Layla El (Showgirl and cheerleader)
Where did Layla El come from? Well, London to be exact. However, before coming to WWE, Layla was a showgirl for Carnival Cruise Lines. She also had a short stint as a Miami Heat cheerleader before entered the WWE Diva search and doing what she does today.

Mickie James (Exotic Dancer, Waitress)
That’s how Mickie James got her start, some say. It wasn’t for very long, and she opted to go train for pro wrestling instead of that life.
Independent wrestlers don’t make much dough, so she had to get a job as a waitress at the Olive Garden. Mickie James also posed nude in an infamous set of photos in the Leg Show fetish magazine.

Michelle McCool (Teacher)
Yes, she has an athletic background. Michelle McCool (her real name) played softball in college and competed in a number of fitness competitions. But McCool made her bread by teaching seventh-grade science for four years in her home state of Florida. That should come as no surprise with it being the family business. Her mother is a teacher and her father, a superintendent.

Beth Phoenix (Boys high school wrestler)
No, we’re definitely not saying Beth Phoenix was once a boy.
But if it looks like Beth could roll you up and beat you down in three seconds, that’s because she probably can. Elizabeth Carolan spent her entire athletic career wrestling, and not just the pro product we all enjoy. She was an amateur wrestler in high school in New York, on the boys team because no other girls participated in the activity.
She got some national notoriety as well as some people wondering if such an (well) intimate sport should be co-ed. Regardless, Beth Phoenix wound up being better than all the boys on her team and even in the entire northeast. She actually won first place in the freestyle regional tournament in 1999 at age 18.

Tiffany (Playboy model)
Of course Tiffany (Taryn Terrell) was a Playboy model. I mean c’mon. Did you also know she leads a volunteer group called Hope’s Children Home for abused and neglected kids. Did you know she’s a vegan and an animal rights activist. We’re not joking. I bet you didn’t.

Eve Torres (L.A. Clippers cheerleader)
The current Divas Champion got her start in a much less violent arena. In college, she was co-captain of the University of Southern California’s Fly-Gals. As a professional, she was a member of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers Spirit Dance Team during the 2006-07 season.

Maryse Ouellet (Playboy model)
Maryse Ouellet was the 2003 winner of the Miss Hawaiian Tropic beauty pageant. She leveraged that into a career as a magazine model culminating with a Playboy cover in 2006. Her next move…pro wrestling, of course.

Melina Perez (Model and pageant contestant)
After winning the Miss California pageant, Melina Perez became a magazine model for Nike ads. That didn’t last long. Melina went to the famous School of Hard Knocks in San Bernadino, Calif. and made her pro wrestling debut in 2002.

The Bella Twins (FIFA World Cup models)
If Brie and Nicky Bella look familiar it’s probably because you’re a soccer fan. The Bella Twins were the twin models seen with the FIFA World Cup during this past competition in 2006 in Germany.

ODB (College hockey player)
ODB (Jessica Kressa) didn’t want to be a pro wrestler at all. Instead, she was more interested in getting onto American Gladiators, and a hired a personal trainer exclusively for that task.
It didn’t work out, but so far wrestling has.
Her roots lie in ice hockey and she was captain of her team in high school. She also played Division I women’s hockey while attending St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
Hanging up her skates, she tried to get onto WWE’s Tough Enough show but didn’t make the cut. From there it was on to the indies before landing in TNA (and as a Knockouts Champion). ODB (short for Old Dirty Bitch) may be the first female wrestler directly inspired by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. She even emulated his double-beer chug during her entrances in her early career.

Tara (Bodybuilder, fitness model, human tissue coordinator)
Tara (Lisa Varon) may have never even got into pro wrestling if she hadn’t met some folks back in the late 1990s.
Back then Tara was a bodybuilder and fitness model on the International Federation of Bodybuilders circuit. She even placed first in the Fitness America Series on ESPN 2 in 1997.
Meanwhile, Tara was considering a career in medicine and was working as something called a human tissue coordinator at the Inland Eye and Tissue Bank in Redland, Calif.
A chance meeting with Torrie Wilson tossed that (and perhaps her parents’ dreams) out the window. Tara was invited backstage to a WCW show. Later, with some encouragement from Chyna, she sent a video package to WWE and was hired two days later. She’s since crossed the line to TNA.