Velvet Sky Reflects On The Beautiful People's Failed Babyface Run In TNA

Former TNA Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky discussed her early babyface run as The Beautiful People.

During her appearance on Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val, Velvet Sky answered a fan who asked when she realized The Beautiful People were truly connecting with the crowd. She recalled that when she was paired with Angelina Love as The Beautiful People by TNA, they were introduced as babyfaces.

“When TNA first put Angelina and me together as The Beautiful People, they sent us out there as babyfaces,” she said. “You could see us like we, the beauty shot at the top of the stage, linked arms, and skipped down to the ring.”

Both Sky and Love had been heels on the independent scene, which made the shift challenging. “So, we were like, ‘Okay, this is going to be I mean, this is going to be a bit of a challenge to switch over and go from this mean, you know, mean girl gimmick on the indies in our solo careers to just cute, happy babyfaces, like hot girl babyfaces.'”

However, the fans reacted differently. “I remember the first time, like, in that match when they sent us down, the crowd booed the sh*t out of us.” She said that TNA’s plan was influenced by the Spike TV era. “They figured, you know, the crowd was mostly men — they want to see happy, hot girls in short skirts.” she said. But after the reaction, “And the office was like, ‘Ooh, yeah. No, no, babyfaces. No, y’all y’all are heels. So go out there and just turn up the heat and do what we need you to do.'”

Velvet Sky said that once TNA officials told them to be heels, everything clicked naturally. “Once they said heel, we were like, ‘Don’t worry, we got it. We know exactly what to do,'” she recalled. Their experience on the independent scene made it easy.

Velvet Sky shares how TNA let them shape their own characters

Velvet Sky said that the “makeovers” marked the early stages of The Beautiful People gimmick. “God, it was ’08 probably when, you know, her and I, we, Lauren, Angelina, and I were trying to take Roxy under our hand and kind of make her cute because she was doing the whole scary voodoo gimmick.”

She described one memorable backstage vignette with Roxy. “We were like, ‘Come on, Roxy, let’s make you beautiful,’ but she was reluctant,” Velvet explained. “So, we beat her down backstage, held her on the floor, and I was like, ‘Oh, look, she’s so pretty,’ while putting makeup and lipstick all over her face. Then boom, one final kick.”

According to Velvet, moments like that helped define The Beautiful People. “So, we beat her down backstage, held her down on the floor, and I’m like, ‘Oh, look, she’s so pretty,’ and I’m just putting makeup and lipstick all over her face. And then boom, one final kick.”

She added, “Stuff like that, humiliating the other Knockouts, humiliating remember Crystal, the interviewer, Lauren, the interviewer? Yeah. Just kind of like being mean to them, you know. We just had the “better than you” mean girls gimmick. It was like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie”

Velvet Sky says Vince Russo pushed The Beautiful People due to high ratings

Velvet Sky credited Vince Russo for recognizing the popularity of The Beautiful People. “Oh my gosh, yeah. I mean, I feel like that was all Vince Russo because once Vince saw like, Vince was a total ratings guy. He was like, ‘All right, the ratings are in. Who’s at the top of the list?’ And, you know, we were the ratings, you know, the ratings breakers. and the numbers don’t lie,” she said.

“The numbers don’t lie. We were told by Spike TV every week, ‘Hey, congrats girls, top of the ratings again.'”

She explained that their success led to more screen time. “That’s why we got so many segments on the show multiple segments,” Velvet noted. “Vince was like, “All right, people want to see the Knockouts. Okay, now we’re going to have two or three Knockouts matches on the show, and the Knockouts that are not wrestling, we’re going to give them backstage vignettes or we’re going to give them an in-ring promo.”

Velvet praised Russo for not limiting the women’s exposure. “Vince, you know, was not like, “Well, we don’t want these girls to be over, the girls can’t be more over than the men.” Vince was like, “No, these girls are over. We’re putting them all over the show.”