• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Edge Celebrates International Women's Day And Celebrates Beth Phoenix's HOF Induction

Posted: Mar 9th 2017 By: Edge

In salute of #InternationalWomensDay I thought it was time to talk about a 2017 WWE Hall of Fame inductee, but more specifically, my wife, Beth Copeland, aka The Glamazon, aka The Glamamom, aka Beth Pheonix(that's a lot of handles).

Now obviously I'm biased, and extremely proud of Beth, but after she expressed doubt as to whether she should go into the HOF so quickly, I looked at her resume. I stepped out of the husband shoes and looked at her question and came to the conclusion, that, hell yeah she should be. Who cares what year it happens, if you have a HOF resume, you deserve to go in plain and simple. There's no time eligibility as with pro sports, so who cares when it happens, as long as it does. It's not a race between people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that's mine, and since I'm a hall of famer myself, my opinion is more important(I kid, I kid, kind of).

Let's roll through the credentials:
-first women's ladder match in history vs Katie Lee Burchill
-first women's Table match in history with Natalya vs Laycool
-first women's I Quit match vs Melina
-second woman to ever enter the Royal Rumble(and eliminate The Great Khali)
-3 time WWE Women's Champion
-1 time Divas Champion
-third most female ppv appearances with 38, one behind Trish Stratus and Natalya at 39

There's a reason she was put in those positions. She was damn good at her job. I always felt(even before we were an item) that Beth was a wrestler. Plain and simple, she could wrestle. In a time when female physical strength was not in vogue, she still stuck to her guns(get it?). In the days of diva searches(no offense diva search contestants) Beth was a throwback. She joined her high school wrestling team. The first woman to do so at her school and broke down barriers, all with the goal of making it to the WWE after seeing Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart at Wrestlemania 10. She was, and is, a true fan of the industry which sadly can be a rarity within the industry. She left a good, safe job to hop in her Geo Prism and drive to Louisville, KY to try and get into OVW(at that time WWE's farm system). After being told for years by the higher ups in WWE talent relations that she wasn't what they were looking for(which was the next Trish Stratus) and waitressing in Perkins to make ends meet, she continued showing up. Finally she was hired, eventually made it to Monday Night Raw, and in her first match, broke her jaw(and finished the match). Not deterred she came back with an idea and a different attitude and The Glamazon was born.

She could play the straight woman to Santino. She was the woman who the company could depend on for years on pay per view. She was one of the women to keep the flame alive for women's wrestling in an era where it was put on the back burner, and let's face it, given little attention by the WWE. I think the current renaissance of the division happened in part because of women like Beth, Nattie, Laycool, Mickie James, Candice etc. Those were some leanly written years for the women's division but they kept the torch lit for women like Charlotte, Bayley, Becky, Nia and Sasha to show what badasses they are today.

The truest testament of your skill is what your peers think, especially in the WWE locker room. That's a tough audience to win over, and Beth had the respect of everyone for being a worker. So this year that's honored. And that's great. But more important than all of that is the woman she is. Strong, idenpendent, smart, continuing her education and recently receiving her masters in forensic psychology and now about to embark on getting a degree in clinical mental health. All while being a mother to our two little girls, Lyric and Ruby and setting a sparkling example of what a woman can be if she believes in herself. In spite of today's political climate. So, yeah, I'm pretty proud of her.

Who cares about the WWE Hall of Fame, if there was a Hall of Fame for life, Beth would be in first ballot.