Beth Phoenix made her singles debut in WWE on the June 5, 2006 episode of Raw in a match against Victoria which would prove to be unfortunate for her as she would suffer a broken jaw from a slap by Victoria which would send her back to developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling from the main roster. Recalling the incident on \"WWE Icons\", Phoenix highlighted how bad it really was. \"I’m finally gonna have my debut as a singles wrestler, and I’m facing Victoria, and we had something planned where I was supposed to slap and then slap back,\" \"The Glamazon\" harked back.
\"When Victoria hit me, I had had my mouth open ever so slightly. I knew something was wrong. I stuck my tongue between my teeth and I was like ‘Oh there’s a gap there.’ So I thought something had happened and I’d lost a tooth,\" Beth Phoenix continued. She was able to continue the match and emerged victorious despite suffering the injury. Trish Stratus, who was ringside (as Phoenix served as Stratus\' ally against Mickie James during her debut), got in the ring and saw Phoenix bleeding from her mouth. \"Trish took one look at me and saw that I had a little bit of blood on my mouth. She just told me \'Smile, look up. It\'ll be okay, it\'ll be okay.\'\" Stratus walked her up to the ramp and took her to the medical.
\"I’m sitting there and I’m kinda like ‘Guys, I just lost a tooth, I’m sure it’s okay.\' And I’m sitting on the thing and then they opened my mouth like this and I saw everyone in the room recoil like that and I was like, that’s when I knew it was probably bad.\" Beth Phoenix suffered a fractured mandible, with the slap leaving her jaw entirely severed. The subsequent surgeries that she had to get for it left a portion of her face permanently numb. She had to get a titanium plate and nine screws placed in her jaw.
\"They take me to the hospital, I get X-rayed. They said your jaw is shattered, dislocated, displaced. One mandible’s up, one’s down. You have to have full plastic surgery to put everything back. You have to have steel plates in your face and screws, and it was a lot to take in,\" Beth Phoenix remembered. \"I just cried. I didn\'t know what else to do. I just processed everything. I was like, \'I just had a singles match on Monday Night Raw, and... it\'s over. All of it. I just didn\'t understand why after so many years things were gonna end like this and set me back.\"
Even though she spent a year going through surgeries and recovering from the injury, Beth Phoenix was only out of action for two months. She returned to OVW and perform there until mid-2007 when she would return back to Raw as a heel this time as opposed to the face that she was the first time around. She would then go on to become a four-time Women\'s Champion and a one-time Divas Champion. Phoenix would also be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in the Class of 2017.
