Torrie Wilson opened up in a recent interview about her time in WWE.
Wilson was with the promotion from 2001 to 2008 and has appeared in a few Royal Rumble matches since. Wilson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019.
The Hall of Famer sat down with Chris Van Vliet and was very candid about how she felt with her WWE run and how she felt looked down on.
“I didn’t watch wrestling. I didn’t want anything to do with wrestling for many years after I left mostly because I just had a certain amount of PTSD from being so vulnerable out there and feeling like I was put in this kind of, like, this raunchy role that wasn’t me. I felt judgment from people. I felt like people looked down on me for like, just stuff that I did, the bra and panty matches and all that, so like, I just wanted to shut that door. For many years, I didn’t watch. It wasn’t until they called me to do the Royal Rumble that I started to kind of catch up and then I got really into it, like more into it than I ever was when I was wrestling.”
Speaking on the bikini contests and bra and panty matches which were the norm during Wilson’s time, she said the following –
“They were all mortifying. People don’t realize. 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.”
When asked if she ever had a choice on to not participate in these segments –
“No. It was like 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. 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.”
The full interview can be viewed below.