WWE Diva Beth Phoenix continues to dominate the ring in professional wrestling. But fans can now play with her in THQ’sWWE 12 videogame. Born in 1980, Elizabeth Carolan is known to millions of wrestling fans as the Glamazon, and more recently, one of the Divas of Doom with Natalya. When she’s not wrestling in front of millions of adoring fans, Carolan is one of the few WWE Divas who actually spends her free time gaming. She carries here PSP on the road with her. The 5’7” beauty talks about her own gaming background and how far the WWE games have come in this exclusive interview.
What video game consoles did you have growing up?
Growing up I started with Commodore 64 and I has like this old, old system, I can’t remember the name of it, but it came with a game called Pipes. Then I had the next step up, which was the standard Nintendo. I had the regular Nintendo, and I had a ridiculous amount of games for it. Then I got a Sega Genesis. I skipped N64, but I got it later when I was older. I got Game Cube first, then N64 after that actually. Then I got the regular Playstation, then PS2, and then a Wii. I missed PS3, and I don’t have an Xbox yet, but that is my progression through games.
Back on the old Commodore 64 did you play around with trying to make your own games?
I was very young when I had access to that, so I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to make my own stuff. It was on a computer and my brother and me, we just played the games. They were very simplistic, so they were very easy to figure out. I was pretty young at the time, I don’t want to say how young….
So you always had video game systems because you had a brother?
I had one little brother and I would use him as a scapegoat to get us games. Obviously, I would get the more girly toys like dolls and Barbies, yadda, yadda, yadda. But I really wanted video games or action figures or something so I would send him to ask mom, “Hey, I want this video game” when it was really WE wanted this video game. One of our favorite games was Wrestle Mania for regular Nintendo and we would just laugh hysterically all day because the way the characters moved and stuff. They were just not flattering, like the little Million Dollar Man had a big belly and stuff. It was funny. We’d entertain ourselves, basically.
Do you travel with any game systems?
I have a PSP. I had a Nintendo DS, which I liked. I had NintenDogs for that, which is really cool. The PSP I like a lot because I was getting those UMD movies, which I don’t think they make any more. When I got the PSP there were tons of them and the movies have kind of filtered down to nothing.
What are your thoughts on how far the WWE games have come over the years?
Well, first of all it is pretty overwhelming. The games used to be at a point to where I could delve into every little bit of it. Now with WWE 12, you could spend months and still not get into every little corner of the game. The scope is just so big with the story line mode now. With the older games, it obviously wasn’t. Now, the game is so involved, it is basically not a fighting game but a role-playing game now. And if you play with your friends, it is like choose a character and go. But if you sit there and play it individually; man, you can really get involved in it.
What role do you see these WWE games playing for fans today?
Well, what’s really cool is when you watch our television show there are naturally going be some characters, some wrestlers, you feel some connection too. You can go on the video game and you can create your own fantasy match. The video game now allows you to act out your entire fantasy league. You can do anything you want, create any kind of scenarios you want.
