Interview with WWE Diva and March 2007 Playboy Magazine cover model Ashley Massaro!
You should call Ashley Massaro "Butter", because she's on a roll, baby! The punk rock Diva joined World Wrestling Entertainment by winning the 2005 Diva Search competition, and now not only is she the manager of the World Tag Team Champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick, but she is the cover girl and feature pictorial of the March 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine! That's right guys, she gets nekkid! In the midst of all this, the WWE is building towards their annual Wrestlemania event, which is the biggest event of the year in sports entertainement, and you know Ashley will be involved somehow. Obviously she is very busy, but Ashley was cool enough to battle poor cell phone recpetion while travelling to call me up to tell me all about those things and more! Check it out!
Anarchy Music: To start off with, what led you into the 2005 Diva Search? We’re you a wrestling fan going in?
Ashley Massaro: I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid, and I found out that there was a Diva Search contest involving WWE and I was thrilled. They chose me to come to LA and do the casting. I got there and there were all of these hot chicks running around so I didn’t think I was going to be chosen to be one of eight that got to compete. They ended up picking me and I went on to Raw and the fans vote off a contestant every week for 8 weeks and I ended up being the last one on the show and I won. It was pretty cool! That’show I ended up in the company.
Anarchy: You then went on to train with Ricky Steamboat, who is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. What was that like?
Ashley: Oh my gosh, I know! It was awesome! I love Ricky steamboat. He’s one of the coolest guys I know. He’s super patient, super friendly, he’s just an all around awesome guy. Amazingly talented wrestler and I couldn’t be learning from better people. I didn’t go to developmental territories like a lot of people do to get into wrestling to climb up the ranks to get to WWE, but I’m learning from the best there is. From the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Fit Finlay, Steve Keirn, Arn Anderson and all those guys. I’m really lucky to be trained by them, for sure.
Anarchy: What led you to hook up with London and Kendrick and help them win the WWE tag team titles, which they reatines again last night at the No Way Out pay per view?
Ashley: Yay! (laughs) I’m so stoked that they retained! I’m so happy about it. I was bummed that I couldn’t be out there with them. They had me doing the Diva Talent Invitational and I had the Playboy thing to do so I couldn’t be out therewith them but I’m so happy they retained. Paul and Brian, I had always been friends with them since they started in the company. They’re just two really, really cool guys. We’re into a lot of the same stuff, our personalities are very similar. We get along really well and we all kept saying “we should work together, we should work together” and I kept going to the office and saying “I want to manage these guys” and finally they made it happen. It couldn’t be a better fit. We really love being a team.
Anarchy: You mentioned your Playboy responsibilities, how awesome is that? The cover of Playboy Magazine?!
Ashley: Oh, I know! It’s so cool, I never in a million years thought I would end up on the cover of Playboy one day . It’s very surreal and just crazy. It was awesome.
Anarchy: What was the shoot like? You’ve done a lot of modeling in the past but was it more nerve-racking? Did they make you feel at ease ?
Ashley: they totally make you feel at ease. They’ve been doing this for so long that you almost forget that you’re nude. You forget the part that you’re naked and you’re just doing a shoot. T was really a long, grueling shoot. We had three or four days solid of fifteen hour shooting per day. It was long, but it was fun. They let me wear the stuff I like to wear, as far as the stuff I could wear while still doing a Playboy shoot. They were just really supportive of who I am how I wanted my layout to turn out.
Anarchy: When people think of a Playboy model they don’t usually think of tattoos and piercing. Is it a small victory to be on the cover and not fit that typical image?
Ashley: Absolutely! I think that was one of points that I was more proud of when being asked to be a part of this and being told that they were going to be supportive of who I am. I’ve done photo shoots my whole life and pretty much been airbrushed and made to alter the way I’m seen on tv or in real life in magazines. I’ve always had a barrier growing up too, when I was modeling. Torrie Wilson, who was a former two time Playboy cover girl was shocked that they went for it. That they wanted to do something like that because it’s not your typical Playboy image. It’s definitely a small victory, a large opinion in my opinion. They’ve never had a girl on the cover with both tattoos and piercing, from what I’ve been told. It’s an honor that they rolled the dice for me.
Anarchy: And you’re helping to modernize the image of beauty, that’s awesome.
Ashley: I hope so.
Anarchy: I believe you had said that your parents don’t know about the Playboy shoot?
Ashley: My dad knew, my brother knew…they’ve been really supportive. They were wrestling fans from the start and they’ve always been real supportive. My mom has been too, she always just never wanted me to do Playboy. She told me she’d disown me if I did it. So I never told her when I did it. She finally found out about a month ago watching Smackdown. I think JBL said “soon to be cover model for Playboy magazine, Ashley”, when he was announcing me. My mom was watching with my dad and she was freaking out and my dad said to relax, that it was no big deal. She just totally acted like she didn’t know when I got home, because that’s the way my mom is. She finally came to me about a week or so and questioned if I was doing Playboy when I was talking about Playboy on the phone. I said “don’t act like you don’t know, dad told me”. She didn’t disown me, she just said “I don’t want to see the cover, I don’t want to see the inside, I don’t want to see anything”. She’s cool with it, I’m not getting disowned.
Anarchy: Awesome! I’m glad to hear that.
Ashley: Thanks, me too!
Anarchy: You’re always giving music recommendations on your blogs. Since we’re a music site, tell us what we should be checking out…
Ashley: Lets see. You can tell through my blogs that I go through old albums that I have and stuff that’s been around, but that I’m into right now. I really try to keep it to what is really going through my Ipod or playing on my computer as I’m writing my blogs, instead of how someone would do a music magazine and whatever albums are coming out, that’s what they’re pitching. I kind of do whatever I’m feeling at this moment. My musical taste are really diverse. It all depends on the time of day. You can catch me listening to Frank Sinatra one minute, Regina Spector the next, Rage Against The machine the next, Mushroomhead, Mr. Bungle, it could be anything. Paul London turned me on to mike patton, who is the former front man for Faith No More. He has so many different projects like Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas and so much old-school Faith No More that I hadn’t been exposed to that I’d say to check out, for sure. Mr. Bungle’s California album is just unbelievable. Retrovertogo is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard and it’s new to me. Like I said, Paul and Bryan and I have a lot of the same musical tastes as well. He brought me to peeping Tom, which is another one of Mike Patton’s projects at Irving Plaza and it was just an unbelievable show. Unbelievable. He’s just extremely talented, so check it out, for sure.
Anarchy: What makes you possibly the perfect girl is the wrestling…the good music…and comic books? You’re on Smallville coming up?
Ashley: (laughs) How cool is that? I was so stoked when they said Smallville because I totally love that show and I don’t watch a lot of tv. I was so excited when I found out that I was going to be a part of that show. I just finished shooting about a week and a half ago and it came out so cool. It really did. I had a couple of awesome scenes with Lois Lane and, got into a pretty big fight. Yeah, I can’t wait fro you guys to see it. That episode of Smallville comes on March 22nd. It should be pretty freakin dope.
Anarchy: As a comic book dork, that is a dream to be a part of that world.
Ashley: I know, me too! I’m so stoked!
Anarchy: Before I let you go, I have to know…with Wrestlemania coming up two main events have been signed so far. For Smackdown it will be Batista vs. The Undertaker for the World Title and on Raw it’s John Cena vs. Shawn Micheals for the WWE title. You gotta five me some predictions…
Ashley: Some predictions on those matches?
Anarchy: On your show It’s Batista's title verses Taker's unbeaten streak, baby!
Ashley: (laughs) I’ve been a Shawn Micheals fan since I was a kid, so I absolutely my vote and prediction would be Shawn micheals, for sure. I would hope for that would happen. As far as Batista and The Undertaker, something in my gut tells me that The Undertaker is going to take it, but obviously my guess is as good as yours so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Did you see the episode of raw with Donald trump and Vince Mcmahon? One of them is going to have to shave their head!
Anarchy: Oh, I saw it. My dorkiness doesn’t end with comics and metal, I’m all about wrestling as well.
Ashley: Oh cool, then I take it that you saw it then.
Anarchy: I see everything that’s WWE related. It should be fun a match.
Ashley: Awesome, I love it. I think that should be pretty interesting as well. Everyone keeps saying that Donald Trump has got to win because there’s no way Donald Trump is going to shave his head, but in my opinion he’s been holding onto that thing for so long that he might be wanting to get rid of it and this would be the perfect venue.
Anarchy: Anything can happen in the WWE!
Ashley: That is the truth, you know it!
Anarchy: So, you’re focused on the Playboy thing, do you have any Wrestlemania plans?
Ashley: The Playboy issue hits newsstands on March 12, so up until then I’m just gearing up for that and hopefully have a few matches and getting ready for Wrestlemania. I’m just really stoked about Wrestlemania this year. This is a big year for me with all the stuff going on.
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Thanks so much to Ashley, and to our friends at WWE for setting this up for us. We couldn't be more stoked about all of the great things that are coming her way. Ashley's a real sweetheart and it's great to see good people succedd. For more info on Ashley or any of your favorite WWE Superstars visit WWE.com. Don't forget to order Wrestlemania live on pay per view Sunday, April 1st, and those of you who are 18 or over can buy Ashley's issue of Playboy on March 12!.