Wrestling / Angelina Love

"Cleansing the world, one ugly person at a time!"

Lauren Williams (born September 13, 1981 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian personal trainer, actress and valet turned manager turned professional wrestler who was trained by El Fuego. Debuting during August in Ontario with Dangerboy Derek Wylde as her client, Angel Williams was voted "Manager of the year" in the Impact Wrestling Federation. She went on to make rounds around North America, with her most high profile work being done in TNA, where she eventually took up the ring name Angelina Love. Love, along with Velvet Sky, would go on to form The Beautiful People, which became a staple of the company's "knockout" division.

She has been an OSPW Women's Champion, held the TNA Knockouts championship belt a record six times and was a one time Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Winter.

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"TROPES ON MY SHOULDER":

• Aborted Arc: Her storyline with Winter simply ended with no resolution. The two disappeared from TV for weeks. And one of their last appearances was in a 6-pack challenge, where they were reluctant to face each other.
• Action Girl: Started in a mostly non action capacity as a manager, but this did not last.
• Alpha Bitch: Her main schtick. Whenever she's in the Beautiful People she is always the leader.
• Amazonian Beauty: Angel Williams wasn't called "the hard body" for noting and she even boasted to have "perfect" abs. She slimmed down some after going to WWE developmental though remained pretty toned.
• Artifact Title: "Angelina Love" was chosen because it was a legit porn star name (as was "Velvet Sky") and their team was originally known as "Velvet-Love Entertainment" to evoke this. After switching gimmicks to the Beautiful People, she and Velvet kept the names.
• Ascended Extra: Her first TNA run amounted to jobbing on the B Show. She later became the company's most featured 'knockout'.
• As Himself: On The Jenny Jones Show then on Kenny Vs Spenny
• Bash Brothers: Showtime Eric Young, 21st Century Fox, Tyson Dux, El Tornado, Fantasy, and of course, Velvet Sky.
• Battle Couple:
  • Angel Williams and Chris Sabin in MXPW.
  • With Jessie Godderz and, later, her then-husband Davey Richards in TNA.
  • With "Psycho Boy" Fodder as Psycho Love.
• The Beautiful Elite: Well, yes. Herself supposedly the elite of these elite.
• Beauty Contest: Competed in a "pageant" against Taylor Wilde in the lead up to their knockouts title match.
• Berserk Button: Any threat or slight against whoever the head honcho is in any union she's in. Usually that means herself, though for a period of time it was actually Winter. See below.
• Braids of Action: Angel Williams had brown hair with blonde braids well past her shoulders. Chris Hero described it as crazy upon seeing ODB try to wrestle while keeping it all out of her face upon Williams's IWA Mid-South debut.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Winter drugged her into this state as part of a successful attempt to convince her that they were meant to work together, turning her against Velvet in the process.
• The Bus Came Back: And she promptly reunited TBP with Velvet Sky upon her fourth TNA run. This was after Velvet Sky refused to cheat for Chris Sabin, but apparently doing the same for Love was fine.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: While Angel Williams mostly slimmed down from her early days, there were two areas she's proud to say she's "bulked up" in. She went from A cupish to what she described in Women's Extreme as "All new 36 Ds".
• Chained by Fashion: Has a pair of boots with chains around the ankles.
• Combat Commentator: For Deep South Wrestling.
• Combination Attack
  • The Botox Injection is the start of many with Velvet Sky and Winter.
  • The "Holla" Elbow Drop with Velvet Sky
• Conspicuous Gloves: Wears fingerless gloves that appear to be purely ornamental: one having shiny bits encrusted around the wrist and designs to compliment her finger tattoos; another with glittery skulls; and fishnet fingerless gloves.
• Continuity Nod
  • Her tattoos contain references to whichever of her main two gimmicks she isn't using, and her ring gear often references the other as well. The black pants with the holes in them Love is pictured in reference Angel's pink shorts of similar design, for on instance.
  • The Beautiful People's insistence that Awesome Kong needed a makeover makes sense when you remember Angel Williams used to sport the same braid style Kong did.
• The Corrupter
  • She and Velvet Sky took pride in turning Madison Rayne into a horrible person, taunting her about it after she "broke the heart" of overeager admirer Brittany.
  • Her Ring Of Honor appearances previously had no relation or resemblance to her Beautiful People work, but when Velvet Sky debuted Love fell into those bad habits (even going by "Angelina Love" instead of "Angel Williams"), and they set on corrupting Mandy Leon, preying on her understandable inferiority complex regarding the mighty Kelly Klein.
• Crossover:
  • But not with another wrestling company. She, Velvet Sky, Taylor Wilde and AJ Styles appeared on MTV's Made. She also represented the TNA Knockouts on Family Feud. The Beautiful People (herself, Velvet and Lacey Von Erich) and Jay Lethal were the only competitors who had not previously been in WWE.
  • TNA had ties to the Indian promotion Ring Ka King and Angelina was one of a few TNA wrestlers who made appearances alongside the Indian talent.
• Curbstomp Battle: Her "last knockout standing" match against Gail Kim would have better been described as Velvet Sky vs Gail Kim. Love only got one bit of successful offense that didn't involve Sky's help.
• Defeat Means Friendship
  • Initially targeted Phoenix's neck in their match after Tracy Brooks had tried to break it, but then started to layoff of it as the match went on and tried to keep Miss Brooks from finishing what she started after Phoenix won.
  • Had issues with Deep South's general manager, Krissy Vaine, but after losing to her in a match (which Vaine restarted after being the initial loser), the two became co general managers and focused their efforts on Shantelle and Tracy Taylor. The following year, she and Shantelle would be working together against Tracy(but not by choice)
• Demoted to Extra: She along with Winter and Rayne during the Immortal angle, since they were the only champions Immortal didn't care about.
• The Ditz: She's pretty savvy when it comes to saving her own skin but otherwise is far from the greatest of tacticians
  • She brought Cute Kip back to TNA and decided to make Madison Rayne, who she and Velvet Sky had been hazing, "an official member" of The Beautiful People, right after they had more or less succeeded in performing Amazing Kong's makeover. She then prioritized partying with them rather than getting ready for Kong's retaliation but they ended up on stretchers in Love's place, all the same.
  • Williams has done horrible things to Radiant Rain, but she can't remember doing them and thus keeps forgetting why Rain doesn't like her. She also had no idea what Valkyrie was when she visited SHINE Wrestling but seeing they had something to say during her allotted promo time, made sure not only to cut it short and get far away but not come near them while assembled unless she had back up.
• Divergent Character Evolution: When she and ODB first met in IWA Mid-South they were of similar size and even closer in wrestling style. Neither was true when TNA's knockouts division brought them back together.
• Dumb Blonde: She and Velvet were dumb enough to believe that Sarah Palin was interested in them. She wasn't.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: She debuted in TNA using her indies name, had few/no tattoos and was less toned, still recovering from WWE's attempt to soften her up.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Her angle with Winter was filled with Les Yay.
• Evil Wears Black: Her outfits as a face tend to be in brighter colours. As a heel she wears black.
• Face/Heel Double-Turn: Angelina and Madison first feuded over the Knockouts Championship with Angelina as the face dethroning Madison's reign of terror. In 2013, Angelina returned now as a heel, with Madison as the face.
• Face–Heel Turn: Originally tried to make peace between Winter and Velvet Sky but Winter brainwashed Love into turning on Sky.
• False Friend: Revealed as this to Velvet Sky after Velvet literally took the case for Robbie E at Feast or Fired and got fired in his place. Love continued hanging out with the Bro-Mans, then once their goodbye segment was finally aired weeks later it was shown that Love, while still friendly to Velvet's face, was secretly glad to be rid of her.
• Favors for the Sexy: How she's able to win Round 2 of the Beauty Contest between her and Taylor Wilde. She brings two of the three judges Curry Man and Shark Boy up-close to show them her bikini, even bending over in front of them to further entice them into voting her to win.
• Finishing Move: Angel Williams used to use a flatliner(STO). Later, the Botox Injection (Bicycle Kick to a three point) and the Break a Bitch (Inverted facelock transitioned into a double knee backbreaker).
• Foot Focus: While working for Lady Victoria, one of the tapes she was in had absolutely nothing wrestling related on it and instead featured Angel Williams in several different types of footwear.
• Foreign Wrestling Heel
  • Frequently across the USA, till she got to Deep South.
  • For brief stints in AAA, especially when representing TNA.
• Girly Bruiser: Sienna Duvall, La Rosa Negra and Ivelisse Vélez all dismissed her as a diva in three separate promotions, though La Rosa wasn't attacking her girlishness so much as insinuating Angelina Love was being catered to because of TNA, which meant she also didn't have as many words to eat as Duvall and Velez did (but still got floored by a Botox Injection, the "proper" term for TNA wrestlers is "knockout" after all).
• Good Is Not Nice: During her 2010 face run, she intentionally got herself disqualified for using a steel chair on Lacey and Velvet - determined to send a message to Madison Rayne. She also acted a little heelish in a #1 contender's match against Mickie James.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Tends to cast the eyes whenever Velvet Sky gets bigger pops from the Impact Zone audiences, which isn't enough to breakup their group.
• Groin Attack: While with Winter, she challenged Eric Young to a match only to take a disqualification loss with a low kick. Future assaults on his groin lead to Young wearing a cup.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door
  • For example, Angelina Love was a face in SHINE and a heel in TNA without changing much besides venue, opponents and partners. Sometimes the revolving doors are not even necessary, as she's switched multiple times in TNA itself.
  • The Pro Wrestling Syndicate and Ring Warriors had come to some sort of talent sharing agreement. She was warmly received in the former but got mixed reactions at the latter's events.
  • While she was a heel in TNA she appeared for the Indian promotion Ring Ka King^note As part of a TNA talent exchange as a face.
• Heel–Face Turn: Her first return to TNA in 2010 saw her turning on and feuding with The Beautiful People.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: She's a veteran of Women's Extreme Wrestling, which was as suggestive as it was violent and sometimes outright explicit. On top of that, many wrestling fans best know her from TNA, but when Pro Wrestling Syndicate offshoot "BLOW" sent her an invitation, she pointblank refused. Angelina Love would continue to show up on PWS's regular shows though and later did participate in a few "BLOW" shows too.
• Jerkass: Pretty much a constant. After getting her visa issue cleared up, she was welcomed back into the Beautiful People, who she attacked for "replacing" her in the interim. Despite being an asshole move it got her cheered.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Downplayed, Angelina Love loves at least one cat, but it doesn't make her any nicer to anyone else.
• Light Is Not Good: Platinum blonde hair, a name like 'Angel' and often booked as a heel.
• Lovely Angels: Continued to support Velvet Sky and Winter against Maria Kanellis in Family Wrestling Entertainment, but not at the same time (for reasons obvious to TNA fans).
• Mini Dress Of Power: An especially common part of her gear when operating with the Beautiful People
• Ms. Fanservice: Would you expect anything else from someone who was the leader of a team of women who thought they were better-looking than everyone else?
• No-Sell: Something she was able to do while drugged by Winter. She never even parted her lips to grunt in pain or tough effort about anything.
  • She seconded Rikishi and The Blue Meanie for their match against Reality Check (Danny Demanto and Kevin Matthews) at National Wrestling Superstars' May 7, 2010 event. During the pre-match Trash Talk, Matthews left the ring and walked around to the Face corner, reached through the ropes and touched Angelina's ass (she was wearing jeans). She didn't respond to this at all, and it never came into play during the actual match. Rikishi and Meanie won, and she did get involved, but not in reaction to Matthews touching her.
• Not Brainwashed: When she turned on Velvet Sky in 2011, Angelina Love started out brainwashed, then she seemed to resist Winter's brainwashing, but that was only because she had come to see Winter's point of view, making it unnecessary.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Winter started off as something in the mirror none of the other wrestlers saw, because she always disappeared when ever anyone else looked at the mirror with her. She still showed up on camera so the commentators should have been able to confirm Winter's existence (they didn't really say much either way) but it was a step up from when Ultimate Warrior tried that trick.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain:
  • Of one the "dinosaurs" targeted by Leah Von Dutch, or, perhaps more importantly, "shinosaurs" since Dutch was determined to keep SHINE a "young promotion". They also wrestled in NWA FUW around the same time, being close by.
  • And of course against Madison Rayne in 2010. Angelina was the veteran Knockout and former leader of the Beautiful People, while Madison was the slowly rising new Alpha Bitch of the division.
• One-Steve Limit: On the opposite end of tag team match with another "Angelina" who wrestled one match for TNA in 2011, around the time Robbie E and Cookie were put out to try and capitalize on the then hot Jersey Shore show.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Technically a voodoo zombie when under Winter's control, except Angelina Love didn't become a harmless worker drone, nor was there any effort to convince her or anyone else she had died...which makes sense when you remember Winter didn't want a slave.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: No pun intended. She's been ranked #2 in North America by Pro Wrestling Illustrated three times in two different categories as well as by Cagematch and is widely believed to be the best wrestler in The Beautiful People but Gail Kim and Awesome Kong's feud was unlike anything else on TV at the time. Kong and Kim, also had larger preexisting fan bases tuning in just to see them.^note  PWI is also based on kayfabe to some degree - so the other two would be ranked higher due to having a higher place on the card and having more title reigns
• Panty Fighter: Once in Women's Extreme Wrestling, she locked a headscissors on her opponent and pulled down her pants. Eric Gargiulo called it "The Booty Scissors."
• Parts Unknown: Angel Williams was billed from "The Canadian Heavens" in Women's Extreme Wrestling.
• Perky Female Minion: Angel Williams initially acted in such capacity for Eric Young and Chris Sabin before becoming a wrestler. After becoming a wrestler, she still worked in such capacity for Jimmy Rave, Don Juan, The Gymini (Jake & Jesse), Jack Bull and Johnny Parisi across Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro and Deep South Wrestling.
• Power Stable
  • Before the Beautiful People became a stable in its own right, Angel Williams served as an auxiliary manager for Prince Nana's Embassy.
  • La Sociedad in AAA, a merging of La Legión Extranjera (which she was an unofficial member of) with a couple other stables.
• Power Trio: The Allüre, with Velvet Sky and Mandy Leon in Ring of Honor.
• Pride: Exploited by the rest of the Beautiful People when she wasn't a member. Pole match in which every participant got some kind of reward in turn lead to a "Leather And Lace" match, which was just a three on one handicap match with the added stipulation it wouldn't end until Angelina Love said "I quit". She had pretty much no chance of "winning" but had too much pride to just admit it. The upside for Angelina was that the Beautiful People's sadism caused them to throw away a free title reign.
• Put on a Bus:
  • She was fired from the Beautiful People abruptly in 2009 just after qualifying to wrestle for the Knockouts Tag Team Championships - due to sudden issues with her visa.
  • In 2012 she voluntarily left when her contract expired.
• Red Baron: The Canadian Hard body, Queen Diva, The Sports Entertainment Barbie, Psycho Girl.
• Reincarnation Romance: Winter claimed to have loved Angelina Love in many past lives and wanted to pickup where they had left off. They got as far as a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship, at least.
• The Rival
  • She and Tracy Brooks were a tag team in Women's Extreme and World Xtreme Wrestling but adversaries in Border City Wrestling and Neo Wrestling Federation. Alternated in BSE Pro. Also encountered Shantelle Taylor in a few different promotions, where Williams was a shaky partner and a worse enemy.
  • She considered 21st Century Fox a friend but Angel proved to be a really rotten friend when they had to wrestle each other.
  • Radiant Rain of the Home Wrecking Crew and later, Valkyrie. Then her successor, Serena Deeb, though Williams and Deeb had tied up before too.
  • Indirectly with Lucy Furr and Heaven Sent in Women's Extreme. For that matter, she's faced Daffney directly under quite a few different banners.
  • The three main members of the Beautiful People have feuded almost as much as they worked together. Actually they feuded more in the case of Madison Rayne, who was often a target of their wrath even when she was still serving as a member of the group. Angel Williams and Lexi Lane had been alternating between allies and enemies before TNA even, since the first time they met.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: While TNA was in New Jersey, Love was told she could get a shot at the Knockout's title belt if she could pin the seemingly unstoppable JAPW Women's Champion Sara Del Rey. When she did, the shot was granted immediately so Madison Rayne could beat her up. Love still managed to start a comeback only to be rolled up after a distracting kiss from referee Earl Hebner.
• Signature Move
  • Angel Williams has lots of chops, a top rope cross body and a Cyclone Negro style double under hook face buster called "Devine Crusher". (also known in other places as "Greetings From Ghana" or the "Pedigree")
  • Love has a shoulder jaw breaker, lifting reverse STO (lights out), cramp (modified camel clutch) and occasionally, a spear.
• Tempting Fate: Tara's TNA debut came shortly after Angelina Love boasted there was no competition left in TNA. True, Tara was most interested in wrestling Awesome Kong but didn't mind picking up Angelina Love's Knockout Championship belt first.
• Theatrics of Pain: Usually a comedic over the top seller. She had appeared to be much less so during a cage match with Taylor Wilde and Awesome Kong, which she later said she did not remember due to a head injury.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: While under the effects of Winter's drug she would do a lot of unblinking, wide eyed unfocused staring. If she did focus on something, it was probably not a good sign.
• Tournament Arc
  • Her tag team with "School Girl" Tracy Brooks was forced apart in Women's extreme, along with several others who failed to capture the tag team title belts in a tournament.
  • She was involved in one to become the original Knockouts Tag Team Champions. She and Velvet made it to the finals but Angelina had issues with her visa and had to be immediately released. As the aforementioned wins had been taped two weeks in advance, Madison Rayne had to sub for her.
  • She and Winter won a tournament to become the Knockout Tag Team Champions after Taylor Wilde and Ayako Hamada were stripped of the belts in 2010.
  • Was a part of "Team International", who won the 2015 Global Impact tourney.
• Traumatic Haircut: Angelina once found herself inadvertently facing this depending on the result of a match she wasn't even in; Gail Kim and Roxxi were the final two left in a 'Makeover Battle Royal', which had now become a ladder match. The winner would get a shot at the Knockouts Title belt, while the loser would have her head shaved. Gail had won immunity to the head-shaving on Impact. Angelina was the second last person dumped out of the battle royal - so this meant that she would be shaved if Gail lost. Needless to say she did everything she could to make sure Roxxi lost the match.
• Wedding Finale: On the season finale of Ring Ka King Angelina was given the choice between marrying Romeo and Zoravor. She picked the latter and the wedding went off without a hitch.
• We Used to Be Friends: Back when they were still Talia Madison and Angel Williams, and sometime afterwards, the two were Gail Kim's biggest fans on TNA's roster. After they became The Beautiful People, they antagonized her without relent. Oh, and they became The Beautiful People after "Voodoo Queen" Roxxi Laveaux refused a makeover they planned to give her out of gratitude for her help.
• Worthy Opponent: She and Tracy Brooks did not always get along, in fact fought more often than not, but Angel Williams looked forward to their matches regardless of how their personal relations were going.
• Wrestling Doesn't Pay
  • A wrestling personal trainer and or wrestling messenger from the Canada above.
  • Besides calling their little pairing "Velvet-Love Entertainment" prior to taking up "The Beautiful People", Love's also made references to preparations for "another line of work". (they're wrestling porn stars) Divina Fly had no problem with that but found wrestling Williams a lot more difficult after her 'enhancements'.
• You Have Failed Me: When Angelina Love lost the Knockouts Title to ODB due to Velvet Sky getting pinned, she blamed Madison Rayne. The two of them even vowed revenge...but ended up accepting an apology two weeks into it.