Jazz Carlene Begnaud ( August 27 , 1973 ) 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 . Career . Extreme Championship Wrestling 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 . Jazz returned in early 2003 and involved herself in a feud with Status and Victoria . She immediately took out Stratus and dominated in matches against Molly Holly and Jacqueline . She competed in a triple threat match at WrestleMania XIX against Stratus and Victoria , but Stratus walked away with the title . During this time , she took on the managerial services of Theodore Long , which led to another Women ' s Championship reign after defeating Stratus at Backlash . She had another successful title defense at Judgment Day in a Triple Threat match involving Stratus , Victoria and Jacqueline . However she lost the title in a battle royal to Gail Kim on June 30 . In reality , she had a chipped and dislocated shoulder and needed several weeks of rehabilitation . she returned from injury in early 2004 , but was used sparingly . Later that year , she became manager and valet to real - life husband Rodney Mack . She was released from WWE in November 2004 due to the creative department ' s lack of ideas for her character .