Summary

Dawn Marie says Torrie Wilson made the call to use her real father, Al Wilson, in the WWE storyline that became one of the more notorious angles of the early 2000s.

While speaking on Going Ringside, Marie recalled that creative presented the idea of her seducing Torrie's father and gave Torrie the choice of either using her real dad or having WWE cast someone else for the role. According to Marie, Torrie chose to involve her father because it gave her a chance to spend time with him while WWE's travel schedule kept her away from family.

Quote from Dawn Marie

"They came up with an angle. They wanted me to seduce her father. They used her real father. They asked her, ‘Do you want to use your real dad or do you want us to hire someone?’ She’s like, ‘No, use my real dad. It’ll give me an opportunity to spend some time with him.’ Because when you’re on the road, you don’t see your family ever."

Marie was also asked whether playing out that angle on television felt strange:

"It was weird when I had a makeout with her father and her all on the same night. (laughs) It was okay. It was fine."

Marie later went on to say:

"Oh, all the time. Although it’s so funny because a lot of people say, ‘Oh my God, that was the worst angle ever.’ I’m like, ‘How? Everybody remembers it, so how is it horrible?’ If it was horrible then no one would remember, right? So I loved it. It was a great time."

Why the Torrie Wilson and Al Wilson angle still gets talked about

Torrie Wilson choosing to use Al Wilson in the story changes the way fans may look back at that WWE angle, because it frames the segment as something she personally agreed to rather than a detail forced onto her without input.

It also helps explain why the storyline has lasted in wrestling memory for so long. Marie said fans still bring it up, and the mix of WWE soap-opera shock value and real family involvement made it stand out in a way many Attitude Era-adjacent stories did not. Marie has also been revisiting other parts of her career lately, including how one independent booking first pulled her into wrestling.

Sources

Dawn Marie while speaking on Going Ringside