A bikini-clad Kelly Kelly pressed against a red sports car is featured on the cover of the December 2011 issue of Maxim. Enclosed are photos as well as a one-page interview in which she discusses her journey through WWE, crazy fan experiences, trips overseas and more.
When asked if she was a wrestling fan before joining the industry, she replied, “Oh, yeah, since I was a kid.”
She continued, “My mom thought it was too violent, but my dad would sneak me into the bedroom to watch with him. It never crossed my mind I could do this kind of stuff. I thought wrestlers were larger than life, so when WWE called and asked if I wanted to train, I was like, “Oh, my God, yes!”
Kelly made her WWE debut on June 13, 2006, becoming the youngest female performer in company history at age 19. Her character, an exhibitionist, was introduced performing a striptease for the crowd. She reveals Vince McMahon demonstrated the routine she performed in front of the crowd that night.
Kelly recalls, “I’d only been training for two months when I found out I was going to start appearing on TV—as an exhibitionist! When Vince McMahon showed me the routine, I was in shock, but, you know, anything to get my foot in the door. It was the most nerve-racking minute of my life.”
Kelly definitely feels she had to prove herself to “the boys.”
“A lot of the guys there didn’t like me at first, because they were used to training with girls who had wrestling experience. I was the youngest Diva they’d ever had and one of the first models, so I was like, “I’m going to work my butt off.”
On the June 20, 2011 edition of Raw, Kelly won her first WWE title after she was selected by the WWE Universe to face Brie Bella. She says that is her most memorable moment in WWE.
“To win the title, after being in the ring for five years—it felt like I’d really achieved something,” Kelly says. “It was my time.”
