Terri GoldTerri Gold
STATUS: Face. WOW Champion.
WRESTLING: Terri is a petite, athletic wrestler who spends a lot of time in the air. Interestingly, she is clearly inferior as a wrestler to Beckie the Farmer's Daughter and Jungle Grrrl, the two WOW wrestlers with similar styles, but they made Terri the champ anyway. She has blown her share of spots. Terri's finisher is the "Perfect 10" (moonsault). The Perfect 10 is a terrific move, but it's always been a little difficult for me to buy that such a small woman can knock someone senseless long enough to climb up the ropes and perform the move. That's nitpicking for you (either that, or she needs to do it faster).
CHARACTER: For someone who (with the exception of one match) has been the WOW champion throughout, Terri is not that great on the mic. Her "I will take on anybody, anytime, anywhere" always comes out as more of a whine than a threat. She does have a sincerity -- from all reports, she really is this humble and nice in real life -- that will work greatly to her advantage once she gets more comfortable speaking. They changed her costume and made it look significantly better than what you see here.
LOOKS: She's very tan and fit, no doubt about that. I don't find her sexy, but that might have to do with her character.
COMMENTS: Many people have suggested that Terri develop "a bit of an attitude" or even turn heel. I think this would be a mistake, at least for the foreseeable future. The beautiful thing about the way Terri is right now is that she totally polarizes people. Lots of people think she's a force for good and an inspiration; lots of people think she's boring and wishy-washy. Polarizing people is a great quality for your champion to have. It means people will care about her title matches. If she were a more ambiguous character, everyone would just be like "well, I kind of like her", and there wouldn't be as much fervor. I'm not saying Terri should be the champ forever, of course, but I have no problem at all with her as the top face. She has a lot of talent. She does need to work on the mic skills, though.
UPDATES:
2/25/01 (show #21):
- Terri may or may not still be champ after Selina Majors
interfered in her match with Thug and laid Terri out
with a trashcan lid. Cue Batman announcer: "What's this?? Selina's shifting
sympathies? The champ's concussive concession? Tune in next week, same WOW time,
same WOW channel!"
Interestingly enough, Terri busted out a sleeperhold this week. Many fans, including myself, have called for more submission holds in WOW.