the UXW 15th Anniversary Show at the Central Florida Fairgrounds Pavilion. This was part of a storyline in which a "ring girl" was jokingly named as the winner of a "Win a Date with Vyper" contest. The event was later released by the promotion on dvd entitled "UXW: To Hell and Back".^[9] She was one of several female wrestlers, managers and valets originally scheduled to attend the 3-day Wrestlefest 2007 in San Francisco, California from October 19–21, 2007.^[7] These included "Sensational" Sherri Martel, Francine, Missy Hyatt, Amy Lee, Tammy Sytch, Bobcat, Baby Doll, April Hunter, Jazz, Melissa Coates, Gail Kim, Tracy Brooks, Christy Hemme, Lizzy Valentine and Jana. There were also over 100 male wrestlers from World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment, all of whom participated in autograph signings and photo ops.^[10] Elizabeth was unable to get a plane ticket and missed the event. At the end of the year, she was offered a three picture spread in Playboy Magazine but turned it down. According to Elizabeth, she has turned down Playboy on four occasions.^[2]

In February 2008, she was profiled in the "Open Mic" Section of Fighting Spirit Magazine and appeared as that month's centerfold. She also posed as the official model for Princess Peach in Official Nintendo Magazine.^[2] That same year, she was a participant in the Miss UXW and Bobbi Billard Calendar Contests. She later had posters, calendars and other merchandise sold at Spencer's Gifts. She was interviewed by W.C. Hatfield on "The Wrestling Hotseat" radio show where she discussed her past and current career as well as explaining the merchandising process from her newly created website. A unique concept for her interview was based on a "before-and-after" interview following her first wrestling march, a battle royal, which took place at a CCW event at the Coral Springs Gymnasium on March 22.^[4]

On August 29, the popularity of her MySpace page was featured in the St. Petersburg Times reporting that she was the fifth most popular "friend" with residents of St. Petersburg, Florida. With then over 30,000 friends, Elizabeth was ranked behind Ruby Luster, Bubba the Love Sponge, King CJ and Jim Rose Circus.^[11] Later that year, she and fellow manager Johnny Valiant were interviewed on October 11 edition of "Michael Porter's WrestleShoot" radio show.^[12] On the program, she discussed her early career, her experiences on the independent circuit and her then recent modeling work. That same night, she also gave an interview with Jonathan Clark on the Canadian program "Shooting Star Radio".^[2]

Elizabeth was present at Coastal Championship Wrestling's first supercard of the year, Valentine Vengeance, in February 2009. She was managing her wrestler then a participant in the battle royal.^[13] That same month, she was nominated by a fan-based Yahoo fan club Indy Divas as the "2008 Indy Personality of the Year" along with Alicia, Irresistible Danielle, Amy Lee, Camron Star and Becky Bayless.^[14] Elizabeth was also named "Babe of the Day" by Ign.com and "Miss March 2009" by WUWonline.com,^[15] "Girl of the Month" for Wrestlezone.com in May^[16] and "Babe of the Bay" by Pro Wrestling Digest in August 2009.^[17] In June, Elizabeth appeared against her former trainer Jimmy Snuka in his match with the Cash Money Brothers against Vito DeNucci, Mikhail Ivanoff and the American Taliban in an 8-man tag team match on Summer Smackdown.^[18] On August 29, she announced on her MySpace blog that she signed a contract with ACW Wrestling in Port Richey, Florida. April 17, Vyper signed on with New Wrestling Promotion, CCW in Saint Petersburg, FL. Vyper is commonly known for working as a Manager/Interference for TNA wrestler Jesse Neal on the independent scene^[19]

In wrestling

Wrestlers managed

References

External links

• VyperOnline.com
• Vyper on Myspace
• Profile at CoastalChampionshipWrestling.com
• Profile at Online World of Wrestling
• Profile at Modsheet.com