Trish Stratus says Vince McMahon hounded her “like crazy” about posing for Playboy magazine
While appearing on the Pod Meets World podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus commented on her decision to not pose for Playboy magazine during her wrestling career…
“It’s just not for me. I’m like a tomboy. Even though I’m known as a sex symbol, I suppose—I’ve heard that—it’s not me. It’s my character, you know? But I mean, I pull it off if I need to. But yeah, no, it was not even an option. I was like, ‘Oh, that is just not me.’
Even when I had to do the pillow fights—and I actually didn’t have a pillow fight one—but I had to do lingerie stuff. It just wasn’t me. It felt very put on.
Even one time, they had these annual magazines called the Divas magazines. It was like Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, where we’d go down to some exotic location and shoot that. Well, I don’t know if it was budget cuts or whatever it was—or maybe, like you said, the horny writers or storylines—but suddenly, instead of the annual bikini issue, they wanted a lingerie issue. And I was like, “Oh…” I didn’t want to do it. It felt so silly to me. So I made this whole look—it was like sports lingerie. I did the socks and made it athletic-sexy, you know what I mean? I made it me.
I just—I don’t know—the sexy thing didn’t come natural. So when Playboy came calling, I was like, absolutely not interested. Vince [McMahon], oh my God, hounded me like crazy. He’s like, ‘It’s a great opportunity.’ And I was shown, also during that time, ‘But look at the opportunity—if you turn this down, we’re going to give your opportunities to her.’ And I was like, ‘No, I still don’t want to do it. Thank you.’
It came to me for years and years, and I was just like, ‘No.’ And I do not regret it—never. It’s just not my thing. And now, my God, now that I have kids and everything, I couldn’t even imagine, to be honest. So, I know that was my decision, and I stand by it.”