QUEEN INTHE RING: Miss USA Rima Fakih competes in aWWE realitycompetition. (Scott Brinegar/USA Network)
Rima Fakih (EPA)
Miss USA is trading in her tiara for a shot at professional wrestling.
Beauty queen Rima Fakih — the pageant’s first-ever Arab-American winner — says growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, helped prepare her to compete in the new WWE reality competition “Tough Enough.”
“I was in and out of different high schools — Martin Luther King, where 50 Cent got kicked out of, and Flushing Meadow, where we would have fights and shootings every day,” she says.
“Over there, you have to be tough morning to night. Someone can just stab you because they like your sneakers.
“I had a few incidents walking home from school. Someone wanted my book bag one time and pulled out a knife.”
Rima, 25, will train and share a house in LA with 13 other contestants, including “America’s Next Top Model” hopeful Michelle Deighton. They will compete in weekly challenges to determine who has what it takes to become a professional wrestling star.
The series premieres April 4 on USA Network.
“I was a tomboy growing up,” Rima tells The Post. “I always thought that the Divas [female wrestlers] were a great example of someone I could relate to.
“Being Middle Eastern, it’s tough for girls to be in modeling and beauty pageants and wear bathing suits. When I told my parents about doing ‘Tough Enough,’ my mom’s exact comment was, ‘Yeah, my daughter can kick butt!’ ”
Rima — who nearly lost the Miss USA crown when photos of her pole dancing surfaced on the Internet last year — says training for the show took a toll on her pageant-perfect body.
“I was bruised up a lot,” she says. “There would be times I would leave the ring and there would be a lot of blood on the mat.
“There was a lot of wear and tear on my body, but I loved every bruise and black and blue mark because I could see how hard I pushed myself.”