Stacy Keibler has been all over the U.S. tabloids and TV networks recently and the reason is not her involvement in wrestling. Rather, Stacy has endured herself to the non-fans and the mainstream media with her involvement in BBC "Strictly Come Dancing" rip-off, "Dancing With The Stars".
Although she ultimately came third in the final, Stacy proved to be a natural and even in defeat, she’s managed to impress all the right people. Truth be known, Stacy probably wasn’t well known in the general media before "Dancing With The Stars" (as wrestling is looked upon as being a lowly form of entertainment for the lowest common denominator), although she was admittedly the biggest celebrity on the show. That said Ms Keibler put any misconceptions to rest early on and was an early tip to be the winner of the contest.
But should we have expected this all along? After all, in her near-7 year involvement in "Sports Entertainment", Stacy has displayed the sort of qualities that have had us wrestling fans seriously thinking about whether she could one day "outgrow" the sport and branch out into other avenues in entertainment. Has that time now come?
An avid dancer since childhood, Stacy first found partial fame as a cheerleader for the Baltimore Ravens. It was her dancing background that bagged her a WCW contract in November 1999, after she won the "Search For A Nitro Girl" competition.
A wrestling fan herself, Stacy was ecstatic with her break (even though WCW had well and truly lost the "Monday Night Wars", they were still the world’s 2nd biggest wrestling company by default). Dubbed "Skye", Stacy officially joined the "Nitro Girls" dance troupe and put her natural dancing skills to good use.
However, in early 2000, WCW saw the potential for Stacy to branch out as an official on-screen character (although they used to open big matches on Nitro, the "Nitro Girls" had now been reduced to just entertaining the fans while the cameras weren’t rolling). To this day, World Championship Wrestling receives stick for giving the top name players too much power and for not using the younger talent to the best of their abilities. But their handling of Stacy Keibler was one of few things that WCW got right.
Dressed in a shockingly short skirt and business suit and with her hair neatly arranged in a bun, the bespectacled "Ms Hancock" (Stacy’s latest ring name) was truly one of the hottest female acts ever seen in pro wrestling.
With her ever-present clipboard and sophisticated "business woman" look, Ms Hancock was supposed to represent "Standards & Practices" (who were later represented on-screen by Lenny and Lodi), but that was debatable when you considered the fact that it was Hancock who was the one breaking into a sexy dance routine and threatening to strip on the commentary table, the stage or even in the ring.
For a short time, Stacy did "double duty". She danced as "Skye" and also donned the "Ms Hancock" attire on the same night. However, the character of Ms Hancock soon became so popular that WCW decided to drop the "Nitro Girl" handle and just have Stacy play the one role.
In her first real story line, Ms Hancock was portrayed as a scheming, manipulative home-wrecker (as women are often portrayed in wrestling) who had "stolen" the off-the-wall David Flair from the equally out-there Daffney.
The story line itself wasn’t too bad, but the matches (if you could call them that) sucked. However, this was mainly down to the booking from Vince Russo, rather than the ladies themselves.
A feud with Major Gunns (aka fitness model, Tylene Buck) was even worse, although Buck should shoulder some of the blame for that as she was completely unconvincing with her promo work leading up to and following the abysmal "Mud Match" the two had at "New Blood Rising".
With Stacy and David Flair still an item (on-screen and off), WCW decided to do a "Randy & Liz" and have the two lovebirds get married in a ceremony on "Nitro". Unfortunately, this was a far cry from the famous "Match Made In Heaven" or most of the other "WWE Weddings".
This angle was the first time that Stacy was referred to on-screen by her real name (after this, the "Ms Hancock" name was officially dropped, for no apparent reason). And this being a pro wrestling wedding, there had to be a twist.
It had already been announced that Stacy was "pregnant", so WCW (or rather, Vince Russo) thought it would be a great idea for Stacy to announce that David WASN’T the father. Therefore, the wedding was off and so was Stacy (she didn’t return until March 2001, by which time Russo had left and the story line had been long forgotten).
In the meantime, David Flair set off on a crazed quest to "find the father". He applied the "Figure-Four" to a postman and also had a "DNA First Blood Match" with suspect Buff Bagwell (seriously, I’m not making this stuff up).
When Stacy returned in March 2001 as Shawn Stasiak’s new valet, the whole "pregnancy" angle turned out to be a hoax (Stacy’s "baby" was apparently Mr Stasiak).
Stacy and Shawn didn’t spend much time together as an item as on March 26, WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation in a truly shocking ultimate conclusion to the "Monday Night Wars". As well as acquiring all the WCW logos, PPV names and trademarks, Vince McMahon also bought the contracts of younger talent like Booker T, Shane Helms, Shawn Stasiak and Stacy Keibler (the bigger names like Sting, Goldberg and Kevin Nash were locked into "Time Warner" contracts and would have to have taken substantial pay cuts to go and work for the WWF).
At Wrestlemania X7, Stacy, Stasiak and others sat in the "Skybox" in Toronto while their "new owner" Shane McMahon battered their "rival" Vince McMahon in a breathtakingly brutal "Street Fight". On this evidence, it appeared as if the WWF were slowly building towards a long-awaited WWF/WCW feud that would make a ton of money at the box office.
In June 2001, Stacy Keibler made her official WWF debut during an edition of SD! broadcast from her home town in Baltimore, Maryland. Accompanied by "WCW Owner" Shane McMahon, Stacy showed off her famously long legs and wiggled her well-rounded backside during a "Hardcore Match" between Rhyno and Test.
From there, Stacy became involved in the usually entertaining (but still poorly managed) "Alliance" story line. Her first duty on PPV was to team with fellow WCW babe Torrie Wilson and face WWF Divas Trish Stratus and Lita in a "Bra & Panties Match" at "Invasion". Although it was part of a highly competitive "inter-promotional" PPV, the match was merely and excuse to see all 4 women in their underwear and to give pro-WWF fans a look at the "new girls" wearing skimpy thongs.
The flesh flaunting continued at "No Mercy" when Stacy fought Torrie in a "Lingerie Match", which actually turned out to be pretty entertaining on the wrestling front as well.
After that, Stacy started to manage The Dudley Boyz and became the official "Duchess Of Dudleyville". Even though the WCW/ECW alliance "went out of business" at "Survivor Series", Stacy kept her job (the Dudley’s had unified both the WWF and the WCW Tag-Team Championship Titles at the PPV) and stayed with the "half-brothers" until April 2002 when they got tired of her and drove her through a table (although hardly anyone in the UK saw this as "Sky Sports" refused to air the footage).
After recovering from her alleged injuries, Stacy was drafted over to SD! and became Mr McMahon’s official "personal assistant" (Stacy fought off the competition with a Ms Hancock-style "table dance" for Vince). She soon found herself at odds with new arrival Dawn Marie (who also had the hots for McMahon; after all what woman doesn’t, right?), but that mini-feud soon ended when it became clear that Stacy had allowed a valuable contract to get into the hands of Raw GM Eric Bischoff.
Fresh from her double-cross on SD!, Stacy showed up on Raw and marked the occasion by stripping and dancing on the commentary table. However, she was soon given something a little more constructive to do (that is, make a star out of Test).
At one time in his career (1999, really), Test had been tipped to be a main event star by many people. But that was a long time ago. The man who once found himself in the middle of one of the WWF’s biggest story lines of the year (i.e. the HHH/Stephanie McMahon "Wedding"), soon found himself in a worthless tandem with the equally floundering Prince Albert, who despite having the voluptuous Trish Stratus in their corner, never got over.
Test’s most recent story line saw him join the "Un-Americans" (which also consisted of Chris Jericho, Christian and William Regal). By order from WWE management, Test had been told to cut his hair for the role (as had Christian, I believe). Test refused and WWE weren’t happy. However, the "Un-Americans" gimmick was soon dropped anyway.
However, WWE management doesn’t easily forgive or forget things like that. As Test’s new manager, Stacy’s first task was to CUT HIS HAIR! Stacy also dubbed the term "Testicles" (for Test’s fans, not that he had many) and actually did everything within her power to get him over with the audience once again.
However, it didn’t work. Much like the fans only concentrated on Trish during Test’s "T & A" (Test and Albert) days, the WWE faithful only cared about Stacy. This was proven to be the case in 2003 when during a feud between Scott Steiner and Test, Stacy got the biggest (or really, the only meaningful) reaction.
In 2004, Stacy (like many others) fell victim to the common problem of inconsistent booking. While she was involved in the passable "Evening Gown Match" at WM XX, she did very little for the remainder of the year.
It was a similar story in 2005. Although she stole the show with her performance in the "Basic Instinct" WM 21 spoof and then inducted Hulk Hogan into the "Hall Of Fame" at the event itself, she soon got lost in the shuffle for the remainder of the year.
The truth is, WWE hasn’t really known what to do with Stacy Keibler for a while now. Which is why it was somewhat of a relief when they announced that she would be a part of "Dancing With The Stars". At the very least, her involvement could inspire the creative staff to come up with SOMETHING for her upon her return.
However, has Stacy’s brush with bigger fame had the opposite effect? With regards to Stacy’s comeback, it’s now a matter of "if" rather than "when".
The reason is simple. Although Stacy seemed to impress all the judges throughout the contest and seemed to impress the general viewing audience (she lasted until the final), she still didn’t win. But at the same time, she got her name out there and has shown such flair and determination for showbiz that bigger and better things could just be around the corner.
But what about wrestling? Stacy has admitted that she’s not quite sure. Her WWE contract expires in July and WWE haven’t had a proper use for her in almost 2 years. Is it really worth her going back to that or would she be wise to take a more mainstream route and look at TV and movie roles?
If it’s the former, then Stacy would be wise to remember that the list of former WWE Divas who successfully cracked the non-wrestling market is very short. Sunny, Sable and Chyna were all huge stars under the WWE spotlight, but none of them could surpass or even replicate their former glory elsewhere.
Then again, Stacy isn’t your average WWE Diva. It’s her natural looks, her strong charisma and "girl next door" charm that has propelled her from the bright lights of "Sports Entertainment" to the huge media spotlight that is followed by the general public, not just pro wrestling fans. And it could very well be these qualities that lead her even greater things.
Previously posted on Smash Wrestling:
