Velvet Sky recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam and talked about her debut for Ring Of Honor at Madison Square Garden last month, joining Mandy Leon and Angelina Love as ‘The Allure.’ The former two-time Knockouts Champion says her debut was months in the making, and explained how things came full circle for her at the World’s Most Famous Arena:
“Last summer I was at a Smashing Pumpkins concert at Madison Square Garden, and while I was there at the concert, I got a text message from someone in Ring Of Honor. This was the first correspondence I had with this person about the gimmick with the three girls, and they reached out to me and briefly stated what they were looking to do with Mandy, Angelina and myself at Madison Square Garden in April. It was like a full circle [moment] where I’m sitting there watching the Smashing Pumpkins performing at Madison Square Garden and going ‘oh my gosh, I’m going to be debuting here in this arena with the girls in just a few short months.’ It was meant to be, and it was surreal to get that text message and learn that information, and it was even more surreal waiting backstage just waiting to come down that ramp. It was like nothing ever before.”
Velvet talked about the comparisons of her other stable, The Beautiful People, to her new alliance with Angelina and Mandy as The Allure, saying this is not a carbon copy of the former TNA group. She said that this alliance will be a challenge to put in front of the Ring Of Honor fan base since they’re used to focusing more on in-ring work and less on character, but they will ultimately stand out in Women Of Honor:
“It is a challenge to try and bring this female faction to Ring Of Honor. We’re all about the wrestling, but we’re also about the entertainment and the storylines. I feel like character development in wrestling nowadays is a lost art. I came up as a fan in the Attitude Era, it wasn’t just strictly about the in-ring product. It was character work, storylines, and that’s what hooked me. I was emotionally invested in the characters as wrestlers first, which made me care a lot more in the end about the wrestling. That’s what I adapted my entire indie wrestling career; I didn’t want to just go out there and wrestle. Watching the Attitude Era and coming up on it, I tried adapting not just wrestling, but go out there and mix it up, creating a strong character on the indies as well. In turn, when it came time to sign with IMPACT, it made it that much easier to fall into the Beautiful People gimmick—not because I’m a mean girl at heart—but because of my background of what I grew up on and what I adapted in the ring.
Once I got to TNA and we were able to do this [gimmick] it was just so much fun, and I feel like character development is a lost art nowadays in women’s wrestling. It’s a whole new era for professional wrestling because I feel like it’s so serious now—which is fine, I’m not knocking it—but that’s where The Allure comes in. That’s what makes us so different than anybody else in Women Of Honor, and it makes The Allure different as far as women’s wrestling goes. We are bringing the entertainment and the storylines, character work to Women Of Honor and we’re doing it our way. We’re not doing—we go against the wind. We don’t do what society says is accepted and thinks is cool, or what wrestling says about how we should act and dress. We are doing it our way, and fans can either love it or hate it, but one thing is for sure—The Allure is here to stay.”
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Velvet also said she’s very proud of her previous work, but they would have embraced doing the same gimmick if it was true:
“Fans can take my words and they can say ‘oh, I don’t care what she says, they are always going to be The Beautiful People 2.0’ but I know that it’s not. If we were just trying to be a carbon copy of [that group], then I would have no problem saying ‘hey, The Beautiful People 1.0 worked, why wouldn’t we be a carbon copy’—but that’s not the case. I’m proud of what we did as The Beautiful People. I’m so proud and always will be proud of what Angelina and I have accomplished, but that’s the mixed feedback I’m seeing as far as the fans go. They can go and say that all they want, but I’m telling them it’s not. If we were, I would just say ‘we’re The BP’s 2.0, it worked, so why not?’ But that’s not the case. Just because we wear lipstick and short skirts doesn’t mean we can’t kick your ass. It’s more of a badass woman type of role than it is mean little girly girls running around embarrassing everybody like we did. We’re still going to embarrass the women of course—it comes with the territory, they deserve it—but we’re not The Beautiful People 2.0.”
Velvet says the response has been very positive overall, and despite being retired as an in-ring competitor she’s still relevant due to the great reception from fans. She said it’s been three years since she’s been contracted to a major company, but the support has been incredible and she feels like she owes this current run to her supporters.
Check out the full interview with Velvet Sky below:
