Wilson explains why she wanted to detach herself.
In 2019, Torrie Wilson accepted her place in WWE’s Hall of Fame. Her full-time career ended in 2008 and in the following years, she’d sporadically appear for the company.
There was a point during her time away that she wanted to completely detach herself from wrestling. She stated on Insight with Chris Van Vliet that she felt P.T.S.D. from being as vulnerable as she was on television. Wilson felt people were judging her for what she did such as bra and panties matches.
That’s taken a long time (to allow myself to reflect on my career). 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 P.T.S.D. from being so vulnerable out there and feeling like I was put in this kind of, like, raunchy role that wasn’t me, and I felt judgment from people. I felt like people look down on me for like, just, stuff that I did, the bra and panty matches and all that so, I just wanted to shut that door and for many years, I didn’t watch and 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.
In the early 2000s, Wilson was engaged in a feud with Dawn Marie and their program included Wilson’s now-late father, Al.
Wilson opened up about her dynamic with Marie. She remembers Dawn being stiff with her in matches. She felt Dawn did not like her and did not know why.
Mostly good (Wilson said of the WWE women’s locker room when she was active). But… a situation like that, there’s always gonna be jealousy or people that think they should have a push over you or they don’t understand why you’re getting a push because you’re not the best wrestler. I had a few instances where I had an issue with Dawn Marie where, you know, she would really kick me hard in the matches and I didn’t realize you’re not supposed to say anything, you’re supposed to do something. So I would say something and then it would continue and then my ex-husband was like, ‘You gotta kick her really hard back’ and then it stopped after I did that.
At that point, (when Dawn & Torrie were consistently working together on TV), there was a lot of built-up anger because… almost part of it felt real. I feel like they love that when it feels a little real, right? And I just felt like… she didn’t really like me and never did anything to her. So, all those little extra kicks that she would give me on the house shows. (I) kind of just had some pent-up anger (that I let out on her on-screen).
Wilson last wrestled as a part of the 2021 women’s Royal Rumble. She competed in the first-ever women’s Rumble and later that year, she was in a Battle Royal at the Evolution event.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
