Beth Phoenix

Elizabeth Copeland (née Kociański; born November 24, 1980), better known as Beth Phoenix, is an American professional wrestler. She is best known for her tenure in WWE, where she is a former WWE Divas Champion and a three-time WWE Women's Champion.

Kociański had a successful amateur wrestling career in high school, winning several tournaments before being trained for professional wrestling by the All-Knighters. After her debut in May 2001, she wrestled for numerous independent promotions. She also appeared at the inaugural Shimmer Women Athletes shows. In 2004, she began working for Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and signed a developmental contract with WWE in October 2005. She debuted on WWE's Raw brand in May 2006 but suffered a legitimate broken jaw the following month. As a result, she had numerous surgeries and returned to OVW for further training. While there, she won the OVW Women's Championship twice, although her second reign is not officially recognized by OVW.

She returned to the Raw brand in July 2007, and was heavily pushed, dominating the other WWE Divas and gaining the nickname, "The Glamazon". She won her first WWE Women's Championship at the No Mercy pay-per-view in October, and held it for six months. She then developed an on-screen relationship with Santino Marella, dubbed "Glamarella", and won the Women's Championship for a second time in August 2008, holding it until January 2009. In January 2010, at the Royal Rumble, she became the second woman in the history of the event to enter the men's Royal Rumble match, and went on to win the Women's Championship for the third time in April, holding it for a month. In October 2011, Phoenix won the WWE Divas Championship for the first time and lost it in April 2012. Phoenix retired and left WWE in October 2012 due to creative frustrations with the treatment of women in WWE, and to focus on her family life with boyfriend and later husband Adam Copeland, famous in WWE as Edge, with whom she subsequently had two daughters.

In 2017, Phoenix returned to WWE upon being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2017 class; her induction made her the fastest woman to be inducted after her retirement and the youngest inductee in history at age 36. After receiving the Frank Gotch Award for her philanthropic work in 2015, she became she also became the first woman to be inducted in the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, a hall of fame dedicated to professional wrestlers with an amateur background, in 2019. Phoenix had wrestled on a part-time basis from 2018 to 2023, most notably at WrestleMania 35; she also took part in the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match in 2018, making her the first wrestler to have participated in both the men's and women's matches. From May 2019 to December 2021, she was a full-time commentator on NXT.

Elizabeth Kociański was born in Elmira, New York, and raised by Polish parents. When she was eleven years old, she won a coloring contest with a prize of tickets to a television taping for the World Wrestling Federation. Kociański credits this as when she fell in love with professional wrestling. She cites Bret Hart, Sgt. Slaughter, Owen Hart, and Ted DiBiase as her favorite wrestlers. Kociański attended Notre Dame High School in Elmira, where she played tennis and ran track. She was voted prom queen in her senior year. Kociański is a graduate from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and public relations. While wrestling in OVW, Kociański also worked as a waitress at a local restaurant known to Elmira natives as Lights Bakery and Coffee Shop.

Elizabeth Kociański began wrestling on the Notre Dame High School scholastic wrestling team. She was the first female varsity wrestler in the school's history. She became the North-East freestyle women's champion in 1999, and also won at the New York State Fair Tournament the same year. At the time, she was also a member of USA Wrestling, a freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling association. Her life goal was, according to her, to become a professional wrestler, and she believed that having a solid amateur background would help her reach it.

After graduating from high school in 1998, she enrolled in both a professional wrestling school and Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Her first choice for wrestling school was Stu Hart's Dungeon, but because of the location, she decided on a more local school. At the school, she was trained by the All Knighters (Joey Knight and Robin Knightwing), who themselves had trained in the Hart Dungeon. She later stated that Nora Greenwald, who was known in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as Molly Holly, had paid for her to attend wrestling school after Carolan had given her a demo tape of her work. Her professional wrestling debut match was against Alexis Laree. She then worked for various independent promotions, including Cleveland All Pro Wrestling and Apocalypse Wrestling, against both male and female wrestlers, using the name "Phoenix". In 2002, she was one of the first wrestlers in GLORY, an independent organization for women, and was the inaugural GLORY Champion. She then joined Far North Wrestling (FNW), and was the only female wrestler in the promotion. She defeated Joey Knight and Kevin Grace in 2003 to become the FNW Cruiserweight Champion. Later in 2003 she took part in World Xtreme Wrestling's annual Women's Elite 8 tournament where she made it to the final, before losing to April Hunter. She returned two years later and defeated Nikki Roxx, but was bested in the second round by eventual winner Alicia. The following month, Phoenix appeared at the inaugural taping for the Ring of Honor sister promotion Shimmer Women Athletes; during Volume 1 she was pinned by Shimmer founder Allison Danger but scored an upset victory in a non-title match against NWA Midwest Women's Champion MsChif.

Kociański was invited to a tryout with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2004, and then relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, to work for their then-developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). She debuted on OVW television in July 2004, having changed her ring name to "Beth Phoenix", and became the on-screen girlfriend and valet of Chris Masters. The storyline was short-lived, and the following month Phoenix was repackaged as the manager of Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. She signed a developmental contract with WWE on October 20, 2005, the same month that she broke her hand. The duo was then joined by Shelly Martinez, who Phoenix soon feuded within early 2006.