Behind-the-scenes tensions between Burchill, Love?

Neither will talk about how they know each other, aside from acknowledging the fact that they once were close, very close. Katarina Waters, known as Katie Lea Burchill in WWE and Winter in TNA, was able to admit that she’s looking forward to her match with former tag-team partner Angelina Love.

“I greatly admire her talents. I think it’s going to be a pretty awesome experience to finally get to step in the ring with her,” said Waters, who is bringing back her Katie Lea character for their match at the Jan. 5 New Year’s Chaos.

The fact that she’s wrestling as Katie Lea and not as Winter has caught some by surprise.

“Is she trying to hide something using the Katie Lea name?” asks Top Rope Pro Wrestling President and CEO Chris Graham.

For anyone who remembers the relationship that Waters and Love had in TNA, it would seem like Waters is hiding a lot. Waters appeared to have Love under some sort of spell as the duo worked their way to the top of the Knockouts division.

The team won the Knockouts tag-team titles, but off-stage friction broke them apart and seemed to have them heading in the direction of a grudge match to settle their apparently real-life differences, but the match never materialized.

Love, for her part, also downplays any sense of old grudges regarding the upcoming one-on-one match. Pressed to talk about her past relationship with Waters, she’d only concede that it was “awesome” to have the opportunity to get in the ring with her former partner.

There’s definitely more to this than meets the eye, though. The match had originally been scheduled as a Triple Threat match involving current TNA Knockouts champion Tara, who contacted Top Rope General Manager Marvin Ward to ask out of the match, citing a scheduling issue.

A source in the Top Rope front office said Ward was left with the impression after talking with Tara that she had been approached by either Waters or Love to drop out of the match.

Ward wouldn’t comment directly on what he was told about Tara’s decision to pull out of the match for this story.

“All I will say is that Tara is a tremendous competitor, and while we’re disappointed that she couldn’t be a part of New Year’s Chaos, we hope to have her on a Top Rope show in the near future,” Ward said.

More online at www.TopRopeProWrestling.com.