In WWE, the Women’s Revolution is in full force. The women’s roster is loaded with several very talented women who are capable of putting on a solid match. Even in NXT, there are many female wrestlers who are demonstrating a lot of talent and promise. While these are all good signs, WWE didn’t always value the actual wrestling ability of their female wrestlers. Even as recently as a few years ago, women in the pro wrestling industry were more highly valued for their physical appearance and attractiveness. In other words, if you were attractive but could barely wrestle, you had a good chance of getting a job.

With this being the case, it would make sense that WWE has often hired women with experience in certain fields of work. Historically, women who have previously worked as cheerleaders and models are those who frequently get hired. Even with the Women’s Revolution being in full swing, many women still come from one of those backgrounds.

Even still, there are those who were employed in a number of unique jobs prior to entering the world of pro wrestling. Would you believe us if we told you that one WWE female superstar is a huge gaming nerd, one was a bouncer and a bartender, and another was a flight attendant? In this article, we will covering fifteen current WWE female superstars and the first job they had prior to entering wrestling.

15 Asuka: Graphic Designer

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Asuka may now be the proud owner of the longest undefeated streak in WWE history, which ended in a loss to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania. Asuka has burst onto scene in WWE, after having several years of success overseas in Japan. It certainly appears as though Asuka will be a major player in the WWE Women’s Division for years to come.

However, there was a time in Asuka’s life where a career in pro wrestling might have never been in the cards for her. Before she started out in wrestling, Asuka worked as a freelance graphic designer as well as a video game journalist. As it turns out, Asuka is a huge gaming fan and owns many video gaming consoles. Asuka had previously written for Xbox Magazine, and was even sponsored by Microsoft. This sponsorship allowed Asuka to wear the Xbox 360 logo on her wrestling gear for quite some time.

Asuka started her own graphic design company in 2006, when she had to abruptly retire from wrestling due to a medical condition known as “chronic nephritis”.

For a year and a half, Asuka ran her design agency which is still operating today. We’re all glad that Asuka was able to make a comeback and that she found her way to WWE.

14 Alexa Bliss: Competitive Bodybuilder

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Many of us would probably be surprised to find out that Alexa Bliss actually was a competitive bodybuilder before joining WWE. She even once competed in the Arnold Classic, which is essentially a professional bodybuilding festival named after, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bliss later revealed that she is thankful for having joined bodybuilding when she did, as she credits it for having helped save her life. This is because Bliss actually suffered from an eating disorder when she was growing up, which worsened and became life threatening. Her anorexia actually became so serious that she had to become hospitalized since her heart rate dropped all the way to 28 (a normal resting heart rate should be between 60 – 100 beats per minute).

In a 2014 interview on how bodybuilding increased her confidence, Bliss said, “Bodybuilding gave me a healthy way to gain weight and learn to balance my life… Bodybuilding helped me to realize that I don’t have to look like the girls in the magazines and that it’s OK to feel good about my curves. I hope that I can be a role model and positive influence to anyone else who is struggling with insecurities within themselves.”

We’re glad Bliss found a way to overcome her anorexia, and ultimately find success as a pro wrestler!

13 Charlotte Flair: Personal Trainer

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Many of you would probably be very surprised to know that Charlotte Flair never intended on becoming a professional wrestler at first. This is despite her father being the legendary WWE Hall of Famer. Even though Ric admitted in his autobiography, co-written with Charlotte, that he knew Charlotte had the tools to succeed in wrestling he never attempted to persuade her to enter the wrestling world.

Instead, Charlotte attended North Carolina State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in public relations in 2008. Charlotte then went on to pursue a career as a personal trainer, which is obviously an entirely different field from what she got her degree in. Nevertheless, Charlotte started working at Ciarla Fitness in her hometown neighborhood. She remained employed there for several years, until she eventually left to pursue a career in wrestling.

In the Flair autobiography she co-wrote, Charlotte said that she was inspired to start wrestling because of her late brother Reid who dreamed of becoming a pro wrestler.

She made her debut in NXT in 2012 and she has since gone to achieve a great deal in WWE despite not having wrestled prior to 2012. Meanwhile, Ciarla Fitness has since gone out of business.

12 Becky Lynch: Flight Attendant

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Becky Lynch may currently be one of the most overlooked and underutilised women’s wrestlers in WWE right now. The talented 31-year-old first started wrestling back in 2002, where she was trained by someone named Fergal Devitt (aka Finn Balor). She wrestled for various European and some North American promotions on the indies, until she decided to leave wrestling in 2008.

For the five years that Lynch was away from wrestling, she worked in a number of jobs. One of Lynch’s most noteworthy jobs during this time was as a flight attendant for the Irish airline, Aer Lingus, for two and a half years. In an October 2017 video for WWE’s YouTube channel, Lynch talked about her job as a flight attendant. Lynch said, “It was my first serious job [outside wrestling]. It was the first time I felt like I had a strict routine. The great thing about that was that it taught about me about navigating travel because, as a WWE superstar, you’re always travelling and you’re always on the go. So, you have to be able to navigate going from Point A to Point B and then be on time.”

It sounds like Lynch’s past career as a flight attendant certainly paid dividends for her since becoming a WWE superstar!

11 Naomi: Backup Dancer To Flo Rida

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Former SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi has been with WWE for nearly a decade (she signed her developmental contract in 2009), which is probably longer than most people realized. Naomi made her debut on Raw in 2012 as a member of The Funkadactyls, where she was aligned with Cameron and occasionally Brodus Clay. The Funkadactyls were mostly dancers and valets for Brodus Clay, and they seldom got much of a chance to shine in the ring. That is, until the team disbanded, and Naomi got a singles run on the main roster. Even as one of the top female wrestlers on SmackDown, Naomi often incorporates dancing and athleticism into her matches.

It makes perfect sense for Naomi to incorporate dancing into her character since she used to be a back-up dancer for rapper Flo Rida.

She could frequently be spotted in the background of many of his live performances, and even was one of his dancers during Flo Rida’s appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a few years back. She spent a few years as a back-up dancer until she realized her passion for wrestling after attending a WWE Live event. In 2013, Naomi told Ebony magazine, “I just knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of. I saw all the girls’ muscles and I was so excited watching that I just started picturing myself being in there. From there I got a tryout and I’ve been here ever since.”

10 Carmella: Cheerleader For New England Patriots And L.A. Lakers

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Carmella may now refer to herself as The Princess of Staten Island and be the current SmackDown Women’s Champion, but there was always the distinct possibility Carmella never would have been in this position at all. Even though her father was a former pro wrestler, Carmella was focused on other career opportunities. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing.

However, her most prominent career before entering wrestling was as a cheerleader. She was on the cheerleading squad for the NFL’s New England Patriots for three seasons, before becoming a cheerleader for the NBA’s L.A. Lakers for a few seasons between 2010 and 2011. It wasn’t all easy for Carmella since she came from a poor family and her dance lessons were expensive. As she revealed on Lillian Garcia’s podcast, Carmella would often have to sweep the floors and clean the toilets at her dance school to be able to afford the lessons. Even when she went to Los Angeles to become a cheerleader, Carmella had to live in her car and in an apartment that didn’t have any electricity.

Now that she is a member of WWE’s main roster, Carmella’s perseverance has evidently paid off and she deserves her success based on her years of hard work!

9 Paige: Bouncer and Bartender

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More often than not, when you think of a bouncer, you think of a fairly large male with an intimidating presence. More and more, there are women who are bouncers. However, a 15 year old serving as a bouncer AND a bartender in England? That’s practically unheard of and sounds like a crazy idea that would end up in disaster.

As we learned from Paige’s 2015 interview on Stone Cold Steve Austin’s podcast, that is exactly what happened. Steve Austin asked her about what type of work Paige did prior to her starting out as a pro wrestler. In probably one of the more unexpected answers, Paige revealed she first got a job as a bartender and bouncer at a pub when she was only 15 years old.

As it turns out, Paige is obviously not someone you want to mess with or pick a fight with. Paige shared stories about how she placed two women in headlocks and even pinned a guy up against a wall.

Paige was able to put her fighting skills to good use in the much safer confines of a wrestling ring. She was a gifted wrestler whose in-ring career unfortunately ended too soon due to injury.

8 Nikki Bella: Reality TV Actress

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Nikki Bella’s previous career is probably going to be one of the least surprising ones on this list. Before heading to WWE developmental in 2007, Nikki Bella tried to venture into the acting world. Unfortunately for Nikki, she never received very many big roles that could kickstart her acting career. Nikki made her first TV appearance on Meet My Folks, a Fox reality show where three bachelors spend three days with a possible “woman or man od their dreams”. Clearly, it didn’t work out between Nikki and the bachelor on the show. Brie also appeared on the episode, and in a 2015 interview with AZCentral said, “Meet My Folks wanted my sister and I to go on, and hey, when you’re 19 and they want to give you a paycheck to have some fun? My sister and I were all about it? And sure enough, we felt so comfortable in front of the cameras.”

Nikki would later get her big break in front of the WWE cameras, where she won multiple championships and became the longest reigning Divas Champion. Nikki also got a chance to return to reality TV, as she has starred in Total Divas since 2013 as well as its’ spin-off series, Total Bellas, since 2016.

7 Lana: Model And Singer

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“The Ravishing Russian” Lana has had quite an up and down career in WWE so far. She had success with Rusev, had a botched storyline breakup with Rusev before they got back together, and then she tried her hand at wrestling. In the summer of 2017, it became very clear that Lana is a terrible wrestler.

In a fairly unsurprising revelation, Lana was not involved in wrestling at all before joining WWE in 2013 as the manager for Rusev. Lana is quite stunning and has attracted a considerable amount of support early on in her career because of her physical appearance. As it turns out, Lana had several modelling gigs prior to joining WWE. This makes much more sense since Lana only needs to look nice, which she is able to do much better than wrestling. Lana actually held several respectable modelling gigs. Notably, she appeared in photo shoots for RIGID Tool Calendar and became a spokesmodel for Red Bull and Matrix.

A surprising career Lana held before WWE was as a singer. In 2009, Lana joined the girl group named “No Means Yes”, and was signed to Ne-Yo’s record label. Unfortunately, the group only released three singles including “Would You Like That”, “7 Years Bad Luck”, and “Burn Rubber”. The group disbanded in 2010, as each went on their separate paths.

6 Dana Brooke: Competitive Bodybuilder

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Dana Brooke is another female wrestler who has never really seemed to live up to all the hype. She made her debut in 2015 after weeks of promos and significant build-up.

Brooke looked like someone about to receive a massive push and be a cornerstone of the women’s division. A large part of this hype and buildup was because of Brooke’s former career as a competitive bodybuilder.

WWE tried promoting Brooke as a force to be reckoned with because of her participation in the 2015 Arnold Sports Festival for bodybuilding.

Unfortunately, Brooke’s hype fizzled out as it became apparent that she was not as talented in the ring as many of her peers. She spent a large part of her time in NXT with Emma before Brooke got injured, but rejoined Emma on the main roster when Brooke made her debut on Raw in 2016.

While Brooke can show off her muscular figure and good athleticism, it has not translated to in-ring success. This is a shame for Brooke, who finished 12th in the 2013 Arnold Classic and finished 13th at the same event in 2015. Nowadays in WWE, Brooke is merely a statistician for Titus Worldwide and hardly ever steps foot in the ring.

5 Sonya Deville: MMA Fighter

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Practically everyone in the WWE Universe knows about Ronda Rousey’s career as a highly successful MMA fighter. Similarly, we know that NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler fought in UFC, and that the other two members of the UFC Four Horsewomen are likely on their way to WWE. However, it is not as well known that Sonya Deville is actually a former MMA fighter in her own right.

While Deville never reached the level of success that Rousey or some of the other aforementioned women have, Deville does have a winning 2-1 record. Her first victory came in October 2014, when she defeated Allenita Perez by submission through a guillotine choke. In February 2015, Deville defeated Jeselia Perez by TKO. Her first, and only MMA loss, came at the hands of Jasmine Pouncy in March 2015 via a unanimous decision. Deville started training in MMA at aged 17 and fought for a few years, before deciding she would rather pursue a career in WWE.

Despite being the third contestant eliminated from Tough Enough in 2015, Deville was signed to a WWE contract and made her debut on NXT later that year. Fast forward a few years later, and Deville is now getting an opportunity to show what she can do on the main roster at SmackDown.

4 Nia Jax: Model

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Typically, when you think of women who are models, you think of women who are petite and look something like Kate Upton, Miranda Kerr, or Adriana Lima. More frequently, North American society has become accepting of larger “plus-sized” models. This is absolutely a good thing since it allows them to serve as role models. Even though she doesn’t fit the stereotypical look for a model, Nia Jax has had some respectable success as a model. It wasn’t always easy, as Jax recalled in a recent interview with ESPN.

Jax recalled how her whole body was criticized by modelling agents and how it nearly shattered her self-confidence and self-esteem.

In a recent interview with ESPN, Nia Jax spoke about her being role model for young children, especially girls, who might not fit in. Jax said, “When I got to the WWE, I found out there was a lot of girls who looked up to me and that I was giving them confidence. I realized I’m not doing this just for me. I want my niece, who is already so much taller than the other kids, to grow up and realize nothing is wrong with her. If others think I am good with myself, they will in turn feel good about themselves.”

3 Liv Morgan: Waitress At Hooters

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Liv Morgan has only just recently got her shot at success on WWE’s main roster, but the hope is that she will be a star for the division for years to come. However, how Morgan went on to even become a WWE superstar is an interesting story that had a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time.

Prior to signing with WWE, Liv Morgan was actually working as a waitress at Hooters in New Jersey. While she was working at the restaurant, Enzo Amore happened to walk in. The two of them met and he was able to introduce her to Joe DeFranco, who also happens to be Triple H’s personal trainer. Morgan was invited to work out at DeFranco’s Gym for about a week, and she quickly impressed him with her endurance and strength for someone her size. DeFranco had evidently seen enough that he passed along her information to Triple H and other recruitment executives at WWE. Morgan participated in a tryout at the WWE Performance Center and, before she knew it, Morgan was officially signed to a WWE developmental deal.

In speaking about the whole experience, Morgan said, “It was all just happening very quickly, kind of overnight. I was in the right place at the right time. It was a blessing.”

2 Mickie James: Waitress At Olive Garden

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As it turns out, Liv Morgan wasn’t the only current WWE female superstar to have worked as a waitress prior to signing with WWE. Veteran wrestler and current WWE superstar Mickie James worked as a waitress at Olive Garden in the early 2000s. This was while she was wrestling on the independent scene and was not really earning enough money to make ends meet from her wrestling gigs alone.

When she was asked about holding down a job as a waitress while wrestling in a 2006 interview for SLAM, James admitted, “The easiest job to keep when you are wrestling is a waiting job, or something like that. I waited tables at Olive Garden, and a few different places. They’re the only ones that can work with your schedule, and even they get annoyed with your schedule sometimes.”

It's probably safe to assume that those wrestling on the indies now are getting paid much better than they were when James wrestled on the indies – especially those who have a bit more name recognition.

After all, travelling around the country to wrestle is exhausting and requires dedication, which becomes harder if the compensation is not commensurate with the wrestling being performed.

1 Alicia Fox: Model

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In many ways, it is both unbelievable and impressive that Alicia Fox is one of the longest tenured superstars in WWE right now. Fox first signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2006 and was promoted to the main roster approximately two years later, portraying Vickie Guerrero and Edge’s wedding planner in 2008.

In one of the most interesting ways to be discovered by WWE, John Laurinaitis had discovered her after having seen her in a fashion catalogue. It says a lot that Laurinaitis was searching through fashion catalogues to begin with, let alone think about recruiting WWE female superstars based solely on that. Among other things, it says a great deal about how WWE perceived their WWE female wrestlers in the mid-2000s.

In a 2012 interview about the unique way she was recruited, Fox said that she believes it had to do with WWE officials wanting to try to teach models to wrestle. Fox said, “I did a couple of things for Venus Swimwear in Jacksonville. I think at the time Kelly Kelly and I were doing it [modeling] together at age 17, 18. I think it was just an experiment for the company to see if it was even possible to teach models how to wrestle.”