15 Things You Didn't Know About JoJo
Jessica Wilkins JoJo Offerman recently made headlines across the world as she was accused of being the mysterious woman with whom former WWE Champion and Smackdown Tag Team Champion, Bray Wyatt, cheated on his wife with.
Wyndham Lawrence Rotunda, the real name behind the brand that is Bray Wyatt, has been married to his wife Samantha Rotunda since 2012. However, not even this five-year-long marriage was able to withstand the temptation that is JoJo. The Rotundas have two beautiful daughters who are six and four-year-old respectively, and even though most people would hope that for the sake of the two girls that their divorce would be a friendly one, it is shaping up to be a bloodbath.
According to the Daily Mail, Wyatt even filed an injunction hoping he would be able to keep his wife quiet about the facts surrounding their breakup since apparently he claims that she has been trash talking him throughout the community, desperately trying to ruin his reputation.
Her legal answer was pretty much a slap in the face saying that he was the one making deceitful allegations and trying to steer the public eye away from what he had done.
But enough about that bloodbath of a divorce for now because what we’re here to talk about is the woman who was allegedly the catalyst to this breakup. And although she has been with the WWE since 2013, there are probably a few things that wrestling fans still don’t know about JoJo, and we are here to point a few of them out.
15 15. Her dad was a baseball player
As it is common for the families of people who become professional athletes, JoJo’s father was also a professional athlete. José Offerman was an excellent baseball player and stayed in the MLB for 15 seasons. This guy became sort of a journeyman during his career and played for seven different teams. Offerman wore the jerseys of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox, the Kansas City Royals, the Seattle Mariners, the Minnesota Twins, the Philadelphia Phillies, and finally the New York Mets. During those 15 years in the league, he was selected an All-Star twice.
Despite those accolades, there was a darker side to Offerman, who became notorious after an incident in 2007 when he rushed a pitcher and tried to hit him in the head with a bat after being hit by a pitch, and also hitting a second player on one of his back swings. The aggression went up to a lawsuit and Offerman was condemned to pay $940,000 after a 2014 court decision.
14 14. She has four siblings
A post shared by Joseann Offerman (@joseann_alexie) on
We will talk more later about JoJo’s older sister, who also seems to be a surprising athlete, but she is not the only sibling in the Offerman family. JoJo also has a younger sister named Jaelynn who is still in her late teens and seems to be the Apple of her big sister's eye.
Aside from her two sisters, JoJo also has a pair of brothers, David and Anthony. And just like her relationship with her little sister, JoJo does not miss a chance to show some love to her brothers on social media. Her Instagram is filled with loving messages to her two brothers, including one where she says that her brother David is the best father she knows and has been a father figure for her. David is a married man and has three kids. Her other brother Anthony also gets loads of love and thanks from JoJo online.
13 13. It was an attorney who leaked her involvement with Wyatt
Yeah, this is as a legal as it gets. It wasn’t some kind of tabloid newspaper or a nosy blogger who first reported that JoJo was the woman behind the divorce of Samantha Rotunda and Bray Wyatt. Neither Samantha nor Bray seemed to have any intention of naming JoJo as the woman with whom the former WWE champ committed adultery, but Samantha’s lawyer had a different idea.
We don’t know what the lawyer or even Samantha would have to gain by revealing that JoJo was wrestling’s new mistress, but according to the article in the Daily Mail, it was the lawyer who leaked the information. The big question here now is how will the news, and the claim made by Samantha’s attorney, affect JoJo’s career in the WWE. Not to mention if anything will happen to Wyatt within the company.
12 12. Her older sister is also an athlete
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Apparently, the athlete genes went not only to JoJo but also to her older sister Valerie Barrera. As you can see on her Instagram page, Valerie might not be a professional athlete, but she sure could give JoJo a run for her money in terms of both looks and athletic prowess. It doesn’t matter if you’re professional or not, any time you can complete an 11-mile run it sure should be a reason for celebration. While we are on the subject, how many of you think you could finish a race like that if you had to do it tomorrow?
We’re just kidding. We are sure all of you guys could complete a marathon tomorrow if you wanted to run one. Just remember that one time Barney Stinson did it on How I Met Your Mother. “You don’t train for a marathon. You just run it.”
11 11. She dated Randy Orton, maybe?
This one might not have ended up being more than a rumor, but Bleacher Report reported a few years back that after the divorce of Randy Orton with his wife of six years, he and JoJo were allegedly dating. That would make for a rather unpleasant precedent if put together with the news that JoJo was the one Bray Wyatt was cheating on his wife with. We are not saying that JoJo and Orton could’ve been together before his divorce, but she was dating a guy who just got divorced according to BR.
The fact that she was just coming into the company on Total Divas at the time, sure made for a good period of romance could be’s in JoJo’s life. Nevertheless, in terms of wrestling, Randy Orton would actually be quite the catch for an up-and-coming diva.
10 10. She is an amazing singer
Most female wrestlers are known for their beauty and for how fun they can be while performing their crazy moves in the ring. JoJo, however, has a special talent that sets her apart from the rest of the divas. She is an amazing singer. A talent that she has been honing since a very young age despite saying that she never had any formal sort of training, her singing is about as beautiful as we have ever heard in the WWE.
Lately, her singing has even put her wrestling career to shame, as she has mostly survived in the WWE because of her outside of the ring talents. And, let’s be honest, after you hear a voice like this it is not that hard to at least partly understand why Bray Wyatt allegedly fell for this beauty.
9 9. She left Total Divas because of her age
There are a bunch of reasons of why people lose their jobs or have to move away from places and promotions to get the best out of their sports or entertainment careers. But one reason we seldom have, if ever, heard in the world of entertainment for demoting somebody is that they are too young. If anything, older people usually are the ones losing their positions to younger folks. Nevertheless, JoJo’s age seems to be what ended her run on the WWE reality show Total Divas.
After the first season of the show had ended, she was moved to the WWE’s developmental territory, and that move basically ended her wrestling career. Luckily for JoJo, she became a ring announcer, and a fairly successful one on NXT and subsequently on WWE Main Event and SmackDown.
8 8. She’s a scaredy-cat
In a Halloween-themed photo shoot with the WWE, the 23-year-old ring announcer told the camera that she loves Halloween, except for one little reason. Apparently, she gets easily scared during the holiday. Now, let’s be honest, whenever you see wrestlers doing those acrobatic, and very dangerous, moves in the ring, does it cross your mind that one of them would actually be scared of Halloween?
JoJo’s career with the WWE has leaned more towards the ring announcer side, but she wrestled for a good time, as she started on Total Divas. More than that, interacting day in and day out with characters like Eva Marie has to be one scary routine even though it might be scripted. Still, scared or not, this diva also said that she never passes up on dressing up for Halloween, which is something that no one here will complain about.
7 7. She Dated Jesse White
A post shared by Joseann Offerman (@joseann_alexie) on
There are actually quite a few guys who dated JoJo on this list. Some of them might’ve been just rumors, and others could very well have been staged romances, but Jesse White was for real. This former college football player turned wrestler made quite the splash when he first joined the WWE on a developmental contract as he became a Florida Tag Team Champion right off the bat. Things cooled down quite a bit in terms of professional wrestling for White after that as he ended up being released from his contract in September 2013.
The one silver lining for him though, was that he got to date JoJo. If the other romantic prospects on this list might’ve been a bit iffy, to make sure that this one was true, all you need to do is jump on JoJo’s Instagram page and browse down all the way to 2014, which is full of Jesse.
6 6. She released a single
While we have yet to get any news of JoJo releasing her first album, which would be awesome because her voice certainly deserves some kind of musical recognition, wrestling fans have a chance to enjoy the single she released back in 2013.
Sure, the single was for a WWE theme song, but “Somebody Call My Mama” turned out to be a very catchy song. What it also brings to mind is that if at some point the WWE decides that they do not want to have JoJo on their roster anymore, she could very well make a living out of a singing career. We are not saying that it would be easy nor that it would be a guarantee, but you have to recognize talent where you see it.
5 5. She has a great mom
A post shared by Alexi Offerman (@mommalexi33) on
We thought long and hard before adding this entry to our list. The main reason behind that is that we are afraid of the reaction good old Jose Offerman would have if he saw somebody calling his wife beautiful. Perhaps he would take it well, because it is also a compliment for him one way or the other. But then we have to remember that this is a guy who went after a pitcher with a baseball bat just for getting hit by a pitch.
So, at great risk, we would be negligent not to tell you guys that JoJo’s mother is as wonderful as they come. Not only because of her looks, but also because she seems to be a loving and caring mother who is always there for her kids. While she is not enjoying a beach, she always seems to be taking care of her grandchildren or watching her daughter’s wrestling events.
4 4. Total Divas was the first time she left home
JoJo was probably the youngest diva on the roster when she joined the reality show Total Divas. Still, it is nothing short of amazing to find out that this was actually the first time she lived away from home. At least, this is the information available on her WWE profile. This diva of Mexican and Dominican descent was born in North Hollywood back in March 1994. And ever since then, she had yet to live away from her family. The first time she got the chance was when she made it into the roster of Total Divas at the early age of 19. Could you imagine how it would be if your first venture in living away from your parents would be as part of a wrestling reality show with a woman like Natalya as your coach and mentor?
3 3. She broke up with her high school boyfriend on TV
When you think about ice-cold breakups, you think about people breaking up via text and stuff like that, but could you imagine the hit that would be to be dumped on television? We hope this was staged, as much of wrestling is, but if JoJo actually broke up with this guy on TV just for the sake of it, that is cold-blooded.
Sure, if you follow the storyline of Total Divas, you could get the idea that Sebastian, the high school boyfriend, was a little clingy and was getting increasingly jealous that he was not getting as much attention from JoJo as her up-and-coming wrestling career. Nevertheless, if what the show portrayed was true, these two knew each other since they were five years old. That is a long time to know somebody and then dump them on TV.
2 2. She didn’t stay single for long
This might be a bit of a stinger for old Sebastian the high school boyfriend, but it did not take long for JoJo to be over him and back in the dating world. At least, as it pertains to the Total Divas show. The following relationship seems to have been mostly staged by the production, but still, we feel for poor old Sebastian who had to watch from home as his high school sweetheart started dating a guy 13 years older than her, even if it was all fake. Also, that guy just happened to be Justin Gabriel, a.k.a. PJ Black.
Gabriel’s stint in Total Divas didn’t last too long, but it was enough for them to paint the picture of him and JoJo together and Eva Marie chiming in comments here and there. It was quick, it was hilarious, and it made us feel even more sorry for the poor high school boyfriend.
1 1. She has yet to lose on the main roster
Wrestlers don’t really have much of a choice in terms of if they will win or lose a fight. Most likely, all of these decisions are left to the producers, and whoever else has control over the industry. But even though that is true, it makes it even more impressive to find somebody with an undefeated record.
And, as far as we’re concerned, JoJo is undefeated in WWE rings. Sure, all the matches she appeared on so far have been team matches, and she was pinned down a couple of times, but at the end of the day she was always part of the winning team. And that is all that matters, isn’t it?
So, in honor of her undefeated record, we picked up this little gem from YouTube so you could watch the only pinfall victory of JoJo’s career.
