Terri Runnels debuted in WWE as Marlena, and she recently looked back at the character’s origin. Runnels spoke on Stories With Brisco And Bradshaw about the creation of the character, noting that she took inspiration from the iconic silver screen star Marlena Dietrich. You can see highlights from the discussion below, per Wrestling Inc:
Former WWE Hardcore Champion Terri Runnels made her WWE debut as a character named Marlena, firstappearing at the 1996 Royal Rumble event to manage her (then) real-life husband Dustin “Goldust” Rhodes, which she did until late 1997. Runnels recently re-visited this period on “Stories With Brisco And Bradshaw.”
On coming up with the character: “[I asked myself] what is it that they are missing in [WWE]? I thought to myself, ‘We’ve got Scary Sherri [Martel], we’ve got cheerleader pom-pom Sunny, Dustin is doing this character; what is it that they are missing?’ So, the whole character of Goldust was missing this component, that I thought they were missing, which is this amazing character of the old-school Hollywood.”
on pitching the character to Vince McMahon: “I call the office and I get a phone call back from Pat [Patterson] and this is in December of ’95. I told him my idea and it was kind of the obligatory ‘yeah, good girl, but yeah, mhmm-mhmm, we’re not interested, but thanks so much.'”
On finding out character was greenlit: “Dustin said, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘What? What? Why do you keep asking me what I’m doing?’ He’s like, ‘Pack your bags, they want to do your idea.’ That’s where Marlena came to fruition and came to be.”
On her first meeting with Vince McMahon about the character: “I didn’t care. I had been around presidents, princes, poppers, porn stars; I was not shy to be around anyone, so I didn’t care, no big deal. Told him what my idea was, and I told him I will either go to the ring with a glass of wine or a cigar.”
