That's what the not-yet-20 Kelly Kelly was on her first day. An "exhibitionist". Somebody who enjoyed taking her clothes off just because.
If this doesn't paint the nicest picture of WWE at the time, it looks like the Mona f*cking Lisa next to the visual of Vince McMahon himself apparently being the one to teach her how to do it to his liking. Perhaps that's where Austin Theory is going wrong trying to win his love in 2022? He goes out there and whips his t*ts out. but the Chairman now needs multiple cameras and a desk just to get through a segment - he can no longer shake himself about a bit just to get exactly what he's looking for from his latest starlet.
As has often been the case, the performer gradually broke through occasionally because of but often in spite of the promoter's weird whims. Never the most polished in the ring, she was at very least passable when that standard was enough and WWE was quite frankly, pal, lucky to have it.
An endlessly sympathetic babyface in storylines, her Day One experience perhaps gave her method experience of how to really eat sh*t, and what a useful tool it served for the remainder of a run that - to her immense credit - spanned six years.
By 2017, she was only 30 and already on the nostalgic comebacks call-sheet. Which brings the whole story back to one of the only memorable moments of a sludge-bucket Royal Rumble...
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
