STOP! If you haven't read Defending a position: The Bobbi Billard Story you should go read it first. This interview is actually the second half of that column. They were posted in this order for various reasons.

*Disclaimer* - The following Interview with Bobbi Billard is not a hoax, a prank or bogus. Bobbi Billard chose to speak candidly with ODBJBG about her life, her time in OVW as well as WOW. I thank her for taking the time to address the fans, and for recognizing those who defended her. She has been nothing but a class act and I'd like to take the time to laugh at all the other 'big name' wrestling columnists who decided to skip Billard's story to complain about Bradshaw. Bobbi's interview with me is a ODBJBG.com exclusive and is being used with my consent at LethalWrestling.com, and any reprinting of this, credit must be given to ODBJBG as well as LethalWrestling. Thank you and enjoy.

Thanks again Bobbi for being so real, and taking the time to talk with me. I'm going to ask you a range of questions. We'll start off kind of easy, and just to introduce the public to a bit about you and wrestling. Then we'll dive into the deeper stuff as we go on. Please answer everything as honest as possible, you don't have to feel the need to "trash" anyone, but please speak your mind and be as candid as you'd like. After all no one can knock you for being honest. If there is anything you'd rather not talk about, feel free to decline to answer, but the more you answer the more everyone gets your side of the story and decides if that's the truth or not.

What got you involved in wrestling? I assume WOW, but were you a fan before that? Did you just go to a open casting call for WOW, or was it something you've always wanted to pursue?

"I wasn't a fan of wrestling before. I'm not going to lie. I came from a strict upbringing and I wasn't able to watch programming like that. Also, none of my friends were wrestling fans, so I really wasn't exposed to it. I became interested in wrestling when a couple of my fans were talking about Sable during one of my chats. They told me that they would love to see me wrestle Sable. I always kept that in the back of my head because wrestling intrigued me. I've always been a bit of a tom boy growing up. I had a treehouse and I preferred hanging out with the boys. I used to break rocks open with hammers. I thought that wrestling would be right up my alley, but I never knew how one would get involved in the business and didn't pursue it. Then I wound up in Playboy magazine in Sable's second issue. Cooincidence or fate? A few years later, I was doing the hollywood thing, and my agent asked me if I would be interested in auditioning for a brand new women's wrestling tv show. It sorta fell into my lap. I told him, "hell yeah!". He sent me and the next thing I knew, I had gotten "the part". I've always loved trying and learning new things. I had a ton of fun learning all of the moves. It was so interesting to me! What I really wanted to learn was the high flying stuff... however, Terri Gold was already a gymnast (I was a gymnast too way back in the day but I was rusty) so they worked with her for that stuff. All of the girls went through beginner training (i.e. bumping and a few moves) and then that was it for the time being. The funds were limited and the characters that were getting a push were the ones that got to learn the most. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of the ones being pushed so my knowledge was very very limited! I wish I had studied wrestling before I got to WOW."

After WOW ended, did you immediately decide that wrestling was something you wanted to do? What prompted you to continue trying to learn the craft? Was it a way to make a "easy buck" and become a "big star" or was it something you enjoyed?

"To tell you the truth, I don't think there is that much money in wrestling unless you are a big name. And there definitely are safer ways to make more money (i.e. acting & modeling). It definitely wasn't the money that drew me to it, that's for sure. I'm not complaining but the money that I was being paid to go under the developmental program wasn't the greatest. I get paid more in one day modeling than I do all week training. And I don't have to work as many hours either. I turned down a lot of modeling jobs to be out in Louisville training for WWE. Not only that but I incurred a lot of expenses going out there. I had to relocate and since I didn't want to move everything from my house in California, I had to buy everything that I needed to furnish a place all over again. For example, I had to buy a new mattress, sheets, towels, plates, cups, silverware, pots & pans, furniture, a TV, and even a car. Not to mention, I blew off my websites (I run my own and my best friend's) since I was so busy out there with the training, I didn't have time to work on that. My website is a full time job in itself. So in short, I really wanted to wrestle. If I didn't, I wouldn't have spent all of that money to be out there away from my friends and family."

Its been almost 4 years since WOW folded if my math is correct. I understand that you did some training with Rey Sr., and obviously you got put on a WWE developmental deal, but connect the dots between that time. Did you pursue other wrestling schools, and how did WWE "find & sign" you?

"After WOW folded I went back to my modeling and website business. My website and modeling had always kept me quite busy and so I went that route. I continued to work out hard and got more interested in fitness modeling (hoping to catch the WWE's interest that way like Trish did). I was working out with Rey's uncle a few months prior to my first meeting with WWE.

As for my developmental contract, I was introduced to WWE through a friend on December 8th, 2003. I went to a show and was introduced to John Laurinitis. I remember him asking me, "Can you talk?". I was like, "Yeah!". He sent me to a room with Steve Lombardi (aka The Brooklyn Brawler) to film some promos. Steve was the coolest guy ever! He made me feel soooo comfortable in spite of the fact that I was freaking out that I was actually about to audition for WWE. On the way over to the promo room, he said, "Calm down. It's going to be ok!". I asked him, "Is it that obvious that I'm nervous?". He told me that it was. LOL! So much for trying to play it cool. Anyway, I cut a decent promo on Trish and I think that I did pretty good in spite of my anxiety. After that, John asked me if I would be available the following day for a workout with Fit Finley. I had a shoot scheduled the following day for a fitness magazine, but I put it off. After all, it's not everyday that you get to try out for the WWE, ya know? So the next day, I showed up and bumped around in the ring a bit with Fit and the other girls that were there for a tryout. Later that night, I was asked if I could relocate to Louisville as soon as the end of December. I told them that I would. And the rest is history."

Run down your list of trainers in OVW, top to bottom, who did you work with and what did they teach you. If you don't want to mention names that's fine, but the more WE know, the more we'll understand. Also grade them, A to F. IE: Danny Davis - B, etc etc.

"Sure, hope I don't leave anyone out.

Tommy Dreamer - A+ - Helped me learn to improve my bumps and chain wrestling. Tommy was great to work with, very patient, and an all around great coach!

Billy Gunn (aka Mr. Ass) - A+ - Taught me a lot of stuff to help me improve the height of my bumps. He also helped me out with my chain wrestling. He was very patient with me! :)

Shannon Moore - A+ - Such a cool guy! I am a big fan of his as well as Lita and Rey's. I love high flyers! It was an honor to be able to work with him.

Rodney (aka Redd Dog) - A+ - I wish that I had had the opportunity to work more with him in the ring but he talked to me a lot about the business.

Gail Kim - A+ - Great attitude! Really nice girl! Extremely down to earth. Very willing to teach me and work with me.

Eugene (aka Nick Dinsmore) - A+ - Extremely knowledgable and encouraging. Would always explain any move that I had questions in great detail.

Rip Rogers - B - Very knowledgable but I was told that he didn't think much of women in the sport of wrestling. This was apparent because every time I got in the ring he would roll his eyes. I watched the others and if they made even the slightest mistake in the ring, he would go off on them in front of everyone. And he wouldn't just go off on them.. He would cuss them out and tell you that they were a joke, that they sucked and that they might as well quit wrestling because they were worthless, etc. It made me scared to even get in the ring and try anything under his coaching. I guess I'm just not the type to be motivated by this sort of coaching. Some people might benefit. I am not one of those types..

Ivory - B - While I didn't agree with her way of trying to inspire me, she was very knowledgable and did answer my questions.

Jacqueline - B+- - She's pretty quiet and I didn't really get to talk to her all that much. I'd have to give her a B+ because I'd rather learn how to make my moves look aggressive without actually clobbering someone. I'll elaborate more over the phone too.

Nova - B+ - Very knowledgable but an Ivory in male form.

Danny Davis - A+ - Very knowledgable and patient.

Johnny Stamboli - A+ - Good teacher. He tried to help me out a lot.

Big Show - A++ - I had a great talk with him at a show about my character. He gave me a lot of help with my promos. "

I assumed that you assumed WWE's training program would be the most professional, am I right? How were you surprised compared to what you saw go on?

"Well my experience was with WOW. In WOW, our trainers were Peggy Lee Leather and Selina Majors aka Bambi. They were both personable, knowledgable, patient, and kind. They reminded me of the coaching that I had in the various sports teams (soccer, gymnastics, shotput) that I was involved with. When you have a coach that is supportive, it makes you want to try 10 times harder so as to make them proud. I have never had a coach that cussed at or insulted us. I guess I am not the type that gets inspired by such treatment. When I first met everyone at WWE, I thought it was a family type atmosphere.. They encouraged you to introuduce yourself to everyone in the room. This was something that was hard for me since I've always been shy by nature. However, I was so impressed. Everyone seemed to be so friendly in spite of the fact that they were stars. I thought that it was such a classy way to run things. I was really surprised at the things that I experienced down at OVW because I didn't picture it to be like that based upon my first impression with WWE, as well as my previous experience with WOW and wrestling in Tijuana with Rey Mysterio Sr."

One of the things I was most proud of when I first saw you talking about your OVW experience was that you decided NOT to take a bunch of pills to work injured. It saddens me when we see so many wrestlers dying as a result of painkillers, or we see women like Tammy Sytch, who have let them ruin their lives. Without mentioning any names, would you venture to say that a lot of the guys even in training, take a lot of painkillers to "keep the pace" and get brought up to WWE?

"Yes, I was really shocked to see how many people are on steroids AND pain killers. Call me naive again but I had no clue. Again, I wasn't exposed to that stuff when I was on WOW. I got hit up A LOT just because people knew that I was injured and assumed that I would have them and kick them down some. I'll tell you stories about this too. It was really quite sad what was going on. I guess it's really big out there to inject something called nubane (I'm not sure if that's the actual spelling). It's some sort of pain killer and I heard that a lot of people are doing that and way addicted to it. I also heard that a lot of bodybuilders use that stuff too because you can go to the gym and get all crazy and not feel the pain."

Now I'm going to question, your passion for the business. Dr. Tom claims you didn't care about the business, didn't learn about the business and just wanted to use it to springboard yourself to fame. The next set of questions is to prove Dr. Tom wrong. They'll start easy, then move up to a bit harder. Don't worry I won't ask you about Frank Gotch's 1912 title win, but I will ask you stuff that if you ARE interested in the business you should be able to answer.

First and foremost, who is your favorite wrestler? You've had a lot of time to watch tapes while setting on the sidelines at OVW, you've probably got a favorite. Feel free to mention someone who isn't a top worker either, I want your real favorite. If I listed my top 10, none of them would be considered good workers, so don't say "Chris Benoit" just because he's good at the craft, say who REALLY is your favorite to watch. Living or dead.

"My favorite wrestler to watch is Rey Mysterio. He's just amazing to watch! I love high flying lucha stuff! I always have. I used to love watching Lita because of the high flying moves that she would do (pre neck surgery). I loved gymnastics when I was growing up. I was pretty good at it too. Unfortunately, the business is moving away from this and they want to take it back to the old school because too many people were getting hurt. I can understand their reasoning but it's a shame because that was what I was most interested in learning.

This question makes me laugh too because I remember just before they released me, Lance Storm was coming to train at OVW. I was so typecast by everyone still to that day that one of the cocky guys asked me in front of everyone if I knew who Lance Storm was. He was hoping to make me look stupid in front of the whole class. Not only did I know who he was, but I described what he looked like. Everybody was so shocked that "the barbie girl" actually knew something about wrestling. It's this kind of crap that I had to deal with day in and day out. I'll tell you what, it gets old!"

Secondly, Tom says you didn't think about the business outside of money. So lets play booker. After all, I've NEVER wrestled and I can give you a imaginary scenario for myself for this question. Book Bobbi Billard for us. What would be your ideal wrestling gimmick? Would you go for heel or face? And what would be your finishing move? It doesn't have to be good, but if you were training to be a wrestler, surely you've thought about a gimmick beyond "Summer" of the "Beach Patrol".

"What money? LOL! Again, I don't think that there is that much money in wrestling. Anyway, my character idea was to be a cross between Paris Hilton and the main character in Legally Blonde type rich bitch. I wanted to be called Bobbi Bling Bling. Of course, I would be a heel. I was told and also learned from watching some of my wrestling videos (about the Rock and Stone Cold) that your character had to be a little bit like you but with the volume turned way up. In real life, I carry around a little dog in a purse like Paris. And I have little outfits and shoes for him too. I thought it would be a great idea to have different outfits for him each week that matched mine and be flashy. That was my idea for a character. Too bad that I never got to take my idea and run with it. I think I would have been pretty good at getting heat. It seemed as if it was pretty easy to get heat with the people at OVW just for being a large breasted blonde with a nice car. LOL!"

Our resident trainer/columnist here at Lethal Wrestling, says that he's got a 30 year old, mom of one, who works hard every night of the week. She does moonsaults in front of crowds of 100, and entertains at the highest of levels for little payout. He says that you don't have that kind of dedication. Now that the WWE isn't likely at least for a while, would we ever see you working Indy shows for pennies on the dollar?

"It depends on my medical condition. I need neck surgery and I might have permanent nerve damage. I've lost the strength in my left arm. I can't even flex my left arm. It's a strange thing, I send the signal with my brain but I can't do it no matter how hard I try. I'm not sure that my strength will come back. This might prevent me from wrestling again. The last thing that I'd want to do is get in a ring and be a danger to someone else by dropping them on their head or something because my strength is gone. I guess I will have to see what happens with my surgery and make a decision from there."

How exactly did you hurt your neck, and what is specifically wrong with it? Do you think your neck is hurt as a result of poor training, or as a result of your body just breaking under the pressure?

"There wasn't a specific moment that I can say, ahhh that's when it happened. I just think that by having us practice for the hours that they did, it was too much for most of us to handle. You have to remember, I wasn't the only person that got injured there as a result. There was a string of injuries. Enough to have the official doctors wondering what was going on at OVW and make a phone call.

I am hurting every day. I am miserable. It feels as if someone is stabbing me in the back with a knife. My arm hurts too since my nerve is being cut off and is causing symptoms in my left arm and fingers. My fingers are numb and I get a burning sensation in my palms. I can't flex my left arm anymore. I don't know why, I have my brain send the signals but my muscles don't respond accordingly. I lost strength in my arm so I can't carry my purse on my left side as I normally do. I try to do everything with my right hand. I try not to drive because I am trying to take care of my neck. I am always hurting 24/7. I was told by a doctor that I have a pinched nerve and several disk bulges. I might have permanent nerve damage. I need neck surgery to fix the problem."

I won't question your heart anymore about this business, beyond this question. Lets say you recover 100%, and I think you will so good luck, but lets just say all goes very well. WWE gives you a call on your first week out, they say "look we screwed up, we want you back, but you have to go back to OVW, but we promise once you get to the right level we are going to bring you up"....would you go back?

"Thanks for the get well wishes. Would I go back? I don't know. A lot of things would have to change if I would even begin to consider it. And I'm not entirely sure if my body will be able to after my surgery even if I wanted to."

I think NWA-TNA would be a good fit for you. They are the second largest wrestling federation in the U.S., they have a national Cable TV deal as well as PPVs every Wednesday night, and they just recently hired Minsa (The former Gorgeous George of WCW fame) and I know she can't wrestle a lick, and doesn't look half as good as you do. Have you put any feelers out to them? If you haven't I think you should, or go to their next Gut-Check in Nashville. I know they wouldn't pay near as well, but in wrestling you really have to get your name out there first. With that said, again could TNA be in your future? Is it something you would actively pursue?

"Like I said, I'd have to see what happens with my surgery. I can't predict the future with that. I will say one thing, I'd probably be more interested in seeing what TNA is about than in giving WWE another chance."

If WWE hadn't released you, would you still be there now if things would have continued to be as bad as they were?

"Yes, I would have stayed and stuck it out out there. I am a very determined girl and am not a quitter. Although, I was not about to get back in the ring with my condition as it is now. A fan of mine sent me this link on the internet and told me that I had made the right decision. (Bubba Dudley injures wrestler) This is an example of the sort of damage I could have done to others had I gotten back in the ring and "worked through my injury". I don't think a lot of people realize the severity of my injury. This is just not something that would have been safe for me or others if I were to work through it."

Some people have said that what Ivory did was helping "prepare" you and that stretching a rookie is NEEDED to help you learn. Do you think Ivory was doing things to you to prepare you for the sport, or do you feel she and others were looking to weed out the Playboy types, and labeled you as one of those, thus was trying to scare you off by "beating you up" and going beyond the training, to "hurt you" to get you out?

"When I first wrote my story, I just wanted to state the facts of what happened while I was there. I wanted it to be up to the reader to come to their own conclusions as to what they think went on down there. Everything that I said was the truth. If it wasn't, I'd be stuck with some libel suit right now. I didn't resort to name calling like Dr. Tom did in his column. And I'll tell you what, Tom wasn't down there very often so he didn't know what was going on down there. If he honestly believes the rubbish that he wrote, than he obviously listened to people that would do anything to ensure that I wouldn't take their supposed spot. He should consider the source and realize what people will do to get to the top. And as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't even know what he's talking about regarding my situation. I saw him a whopping 2 times.

I was also told by some of the wrestlers to be careful, that people would hurt us on purpose because there were a lot of people who didn't like us and were jealous of us because they thought that WWE would pull us up faster than them because we had "the right look". I actually saw some instances of this and I heard people bragging about doing this sort of thing. Tell me, would you want to entrust your life with someone that was telling you that they didn't want you taking their spot? It was a pretty scary experience, I tell ya!"

Everything in life is a learning experience, what did you learn most from this entire debacle?

"I learned to value my friends and loved ones even more. When I was having tough times out there, they were the shoulders that I cried on. I also learned that I want to work for people that care about my well-being. It's not worth it to risk your neck for people that treat you as if you are faking an injury and then discard you like a piece of trash. There was something wrong with me and I'm glad I listened to my body instead of peer pressure."

This may seem silly, but I've been giving you the benefit that at the very least you would wrestle better then some of the girls on the roster. WWE has two types of girls, Divas who are part-time wrestlers on Smackdown, and Wrestlers who are part-time Divas on Raw. Which did you want to be and which did WWE express interest in you being?

"I wanted to be a Raw girl all the way. I wanted to learn all that I could about wrestling and surprise people. I know that fans look at me as if I'm all fluff but I wanted to shock them and have them think, "Wow! She can actually wrestle too!?"

In closing, is there anything you’d like to say to fans of yours, fans of wrestling and people who may read this column? Anything you’d like to plug?

"Sure. I wanted to thank you for taking the time to read about me and for giving me a chance. I'm in Muscle Mag and American Curves this month. Check it out if you have a chance. Also, please come by my website anytime:
Bobbi Billard.com
Bobbi Billard Yahoo Group
Bobbi Billard LiveJournal "

Thanks so much for answering my questions Bobbi, it’s a real honor. You’ve proved to me that you are someone who is genuine and cares about people, not just herself. Good luck in everything in the coming months.

"Awww thanks! :) Thanks for standing up for me. You're a real sweetheart."