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The word going around among several talents within WWE over the last 24 hours is that former Women's champ Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon) is planning to retire shortly and would be departing WWE as a performer. I heard a rumor over Survivor Series weekend that she had given notice to management but was unable to confirm it at that time.
Victoria has been with the company since 2002 after going through WWE then-developmental companies Memphis and Ohio Valley Wrestling. After making a cameo appearance as a Godfather Ho that later was involved in a vignette with Eddie Guerrero during his run as Chyna's love interest, Victoria was introduced as a full fledged character to feud with then top Diva Trish Stratus.
The back story at the time was that Victoria she felt Stratus had betrayed her back when both were fitness models and she had come for revenge. Both were fitness models and probably did cross paths during competitions prior to become wrestlers. Victoria broke into the business, originally training at Rick Bassman's UPW school in California.
Victoria has had a long run with the company where she was linked on-air with different partners, including Molly Holly, Stevie Richards, Kenny Dykstra and most recently Natalya Neidhart. She and Neidhart had been feuding with the Bella Twins on Smackdown in a storyline designed to introduce the Twins to viewers. Despite being a ring general, Victoria's role in recent years has more or less been to be the older veteran who worked with younger, greener babyface talent that were getting pushed.
If the retirement story is correct, Victoria would be the last of the Divas who had rebuilt the WWE Women's division in the early part of the decade into something was more than a T&A diversion as Ivory, Stratus, Molly Holly, Jazz and Lita have pretty much retired from the business in recent years, being replaced by a generation of talent mostly cultivated by the company's Diva Search era (although there are exceptions to that rule, such as Mickie James and Neidhart).
Victoria had two runs with the WWE Women's championship, defeating Stratus in a Hardcore Match in New York City at the 2002 Survivor Series before dropping the belt back to Stratus at Wrestlemania XIX in Seattle in March 2003. Victoria regained the belt in February 2004, winning a Four Way match against Lita, Holly and Jazz. She held the title for four months before dropping it during another Four Way at the 20054 Bad Blood PPV, with Stratus again regaining it.
Victoria has been very involved in opening outside projects in the Louisville area where she lives, including most recently a custom body shop for cars and previously a pizzeria named after her Uncle.
We'll have an update as it's available.
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