torrie wilson: torrie about upcoming playboy appearance

Torrie About Upcoming Playboy Appearance

Roughly a month from now, Torrie Wilson will officially make the leap from WWE Diva to uber-Diva when she graces the cover and inside pages of the May issue of Playboy. Yet, as she discussed the details of her recent photo shoot, her excitement was mixed with a good old-fashioned case of jitters.

To be honest, I'm really, really nervous about the whole thing," she said. "I feel like I have a lot of pressure to do as least as well as [former Divas and Playboy cover girls Sable and Chyna] did. It's nerve-wracking for me because Chyna and Sable were so much bigger stars than I am even before they shot. They were mainstream stars, and the mainstream public hasn't really heard of me yet."

It's a safe bet that while the mainstream public is in for a very pleasant introduction to Torrie when Playboy hits the newsstands at the end of March, her devoted WWE fans will be ecstatic. Torrie spent five days in West Hollywood, Calif., in front of the Playboy cameras, an experience she described as "awesome."

Torrie already had years of experience modeling prior to entering sports entertainment with WCW in 1999. She tried her hand at fashion modeling as a teen, even moving from Idaho to New York City briefly at 16 to pursue that dream, but later opted for the "much healthier" world of fitness modeling, where she excelled. Her past experience worked to her benefit for the Playboy shoot, but this was her first time posing au naturel for the camera, which required some getting used to.

"I know how to pose my body and all that, and I took direction well from Arny Freytag, the photographer," Torrie said. "As far as being nude, I've done a lot of bikini modeling, which helped. I am comfortable in my own body, and being on TV wearing next to nothing helped as well.

But actually flying in, as we were landing, I was talking to myself, and I realized that I hadn't actually thought too much about the fact that I was going to be nude. I was like, 'There are going to be all these people at the shoot -- stylists, photo assistants -- I hope I'm going to be comfortable.'"

In all, there were eight men and women in the studio for the shoot. Torrie was comfortable with the photographer, but had some initial trepidation about the fact that his two assistants were young men. But, she said, it was like another day at the office for everyone in the room, and their blasé demeanor quickly eased their nerves.

Another source of consternation for Torrie has been the reaction on the home front. Torrie's mother, whom Torrie describes as being "super, super-conservative," was shocked by her daughter's decision, and even more shocked when Torrie showed her an issue of Playboy over the holidays.

"I showed her the cover, and then when I showed her the inside, the first picture she saw, she saw breasts," Torrie said. "She looked at me with this total shock in her eyes and said, 'Are you showing your breasts?

' And I said, 'Well, Mom, of course I am. It's Playboy.' And then the next picture was somebody's behind, and she said, 'You're showing your behind, too?' She was so, so shocked. She could not fathom it. And I said, 'Yes, I am,' and she was not very happy. So then she put it down and walked out of the room, and that's the last we've spoken of it. I'll let her see the cover, and that's all."

Torrie's nerves about measuring up sales-wise to other WWE Divas' performances in the magazine aside, the demand for the issue is sure to be incredible. And, assuming it does well enough, Torrie is also looking forward to settling one piece of unfinished business -- visiting the world-famous Playboy Mansion and actually meeting the magazine's iconic founder, Hugh Hefner.

"I didn't get to go to the mansion because we were so busy," she said. "I asked if I was going to be able to meet Hef that weekend, and they said probably not because of our schedule. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back after the magazine comes out and meet him."

Hef, it turns out, was only one of Torrie's near-misses during her week in Southern California. While she was posing, shoots were also being done in the same studio complex with pop divas Shakira and Christina Aguilera -- two people Torrie said she'd love to meet. However, she found out only later that she was in the same building with them.

Torrie's Playboy project had been kept -- no pun intended -- under wraps, and only now is word beginning to filter out that she has a Playboy issue upcoming. Even among the rest of the WWE locker room, the news has been slow traveling.

"More people know about it since I got back from the shoot," she said, "but to be honest with you, I'm a little surprised it wasn't all over the Internet. At the Royal Rumble, a few of the Superstars came up to me and asked how the shoot went, and I just looked at them like, 'You know?' I think some of them were surprised.