WWE.com reported a couple of days ago that Torrie Wilson has been given her release, apparently confirming the rumors that she's been told that she shouldn't be competing in the ring anymore.
I thought I'd mark the occasion by reminiscing a bit about one of the Wrestle-crappiest storylines I was ever a part of: the Torrie-Dawn-Al debacle.
For those of you who don't know about the storyline (or those of you who do but choose to block it out), Dawn Marie meets Torrie's dad and decides to pursue him. Torrie is unhappy, leading to a feud between her and Dawn. Al and Dawn get engaged, and Dawn says she won't marry Al if Torrie will spend the night with her. Torrie does, but Dawn and Al still get married ... only for Al to die during the honeymoon after consummating the marriage a few dozen times.
We on the SmackDown creative team started that storyline for two simple reasons. One, and most obviously, we wanted an excuse to put Torrie and Dawn on TV every week. But second, and more subliminally, there was a big push for more soap-opera type stuff, and we knew if we kept that kind of stuff confined to the women's division, maybe there would be less pressure to use it with the main event guys. (COUGH Katie Vick COUGH)
We were originally going to hire an actor to play Torrie's dad, but it was her idea to use her actual dad. We did a thing at Unforgiven with Dawn Marie and some old soap-opera actor to establish the fact that Dawn had a thing for older men. Then, that Thursday on SmackDown, we did some backstage segments to introduce Al (including one where Torrie introduces her dad to Billy and Chuck -- you can literally smell the WrestleCrap in this segment).
A quick aside: When producing backstage segments, they always liked for us to have people walking by in the background. I was still very much in the learning stages, following Paul Heyman and Bruce Prichard and others as they produced backstage segments so I could see the ins and outs. At the time, David Lagana was producing the women's backstage segments, and since I was following him around to learn as well, I became his official "guy who walks through the back of every Dawn, Al and Torrie" segment."
I actually played a big part in this story. Yes, that night in Toronto, when Torrie was frantically looking for her father in a backstage segment, I'm the guy she walked up to in the hallway who pointed her towards the shower where he was getting frisky with Dawn.
How I knew that they were in the shower together, don't ask.
Those of you who suffered through this storyline, by the way, might take at least a little comfort in knowing that it was my idea to kill off Al Wilson. We were still hot in our "event television" phase, where we were looking for any excuse to have an "event" -- a wedding, a graduation, even a Bar Mitzvah. Knowing that the storyline was dying a slow death anyway, a funeral seemed like the way to go, so I pitched it, and they loved it. Al actually died on TV months after I left the company, which should give at least some of you comfort, to know that some storylines ARE booked months in advance.
(One quick aside: Being at the SmackDown voiceover session the night that Tazz and Michael Cole came up with their "Look at Dawn! Look at Al! Look at Dawn! Look at Al!" gimmick was one of the funniest things I've ever seen and was one of my most memorable moments at the company. Those guys were hysterical together.)
I'll write more about this storyline one day down the line (gotta save some stories for the future!) but I thought it'd be appropriate to reminisce a bit now that Torrie's no longer a part of World Wrestling Entertainment.
So good luck to you in the future, Torrie. And sorry about killing your dad.
Comments (9)
I was actually at the Smackdown! in Tucson when Al "died." In fact, a couple hours before the show, a friend and I decided to just kind of wander around (we're from Phoenix, so venturing around the arena in Tucson sounded like it'd be a decent enough idea), and eventually found our way into a hotel. We sat in the lobby for a few minutes, and then randomly decided to go up to the top floor.
We got up there, and there were security guards and cameras, everywhere. They politely told us to take a hike, so we just split.
When we got to the show, and they showed Dawn Marie and Al's hotel room - Well, son of a gun, it was the hotel we had been at, earlier that day!
My buddy still claims you can hear our elevator "ding" very faintly in the background of the segment, and it was that very sound which gave Al Wilson a heart attack. Why he'd want to claim responsibility for a man's death is beyond me.
That was also the night that Brock Lesnar gave A-Train two F-5's, the second of which was due to our urgful yelling, "Eff-Five him again! DO IT AGAIN!!"...which turned out to be a bad idea. It's that F-5 people on YouTube keep throwing into their "Botchamania" videos, where A-Train lands upside-down on his neck.
I haven't been back to Tucson, since.
I was actually at the Smackdown! in Tucson when Al "died." In fact, a couple hours before the show, a friend and I decided to just kind of wander around (we're from Phoenix, so venturing around the arena in Tucson sounded like it'd be a decent enough idea), and eventually found our way into a hotel. We sat in the lobby for a few minutes, and then randomly decided to go up to the top floor.
We got up there, and there were security guards and cameras, everywhere. They politely told us to take a hike, so we just split.
When we got to the show, and they showed Dawn Marie and Al's hotel room - Well, son of a gun, it was the hotel we had been at, earlier that day!
My buddy still claims you can hear our elevator "ding" very faintly in the background of the segment, and it was that very sound which gave Al Wilson a heart attack. Why he'd want to claim responsibility for a man's death is beyond me.
That was also the night that Brock Lesnar gave A-Train two F-5's, the second of which was due to our urgful yelling, "Eff-Five him again! DO IT AGAIN!!"...which turned out to be a bad idea. It's that F-5 people on YouTube keep throwing into their "Botchamania" videos, where A-Train lands upside-down on his neck.
I haven't been back to Tucson, since.
How much of the storyline was planned as being "so bad it was great"? None, and Cole/Tazz just ran with it? Some? All of it?
How could you have killed off Al Wilson???
The man was money
Ya know Seth, I actually liked this storyline (and my colleages never let me live that down)!
Well, I liked it with a caveat: I'm a fan of soap opera wrestling angles -- HHH/Steph/Kurt and whatever it was that happened in Room 812 was a big reason I got back into wrestling after a few years' hiatus -- but only if they lead to something that will help get an actual wrestler over. That's why I feel this storyline was wasted on Torrie and Dawn Marie.
Don't get me wrong, there was definitely potential there. I seem to remember Torrie in a relationship of sorts with Tajiri around the same time. With Billy Kidman, Torrie's real-life beau (and storyline ex) also on the Smackdown roster, I remember thinking to myself how interesting the angle would have become if it turned out Billy and Dawn were in cahoots to get back at Torrie. You'd still have your soap opera, but instead of the blowoff being Al Wilson's death (which could have still taken place), it would have been a grudge match between Tajiri and Kidman.
If only they were heavyweights ;)
Maybe, Just maybe if there's still more of these soap-opera angles on WWE then maybe, just may--be the ratings would boost up.
And back then Steph-Test-&eventually HHH coming to run thier wedding on Raw was probably the most dramatical, unexpected thing that ever happened on Raw. That's what's lacking IMO in WWE nowadays some great storylines...
Torrie will be missed, she's wasnt the greatest woman wrestler but she has this charisma and I think she can wrestle well. Goodluck with her.
Cole and Tazz doing the "Look at AL. Look at Torrie" bit was hilarious and made that angle memorable. I still remember it vividly.
Yo tazz gets best 6th man off the bench for that whole storryline.
i remember when Lesnar gave A-train that botched F5. I didn't know it was the same night.