Two months ago, Torrie Wilson was announced as part of the cast of a new NBC reality series, “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” Everyone had their doubts, including me, and I know Torrie personally. Why this particular reality show? It definitely sounded gruelling – and having watched the British version – I knew it would be gruelling. For an ex-Diva that was used to appearing on magazine covers and looking pampered, I wondered how Torrie would fare in the jungle.
It’s been two weeks since the show debuted from the Costa Rican jungle and with another two to go, in our estimation, Torrie is already ‘Queen of the Jungle’. While the crown of King or Queen of the Jungle is yet to be decided and yes, there are another three female contestants also in the running, Torrie has achieved a personal goal in showing a side of her that wrestling fans have never seen in WWE.
Torrie has always been my all time favourite Diva, but given the things she was famous for in WWE [bra and panties matches, bikini contests… Playboy] I’ve always been asked, “Why are you a fan of her?” in a snooty way, as if it makes one any less intelligent or likeable for being a fan of a Diva who isn’t accepted as a ‘wrestler’. But I don’t need to lecture you Diva Dirt readers on that, I’m sure. What I admired about Torrie was not necessarily her in-ring skills or her personality on screen, I just always felt that she was an admirable person – she had a positive aura around her and came across as your ‘friendly neighbourhood babyface’. Despite what she may do on screen, I always thought [and still do] that she had a dignity and elegance about her, the way she would conduct herself in interviews and such. A few years ago, I managed to get in contact with her and over the past three years, I’ve learned that my instincts about her were right — I cannot tell you just how highly I think of her. Many ex-wrestlers [even most recently, Victoria] allude to how wrestling has it’s dark side and is seen as ‘The Devil’s sport’, but in that sport there are a few true kind-hearted people and I think Torrie is one of them.
I guess those are things that are intuitive, call it female intuition but from seeing Torrie on TV or reading interviews with her etc., I’ve always felt she would be someone I could be friends with if I knew. That’s something that doesn’t necessarily come across in the character she played on WWE television or come across in the smutty matches that WWE often booked her in.
But now on this show, however cliched or critically mauled it may be [and let’s face it, no one praises reality shows, do they?], I think fans can see the real Torrie. She comes across as an elegant, graceful and humble person – though admitedly, it’s not hard to do so when you’re in the jungle with narcissists like Heidi and Spencer Pratt. Like Victoria and Trish Stratus, she is someone that had incredible success in a sport where very few females have success and they’ve all moved on almost unaffected by their fame in WWE, they seem every bit as humble and friendly.
Fans and critics often ripped into Torrie on not being a good wrestler, and while she wasn’t on par with her counterparts, she definitely has the athleticism and conditioning of her fellow Divas and Superstars. She’s proven on ‘Celebrity’ that she wasn’t the prissy Diva Search-type, she’s done fantastically well by any standard in the trials she’s been involved in including winning a task with Patti Blagjoveich on last Wednesday’s episode.
Like one of her best friends, Stacy Keibler, Torrie is proving a lot of her critics wrong by excelling outside the scripted domain of WWE. Stacy came third on Dancing With the Stars, and if Torrie can achieve a similar feat – if not better – on ‘Celebrity’, I think she’ll achieve one of the personal goals she set for herself to show people a different side to her, a side that she never got the opportunity to show.
Torrie has shown a lot of dignity on this show, and given some of the wrestlers who’ve appeared on reality shows before [i.e. Chyna], I think she’s a great role model for the wrestling industry. Torrie’s genuineness, compassion and all around attitude prove to me just why she lasted in the wrestling industry as long as she did, despite the fact people wrote her off as an ‘awful’ wrestler or ‘just another blonde’. In WWE, pretty faces come and go and are seen as ‘expendable’ and can be replaced with the next one, but Torrie managed to carve a very good 9 year career for herself & I think we’re seeing why on “I’m a Celebrity.”
There’s two weeks to go and I have a really good feeling that Torrie can last the distance.
