The WWE announced through espnW that Torrie Wilson will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 6th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Wilson was a fitness competitor before getting into professional wrestling, which happened by chance as she attended a WCW event and was recruited on the spot. Wilson was introduced in a series of vignettes where she was speaking to someone behind a camera, revealed to be David Flair and led to the younger Flair turning on his father with Torrie by his side.
Wilson was later paired with The Filthy Animals group, specifically Billy Kidman. In the summer of 2000, she turned on Kidman and joined Shane Douglas for the remainder of her time with WCW that lasted until the end of the year.
She was signed by the World Wrestling Federation the following year and debuted in a segment that was designed to be very significant. Vince McMahon was caught making out with Wilson by wife Linda McMahon and was the angle designed to lead to a storyline divorce. The McMahons have to split their assets and would lead to WCW having its own show. The plans changed and WCW never received its own show.
Wilson was constantly inserted into the segments most associated with the women’s division during this era with frequent bikini contests and other segments designed to showcase women such as Wilson, Sable, Dawn Marie, Stacy Keibler and others in as little clothing possible.
While the SmackDown run of late 2002 is often well-remembered for the “SmackDown Six” and their high caliber of matches, that period also included Torrie’s legitimate father Al Wilson. Al began dating Dawn Marie and led to the two being married on television and Al’s character being killed off during the honeymoon with Marie. This was the backdrop for Wilson’s feud with Dawn Marie, which was way out there, and Al Wilson was so comically awful that he became entertaining.
Wilson and Keibler teamed up against the Miller Lite Catfight Girls at WrestleMania 19 in March 2003, which was basically a pillow fight built around the comedy of Jonathan Coachman being caught between the women. The following year, Wilson teamed with Sable against Stacy Keibler and Jackie Gayda in an Evening Gown match at WrestleMania 20. The match was set up as a promotional device with Wilson and Sable posing together in Playboy to coincide with the event, which was Wilson’s second time posing for the magazine.
Wilson continued with the WWE through 2008 when she was released and had been off the road due to a back injury. She returned for a women’s battle royal at WrestleMania 25 in April 2009 and then participated in the women’s Royal Rumble match in January 2018 along with a battle royal appearance at the Evolution event last October.
