Velvet Sky Biography

Jamie Szantyr (born June 2, 1981) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under the ring name Velvet Sky. She is a former two time TNA Women's Knockout Champion and is a former TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion as part of The Beautiful People (with Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich), with the group defending the title under the Freebird rule. She works outside of TNA as Talia Madison.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2004-2007)

Prior to debuting, Szantyr was trained by Jason Knight and Kevin Landry at the House of Pain Pro Wrestling Dojo. After completing her training, she began working as a valet and wrestler on the independent circuit using the ring names Miss Talia, Talia Doll, and Talia Madison. On the independent circuit, she formed a tag team known as T&A with April Hunter.

Talia made her debut for World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) on March 3, 2004, where she defeated Alere Little Feather. She was booked to her first wrestling championship during her time in World Xtreme Wrestling, getting the WXW Women's Championship after winning a battle royal on May 29, 2004. Talia went on to successfully defended her title against April Hunter, Cindy Rogers, Psycho and Ariel. On August 28, Talia teamed up with Alicia in a winning effort defeating Cindy Rogers and Mercedes Martinez in a tag-team match. Talia continued her undefeated streak successfully defending her title against Alere Little Feather, Luscious Lily, Cindy Rogers, Officer Mercy, and against Feather and Alicia in a triple-treat match. On Novemher 27, Talia teamed up with April Hunter in a winning effort defeating The Moonshiners (Lulu and Trinity H. Campbell). On December 11, Talia successfully defended her title against Krissy Vaine. The following week, Talia teamed up with The Moonshiners (Lulu and Trinity H. Campbell) defeating Alicia, Cindy Rogers and Mercedes Martinez in a six-person tag-team match. Talia's winning streak ended after she was defeated by Martinez on April 25, 2005. On July 8 at the WXW Spotsfest event, Talia dropped her title to Martinez. On September 12 at the WXW Tour, Talia unsuccessfully challenged Martinez for the title in a rematch. At the WXW 4th Annual Women's Elite 8 event, Talia unsuccessfully challenged Martinez again this time in a triple-treat match also involving Krissy Vaine.

Szantyr made a few appearances in World Wrestling Entertainment in 2005 and 2006. On the February 24, 2005 episode of WWE SmackDown!, she appeared as an extra during the JBL "Celebration of Excellence" party. She was then defeated by Victoria on July 11 in a match taped for WWE Heat. On January 2, 2006, she and Trinity were planted in the front row of the audience to be selected to dance with The Heart Throbs after their match in another Heat segment. She also auditioned for the 2007 Diva Search, but did not make the final eight.

As Talia Madison, she held Defiant Pro Wrestling Women's title, which she won on April 8, 2006 after defeating Alere Little Feather and Nikki Roxx in a three-way match. Later that year, she debuted in MXW Pro Wrestling and defeated Alere Little Feather at Brass City Battle. She also wrestled in Women's Extreme Wrestling both as Talia Doll and Talia Madison, where she mainly worked in tag team matches. She found championship success here as half of The Simple Girls/The Madison Sisters with her (kayfabe) sister Nikki Madison, and as the "T" half of the T&A tag team with April Hunter, defeating Team Blondage's Amber O'Neal and Lollipop to get the title on WEW's April 6, 2006 pay-per-view. She also held the WEW World Women's title (as Talia Madison), defeating Angel Orsini on May 5, 2007.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

Debut (2007)

When Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) announced the creation of their women's division in 2007, Szantyr, using her Talia Madison ring name, was announced as one of the ten wrestlers in a 10-woman Gauntlet match to crown the first TNA Women's Knockout Champion at Bound for Glory pay-per-view. Before the show she made non-wrestling appearances on the October 5 episode of TNA Today and the October 11 Impact!, standing at ringside for the debut match of Amazing Kong along with the other gauntlet match participants. In the weeks following the gauntlet match, her ring name was changed to Velvet Sky.

The Beautiful People (2007-2011)

At the December Turning Point pay-per-view, Sky and Angelina Love were paired together and dubbed "Velvet Love Entertainment", later renamed to "The Beautiful People". After defeating ODB and Roxxi Laveaux early in the show, Love and Sky assisted Gail Kim in her match against Awesome Kong. They assisted Kim again after another match against Kong on the December 6 episode of Impact! and at Final Resolution pay-per-view, helping to stop a post-match brawl.

On the March 13 episode of Impact!, Sky and Love attacked Roxxi Laveaux and later that night Gail Kim, thus becoming heels for the first time in TNA. At Lockdown, Sky and Love participated in the first ever "Queen of the Cage" match, which was won by Laveaux, when she pinned Love inside the cage. Sky and Love participated in the Make Over Battle Royal-Ladder Match at Sacrifice, which was won by Gail Kim. Sky and Love later added another factor to their gimmicks, placing brown paper bags over opponents heads. Soon after, Moose joined The Beautiful People, but she was quickly removed from the stable and the TNA roster after suffering an injury on the independent circuit. On July 17 episode of Impact!, Sky won a Knockouts Battle Royal for number one contendership to the Women's Knockout Championship, but lost the title match the next week as well as two more title matches immediately following to then champion Taylor Wilde.

The Beautiful People began associating with Cute Kip, who become known as their "fashionist". At Bound for Glory IV, The Beautiful People and Cute Kip were defeated by ODB, Rhaka Khan, and Rhino. In March 2009 the team gained a new member in Madison Rayne, while Kip was "fired" from the stable twice in the following month before finally becoming a road agent for the company. Sky was in Love's corner when she defeated Kong and Wilde to claim the TNA Women's Knockout Championship at Lockdown. Sky was also in Love's corner at Slammiversary where she helped her defeat Tara by spraying hairspray in her eyes. At Hard Justice Sky, along with Angelina Love, competed in a tag match against ODB and Cody Deaner in a losing effort when Deaner pinned Sky causing Love to lose the Championship to ODB. After this loss, Madison Rayne was kicked out of The Beautiful People, with the pair vowing revenge in the upcoming tournament for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship. The last of the four quarter final matches pitted The Beautiful People against Rayne and a mystery partner. This mystery partner was later revealed to be the returning Roxxi. Regardless, The Beautiful People won the match and advanced to the semi-finals.

Since that match was taped, Angelina Love had been released from her TNA Wrestling contract due to work visa issues. On the last episode of Impact! taped before her release Love and Sky advanced to the finals of the tag team tournament by defeating Tara and Christy Hemme after interference from Madison Rayne. Afterwards Rayne apologized to both Sky and Love, and was then welcomed back into the Beautiful People. At No Surrender Sky and Love's replacement Rayne were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Sarita and Taylor Wilde. On October 1 Love's replacement Lacey Von Erich made her debut and joined the Beautiful People. Love would return to the company on the January 14, 2010, episode of Impact!, but instead of re-joining the Beautiful People, she attacked them, thus turning face. On the March 8 Monday night episode of Impact! Sky and Rayne defeated the teams of Love and Tara and Sarita and Taylor Wilde in a three-way match to win the vacant TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, after interference from Daffney. The three members of the Beautiful People will defend the titles under the Freebird rule. On the April 5 episode of Impact!, Sky was one of the four winners of the very first LockBox Showdown Elimination Tag Match. The box she opened contained a contract for Sky to challenge anyone of her choosing at any time, regardless of the stipulation. Sky then announced that she would be using her contract to face the new Knockout Champion Angelina Love in a Leather and Lace match the following week. With Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne scheduled to receive a shot at the Knockout Championship at Lockdown, the Beautiful People turned the Leather and Lace match into a three-on-one beatdown in order to soften Love up for the pay-per-view the following Sunday. At the pay-per-view Rayne and Sky defeated Love and Tara, with Rayne becoming the new Women's Knockout Champion. Sky faced Love once again on the June 24 episode of Impact and won via disqualification after being dropped with a DDT on a steel chair, just like Von Erich the previous week. On June 27, 2010, Szantyr announced that she had signed a long-term contract extension with TNA.

In the summer of 2010, Sky began showing signs of a face turn, when Rayne began talking down to her and Von Erich, declaring that she did not need either of them and then recruited a mystery woman hiding behind a motorcycle helmet to help her in her feud with Angelina Love. On the July 22 episode of Impact! Sky refused to go along with Rayne, the mystery woman and Sarita, when they all got done assaulting Love and Taylor Wilde, Von Erich on the other hand chose to leave with the trio. On July 27, at the tapings of the August 5 episode of Impact!, Sky and Von Erich lost the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship to Hamada and Taylor Wilde, when Rayne's and the mystery woman's interference backfired. The following week Sky turned face by attacking the mystery woman during Rayne's title match with Angelina Love and in doing so caused a distraction, which cost Rayne the Women's Knockout Championship. On the August 19 episode of Impact!, Sky reunited with Angelina Love, accompanying her to the ring and helping her successfully defend the Women's Knockout Championship against Rayne, who was with the mysterious biker woman. After the match Sky and Love were beaten down by Rayne and the mystery woman.

Rayne's mysterious ally was finally unmasked as Tara on the September 2 episode of Impact!, when the two of them defeated Sky and Love in their first match together in a year. At No Surrender Sky defeated Rayne in a singles match. Lacey Von Erich would join Sky and Love in the Beautiful People, after being saved by them from Rayne and Tara on the September 16 episode of Impact!. She, however, would leave the promotion two months later on November 11.

In October Sky entered a feud with Sarita, who would score back-to-back pinfall victories over her on the October 28 and the November 4 episodes of Impact!, first in a six knockout tag team match and then in a singles match. On the December 9 episode of Impact! Sky and Love defeated Sarita and Daffney in the first round match of a tournament for the vacant Knockouts Tag Team Championship, but Sky was still unable to pin Sarita. Two weeks later, Sarita attacked Sky prior to her and Love's tournament final match. As a result, Winter, who had been stalking Love for the past months, stepped up, took Sky's place in the match and teamed with Love to defeat Madison Rayne and Tara for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship. The following week Sarita defeated Sky in a Strap match. On the January 27 episode of Impact!, Sky brawled with Winter, claiming she was trying to break up the Beautiful People. Sarita pinned Sky once again on the February 17 episode of Impact!, in a tag team match, where she teamed with Rosita and Sky with Love. After the match Sky challenged Sarita to a one-on-one match, where she agreed to put her career on the line. On the March 3 episode of Impact! Sky was finally able to defeat Sarita in a singles match, salvaging her career in the process. On March 13 at Victory Road, Sky inadvertently cost Love and Winter the Knockouts Tag Team Championship in a match against Sarita and Rosita. On the March 24 episode of Impact!, Winter, seemingly having control over Love's actions, prevented her from saving Sky from a beatdown at the hands of Sarita and Rosita. On the April 7 episode of Impact!, Love, still under Winter's spell, turned on Sky during a Knockouts Tag Team Championship match against Sarita and Rosita and left her to be pinned by the champions, effectively ending the Beautiful People.

Singles competition and Women's Knockout Champion (2011-2012)

On the April 28 episode of Impact!, Love defeated Sky via submission in a singles match, no-selling all of her opponent's offense during the match. On the May 5 episode of Impact!, Sky pinned Winter in a two-on-three handicap match, where she teamed with Kurt Angle to face Winter, Love and Jeff Jarrett, announcing her intention of becoming the TNA Women's Knockout Champion in the process. On the May 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky defeated Love and Winter in a two-on-one handicap match, but was afterwards attacked by the returning ODB, who claimed that she had gotten fired from TNA the previous June because of her. Sky and ODB faced each other in a singles match on the June 9 episode of Impact Wrestling, with Sky emerging victorious. The following week, Sky and Ms. Tessmacher failed in their attempt to win the Knockouts Tag Team Championship from Rosita and Sarita due to outside interference from ODB. Afterwards, Sky was beaten down by ODB and her new tag team partner, Jacqueline. On the June 12 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky and Tessmacher were defeated by Jacqueline and ODB in a tag team match. The feud was seemingly ended on the July 7 episode of Impact Wrestling, when Sky defeated ODB and Jacqueline in a two-on-one handicap match, forcing both of them out of TNA as per stipulation of the match. On the July 21 episode of Impact Wrestling, TNA Women's Knockout Champion Mickie James awarded Sky a shot at her title, but before the match could take place, James was attacked by Angelina Love and Winter. When Sky tried to make the save, she was attacked by the returning ODB and Jacqueline, who were then in turn attacked by the also returning Traci Brooks.

On the September 15 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky defeated Angelina Love to qualify for a four-way TNA Women's Knockout Championship match at Bound for Glory. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, Sky won the TNA Women's Knockout Championship for the first time by defeating previous champion Winter, Madison Rayne and Mickie James in a four-way match, when Traci Brooks replaced original guest referee Karen Jarrett and counted the deciding pinfall. On the October 20 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky came to thank the fans for supporting her, as she became the new Women's Knockout Champion. During her speech, she was attacked by the returning Gail Kim. On November 13 at Turning Point, Sky lost the Women's Knockout Championship to Gail Kim, ending her reign at 28 days. On the January 26 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky and Mickie James were defeated by Tara in a three-way number one contenders match for the Knockouts Championship. On the April 5 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky defeated Angelina Love, Madison Rayne, Mickie James, Tara and Winter in a six-way match to become the number one contender to Gail Kim's Women's Knockout Championship. On April 15 at Lockdown, Sky unsuccessfully challenged Kim for the title in a steel cage match. Sky received another shot at the title on the May 17 episode of Impact Wrestling, but was again defeated by Kim in a three-way match, which also included Brooke Tessmacher. The following month, a seed was planted for a possible feud between Sky and Mickie James, based on James' jealousy of Sky. However, after weeks of inactivity, on July 24, it was reported by numerous wrestling sites that Szantyr was close to leaving TNA, after failing to come to terms on a new contract with the promotion. Two days later, Szantyr confirmed her departure from TNA however she was still listed on the company's website roster.

Other promotions (2011-2012)

On June 18, 2011, Sky made her debut for Mexican promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración at Triplemanía XIX, where she teamed with Angelina Love, Mickie James and Sexy Star to defeat Cynthia Moreno, Faby Apache, Lolita and Mari Apache in an eight woman tag team match. On September 8, AAA announced that Sky would return to the promotion on October 9 at Héroes Inmortales. At the pay-per-view, Sky teamed with Jennifer Blake and Sexy Star to defeat Cynthia Moreno, Faby Apache and Mari Apache in a six woman tag team "Glow in the Dark" match.

From June 30 to July 2, 2012, Sky took part in World Wrestling Council's (WWC) Anniversario weekend in Puerto Rico. On the first two nights, she was defeated in singles matches by Melina and, on the final night, she and Xix Savant defeated Melina and Davey Richards in a mixed tag team match.

Velvet made her debut for Bad Boys of Wrestling Federation (BBWF) on September 8 at the BBWF Caribbean Wrestling Bash Aruba The Legend Tour, where she competed against Angelina Love in a winning effort. The following night on the BBWF Caribbean Wrestling Bash Aruba The Legend Tour, Sky competed against Angelina Love in a losing effort.

Following her departure from TNA, Sky reunited with Angelina Love as the Beautiful People on September 22, 2012, at a Northeast Wrestling event, where they were defeated by Madison Rayne and Rosita. Sky made her debut for Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) on October 4, 2012 at the Back 2 Brooklyn internet pay-per-view, where she teamed up with Angelina Love to defeat the FWE Women's Champion Maria Kanellis and Katrina Lea in a tag team match. Sky made her debut for Maryland Championship Wrestling (MCW) on October 27 at MCW Monster Mash event, where she teamed up with Angelina Love in a winning effort defeating Jessie Kaye and Niya in a tag-team match.

Return to TNA Wrestling

Knockouts Champion; Various Feuds (2012-2013)

On the December 6 episode of Impact Wrestlng, Sky made her return during a in-ring segment between Mickie James and TNA Women's Knockout Champion Tara and vowing to become champion again. The following week, Sky won her return match by defeating Madison Rayne. On January 13, 2013, at Genesis, Sky won a five woman gauntlet match by last eliminating Gail Kim, to become the number one contender to the Women's Knockout Championship. On the following episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky defeated Kim again in a rematch to reaffirm her status as number one contender. The following week, Sky unsuccessfully challenged Tara for the Women's Knockout Championship after her boyfriend Jessie interfered on Tara's behalf. On January 25 at the tapings of the January 31 episode of Impact Wrestling in Manchester, England, Sky teamed up with James Storm defeating Tara and Jessie in a mixed-tag-team after Sky pinned Tara.

The following day at the tapings of the February 21 episode of Impact Wrestling in London, Sky defeated Tara, Miss Tessmacher and Gail Kim in a fatal four-way elimination match, by last eliminating Kim to win the TNA Women's Knockout Championship for the second time. Sky made her first televised title defense on the February 28 episode of Impact Wrestling, defeating Tara to retain her title. On March 10 at Lockdown, Sky defeated Gail Kim to retain the Women's Knockout Championship. On the March 28 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky saved Taryn Terrell from an attack from Gail Kim and Tara. The following week, Sky teamed up with Terrell in a losing effort to the team of Kim and Tara after the special guest referee Joey Ryan made a fast count on Terrell. After the match, Terrell gave Ryan a low-blow when Sky distracted him. On Twitter, TNA tweeted that Sky had suffered a knee injury when she landed on her knee after Kim performed a fireman's carry on Sky. Despite the injury, Sky successfully defended the Knockouts Championship against Mickie James on the April 25 episode of Impact Wrestling. On the May 23 episode of Impact Wrestling, Sky lost the Women's Knockout Championship to James, ending her reign at 117 days. In the following weeks, Sky would demand a rematch but James would reply by avoiding her and ultimately turning heel by attacking Sky as well as taking advantage of her recently injured leg. Sky and James finally had their rematch on the June 27 episode of Impact Wrestling, where James retained her championship after forcing Sky to submit to a Cross-legged STF. Sky returned on the July 25 episode of Impact Wrestling, saying she made the mistake of letting James know she was injured and she would never make that mistake again; Sky then sat ringside during James' title match with Gail Kim. Sky was supposed to team with ODB in a Knockouts hardcore tornado tag team match against Gail Kim and Mickie James at Hardcore Justice, however she couldn't compete due to sickness and the match was turned into a Knockouts triple threat hardcore match.

Other media

She was featured on MTV's Made alongside A.J. Styles, Taylor Wilde, and Angelina Love. On January 24, 2009, she appeared as a soccerette on British television program Soccer AM, along with Angelina Love. In November 2010 she was a contestant on an all TNA week of Family Feud, teaming with Angelina Love, Christy Hemme, Lacey Von Erich and Tara against Jay Lethal, Matt Morgan, Mick Foley, Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam. In June 2012, she was featured in Montgomery Gentry's music video for their song "So Called Life".

Personal life

In high school, Szantyr competed in cheerleading, softball, cross-country, football, and track. She has stated in interviews, that since she started watching wrestling its former WWE Diva Lita that made her want to become a wrestler. She has been dating fellow TNA wrestler Chris Sabin since 2009, not much has been said about their relationship.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • As Velvet Sky
    • Beauty Mark (Double knee backbreaker) - 2009
    • Beauty-T (Spike DDT) - 2010-2012
    • In Yo' Face (Sitout double underhook facebuster) - 2011-present
    • Skyliner (Straight jacket sitout rear mat slam) - 2009-2011
  • As Talia / Talia Madison
    • Blonde Ambition / Diva Drop (Diving neckbreaker)
    • Re-Talia-tion (Straight jacket sitout rear mat slam)
• Signature moves
  • Dragon sleeper
  • Dropkick, sometimes to a seated opponent
  • Facebreaker knee smash
  • Inverted curb stomp
  • Inverted swinging facebuster
  • Northern Lights suplex
  • Octopus stretch, sometimes while biting the opponent's hand or transitioned into a sunset flip
  • One-handed bulldog
  • Reverse bulldog
  • Rolling cutter
  • Roll-up
  • Russian legsweep
  • Shoulder block
  • Snapmare followed by a shoot kick to the back of the opponent's head
  • Tilt-a-whirl headscissors takedown
  • Triangle choke
  • Vertical suplex

• Managers
  • Angelina Love
  • Lacey Von Erich
  • Madison Rayne

• Wrestlers managed
  • The Brain Surgeons
  • Simon Diamond
  • Romeo Roselli
  • Matt Striker
  • John Walters
  • Alere Little Feather
  • Angelina Love
  • Cute Kip
  • Madison Rayne

• Entrance themes
  • "I'm About to Freak" (lyrical) by Dale Oliver (TNA; October 15, 2007-December 6, 2007)
  • "Angel On My Shoulder" by Dale Oliver (TNA; March 13, 2008-present)

Championships and accomplishments

• Defiant Pro Wrestling
  • DPW Women's Championship (1 time)

• Georgia Wrestling Alliance
  • GWA Ladies Championship (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked her #14 of the best 50 female singles wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2012

• TNT Pro Wrestling
  • TNT Women's Championship (1 time)

• Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
  • TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship (1 time)¹ - with Lacey Von Erich and Madison Rayne
  • TNA Women's Knockout Championship (2 times)

• Universal Wrestling Association
  • UWA Women's Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ariel

• Women's Extreme Wrestling
  • WEW World Championship (1 time)
  • WEW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with April Hunter (1) and Tiffany Madison (1)

• World Xtreme Wrestling
  • WXW Women's Championship (1 time)

¹Sky defended the title with either Von Erich or Rayne under the Freebird Rule.