Terri Runnels

Biography

Terri Lynne Boatright Runnels (born October 5, 1966) is an American retired professional wrestling manager, television host, and occasional professional wrestler. Runnels began her professional wrestling career in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Ms. Alexandra York, manager of the York Foundation. She later joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where she worked for two years as Marlena, and then under her real name. In the early years of her career with the WWF, she managed her (then) real-life husband Dustin Runnels (known on-screen as Goldust) and was a member of the Pretty Mean Sisters alliance. She also managed both Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian following the Terri Invitational Tournament in 1999. Subsequently, she had an on-screen rivalry with The Kat, managed The Radicalz stable, and worked as a host and interviewer. During her time with the World Wrestling Federation (or WWE), she briefly held the Hardcore Championship, her only championship during her career. After leaving the wrestling business, Runnels became involved in philanthropic work.

== Professional wrestling career ==

=== World Championship Wrestling (1988–1991) ===

Runnels was originally a make-up artist for CNN from 1985 to 1991, where she worked on Larry King's make-up. On the weekends, she did makeup for the wrestlers of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). 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. Booker Ole Anderson asked her to become part of the roster as a manager and 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. The York character was created over a lunch with Tony Schiavone, one of WCW's announcers. She worked at WCW for two years.

=== World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment (1996–2004) ===

==== Marlena gimmick and managing Goldust (1996–1998) ==== Runnels debuted in the World Wrestling Federation at the Royal Rumble in 1996 as Marlena, a character modeled after Marlene Dietrich. 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. 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. The risque characters helped bring about The Attitude Era of the late-1990s and the Diva division. 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. Later, Brian Pillman feuded with Goldust over Marlena. As part of the angle, Pillman won Marlena in a match and sent Goldust a picture of her handcuffed in a bed. Pillman, however, died in the middle of the storyline. Originally, the plan was to have the rivalry culminate in an on-air wedding where Marlena would leave Goldust for Pillman. After the Marlena-Goldust alliance dissolved, Goldust revealed Luna Vachon as his new manager.

==== Pretty Mean Sisters (1998–1999) ==== Runnels later re-emerged in 1998, under her real name, as the on-screen girlfriend of Val Venis. When Runnels claimed to be pregnant with Venis' baby, he dumped her. 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.). 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. In January, Runnels claimed to have suffered a miscarriage after she was knocked off the ring apron by Brown. Weeks later, Brown discovered that Runnels had never been pregnant. P.M.S. gained a "love slave" named Meat in May, whom Runnels controlled using sex. As a part of the storyline, P.M.S. used Meat for his body, forcing him to have sex with them. The alliance, however, broke up by July, when Jacqueline Moore became frustrated with Runnels' infatuation with Meat.

==== Various storylines (1999–2001) ====