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Carlene Begnaud

Carlene Denise Moore-Begnaud (born August 27, 1973) better known as Jazz is an American professional wrestler and two-time former WWE Women's Champion. Begnaud has previously worked for the original Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s Raw and ECW brands.

Career

She was approached about training to become a wrestler and went to a wrestling school in Louisiana run by Rod Price and had her first wrestling match against Jacqueline. Moore was just six-months into her training with Rod Price when she got a job with Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Extreme Championship Wrestling (2000)

Begnaud, under the name Jazzmine, was a part of a tight-knit group, consisting of then up-and-coming superstars such as Jason and Justin Credible. She later became pushed around because of her gender, leading to a feud with Jason Knight. On most occasions in facing Jason, she won emphatically and continued to be a regular face in ECW. She appeared on a random basis before leaving the company for good in early 2000, just under a year before ECW was shut down due to bankruptcy.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2001–2004)

Having worked a number of house shows as try-outs during September 2001, Begnaud, now wrestling as Jazz, signed a two-year contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). She made her formal debut in the company at the Survivor Series in a Six-Pack Challenge match for the WWF Women's Championship, which had been vacated by Chyna after her departure from the company. Ultimately, Trish Stratus came away with the victory and the championship that night. Several weeks later, Jazz attacked Stratus and Mighty Molly during a title defense. This led to a feud between Stratus and Jazz which led to Jazz defeating Stratus on the February 4, 2002 edition of Raw to win her first Women's Championship. The feud went on for several months with Jazz making successful title defenses against Stratus, Lita and Ivory. Due to a torn ACL, however, Jazz dropped the title back to Stratus in a Hardcore-Rules match on the May 13, 2002 edition of Raw, which also involved Bubba Ray Dudley and Steven Richards.

Jazz returned in early 2003 and involved herself in the feud between Stratus and Victoria. During this time, she took on the managerial services of Teddy Long, which led to another Women's Championship reign after defeating Stratus at Backlash. She kept the title for several months but once more was forced to drop the title due to injury, losing it in a battle royal to Gail Kim on June 30. She returned from injury in early 2004, but for the most part, she wrestled on Heat and did not take part in any major feuds. Later that year, she became manager and valet for her real-life husband Rodney Mack before being released by WWE on November 4, 2004.

Independent circuit (2004–Present)

From January 16, 2005 she started working on the independent circuit and appeared at the unofficial ECW reunion show, Hardcore Homecoming. In late 2005, Jazz and Rodney Mack opened Dirtysouth Championship Wrestling (DCW), an independent promotion based in Louisiana. DCW was renamed Downsouth Championship Wrestling due to copyright issues. Jazz won the new DCW Louisiana State Title on June 3, 2006.

Jazz also went on to perform in Women's Extreme Wrestling (WEW), where she won the company's World Heavyweight Championship in May 2005 in a Fatal Four M'enage Quatro match against Angel Orsini, Mercedes Martinez, and Simply Luscious when the previous champion, Tai "Killer Weed", was forced to relinquish the title due to an injury. While still WEW champion, on June 24, 2005, Jazz defeated April Hunter to win the NWA Cyberspace Women's championship.

In May 2007, Jazz and Rodney Mack were booked by the Queens of Chaos promotion in France. A documentary will be released in 2008 from the event.

Return to WWE (2006)

On May 4, 2006, it was confirmed on WWE's official website that Jazz would be a part of the new ECW brand. Jazz made her first appearance as part of the new ECW as a face during the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head show on June 7, where she faced the current Women's Champion at that time, Mickie James in a losing effort. Jazz, however, did not continue an on-screen role in the brand and only made a few appearances at ECW house shows before returning to DCW in September. Though in ECW, she stayed under contract with WWE until January 18, 2007 when she, along with her husband and several other wrestlers were released by WWE.