Candice Michelle sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Austin, Texas to discuss her journey to WWE via the Diva Search and becoming the first Diva Search contestant to win the Women’s Championship, her match with Beth Phoenix that had a terrifying ending, life after wrestling, what her current role is in TNA, Melina having real heat with her, the story behind her magic wand and more!
I had seen the word online that you were working with TNA.
“Yeah, Tommy Dreamer called me and he offered me a spot as an agent.”
So did that just start this year?
“It did. It started in January, which was my first show, and he was so funny. He’s like, come and shadow me the first weekend, and the next weekend you’ll be an agent. All I can think about is that it’s wrestling, you know, we’re gonna see if you’re going to survive or not, and if you can do it or not and throw them to the wolves. I was like, Okay, let’s go.”
So is this just a backstage role, or are we going to see Candice Michelle making an appearance on TV?
“I think that this initial call was my hope spot, and I think it’s going to lead into my comeback.”
Are you open to wrestling another match?
“I was at WrestleCon, and I was doing an appearance, my promoter had Dustin [Rhodes] on, and somebody said, ‘Go up to him and tell him how you want to wrestle again.’ I’m just listening to this voice, like, really? Maybe it’s because I’m at WrestleCon, you know, you see all the wrestlers, you kind of get the itch, you’re kind of in it a little bit. I was going to the Hall of Fame that year to watch Michelle [McCool] be inducted. I go over to him, I was like, ‘Hey, I know you have a school in Texas, and I think I have the itch.’ He’s like, what? I don’t know if she really does. Then to come to December and get this call from Tommy Dreamer, I was like, I just feel it coming. I don’t know when it’s coming, but it’s coming.”
So this match with Beth Phoenix. What happens?
“Well, we were overseas, and we were putting together this match, and this is when Arn Anderson and Ricky Steamboat started to really train me. So you see how really towards the end of my wrestling career is when I really felt like I was getting the knowledge. It was the first time I understood that there’s a philosophy to the match. I literally had no idea. I was never taught it or anything. There was something in me and Beth that resonated with Ricky and Arn Anderson, and they really stepped up to the plate, and they said, This is how you got to start working this. The fans were really getting behind us, and overseas, we’re having these great matches, and we had this move where it was supposed to be, you know how you open your legs on the top rope and fall in. I guess I’m not that flexible. I think about it to this day. I just saw somebody on TNA do this move, and I was like, yeah, that’s not for me. So I was like, I’ll do my knees instead. That’s a little less flexible. And overseas, I did it one time, and I came back, and all the boys were worried because I landed on my neck. I didn’t feel it. It didn’t phase me. I was not injured. I wasn’t hurt, and so I didn’t really think much of it. But we’re on like a 7 to 10 day tour over there, not much sleep. We fly back to Nebraska. We’re going to kind of do this match again, and my boot catches that rope, and I wasn’t allocated that little extra space, and I landed on my head.”
Did you get knocked out?
“I was knocked out. I don’t remember it. The first thing I remember is being on the stretcher, and Stephanie McMahon was leaning over me, and they’re going into Gorilla, and she goes, ‘Don’t worry, we’re flying your husband out.’ I was like, they don’t fly your husband out [unless it’s serious]. So instantly, I was worried. I had a concussion and I broke my collarbone. It came at a time where we weren’t really educated with that kind of injury, and so being dragged to the center of the ring after that happened, if that was my neck, it would have paralyzed me.”
