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Success pouring on Madison Rayne

Madison Rayne couldn’t have asked for sunnier skies in 2010.She became a three-time TNA Wrestling women’s champion. She continued to rise as one of the industry’s top performers through her work (and subsequent split) with Velvet Sky and Lacey Von Erich in the Beautiful People. And at only 24, Rayne is just starting to scratch the surface of her potential.

Madison Rayne couldn’t have asked for sunnier skies in 2010.

She became a three-time TNA Wrestling women’s champion.

She continued to rise as one of the industry’s top performers through her work (and subsequent split) with Velvet Sky and Lacey Von Erich in the Beautiful People. And at only 24, Rayne is just starting to scratch the surface of her potential.

“I’ve been really happy with the way things are going not only for me but the entire Knockout division,” Rayne said in a recent telephone interview.

“At the beginning of the year, there was a lot of talk about whether it was going to stay strong like in 2007 when the girls started putting female wrestling back on the map.

“I’m proud of everybody as well as what I’ve been able to accomplish.”

As a lifelong fan from West Lafayette, Ohio, Ashley Simmons dreamed of following in the footsteps of her wrestling idols.

She began training in 2005 and worked on the independent circuit before being renamed as Madison Rayne when entering TNA in January 2009.

Rayne said she still considers the job offer she received from company executive Terry Taylor as her career highlight.

“I remember crying while sitting in the hallway with my dog on my lap outside my apartment,” Rayne said.

“I was so happy I didn’t have to be a bartender anymore.”

By year’s end, she was paired with Sky (real name Jamie Szantyr) and Angelina Love (Lauren Williams) as the flirtatious heels known as the Beautiful People.

Von Erich, daughter of the late grappling legend Kerry Von Erich, was later added to the group after Love briefly left the company.

Asked what made the gimmick so successful, Rayne laughed and stated the obvious: “We’re beautiful people.”

“Angelina and Velvet can wrestle and they’re both gorgeous,” Rayne said.

“When I came into the company, they kind of took me in and taught me the ropes. Lacey wasn’t in a key spot, but she helped keep things afloat when Angelina had to leave.”

There was more shuffling to the Beautiful People gimmick recently.

Sky and Love have reunited. Rayne split to begin teaming against the duo with Tara (former World Wrestling Entertainment star Lisa Marie Varon, aka Victoria).

And Von Erich (Lacey Adkisson) quit the business altogether.

“I enjoy having Tara as my partner and this new story that I’m telling, but I don’t feel I’m at the point anymore where I need people backing me up or in my corner so I can do my job,” Rayne said. “It wasn’t hard leaving the Beautiful People at all. Plus, I was sick of bleaching my hair.”

Rayne said she was “shocked” that Von Erich left TNA.

“Selfishly, I’m upset and sad she’s gone. But I know she’s going to be OK and move onto bigger and maybe better things.

“I think she more or less got into wrestling to continue the family name. She did it more for her uncle (Kevin Von Erich) and father than for a love of the sport.

“Her heart was in the right place, but I think after falling down and hitting her head a few times, she realized this wasn’t for her.”

Rayne hopes to stick around TNA for years to come, although she does plan to take college courses online and gain certification as a personal trainer as fallback options.

The five-foot-three, 115-pound Rayne sarcastically quipped that her mother “was thrilled” when she decided to train for pro wrestling rather than attend college, even though she was a 4.0 student in high school.

Outside the ring, the effervescent Rayne is the antithesis of her snooty, self-absorbed TNA persona. Rayne, though, said it’s easy to invoke her “inner bad girl.”

“I kind of learned my character as I went on national television,” said Rayne, who had never previously worked as a heel.

“I think it helped because it forced me to get into my comfort zone a little quicker and totally change gears.

“If I do flips and cool stuff like that, nobody wants to boo me.

“I’ve always been a fan of (retired WWE champion) Trish Stratus whether she was a good guy or bad guy because of the way she carried herself and the energy she put behind every character she played. I took acting classes and drama in high school, so acting may come a little more naturally for me than somebody who is trying to play a character. And I can always call my brothers (Jason and Josh) and have them say something stupid to make me mad before I wrestle.”

Rayne will appear on Sunday’s Final Destination pay-per-view show emanating from Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit www.tnawrestling.com

Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro-wrestling column for Scripps Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv@aol.com or follow him via Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexmarvez