YMMV / Kelly Kelly

• Best Known for the Fanservice: Her exhibitionist days and semi-nude pictorals are what most remember her for, despite Kelly being presented more as a Girl Next Door after WWE went PG, which was only two years into her career.
• Broken Base: Six years in WWE and opinions were still divided on her. Specifically her proper push in the year 2011. Half the base felt Kelly Kelly was fine as a Ms. Fanservice but should not have been pushed as a legit title contender. Others felt she was improved enough and was incredibly over enough to warrant a push - especially since her matches with Beth Phoenix were at least given more time and attention than normally afforded to the Divas at the time. Cewsh Reviews were initially dismissive of her, but came to appreciate her efforts to at least put something into her matches. When she made a couple of reappearances in 2018, she still received good pops, despite the smark hatred.
• Creator's Pet: Her time in WWECW, especially when she was part of The Extreme Expose, a group booed so heavily WWE simply muted the house mics when they appeared, and the trio kept appearing, even as numerous "ECW Brand" wrestlers were released or otherwise not used. It got so bad that Ariel, a long running scrappy prior to WWECW, ended up becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse even though she was a heel manager to the vampire Kevin Thorn. The breakup of the Expose and resulting feud she lost to Lena and Layla might have been the best things to happen to Kelly, as they actually got her sympathy from what little audience WWECW had left.
• Critical Dissonance: Most smarks and critics despised her to no end (Diva Dirt did warm up to her, however), but she received great reactions from fans in the arenas.
• Designated Hero: Well, more like Designated Damsel, but during the exhibitionist gimmick in ECW, Mike Knox was featured as her "jealous overprotective boyfriend". He was a bit of a jerkass, sure, and the "revealing dame covered by a jealous flame" routine has been done before plenty of times in wrestling, but when it got to the part where she started openly crushing on CM Punk and then trying to strip for him, one couldn't help but consider the implications and feel sorry for Knox. It went to the point that they had to ramp up Knox's jerkassery, from abandoning her during their mixed tag team match at ECW December to Dismember 2006, to outright hitting his finishing move on her, to still being able portray Kelly as sympathetic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Particularly visible during 2008 and 2009. When they were pushing Candice, the crowds cared more about Kelly Kelly. Then in a match at Bragging Rights when she was teaming with the very over Melina, the crowd was chanting for her to get into the match and popped loudly when she was tagged in.
• Fetish Retardant:
  • She dressed as CM Punk in an ECW Halloween costume contest, tattoos and all. The crowd was dead when she unveiled it and even the commentators weren't impressed. That combined with Ariel wearing the same clothes she always does all but guaranteed Trinity (who was wearing only a strip of police tape over her breasts) would win.
  • Pretty much all of the Kelly's Expose segments can be a bit uncomfortable to watch, if you remember that Kelly was only eighteen when she was signed and nineteen when she debuted on television.
• Growing the Beard:
  • Her move to Raw in 2008 is what sparked Diva Dirt columnists to finally warm to her, as she was featured in the ring a lot more and showed notable improvements in there. This coincided with the return of Candice Michelle, whose abilities were getting lukewarm reactions. Many were citing Kelly as someone outperforming Candice.
  • Diva Dirt were also receptive to her move to Smackdown in 2010, noting a huge improvement in her character. Previously she had been thought of as a rather bland Ms. Fanservice. During her program with LayCool and teaming with Taryn Terrell, she developed a Good Is Not Nice Beware the Nice Ones persona.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The backstage segment where Kane threatens her and asks her if there's someone else, to which she nods and starts crying might be hard to watch for someone with the knowledge that she was dating Andrew "Test" Martin at the time and he would die in a few weeks after that segment aired.
• Memetic Loser: Only surpassed by Ashley Massaro when it comes to being the scapegoat for the decline in women's wrestling in the PG Era. Kelly might actually be a bigger one since she was with the company longer than Ashley and is more well remembered. She does have more defenders than Ashley, however. This also ignores that her matches were getting quite good reviews at the time. Cewsh Reviews were dismissive of her title push, but noted that her first title match against Beth Phoenix was better than expected.
• Narm: Maria Kanellis had this reaction to her Roaring Rampage of Revenge after losing the Divas' title to Beth Phoenix, comparing it to a teenager's tantrum over having her phone taken away.
• Never Live It Down:
  • During her exhibitionist gimmick, she once had trouble unhooking her bra. If the Kelly's Expose gimmick is brought up, this incident is always mentioned along with it.
  • Ever since her title push it's almost an obligation for someone to point out that she can't properly run ropes. Famous people who have pointed this out include The Spoony One, Lance Storm, and Dave Meltzer.
  • For years even on This Very Wiki, she was attacked by some Slut-Shaming fans over some comments Randy Orton made during a radio interview about her - "I can name about ten guys who have 'method acted' with Kelly Kelly".
  • After she became Divas' Champion, she would frequently be mocked with an infamous photo of a drunk Kelly peeing into a sink.
  • Fans also started taking to calling her "the female John Cena", after her building up an undefeated streak in her reign as Divas' Champion. This was them forgetting that Kelly had essentially been a Jobber until 2010 (which marked her first title push), and even then had got pinned by Vickie Guerrero at WrestleMania 26.
• Once Original, Now Common: Kelly was known for taking some very daring bumps during her time in WWE. They looked daring at the time, due to the rampant Chickification that was going on; Kelly getting hit with the Sandman's cane, receiving Mike Knox's finisher, falling face-first off the apron, getting thrown into the security wall or diving off the top rope to the outside pale in comparison to what Sasha Banks did on NXT. But at the time these were seen as some pretty intense spots for Diva matches. Likewise at Night of Champions 2011, one spot was built up to be a big moment and got shocked reactions from fans and commentators alike. The move? A superplex.
  Diva Dirt: The way that WWE has stripped back its division and made it less hard hitting, it makes spots like this that much more exciting when we do get to see them as they’re a rarity nowadays. That superplex spot felt special and like something we will remember because we don’t see it every week.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: WWE looked like they were laying the groundwork for a Kelly vs Eve singles match at WrestleMania 27. Eve had just turned heel and gotten massively over at that, and with Kelly being the top face Diva at the time, some fans liked the idea of a high profile grudge match. Instead the match was changed to a tag involving actress Maria Menounos - who then suffered broken ribs and still tried to do the match anyway.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Diva Dirt columnists had this reaction to her program with LayCool, claiming she came out of her title match against Layla at least looking like a possible top Diva. This is despite the feud being based around them calling her "Smelly Kelly".
• Vocal Minority: Despite what smarks would have you believe, Kelly Kelly was not universally hated during her run as Divas' Champion. She received great reactions from fans in the arenas and many columnists expressed pleasant surprise that - while she was nowhere near a ring general - she was at least trying to put on good matches. Cewsh Reviews said of her first match against Beth Phoenix:
  "Anyone who wants to remain stuck in 2006 can feel free to, but for my money Kelly is the first Divas champion we’ve had in years and years who the fans cheer for, who delivers consistent performances, and on whose shoulders decent storylines can actually be built. Barbie is here to stay, but she’s got a few tricks up her sleeve. I can live with that."
• The Woobie: Nearly her whole career has been as this. It's like WWE takes some perverse pleasure in making her suffer. It's no doubt helped by those big blue eyes and that huge smile. Seeing her sad just invoked Big Brother Instinct in (most) of the fanbase. In her shoot interview she claimed that she asked her opponents to go hard on her in the ring to inspire this reaction.