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Barbara Jean "Barbie" Blank (born on January 15, 1987 in Jacksonville, Florida) is a female American professional wrestler, best known as Kelly Kelly who has competed exclusively in WWE on all three brands, first on the WWE revival of ECW, then WWE Raw, then WWE Smackdown and was most recently on Raw in August 2012. She was signed in 2006 and was introduced first in a weekly striptease segment called "Kelly's Expose" and then formed "Extreme Expose" with Brooke Adams and Layla El, beginning a weekly dance segment on ECW. After the group split, Kelly began to take a more active role in the ring and was featured in more matches. Her hard work paid off on June 20, 2011 when she became the Divas Champion for the first (and only) time, reigning until October 2, 2011. She left WWE in late 2012 and has not continued with wrestling since.

She's also a cast member of the E! reality show WAGS since 2015. Few years ago, Kelly said in some interviews she wants to come back to wrestling, and in part that resulted, being WWE ambassador since February 2017. She was also among several returning female wrestlers who made an appearance in the first Women's Royal Rumble in 2018, entering at #19.


Tropes so nice, they named them twice:

  • Aborted Arc:
    • The Divas of Doom storyline was quietly dropped and the alliance between Kelly, Alicia and Eve disbanded once Eve turned heel in a separate storyline.
    • The program with Drew McIntyre never really progressed to anything - as Kelly was traded to Raw shortly after being rehired.
    • It was rumored that Kelly was the original choice to be revealed as the woman who attacked Kaitlyn at Night of Champions in 2012. Kaitlyn revealing her attacker as a blonde was a sign that Kelly was the attacker. The angle would have turned Kelly villainous for the first time in her WWE career, but she left WWE in September 2012. As a result, Aksana was later revealed as Kaitlyn's attacker.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Mike Knox and Randy Orton. Seems to have learned her lesson by the time she met Drew McIntyre. She chewed him out after watching him attack Trent Baretta backstage - though she too engaged in a sneak attack against LayCool the next week. The segments afterwards suggested a Mirror Character angle was being approached - but as mentioned above, the storyline was cut off.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: A blonde bombshell who was formerly a member of a stable consisting of Ms. Fanservices, and the first target of any heel. Are we talking about Kelly Kelly or Velvet Sky? Notably Kelly's entrance theme opened with the words "Holler", and Velvet's tights often had the word printed on them.
  • Ambiguous Innocence: While she wasn't ever against the fans, she has done some questionable things. Such as using The Miz to protect herself and Randy Orton from Kane. Miz and John Morrison taking revenge was really understandable.
  • Arch-Enemy: Layla. A backstage segment at Extreme Rules 2011 implied they were over that. Beth Phoenix became this in 2011, and later Eve Torres - who Kelly pinned in her last ever match.
  • The Artifact: The Kelly Kelly name came about because she was going to portray a Dumb Blonde who was 'so dumb her parents had to name her twice'. She played up the Dumb Blonde stuff for a while before it vanished. The name remained.
  • Ascended Extra: It wasn't until 2009, three years after her debut, that she actually got her first title match, and not until 2010 that she was in an actual title feud.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's all smiles when walking down the ramp but once the match starts, she can be quite aggressive.
  • Break the Cutie: Good lord, nearly every non-title storyline she's been in. Mike Knox abused her, Kane was after her blood, Vickie Guerrero fired her. And that brings us to...
  • Butt-Monkey: For years if anyone wanted to get over as a legit heel, all they had to do was pick on poor little Kelly. Natalya and Beth Phoenix are the most infamous examples. It was expected when Kharma debuted that Kelly would be her first victim. But then Kharma attacked Maryse everyone else instead.
  • Cat Fight: Two with Vickie Guerrero, on PPV nonetheless.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Strangely enough, since losing the WWE Divas' Title, her appearances became sporadic. After WrestleMania 28 she went on a hiatus, came back for a couple of appearances and was then released.
  • Distaff Counterpart:
    • To John Cena, according to some. Which is more of a case of viewers having short memories since the 2011 was the first year she started winning her matches regularly, having spent most of her career as enhancement talent with the occasional win here and there.
    • To Billy Gunn would be a more fitting example. Both her finishing moves, the K2 and the Kelly Killer are modified versions of his Fame Asser and there's the whole fixation with her ass.
  • Domestic Abuser: Mike Knox is this to her.
  • Dumb Blonde: In her initial personality on ECW. This has been completely dropped now.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: She is currently the only blonde diva in WWE who has never been a heel.
  • Face: Was a face her entire six year WWE career.
  • Fanservice Model: She is a model specialized on this, starting on the ECW revivial on WWE as a striptease model, to later becoming more than a model and entering to WWE as a proper wrestler.
  • Fragile Speedster: Emphasis on the fragile. At least until her title reign. As a former gymnast, she was able duck and dive around various attacks. But as soon as her opponents got hold of her, she was almost like a rag doll.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Gymnastics-wise. She was originally going to train for the Olympics, but fractured her tail bone at an early age.
  • Girl Posse: Brooke and Layla, when they were Extreme Expose. Alicia Fox and Eve for a while too, sometimes with Tamina Snuka thrown in too.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Sadly her first real promo against Vickie was slightly marred when the most offensive insult she could give on PG television was "a power hungry Witch with a Capital "B"".
  • Hand-or-Object Underwear: Does this whenever she poses nude.
  • Hidden Depths: Looks like your average eye candy bimbo but is very athletic and is known for being very daring, taking some sick bumps more than a few times, including getting hit in the face by The Sandman's kendo stick.
  • Important Haircut: Dyed her trademark blonde hair to brown after leaving WWE. As of early 2015, she's back to blonde.
  • Informed Ability: Layla was the only member of the Extreme Expose who could dance. Out-of-Universe, Kelly was well aware of it, and admitted she was against being a part of Extreme Expose right from the beginning as a result of that.
  • Lovely Angels: With Eve Torres. With Tiffany as well in 2010.
  • Madonna-Whore Complex: Was a Whore in her early career (stripping and dancing on ECW, bikini contests) but became a Madonna eventually (portrayed more as a cute Girl Next Door).
  • Ms. Fanservice: Her initial role on WWECW was exhibitionist(removing her clothing) and nothing else. She got something else to do when Mike Knox started prohibiting her from stripping. Again when her expose partner Layla decided beating up Kelly Kelly was more fun than taking their clothes off and joined forces with Lena Yada to do just that.
  • Power Trio: She and Eve recruited Alicia Fox to face the Divas of Doom.note 
  • Pretty in Mink: Her Halloween costume in 2007 consisted of a big furry pimp coat and hat.
  • Put on a Bus: Took a hiatus from wrestling, in the beginning of 2012. Ultimately, this lead to her asking for her release.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The first version of her theme "Holla" was originally made for Candice Michelle.
  • Retcon: Her three-minute match with Beth on SmackDown! was announced as a non-title match but was retconned into being her title rematch the next week as a way to allow Eve to become the new contender. Fixed though when she was given another title match against Beth at TLC.
  • Sexy Mentor: To Naomi in Season 3 of NXT.
  • Ship Tease:
    • One of Kelly's first story lines on ECW was a romantic one with CM Punk. She was the (Kayfabe) girlfriend of Mike Knox, while simultaneously developing a crush on Punk, which made Knox jealous. Punk didn't really show much interest, but was still harassed for it by Knox — who never actually beat Punk.
    • After she eventually broke away from Knox and became part of Extreme Expose with Layla and Brooke (better known as Miss Tessmacher in TNA), she started developing a crush with Balls Mahoney while her contract was owned by The Miz.
    • There was the thing when Kane thought there was a woman who had a crush on him and thought it was Kelly; when he confroted her about it (read: scared the wits out of her), she confessed that her crush was actually Randy Orton.
    • She also had brief one with Drew McIntyre.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Her big rampage of rage after losing the title to Beth got ended rather abruptly two weeks later with a three-minute match on SmackDown and Eve randomly became the number one contender instead.
  • Shout-Out: To former Diva Molly Holly. She developed the handspring elbow into a bulldog combination which was one that Molly used frequently and even did Molly's innovated Molly-Go-Round move at WrestleMania 28. Both are former gymnasts too.
  • Stripperiffic: She seems to zig zag through this. Some of her outfits are more provocative than others but most of the time she isn't any more exposed than the other divas.
    • Her Halloween costume in 2007 was basically her wearing a bikini with a pimp coat and hat.
  • Tag Team: Blondetourage with Tiffany, though she mainly served as Kelly's manager in her efforts against Laycool
  • The Dog Bites Back: After all the crap she's gone through in WWE (see the Butt-Monkey and Break the Cutie entries) is it any wonder that she slowly started becoming more aggressive after becoming the Divas champion, then finally snapped after she lost the title?
  • Toplessness from the Back: Does this almost as much as the Hand-or-Object Underwear.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Went from being explicit eye candy at the start of her career, to designated punching bag to being a Divas champion and a decent wrestler by 2011. Paired with equally (or more) competent competitors, she can actually put on pretty good matches now (see below)
    • How about her match with Beth Phoenix at Summerslam 2011? Holy crap, when has Kelly been able to put on a match like that?
    • And the rematch with Beth at Night Of Champions 2011 was even better.
    • Her Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Beth Phoenix after losing the Diva's Championship at Hell In The Cell 2011 thanks to Natalya braining her with a microphone while the referee wasn't looking.
  • Unstoppable Rage: The Monday after she lost the Diva title and she explodes on Beth Phoenix, which mostly consisted of Kelly screeching loudly and slamming Beth's head on the announcer's table multiple times. After a while, even her tag partner Eve is trying to pull her off of Beth.
  • We Used to Be Friends: With Eve Torres since the latter recently Took a Level in Jerkass. Earlier with Layla and Brooke on ECW. She and Layla at least put their differences aside shortly before Kelly's departure.
  • When She Smiles: Quoting Jerry Lawler "put on your sunglasses, Kelly Kelly's smiling".
  • Wild Card: If you look at her in the ring closely, she's actually very heelish. She's very aggressive, does a lot of stomping and face smashing and even uses an illegal submission hold. Can be a bit of Mood Whiplash when she goes from the smiling Girl Next Door during her entrance to the aggressive girl.
  • World's Most Beautiful Woman: WWE built her up as "the most beautiful Diva on the roster". Lawler's gushing over her on a nightly basis really drove it home.
  • Younger Than They Look: She was 19 when she debuted, but looked about five years older. This caused Balls Mahoney to hand her a drink during the infamous ECW strip poker game, only for her to remind him that she was too young to legally drink alcohol (ironically she was an avid partier behind the scenes, which caused her to get in trouble for it). Averted for the rest of her career, however.

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