So, I guess I should start with some background information. My name is Sherri Elizabeth Stevenson, but I go by Beth. I grew up playing every sport I could get involved in, but I fell in love with wrestling at a very young age. I grew up watching wrestling with my parents, my mom always joked if I was born a male my name would have be Shawn Michaels (now do you get the Sherri Elizabeth). I grew up wanting to be a part of the Hart Foundation, or a female Stinger; that's probably why I ended up in this profession.
I started wrestling in High School (Go Panthers!), and received a full scholarship to King University (Go Lady Tornadoes!). During college, I started wrestling in the indies, and not long after graduation, I had my try-out for the big leagues at NXT in Orlando. Not long after that date, my whole life changed and turned upside down.
My wrestling persona back then was very true to myself. I tried out at NXT as Shandi Star, a submission hold specialist, who had old school flair. I did love that look back then. I had long curly blond hair, blue eyes (still have those of course), and my gear was a knock off of the Hart Dynasty gear. I just changed the colors from pink and black, to purple and silver; the maple leaf to a outline of the USA and instead of hearts I had stars. My build is basically the same as it is today. Being 6'0" tall, I'm a good 6 inches taller than most of my competition. My body wasn't as slim as most of my competitors either; I am built similarly to Crush from American Gladiators (the new version). My entrance theme girly back then too, it was "Lucky" by Britney Spears as I would skip down the ramp (What was I thinking).
My first couple of months down in NXT was a blur but in a good way. I learned a lot, I trained a lot, and I worked out a lot. Not much for a young, single girl to do if she wasn't willing to become a ring rat. I didn't mind all the strenuous work; I loved pushing my body to be the best it could be. During that time, Dusty Rhodes took me under his wing. Dusty would push me to my limits and then some every day. I will always be grateful for the time I had with him, I believe he's the reason I am here today.
On a typical Wednesday while working out, I noticed there is an influx of WWE upper management and the CEO Paul Levesque in the training facility. Dusty comes in and pulls me aside, and tells me that I'm going to have an opportunity of a life time, and not to mess it up. That statement made me a little nervous but excited. I made sure to warm up and stretch really well, but it was really hard to focus with all the extra eye candy around the facility.
Paul calls Tamina Snuka and Lita along side him as he calls up myself and the rest of the NXT Divas. He tells us that we are trying out to be a female wrestler who not only accompanies but also wrestles along side with some of the male Superstars. Paul also told us the Diva who would be a part of this faction was not going to be a typical diva; aka bad-ass female, who doesn't wear revealing clothing and doesn't back down to any challenger she might face. Paul says that Tamina and Lita are here to help show us some moves they would like us to perform, and to see if we could keep up to those two.
As we all warmed up and started going through drills, I started critiquing my fellow NXT Divas. All of them where tiny females, under 5'6" maybe 110 pounds soaking wet; how are they supposed to be intimidating? I knew that this role was made for me. I had to look deep down in myself and make myself as intimidating as possible. I started staring down everyone; make sure I hit all my moves a little harder than normal since I usually held back when I wrestled smaller girls. During our first water break, I ran into the locker room and French braided my hair down my back and put black lipstick under my eyes, hoping to look intimidating as possible. Next we worked on bump drills, hip tosses, and running ropes. Towards the end they broke us up in pairs, and I had the luxury of teaming up with Tamina. Tamina was fun to wrestle with, we gave each other our all. There were a few times I thought she might break me in two, then there were other times I got the upper hand. After each mini-session, we broke a part smiling, knowing that we both were making the other look good. During the last water break, Tamina came up to me. She said I surely had this in the bag, and she was proud of the new persona I was developing. I smiled and thanked her; I also told her that I was pretending to be her at times for the looks I was giving my competitors. That last statement made Tamina laugh, and she told me I would fit it with the faction they were forming.
At the end of the day, they called all the Divas to gather in the main ring and have a seat as Paul would tell us the next step. As Paul starts to describe the faction, I can only imagine who would be a part of the faction, it wasn't who or what I thought it would be. Paul announces that the male Superstars were in the building the whole time watching, and they all agreed upon which Diva was going to join the faction. He then calls them out to the ring, and I was in shock, these were guys I always loved watching wrestle. Out walks out Colby, Joe and Jon aka Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. They enter the ring and smile at everyone, for now their ring personas left at the door. Colby smiles down at us all and says, you all did very well, but all of us were surprised by one of you specifically, and we would like you to join our little faction known as the Shield. That person definitely will add to our intimidating ways, and hopefully our quirky personas added Joe. Lastly Jon adds, I'm pretty sure she could kick some of the males on the main rosters' ass as well, we would like to welcome Beth. I sat and stared for a few moments, not quite recognizing my own name or the fact that wanted me to get up and join them in the middle of the ring. Once I realized what was going on, I stood up and walked over expecting to shake Paul's hand and nothing else, but Joe pulled me into a big bear hug, and kind of passed me down the line until I got a hug from each of the men that were a part of the Shield.
And that is how I got to were I am today. I am the newest member (not even main roster knows yet) of the Shield and my life is about to change.