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#Post#: 29273--------------------------------------------------
Chat with ODB. Talks TNA, What shes up to now
By: ChrissiCalvert Date: December 5, 2014, 6:17 pm
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ODB is one of the most unique women wrestlers in the entire
industry. Her in your face attitude, and intense brawling style
is a far cry from anything you’ll see in WWE. From multiple runs
from 2007 to 2014, ODB rocked the TNA women’s division compiling
a load of accomplishments under her belt. She held the Knockouts
Title four times, was the Knockout of the year winner in 2009
and held the Knockouts Tag Titles for a record breaking 478
days, which puts CM Punk’s title reign to shame!
After parting ways with TNA in August, ODB has kept busy with a
variety of side projects. From appearing on reality shows with
her Airstream Trailer to starting up her own line of ODB
barbecue and hot sauce, she’s kept her name out there.
Here she takes on 20 random questions spanning from her time
before wrestling, to WWE developmental, to TNA, her upcoming
plans, and getting in trouble for grabbing her boobs too much on
TV.
Random Question 1: What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
I’ve had pretty fun jobs actually. My first job I worked at
Disney World. I had a college internship back in 98.
You know what? When I was in college at St. Cloud State in
Minnesota I actually worked at Gold’n Plump. I lasted two weeks.
It paid really good, and I needed some beer money so my friends
were like “Oh yeah, you should work at Gold’n Plump!” And what I
did was, I was one of the people that packed the chicken into
the meat so I was in the factory basically and had a nice little
hair net and gloves and I was packing the chickens.
Random Question 2: In high school, were you popular? What crowd
did you hang out with?
Oh good old high school. I played sports I was kind of like
friends with everyone. I wasn’t the prom queen or the homecoming
queen or nothing, and I didn’t have any boyfriends in high
school. But I was there, I was very quiet in high school. I also
did some musicals. I was in that 10th, 11th, and 12th.
I danced when I was younger for like 12 years, and I was always
into the entertaining, so that’s what kind of got me out of my
shell when I was on stage. I was always busy with after school
activities. I was a normal person. I believe I’m having a high
school reunion next year, so it’s on.
Random Question 3: Did you know you wanted to be a wrestler back
in high school?
Yeah, growing up I watched the AWA here in Minnesota. I used to
have wrestling pictures in my locker hanging up. And if you
talked to anyone from high school, everyone was like “Yep, she
wanted to be a wrestler,” and I always had my wrestling shirts.
I actually wore Zubaz too. I wore a Venice Beach shirt to school
one time, had my Macho Man shirt on.
Random Question 4: Tell me about the BBQ sauce. How did that
come about?
Well, I like to grill out and kind of started hanging out in my
Airstream Trailer having a lot of alone time. Someone approached
me and my manager, and we talked and put our heads together, and
bam there you go. I like to eat and put stuff on my meat.
Everyone likes their hot sauce and their barbeque sauce, so you
can’t really go wrong with that. And it has a little whiskey in
it.
Random Question 5: TNA is going to Destination America. Now that
they have a new home, I gotta ask: would you be open to going
back there sometime in the future?
I’m not anytime soon. Not really wrestling as much as I used to
right now, but I’m happy for them. A lot of my friends wrestle
at TNA, so it’s good that all the boys and girls have jobs. It’s
good that the more shows out there, the more companies out
there, the more jobs for all the boys and girls.
I’m happy for them. I still watch all the products. I’ll always
be a wrestling fan so thank God for DVR. I tape all the shows
from Ring of Honor to TNA to WWE, so I’m excited to see what the
first show is going to be like. I think it’s going to be a good
year for TNA.
Random Question 6: Which former WCW/WWE wrestler that came into
TNA do you feel helped the company out the most?
I would say when Kurt Angle arrived. I think when he showed up,
and I remember when Angle and Samoa Joe headbutted each other. I
think that day when Angle arrived it was like “Holy crap, here
we go!” That was a good year.
I think it’s cool, especially with the girls when Lisa Marie
(Tara/WWE’s Victoria) coming in. That really helped because I
was always a fan of hers, and when she came in I was like “This
is going to be awesome” and then Mickie James came in and that
obviously helped with the Knockouts.
I liked it not only when the guys come in, but when the chicks
come. It spices the division up.
Random Question 7: Which WWE diva do you think you could have a
great match with?
Nattie. For sure. A lot of them have characters which is good. I
like them all. I do watch Total Divas. I like that show. I like
drama, as long as it’s not my drama.
I’d like to get in the ring with Paige, AJ, but me and Nattie
got to work with each other in OVW together for a little bit
before she got called up. That was cool.
Random Question 8: What are your thoughts on Dutch Mantell’s
(Zeb Colter) run as head of the Knockouts division?
That was probably the best times for the Knockouts. I think when
Dutch was there and then Scott D’Amore, it was all characters.
You had Kong, you had me, you had the Beautiful People, (Raisha)
Saeed, Cheerleader Melissa as Kong’s manager, Traci Brooks and
(Christy) Hemme was wrestling, Gail Kim, Roxxi. You just had all
these characters, and we were all excited because that was the
first time TNA ever had a women’s division, so there was a lot
of pressure on us. We were like “Hey, it’s up to us to put this
division on the map,” and I think all of us working together did
a hell of a job and it’s still going.
Random Question 9: During that time, the Knockouts segments
were usually drawing the highest ratings on the show even though
there were guys like Kurt Angle and Sting on the roster. Do you
feel that management or TNA didn’t capitalize enough on the
Knockouts?
Yeah, they gave us a lot of time, and they gave us a lot of
segments. Not only did we wrestle, but we also had good talking
segments. I remember feuding with The Beautiful People one time
and we were having a ladder match, or something, and whoever
lost had to get their head shaved and the Beautiful People were
making fun of me, Gail and Roxxi the babyfaces, and the showed
up on screen how we would look bald. I thought that was
entertaining. It was just like they just let us have fun and be
ourselves. We went outside the box and we all had a little part,
well I had a big part in my character. I basically got to do
whatever the hell I wanted until they said “Hey, don’t do that
no more.” Throughout the years in the indy scene and OVW with
my character I basically said “Screw it. I’m going to see how
far I can take this damn character and let loose.”
I mean, I remember one time I had to cool it on grabbing my
boobs for a little bit. Wrestling always goes through phases. So
if I was told to not do something I’m like “Okay, I’ll cool it
off,” but then I’ll slowly bring it back in.
With the boob grabbing, that was my thing and yeah, maybe I did
touch them a little bit too much in the beginning, but I was
pulled aside and told “You know, you really shouldn’t grab your
boobs too long, maybe count to three and that’s about it.” And I
was like “All right.” A few months later I was back and grabbing
them a little bit more.
Random Question 10: Besides yourself, which Knockout and male
star did TNA drop the ball on the most?
A few people actually. I always thought Samoa Joe was never
really pushed. I think he’s an all around great worker and he
never really got a huge, huge push. I thought they could have
done more with him. I thought with TNA and all the guys that
started TNA, I felt they kind of got pushed aside a lot when
ex-WWE guys came in. But all the bigger names in WWE that came
in they knew they were working with the top TNA guys, and they
knew how to work and get in the ring knew how to do business.
And some of them didn’t know how to do business.
You got A.J. Styles, Daniels, Kazarian—they aren’t there anymore
and those guys are talented. You still got Bobby Roode, (James)
Storm, Austin Aries is a good talent. I would have liked to have
seen—when Ken Anderson came, I like Mr. Anderson, he’s such a
great talker on the mic. Very entertaining. I would have liked
to have seen more of that.
Random Question 11: How did you feel about your pairing with
Cody Deaner?
Oh Cody Deaner (laughs). I thought it was kind of cool. I met
him before so I knew who he was, and it was going to be fun. If
I wasn’t involved in the Knockouts division, I was always doing
something, getting my own talk show segment, having a guy with
me. We had a lot of fun together, and he’s awesome. Awesome
worker and he—one of my best matches was with him when we
wrestled for the Knockouts title and yeah, I kicked his ass.
That was one of my favorite matches. Some of the guys in the
business are like “I’m not going to wrestle a check.” Like, ah
shut up! He was just funny. On the show he was my boyfriend and
you never once saw us kiss or make out. I’m surprised I didn’t
get hate mail, because I was kind of mean to him. Looking back
at that stuff, jeez I kind of manhandled his ass.
Random Question 12: Thoughts on the Knockouts tag titles. Was it
a good idea at first when there was more women in the company?
I thought it was awesome. More TV time for all us girls, and
there was at the time. I thought it was cool because you had The
Beautiful People and Sarita and Taylor Wilde coming in. They
kept putting people together. Hamada. I thought it was good. But
then it was kind of sad when EY (Eric Young) and I won them and
then we never did anything with them. That kind of sucked, we
could have done something fun with it.
Random Question 13: Brooke Hogan: Head of the Knockouts
Division. Thoughts?
Yeah I thought that was kind of fun when she came in. I thought
she was going to wrestle, I thought that was going to happen
down the road. I think she could have handled her own in the
ring. She’s a big girl, so I was kind of disappointed. I thought
there was going to be a payoff and I thought she was going to
get in the ring. I’m not sure there was ever talks about it.
That’s what happens. Stuff happens and you’re like “Um…there’s
no payoff” and then it just goes away.
Random Question 14: What was worse: Daffney as Sarah Palin or
Angelina Love as a zombie?
Angelina Love as a zombie. I don’t even think I was around
actually. I think that was a time I left for a little bit, and
was gone for the whole zombie thing. But I thought that brutal.
I don’t know where the hell that came from.
Random Question 15: Why were you brought back as a referee in
2013? Was there any reasoning behind that? Were you injured?
No. It was one of those things where they didn’t know what to
do with you. But to me, I hate that line. It’s just a BS line to
me, when you say that to me you have nothing for me, that just
doesn’t sense. You can figure out something to do with my ass.
So I was like “Okay, you got nothing for me.” You know, nobody
likes to go to TV and sit on their ass. You want to work. Ask
any wrestler. You don’t just want to sit there and eat catering
all day. I was getting frustrated and then they called and said
“Hey would you want to referee?” And I was like “You know what?
Yeah.” Because I’m going to make sure I get involved in a
storyline and I was thinking “Well I’m going to be at TV and
every pay-per-view, so yeah, let’s do this.” And that’s when I
actually came about and made my own t-shirt. TNA made that
T-shirt with my hand prints finally. So I got a shirt out of it.
Yeah, I’m kind of glad I got to ref, because I have so much more
respect for the referees and what they go through, because those
frickin’ ear pieces I wanted to rip out of my ear. You got like
three people talking to you. I got yelled at a few times.
Who was on the headset then? Was it Bischoff?
No, Bruce Prichard was in my headset a lot. He got mad at me
(laughs). At first they would announce me, but then I would run
in, in between matches or commercial breaks, and they’d announce
“Here’s your referee ODB” so I’m going through during a
commercial break, and get in the ring. I remember Chavo Guerrero
was heading up the ramp and I smacked his ass and Bruce is like
“Stop f’ing around Jess!”
Random Question 16: In 2011, you came back to the company with
Jacqueline Moore. You lost your first match to Velvet Sky, then
lost a handicapped match where you were supposed to leave the
company for good. Any reason for that or just bad booking?
No comment (laughs). That feud was actually—there was no frickin
payoff. That’s what ticked me off about that feud. Me and Jackie
came in and we didn’t sign a contract yet. I didn’t know if I
was going to be there for a little bit. I didn’t know what was
going on and that was a time when Bischoff and Hogan were there,
and I came back and Bischoff was like “Why don’t you have a job
here?” Then I did get my job back and with me and Jackie, I
mean, you know Jackie Moore, she doesn’t mess around.
I think I look back on that, and Jackie was brought up a
different way in wrestling. She’s a tough chick. She’s hands
down one of the toughest ladies in women’s wrestling. She got
her teeth knocked out and still finished a damn match. She is
tough. You’re in the ring with her and you better know what
you’re doing. Me and her were kind of rough and roughing the
little girls up a little bit. We turned it down a little bit.
There was nothing. It just kind of ended. One of those things
where we could have done so much more. But nothing.
Random Question 17: You had a short lived talk show on Impact,
how did that come about and why did it go away so quickly?
I actually came up with the idea. When I was in OVW they always
told us “Hey, you’ve got to have ideas for yourself. Don’t just
expect the writers are going to write you in the show.” So I
always had that in my head. So I’m like “All right, I’m not
doing much right now so I gotta come up with some stuff.” I
wrote out a thing and handed it to (Vince) Russo and it was a
talk show. He liked it. Well then a few weeks later Karen Angle
got her own show (laughs) so I was like “Oh. Okay.” Her show got
cancelled and then I came in, stole her set and called it ODB’s
Angle. So I got the show eventually and I turned it into Trash
Talking with ODB and it was good. You know you bring the
wrestlers on the show, so it’s a nice little thing. You’re
helping out the other wrestlers and it’s entertaining. A few of
the shows didn’t really have a story (laughs). But I had a lot
of fun doing it. It was kind of a challenge for me. I wanted to
work out my character more to not just be a wrestler. I’m not
known for my technical skills in the ring so I really wanted to
bring ODB out. We had a lot of fun taping those shows. My very
first one was with Sharmell with the Main Event Mafia so I was
shooting with her a little bit. Honestly, we winged it. We had
2-3 minutes per show, we threw some lines out there, went back
and forth. That’s when the best stuff happened.
Random Question 18: Do you have any thoughts on Global Force
Wrestling and Lucha Underground?
I’ve been checking out both of them. I think It’s awesome that
those two are out there. Jeff has done an awesome job out in
Japan doing his thing. Thank God for Twitter and Instagram
otherwise I wouldn’t find out about a lot of that stuff.
I’m happy for Jeff, I think that’s going to be something big
because wrestling is so huge in Japan. But that’s the one place
I’ve always wanted to wrestle. I’ve never wrestled in Japan.
Never had the opportunity to go there. That’s the one place I
want to definitely get to wrestle before I stop.
Random Question 19: Now Hernandez has been very vocal with the
lack of communication on TNA’s part from his release. Did you
have a similar experience?
Me and TNA parted ways good. They offered me a contract. I know
everyone always thinks they know what happened, but my contract
was up in June of this year. They called me up and offered me a
new one and at the time I just—they weren’t doing nothing with
me and I don’t like being wasted I don’t like sitting at home.
If you want to use me use me. It’s not about going anywhere
else, it’s about respect and I have respect for myself. So if I
was going to sign a contract I don’t want to sit at home and not
get paid. I want to work. So we parted ways fine.
I have nothing but respect for TNA. They got me to where I am
now and what I’m doing outside of wrestling. I’m doing so much
other stuff right now with my Airstream Trailer. I got some
stuff coming up with that. I mean I got my BBQ and Hot sauce
out. You gotta go with your gut feeling. I have a lot of stuff
and I couldn’t have done it if I had signed with TNA. So being
independent is kind of nice. I don’t have to worry about saying
the wrong thing. I’m not going to get in trouble anywhere.
It’s just funny to me when people are like “Oh my God this
person left the company what are they going to do now?” (laughs)
I mean, there’s still life. I bartend. I’ve always bartended.
I’ve been bartending full-time for the past five years. Even
when I was full-time with TNA I’d still come home and bartend a
couple nights a week. It’s something I’ve always done. It’s what
I want to do. I want to do a bar someday, so why not work at one
and try to figure out how to do it before I buy a bar and not
know what the hell I’m doing?
Random Question 20: You mentioned the Airstream trailer. What
are you doing with that?
I’ve been doing a lot of stuff. I did a cooking show with Joey
Fatone in it this summer: My Family Recipe Rocks. I’ve been
doing a lot of PR with it. Airstream Life magazine contacted me
and just did a story on me, like a 4 page story. It just came
out in November, so wherever magazines are sold. I also met with
the VP of Airstream and did a little speech at a branding
convention. We’ll see what happens.
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