Women’s wrestling in WWE has never been more popular and given the rise of stars from Charlotte Flair to Sasha Banks, to Bayley, Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss, inducting one of the company's top women of the past makes sense. Phoenix's wrestling ability combined with her powerful yet glamorous look made her a wrestler ahead of her time.
(The athletic ingénue was already an amateur wrestling champion before embarking on professional career. Source: PWA.wrestlingx.net)
Born Elizabeth Kocianski in Elmira, NY she fell in love with professional wrestling at the age of 11 after she won tickets in a coloring contest to a WWF television taping. In high school she was a standout multi-sport athlete in tennis and track. Most notably, she was the first female wrestler in the history of Notre Dame High School and went on to win the Northeast FreeStyle Women's Championship and the New York State Fair tournament as a member of USA Wrestling.
Phoenix then simultaneously worked toward her degrees in criminal justice and public relations at Canisius College as she trained for her career in professional wrestling. She was mentored by Joey Knight and Robin Knightwing after Molly Holly paid her tuition, impressed with her athleticism, wrestling skill and look. She debuted in 2001 simply as Phoenix, and built a significant independent resume, going over trainer Joey Knight and Kevin Grace for the FNW men's cruiserweight title, becoming the inaugural GLORY women's champion and being part of the first Shimmer Women Athletes show. This success led to WWE's then-developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling in 2004.
(A Steely-eyed Beth Phoenix in OVW. Source: PWA.wrestlingx.net)
The Divas division in WWE already featured some women who could wrestle, most notably Trish Stratus and Lita, but women were still largely a manager, love interest, valet or some other form of eye candy. The future Glamazon filled this role mostly in OVW, a definite change from the consistent in-ring opportunities she had before.
(Beth Phoenix muscles up Michelle McCool during the first ever women's table match at TLC 2010. Source: Wrestlingmedia.org)
The WWE she debuted to in 2006 reflected how she was used in developmental. Trish Stratus and Lita were the standard bearers, blending sex appeal and wrestling ability, but there was little room onscreen for the rest of the women's roster to do much beyond a role as tangential eye candy. Phoenix was deemed pretty enough, but no one like her who took such apparent pride in breaking conventional notions of beauty with a finely honed and powerful physique had come along since Chyna embraced a more feminine look years before.By 2010, it was clear that the women's division was near the bottom of WWE's priority list, in spite of workers like Phoenix, Natalya, Gail Kim, Mickie James and others who had a great look but also put forth the effort to become solid wrestlers.
(Glamorous Gold: Beth Phoenix won 3 Women's Titles and one Divas Championship, but her impact runs deeper than what she did on paper.)
The Glamazon's accomplishments include holding the Women's Championship three times, the Diva's Championship once, participating in the first women's I-Quit match (vs. Melina) and the first women's table match (with Natalya vs. Layla and Michelle McCool.) These accomplishments alone are impressive, but were done against the backdrop of a WWE that was hostile to wrestlers and placed green bikini models like Kelly Kelly front and center.
Phoenix was often paired with Natalya as a heel, vilified in color commentary and apparent presentation for attacking handpicked favorites whose training in-ring had to be covered up with surprise rollups in matches that lasted five minutes or less.
By 2012, Phoenix joined other talents like Mickie James, Gail Kim, Kaitlyn, Maxine and even favorites like Eve Torres who decided to quit WWE or were outright released. With benefit of hindsight, as WWE's women in 2016/2017 are given a fair shake to demonstrate their value and earn their keep, Phoenix was ahead of her time, the embodiment of the sort of talent WWE wants in their current Women's Division.
(Eve Torres feels the pain as Phoenix secures victory with a top-rope glamslam. Source: WWE.com)
Beth Phoenix was one of the very first women that WWE were willing to put on TV who openly embraced honing a powerful physique along with glamour, which is the standard now. Imagine her in the mix on either show vying for the title – at a time when the women's main drive coming down the ramp is to be the best, as opposed to the soap opera tropes that served as storylines during her career.
We have been treated to some of the best women's matches ever in American pro wrestling out of the current roster of WWE women and a daily standard for excellence not seen nor really desired in the WWE until now. Beth Phoenix's influence cannot be discounted in what we see now with WrestleMania XXXIII on the horizon.
(Meet the Copelands. Edge and Beth get a selfie at their home in North Carolina. Source: Dailywrestlingnews.com)
Now retired and answering to Beth Copeland, she and her husband, Adam "Edge" Copeland are raising two daughters in Asheville, NC. If you ever bump into her on your way to checking out the skiing or the Biltmore Estates, give her a well-deserved "thank you" for her indelible impact on women's wrestling.
Finally, you'd like further viewing after this article, the WWE Network has a collection of some memorable matches in a Hall of Fame collection, including the famous first-time table match. If you feel some Beth Phoenix matches or moments should have made the cut in this article, leave a comment or hit me up on twitter @weskozalla
You can also find me, Ace Masters, Dave, and the Wrestlementary Braintrust at @wrestlementarythetwitter
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