Shelly Martinez wasn’t part of the WWE family for a long time, but she had to deal with a lot of things throughout her career. This includes the fact that John Laurinaitis told her to lose a lot of weight during their first interaction.
While speaking on the Limpin’ Ain’t Easy podcast, Shelley Martinez explained how she eventually got hired by WWE. She said that John Laurinaitis called her to ask about her background since she had already been in the wrestling business for five years, with the last two focused on lucha libre.
That connection opened doors for her whenever WWE came into town. She would attend shows, get feedback, and work as an extra the traditional way.
At the time, she was also dealing with personal struggles. Her first wrestling school experience ended badly and left her disappointed, so she moved to a lucha school. While she enjoyed it, she still carried the frustration of how her journey in wrestling began.
“I got a call from Johnny Ace, and he was asking me about my background because at that point I had been in the business for five years. Like I said, the last two I was doing just the lucha style—so three years, then two years of lucha. That opened the door. Whenever they came into town, of course I’d be at the shows. They’d give me a look, tell me what they wanted me to work on, and I’d do it. I did it the old-school way, being the extra. The big thing was, I was going through a lot. When I left the first wrestling school, it wasn’t on good terms. It was very shady—I don’t want to get into it, but it sucked. That’s when I went to the lucha school. Even though I was happy there, I was still mourning the disappointment of that first introduction to the business. It was like, ‘Welcome to the business, sister.’”
During this period, Martinez had gained weight. Laurinaitis told her she had a pretty face but that she should lose about 30 pounds. While some people would have been offended, Shelley admitted she agreed because she hadn’t been feeling good and knew the weight didn’t reflect her best self. Instead of being upset, she took it as motivation to get back on track.
Martinez ended up losing about 12 to 15 pounds, and that was enough for WWE to hire her. Looking back, she felt they mainly wanted to see if she was serious about the opportunity. When she later trained in OVW, she kept working hard and eventually returned to what she considered a healthy weight for herself.
“I had put on some weight, and I remember Johnny Ace said, ‘You have such a pretty face. If you could just lose like 30 pounds…’ A lot of people were like, ‘Oh, how dare he?’ But I was thinking, ‘No, he’s right.’ Because this extra weight wasn’t me. I hadn’t been feeling good, I’d been struggling, and now it was showing on the outside.
Everyone else was like, ‘How dare he say that?’ But for me, it was, ‘No, this isn’t how I like my body.’ So I got myself together. I thought, ‘That’s all that’s keeping me back? I just need to lose 30 pounds? No problem.’ And guess what? I only lost maybe 12 to 15, and they hired me. I feel like they just wanted to see if I was serious.
When I was at OVW, I kept going, and I finally got back to a weight that was healthy for me while I was there.”
Shelley Martinez’s journey shows how much WWE’s standards at the time focused on looks as much as wrestling ability. Instead of letting that pressure discourage her, she used Johnny Laurinaitis’ comments as fuel to keep moving forward and prove herself in the business.
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September 9, 2025 6:08 pm
