“I Was Mortified”: Torrie Wilson Reflects On Being S.e.xualised In WWE

Torrie Wilson has detailed multiple uncomfortable situations that she was put in during her time in WWE.

A part of the Divas era of women’s wrestling in the early 2000s, in-ring work was not the main priority. Instead, Divas were a part of segments that included pillow fights and bikini contests, focusing more on sex appeal than match quality. Recalling some of the segments, Wilson admitted that these were not enjoyable.

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Wilson was asked about being a part of the swimwear segments. Recalling a particular house show, the Hall of Famer admitted that it was a struggle to get through:

““They were all mortifying, people don’t realise. I went out there and owned it the best I could and pushed through the fear, but it was mortifying, There were times when, I remember specifically a house show that I was in this bikini showdown with Dawn Marie and Sable and someone else. I was standing in the corner watching one of the girls dance in the middle, and literally fighting back tears. Like, I cannot believe I’m doing this right now. Because it got to like a raunchy point, and I’m like, I don’t want to be a part of this. But that was also my job.”

Wilson continued, noting that she found it difficult to say no when creative direction booked her for these situations, with Vince McMahon pressuring Wilson into saying yes:

“[With all of this stuff that you were doing, did you ever think that you could say no?] No. It was twice that I could remember that I [said no]. First of all, I’m a major people pleaser. So to say no to people is really hard, even if it’s someone you know, I’m recovering from that. There was one time when I had a thing with Sable where Vince wanted me to come out with the paint on my boobs like she did. And I was like, hard no, I can’t do that. I mean, it ended up being nearly nothing anyway.

And another time was when I did Playboy Vince wanted me to do a pay-per-view also, the video. That one was very hardcore pressed. And it was really hard for me to say no, but I absolutely didn’t want that.”

Wilson did later state in the interview that there were no issues with agreeing to the Playboy shoot itself:

“That part was no. Becasue I thought it’s photos, I know it’s gonna look good and it’s Playboy. To be honest, this is gonna sound real dumb. But I hadn’t really even thought about the fact that I was kind of gonna be nude because Playboy was so such a popular magazine. I was like, This is gonna be awesome, right? Playboy parties and all that.

Literally, it wasn’t until I was landing on the plane to go to the shoot that I was like, Oh, sh*t, there’s going to actually be other people in the room. Not just me and the photographer. It was kind of a closed set. So there wasn’t more than like maybe six people. And I always had a robe. But in between shots, it was so weird.” “