sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Wrestling Observer Live via www.f4wonline.com

As noted earlier, Lacey Von Erich, daughter of former WWE Superstar “The Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich, has signed on with Total Nonstop Wrestling. She debuted at this past Tuesday’s Impact taping (set to air next Thursday), assisting Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne. The third generation wrestler was strictly signed to replace Angelina Love in “The Beautiful People” faction. Even though Love doesn’t have her employment visa, she is still living in Tampa while waiting for everything to be sorted out. The signing of Von Erich would seem to indicate that the company doesn’t see Love’s visa situation being resolved anytime soon.

While Von Erich most certainly has the looks necessary to be a member of “The Beautiful People,” she is worlds apart from Love in terms of wrestling ability, experience and presence. Von Erich started her career in professional wrestling roughly two years ago and has wrestled sporadically throughout that time. It is believed that she has taken part in no more than twenty matches throughout career — far, far less than anyone else on the roster. When she was in WWE’s developmental camp in late 2007, she flamed out quickly and didn’t receive high marks. In fact, she only lasted four months in the company before being let go, which is quite startling for a developmental wrestler. While Love (as Angel Williams) and Taylor Wilde (as Shantelle Taylor) were in WWE’s developmental system and also let go the very same year, both moves were heavily criticized by those who had trained with them or had seen them on Deep South Wrestling television. On the other hand, there was no such criticism of Von Erich or Trenesha Biggers (a.k.a. Rhaka Khan) being let go.

Despite the addition of Von Erich to the “The Beautiful People,” the future prospects of the group very much remains in question. Internally, the senior member of the group, Velvet Sky, is still seen as a liability in the ring despite several years of wrestling experience whereas Rayne has essentially been treated as a jobber/punching bag throughout her brief tenure in TNA. In fact, since joining the company in February, Rayne still has yet to score a single pinfall victory on television.

See *BEFORE* and *AFTER* pics of Madison Rayne (>>)