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| Lilian Garcia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | August 19, 1973 Florence, South Carolina |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Lilian Garcia |
| Billed height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) |
| Billed weight | 110 lb (50 kg) |
| Billed from | New York |
| Debut | 1999 |
Lilian Garcia (born August 19 , 1973 in Florence, South Carolina) is a Puerto Rican best known as a ring announcer and Diva for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its RAW brand. She also pursues a career as a professional singer.
Early life and career
She graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina. Garcia was a top ten finalist in the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant. She was a VJ in Atlanta, Georgia, where she also had a drive-time afternoon radio show. She appeared in the 1990 Robbie Benson movie Modern Love as a singer.
Lilian was also one half of the popular morning show on radio station WYYS,"YES 97" in Columbia, SC with Chuck Finley in the early 90's. Given her vast unseen and untapped talents, Lilian soon outgrew the role as co-host.
WWE
Her first "run-in" with a wrestler was September 13, 1999, when Jeff Jarrett put Lilian in the Figure-Four-Leglock after she announced that he had lost a match to Luna Vachon by disqualification.
Her second major involvement occurred on December 13, 1999 during an episode of RAW. Miss Kitty was to meet an unknown opponent for a Women's Championship match in a pool of chocolate pudding. After Lilian announced her, Miss Kitty grabbed the mic and informed Lilian that she was now to be known as The Kat. Her opponent, Tori, came out for their match and right after the two women began, X-Pac came to poolside in a skin diving suit complete with snorkel, flippers and goggles. As he was adjusting his goggles, Tori jumped on his back, causing both of them to fall into the pool with X-Pac landing up on top of Tori, giving Miss Kitty an easy pinfall. Lilian announced the winner as "Miss Kitty", which infuriated The Kat and caused her to throw Lilian into the pudding pool. Lilian, who was wearing a skirt that night, had her BARE ASS exposed. .
Lilian was used as a shield by Stephanie McMahon on the April 2, 2001 edition of Raw. Lilian was less than thrilled when Stephanie hid behind Lilian so that Trish Stratus would not strike her with a leather strap. Stephanie shoved Lilian into Trish, causing both to go down hard.
Lilian gave a rendition of the National Anthem on September 13, 2001, at the first Smackdown! event after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and received a standing ovation. During the show, the WWE ran pretaped segments from the superstars in regards to the attacks. Garcia had this to say: "Well, to say the least, this has been a real roller coaster of a week. And especially because I live in New York City. Um, I have loved ones there, and I'm just very fortunate and very glad that a specific one didn't get to go to his meeting at 8:30 in the morning that he was supposed to be at at the Twin Towers, and uh...so I thank God for that, and I still don't know about a lot of my friends. I have...uh, we'll be finding out, I guess, little by little. I pray for everybody there..."
She once had a minor feud with fellow announcer Howard Finkel. The feud began on August 5, 2002 when Three Minute Warning (Rosey and Jamal) squashed Lilian after her "bickering" with Finkel wasn't "entertaining" enough for Eric Bischoff. The feud would culminate when she defeated Finkel in an evening gown vs. tuxedo match with help from Stacy Keibler and Trish Stratus, when the three stripped Finkel down to his underwear..
2003
During a RAW episode in November 2003, she announced, correctly, that Trish Stratus had won a Bra and Panties match against [[Jackie who had been striped to he red bra and panties Went over to lilian and striped her to her black bra and panties The two argued before Rico, whom Jackie managed, separated the two. After that was over lilian got back in the ring and dispite being in her bra and panties she contintued to announce.
2004
At SummerSlam 2004, Lilian was used as a shield by Triple H so that Eugene would not attack him. As Eugene was advancing on Triple H, Hunter grabbed Lilian by the hair and arm, dragging her backwards as Eugene and Jack Doan yelled at him to let Lilian go. Triple H threw Lilian to the ground, her left knee striking the protective padding hard. Lilian was not able to continue on with the show, as she was shown seconds later being helped to the back by Mike Chioda.
2005
In June 2005, Lilian started a romance with Viscera and accompanied him to the ring for a brief time. She soon returned to her ring announcing only to inform Viscera that she wanted to get married at Vengeance 2005 on June 26. At Vengeance, however, Viscera dumped Lilian in favor of The Godfather's Hos when The Godfather appeared to try to talk Viscera out of marriage.
However at Wrestlemania 22 after winning the Pre-Show 18-Man Battle Royal, Viscera then preceded to surprise Lilian by dancing for her as well as kissing her unexpectantly leaving her suspicious to wonder if they were back together or not.
Lilian made WWE history by becoming the first female to announce a Wrestlemania at Wrestlemania 22.
On the October 11, 2005 edition of RAW, Stephanie McMahon slapped Lilian for looking disgusted after Stephanie slapped WWE timekeeper Marc Yeaton.
2006
Lilian found herself in danger on the April 17, 2006 edition of RAW, when she was nearly chokeslammed by Kane who had become delusional and mistakenly thought Lilian mentioned "May 19", the release date of See No Evil. Luckily for Lilian, Big Show came out to save her.
Viscera again became a part of Lilian's life on the May 22, edition of RAW, when he surprisingly proposed to Lilian in the middle of the ring. The proposal was interrupted by Umaga before Lilian could answer.
On the June 5, 2006 edition of RAW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Lilian was inadvertently knocked off the ring apron by Charlie Haas, suffering a sprained wrist. Although the injury forced her to leave RAW early that night she was back to work at the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head show the following Wednesday.
The following week on Raw the (legit) accident was worked into a storyline when Charlie Haas tried to apologize to Lilian, but was interrupted by Viscera who refused to accept the apology and attacked him. Following the apology Charlie Haas became a thorn in Lilian's side, constantly making appearances when he wasn't involved in the show in order to get near Lilian. On more than one occasion he attempted to force a kiss on her.
On the July 10, 2006, Viscera and Charlie Haas met in one on one action. In the middle of the match, Lilian got into the ring and pleaded with both Superstars to stop fighting. She said that she just wanted to be friends with both of them. With that, Haas raked Viscera across the face, temporarily blinding him. Then, thinking she was Haas, Viscera hoisted Lilian up and sent her crashing to the mat with a thunderous Samoan Drop. Lilian has suffered kayfabe internal injuries. While she did not suffer any broken bones or ribs, she did have the wind knocked out of her and was unable to continue with the show. Todd Grisham took Lilian's place as ring announcer while she sold the injuries, before she returned a couple of weeks later.
On August 7, 2006, John Cena faced Viscera in a one-on-one match. During the match, Viscera was trying to impress Lilian but Lilian disapproved. Then, Cena gave Viscera an FU and Lilian gave Cena a standing ovation.
2007
On the January 1, 2007 edition of RAW, Lilian was attacked by Victoria, targeted as an 'undeserving diva' by Victoria and placed on her hit list. Victoria attempted to execute her Widow's Peak on Lilian, but Mickie James came to Lillian's rescue.
At New Years Revolution, after Mickie James won her match against Victoria, Lilian got in the ring and raised Mickie's hand along with the referee, Candice Michelle, and Maria.
On the March 12th edition of WWE Raw, Chris Masters wanted Lilian to take the Masterlock Challenge. He then tried to get Lilian in the Masterlock, but Lilian was saved by Super Crazy
On the Raw after WrestleMania 23, Mr. McMahon was wearing a hat to cover his newly shaven bald head. Bobby Lashley came out and took Mr. McMahon's hat off. Mr. McMahon then tried to cover his head with other things including Jerry Lawler's crown, Jim Ross's hat, and the ring apron. After Lashley ripped the apron off of McMahon's head, he then hid his head under Lilian's long skirt. Lashley then ripped off Lilian's skirt, exposing both of them in the process . Todd Grisham took over announcing duties for the next match, but Lilian was back announcing for the subsequent matches wearing a different skirt. This segment sparked a huge surge of Lilian searches on the internet, with seraches for "Lilian Garcia" jumping 301% and becoming the 4th most searched for term on Yahoo the day after - a testament to Lilian's popularity and sex appeal.
Diva
Lilian took part in her first major Diva publication in 2005 with the release of the Divas 2005 swimsuit magazine and related DVD Viva Las Divas of the WWE. Garcia had not taken part in any previous Diva DVD's or magazines before, so her "Diva" title was somewhat debated amongst fans up until this point. Although a veteran in the ladies locker room, she hadn't really done much without a microphone in hand. However, her participation in the Divas shoot has gained her more attention and popularity amongst fans. Afterwards, Lilian participated in several promotional TV segments for the DVD and had her first real storyline involvement with the WWE Superstar, Viscera. Lilian also participated in a lingerie pillow fight which was originally between Christy Hemme, Maria Kanellis, and Candice Michelle (though it was very brief and in her normal announcer clothes). Such participation in diva segments by Lilian has been very rare, with many fans often complaining at her lack of involvement. Lilian has also been chosen many times on WWE.com as a Daily Diva.
The Rock
Prior to Unforgiven 2001, Lilian had a comedic interview with The Rock in which he jokingly claimed that she was madly in love with him (despite the fact that she had shown zero affection for him before this), going as far as saying that she dreamt of marrying The Rock and couldn't stop thinking of the "The People's Strudel". This would become an ongoing theme for most of The Rock's special appearances in the years to come, as he continues to make teasing references as if he and Lilian were an item, in which includes The Rock asking Lilian if she still likes "The People's Strudel". Respectfully, The Rock said that she "looked" like one of the monsters from the movie he starred in, Doom.
At Wrestlemania XX, The Rock 'n' Sock Connection (The Rock and Mick Foley) teamed up against Evolution (Randy Orton, Ric Flair and Batista). While Mick Foley was starting his pre-match interview, The Rock interrupted him, eventually telling Lilian to "Stop looking at the 'People's Package'... the buffet is closed", with Garcia looking obviously amused.
At Backlash 2003, Lilian held an interview with The Rock regarding his match with Bill Goldberg that night. The Rock brushed off her questions, having Lilian rub on his arm before stating that Rock vs. Goldberg would be bigger than that. The two were obviously flirting, as Rock called Lilian "Little Giggle Panties" and Lilian was smiling and blushing as Rock was talking.
During the 2004 Diva Search, The Rock made a special appearance during which he joked that Lilian used to work at the sperm bank and got fired for "drinking on the job", at which Lilian laughed in shock.
Singing career
Lilian has been singing since a young age, and when she's not announcing for WWE, she pursues a career as a singer. One of the early venues for her talent was the role of karaoke host at the Nitelites nightclub in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina and, later, at the West Columba Ramada. She often sings the national anthem at home games of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and has performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee and as an opening act for James Brown. Kathy Lee reportedly was thrown by Lilian's grace and easy repartee with Regis Philbin.
The first time she sang in the WWE was after the six man tag team match of Mr. McMahon and Shane McMahon and then heel, Triple H VS The Brothers of Destruction and The Rock. Since Vince McMahon's team lost, he forced Lillian Garcia to sing. It turned out that she had a really good voice. Vince embarrassed her by saying, "The next time you call a match like that, you'll be singing the blues."
She also gave a rendition of the American National Anthem at the live WWE Smackdown! Show in Houston immediately after 9/11.
She also sang O' "Canada" at the Air Canada Centre at the appropos Unforgiven 2006.
Lilian released her first single, "Shout", in 2002. In November of that same year, she recorded Torrie Wilson's theme song, "Need A Little Time", for the WWE Anthology album. In January 2004 WWE released the album WWE Originals which included a new track from Garcia that was inspired by Paul Brown, entitled, "You Just Don't Know Me At All". This became Lilian's WWE theme song for WWE live events.
Out of all the musicians who have opened WrestleMania events (most commonly singing "America the Beautiful"), Lilian is one of two singers to have sung the opening song at WrestleMania twice (2000 and 2005). Aretha Franklin is the other.
Since mid-2005 she has been working on her first solo album, said to include Latin artist Jon Secada on a duet as well as co-writing several songs on her album. Jon Secada has long been a hero of Garcia's. During her days working at the Columbia, SC nightclub Nitelites, she would often he heard belting out one of Jon's tunes. The album, which, by all accounts is to be spectacular, is scheduled to be released in early 2007. Garcia's fans, including Kevin Federline, who has said he has admired her from her early appearances on WWE, are anxiously awaiting its release.
Personal life
Lilian is currently dating nobody.On March 17, 2007 Lilian suffered a knee injury while skiing in Killington, Vermont when she twisted her knee in heavy snow. The injury caused the avid skiier to miss Raw, as she underwent an MRI. The MRI revealed that Lilian had a torn ACL in her right knee, and that she would require surgery to fix it. However, Garcia convinced doctors to hold off until after April 5th . The surgery is taking place on April 6, 2007 in New York City by Dr. Chim Richolds .