Ashlee Levy: Queen of the Ring[The scene opens in a plain, dark room. The lights dim up, and Wes Ikeda walks from the shadows into the light.]
On behalf of the EBWF I'd like to welcome you to this installment of EBWF Home Videos: Ashlee Levy - Queen of the Ring. I'm Wes Ikeda and I will serve as your narrator as we explore Ashlee's life through interviews with her, her friends, and her family. And of course the best place to start, is at the beginning.
[Photographs of Ashlee as a baby and young child appear]
Ashlee Faith Johnson was born on September 13, 1977 to Micheal and Tammy Johnson in St. Louis, Mo. She resided on the east side of the Mississippi River in Illinois, until her parents divorced in 1982 when Ashlee was five years old. She was their only child. Ashlee and her mother moved back to the Missouri side of the river. In 1983, Ashlee's father, and his wife had Ashlee's half-brother Alex.
[Cut to an interview with Ashlee.]
Ashlee: I guess I was mostly happy growing up. I don't remember much of the divorce my parents went through, but I know that all along it was tough on my mom. We had a very close relationship when I was younger, and that was partly because I spent so much time with her. Just as much with my dad, mind you, but real personal time. We talked a lot.
Narrator: In 1989, 12 year old Ashlee Johnson was no stranger to popularity. She was a cheerleader at her Jr. High School and played for their soccer and basketball teams. Ashlee's Mom, Tammy Johnson.
Tammy: She was always an athlete, always wanted the crowd to be rooting for her, and approve of her. I mean at 12 she was the team captain of the soccer team...
Narrator: Yes, even at 12 Ashlee was showing her leadership skills. That same year in New Jersey, 24 year old Scott Levy was finishing up his wrestling training at the Monster Factory in Westville. Ashlee Johnson was a good student, and divided most of her time between both of her parents in Missouri and Illinois. She dropped out of college, much to the dismay of both of her parents. Her failed attempt at a business degree would turn out not to be much of a failure at all.
[Interview with Ashlee]
Ashlee: I showed them. That was the goal, and does it always happen that way? Does a person without a business degree, always run a successful business, no of course it doesn't, but I was going to make it happen for me.
Narrator: After deciding to drop out of school Ashlee signed a contract with the former Total Attitude Wrestling in late July 1999. She appeared days after her contract signing, as a valet for an up and coming superstar, The Badd Boy Tony Ikeda. The two quickly started a romance, but their rise to fame was cut short, when TAW closed. In late August of 1999 The Badd Boy Tony Ikeda and Ashlee Johnson arrived in the Extreme Measures Federation. They both had celebrated careers. Winning a slew of titles. Their happiness continued in October of 1999 when Tony Ikeda proposed on bended knee.
[Interview with The Badd Boy]
Tony Ikeda: Maybe it was crazy. Truthfully, we had only been together for three months, and our parents were freaking out about our career choices, and then when Ashlee told her parents she was marrying a wrestler all hell broke loose.
[Interview with Ashlee Levy]
Ashlee: We had only been together for three months, and we knew it was a big step, but he was important to me. I loved that man, and wherever that guy I met in 1999 is, well I still love him, but I haven't seen that same man from Tony Ikeda in a long time.
Narrator: While planning their wedding an unexpected wrestler showed up in the EMF in November of 1999. Tony's younger brother Wes Ikeda became just another Ikeda to be reckoned with in the EMF.
[Interview with Badd Boy]
Tony Ikeda: It was so strange. We were all there, backstage at an EMF show, and I walked over to my brother, whom I hadn't seen in a while, and I said "Hey, I want you to meet my fiance." And he walked over, and Ashlee was expecting a handshake or something...
[Interview with Wes]
Wes Ikeda: Ashlee is so classy, and the first time I met her. You should have seen the horror in her eyes when I just nodded my head, and I said "'Sup?"
[Interview with Ashlee Ikeda]
Ashlee: Wes threw me off gaurd at first, but that night we just hit it off. It was the beginning of an amazing friendship, and we knew it. I was inseprable from Tony, and then all of a sudden we became the three muskateers.
Narrator: Seeing Ashlee's quick attachment to his twenty three year old brother Tony asked Wes to be a groomsmen at their wedding. Ashlee Johnson became Ashlee Ikeda on January 7, 2000 and had a relatively quiet first year of marriage. She continued her friendship with Wes, and the three of them remained successful wrestlers in the Extreme Measures Federation. Finally in May of 2001 the three Ikeda's grew tired of the politics of the EMF. Wes Ikeda, suffering through a divorce and outrageous custody battle of his infant son, moved away from St. Louis crushing Ashlee, but together she and Tony moved on to better things.
[Interview with the Badd Boy]
Tony Ikeda: Ashlee had this overwhelming need to be in charge, and the problem was that I did too. We were swimming in money from our EMF contracts, and we decided that if we weren't happy with the way people were running the show, we were going to run the show ourselves.
Narrator: In July of 2001 Tony and Ashlee accepted two attractive business ventures. Tony became the owner and sole backer of a company called the Best Wrestlers Organization: The BWO. When Tony needed a president of the company in order to rake in the cash, he called in an old friend.
[Interview with Ashlee]
Ashlee: We had always been friends with the three original members of DX. Tony called up Shawn Michaels and convinced him to be the President of the BWO. Shawn brought my good friend Chyna along to wrestle, and the BWO became really successful.
Narrator: That same month, Ashlee Ikeda was approached with a business venture. She became the owner of the EWF, Extreme Wrestling Federation. Ashlee was doing very well for herself, until she became displeased with the way Vince McMahon was running her company. She fired him in October of 2001 and took on the position of president herself. Then Ashlee Ikeda had an ephiny.
[Interview with The Badd Boy]
Tony Ikeda: At that point in our marraige we were really happy, and we were really a unit. It was almost unreal. We had been running our seperate companies for about six months, and one night we're at home, laying in our bed. And I can remember it so vividly. We're lying there together, and she leans up, and looks at me and says, "Do you think we can monopolize wrestling?"
[Cut to a seperate interview with Ashlee]
Ashlee: And he said, "Well, what do you mean." And I said, "Can we merge our companies and become a completely unstoppable force in wrestling entertainment?"
[Back to the Badd Boy interview]
Tony Ikeda: And I said, you know what, I think we can. Then in April '02 we merged the EWF and the BWO to make the EBWF.
Narrator: Ashlee kept her position as President, and knowing the difficulties of running an even larger company she convinced her husband to take on the role as the other president of the company, causing Shawn Michaels to step down, and become a member of the EBWF Board of Directors. The EBWF remained mostly uneventful outside of the action. And there wasn't much that changed Ashlee. Just fame and fortune, but deep down she was still the same person. The EBWF ran smoothly on well planned storylines, and even better wrestling talent. Except of course for the ladies.
[Interview with Chyna]
Chyna: The female wrestlers were getting on Ashlee's last nerve, and she wanted to do something about it.
Narrator: In what may have been the greatest match in her wrestling career Ashlee Ikeda became the Co-Queen of the Ring at the King of the Ring Pay-per-view on June 23, 2002. Sharing her throne with Sunny and Molly holly. The organization continued to prosper for a year, and it was then that Ashlee Ikeda decided that the EBWF was about so much more than wrestling. In June of 2003 Ashlee concieved The EBWF Magazine. The release party was a success, and the first issue had none other than cover boy Bret Hart. It was about that time that Ashlee's good friend Wes Ikeda returned and was named Comissioner of the EBWF. Ashlee and Tony were putting up a good front, but it was what was going on behind the scenes that really mattered.
[Interview with the Badd Boy]
Tony Ikeda: In May, we were talking about having a baby, and then in June things started going crazy, things were going really wrong, and I couldn't stop it. I just couldn't, but I thought we were going to make it. I would have bet everything I had on it. Everything. Then July came...
Narrator: Yes July, Ashlee approached Raven, her old nemesis with the idea of creating a new stable which she fondly called Scare Tactic. The meeting ended most unexpectedly with Ashlee and Raven sharing a kiss that rocked the wrestling world. Everything was quiet for some time with nothing coming of the kiss, Scare Tactic went on with Raven, Triple H, Tommy Dreamer, and Rey Mysterio Jr. Then in the beginning of August, Ashlee Ikeda filed for divorce.
[Interview with the Badd Boy]
Tony Ikeda: It came out of nowhere. I never would have believed that would have happened to us. I mean I bit her back, true, but at the time I was hurt, I was a lot of things...
[Seperate interview with Ashlee]
Ashlee: We just grew apart, and it was the last thing I wanted to happen, but he truly changed, and I'll always love and care about him, but I just couldn't continue to be with him... not then.
Narrator: Ashlee and Raven continued their blossoming relationship, and in September Ashlee learned that her divorce was final, or so she though. At the end of October of '03 The Badd Boy got his revenge by announcing that Raven would have to defend his title at every show in November, and if he could get out alive, he would not have to defend the title in December.
[Interview with Wes Ikeda]
Wes Ikeda: He's struggling to get through November, he's seven days into it, and the crash happened.
Narrator: It was the unthinkable, a crash that nearly killed Ashlee, and the unborn child she was carrying.
[Interview with Raven]
Raven: I saw the wreck, and I just thought, Oh My God, not now... we were so happy, and it was unthinkable.
Narrator: Ashlee was in a long coma, and gave birth to the couple's first son Deacon Scott Levy, one week before she woke up, on December 14, 2003. She returned to the ring just weeks later, still weak, but ready to work. With the new baby, Scott and Ashlee set a wedding date. March 13, 2004. One day before Wrestlemania. One week before her wedding, Ashlee and Raven attended the 2004 EBWF Slammy Awards where Ashlee won the Babe of the Year award for the second year in a row. With The Badd Boy gone on promotional business in Europe, Ashlee had free reign of the company. And on Saturday March 13, she married Raven in a ceremony that cost an estimated 2 million dollars.
[Interview with Raven]
Raven: “You know if you would have watched the EBWF Television program back in the year 2002 you would never believe that Ashlee and I are actually married. That was back during my What About Me days…when I was battling it out in the hardcore division. I felt like Ashlee was the biggest bitch in the world and that she was holding me down. I didn’t think I was getting my shots at the titles and wasn’t getting a push that was sufficed to what I felt I deserved. So I felt the way to get even with her for this was to completely bad mouth her and Tony during every interview and promo I gave. Well I tell you what I didn’t get very far with that route either but it did get my title shots and my first chance to prove myself. I took advantage of it because once I got the title I got the power, which caused Ashlee and myself to feud even more. I joined up with Vince McMahon at one point to break away from Ashlee but eventually here side of federation rose to the top and once again I was back under Ashlee’s control. Now you have to forgive me if all this information isn’t one hundred percent accurate because those are part of my forgotten years because of the amount of drugs I was doing then. I just remember that no matter what Ashlee said I was against. I was playing the role of the mega heel that hated authority, which I still do and probably always hate authority. I am the classic loner figure in the wrestling world and I thought why should I have to listen to what a woman had to tell me? I had worked for everybody in the wrestling world and I thought they knew the business but I was the hard headed one because in all honesty Ashlee ran a promotion better than anybody else I had ever worked for. I can’t really give you a reason why I hated Ashlee so much, but the fact was I couldn’t stand her. Then one day she approached me about forming a stable together. I knew this was the big payday I need and it would shake the wrestling world all together. I mean Ashlee Ikeda and Raven were teaming up and we did take the EBWF by storm. We were spending a lot of time together and one thing lead to another and we became a couple. I know it sounds like the classic soap opera story. The hot chick leaves her husband because of a lack of attention then the bad guy comes a sweeps her off her feet. Only in wrestling this could happen right? Well that wasn’t a work and now we are husband and wife. If you told me a few years ago that I would be married to Ashlee I would have said you are full of shit. Then I found out that deep down in side she was a great loving person. She gave me a new out look on life and turned the Raven into a completely different character than I ever thought I could be. I thank her for that. She's my everything, and I love her more than she can know.
Narrator: It was Sunday March 14, Wrestlemania III that proved to be the worst day of Ashlee Ikeda's life. The Badd Boy informed Ashlee that he had lied all along. Their divorce was not final, and she was not married to Scott. He also included that he would give her the divorce with the stipulation that if she married Scott Levy, she would lose her half of the EBWF. Ashlee still gladly signed the divorce papers, and on April 6 her divorce from Tony Ikeda was truly final. But stormy times were ahead for Ashlee when she found out that her long time friend Wes Ikeda was set on remarrying his ex-wife Katrina Ikeda. In mid April, Wes and Ashlee were in a shouting match, and it appeared their friendship could not be mended. Despite the hardships on Saturday April 18, 2004 Ashlee Ikeda did the unthinkable and married Scott Levy in a private New Jersey ceremony, announcing it the next day at Backlash. After the marriage her friendship with Wes was on again, and Ashlee was walking away from the EBWF forever.
[Interview with Ashlee]
Ashlee: I'll make it. I have hope that I'll make it. With Scott, everything will be okay.
[Interview with Chyna]
Chyna: Scott is so protective of Ashlee. Wherever she goes there's body gaurds and fans. He wants to keep her safe. He would do anything for her.
Narrator: And now the multi-millionaire is putting her time away from the ring to good use. She is volunteering for several charities, and is also spending her time doing commercial spots for the likes of Max Factor and Calvin Klien. Proving even the queen diva gets the best advertisement deals.
[Cut to the Calvin Klien Add. Ashlee Levy is shown standing in a low cut black tank top, and a snug pair of CK jeans...]
Ashlee: What comes between me and my Calvin's? .... Nothing.
Narrator: She may not be in wrestling anymore, but believe it or not, Ashlee Levy is making a name for herself in other places. This hot mama is looking at movie scripts and even more advertising deals for the near future.
[Cut back to Wes in the dimly lit room.]
Wes Ikeda: This has been Ashlee Levy: Queen of the Ring. Thanks for watching.
[Fade to Black]
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