Dream come true
for Jazz, Mack
by Phil Speer
March 6, 2003
This is what Jazz and Rodney Mack have been dreaming about.
The two Superstars, real-life husband and wife, have both
made it in WWE. Not only that, but over the last couple
of weeks, Jazz has returned to RAW after recovering from
knee surgery, and Rodney, a month after making his WWE debut,
moved to RAW from SmackDown! That means that the couple
can be together -- travel together, eat together, compete
together -- almost all the time.
"We're so happy now," Jazz said. "There's
no failing now."
Of course, Rodney Mack was ecstatic when he made his television
debut for WWE, on the Jan. 16 episode of SmackDown!
"That'd be the most exciting night of my life,"
he said. "I've been working for this all my life. A
lifelong dream became a reality."
The only problem was that it looked as if his wife would
be returning to RAW. Since the brand extension, the RAW
team has generally worked from Friday to Monday, while the
SmackDown! team has competed in different cities from Saturday
to Tuesday. That means Rodney and Jazz would only be able
to see each other on Wednesday and Thursday -- assuming
travel time or appearances didn't cut into those days off
-- and once a month at pay-per-views.
While he was still on SmackDown!, Rodney had said, "It's
a little bit rough (being apart from Jazz), but it's overshadowed
by the accomplishments we both have. Hopefully, in due time
we'll be able to travel together. That'll be icing on the
cake."
It didn't take long for WWE officials to ice the cake.
It just didn't make much sense to keep them apart. In addition
to the toll it would take on any relationship if a husband
and wife see each other no more than 48 hours a week, there
were also significant financial reasons to move Rodney to
RAW. The difference between both of them renting cars and
staying in hotels apart versus together adds up to several
thousand dollars a year.
With that in mind, WWE officials came up with a way to
move Rodney to RAW before he was firmly established as John
Cena's runnin' buddy on SmackDown! He debuted as Teddy Long's
new associate on the Feb. 16 episode of HEAT, and then made
his RAW debut one night later.
A few weeks prior, on the Jan. 27 RAW from Chicago, his
wife had returned after nine months away, recovering from
surgery in early May to repair a torn anterior cruciate
ligament (ACL) in her left knee. The former Women's Champion
came out during RAW in Chicago and attacked her longtime
rival,
"I couldn't believe it. I never thought I'd get a
reaction like that," Jazz said. She added that she
didn't know if the people were happy to see her, or just
curious about whom she was going to attack. She assumes
it was a little of both.
The injury was the result of several years of wear and
tear on an already surgically repaired knee. She first tore
that ACL when she was playing basketball during her senior
year of high school. But today she says she's "very
confident" that the knee will hold up to the rigors
of sports entertainment.
"Now it's stronger than the right knee," she
said. "It's really strong."
Jazz said that, as opposed to when she first tore the ligament
at age 18, she knew what to expect this time around, and
knew better how to rehabilitate it. It was an aggressive
rehab: Three weeks after surgery, she was already running
-- with a person on her shoulders.
"I feel great," she said. "I feel like I'm
in the best shape of my life right now -- mentally and physically.
It's time to rock 'n' roll."
The same could be said for her husband of one year, whose
real name is Rodney Begnaud. The 6-foot-3, 270-pound powerhouse
competed as Redd Dogg and Badd Dogg while at Ohio Valley
Wrestling, WWE's developmental territory in Louisville,
Ky. "Dogg" comes from the fact that he grew up
on a pit bull farm in Lafayette, La.
Much like his wife, who was a star basketball player in
high school and college before the torn ACL ended her career,
Mack has a formidable amateur background. In high school,
he was a state heavyweight champion in wrestling and an
All-American in football, where he played defensive and
offensive line. He was also on the track team, competing
in shot-put and discus.
He played football for one year at the University of Southwest
Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette),
and then transferred to the University of Arkansas-Monticello,
playing three years on the defensive line, and earning All-American
honors. (He's one semester away from a degree in health/physical
education, which he says he may one day go back and earn.)
Once his college eligibility was up, he coached defensive
line and strength and conditioning at Arkansas-Monticello.
"Then I chose to do this," he said, referring
to sports entertainment.
He returned to his hometown of Lafayette because the legendary
Junkyard Dog was signing autographs at the local Wal-Mart.
"(JYD) asked me if I was interested in wrestling,
which I was," Mack said. "It was a lifelong dream."
Indeed it was. Mack says that when he was 4, his mom went
into labor. Mack and his father dropped his mom off at the
hospital so they could go see Andre the Giant perform at
a wrestling show in town.
Once Mack met JYD -- who ran a wrestling school in Scott,
La., 10 minutes from Lafayette -- Mack moved back to his
hometown and began training. Tragically, JYD died in a car
accident just one month later; another trainer at the school,
Rod Price, took on a more active role, and Mack credits
Price for "teaching me everything I know." It
was at the school that Rodney first met Jazz.
"We were friends for a long time before we dated,"
Mack said. But they had so much in common. To pay the bills
while he attended wrestling school, Mack worked at a loading
dock and the gym where he trained.
"I would get off work, sometimes at 10 o'clock at
night," Mack said. "I'd go over to JYD's apartment.
Jazz (who lived there at the time) was usually sound asleep.
I'd wake her up and we'd go straight to the weight room.
She was the only workout partner I ever had that lasted."
It was Jazz's work ethic that Mack was attracted to. "She
wanted something out of life," he said. "You could
tell." They started dating in November 1997, and have
toiled together in the wrestling business, striving to make
it to WWE, ever since.
They moved to Queens, N.Y., when they were both hired by
ECW. "It was a culture shock," says Mack, the
small-town Southern gentleman. They worked for the company
until it went out of business, and then moved to Dallas
to work for independent promotions.
While there, Mack tried his hand at shoot fighting. "I
never practiced," he said. "I just competed for
the love of competing." Still, he went undefeated in
six fights in Texas, and three Toughman competitions in
Arkansas.
In the spring of 2001, both received a tryout with WWE.
"They told us both we'd be receiving calls," Mack
said. "She got called first." Jazz made her WWE
television debut at Survivor Series 2001 while Mack was
on a wrestling tour in South Africa.
When he returned from the country, he reported to OVW,
where he spent a year until getting called up last November
to WWE to wrestling in non-televised matches. The couple
still lives in Louisville but plans to move to Lafayette
next month -- now that they've both accomplished their dream
and made it to WWE.
Credit: WWE.COM
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