Terri Runnels

Runnels was originally a make-up artist for CNN from 1985 to 1991, where she worked on Larry King's make-up.[3] On the weekends, she did makeup for the wrestlers of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP).[4] When the company was purchased by Ted Turner in 1988 and renamed World Championship Wrestling (WCW), she moved to Atlanta and continued doing make-up for some of the wrestlers.[3] Booker Ole Anderson eventually asked her to become part of the roster as a manager.[3] Runnels debuted in 1990 as Alexandra York, a laptop-carrying accountant who led an alliance known as the York Foundation, a group of wrestlers with finance-themed gimmicks.[3] The York character was created over a lunch with Tony Schiavone, one of WCW's announcers.[4] She worked at WCW for two years.[3]

Runnels debuted in the World Wrestling Federation at the Royal Rumble in 1996 as Marlena, a character modeled after Marlene Dietrich.[3][4] She debuted as a coolly unconcerned and indifferent television director-like manager, often sitting at ringside in her director's chair. With her cigar-smoking, seductive, nonchalant and mysterious gimmick, she acted as the manager of her (then-)real-life husband Dustin, who was wrestling under the gimmick of Goldust.[3] Complementing Goldust, the Marlena character too was representative of all things gold (sporting gold dresses, seated in a gold director's chair, carrying a gold purse sometimes consisting of actual gold dust used to throw in the eyes of Goldust's opponents). Often, Marlena took to lasciviously making out with Goldust when she wasn't coaching and encouraging him to do the same with his fellow opponents. The cigar-smoking aspect of the character came about because Runnels enjoyed smoking them in real life.[4] The risque characters helped bring about The Attitude Era of the late-1990s and the Diva division.[3] During a feud between Goldust and Triple H over the Intercontinental Championship, on February 16, 1997, at In Your House 13: Final Four, Marlena was choked by Chyna, who debuted as a plant from a ringside seat and later became the bodyguard for Triple H.[5][6] Later, Brian Pillman feuded with Goldust over Marlena.[5] As part of the angle, Pillman won Marlena in a match and sent Goldust a picture of her handcuffed in a bed.[7] Pillman, however, died in the middle of the storyline.[5] Originally, the plan was to have the rivalry culminate in an on-air wedding where Marlena would leave Goldust for Pillman.[8] After the Marlena-Goldust alliance dissolved, Goldust revealed Luna Vachon as his new manager.[5]

Runnels later re-emerged in 1998, under her real name, as the on-screen girlfriend of Val Venis.[5] When Runnels claimed to be pregnant with Venis' baby, he dumped her.[5][9] She later joined forces with Jacqueline Moore, who had just ended her alliance with Marc Mero, to form the Pretty Mean Sisters (P.M.S.).[9] They later formed an alliance with D'Lo Brown and Mark Henry, accompanying them to the ring for a match against Venis and The Godfather in December at Rock Bottom: In Your House.[10] In January, Runnels claimed to have suffered a miscarriage after she was knocked off the ring apron by Brown.[8][9] Weeks later, Brown discovered that Runnels had never been pregnant.[11] P.M.S. gained a "love slave" named Meat in May,[12] whom Runnels controlled using sex.[13] As a part of the storyline, P.M.S. used Meat for his body, forcing him to have sex with them.[12] The alliance, however, broke up by July, when Jacqueline Moore became frustrated with Runnels' infatuation with Meat.[11]

In late 1999, Runnels arranged the Terri Invitational Tournament, a best-of-five series, between Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz, with the winner receiving her managerial services and the sum of $100,000.[14] The Hardy Boyz won the tournament, which culminated in a ladder match at No Mercy (with the prize money suspended above the ring in a bag).[15] Runnels spent the next few months as their manager, notably getting involved in a Steel Cage match between Jeff Hardy and Al Snow on an episode of RAW. She continued interfering in matches until she was injured when Bubba Ray Dudley powerbombed her through a table.[8][11] She returned on February 27 at No Way Out and cost the Hardy Boyz a match.[16] She then became the manager of Edge and Christian, and the storyline originally called for her to come between the duo, resulting in them becoming singles wrestlers with Runnels managing Christian.[17] The storyline, however, was rewritten, and on an episode of SmackDown!, Edge and Christian—who would now continue wrestling as a tag team—revealed they no longer wanted Runnels's services.[17] She, therefore, slapped Edge, who responded by spearing her.[17]

Runnels began a rivalry with The Kat, and at WrestleMania 2000, Runnels (accompanied by The Fabulous Moolah) defeated The Kat (with Mae Young) in a catfight.[18] Val Venis was the Special Guest Referee, but was distracted when Young kissed him in response to Venis making out with both Runnels and The Kat.[18] This distraction allowed Moolah to pull The Kat out of the ring, and when Venis saw her out of the ring, he declared Runnels the winner.[18] Post-match, The Kat attacked Runnels by stripping her black body suit off to expose her nude colored thong.[18] The rivalry continued in an arm wrestling match at Insurrextion.[19] They later participated in a "Stink Face match" at SummerSlam, which The Kat won by first performing the move on Runnels.[20][21]

In June 2000, she competed in the first ever women's battle royal to determine the #1 contender to the WWF Women's Championship, but was eliminated by Lita. Runnels subsequently became the onscreen girlfriend and manager of Perry Saturn, who was a member of The Radicalz alliance.[22] She accompanied Saturn to the ring at Fully Loaded in July 2000, where Saturn defeated Eddie Guerrero for the European Championship.[23] Saturn, Runnels, and Radicalz member Dean Malenko also had a series of matches with Team Xtreme (The Hardy Boyz and Lita).[24] The on-screen partnership lasted until Saturn, who had hit his head during a match, opted to continue seeing "Moppy" (a mop he believed was alive) instead of Runnels.[25] As a result, she then became the manager of Raven, a member of The Alliance, who stole Saturn's mop and fed it into a woodchipper.[22]

In late 2001, Terri replaced Trish Stratus as the host of the WWF recap program Excess.[3] She briefly feuded with Stratus, resulting in a wet T-shirt contest between the two on Raw.[26] During this time, she also became the backstage interviewer on Raw and began to wrestle occasionally against the likes of Molly Holly, Victoria and Stratus. She also became the subject of Kane's affections and they regularly flirted during backstage segments.[27] On May 27, 2002, she briefly held the perpetually contested Hardcore Championship when she pinned Steven Richards, though he immediately pinned her to regain the title.[28] On the August 19 episode of "RAW", Eric Bischoff placed her a battle royal featuring former Hardcore champions such as Tommy Dreamer, Bradshaw and Jeff Hardy.[29] She eliminated herself immediately when the match began. On the September 2 edition of "RAW" she defeated Stacy Keibler in a "Lingerie pillow fight", but was hit with a clock by Keibler and humiliated after the match, thus igniting a brief feud between the two. Her final match was a losing effort alongside the returning Lita against divas Molly Holly and Gail Kim on the November 10 edition of Raw.[29]

After eight years with the company, in March 2004, Runnels was released from WWE prior to a massive firing spree.[3][8] In an April 2015 interview with Vince Russo, Runnels stated that she was flown up on April 1, 2004, to the WWE offices for a meeting with WWE executives Kevin Dunn and John Laurinaitis where she was told that they were parting ways with her; the reason she was told that she was flown up was because the WWE respected her.[30] After leaving the company, Runnels spent time traveling the world.[3]

On January 22, 2018, in the Raw 25 Years special episode, Runnels was honored as part of a segment involving women considered legends that contributed to the company's success, including Maryse, Kelly Kelly, Lilian Garcia, Michelle McCool, Maria Kanellis and the Hall of Famers Torrie Wilson, the Bella Twins, Jacqueline and Trish Stratus.[31] In 2021, Runnels was listed by WWE.com as one of the women who made an impact outside the ring.[32]