Katarina Leigh Waters (born 10 November 1980 in Lüneburg, Germany) is a German-raised English professional wrestler and actress best known for her work in WWE as Katie Lea (Burchill) and for TNA as Winter.
Waters made her wrestling debut in the year 2000 originally using the name Kat, but once WWF Diva Miss Kitty (Stacy Carter) became The Kat, she changed her name to Nikita after the titular character from the television series. A mainstay in the Frontier Wrestling Alliance and other British/European indies, Nikita very quickly found herself winning British Women's Championships and was even the original Queen of Chaos in France. She became known in the Americas through PGWA and became Katie Lea after signing with WWE in 2005, having stopped using the name "Nikita" after being allowed to work a return match in Germany by WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, who also let her show up in SHIMMER. She quickly became one of the cornerstones of the OVW women's division, becoming a two-time OVW Women's Champion and even competing in and winning the first ever televised Women's ladder match against Beth Phoenix for the title.
In 2008 she was called up to the main roster on the WWE Raw brand in a storyline as the storyline sister of Paul Burchill, where she was given his surname as well as a Cruel Intentions-style gimmick with heavy Incest Subtext. It wasn't long, however, before Vince McMahon's Author Appeal gave way to the WWE's switch to a PG rating, causing the storyline to be retooled to a classy Rich Bitch with Hot Witch tendencies and her overprotective General Ripper-wannabe brother. As the Burchills no longer appealed to Vince, they were moved down the card and eventually brought to the WWE ECW brand, where they lasted as jobbers until both were released.
She later resurfaced in 2010-2011 when TNA introduced the character of Winter, a strange admirer of Angelina Love who reveled in smoke and mirrors and who believed that she and Angelina were lovers in past lives. This culminated in a storyline where Winter and Velvet Sky, Love's partner in The Beautiful People, fought for Love's allegiance, with Winter's magical trickery winning out in the end and bringing Love to her side. Along the way she took Sky's place in winning the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship once with Love, then went on to feud with Mickie James (who incidentally was also Katie Lea's first and only feud on the Raw brand where she had any real focus) over the singles Knockout Championship, which they traded back and forth a couple of times before Winter and Love both slowly but surely fell down the card and quietly disbanded upon being released in summer 2012.
Currently she splits her time between wrestling on the indies under variations of her name such as "Katarina Leigh" or "Kat Waters", and taking up small-time acting roles in short films and vignettes mostly showcasing her sense of adventure, humor, and/or seductiveness.
"Tropes of Chaos":
- Abhorrent Admirer: As Winter, she's been this to the likes of Angelina Love and Ivelisse Vélez, to varying results. Katarina later became this to Joe Hendry in Impact Wrestling, though the "abhorrent" part was her trying to get with him behind the back of his best friend Grado.
- Actually Quite Catchy: Beth Phoenix sighed at Jillian Hall's "performance" of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" on Monday Night Raw only to give an even more disapproving glare to Katie, who she noticed was dancing along to it. She quickly cut it out.
- Arch-Enemy:
- Jane Childs put a bounty on her head in FWA after she went undefeated for two years. The bounty was eventually claimed by "Sweet" Saraya, who put Nikita out for a year following a tombstone pile driver(taking on her head literally). She sees Saraya as the main reason she isn't called best in the UK.
- Mickie James, Velvet Sky, and Alicia Fox in the United States.
- The Artifact: In WCPW she used the theme song she had in TNA as Winter, despite no longer using that persona.
- Author Appeal: The Burchillcest storyline was all Vince McMahon, though when Kat herself is interviewed about it she will express regret that they couldn't have gone through and actually tried it.
- Bait-and-Switch: Nikita flew from London to Charlotte North Carolina expecting a title shot against then PGWA Champion Riptide at Spring Fling 2000 but Lexie Fyfe, the number one contender for the belt, had convinced commissioner Penny Banner to see if Nikita could beat Fyfe first before cutting her in line for a shot.
- Because Destiny Says So: The whole basis of Winter's attraction to Angelina Love was her claim that they had a Reincarnation Romance.
- Berserk Button: Winter flipped her shit at any threat to Angelina's safety or to their relationship.
- Blood Magic: Spent some time beating Mickie James quite a bit by spraying this into her eyes.
- Blood Upgrade: Not herself, but Angelina Love used to lose it when Winter would bleed.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: As The Temptress in WOW Women of Wrestling. Her profile
lists her "Likes" as "A nice, hot cup of tea, Revenge." - Clingy Jealous Girl: Winter tried to get rid of Velvet Sky so she could have all of Angelina's attention. Velvet was still around, but otherwise, it worked.
- Combination Attack: A Samoan Drop following Angelina Love's Botox injection.
- Comedic Spanking: While in OVW, she took the losing pin fall against team ODB in loser gets paddled match.
- Crowd Chant:
- "Katie Can't Wrestle!" (suffice to say, OVW's audience didn't take to her very quickly)
- Occasionally told to "Get a tan." in TNA and she had been tanning prior to her run there.
- Cut Short:
- Her Queens Of Chaos title run due to being pulled out by WWE.
- Her final run as OVW Womens Champion was hastily ended in a dark match against Josie due to WWE cutting ties with OVW and taking Katie Lea with them.
- Dark Is Evil: The entire "witch" gimmick Winter had going especially.
- Death from Above: Nikita is best known for a 25-foot balcony dive onto five men during a six-person tag team match at an ROH\Frontier Wrestling Alliance inter promotional event (FWA Frontiers of Honor 2003).
- Demoted to Extra: In WWE this happened as soon as it became clear Vince McMahon wouldn't get to pull the trigger on the Incest Subtext for the Burchill storyline. Took longer to happen in TNA, but it caused her storyline with Angelina Love to be ended off-screen.
- Domino Mask: As "The Beautiful Nightmare" on WWECW. Also counts as Paper-Thin Disguise, since it's possible (though unlikely) people may have given the masked "Ripper" the benefit of the doubt when he proclaimed he wasn't Paul Burchill if she hadn't been there with him.
- Evil Brit: Very. An open supporter of William Regal's abuse of power, simply because he was her countryman for just one instance.
- A Friend in Need: Attempted to help Jillian Hall solve her Bella Twins problem on WWE Superstars.
- Gimmick Matches: Competed in the first ever televised women's Ladder Match in OVW. It later made it to a WWE DVD about the gimmick.
- Girliness Upgrade: Kat was initially a woman who happened to fight people and perform daring athletic feats on shows were most people did those things. She's gradually become the kind of woman people hate and fear for those talents. Katie Lea was the mundane take, intent not just to wreck people physically but also psychologically and socially, sometimes for the benefit of a boyfriend(or brother) and would gladly take your boyfriend if she was single. Winter was the fantastic take, a single sexual predator who could appear at any time without warning and blind you with magic blood spit.
- A Glass of Chianti: Winter once shared a drink with Angelina on the August 18th, 2011 Impact episode. It looked pretty red. According to her,
it was blood. - Groin Attack: Defeated Tara with a low kick on Impact, which confused Tazz.note
- Heel: Primarily wherever she went. She worked her first SHIMMER match as a face but turned heel in her second. Likewise she was a face by default in TNA but was inevitably going to turn heel. That being said she has worked as a face in FWE and possibly could have become one in WWE (she was going to get moved to Smackdown and Lay-Cool were the top heels there, so a face turn could have been planned).
- Hot Witch: The latter part of her run as Katie Lea in WWE had this as a motif. Her entire run in TNA as Winter played it straight.
- Hypocrite: Katie Lea was oh so ready to accuse of Mickie James of sleeping her way to the top after she appeared in a few segments seeming cozy with John Cena in order to portray herself as being more upright and classy than Mickie. As we all know, this is during a storyline that, had it not become an Aborted Arc, would've ended up revealing that Katie sleeps with her brother.
- I Am Very British: Her real accent is more or less the Germanic version of an RP accent since she was raised in Germany but according to her, it would sound like she was trying to sound British to American ears, which might come from the way many wrestlers are taught to enunciate. Some have noticed a difference between her promos and off the clock interviews.
- An Ice Person: As Winter.
- I'm a Humanitarian: She entertained the idea of draining Mickie James dry and feasting on her bones with Angelina after Mickie began to rot.
- Incest Subtext: Oh, it was strong with Paul and Katie Lea Burchill. "Whatever Katie wants, Katie gets," Paul? I wonder what that could mean. Oh, and then there's Katie calling him the most beautiful man in the world…
- Irony: Her manipulation of Angelina Love had more in common with voodoo lore than anything done by TNA's "Voodoo Queen" Roxxi Laveaux, who tried to use her hoodoo magic to help Angelina Love and Velvet Sky rather than split them up.
- Kick the Dog: Spreading rumors about Mickie James was one thing, but jumping her while James was hugging her father was where Burchill crossed the line.
- Lesser of Two Evils: While neither was what you'd call a "fan favorite" going into it, she started to get cheered when "feuding" with Beth Phoenix in OVW.
- Mirror Monster: Winter showed up as someone only Angelina Love and the viewers could see in the mirror at first, just like a certain guy in WCW.
- Name of Power:
- OTK Back breaker/Back head crash? You'll see a thousand of those in the opening and mid stages of a match, even more so in Ricky Morton tag team situations. She grabs the hair and calls it "Kat nap"? Match is over. It's just as over from her neck breaker, known as "Kat nip".
- Her usual finishing move is a swinging side slam or a swinging side slam back breaker. What it's called depends on what she's being called at the moment.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: For weeks, only Angelina Love and the audience could see and hear Winter. Love feared she was losing it, until Winter showed up in the 2010 Thanksgiving Episode in person.
- One-Steve Limit: Nikita started going by Katie Lea ever since she met and was defeated by Blue Nikita in German Stampede Wrestling. It was just as well since OVW also had a Nikita Fink. Before that she was previously known as 'The Kat' but changed it when Stacy Carter used that name in WWE.
- Perky Female Minion: To Paul Burchill of course.
- Psycho Lesbian: Well, Winter was very warm and sweet to Angelina Love, and psycho to everyone else. After they quietly fell out off-screen, though, she became Tara-sexual in a match against Tara on Xplosion which wouldn't seem too far off being compared to any match Paige and Natalya had in 2014.
- Put on a Bus: Left WWE and TNA without fanfare.
- Red Baron:
- Nikita had "The Queen of Chaos" after being the first to win that particular championship.
- Katie Lea had "The Kat" in OVW, and "The Scarlet Witch" towards the end of her WWE run.
- Winter had "The Mysterious Woman" and "The English Beauty".
- Nowadays she's called "The British Vixen".
- Reincarnation Romance: Winter claims she and Angelina Love were lovers in multiple past lives and doesn't particularly care about whatever form they happen to take.
- Rich Bitch: What her Katie Lea character was ultimately interpreted as.
- The Rival:
- "The Family" Paul Travell, Brandon Thomas, and Scott Parker in FWA. After she was done with them, Simply Luscious.
- Had a few in OVW, in particular Beth Phoenix, Serena Deeb, and ODB.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Winter had this towards Angelina Love, though they weren't above trying to seduce Eric Young so they could take the Knockout Tag Team titles off him and ODB.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: Her rivalry with ODB was this to some extent.
- Slut-Shaming: Subverted. Initially she made catty remarks about Mickie James seeing John Cena. But then she boasted "If he was out with me, he'd be having a lot more than 'a little fun'."
- Small Name, Big Ego: As Jerry Lawler put it "if you could win matches with your mouth, Katie Lea would already be the Women's Champion".
- Smurfette Principle: Nikita frequently found herself the lone woman wrestling among men in FWA. And more than held her own.
- Spy Catsuit: Her wrestling gear could be this at times.
- Stalker with a Crush: Winter was this for Angelina Love, at least until after Love began to understand. Winter was still crazy protective, though.
- Stealth Hi/Bye:
- Really knows her way around the locker room, crawling, climbing, and generally popping up or dropping down out of nowhere.
- This is also how she maintained the mirror routine, disappearing whenever anyone but Angelina Love looked into it. (anyone but Love and the camera holder anyway)
- Tag Team: After a disappointing match with Lexie Fyfe, she and fellow rookie Hade Vansen were put together in hopes they'd help each other get better. When she was deemed better, they stopped teaming and Nikita went on a winning streak in FWA. She remained Vansen's manager until she was pulled out by WWE though.
- Talk Show with Fists: "Kat's Kradle" in OVW
- Unrelated Brothers: With Paul Burchill. Did we mention that prior to Raw, the two were portrayed as a romantic couple?
- Ur-Example: Won the first televised women's wrestling ladder match in the United States.
- Villain Song: "Hands of Wicked" by Goldy Locks, her TNA theme.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Paul were more or less this to his mentor William Regal, thanks to a certain pirate gimmick in his past that turned William on Paul.
- Voice of the Legion:
- Did this to scare off Sarita as well as reveal that she wasn't just a figment of Love's imagination.
"LEAVE HER!! LEAVE! HER!!! She's, with me, now!"- Also, while Angelina was under her trance, to call on Love from afar.
"ANGELINAAAAAA!!!!!" - Warts and All: Nikita was more than a little disappointed to learn first hand just how underhanded pro wrestling legend Leilani Kai really was, with Leilani displaying very few legitimate techniques in their first match. In subsequent matches Nikita wouldn't bother trying to wrestle and simply aimed to pummel Leilani into submission, but came to respect Leilani's tenacity.
- Worthy Opponent: After Phoenix lost the "title belt" ODB introduced, she attacked Serena Deeb to ensure Katie Lea would be the "next" champion, though Phoenix then proclaimed she never lost the belt and introduced another. Was acknowledged as this by Beth after winning their OVW ladder match to crown an official women's champion and put a stop to it all. Beth interrupted the presentation of the title belts to Katie just so she could do it herself.
- Yandere: In love with Angelina Love, to a psychotic extent and violent toward any perceived obstacles.
