If the phrase “lady wrestler” summons up mental images of rather scary-looking women like The Fabulous Moolah, you are still stuck somewhere back in the 20th century.

These days, the female stars of the WWE could give almost any Hollywood actress a run for her money in terms of beauty and charisma.
On Monday, Sept. 17, one of the reigning WWE Divas, Eve Torres, will be a featured attraction at the “Monday Night RAW Supershow” at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport.

Talk to Torres for even a few minutes and you will be quickly disabused of any lingering wrestling stereotypes.
“There have absolutely been tremendous changes in the WWE, as there should be. Things should change all the time,” Torres said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.

The 28-year-old Boston native sees her work as a professional wrestler as just one aspect of a multi-media career that has included modeling and dancing and a high-profile gig on this summer’s reality TV show “Stars Earn Stripes,” where she won the competition.
Torres has suffered a few injuries along the way, but said that’s not what she is anxious about when she steps into the ring.
“My fear isn’t that I’m going to be injured, the fear comes from putting yourself out there and not having it received the right way,” she said of the “sports characters” the Divas play at big WWE events.
Torres is part of the new breed of wrestler whose connection to fans is even tighter than it was back in the days of Captain Lou Albano and the other 1980s stars.

“They are so loyal and with social media they’re able to interact so that they feel really involved,” Torres said of the Facebook pages and Twitter feeds and the regular reports she delivers on YouTube.
What interests Torres is the way that fans seem to make a direct connect with WWE stars and yet continue to view them as “larger than life.”
The star believes in maintaining a private life away from wrestling, but admits that goal is not easy to attain in today’s 24/7 Internet/social media matrix.

“We do portray certain kinds of people on TV (and in the ring), but the fans like to see that line being blurred on social media. … Still, I’m pretty careful about what I put out about my personal life,” she said.
(In the “personal life” section of her Wikipedia biography, all we learn about the offstage activities of the star is “Eve’s favorite color is green, she is a dog person, Torres is afraid of clowns and her favorite thing to do is short sprints on the beach.”)
Torres has thought about making the same sort of crossover to movies that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has achieved, but at the moment her WWE gig is allowing her to draw on many aspects of her training in other areas.
“It combines everything I love. I trained to be a gymnast; I love dancing, I love performing and I love the community outreach we get to do,” Torres said of raising money for the USO, the Gracie Women Empowered self-defense program, Feed the Homeless, St. Jude’s Children’s Hopsital and the other charity work she has done.

“It would be great to have more opportunities in film and TV and other parts of the entertainment world, but the WWE has really helped me grow as a perfomer,” she said.

I asked Torres if she is one of those five-year-plan people who lays out specific goals to achieve during the next phase of their lives.
“Actually, I don’t do that because if I had done one five or six years ago, I wouldn’t be here now. In college, I was studying engineering. Sometimes you have to act on opportunities that come up that you’re not expecting. You just have to listen to your instincts and follow your heart,” she said.
The WWE produces some of the most popular Pay Per View events on television and countless DVDs, but Torres said that you have to see the wrestlers in person to understand why fans are so fervent.

“One thing I tell everybody — even people who don’t watch us on TV — is come to a live event and you will never turn back. You’ll be hooked. It’s like any other soap opera — you need to see who’s who — and then you will totally understand why the fan base is so huge. It is just so much fun — like a live-action movie.”

Credit: HERE