Thanks to the Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame for the following:
The Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame www.womenswrestlinghalloffame.com (WWHOF) was founded by ECW original Angel Orsini, NWA hall of Fame Inductee Susan Tex Green, filmmaker Christopher Annino https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0030399/ , ECW original’s Pitbull # 1 Gary Wolf, and Angel Orsini. The mission of the WWHOF is to “educate, promote, and preserve the history of Women’s wrestling.” There are three categories that are honored each year: Pro Wrestling, amateur wrestling which includes Olympians, Paralympians, College level athletes and coaches. And non-wrestlers which are reserved for managers, announcers, valets, promotions, & referees.
The official class of the 2024 Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame https://womenswrestlinghalloffame.com/inductees-1 for the Amateur wrestling category includes the first U.S. medalist in freestyle Amateur Wrestling Afsoon Roshanzamir Johnston, Olympic Bronze medalist Clarissa Chun, and Paralympic silver medalist from Canada Priscilla Gagné.
For the pro wrestling category WWE Hall of Fame inductees Jacquelyn Moore, Sherri Martel, WWE Women’s Champion Robin Smith, tag team legends Wendi Richter & Joyce Grable, Leilani Kai, Heidi Lee Morgan, Debbie Johnson, former AWA Women’s Champion Candi Devine, Vivian Vachon, Peggy Lee Leather, NWA women’s champion June Byers, WWE Mike McGuirk, first female referee in pro wrestling Suzie Tanner of Alberta, Canada, valet Melissa Coates, ECW’s Nicole Bass, NWA’s Baby Doll, ECW’s Francine, First Lady of Pro Wrestling Missy Hyatt, South Korea’s Kristina Laum of ECW, Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA), and WWE & TNA Champion Lisa Marie Varon.
Lisa Marie Varon www.lisamarievaron.bigcartel.com is the first and only WWHOF inductee to have a be a multisport athletic career and win both the WWE & TNA Women’s title. Victoria was a champion cheerleader, NPC Physique competitor.
Varon was born in San Bernardino, California, to a Puerto Rican father (who is a Vietnam veteran) and a Korean-born Turkish mother who worked as a singer in Japan. She grew up with three older brothers, all of whom became amateur wrestlers, with her oldest brother, Bobby, winning a gold medal at the 1983 Pan American Games. Varon attended Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California. During high school, she was active in cheerleading, a sport in which she competed since the sixth grade.
During her senior year in high school, she was nationally recognized by the National Cheerleading Association, earning an All-American award and being chosen to cheer at half-time of the NFL 1989 Pro Bowl, alongside 70 other women.
She participated in track and field events in the ninth grade. After graduating, she studied biology at the University of California, Los Angeles and she studied medicine at Loma Linda University, with the intent on becoming a physician. She worked as a human tissue coordinator at the Inland Eye and Tissue Bank in Redlands, California, where she was involved in the process of organ donation.
In 1999, she earned her International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) Professional Fitness Card after placing second at the National Physique Committee (NPC) Team Universe show in New York City. It was during her time working in fitness competitions that Varon also first met Trish Stratus who would eventually become one of her biggest rivals in pro wrestling.
Varon began competing in fitness competitions and won ESPN2‘s Fitness America Series in 1997.[6][7] In 1999, she placed second at a fitness event in New York City to earn her International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) Professional Fitness Card.
Victoria was also an Iron Woman competitor and came in forth place at the Iron Woman Tri-Fitness (1998), and was inducted
