The Straight Shooter
By Dan Murphy.
Nora Greenwald opened the invitation, took a look at her calendar, and dialed Lisa Moretti's phone number.

Nora (best known to wrestling fans as Molly Holly) asked Lisa (best known to wrestling fans as Ivory) whether she had also received the invitation to Trish Stratus' wedding on October 1 in Toronto to her long-time sweetheart, Ron. "Want to split a hotel room?" Nora asked.

"I told her that doesn't sound like any fun," Lisa told me by phone, two days after Trish's wedding, calling from somewhere near Madison, Wisconsin. "I said why not take your camper and turn this into a road trip."

And so the great Wedding Tour Wrestling Road Trip, also known as the "Kickin' Ass For Gas" tour, began.

Like a grappling version of Thelma and Louise, the two former WWE women's champions decided to hit the road, driving from Nora's home in Minnesota up to Toronto, Ontario. "I suggested we take some gigs along the way to pay for gas and meals, and Nora started checking with her contacts," Lisa said. "Within a couple of days, we had four bookings."

Then Lisa reached out to a media contact, Internet radio show host The Big Mosh. He would use his program, Monday Night Mayhem, to sponsor the tour, and Lisa and Nora were off.

Having learned a few lessons in the art of promotion during their time in WWE, Lisa and Nora packed up a trunk full of merchandise, including T-shirts, DVDs, and -- since this was a wedding tour after all -- commemorative bridal veils. They also brought cards for fans to sign that they could present to Trish on her wedding day.

"Trish and Ron were finally getting married after 14 years together," Lisa said. "Considering that, and her retirement, it just seemed like the right time to celebrate and do this right."

The first stop on the Wedding Tour was Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Lisa and Nora made an appearance for promoter Eddie Sharkey's Midwest Pro Wrestling. Lisa worked as a guest referee, but fell victim to the dreaded ref bump, allowing Molly to run in as a backup ref and restore law and order to the bout.

Then it was on to a campsite in Wisconsin, where the girls caught a few winks before driving out to another campsite in Port Huron, Michigan. On Thursday afternoon, they got back on the road, crossing the border and making their way to Cambridge, Ontario, where Lisa wrestled the Pure Wrestling Association women's champion 21st Century Fox in a "Bridal Veil On A Pole" match, and Nora served as guest referee. The champion ended up popping Nora in the head with her title belt and stealing the win from Lisa. But, after Nora reluctantly raised her hand in victory, the former Molly Holly attacked 21st Century Fox to the delight of Cambridge fans.

From there, it was off to an autograph signing in Simcoe, Ontario. That same night, Ivory wrestled The Anti-Diva in a stiff contest (another "Veil On A Pole" match), with Nora working as referee. "The indies are so fun. So friendly," Lisa said. "You meet all kinds of characters."

I asked how the backstage atmosphere on the independent level compares to the atmosphere in the WWE locker room. "I call it the indy enthusiasm," Lisa said. "You see all these young guys and girls with these bright eyes and their dreams of wrestling for their career. I try to leave them with a little seasoning, and try to explain to them that wrestling is hard work, that it'll probably be the most difficult thing they'll ever do. But I'll never tell someone not to try, or to just stick with their day job. I always hated that when people said that to me. At 20 years old, they should be able to feel like they can do anything they want. That's healthy."

Lisa and Nora spent another night roughing it at a campsite before getting up early and making the drive to Toronto on Saturday for the big wedding. Rain was pouring down and Lisa and Nora hit construction that slowed them to a crawl. "It's raining, and we're inching along, time is ticking by," Lisa said. "We thought, after all that, we were going to be late and miss the wedding."

As it turned out, the wedding ceremony was scheduled to take place on a rooftop facing Lake Ontario. The inclement weather delayed the ceremony, and it was moved indoors to a small theater. Lisa and Nora showed up just in time.

"It turned out to be perfect, intimate setting," Lisa said. Trish and Ron exchanged vows on a stage, which struck Lisa as an appropriate platform. Then Lisa and Nora met up with a contingent of other past and present WWE Divas, including Torrie Wilson, Lita, Maria Kanellis, Mickie James, Victoria, Ashley Massaro, and Lilian Garcia. "All the girls were at Table 12, which was the rowdy table," Lisa said.

The road trip was more than just a road trip for Nora and Lisa. It was also an affirmation.

"When you're in WWE, you always think of the people you travel with and work with as your family," Lisa said. "Then, when you're not there anymore, you wonder if you really were family, if those friendships can survive. Nora and I have been gone for about a year now. To be back and see the girls and see those friendships didn't miss a beat, and to see those friendships alive with the new girls -- the next wave -- it reaffirmed I've got better friends than I ever realized."

On a long drive from the Midwest to the "Great White North," Lisa and Nora set out to make a little money and have a little fun. They ended up getting back to the roots of wrestling and discovering friends, fans, and family along the way.

Taken From WWE "Are We There Yet" Book

Sleep At Your Own Risk
By Ivory.
When I first started out I didn't feel like I should be asking for rides, like I had to prove that I could take care of my own business. Travel was one of the biggest things in this, so I was organized about it, planning my routes, making reservations way in advance, all of that.

During a big ten-day tour up the East Coast, we had to drive from New York to Rhode Island in one night. One of the other women had warned me about this night in advance. She told me the area we were heading to had nothing around it, and gave me the name of a hotel to call for a reservation, saying it was our best option.

A few days before the New York to Rhode Island drive, I offered Jacqueline a ride during the tour. I had never driven with her before, but saw it as a great chance to spend some time with a veteran.

We made it to the town and found the hotel right away, and as we pulled up we couldn't help but notice that half of it is being renovated. The construction vehicles and scaffolding over most of the building tipped us off. Our room was in the part that was being torn apart, of course. Even without all the construction, this place was so gross and so scary and so Norman Bates-ish.

I'm low maintenance, and place is usually fine for me. I'm not going to walk away because of a musty smell in the carpet or anything like that, and I'm telling you, this place was bad. Here I have Jacqueline, a respected veteran with me, and she's looking at me like, "You've got to be kidding me, rookie."

I started apologizing to her right away, telling her I had no idea, which was true. Believe it or not, the place was a brand-name hotel, one that I'd stayed at in other towns - I guess it's just hit and miss with that. The place was so bad that when Jacqueline went to bed she put one of her T-shirts over the pillow so her head wouldn't touch the pillow case.

The only thing that saved my ass from being talked abour in the locker room was that Howard Finkel pulled up right behind us and got turned away because he didn't have a reservation. So at least we had a place to rest our eyes for a bit, he didn't have anywhere to go. We got up pretty early the next day and got right out of there. It wasn't a place you wanted to stay any longer than you had to.

After that trip I kind of had an idea why Jacqueline kicked me so hard in the ring.

Taken From WWE "Are We There Yet" Book

R...R...R...Rico Suave
By Rico.
I travel with the Divas most of the time. It's especially funny because of my character. There are times when I get out of the car at a building, and a fan will yell something like, "Hey Rico! You're a queer!"

They then see Gail, Ivory, Victoria, Trish, Miss Jackie - basically five of the most beautiful women they've ever met in person - following me out of the car, and I just give them a playful, wise-guy look and say something like, "Yeah, and it's real tough being me." They always get this face where their mouths open and their eyes drop in disbelief. It's great.

Even though a scene like that provides me with endless amusement, it's not the reason I ride with the Divas. And I don't ride with them because I like hanging out with beautiful women. I'm as married as married can be and have the most beautiful woman in the world at home.

I ride with the Divas because they are so easy to get along with. Most people have this vision of famous, gorgeous women...that they're difficult and high maintenance, but not our Divas.

I found this one night on a drive from Maine to Prince Edward Island. Because we flew into New England and were going to fly out of Canada, there was a $250 International drop fee with the car rental place. To save some money, I jumped in with Ivory and Gail Kim along the way.

They had this big Lincoln Navigator. About an hour into our drive, we had a mechanical failure. We had no interior lights and because this was a brand-new model, everything in the car was digital. We couldn't see how fast we were going, how much gas we had, nothing like that. Gail drives pedal to the floor the whole way, so maybe it was better we didn't know how fast we were moving. These roads were all small ones, connecting Maine and Canada, and had no lights on them. So except for when the occasional car passed us in the other direction, we couldn't even see each other.

During the drive, we talked about staying at one of the nice beachfront bed and breakfast's on Prince Edward Island as a way to make up for this stressful drive.

When we got there, of course, they're all sold out. We ended up staying at some regular motel nowhere near the beach.

And they were both so cool with it. I thought, man, if these women can take this in stride, I mean the whole trip was miserable, then they would be cool to drive with all the time. So I started riding with them after that and the "Rico, you're a queer" joke came along as a nice bonus.

Taken From WWE "Are We There Yet" Book

Sisterhood in the Face of Tragedy...
By Ivory.
We had a show scheduled on September 11th, 2001, in Houston. It was obviously canceled, but we still went to the building anyway. It was just everyone's natural reaction. To go to the place on the road that is your home, to be with the people who are like your family.

We spent some time there with everyone and were told to get ourselves to Nashville by Friday. With the airports shut down, I wasn't going to return the rental car I had. Molly Holly, Lilian Garcia, and I decided to drive to Tennessee together.

The three of us talked about the drive that lay ahead before we got in the car, to make sure we were all up for it emotionally. Molly suggested that with everything going on in the world, we try to make this trip as good as we could possibly make it. She remembered a fun place she once stayed in Biloxi, Mississippi, called the Beau Rivage, it was a resort and casino. We decided to drive all night and spend one wonderful day at the Beau Rivage. We were hoping it would help get our minds off of everything.

We had a system where one person would lay in the back and get some rest and the passenger was required to talk to the driver to keep her awake. Staying up wasn't too much of a challenge; we had so much to talk about that day and Lilian had her music to share when we wanted to change the subject. She would give us her new lyrics and ask us how she should sing her songs, like we know anything about it. But she listened to what we had to say. She always does.

At a bit after 2 A.M. we pulled into Biloxi. The first thing we did was get breakfast at the Waffle House across the street, then checked into the Beau Rivage about an hour later. We woke up early the next day because we wanted to get up and out of the rooms. We talked over breakfast and thought that for the first part of the day we should all deal with our 9/11 thoughts in our own way. Do what we needed to do.

Molly went out with the car and explored the town all day. That's what she likes to do. Go see the world. She brought us back some presents-matching board shorts, Biloxi T-shirts, and those little paddleboards-saying that this was a day we could all use a toy and new outfit.

I went for a massage and chilled out by the pool. Nothing I could do was going to take my mind off of everything and I had talked about it for hours with the girls, I wanted to do something that might help me relax a bit.

Lilian liked the idea and tried to join me out by the pool, but she just kept weeping and weeping so she talked to the front and desk and they pointed out a church she could visit to attend a vigil. She went and cried her eyes out.

We met back in our rooms later in the afternoon and got ready to go out for dinner. We went to an all-you-can-eat seafood place and we shared our stories of our day and what was on our minds. We giggled and laughed and even wrestled a bit in the parking lot. It was really fun; something we needed to do.

The next morning we got up and drove right into Nashville, where Lilian's sister, Dahlia, lives and spent the day with her. Dahlia's husband was away on business so it was just us four girls. We stayed the night and the next day Molly and I got up early and went on a long jog through this rural Tennessee area. It was beautiful and relaxing

That was a memorable trip It was good for us to be in a car, away from the television coverage and all that. We had each other to talk to about the tragedy and could deal with it in our own way. We were traveling through a beautiful section of America, meeting wonderful people along the way. It's part of what makes this such a great country.

We were together when we needed to be but had time to decompress by ourselves when we needed that. The reason we had to make this trip was obviously tragic, but the three of us were able to pull together and form a lasting bond. For that, I am thankful.

Taken From WWE Lita "A Less Traveled R.O.A.D - The Reality Of Amy Dumas" Book

Survivor Series with Lita & Ivory
On Halloween 2000, I arrived at the building in Rochester, New York, for Smackdown! and was told that I'd be dropping the Women's Championship that night in a Four Corners match with Trish, Jacqueline, and Ivory. There was no warning - not that I needed a warning - just a simple, "Okay, this is what we're doing tonight...."

The decision was made in order to give Ivory's new character some steam. She had just joined Right to Censor - the heel faction that parodied WWE's arch-enemy, the Parents Television Council.

Ivory was so excited to finally have something to do. She was technically a heel before joining RTC, but the only character direction she was given was, "Be a bitch."
She didn't know why she was a bitch - why she was mad? Why she didn't like any of the other girls? All she was told was, "Be a bitch." So when she became a part of RTC she finally had a why for her actions, which is all she needed.

We ended up feuding through the next few weeks, leading up to a title match at Survivor Series. That month was just crazy busy - the Divas in Hedonism photo shot was during the week leading up to the Pay-Per-View, so we flew down to Jamaica, spent three days taking pictures, then flew straight back to Tampa for Survivor Series. It was just exhausting!

When it came to putting our match together, Ivory and I had very different opinions about how we wanted it to go. "Let's do a lot of wrestling," she said. "Let's show everybody that girls can really wrestle."
"Let's not," I said. The truth is, as good as both Ivory and I are, we're not even close to the guys. For whatever reason, two girls working a real wrestling match just doesn't have the same intensity.

Ivory had been running her RTC gimmick for a few weeks, but she was still working through some wardrobe changes. That night she was wearing a long skirt with granny boots, regular street boots with little wooden stacked heels.

Early in the match I gave her an ensiguri kick and as she bumped, her heel connected with the corner of my left eye and busted me open. I knew it was cut the second it happened. Damn, I thought, then gathered myself together. Okay. I'm busted open. It's no big deal. Keep going with the match.
I had no problem continuing the match, thought I could feel the blood pouring down my face. I was kind of worried that Vince was going to be angry with me - a woman shouldn't be cut open like I was and then keep doing cool high-flying spots. On the other hand, the ref wasn't being told to stop me, so I kept on doing my thing.

If nothing else, I knew that all that bloof definitely looked cool as hell. Since I was going to lose the match, at least I'd look good going down. The only thing that bummed me out was that I was wearing a black mesh shirt. All I could think was, This is the worst shirt ever for seeing blood!

My getting cut changed the whole tone of the match. Instead of talking about how Ivory was kicking my ass, J.R. and the King made a very big deal about how tough I was. J.R. totally put over the fact that, even though I had blood pouring from my eye, I "never gave up."
When I got to the back, Stephanie was right there, waiting for me. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said, "I'm fine."
Great, great. Can we get a camera crew over here?"
"Listen, Steph. I want to call my mom and tell her I'm okay."
"No problem," she said. "We'll just put the camera on you when you call."