The Biography

is an American professional wrestler known by the ring name of Jazz. She is known for her tenure with the defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling and better known later for her time with World Wrestling Entertainment 1999-2000 After dropping out of college, Begnaud was approached about starting a career as a professional wrestler and joined a wrestling school in Louisana. She was originally inspired to be a wrestler when she saw Jacqueline perform. Begnaud trained with Rod Price for six to eight months, and she later made her professional wrestling debut in a match against Jacqueline. Using the name Jazzmine, she later joined Extreme Championship Wrestling as part of an alliance called the Impact Players, which included wrestlers such as Jason Knight, Lance Storm and Justin Credible. She later began a feud with Jason and defeated him at Heat Wave in 1999. She appeared on a random basis before leaving the company before ECW was shut down due to bankruptcy. World Wrestling Entertainment 2001-2004 In late 2001, the World Wrestling Federation expressed interest in Begnaud, and she was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling for six months to train. Now wrestling as Jazz, She signed a two-year contract with the WWF. She made her formal debut in the company as a Heel at Survivor Series in a Six-Pact Challenge match for the WWF Women's Championship, which had been vacated by Chyna after her departue from the company. Ultimately, Trish Stratus came away with the victory and the championship that night after Stratus pinned Ivory. Jazz then entered a feud with Stratus when she attacked both her and Molly Holly, after Stratus retained the title. This led to her facing Stratus at the 2002 Royal Rumble for the championship, but failed to do so. However, on the February 4, 2002 edition of Raw Jazz won her first Women's Championship. Perhaps her biggest win with the company came at WrestleMania X-8 when she scored a clean pin on Lita, in a triple threat women's championship match that included Trish Stratus. On May 6, 2002 the World Wrestling Federation was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment, subsequently renaming the title to the WWE Women's Championship. As a result, Jazz became the last women to hold the women's title under the WWF banner and the first women to hold it under the WWE banner. Her feud with stratus went on for several months with Jazz making successful title defenses against Stratus and Ivory. Due to a torn ACL in her knee, Jazz dropped the women's title back to Stratus in a Hardcore-Rules match on the May 13 edition of Raw, which also involded Bubba Ray Dudley and Steven Richards.