WWE: Torrie Wilson Has Earned Her Place in the Hall of Fame

We are two weeks removed from the announcement that Torrie Wilson will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2019. Certain critics and fans continue to claim that Wilson doesn’t deserve her entry. Some have gone as far as to say that her placement solidifies the Hall of Fame as a joke. 

I kindly disagree.

Let’s talk about work for a second. Jobs. The ole 9 to 5 shift. For anyone who has worked such a shift, what makes a good employee? What gets you that beautiful “Employee of the Month” plaque accompanied by high praises and reviews from the big boss?

If you screamed out “being a pleasure to work with,” well, first off, stop screaming at a screen by yourself in a room. Makes you look a little crazy. Second, you hit the nail right on the head!

Any good employee is an employee that is a pleasure to work with. The employee that doesn’t start drama, always arrives on time (maybe early), does what they’re told within reason, etc. Basically, when they do their job, they do it well.

That same sentiment can be applied to Torrie Wilson’s WWE run.

A job as a WWE Superstar – then Diva – is a little more complicated than any other job, but it is a job regardless. Truth be told, Wilson did her job well. To my recollection and to my understanding, Wilson never got involved in shady backstage politics and never threw anybody under the bus. I’ve only ever heard good things about Torrie Wilson from people she’s worked with.

Bruce Pritchard has called Torrie Wilson “one of the sweetest human beings you could ever know in your life.” Ivory admitted Wilson was someone who she “admired from afar” while also calling her “a lovely person.” Meanwhile, Shane Douglas – who worked closely with Wilson during the final days of WCW – called her “a true professional in every sense of the word.” Michelle McCool has called Wilson one of the most “genuine” people she’s ever met while also admitting that she “didn’t think she got nearly as much credit as she should have” as an in-ring competitor.

The biggest knocks against Wilson’s Hall of Fame induction is that she never won a title and she wasn’t a great wrestler compared to her peers within the division. Compared to a Trish Stratus or a Jazz, Wilson was the lesser experienced competitor with less training. Even in that regard, at a time when there were lesser expectations for women’s wrestling, Wilson stood out as a pretty fluid athlete. Torrie Wilson’s Hall of Fame induction goes beyond just her being a good worker behind the scenes. She’s impressed people just as much for her work in front of the camera.

Even in WCW, back when she was introduced merely as a valet for Scott Steiner, she still went above and beyond such low expectations for women. Let’s not forget that a strong highlight of Wilson’s WCW career was teaming with Shane Douglas vs. Billy Kidman and Madusa in a Scaffold Match. Yep, you read that right. A Scaffold Match.

There’s some men out there who wouldn’t think twice about turning down the opportunity to compete in a Scaffold Match because they know the risks that come with competing in a match like that. Yet, when the opportunity was presented to Torrie Wilson in time for Fall Brawl 2000 – which came under a year since she started training to be a wrestler – she didn’t hesitate to take the job.

She may have never been stapled to the title picture in either WWE or WCW, but everyone has a role to fill. Just as some men are hired and used solely as comedy acts or one-half of tag teams. Doesn’t mean they’re lesser than the average headliner. They simply fill a puzzle piece in a grander scheme. Quite frankly, for someone who’s role was to never be a top wrestler, she did a damn good job in certain wrestling angles. Some fans still speak highly of her angle with Dawn Marie, which says a lot.

The angle in question with Dawn Marie is still a well regarded part of Ruthless Aggression lore. For those not familiar with the angle, Dawn and Torrie’s feud had intensified to the point where Dawn would engage in a relationship with Torrie’s dad – Al – just to spite her. Dawn threatened to marry him if Torrie didn’t sleep with her, which she did, but Dawn would marry him anyway. Because Dawn was a heel and heels lie, of course. She’d then inadvertently kill Al via heart attack after having too much sex. Torrie would get revenge in honor of her dad’s memory by beating her in a “Stepdaughter vs. Stepmother” match at Royal Rumble.

For readers, this either looks really bad on paper or like the best thing ever. I would call it the best.

Yes, some aspects of that angle – namely the forced sex – are detestable. However, it all serves a place in history as a prime reminder that women in Torrie’s same place had to fight through some pretty low-level storytelling just to get a spotlight on television. In that same respect, women like Torrie need to be applauded for shining through the dirty jug of lemons provided to them just to make lemonade out of it.

Women like Torrie Wilson made the best of a tough situation by giving 100% in and out of the ring. Even before the cameras started rolling, she and the rest of the Divas would train closely under Fit Finlay. Keep in mind that working with a guy like Finlay isn’t easy. Regardless of gender, the guy worked tough and worked stiff. Let’s not forget that these women endured some tough training just to get two minutes of onscreen wrestling time every week.

Christian might have explained it best when defending Torrie’s Hall of Fame status on the E&C Pod of Awesome. “Whatever the matches were, [Divas] were still taking it seriously and out there during the day with Fit Finlay in the ring, training, trying to figure out how they could make these matches the best they could or when they had little time to have a wrestling match. But they were in there every single day,” Christian explained. He would also add that Torrie Wilson “brought other things to the table, too, that were not even necessarily in the ring, her persona and those sorts of things as well.” His partner, Edge, would chip in, “They did what they could with what they were given.”

So what if she was never a Women’s Champion or never in the title picture? She worked her ass off like a champion.

Just like with any job, it’s less about what you do and more about how you do it.  Despite how she was booked, she was a good worker working under difficult working conditions. Despite those conditions, she did her job with a smile on her face and everyone was happy to work with her.

She may have not been a champion, but she had crossover appeal in ways that a lot of champions failed to accomplish. Being a two-time Playboy cover girl helped her become a household name, thus bringing more eyes to the WWE product. In the locker room, she was respected by each wrestler she encountered and contributed to a tight-knit friendship shared among much of the Divas division.

Truth be told, it seems like she contributed far more to WWE behind the scenes than in front of the cameras in ways that we as fans may never fully understand or appreciate. You can’t deny that she contributed to an important era of WWE history and it’s hard to imagine that piece of history without Torrie Wilson. This is why she has more than earned her spot in the WWE Hall of Fame.