Kristal Marshall Praises Lita, Wanted To Be Like Her, Says Melina Was Misunderstood

Kristal Marshall recently spoke with Noonan Speaks (transcript via wrestlinginc.com) about her time in WWE, Lita being a bad ass, Melina being misunderstood and more…

On Lita: “I remember the first time that I saw Lita, I just stared at her like a moron! I was just kind of like, ‘hi!’ I didn’t really know what to say. I had those moments for a while and you adjust, sort of. It was surreal!” Marshall added, “she bounced around [between brands], so I didn’t get to develop much of a relationship with her, but from the bits and pieces that I did gather, just watching her career through the years, Lita is a certified badass. She is. She’s a pioneer. There was never anybody like her. There’s never going to be anybody like her. And there was a big part of me that wanted to be like her. Not in the sense of having the tattoos and all that, but I wanted to be at her level of badassery, if that makes any sense.”

On Melina Being Misunderstood: “In all fairness, I’m going to have to bring up Melina.” Marshall continued, “I think that Melina was one of, definitely during my era, one of the most misunderstood female wrestlers and I say, ‘misunderstood’ now because, when I was there, I didn’t like her. I thought she was really rude. I felt like she thought she was better than anybody else. But now that I’ve kind of seen her here and there through the years, kind of got the chance to talk to her a little bit more, and I’m starting to get the feeling that that’s not the whole version of Melina that we were exposed to during that time. And, in all fairness, looking back, I think she was probably incredibly shy. Incredibly shy and I felt like, again, like I said, there’s usually just that one spot on TV for a Diva and when I was there on SmackDown, Melina was at the top of her game and she was that b—h, so I feel like there was a lot of animosity from other girls towards her, so I think maybe she had a target on her back at the time, but now, it’s like I see her in passing and it’s like, ‘hi, how are you?’ and she’s so sweet and she’s endearing, and very sensitive, and some wonderful things there, so I don’t know. Maybe she [has] changed or whatever. But I do kind of wish that I took the time or I could’ve gotten to know this Melina.”

On Melina Going to Wrestler’s Court: “Oh, it was bad. It was bad. It was bad.” Marshall said, “I remember one time, we were in Europe and they held Court for her. And it’s like I sat there and I really didn’t know at the time exactly what all that meant. I just knew it was like, ‘oh, we’re going to talk about some s–t that she did that pissed us off.’ Like, looking back now, the s–t they were mad about, it was really none of our f–king business. It was none of our f–king business really! And we are grown ass people now. I can say that. But it really wasn’t, so I just kind of felt like sometimes in [pro] wrestling, they pick a whipping boy, so-to-speak. I think she was that person at that time, for sure, at least from the female perspective.”

On Keeping In Touch With Past Friends: “I talk to Layla quite frequently. I was actually in her wedding. She got married a couple of years ago. Let’s see, who else do I talk to? I touch base with Ashley; Torrie, here and there; Barbie, I touch base with Barbie every now and then – we’re kind of touch and go, Barbie Blank, Kelly Kelly; Sharmell, every now and then we kind of reach out and chitchat; Jillian also. I think that’s about it.” Marshall explained, “I keep in touch with those girls because we were all in the SmackDown locker room during that period of time. Also, another girlfriend of mine who was in developmental, her name was Krissy Vaine, Kristin Eubanks, who is actually married to Ryan [Parmeter] who is part of Ascension right now. She’s one of my very dear friends. Like, she’s amazing and she helped me through some pretty rough patches.”