Maryse Ouellet[5] (born January 21, 1983)[2] is a French Canadian glamour model and professional wrestler currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment on its Raw brand.[4]
Modeling career

Ouellet began her career as a beauty pageant contestant, winning Miss Hawaiian Tropic Canada 2003 and finishing second at the International Finals of Miss Hawaiian Tropic 2004.[3] After that she made several appearances in various newspapers, magazines and television programs in Canada, as well as appearing on the cover and the inside pages of a special edition of Playboy Magazine in the summer of 2006.[2][3]

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment

[edit] Diva Search

In the summer of 2006, Maryse tried out for World Wrestling Entertainment`s Diva Search.[3] She made the final cut and was one of the top eight featured on WWE, but on the July 24 episode of WWE Raw she became the second person to be eliminated from the search. Despite her elimination, she was invited to observe workouts and the training facility between August 13–17, 2006 at WWE`s developmental facility, Ohio Valley Wrestling.[3] Although she understood that there was no guarantee that this will lead to full time employment with WWE, she was grateful to have been given another opportunity to live out her dream. Stating in a WWE.com interview "I can just cry, [is] my feeling right now," Ouellet said. "I’m very excited. It was very, very good news."[6]

[edit] Developmental territories
Ouellet at an FCW event in 2008.

Ouellet was officially signed to a World Wrestling Entertainment developmental contract on August 24, 2006 and was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling for training.[3] Her first jobs there were to sit in the front row during television tapings, take part in bikini contests and appear in backstage segments. After a while she began managing fellow French Canadian René Dupree at house shows. Her in ring debut came at a December 16, 2006 house show in Greensburg, Kentucky where she teamed with Katie Lea, Kelly Kelly, She Nay Nay, and Victoria Crawford to defeat ODB, Milena Roucka, Josie, Beth Phoenix, and Melody. In March 2007, she became a part-time backstage interviewer for OVW TV, as well as a wrestler in dark matches prior to the OVW tapings. In the spring of 2007, Maryse participated in the 2007 "Miss OVW" competition which was won by ODB. Later in the summer, she participated in the 2007 "OVW Divalympics".

Around that time she started managing Sylvain Grenier both in OVW and at the Raw/Smackdown/ECW house shows. When Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) opened in the summer of 2007, Maryse was transferred to the developmental facility for training.[3] After only managing Sylvain Grenier for weeks the idea for them to re-debut on SmackDown were scrapped. On September 25, Maryse made her FCW debut as the valet of Ryan O`Reilly along with Lacey Von Erich. After Ryan left the WWE on October 10, 2007, Maryse then started competing in singles and tag team competitions. On December 18, Maryse was in the corner of Ted DiBiase, Jr. when he captured the FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship.

[edit] SmackDown! (2006-2009)

On the September 22, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Ouellet, known as simply Maryse, was shown on the TitanTron welcoming the Montreal viewers (in French) to the season premiere of SmackDown! on the new CW Network.[3] In January 2007, Maryse returned to SmackDown! in more pre-taped vignettes welcoming

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