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By PDX People<\/p>\n

PORTLAND, Ore. \u2013 If you followed professional wrestling in the 1990\u2019s one of the most well-known female wrestlers was Terri (Tori) Poch. She was a part of the attitude era and was a contemporary of figures in the wrestling world like Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, Kane, Sable, The Big Show and Chris Jericho.<\/p>\n

Before she started her career as a professional wrestler, Tori started out in the world of professional bodybuilding and she won several titles during a period of 8 years before moving on to the then WWF where quickly became part of a wrestling world that still had Hulk Hogan and many other notable wrestlers still in action.<\/p>\n

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Wrestling Career<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1998, Poch was hired by the\u00a0World Wrestling Federation<\/a>\u00a0(WWF). She debuted on the December 28 episode of\u00a0Raw<\/a>\u00a0entering the ring before a match to hand\u00a0Sable<\/a>\u00a0a yellow rose. She continued in becoming an obsessed fan over the next few weeks, constantly at ringside during Sable’s matches. At the\u00a0Royal Rumble<\/a>, she helped Sable defeat\u00a0Luna Vachon<\/a>\u00a0in a\u00a0strap match<\/a>. She later introduced herself as Tori and tried to gain the respect of Sable, who continually degraded and humiliated her. As a result, Tori challenged Sable to a match for the\u00a0Women’s Championship<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0WrestleMania XV<\/a>, which Sable won following interference from her bodyguard,\u00a0Nicole Bass<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tori\u00a0feuded<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Jacqueline<\/a>\u00a0in April and May 1999 and then began pursuing\u00a0Ivory’s<\/a>\u00a0Women’s Championship in July. After Ivory defeated Tori at\u00a0SummerSlam<\/a>, their feud became more and more heated, leading to the first ever WWF women’s\u00a0Hardcore match<\/a>\u00a0on the September 6, 1999 edition of\u00a0Raw. Ivory retained her title once more in a match which involved Tori having a mirror smashed over her head and being burnt with an iron. On September 26, Tori attempted to gain a measure of retribution by attacking Ivory during a match, but instead was pushed into a\u00a0crate<\/a>\u00a0by Ivory.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tori returned in November and soon became the on-screen girlfriend of\u00a0Kane<\/a>. On December 16, Tori complained to\u00a0Triple H<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Stephanie McMahon<\/a>\u00a0about Kane, by now feuding with his former tag team partner\u00a0X-Pac<\/a>, an ally of Triple H, being placed in a Handicap match. Stephanie retorted by challenging Tori to a match that night, which she accepted. Stephanie, however, replaced herself with X-Pac, who defeated Tori with ease as Kane was ambushed backstage by the\u00a0Mean Street Posse<\/a>. Kane received a shot at the\u00a0WWF Championship<\/a>\u00a0on December 20 but with the stipulation that, if he lost to incumbent\u00a0Big Show<\/a>, Tori would have to spend the\u00a0Christmas<\/a>\u00a0weekend with X-Pac. Kane lost after the\u00a0New Age Outlaws<\/a>\u00a0distracted him. Tori insisted upon her return, however, that X-Pac had been a perfect gentleman. Around the same time, Tori began to become paranoid, and grew hysterical after\u00a0Test<\/a>\u00a0hugged her. Kane promptly destroyed Test in the ring, believing Tori’s claims that he had harassed her. Other wrestlers began to exploit Tori’s neuroticism, using it to unleash Kane on their enemies. This included\u00a0Mankind<\/a>, who manipulated the duo into attacking a\u00a0fake Mankind<\/a>\u00a0hired by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon who manipulated Tori to get Kane to attack\u00a0Chris Jericho<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kane continued to feud with X-Pac, and on January 27, 2000 he was ambushed in the ring by the\u00a0McMahon-Helmsley Faction<\/a>, X-Pac’s allies. After tying Kane up, X-Pac revealed that Tori was now his girlfriend.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Tori began accompanying X-Pac and his partner\u00a0Road Dogg<\/a>\u00a0to the ring, becoming a member of the new\u00a0D-Generation X<\/a>\u00a0in a brief\u00a0heel<\/a>\u00a0turn.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0She helped X-Pac defeat Kane at\u00a0No Way Out<\/a>, but was unable to stop Kane from defeating him at\u00a0WrestleMania 2000<\/a>\u00a0and was also given a\u00a0Stink Face<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Rikishi<\/a>\u00a0during the match. Additionally, she helped Stephanie McMahon win the Women’s Championship from Jacqueline in March. At the\u00a0King of the Ring<\/a>\u00a0in June, Tori, X-Pac, and Road Dogg participated in a table and dumpster match against the\u00a0Dudley Boyz<\/a>\u00a0that ended with the Dudleyz\u00a0powerbombing<\/a>\u00a0her through a table. Poch was sidelined with a torn\u00a0labrum<\/a>\u00a0on June 24. She underwent surgery with\u00a0Dr. James Andrews<\/a>. On the October 30 edition of\u00a0Raw, Tori returned in a segment at\u00a0WWF New York<\/a>, confronting and slapping X-Pac due to the events at King of the Ring<\/em><\/p>\n

Poch returned in January 2001 as The Black Ninja, a\u00a0masked<\/a>\u00a0villainess in a black bodysuit who helped\u00a0Raven<\/a>\u00a0retain the\u00a0Hardcore Championship<\/a>. Raven’s Hardcore title feud with Crash Holly, led to a feud between The Ninja and Crash’s on-screen cousin Molly Holly. Holly finally unmasked the ninja on the March 11, 2001 episode of Sunday Night HEAT, revealing her to be Tori. Subsequently, Poch’s character was removed from television.<\/em><\/p>\n

After working as a trainer on\u00a0WWF Tough Enough<\/a>\u00a0throughout the summer of 2001, Poch was released by the WWF in September 2001. At the time, she made accusations about Scott Levy (Raven), claiming he had verbally abused her. WWF road agent\u00a0Gerald Brisco<\/a>\u00a0and Executive Vice President of Talent Relations\u00a0Jim Ross<\/a>\u00a0claimed, however, that these allegations were not true.<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Yogini Career<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wresting and yoga are not uncommon these days as daily practice of yoga has helped many former wrestling stars stay mobile after long careers in the ring.<\/p>\n

A good example of this is Diamond Dallas Page who famously started his own brand of yoga called DDP Yoga hat\u2019s been embraced by many wrestlers and people from around the world who have found it useful for helping them to lose weight and get in better shape.<\/p>\n

Tori\u2019s career as a yogini started long before her wrestling career ended in 2001 but once she stepped foot in the ring for the last time she embraced her new career as a yogini and today she owns a yoga studio in Portland Oregon where she also is a specialist in alternative healing.<\/p>\n

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