Madison Rayne
Ashley Nichole Lomberger, better known by her ring name Madison Rayne, is an American retired professional wrestler. She is signed to All Elite Wrestling, where she is also a coach for the women's division. She is best known for her tenure with Total Nonstop Action/Impact Wrestling in its Knockouts women's division, where she was a five-time Knockouts World Champion and three-time Knockouts World Tag Team Champion.
Rayne began her wrestling career on the independent circuit, wrestling under the names Ashley Lane and Lexi Lane. She joined the all-female promotion Shimmer Women Athletes in 2007, where she was one half of the first-ever Shimmer Tag Team Champions, along with Nevaeh. In 2009, she signed with TNA, aligning herself with Angelina Love and Velvet Sky as part of the villainous stable The Beautiful People. In March 2010, alongside Lacey Von Erich and Velvet Sky, she won the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship; all three women defended the title simultaneously under the Freebird Rule. In April 2010, she won her first of five TNA Knockouts Championships. In addition, she was the first wrestler to hold both titles concurrently. She has also competed in Ring of Honor and took part in WWE's 2018 Mae Young Classic.
Early life
Ashley Nichole Simmons was born in Columbus, Ohio, on February 5, 1986. She grew up in West Lafayette, Ohio, with her two older brothers. During high school, she was the homecoming queen and a varsity cheerleader. She also ran track and was a member of the drama club. After graduating high school, she studied radiology part-time at college while starting her wrestling career on the independent circuit. She later saw a poster for a local promotion, contacted the promoter, and began training soon after. She left college to pursue a full-time wrestling career, having had a 4.0 GPA at the time of leaving. After completing her training under Jeff Cannon, she began her wrestling career in her home state of Ohio. Her first match took place in her former high school and was refereed by former WWE Diva Ivory.Professional wrestling career
Ohio Championship Wrestling (2005–2009)
Under the ring name Lexi Lane, she made her debut for Ohio Championship Wrestling on March 13, 2005, event in Coshocton, Ohio, where she teamed up with trainer Jeff Cannon in a losing effort to Cruz Sangria and Jayme Braxton in a mixed tag team match. The following month, Lane made her singles match debut and defeated Jayme Braxton with Ivory as the special guest referee. At the June 18, 2005, event, Lane defeated Brian Biggs in an intergender match. The following month, Lane competed against Jayme Braxton, losing to her twice. At the OCW event on August 13, Lane teamed up with Scotty Sabre in a winning effort against Jayme Braxton and Matt Masonalso in a mixed tag team match. On November 12, Lane defeated Hailey Hatred in a singles match. On February 11, Lane competed against Shantelle Taylor in a winning effort. On the March 11, Lane unsuccessfully challenged Shark Boy for the OCW Cruiserweight Championship in a five-person match, which was won by Vic Montana. On May 12 and 13, Lane competed against Heather Owens in a losing effort.Lane entered a feud with Jessicka Havok on June 10, after Lane defeated Havok by disqualification. On October 7 and 8, Lane defeated Havok in singles matches. On November 11, Lane teamed up with Traci Brooks in a winning effort against Havok and ODB in a tag team match. At the OCW Stairway to Stardom event on January 13, 2007, Lane competed against Havok in a singles match which ended in a no-contest.
At the March 13 OCW Ladies Night event, Lane defeated ODB in finals of the tournament to become the promotion's first ever OCW Women's Champion. On April 27, Lane made her first title defense against Sassy Stephie. The following month, Lane once again defeated Stephie in another title match. At the OCW Fan Appreciation Night, Lane successfully defended her title against Angel Dust. On August 25, Lane successfully retained her title against Stephie and Dust in a triple threat match. The following month, Lane teamed up with Nevaeh in a losing effort to Stephie and Dust in a tag team match. On November 24, Lane lost the Women's Championship to Nevaeh. Lane regained it in May 2008, but lost it to Sara Del Rey in February 2009.
Shimmer Women Athletes (2007–2009; 2011; 2017–2018)
On October 13, 2007, she made her debut in Shimmer Women Athletes as Ashley Lane. At Volume 15, Lane teamed with Lorelei Lee in a losing effort to Portia Perez and Nicole Matthews. At Volume 16, Lane lost to Alexa Thatcher.Lane then formed a tag team with Nevaeh, and they made their debut in loss to The Experience at Volume 17, but then scored a win against The Minnesota Homewrecking Crew at Volume 18. At Volume 19, Lane competed in a battle royal, which was won by Jetta. Later that night, Lane teamed up with Nevaeh where they defeated the duo of Veronika Vice and Cat Power, but lost to The International Home Wrecking Crew at Volume 20. On October 19, Lane and Nevaeh emerged victorious from a six-team tag team gauntlet match to crown the first Shimmer Tag Team Champions. Later that evening, they successfully defended the titles against the Canadian NINJAs. At Volume 23, Lane and Neveah successfully defended their titles against The International Home Wrecking Crew in a two out of three falls match. At Volume 25, Lane and Neveah successfully defended their championships against Amazing Kong and Sara Del Rey. At Volume 26 on May 3, 2009, Lane and Nevaeh lost the Shimmer Tag Team Championship to the Canadian NINJAs.
At Volume 27, Lane and Nevaeh lost to the team of Melanie Cruise and Wesna Busic in a tag team match. At Volume 28, Lane and Naveah defeated Kacey Diamond and Sassy Stephie. Because of agreement with Shimmer and Ring of Honor, Lane made her debut for ROH on April 19, 2008, where she competed in a Four Corner Survival match against Daizee Haze, Lacey, and MsChif, which was won by MsChif. Lane later left ROH after debuting in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in January 2009.
On October 1, 2011, Lane returned to Shimmer as fan favorite, calling out former partner Nevaeh for turning on MsChif and Jessie McKay during a tag team match. Nevaeh in turn claimed that Lane had turned her back on Shimmer by leaving the promotion in 2009, which led to a brawl between the two. Later that night, Nevaeh defeated Lane in her return match. At Volume 44, Lane teamed with Mia Yim in a losing effort against Nevaeh and Sassy Stephie.
On July 8, 2017, she made her returns in Shimmer Women Athletes as Ashley Lane at Volume 92, defeating Taeler Hendrix and at Volume 93 was defeated by Veda Scott. The following day, she defeated Veda Scott at Volume 94. On November 11, Hottest Free Agents defeated Blue Nation at Volume 97 and the following day, at Volume 98, she and Deonna Purrazzo were defeated by Totally Tubular Tag Team in a tag team match for the Shimmer Tag Team Championship.
On October 20, at Shimmer Volume 105, she was defeated by Dust in a Heart of Shimmer Championship Match.
Wrestlicious (2009–2010)
In 2009, Lane took part in the first season of Wrestlicious, which began airing on television in March 2010. In the promotion, she played in the role of "Cheerleader" Amber Lively. She debuted in the third episode of Takedown, teaming with Lacey Von Erich and winning by disqualification against the team of Draculetta and White Magic. On the April 7 episode of Takedown, Lively participated in a Hoedown Throwdown battle royal to determine the top two contenders for the Wrestlicious Championship, but failed to advance.Other promotions (2010–2012)
As Madison Rayne, she made her debut for Remix Pro Wrestling on April 24, 2010, at the Remix Pro Throw Down For The Pound 2 event in Marietta, Ohio, where she defeated Nevaeh and Sojournor Bolt in a triple threat match. Rayne made her debut for Purks International Championship Wrestling on August 10 event in Cedartown, Georgia, where she defeated Tracy Taylor. On April 2, 2011, at the Remix Pro Throw Down-Hoedown For The Pound 3 event, she defeated Sara Del Rey in a singles match.Rayne made her debut for Family Wrestling Entertainment at the FWE Fallout pay-per-view, where she was defeated by Tara with Christy Hemme as the special guest referee. On September 22, 2012, Rayne made her debut for Northeast Wrestling, teaming up with Rosita to defeat The Beautiful People in a tag team match. Rayne made her debut for National Wrestling Superstars on December 12, 2012, at the NWS Jingle Brawl, where she, along with Danny Demanto, accompanied Nikki Addams where Addams competed against Nikki Richardson. Later that night, Rayne teamed up with Demanto in a losing effort to Chris D'Andrea and Rosita in a mixed tag team match. The following night, Rayne teamed up with Demanto in a winning effort defeating D'Andrea and Rosita in a rematch.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2009–2013)
The Beautiful People (2009–2010)
Lane debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Madison Rayne on the January 8, 2009, episode of TNA Impact!, where she was defeated by Awesome Kong. She returned on the February 12 episode of Impact! in a Knockouts gauntlet match, and was one of the finalists, but was eliminated by Sojo Bolt. The following week, she began her first storyline by slapping and walking out on her tag team partner Taylor Wilde in a match against The Beautiful People, and her character became villainous in the process. On the March 5 episode of Impact!, Rayne aligned herself with The Beautiful People after assisting them in winning a four-way tag team match. At Destination X in March, Rayne made her pay-per-view debut, teaming with Love and Sky against The Governor, Taylor Wilde and Roxxi in a losing effort.Rayne's hazing continued after The Beautiful People won an Impact! tag team match against Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed, after which Rayne tried to cut the braided hair of the TNA Knockouts Champion Kong. With Sky in her corner, Angelina Love faced Kong and perennial nemesis Taylor Wilde in a three-way cage match for the Knockout Championship at Lockdown, which Love would win. The following week on Impact!, Mi Pi Sexy had a celebration with male dancers and named Rayne an official member of the Beautiful People. However, the celebration was cut short by Kong. Kong continued her attack on Mi Pi Sexy and proved her dominance by making her way through Rayne, Sky and Cute Kip, who Love brought back to stop her, in stretcher matches on the following weeks of Impact!.
At Hard Justice in August, Rayne cost Love her Knockouts Championship when her interference in the match backfired. On the following episode of Impact!, Rayne was scheduled to face Love in a match, but before it started, Love attacked her from behind. After Love had pinned Rayne, Sky showed up holding a brown paper bag and put it on Rayne's head to humiliate her. Rayne was then saved by Tara and Christy Hemme. On the September 10 episode of Impact!, Rayne and partner Roxxi lost to The Beautiful People in a match that was part of a tournament to crown the inaugural Knockouts Tag Team Champions.
The following week, Rayne, after helping Love and Sky advance to the finals of the tournament, was welcomed back into The Beautiful People. At No Surrender, Rayne replaced Love, who had been released from her contract due to work visa issues prior to the event, and teamed up with Sky in the tournament finals, where they were defeated by the team of Sarita and Taylor Wilde.
On the October 1 episode of Impact!, The Beautiful People apologized to the TNA fans and wrestlers for their behavior, blaming their past actions on Love. They invited the Knockouts Tag Team Champions, Taylor Wilde and Sarita, down to the ring to prove their apology was genuine and expressed their desire for a competitive match at Bound for Glory. The Beautiful People shook their hands, but then attacked them. As they began to lose the advantage in the assault, the debuting Lacey Von Erich took out Wilde and Sarita. The three then posed in the ring, welcoming Von Erich into The Beautiful People. Rayne gained her first victory in TNA on the October 8 episode of Impact! by scoring the deciding fall in an eight-wrestler elimination match where she, Sky, Alissa Flash and Traci Brooks defeated Sarita, Taylor Wilde, Hamada and Christy Hemme after the interference from Von Erich.
The three then won their first match as a team, defeating ODB, Tara and Awesome Kong, but was unsuccessful in their Tag Team title rematch at Bound For Glory. On the October 22 episode of Impact!, The Beautiful People began appearing in backstage segments they dubbed as their reality show "The Meanest Girls", an allusion to the 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls.
In the pilot episode, The Beautiful People attacked Taylor Wilde and Sarita, and engaged in a food fight, with The Beautiful People coming out on top. In the sequel, which aired on the November 5 episode of Impact!, the Beautiful People attacked ODB, setting up a six-wrestler tag team match at Turning Point, for both the Knockouts Championship and the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. At the pay-per-view, the Beautiful People were unsuccessful, as ODB pinned Rayne to win the match for the reigning champions. Around this time, the Beautiful People began using a weapon dubbed Lacey's Ugly Stick, a pink side-handle baton.
Angelina Love returned to the company on the January 14, 2010, episode of Impact!, but instead of re-joining The Beautiful People, she attacked them. Several weeks later on March 8, Rayne and Velvet Sky defeated the teams of Love and Tara, and Sarita and Taylor Wilde in a three-way match to win the vacant Knockouts Tag Team Championship. Under the Freebird Rule, all three members of The Beautiful People were considered champions, and any combination of two members were permitted to defend the title. At Lockdown in April, Rayne and Sky partnered against Tara and Angelina Love in a tag team cage match, during which Rayne pinned Tara to win Love's Knockouts Championship. With the win, she became the first person to hold both the Knockout Championship and the Knockouts Tag Team Championship simultaneously. The following month at Sacrifice, Rayne defeated Tara in a Title vs. Career match, causing Tara to retire from TNA and ending the storyline rivalry between Tara and The Beautiful People. At Slammiversary VIII Rayne retained her title against Roxxi in another Title vs. Career match.