Dawn Marie says she and Torrie Wilson were apparently doing some serious numbers on SmackDown — they just weren’t allowed to know about it. According to Marie, WWE wasn’t exactly rushing to tell the women when their segments were beating some of the guys in the ratings.
Speaking to Wombreezy, Marie looked back on her wild 2002–2003 storyline with Torrie and Torrie’s real-life father, Al Wilson. The conversation eventually landed on the infamous hotel scene between Marie and Torrie, with the interviewer suggesting it might have been one of the highest-rated segments in SmackDown history. That immediately caught Marie off guard because she had apparently never heard that before.
“Is it really? I probably would say—oh, well, thank you for letting me know. I didn’t know that. I wonder if—I would love to know the truth today.”
Marie wasn’t ready to claim the hotel scene actually holds that distinction, but she said there’s a reason she wouldn’t know either way. According to her, WWE simply wasn’t telling the women when they were bringing in big television numbers.
“Yeah, I wonder. You said you think, right? Or maybe? I don’t know. But let me tell you something. They would have never told us. It was a different world back then.”
Marie says things are very different for WWE’s women today, who can actually be celebrated when their work draws attention. Back then, she claims the company wasn’t about to tell the women that they had just beaten some of the male wrestlers in the ratings.
“Now they celebrate these girls, you know, the girls, and like that they could bring in ratings and like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But back then, they would never tell us in a million years that we were rating, like, higher than some of the boys.”
The funny part is that Marie and Torrie eventually found out anyway. Marie claims they stumbled onto the information by accident and learned there was apparently a reason their segments kept getting prominent spots on SmackDown.
“Like, that was kept very hush-hush. Torrie and I found out about that by accident one time. And we’re like, ‘Really?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s why your segment, I don’t know, whatever it was, five or whatever all the time.’ Like, oh, okay.”
So who ruined the secret? Marie thinks Kurt Angle was the one who finally spilled the beans, and she remembers basically shrugging it off because nobody had ever told her she and Torrie were doing those kinds of numbers.
“You think they would tell us? No. I think Kurt actually was the one that spilled the beans on it, Kurt Angle. I was like, ‘What? Okay.’ Well, I don’t know. I’m just doing my job, you know? But yeah, it was a very different world back then. They would never let the girls know that.”
Marie still isn’t saying the infamous hotel scene was definitely one of SmackDown’s biggest ratings draws ever, because even she doesn’t know if that claim is true. What she is saying is that she and Torrie were apparently outperforming some of the men at times, and WWE kept them completely in the dark until Kurt Angle seemingly let the secret slip.
What do you make of Dawn Marie claiming WWE wouldn’t tell the women when they were beating the men in television ratings? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
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