Kelly Kelly

Barbara Jean "Barbie" Blank (January 15, 1987) is an American model, professional wrestler, dancer and professional wrestling valet better known by her ring name Kelly Kelly. She is currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment on its Smackdown brand.

Ohio Valley Wrestling
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) contacted her modeling agency and invited her to their developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), for a try-out. Despite having no previous wrestling experience, she was offered a contract, which she signed in May 2006. Even after being called up to the main roster she continued to fly back and forth to OVW's base city Louisville, Kentucky once a week to work shows; first as a ring announcer and referee, then as a wrestler. One of her first matches took place at the September 6 OVW TV tapings where she participated in a Women's battle royal won by ODB.

ECW (2006–2008)
Blank debuted for the ECW brand as Kelly Kelly. She made her debut on the first episode of the weekly television program, June 13, 2006, becoming the youngest Diva on the WWE roster. Her character, an exhibitionist, was introduced performing a striptease for the crowd. The next week, while performing another striptease, Kelly was interrupted by her on-screen boyfriend, Mike Knox, who came to the stage and covered her with a towel before dragging her backstage. Her stripping became a weekly segment known as Kelly's Exposé and usually followed the same routine; Kelly would dance and strip until she was interrupted by Knox who was upset by her exhibitionism and showing off her body to others. Eventually Knox began forcing Kelly to accompany him to ringside so he could keep an eye on her, making her his de facto valet. As a result, she found herself involved in the feud developing between Mike Knox and partner Test with Tommy Dreamer and his partner The Sandman, including being dragged into the ring and spanked by Dreamer and inadvertently hit with a cane by Sandman when Knox used her as a shield. She made her ECW in-ring debut on the August 22, 2006 episode of ECW on Sci-Fi in a losing effort as part of a six-person mixed tag team match which saw herself, Knox, and Test lose to Dreamer, Sandman and Torrie Wilson, in what was the last match of the feud.

Following this feud, Kelly and Knox were moved into a storyline with CM Punk in which Kelly was shown to have developed a liking for Punk, and Knox was shown to have become increasingly protective and jealous. Subsequently, Kelly's character dressed as Punk for ECW's "Halloween Costume Contest," enraging Knox and leading to a match between the two, during which Kelly cheered for Punk. At December to Dismember, Kelly and Knox took on the team of Ariel and Kevin Thorn in a mixed tag match, during which Knox refused to allow Kelly to tag him in before abandoning her altogether, leaving her to be beaten badly by Ariel. On the following edition of ECW, Kelly defeated Ariel with a roll-up on her first ECW singles match, after which Knox made his way to the ring with flowers only to throw them in Kelly's face and perform his signature swinging reverse STO on her, ending their relationship and giving her a scripted injury—removing her from the program for six weeks.

She returned to television on January 16, 2007 and cut a promo announcing she was newly single and bringing back Kelly's Exposé. Extreme Exposé, a spin-off to the previous Exposé segment involving not just Kelly but Brooke and Layla performing choreographed dances in the ECW ring, debuted. The trio danced nearly-weekly for the next few months, tapering off when The Miz was moved to ECW in the June draft lottery and all three members began a storyline with him. Kelly later began a romantic storyline with Balls Mahoney, leading to tensions began Kelly and the other members of Extreme Exposé and The Miz. Extreme Exposé dissolved when Brooke was released from the company in November, and Kelly began taking part in more wrestling matches with Layla.

Raw (2008-2010)
The 2008 WWE Draft left Kelly as the only female wrestler on ECW, and upon its completion she was moved to Raw starting with the July 7 episode. Kelly made her RAW debut by teaming with Mickie James to defeat Jillian and Layla. At Survivor Series 2008, Kelly teamed with fellow Raw Divas against the SmackDown! Divas, in which her team won. At Armageddon 2008, Kelly teamed with Maria, Michelle McCool and Mickie James in a winning effort against Jillian Hall, Maryse, Victoria and Natalya. On April 5, 2009, Kelly competed in a Divas Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXV, but the match was won by Santina Marella. On the May 18 episode of Raw, Kelly won a Battle Royal by eliminating Beth Phoenix and Mickie James, to become the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship. She won her title match against Maryse by disqualification, meaning the championship did not change hands, and lost a subsequent rematch by pinfall two weeks later on June 8. At SummerSlam 2009, Kelly competed in a pre-show divas battle royal, but lost when Chavo Guerrero flipped Kelly and Eve Torres over the top rope. Kelly teamed with Gail Kim, and Melina in a losing effort against Beth Phoenix, Natalya, and Michelle McCool at the Bragging Rights PPV. At WrestleMania XXVI, Kelly teamed with Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim, Mickie James and Eve in a losing effort to Michelle McCool, Layla, Maryse, Alicia Fox and Vickie Guerrero. On the April 4, 2010, episode of Raw, Kelly took part in a 10-Diva Dress To Impress battle royal, to determine the number one contender for Maryse's Divas Championship, but the match was won by Eve Torres.

Smackdown (2010-present)
During the 2010 Draft, on April 26, 2010, Kelly was drafted to Smackdown. She made her debut on the April 30 episode of SmackDown!, by teaming with Beth Phoenix to defeat Lay-Cool (Michelle McCool and Layla). She quickly entered a feud with McCool and Layla. They began to call her "Smelly Kelly," and soon began their feud. Kelly Kelly teamed up with Tiffany, forming the "Blondetourage," battling with LayCool on SmackDown! regularly. Kelly Kelly faced Women's Champion Layla at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View for the Women's Championship, but lost after interference from Michelle McCool caused a distraction and a dirty low blow.

On August 31, Kelly announced that she would be a mentor on season three of NXT, with Naomi as her rookie.

Other media
In April 2007, Kelly, along with Ashley, Layla El, Brooke, Torrie Wilson, and Maryse, appeared in a music video for the Timbaland song "Throw It on Me" (featuring The Hives). That August all three members of Extreme Exposé also took part in a photo-shoot for FHM Online.

On April 11, 2008, Blank—along with Mickie James, Melina Perez, and Layla El—appeared in an episode of Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp as trainers. Six days later, she appeared as the "Soccerette" on the British football show Soccer AM.

Personal life
While growing up, Blank participated in gymnastics for ten years, before she was forced to quit due to an injury. She later took up cheerleading. Blank studied broadcast journalism, hoping to become a television anchor. She was also a Hawaiian Tropic and Venus Swimwear bikini model before she entered professional wrestling.

Blank's father is Jewish and her mother is Christian. Blank was in a relationship with deceased wrestler Andrew Martin.

Trivia

 * On a July 4th episode of ECW, Kelly Kelly's breasts were painted red and blue and had stars put on her nipples in honor of the ocassion.
 * When Kelly Kelly started doing strip shows called Kelly Kelly's Expose, her boyfriend used to come out to the ring and try to wrap a towel around her.
 * Kelly Kelly is the youngest WWE Diva to be in Sports Entertainment.

Quotes
"The old school ECW fans were pretty harsh to me, because they were like, 'What is this little blonde girl doing in ECW? It's a hardcore show!' But I feel like I've gained a lot of respect from the hardcore fans by taking cane shots and chair shots."

In wrestling

 * Finishing moves
 * K2 / Kelly Killer (Leg drop bulldog, sometimes preceded by stepping off the back of an opponent on all fours)


 * Signature moves
 * Kelly Killer (Handspring back elbow smash)


 * Wrestlers managed
 * The Miz
 * Mike Knox


 * Entrance themes
 * "Holla" by Desiree Jackson (2006–2007)
 * "Holla (2nd Remix)" by Desiree Jackson (October 6, 2008–present)

Championships and accomplishments

 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked her #32 of the best 50 female singles wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2008.