Dawn Marie Discusses WWE Release After Getting Pregnant
Former WWE star Dawn Marie has discussed her departure from WWE and how it came about after she found out she was pregnant with her first child.
Dawn Marie made her name in ECW as the manager of The Impact Players and Lance Storm, however, she joined WWE in 2002, debuting on SmackDown in the role of a paralegal at Vince McMahon’s lawyers.
During her time in WWE, Dawn Marie is probably best known for her infamous storyline with Torrie Wilson over the affections of Wilson’s father, Al. Al Wilson and Dawn Marie were married on SmackDown but tragedy struck – in storyline – when Wilson passed away on honeymoon from his physical exertions in the bedroom.
Marie left WWE in 2005 and in early 2006 filed a complaint against the company, claiming that she had been wrongfully terminated from her role as a result of her pregnancy. That case was settled in 2007.
Appearing on the Cafe de Rene podcast, Dawn Marie explained making the choice to have a family and how she was pulled off the road just days after telling the company about her pregnancy:
“I can’t talk about a lot of the details because that was part of my lawsuit. I was pregnant and it was planned with my fiance at the time. I was getting older and my contract was coming up, I had a year, a year and a half. It was like either I got pregnant or I was never going to have kids, I was going to be stuck on the road. I was going through this really hard time with it. I wanted to have a family, I never had it, it was really important to me. But this is my career that is really important to me, so what are you going to do?”
“I even looked into surrogates back then, I can’t ruin my body, I need this for work. So I looked into multiple avenues. So anyway, I got pregnant. I told them on Tuesday, Friday I was done. Well, Friday they sent me home, they didn’t put me back on the road. Mind you, all those years I was in the wrestling business, I probably only missed two weekends in all of those years. You know, it is all about spots, if you are not there then someone is going to take your spot. Two weekends ever, I was on the road always, missed everything in life, and they are like ‘We are going to keep you home this weekend.’”
“I’m like ok, and then it came two weeks, three weeks, and then they were not going to put me on the ECW reunion show, they took me off that. I was like oh hell no, you are not going to do that to me, I got a lawyer. At the same time, they were like ‘We don’t have anything for you right now.’”
Dawn Marie then explained that John Laurinaitis [Johnny Ace] contacted her to tell her that she was being let go, but she says she still had plenty to offer in WWE:
“So Johnny Ace called me that morning and told me that, and he was like ‘Dawn. I’m sorry we are going to have to let you go. Creative just doesn’t have anything for you right now.’ I’m like woah, just be honest. I said ‘I am a raging slut. I will do anything that you ask me to do in the ring. You don’t have a storyline for me? I’m pregnant! Who’s baby is it?’”
“Let’s be serious, my character was so maniacal and slutty and this and that, right? Not only that, I was in the business for so long. I could commentate, I could be on the outside, I could be an interviewer or a backstage story. Guess what? You could have sent me home, have my baby and then come back, right? At the time I was the only woman to get pregnant in the industry while under contract, and I’m gone? What are you telling your staff, don’t get pregnant? But then you are sending the guys home when they are having children? You get what I am saying.”
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