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Campers Pin WWE Star

Posted: Aug 4th 2009 By: CMBurnham

With three WWE wrestlers in their midst, the summer campers at the Yerwood Center made their favorite star known with cheers -- and in the end, a couple of tackles too.

Kelly Kelly, a buxom blonde with a winning smile, was rushed by a crowd of overeager young fans as she and two other performers participated Monday morning in a WWE-sponsored event to promote reading and education among about 200 city kids enrolled in the YES Summer Camp program.

Afterward, Kelly, whose real name is Barbara Blank, looked no worse for wear. Standing tall in patent black heels, she laughed and said, "How many people get trampled by 50 kids?"

Based in Stamford, the WWE broadcasts three television shows taped live at arenas across the country. In recent years, the company has broadened its reach to children and families. At Yerwood, wrestlers distributed copies of the latest issue of its comic book-style magazine for kids.

Kelly drew the most attention. The children shouted her name and virtually ignored her ring nemesis -- Beth Phoenix, a muscular blonde who stares down opponents with a menacing mascaraed sneer.

"The kids here didn't care for me too much," she said with a shrug, dressed in a tight black outfit that showed off her rippled arms. "I'm willing to take a bullet as long as they are going to listen."

Asked if it was hard to play a villain, she said wryly, "We can't all be good guys."

It was not clear which side Evan Bourne, the lone male wrestler, fell on. Dressed in jeans, he could have been incognito. Unlike Kelly and Phoenix, who had to wake up at 6:45 a.m. to have their makeup applied, Bourne sheepishly admitted he arose at 9 a.m.

But the nimble wrestler made it up by doing a back flip in front of the audience.

In exchange, he made the children agree to read a book each before the school year starts, he said.

After photos with Yerwood staff members and young fans, the stars were ushered out to the center's parking lot entrance where a black limousine awaited them. They were due to perform live at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville at 9 p.m. They would finish work at around 11 p.m.

The schedule is normal for the stars of the WWE, who are actors in episodic shows akin to soap operas. "There's no vacation," Phoenix said.

For some young fans, there was a budding sense wrestling might not be "real." Seeing the stars in the flesh gave them a chance to decide for themselves.

Jordan Davis, 10, said she liked Kelly the most because she had "seen her on TV more."

"The others are so much more different from what they are inside the ring," Jordan said. "But she was the same. I was already thinking she was a nice person."

Tags: WWE, Beth Phoenix