Lauren Woolard (née Williams; born September 13, 1981) is a Canadian professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in TNA Wrestling under the ring name Angelina Love as part of the stable The Beautiful People. She is signed with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Between ROH and TNA, Love is a seven-time women's world champion, having held TNA Knockouts Championship six times, along with her one-time reign as TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Winter. She was also a one-time Women of Honor World Champion while in Ring of Honor (ROH).
Professional wrestling career Early career (2000–2004) She debuted in wrestling on February 29, 2000, in Hardcore Wrestling Federation in Ontario, Canada, and she wrestled in various independent promotions around Canada under the ring name Angel Williams. Her all-time favorite wrestler Shawn Michaels was her inspiration to get into wrestling. She was first a valet for various wrestlers such as Chris Sabin and Eric Young, and then began in-ring training under Rob Fuego.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2004) Williams briefly worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2004, mainly wrestling on TNA Xplosion against Trinity.
World Wrestling Entertainment (2004–2007)
Deep South Wrestling (2004–2007) Williams was working for promotions in the United States when World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) scouted her, and invited her to a tryout in June 2004. In November, she trained at WWE's then-developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), and WWE signed her to a contract in late 2004. She was assigned to wrestle and train in another WWE developmental territory, Deep South Wrestling (DSW). Williams began managing Johnny Parisi in the summer of 2005. On the September 8, 2005, episode of DSW TV, Williams made her in-ring debut by defeating Michelle McCool. On September 22, Williams was scheduled to wrestle against McCool, but MCcool never showed up. Instead Daisy Mae came out, challenged Williams and Williams defeated Mae in a singles match. At the February 9, 2006, episode of DSW TV, Williams participated in the first ever Bikini Contest in DSW. She did not reveal her bikini because Palmer Cannon interrupted, which led to a match, where Love managed Cannon against Tommy Dreamer. On February 28, she underwent knee surgery in Birmingham, Alabama, to repair a torn ACL. After almost seven months of rehab, she stepped back into the ring at a DSW TV taping. At the beginning of November 2006, Williams started managing The Gymini, but The Gymini were released from their contracts in January 2007.
Williams then began a feud with General Manager of DSW, Krissy Vaine, with Williams claiming that Vaine did something immoral to be appointed General Manager. Over the next couple of weeks, Vaine would cost Williams her matches by forcing other DSW Divas into interfering in Williams's matches. On the January 4 episode of DSW TV, Williams defeated the debuting Brooke Adams, with Vaine on commentary. On the January 11 episode of DSW TV, Williams competed against Shantelle Taylor in a losing effort. On the January 18 episode of DSW TV, Williams teamed up with Shantelle in a winning effort, defeating Luscious and Tracy Taylor in a tag-team match. On the February 8 episode of DSW TV, Williams defeated Krissy Vaine by disqualification after The Bag Lady attacked Williams. Immediately following the match, Vaine ordered the match to restart, resulting in Vaine pinning Williams. The following week, Williams got a measure of revenge by defeating The Bag Lady. On the April 5, 2007, episode of DSW TV, Williams accompanied Vaine to a match, where she defeated Nattie Neidhart after interference from Williams. Over the following weeks, Williams teamed up with Vaine against Neidhart and Shantelle Taylor, losing to them on several occasions. The storyline, however, came to an end when Deep South Wrestling shut down in April.
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2007) After DSW shut down, Williams was moved to Ohio Valley Wrestling. Williams made her OVW debut in a dark match at the May 16, 2007, television tapings in Louisville, Kentucky, defeating Serena. Two days later, Williams was released from her developmental contract.
Independent circuit (2007–2014) After being released from WWE, Williams resurfaced in Mexican promotion AAA, under the name Canadian Angel on June 10, 2007. She also appeared for other independent promotions such as NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling and Full Throttle Wrestling.
Love made her debut for Great Canadian Wrestling (GCW) on December 27, 2011, at the Season's Beatings event in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, where she teamed up with Shawn Spears in a losing effort to Seleziya Sparx and Brent Banks in a mixed-tag-team match. Love made her debut for Indian promotion Ring Ka King on March 18, 2012, where she defeated Alissa Flash. After the match, Love began a storyline in which she was being pursued by Romeo and Zoravar. On the April 4 episode of Ring Ka King, Love defeated Raisha and Alissa Flash in a triple-treat match. Following the match, Romeo came to the ring with a gift for Love, but Zoravar would out-do Romeo by giving Love jewelry and a car. On the April 14 episode of Ring Ka King, Love defeated Raisha in a singles match. Following the match, Zoravar confessed that he was in love with Love. On September 22, 2012, during her time with TNA, Love and Velvet Sky reunited as The Beautiful People at a Northeast Wrestling event, where they were defeated by Madison Rayne and Rosita.
Love made her debut for Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) on October 4, 2012, at the Back 2 Brooklyn internet pay-per-view, where she teamed up with Velvet Sky to defeat the FWE Women's Champion Maria Kanellis and Katrina Lea in a tag team match, with Love pinning Kanellis. Because of the win, Williams was named number one contender, and faced Kanellis for the FWE Women's Championship on February 16, 2013, but was unsuccessful in winning the championship after Mike Bennett helped Maria take advantage. On November 10, Love made her debut for Pro-Wrestling: EVE in Sudbury, Suffolk, England, defeating Carmel Jacob by disqualification, following interference from Sara-Marie Taylor. Love then teamed with Erin Angel in a tag team match, where they were defeated by Jacob and Taylor. On February 16, 2013, at FWE No Limits, Love was defeated by the FWE Women's Champion Maria Kanellis in a title match. Love returned to FWE at their Openweight Grand Prix on October 12, defeating Cheerleader Melissa and Serena Deeb in a three-way match, when she pinned Deeb.
On February 22, 2013, Daffney announced that Love would be making her debut in the all-female promotion Shine Wrestling, at the event Shine 8. At Shine 8 on March 23, Love teamed up with Mia Yim, Amazing Kong and Christina Von Eerie in a losing effort to the team of Valkyrie (Allysin Kay, Ivelisse, Rain and Taylor Made). On April 19, at the Shine 9 event, Love competed in the Shine Championship qualifying tournament, losing to Rain. On May 24 at the Shine 10 event, Love was unsuccessful in winning the Shine Championship from the reigning champion Rain. Love returned on January 24 at the Shine 14 event, where she defeated Leah von Dutch.
Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (2007; 2011) In June 2007 Williams made several appearances for Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide as a member of La Legión Extranjera (Foreign Legion) under the ring name Canadian Angel.
She returned to the promotion on June 18, 2011, at Triplemanía XIX, where she teamed with Mickie James, Sexy Star and Velvet Sky to defeat Cynthia Moreno, Faby Apache, Mari Apache and Lolita in an eight-woman tag team match.
Return to TNA (2007–2009)
The Beautiful People (2007–2009)
In September 2007, she was contacted again by TNA to appear at their annual pay-per-view Bound for Glory, which was confirmed on the October 9 episode of TNA Today where she was interviewed by Jeremy Borash. At Bound For Glory, Williams participated in a 10 wrestler Gauntlet to crown the first TNA Women's Champion. During the match, she was eliminated by Gail Kim and ODB, and the match was won in the end by Kim. At the Genesis pay-per-view, Williams unsuccessfully challenged for the Knockouts Championship in a fatal-four-way with Gail Kim retaining her title.
Williams soon began competing under the ring name "Angelina Love" and formed a partnership with Velvet Sky, calling themselves "Velvet-Love Entertainment", later changed to "The Beautiful People". The duo defeated ODB and Roxxi Laveaux at Turning Point in a Tag Team match. During the following months, Love and Sky also aided Gail Kim in her rivalry with Awesome Kong. Love and Sky became villains on the March 13, 2008, episode of Impact by attacking Laveaux. Love also participated at Lockdown in the first ever "Queen of the Cage" match but was pinned by Laveaux.
Adopting the personas of superficial prima donnas, who loathe and insult anyone they consider to be physically unattractive, they dropped the Velvet-Love Entertainment moniker and became The Beautiful People. In 2008 at Lockdown, they participated in the first ever "Queen of the Cage" match, which was won by Roxxi, when she defeated Love in the finals. The following month's pay-per-view, Sacrifice, saw a Battle Royal where the last two in the ring competed in a Ladder match with the loser having their head shaved; the week before on Impact! Gail Kim won immunity in a Shears-On-A-Pole-Match. The Makeover Battle Royal-Ladder Match saw Kim and Roxxi survive the Battle Royal and with Kim having immunity this meant the third runner-up, Angelina Love, would have her head shaved if Roxxi won. Knowing this, Love interfered in the Ladder Match to ensure Kim's victory and Roxxi's head being shaved bald. While the performers watched the haircut in pity, Love and Sky paraded around celebrating with Roxxi's freshly shaved hair cementing them as villains in one of TNA's most controversial moments.
The Beautiful People continued to harass the fan favorites, including ruining Kim's chance at winning the TNA Women's Knockout Championship, injuring her, and unsuccessfully attempting to shave ODB's head after a match. This led to a Street Fight on June 5 between Sky and ODB, during which Mickie Knuckles (later renamed Moose) debuted as The Beautiful People's ally on Impact!. At Slammiversary the new trio lost in a six-woman tag team match against Roxxi, ODB and Kim when ODB pinned Moose.
On July 18, Sky won a ten-wrestler Battle Royal to earn a shot at the Knockouts Championship. However, she failed to win the match, afterwards her and Love assaulted champion Taylor Wilde, putting a paper bag over her head. Their bad luck continued when The Beautiful People main evented the July 31 Impact! in a losing effort to Wilde and Kim.
On the edition of August 14 of Impact!, Kip James was introduced as the team's "fashionist" under the name Cute Kip. As Sky had failed to win the title from Wilde, Love was given a chance at No Surrender. The following week on Impact!, The Beautiful People tried to intimidate Wilde before No Surrender, by attacking her backstage. Love and Wilde competed in a beauty pageant which Love lost after losing the evening gown and talent contest segments. Love also lost the title match at No Surrender. While Sky and Love had been focussing on Wilde and her title, Kip had begun a feud with Rhino. This feud ended in defeat for the Beautiful People, with them losing to ODB, Rhaka Khan and Rhino at Bound for Glory IV. Their feud with ODB spilled out into an alliance with Booker T who hired The Beautiful People to protect his wife, Sharmell, from ODB in exchange for his locker room on the December 4 episode of Impact!. This resulted in a six-woman tag team match at Final Resolution against ODB, Wilde and Roxxi, which they lost.