Former WWE Women’s Champion Victoria confirms retirement

In professional wrestling, most retirements don’t last. (See: Funk, Terry.) But one former WWE and TNA wrestler is certain that she won’t wrestle again. 

Lisa Maria Varon, who wrestled as Victoria in WWE and Tara in TNA, said on a recent video stream that she would not be wrestling again. 

“No, no. I retired. I retired,” Varon said during a WhatNot stream Friday. “My body hurts, you guys. I still do appearances, and WhatNot is my new favorite thing.”

Varon’s last match came in January of 2023, when she teamed with Gisele Shaw to challenge Jessicka & Taya Valkyrie for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships. 

Varon had originally retired in 2019, but came back to compete in the 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble in WWE. She lasted 7:15 during the match before being eliminated by Shayna Baszler. 

Varon won numerous cheerleading, bodybuilding, and fitness awards before getting into pro wrestling. She started training with Ultimate Pro Wrestling in 2000, then spent time in Memphis, Ohio Valley Wrestling, and Heartland Championship Wrestling before making her WWE debut on Sunday Night Heat in 2002. 

She would go on to compete at two WrestleManias, losing a three-way (along with Jazz) to Trish Stratus at WrestleMania XIX, then defeating Molly Holly in a title vs. hair match at WrestleMania XX. She worked for WWE off and on until 2009, then wrestled for TNA until 2013. From that point until 2019, she worked regularly on the indies while making sporadic appearances for both WWE and TNA. 

She won two WWE Women’s Championships, five TNA Knockouts Championships, and one TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship (with Brooke Tessmacher). She also won the Cauliflower Alley Club’s Women’s Wrestling Award in 2015.