Thursday, July 10, 2008

TNA Knockout: Taylor / Shantelle Taylor

Shantelle Larissa Malawski was born January 26, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. She is a Canadian pro wrestler currently working for TNA Wrestling under the ring name Taylor. She is better known by the ring name, Shantelle Taylor. She was formerly working for the WWE under a development contract.

She made her professional wrestling debut in June 2003. In 2004, she was featured in the two-part wrestling documentary, Slam Bam, which aired on the Discovery Channel.

In 2005 she won her first women's wrestling championship while competing in New Vision Pro Wrestling. She spent the summer of that year in Monterrey, Mexico working on her lucha libre style. In December she participated in a three-show tour of South Africa wrestling on a card that featured former WWE stars Kevin Nash, Andrew Martin and Scott Steiner. Also in December she was invited to a tryout in Buffalo, New York for World Wrestling Entertainment.

Malawski has worked for several independent wrestling promotions including SHIMMER Women Athletes, Ring Divas' Battle Angels, Twin Wrestling Entertainment, and Blood, Sweat and Ears. On April 16, 2006, Malawski defeated Traci Brooks to become the inaugural Battle Angels Women's Champion.

Malawski also spent time working the Pure Women's Action shows for the Pure Wrestling Association in Southern Ontario.

In May 2006, Malawski signed a deal with the WWE and reported to their developmental territory Deep South Wrestling. She made her Deep South in-ring debut at the June 27, 2006 tv tapings where she lost against Krissy Vaine when Vaine grabbed her tights. On September 9, 2006, Malawski defeated Vaine at Deep South Wrestling Grand Park Slam event in Six Flags Over Georgia. During her time in Deep South, she feuded with other divas such as Krissy Vaine, Tracy Taylor & Angel Williams. In January 2007, Malawski appeared on Smackdown!/ECW house shows as San-Eye, a masked Japanese wrestler, where she wrestled Jamie Noble. In June 2007 Malawski wrestled in dark matches prior to the Smackdown TV Tapings while wearing a mask.

On August 13, 2007 Malawski was released from her developmental contract.

In the February 2008 edition of WWE Magazine, she appeared in the section Sexy Superfan of the Month, and goes under the name of Shantelle M.

[edit] Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2008-Present)

In early 2008 Malawski signed a contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

At the April 16, 2008, tapings of TNA Impact! Malawski wrestled for the company in a dark match where she was defeated by Raisha Saeed.

She then appeared on television as a "plant" on the May 29, 2008 episode of Impact!. She responded to the $25,000 challenge from Awesome Kong to any females age 18 or older in the audience, but was not selected to wrestle her. She reappeared in the audience on the June 5 episode of Impact! to challenge Kong, but once again was not selected to wrestle her. On June 19, She challenged Kong in the $25,000 Challenge. She was announced under the name Taylor, and became the closest by far out of any of the contestants to defeating Awesome Kong.

On the July 3 episode of iMPACT!, Taylor defeated Raisha Saeed and earned the right to face Kong again the following week in the $25,000 challenge, this time also being for the TNA Women's Knockout Championship.

No comments:

Popular Posts