Lisa Marie Varon, formerly known as Victoria in WWE and Tara in TNA Wrestling, recently appeared as a guest on The Velvet Rope with SoCal Val podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the women’s wrestling legend spoke about getting approval from WWE for her TNA Hall of Fame appearance at TNA Bound For Glory 2025, her intense nerves before delivering her speech, Mickie James and who she thinks deserves to be in the TNA Hall of Fame.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where she touches on these topics with her thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On getting WWE approval for her TNA Hall of Fame appearance: “Since I have the WWE legends contract, I immediately called WWE, is it okay that I induct her? And they’re like, oh my gosh, congratulations. That’s amazing. And they were so open arms, and since they have, [WWE and TNA] work together.”
On her intense nerves before the induction speech, compounded by travel stress: “They called me maybe eight days before, which I don’t have a dress, I don’t have shoes… And I don’t land until 11 o’clock the night before, Bound for Glory… And to get to the hotel at 11 o’clock, God bless this girl, Michaela, when she picked me up, and it took two and a half hours to get my bag. So going to sleep at 1:30… I need my rest and bags and not look exhausted… So I get there, I am a nervous wreck… not to be graphic or anything. I did throw up a couple times because I was just so, so nervous. I was so nervous… Give me a wrestling match. I’m still nervous on that, but it’s much easier than speaking.”
On praising Mickie James while expressing concern about modern wrestling: “Mickie is a trailblazer. Little girls want to be her when they grow up, and she set the record high for the new talent coming up. Not just women. Men, too. Just step it up. You don’t get to be okay I’m comfortable, as is. You need to get better and better, improve yourself… it can be something dangerous. It can become dangerous when people start getting hurt… Mickie was like she just went off the charts of setting the record high… it’s becoming dangerous in the ring now, people are trying to step it up a little too much. It’s scary to watch, sometimes.”
On who she thinks should be next for the TNA Hall of Fame: “Well, ODB, of course, I think she’s one of the originals, just like Tracy Brooks… AJ Styles… that era of wrestling when we were there [were] superstars from first match all the way to the end… Christopher Daniels, Kazarian…”
