Lisa Marie Varon

Lisa Marie Varon (February 10, 1971), is an American female bodybuilder of Puerto Rican and Turkish descent, fitness competitor and professional wrestler, currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. She is a former four-time TNA Women's Knockout Champion, as Tara. She is best known for her work in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Victoria.

Early life
Varon was born in San Bernardino, California. She attended Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California. During high school, she was active in cheerleading, a sport she competed in since the sixth grade. During her senior year in high school, she was nationally recognized by the National Cheerleading Association, earning an All-American award for cheerleading and being chosen to cheer at half-time of the NFL Pro Bowl, alongside 70 other women. Varon participated in track and field events in the ninth grade. After graduation, she studied biology at the University of California, Los Angeles and medicine at Redlands, California, where she was involved in the process of organ donation.

Bodybuilding and fitness competition
Still working at the eye and tissue bank, Varon became a personal trainer and taught aerobics. While training at a gym, she was offered an opportunity to compete in a bodybuilding competition, a contest she won as a middleweight. She competed in fitness competitions, such as ESPN2's Fitness America Series in 1997 and 1998, winning the former, and the Miss Galaxy Competition in 1998, where she met and befriended Torrie Wilson. After Wilson moved to Los Angeles, California and signed with professional wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW), she invited Varon to one of the shows. While backstage, an agent asked her to appear in a segment with Scott Hall. Through Wilson, Varon unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a contract with WCW. She later moved to Los Angeles to find work in televised news fitness segments instead. In 1999, she earned her International Federation of BodyBuilders Professional Fitness Card after placing second at the National Physique Committee Team Universe show in New York. It was during her time working in fitness competitions that Varon also first met Trish Stratus.

Training and debut (2000–2001)
After moving to Los Angeles, Varon worked as a trainer at the gym Crunch Fitness, where she met World Wrestling Federation wrestler Chyna, who complimented Varon on her appearance and encouraged her to become a wrestler. Varon put together a biography package and sent it to the WWF. She heard from Kevin Kelly two days later, who asked her for an interview in a month's time. With no previous wrestling experience, she looked up professional wrestling schools on the internet and trained at Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) in Southern California in June 2000. She wrestled under the ring name Head Bitch In Charge (HBIC) and appeared in a cheerleading outfit, with a snooty gimmick similar to WCW Nitro Girl Miss Hancock. She impressed WWE talent scout Bruce Pritchard during her first UPW show. Varon made her on-screen debut in the WWF portraying one of The Godfather's hos. She was referred to as the "head ho" and led the "Save the Hos" campaign. On the August 7 episode of Raw, Varon took a bump by being thrown through a table by The Godfather's next persona, The Goodfather. After this, she was given the name Victoria. She was removed from television in November and sent to WWF's developmental territory Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW) for extensive training. Victoria briefly acted as the commissioner for MCW and was involved in storyline feuds with Stacy Carter and Ivory. She also managed Steve Bradley before MCW closed. Varon later moved to Louisville, Kentucky to train in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) using the ring name Queen Victoria. She was placed as the manager of the tag team the Basham Brothers and managed one of the team members, Doug Basham, to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship on July 25, 2001.

Women's Champion and alliance with Stevie Richards (2002–2004)
Varon returned to the renamed World Wrestling Entertainment as Victoria on the July 7, 2002 episode of Sunday Night Heat in an angle with WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus, who Victoria claimed betrayed her when they worked together as fitness models. The storyline had her character become a demented, sadistic villain as she and Stratus feuded for months. At Survivor Series, Victoria was booked to defeat Stratus in a Hardcore match to win the Women's Championship for the first time. After a successful title defense against Stacy Keibler defeating her with her debut of her finisher the Widows Peak the next night on Raw, Victoria was attacked in the ring by Stratus. Steven Richards came to her rescue, starting an on-screen relationship between Victoria and Richards. Victoria continued to feud with Stratus into 2003, competing against her in successful title defenses and tag team matches during which Victoria teamed with Richards. At WrestleMania XIX, Victoria dropped the Women's Title back to Stratus during a Triple Threat match that also included Jazz. Throughout the rest of the year, Victoria was involved in matches against other Divas, such as participating in a Fatal Four-Way match for the Women's Title at Judgment Day and defeating Lita in the first women's steel cage match in WWE history on November 24. Victoria also defeated Ivory in a number one contender's match for the Women's Title on the last edition for Sunday Night Heat of 2003. After the match, Women's Champion Molly Holly struck Victoria in the head with the title belt. The next week on Raw, Victoria became a fan favorite when she attacked Holly after the two women were placed in a team, along with Miss Jackie, for a six woman Happy Holidays tag team match. During her face run she began wearing hippie shorts and performed a gyrating moonsault. The angle with Holly continued into the next year, with Victoria defeating Holly in tag team matches. On February 23, 2004, Victoria was booked to defeat Holly, Lita and Jazz in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match to win her second Women's Title. After defeating Holly in a tag team match the next week, Victoria was challenged by Holly to a rematch for the title at WrestleMania XX, which later became a Hair vs Title match. At the pay-per-view, Victoria won the match and shaved Holly's head bald. She kept the Women's Championship until June 13, when she dropped the title to Trish Stratus during a Fatal Four-Way match at Bad Blood and subsequently lost a rematch a week later. After defeating Molly Holly at Vengeance to become the number one contender, Victoria lost a match to Stratus at Unforgiven. Prior to Unforgiven, several of Victoria's matches were interrupted by a mysterious person in drag, who was later revealed to be Steven Richards, with whom she was previously allied. After the match with Stratus, the storyline culminated when Richards challenged Stratus' ally Tyson Tomko to a match, which Richards lost.

Vince's Devils (2005–2006)
On May 30, 2005, Victoria participated in a swimsuit competition, losing to Christy Hemme. Following the loss, the storyline had Victoria become a villain by attacking the other contestants, as well as host Jerry Lawler, claiming that she had enough of the attention Hemme was receiving. The two engaged in a short feud which ended at Vengeance in a match that Victoria won. Continuing with her villainous persona, Victoria was placed in an angle alongside Candice Michelle and Torrie Wilson (collectively known as the Ladies in Pink and later Vince's Devils) on August 29, portraying the role of the group's enforcer, as the three women joined forces against the 2005 Diva Search winner Ashley Massaro. Massaro was assisted in the storyline feud by Trish Stratus, and at Unforgiven, Victoria and Wilson were defeated by Stratus and Massaro. The angle continued into WWE Homecoming, where the Ladies in Pink lost a Handicap Bra and Panties match to Stratus and Massaro. On the March 6, 2006 episode of Raw, Victoria and Candice turned on Wilson during Candice's Playboy cover unveiling, starting an angle between the former teammates. A scheduled match was set to take place at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event on the March 18 edition with Victoria and Candice against Wilson and Stratus. As part of the storyline, however, on the episode of Raw prior to the event, Wilson was found unconscious with the implication being that Victoria and Candice had attacked her. The match eventually took place on March 27 with Victoria and Candice being defeated. The alliance of Victoria and Candice fell apart during a tag team match on July 17, in which Victoria and Mickie James were defeated by Wilson and Stratus, with Candice as the guest referee.

SmackDown! and departure (2007–2009)
Victoria was given a character push on November 27 after she was booked to win a number one contender's Divas battle royal. She gained notoriety from the match when it was reported that her kick to Candice Michelle's face resulted in a legitimate broken nose that required surgery. Following the victory, the angle had her carry a checklist to the ring which contained the names of other Divas. Each week she checked a name off the list after defeating them in matches. She also defeated Women's Champion Mickie James in a non-title match. Victoria lost the championship match at New Year's Revolution and a rematch on January 15, 2007. On June 17, Victoria was moved to the SmackDown brand as part of the WWE Draft. She became involved in an on-screen relationship with Kenny Dykstra, and the duo was placed in feuds against Torrie Wilson and Jimmy Wang Yang, as well as Michelle McCool and Chuck Palumbo. While on a tour of Europe with WWE in December 2007, Varon claimed to have legitimately broken McCool's nose. She later allied herself with her "best friend" Natalya. In October and November 2008, Victoria found herself on the losing end of matches with the debuting Brie Bella, when Bella disappeared under the ring during matches and reappeared seemingly "refreshed," eventually revealed to be Brie swapping places with twin sister Nikki Bella. On January 13, 2009, at a SmackDown! taping (aired January 16, 2009), however, it was announced she would be retiring. She lost to Michelle McCool. She dedicated her final match to the United States Armed Forces. She was in tears while announcing her retirement and departure from WWE. After leaving WWE, she began training for a career in mixed martial arts and practiced Jiu Jitsu. She returned to WWE for one night in April 2009, when she was part of the 25 Divas battle royal at WrestleMania XXV, outlasting the five other former WWE divas, before being eliminated by The Bella Twins.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2009–present)
On May 24, 2009, it was officially confirmed by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) that Varon had signed a contract with the company. She debuted on the May 28, 2009 edition of TNA Impact! under the ring name Tara, later revealed to be short for "Tarantula". She made her intentions known by attacking The Beautiful People (Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, and Madison Rayne) after Love's match with Sojournor Bolt, making her a fan favorite. On the June 11 episode of Impact!, Tara won her first match against Madison Rayne. On the July 1 edition of Impact! Tara began bringing a Tarantula with her to the ring, after winning a tag team match against The Beautiful People, she put the spider on the unconscious body of Velvet Sky. On the July 9 edition of Impact!, after Tara threatened to put her spider on Sky once again, Angelina Love agreed to put her Knockout's Title on the line which Tara ultimately won. She lost the title back to Love two weeks later at Victory Road. On September 24 on Impact" she teamed with ODB to challenge for the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship against champions Sarita and Taylor Wilde but they lost after Awesome Kong interrupted and distracted her during the bout. During the following two weeks of Impact! Kong and Tara both received one-on-one Women's Knockout Championship matches from ODB, but both of them ended up losing after the other interfered in the match. At Bound for Glory ODB defeated both Kong and Tara in a three-way match to retain her title. During the match Tara was confronted by Mixed Martial Artist Kim Couture to set up an MMA fight between the two, which, however, never came to fruition. At Turning Point Tara defeated Kong in a Six Sides of Steel match. On November 26, Tara won a ten knockout battle royal to earn herself a shot at ODB's Championship at Final Resolution. On December 20 at Final Resolution she defeated ODB to win the Women's Knockout Championship for the second time. On the January 4 edition of Impact! Tara lost the title back to ODB. Two weeks later at Genesis, Tara defeated ODB in a two out of three falls match to regain the title, making her a three-time champion. On February 18, 2010 edition of Impact!, Tara defeated Daffney via disqualification, after she hit her with a toolbox. At Destination X, Tara successfully defended her title against Daffney, who after the match stole Poison from her. On the March 29 edition of Impact! Tara retained her title against Daffney for the second time, this time in the first ever female First Blood match. On the April 5 edition of Impact!, Tara was one of the four winners in an eight knockout Lockbox match. The box she opened contained her pet tarantula, Poison, whom she regained from Daffney, but at the same time lost the Knockout Championship to Angelina Love. At Lockdown Tara turned heel by attacking Love, after losing a tag team steel cage match against Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky.

On April 28, 2010, Varon announced on her MySpace blog that she would be leaving TNA the following month, after refusing to re-sign with the company, due to not receiving a pay increase. On the May 3 edition of Impact! Tara challenged Madison Rayne to a match at Sacrifice, where she would put her career on the line against Rayne's Women's Knockout Championship. On May 16 Tara failed in her last attempt to win the Knockout Championship, when she was defeated by Rayne and as a result her TNA career came to an end. After her TNA career came to a halt, she continued to discuss a new contract with Dixie Carter. She returned to the company on July 11 at Victory Road as a heel, hiding behind a motorcycle helmet and attacking Angelina Love during her match for the Women's Knockout Championship. In the following weeks she aligned herself with Rayne against Love and Velvet Sky. Tara was finally unmasked on the September 2 edition of Impact!, when she and Rayne defeated Love and Sky in a tag team match, after hitting Sky with the motorcycle helmet. At Bound For Glory Tara defeated champion Angelina Love, Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne to win the TNA Women's Knockout Championship for the fourth time.

Personal life
Varon has a Puerto Rican father who is a Vietnam veteran and a Turkish mother who was a singer in Japan. She grew up with three older brothers, all of whom became amateur wrestlers, with the oldest brother, Bobby Sole, winning a gold medal at the 1983 Pan American Games. In an interview for the Sun-Sentinel, Varon was quoted as saying she was legitimately jealous of the 2004 WWE Diva Search winner Christy Hemme. She retracted the statement on her website, claiming the reporter had twisted her words when she mentioned that she was jealous of Hemme's paycheck, as it was a lot higher than what Varon received in her rookie year. Varon has made guest appearances on television shows V.I.P. and Nikki, as well as participated in two fitness competitions for the Univision program Sábado Gigante. She owned a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky called Fat Tony's Pizzeria, but sold it in May 2007. She has since moved on to her next business venture, with the opening of her custom car shop Black Widow Customs on May 22, 2008 in Louisville. Varon has a tattoo of a heart on her ankle, which she got in high school and hid from her parents. She is a fan of motorcycles and owns a Suzuki Hayabusa.

Quotes
"I'm the crazy one. I guess being crazy in the past was not just a gimmick."

"It's weird that my brothers watch me on TV now. They've (wrestled) and now I'm doing it."

"I think our definition of a diva is different. I think in wrestling terms we're all athletic Barbie dolls. We're all muscular, not the barebones, rail girls. We keep our bodies in tip-top shape so we can take those vicious bumps."

"I didn't want to be just T&A. I think a lot of the girls are willing to put their bodies on the line for the entertainment and the natural high. I always wanted to jump off the top rope to the outside."

"There's not very much to leave to your imagination. We're practically naked out there. We still try to get the respect. We understand the girls need to be sexy in there. We're sexy in there, and we're also tomboys. We like to kick some butt, and just get hardcore."

"We do risk our health and physical well-being for entertainment. We try to push the envelope as much as possible to get that reaction from the crowd. It's crazy. I guess we are crazy people because we feed off that."

"You know, I'm a nice person outside the ring but kids are afraid to approach me on the streets. I'm an extremely nice person, easy to get along with. I have a lot of friends outside the ring but once you get me inside the ring, I'm all business. I'm there to win and I'm going to do whatever it takes to win that belt or just to be No. 1. I have trained for three years before I got to WWE in their schools and got beaten up by their guys because there wasn't many girls in wrestling school. So you want to take it as well as give it. It's not ballet. The common quote we always say is, 'It's not dance. It's not ballet. You are going to get hurt.' When kids say to me, 'I want to be a wrestler,' I always tell them to go to college first."

"In the business, they consider me a veteran, and I've only been in the business six years. I don't consider myself a veteran. I still look at myself as pretty green. I'm still learning. It's impossible to know everything," she said. "The new divas, there's a lot of pressure on them. They're expected to learn fairly quickly. It's pretty dangerous to try to learn quickly. When we're put in the ring with someone that is not as experienced, it's dangerous on both parts. You have to be careful. It's nerve wracking. I do go to the ring a little more nervous than normal, than going in the ring with Mickie James or Trish or Beth Phoenix. The new girls, I'm a little wary. Even Torrie Wilson is getting good."

On the WWE women's locker room: "It's a family. You're going to get little tiffs, like a sister. But we don't hold grudges very long. If there's a problem in the locker room, our locker rooms are very, very small, usually 10'x10'. You basically have to get along. But once we go in the ring, there's no friendship there. It's all business, and we all want to win. We like to throw down."

In wrestling

 * Finishing moves
 * Black Widow(Sitout inverted front powerslam) – 2004
 * Widow's Peak (Gory neckbreaker)
 * Signature moves
 * A-rack-nophobia (Argentine backbreaker rack drop) – 2008
 * Bridging reverse chinlock
 * Hair-pull Gory special
 * Moonsault, sometimes while standing
 * One-handed cartwheel followed into a hammerlock
 * Slingshot somersault leg drop
 * Snap suplex
 * Spider's Web (Fireman's carry into a swinging sidewalk slam)
 * Superkick
 * Wrestlers managed
 * Damaja
 * Doug Basham
 * Stevie Richards
 * Cody Runnels
 * Seth Skyfire
 * Kenny Dykstra
 * Natalya
 * Christy Hemme
 * Madison Rayne
 * Nicknames
 * "The Vicious Vixen"
 * Entrance music
 * "All the Things She Said" by t.A.T.u. (WWE; December 2002–May 2004)
 * "Don't Mess With" performed by The Hood$tars (WWE; June 2004–May 2005)
 * "Don't Mess With (WWE Remix)" performed by The Hood$tars (WWE; May 2005–January 2009)
 * "Broken" by Goldy Locks (TNA; June 2009–May 2010)
 * "Angel On My Shoulder" by Dale Oliver (TNA; September 2010–present)
 * Tag teams and stables
 * Vince's Devils with Candice Michelle and Torrie Wilson

Cheerleading

 * National Cheerleading Association
 * NCA All-American Award

Fitness and figure competition

 * Debbie Kruck Fitness Classic
 * 1st (Tall Class; 1999)
 * ESPN2 Fitness America Series
 * 1st place (1997)
 * 2nd place (1998)
 * Lifequest Triple Crown
 * Top 20 (1997)
 * National Physique Committee
 * NPC Inland Empire – 1st (MW; 1995)
 * NPC Team Universe – 2nd (Tall Class; 1999)
 * Women's Tri-Fitness
 * Ironwoman Tri-Fitness – 4th (1998)

Professional wrestling

 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI Woman of the Year (2004)
 * PWI ranked her #5 of the best 50 female singles wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2009
 * Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
 * TNA Women's Knockout Championship (4 times)
 * TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship (1 time, current)
 * World Wrestling Entertainment
 * WWE Women's Championship (2 times)