On Sunday, Lisa Marie Varon – better known to WWE fans as Victoria and IMPACT fans as Tara – announced on her Social Media that she was officially retiring from the pro wrestling ring at the end of 2019 and was now booking her farewell tour.
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A California fitness trainer and bodybuilding/fitness competitor in the late 1990s, Lisa Marie was a top competitor, where she would befriend other competitors who would become future Superstars, like WCW’s Torrie Wilson and WWE’s Trish Stratus. She had a cameo in WCW once, but it wasn’t until running into former WWF Legend Chyna that she was talked into entering the professional wrestling world. In 2000, she joined up with Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), joining the school and promotion that also launched John Cena, Samoa Joe, Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels and The Miz.
The following year, she was signed to a developmental deal by the WWF, and wrestled for their developmental promotions, like Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW) and Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA). Early in her WWF career, she first appeared as one of the Godfather‘s “Ho’s”, right before Godfather joined Right To Censor and became the Goodfather. Following his conversion, she was powerbombed through a table.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91IEckDnC2E
She made her official debut as Victoria by joining the main roster in 2002, immediately entering a feud with Trish Stratus, easily the top woman on the roster at the time. Their real-life past association was brought into the storyline, with Victoria coming for revenge for Trish Stratus’ treatment of her when they were fitness models together. By November, Victoria was WWF Women’s Champion, just five months after her main roster debut.
As Victoria, she would go on to a lengthy run in the WWE’s women’s division, winning a second WWF Women’s Championship, before departing the company in mid-2009. But it didn’t take long for her to bounce back onto television, joining TNA/IMPACT Wrestling under the name Tara. Much like her WWE debut, Tara would strike gold early – she debuted on IMPACT Wrestling TV in June of 2009 and only one month later, won the IMPACT Knockouts Championship from Angelina Love. She won her second Knockouts title by the end of the year.
From 2009 to 2013, Tara became a force of nature in the Knockouts Division, during the time that really revolutionized women’s wrestling on television, competing alongside the likes of Gail Kim, The Beautiful People (Angelina Love & Velvet Sky), Awesome Kong, Sarita (Sarah Stock), ODB, Ayako Hamada, and Alissa Flash/Raisha Saeed (Cheerleader Melissa). She departed IMPACT in 2013, as a 5x IMPACT Knockouts Champion.
Since then, Lisa Marie Varon has competed for various indies, like House of Hardcore, CHIKARA, World Association of Wrestling (WAW) and others. And this year, she will be doing one last jaunt around the ring before hanging up her boots. One of the most unheralded names in the Women’s (R)Evolution was one of its most important sergeants. She may never have been “the face” of either the WWE or IMPACT’s women’s divisions, she was a constant competitor and obstacle for anyone who was. An underrated soldier who made it easy to hate her, and scream when you loved her.
