Ivory’s Ideas For Experience: Cats, Nude Guitar Playing
by Phil Speer
The following was posted on WWE.com April 21, 2004

For the hyperkinetic Ivory, hosting The WWE Experience is an opportunity to channel her seemingly endless energy.

"I’m so happy to sink my teeth into something," the Southern California native told WWE.com. "I love having a project."

The WWE Experience, the new Sunday morning television program on Spike TV, debuts on May 2. Ivory will co-host along with Todd Grisham.

Because the industry is so fast paced, plans are subject to change, but the current idea is for the show - which will feature edited highlights from both Monday Night RAW and SmackDown! - to be filmed each week from a different location in New York City.

"I’m excited about doing it in New York because (New York) has got such personality," she said. "It’s like ‘Sex and the City’ without the sex... unless I really like Todd a lot."

She was joking about that last part, of course, since the show is rated TV-PG. In fact, Ivory has only met Grisham once, when they passed each other in the hallway at WrestleMania XX.

"But I’ve heard he’s really great, and he’s funny and clever and easygoing," she said. "He’s going to have to be the straight man because I get to be me - and that’s relieving to know. The last thing I want to do is turn into some reporter."

Ivory - her mind is always moving - says she will really think about what she wants to wear each week. She plans to work a New York City motif into her wardrobe. For example, if the show is filmed in Times Square, she said she might "upstage the cowboy who plays his guitar in his underwear" - referring to the street performer the Naked Cowboy - by wearing similar attire.

She said her cat, Frankie, may very well become a WWE Experience cast member. Frankie is well-known among the Superstars and many fans because Ivory takes him with her on road trips.

"He’s done New York," Ivory said of Frankie. "He went to WrestleMania. He sat in Central Park with me and shopped with me. The store people love him. He went into all the dress shops."

Ivory loves the fact that The WWE Experience will cover RAW and SmackDown!

"I’m from the day when we all worked together," she said, referring to pre-brand-extension times. "It’ll be a little bit reminiscent of that. It’s like hanging out with all my good friends instead of just one group of friends."

The WWE Experience will give fans the opportunity to see Ivory every week on Spike TV. The three-time Women’s Champion hasn’t been seen on WWE television for several months now.

Earlier this year, she spent nine weeks at Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE’s developmental organization in Louisville, Ky., where she was helping to train the next generation of Superstars. She quickly points out, however, that she was learning as much as she was teaching.

"I will help anybody who needs help, but I’m there to sweat and learn," she said. "It was good work. It’s fun if you like to work hard. Good people, great sweating, great drills. You can’t come out of Louisville and be stupid to wrestling."

She’d been at her home in Washington State for a few weeks when she got a phone call from WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn, telling her about Experience.

"Ever since I was a guest on Tough Enough 1, Kevin Dunn has been approaching me about color commentary, or doing shows or working in the (TV) studio," she said.

Over the years, Ivory has done her fair share of 'extracurricular' work for WWE. She hosted WrestleMania 'All-Day Long' in 2000, and was a trainer on the second and third seasons of Tough Enough.

Now she’s hosting a weekly show on Spike TV, but she hopes that it doesn’t preclude her from wrestling. One of the true pioneers of modern-day women’s wrestling, Ivory says she wants to continue her in-ring career, which dates back to the 1980s in GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling).

"I’m not hurting in any part of my body," she said. "I’m super able. I’m not ready to retire from action."