Serena Deeb
Serena Deeb is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling. She is well known for her first stint with WWE, appearing on the SmackDown brand and also known for her time with the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, under the mononymous ring name Serena. She is a former NWA World Women's Champion, OVW Women's Champion and WNC Women's Champion.
Early life and education
Deeb was born in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 29, 1986, and grew up in Oakton, Virginia. Deeb's love of wrestling began when she was eleven after watching a WWE show. However, her main passion as a child, from the age of five until she actively pursued wrestling at 18, was playing soccer.Deeb graduated from Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia in 2004. She attended Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish.
Professional wrestling career
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2005-2009)
Serena started her wrestling career with the Ohio Valley Wrestling professional wrestling school, where she trained from March until November 2005 after relocating on her own money from Virginia to Kentucky to attend the school. She debuted on the November 4 OVW house show, teaming with Fuji Cakes in a losing effort against Shelly Martinez and Beth Phoenix. Beth Phoenix and Shelly Martinez also defeated her in January even with the new tag team partner of Venus. She picked up her maiden victory over Shelly Martinez in February and over Beth Phoenix the following month. She and Fuji Cakes lost to Cherry Pie and Roni Jonah. Unhappy with the loss, Serena changed her partners and teamed with Roadkill and Kasey James for a mixed tag team match with The Untouchables, including Cherry Pie, but lost once more. Later that month, a dark match between her and Beth Phoenix ended in a no contest and was changed into a tag match, which Serena and Shelly Martinez lost to Beth Phoenix and Maria.Serena then began to feud with ODB. In early June, Martinez guest refereed a tag team match where she and Daisy Mae defeated ODB and Sosay. At OVW's Six Flags event, ODB scored a return victory as she and Venus defeated Serena and Daisy. In her television debut at the June 21 tapings, Serena came out to save the participants of OVW's first bikini contest, who had been attacked by ODB. She defeated ODB in a singles match at another Six Flags show at the end of June but the two continued to feud, exchanging victories in mixed tag team and six-man tag team matches. Eventually, ODB declared herself the inaugural Women's Champion, supposedly after winning a tournament in Rio de Janeiro. ODB retained the title in an eight-woman Battle Royal on the September 6 television tapings but in a four-way match, Serena finally managed to win the Women's Championship during the main event of the September 13 episode of OVW TV involving ODB, Beth Phoenix and Katie Lea.
Women's Champion (2006–2008)
When she became champion, Serena was targeted by Beth Phoenix. She managed to retain her title on September 16's house show but lost a televised rematch on October 4. Serena instantly set her sights on winning back the title and commandeered an all-female six-man tag team victory over Beth Phoenix and her team three days later before interfering in Beth's title defence, spearing her to end the match in disqualification just as Phoenix was about to pin ODB. Though she would continue to interfere with Phoenix, Serena never had the chance to win back the title as Katie 'The Kat' Lea won the championship in the penultimate round of a gauntlet match Phoenix had to contest, losing on the sixth match while a refreshed Kat only had Serena to defend against. Serena tried to contend with The Kat once more for the title but the match ended in disqualification. To settle their dispute, Serena, The Kat and Beth Phoenix closed out the year with a non-title no-disqualification three way, which Serena won.During 2007, Serena spent many weeks in a variety of tag team matches in an attempt to gain an opportunity at the Women's Champion and Phoenix too before competing in the Miss OVW Divalympics, though ODB would eventually win this competition. Serena went on an undefeated streak in March and April, but this was brought to a halt by Lea in May. On May 11, she and her team lost a 2/3 tug of war contest, but beat them in the wrestling tag match immediately afterwards. It would not be until September before she received another shot at the title. Milena Roucka picked up the victory in this six-way match-up, while Serena also lost a non-title match the following week in an attempt to prove her contendership. After spending the opening months of 2008 on a losing streak, Serena disappeared in February from the promotion.
During her hiatus, Serena got a nose job and breast implants in an attempt to get closer to a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. Serena made a surprise return in late May when reigning champion Josie issued an open challenge, which Serena answered to win her second title. At the June 4 TV tapings, Serena stated her intentions to defend the title at all times, under 24/7 rules. Josie, who had assaulted her during the speech, took advantage of the rule in early July when Serena defended her title successfully against Reggie, only for Josie to attack her straight afterwards and win the title. Serena avenged this loss by similarly attacking Josie during a speech and winning the title back. The ruling proved too chaotic – at one point Serena gave a speech during which Josie and Melody attacked her, almost double-pinning her only for Reggie to come out and pin all three of them to win the title for a matter of minutes until Serena speared Reggie and won it back – and by August the 24/7 ruling was deactivated after Serena won the title back for an unprecedented sixth time.
After that wrestler Moose sought Serena's affections, eventually winning a right to a date after defeating Lumpy Magoo in late September. After being rebuffed by Serena on the date, Moose turned sour and tried to interfere in a championship defence against Josie only for Magoo, who was accompanying Serena, to make sure his interference did not cost her the title. On October 29, Serena teamed with Magoo and defeated Moose and Women's Championship contender Reggie in a tag team match. On November 12, Serena lost the championship to Melody in a four-way match with Josie and Reggie.
The Insurgency (2009)
In 2009, Serena turned heel for the first time in her career. This was signaled when she appeared on January 14 with The Insurgency, including Ali Akbar, Turcan Celik, and Bin Hamin, to help them win a non-title match against the Southern Tag Team Champions Totally Awesome. With Serena in their corner, The Insurgency went on a winning streak, though Serena herself could not emulate this as her title match with Melody on February 25 saw Melody retain the title via disqualification. On the 500th episode of OVW, she challenged Melody once again, this time in a steel cage match, but failed to win the championship.Shimmer Women Athletes
Early feuds (2006–2007)
On October 22, 2006, Serena began working for SHIMMER Women Athletes at Volume 5 where she lost to Amber O'Neal in her debut match after O'Neal used Serena's tights to keep her down. She gained a victory in a rematch during Volume 6 with a roll-up pin. Despite this win, she went on a losing streak in both tag team and singles competition until she reversed Lexie Fyfe's Attitude Adjuster into a roll-up during Volume 10. Later at Volume 14: Hot Summer Nights Fyfe defeated Daffney and, after exposing her long-suffering knee injury, proceeded to assault her after the match with Experience tag team partner Malia Hosaka. Daffney's friend MsChif and Serena, having history with Fyfe, came to clear the ring leading to a match-up between Hosaka and Serena after the others had been chased off. Serena pinned Hosaka after a spear but her revenge was short-lived, as The Experience pinned her after a double inverted suplex slam, despite help from Allison Danger.Pursuit of the Shimmer Championship (2007–2009)
En route to the tournament to crown the inaugural Shimmer Champion, Serena was involved in a car crash and thus could not participate. An interview with her opened Volume 12, where she revealed her desire to challenge the eventual Shimmer Champion having missed out on her tournament opportunity, but still could not maintain a winning streak, falling victim to Rain and later her tag team partner Jetta. After being eliminated from a 20-woman Battle Royal to determine the Shimmer Championship contender during Volume 19, Serena pinpointed champion Sara Del Rey for her next match, but came up short. On Volume 21, Serena maintained she demanded another title match, blaming her loss on an injury. Sara Del Rey refused, calling her "bottom of the barrel" but an impromptu brawl turned into a sanctioned match, in which Serena once again put up a strong effort but lost. The event closed with Serena talking backstage about how the defeat would not stop her in trying to become champion at which point MsChif, the Shimmer Champion, commended her drive and ambition and offered her a match on the condition of beating Del Rey.At Volume 22 Del Rey's manager, Larry Sweeney, announced she did not need to face Serena having beaten her twice already and that Del Rey's only goal was to reclaim the Shimmer Championship. After the main event closed, Del Rey hit the ring and attacked MsChif until Serena appeared to fight in MsChif's corner; the referee quickly declared their impromptu bout another match where, after taking yet another severe beating, Serena finally managed to defeat Del Rey. After another post-match assault, MsChif came to save Serena making the event end with the Shimmer Champion raising Serena's hand. Despite a storied build up over the years, including a seldom used video package to hype the main event, Serena was unsuccessful in her match. Though she failed to win her title match, it seemed her rivalry with Del Rey wasn't over. As well as bouncing back over Cat Power, she had a competitive victory over Mercedes Martinez. After her match, Del Rey and Amazing Kong had a Shimmer Tag Team Championship shot against Ashley Lane and Nevaeh, which ended when they started using chairs against the champions. Despite having just wrestled, Martinez assisted Serena in clearing the ring and keeping Del Rey at bay. Their attempts at Volume 26 to form a successful tag team saw them come undone against Del Rey and Kong's brutish power.