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SportskeedaĀ recently spoke to former WWE talent Terri Runnels who discussed the creation of her "Marlena" character and how she came up with the creation, and not Vince McMahon.
āWWF never pitched Marlena, I created Marlena. So Dustinās on the road, I have a year and a half-year-old daughter. Iām laying in our tanning bed, and Iām thinking, āWhat is it that WWF doesnāt have?ā They had Sherri, Tammy Sytch, and Iām thinking theyāre missing real glamour. As Iām laying there, Iād just been to my sisterās home, and she collected Barbie dolls. Thereās a designer named Bob Mackie. He designed a Barbie Doll called The Sun Goddess. So Iām laying in the tanning bed, and all these thoughts are going through my head. Iām like, oh my God, Dustin is supposed to be this androgynous actor. So I started thinking about Hollywood, androgyny, glamor, old school. So Marlene Dietrich was one of the first women to ever wear pants. Women always wore dresses back then. She bumped the trend and went somewhat androgynous in the way she dressed.
I come up with this whole concept. Everything that I think Marlena should be, and I called Dustin from the tanning bed. I said, āBabe, I have this great idea, what do you think?ā He goes, āI love it.ā I said, āCall Vince.ā He said, āYou call Vince.ā I go, āBabe, I donāt work for him, you work for him, you tell him.ā He goes, āNope, if you want it, youāre gonna have to call and tell him.ā At the time I think Dustin was kind of nervous and too new.
So I called, and the person who called me back is Pat Patterson. So Pat goes, āI heard you had an idea.ā I was like, āYeah.ā I told him, and he goes, āWell, we appreciate the idea but, thank you, bye.ā So I was like okay, they donāt like the idea. A month later, Iām at my grandparents home, Dustin calls and says, āWhat are you doing?ā I tell him, āIām at Grand and Grannies.ā He goes, āPack your bags, they want to do your idea.ā
I need to beat Bruce Prichardās ass. He did a podcast with Dustin, and he goes, āVince came up with Marlena.ā No, the hell he didnāt. The sad part, I had to sign it away. Theyāre like if you want to do this, sign your life away. I told Vince I either want to go to the ring with a glass of wine or a cigar. At the time, I would smoke cigars in a bubble bath with a glass of wine, and I loved it. I thought it would add to the androgyny of the character. It also allowed me to partake in something love, cigars! Cigars, Scars, & Superstars is my podcast name, but I have to give credit of my podcast name to my jester Cory, he came up with that.'ā
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