5 Things you didn't know about former WWE Superstar Kelly Kelly (Barbie Blank) 

#1 A traumatic injury altered her career path

An injury changed Kelly Kelly's career path

Barbie Blank was not supposed to be a professional wrestler. Having entered the world of competitive gymnastics at the young age of 6, Blank once dreamed of being an Olympian, but fate had other plans.

Blank suffered a traumatic injury which brought her gymnastics career to a crashing halt.

She told Lilian Garcia,

"I was competing in gymnastics, but I had broken my tailbone at home. I was standing on a bedpost, balancing on one leg and [the post went through me]. I was in the hospital for three months. I had four hematomas. I was bleeding internally. My mom had to donate my blood - I was losing so much blood."

She was 9 years old when she suffered the injury and had a complete change of heart about gymnastics,

"After that I was like, 'I can't.' I couldn't move how I did before. It wasn't gonna happen to me. It was like, 'Where are you going to go? Are you going to go to college for it? Are you going to go to the Olympics? No.' At this point, it was like, 'Do you want to have a childhood? Do you want to have friends, or do you want to just be in the gym 24/7?' I was like, 'No, I'd rather be with my friends.'"

Blank transitioned into competitive cheerleading, tennis, and swimming. As a teenager, she became a model, which was how she was eventually discovered by WWE.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, Sportskeeda)

Readers may watch Kelly Kelly on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia below: