LILIAN GARCIA

Lilian Garcia (born August 19, 1973 in Florence, South Carolina) is best known as a ring announcer and Diva for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its RAW brand. She also pursues a career as a professional singer. Early life and career Lilian spent eight years of her childhood in Madrid, Spain and is fluent in Spanish. She graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina. Lilian was a top ten finalist in the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant. She was a VJ in Atlanta, Georgia, where she also had a drive-time afternoon radio show. She appeared in the 1990 movie Modern Love as a singer. WWE Lilian Garcia made WWE history in 2006 when she became the first female ever to announce WrestleMania at WrestleMania 22. Lilian has occasionally been involved in WWE storylines, and has been much more active on camera than her predecessor Mike McGuirk. Her first "run-in" with a wrestler was September 13, 1999, when Jeff Jarrett put Lilian in the Figure-Four-Leglock after she announced that he had lost the match. Her second major involvement was on December 13, 1999 during an episode of RAW. Miss Kitty was to meet an unknown opponent for a Women's Championship match in a pool of chocolate pudding. After Lilian announced her, Miss Kitty grabbed the mic chad patton marrried herand informed Lilian that she was now to be known as The Kat. Her opponent, Tori, came out for their match and right after the two women began, X-Pac came to poolside in a skin diving suit complete with snorkel, flippers and goggles. As he was adjusting his goggles Tori jumped on his back causing both of them to fall into the pool with X-Pac landing up on top of Tori, giving Miss Kitty an easy pinfall. Lilian announced the winner as "Miss Kitty," which infuriated The Kat causing her to throw Lilian into the pudding pool. Lilian, who was wearing a skirt that night, had her underwear exposed and she was obviously quite embarrassed.  She once had a minor feud with fellow announcer Howard Finkel, whom she defeated in an evening gown vs. tuxedo match including an event on August 5, 2002, when Three Minute Warning (Rosey and Jamal) squashed Lilian after her "bickering" with Finkel wasn't "entertaining" enough for Eric Bischoff. During a RAW episode in November 2003, she announced, correctly, that Trish Stratus had won a Bra and Panties match against Miss Jackie. Jackie took exception to this, ripping the buttons off her shirt. Garcia then removed the shirt to reveal a black bra. The two argued before Rico, whom Jackie managed, separated the two. In June 2005, Lilian started a romance with Viscera and accompanied him to the ring for a brief time. She soon returned to her ring announcing only to inform Viscera that she wanted to get married at Vengeance 2005 on June 26. At Vengeance, however, Viscera dumped Lilian in favor of The Godfather's Hos when The Godfather appeared to try to talk Viscera out of marriage. The two would rekindle their romance later. On October 10, 2005, Lilian was slapped in the face by Stephanie McMahon On November 14, 2005, the day after the passing of Eddie Guerrero, along with many other employees of the WWE, she participated in a video tribute for Eddie. In her video testimonial, she stated that she bonded with Eddie, recalling that they would speak Spanish all the time when they were around each other. Her fondest memories of Eddie were when they went to Iraq for the WWE's annual show for the troops. She said that the troops would go and thank him for being there with them and performing for them, but she said that Eddie would say, "No, don't thank me, because thank you for what you're doing for our country." She called Eddie one of the most humble people she has ever met, and she finished her tribute by saying, "Te quiero muchisimo, y espero que Dios esté contigo, adiós." (I love you very much, and I hope God is with you, goodbye.) Lilian found herself in danger on the April 17, 2006 edition of RAW, when she was nearly chokeslammed by Kane who had become delusional and mistakenly thought Lilian mentioned "May 19," the release date of See No Evil. Luckily for Lilian, Big Show came out to save her. Viscera again became a part of Lilians life on the May 22, edition of RAW, when he surprisingly proposed to Lilian in the middle of the ring. The proposal was interrupted by Umaga before Lilian could answer. On the June 5, 2006 edition of RAW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Lilian was inadvertently knocked off the ring apron by Charlie Haas, suffering a sprained wrist. Although the injury forced her to leave RAW early that night she was back to work at the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head the following Wednesday. The following week on Raw the (legit) accident was worked into a storyline when Charlie Haas tried to apologize to Lilian, but was interrupted by Viscera who refused to accept the apology and attacked him. Following the apology Charlie Hass became a thorn in Lilians side, constantly making appearances when he wasn't involved in the show in order to get near Lilian. On more than one occasion he attempted to force a kiss on her. On the July 10, 2006, Viscera and Charlie Haas met in one on one action. In the middle of the match, Lilian got into the ring and pleaded with both Superstars to stop fighting. She said that she just wanted to be friends with both of them. With that, Haas raked Big Vis across the face, temporarily blinding him. Then, thinking she was Haas, Viscera hoisted Lilian up and sent her crashing to the mat with a thunderous Samoan Drop. Lilian has suffered kayfabe internal injuries. While she did not suffer any broken bones or ribs, she did have the wind knocked out of her and was unable to continue with the show. Todd Grisham took Lilian's place as ring announcer while she sold the injuries, before she returned a couple of weeks later. The Diva Lilian took part in her first major Diva publication in 2005 with the release of the Viva Las Divas of the WWE DVD and Divas 2005 magazine. Garcia had not taken part in any previous Diva DVD's or magazines before, so her "Diva" title was somewhat debated amongst fans up until this point. Although a veteran in the ladies locker room, she hadn't really done much without a microphone in hand. However, her participation in the Divas shoot has gained her more attention and popularity amongst fans. Afterwards, Lilian participated in many promotional TV segments for the DVD and had her first real storyline involvement with the WWE Superstar, Viscera. The Rock Prior to Unforgiven 2001, Lilian had a comedic interview with The Rock in which he jokingly claimed that she was madly in love with him (despite the fact that she had shown zero affection for him before this), going as far as saying that she dreamt of marrying The Rock and couldn't stop thinking of the "People's Strudel." This would become an ongoing theme for most of The Rock's special appearances in the years to come, as he continues to make teasing references as if he and Lilian were an item. Singing Career Lilian has been singing since a young age, and when she's not announcing for WWE, she pursues a career as a singer. Lilian's #1 pursuit is as a singer. She often sings the national anthem for homegames of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and has performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics , the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee and as an opening act for James Brown. Lilian released her first single, Shout, in 2002. In November of that same year, she recorded Torrie Wilson's theme song, Need A Little Time, for the WWE Anthology album. In January 2004 WWE released the album WWE Originals which included a new track from Garcia entitled, You Just Don't Know Me At All. This became Lilian's WWE theme song for WWE live events. Since mid-2005 she has been working on her first solo album, said to include Latin artist Jon Secada on a duet as well as co-writing several songs on her album. The album is scheduled to be released in early 2007.