Dawn Marie Psaltis
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| Dawn Marie Psaltis | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Beulah McGillyslutty Dawn Marie Dawn Marie Bytch Dawn Marie Rinaldi Dawn Marie Wilson Tammy Lynn Bytch |
| Billed height | 5 ft 7 in (170 cm) |
| Billed weight | 120 lb (54 kg) |
| Born | November 3, 1970 Woodbridge Township, New Jersey |
| Trained by | Simon Diamond, Fit Finlay, Buddy Landell, Devon Storm, Mikey Whipwreck |
| Debut | January 1995 |
Dawn Marie Psaltis (born November 3, 1970) is an American professional wrestler and professional wrestling valet, better known by her ring name, Dawn Marie. She is perhaps best known for her appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling and the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment, where she was one of the WWE Divas.
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In her youth, Dawn Marie was a fan of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), admiring wrestlers such as Bob Backlund, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper. She graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business at the age of 23 and went on to work for a real estate consultancy firm in Manhattan, New York, reaching the position of Director of International Real Estate.[1]
After meeting an ex-boyfriend who had aspired to play football professionally and finding out that he had been signed by the Chicago Bears, Dawn Marie decided that she would pursue a career in entertainment. She resigned from the firm and moved into the entertainment industry with the goal of becoming either a model or an actress.[2]
While signing modeling posters for Jonathan Gold, a talent agent and professional wrestling promoter, Dawn jokingly told Gold that she would be interested in pursuing a career in wrestling. Gold took her comment at face value and later contacted Dawn Marie, informing her that she was scheduled to appear at a wrestling show in New Jersey. With some trepidation, Dawn Marie went to the show and managed Tony Atlas in his match against Jimmy Snuka. Following the event, Dawn Marie stopped modeling and began appearing on the independent circuit, managing and learning from wrestlers such as Devon Storm, Buddy Landell, Snuka, Tom Brandi, Steve Corino, and Spanish Angel. She made her professional wrestling debut in January 1995.[3]
Dawn Marie spent four years working on the northeastern independent circuit, appearing with promotions such as Maryland Championship Wrestling and the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation. In 1998, she was told by Jeff Jones that Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) employee Buh Buh Ray Dudley was interested in bringing her into the company. At the behest of Dudley, Dawn Marie traveled to the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where ECW promoter Paul Heyman told her that he would book her for several appearances in an angle with Lance Storm. Dawn Marie debuted in ECW on August 28, 1998 as the manager of Lance Storm, feuding with Chris Candido and his manager, Tammy Lynn Sytch. Heyman was impressed by the chemistry between Dawn Marie and Storm, and offered Dawn Marie a contract, which she accepted.[4]
Storm and Dawn Marie feuded with Candido and Sytch for several months, during which time Dawn Marie was renamed Tammy Lynn Bytch to spite Candido and his manager. She used a similar tactic during a feud between Storm and Tommy Dreamer in early 1999. After the respective feuds ended, Dawn Marie used the ring name Dawn Marie Bytch, which was eventually shortened to simply Dawn Marie. After Storm formed a tag team with Justin Credible known as the Impact Players in the summer of 1999, Dawn Marie managed both men, helping them win the ECW Tag Team Championship on two occasions. Dawn Marie continued to manage Storm until he left ECW for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in May 2000. Dawn Marie was also offered a contract by WCW, but declined to leave ECW in order to remain with her fiancé, ECW wrestler Simon Diamond.[5]
After Storm departed ECW, Dawn Marie became a color commentator on both ECW pay-per-views and the television series ECW on TNN. In August 2000, she began managing Steve Corino; the alliance was short-lived, as Dawn Marie quickly betrayed Corino. On December 3, 2000 at the Massacre on 34th Street pay-per-view, Dawn Marie announced that she would become the manager of the winner of the opening match pitting Simon Diamond and Swinger against Christian York and Joey Matthews. Although York and Matthews won the bout, Dawn Marie opted to join forces with Simon and Swinger. She managed the duo until ECW declared bankruptcy in April 2001.[citation needed]
Following the bankruptcy of ECW, Dawn Marie returned to the independent circuit, managing Simon and Swinger. The trio made several appearances with the short lived X Wrestling Federation in November 2001. In addition to wrestling, Dawn Marie worked as a stock trader and co-hosted a radio show known as the "Rock and Wrestling Radio Show". During her time on the independent circuit, Dawn Marie trained as a wrestler under Simon Diamond and Mikey Whipwreck.[6]
In April 2002, Dawn Marie began negotiating with World Wrestling Entertainment, eventually agreeing to a deal. She wrestled her first WWE match on April 14, 2002, defeating Kim Neilson at a house show in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She debuted on WWE television on the May 30 episode of SmackDown! as Vince McMahon's legal assistant, Dawn Marie.[7] Dawn briefly had a feud with Stacy Keibler over McMahon's affections until McMahon turned over the General Management position to his daughter, Stephanie McMahon,[8] followed shortly by Keibler's departure for the RAW Brand,[9] after backstabbing McMahon.
In her next angle, Dawn was in a relationship with Torrie's father Al Wilson.[10] Dawn blackmailed Torrie into coming to her hotel, where she forced her to make out with her, then have sex or she would marry her father.[11] Despite this, Dawn and Al Wilson "married" anyway. She briefly went by the name Dawn Marie Wilson. As part of the storyline, Al Wilson died during their honeymoon. This led to the First-Ever Stepmother vs. Stepdaughter Match at the 2003 Royal Rumble as the Wilson women battled it out. Dawn, for the most part, dominated the match due to the fact that Wilson was too distraught over her father's death to really fight back. In the end, Wilson surprised Dawn with a swinging neckbreaker to win.
On April 15, 2003 in Norfolk, Virginia, Dawn, along with Rhyno, Rey Mysterio, and Sable, visited the USS Vella Gulf, a guided missile cruiser. The WWE superstars expressed their gratitude to the Navy for their efforts during the Iraq War. Dawn Marie also gave an emotional speech to the soldiers about how she knew what it's like for their families at home, since Dawn has a brother in the military. During WWE's tour of Iraq, Dawn spent the night in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. The palace was gutted and she slept on a cot as did the other WWE Superstars.
Dawn began a short feud with Wilson for the second time over Dawn's jealousy of Torrie's exposure in Playboy and WWE Divas magazines. The two had a match with Torrie's career on the line thanks to the SmackDown! GM at the time (Kurt Angle) who made that stipulation at Judgment Day 2004. Wilson won the contest with a backslide, in the progress accidentally exposing Marie's thong following a botched school-girl roll-up where Marie's pants ripped.
After being on hiatus from SmackDown! programming, Dawn began a feud with Miss Jackie, bragging that she and Jackie's fiancée Charlie Haas had an affair. This angle lead up to a match between the two at Armageddon 2004, with Haas as the guest referee. Dawn won the match, but afterward, Haas confirmed their affair and broke off both relationships. Months later, she began a short feud with Michelle McCool.
In May 2005, it was reported that Dawn Marie Psaltis was pregnant. In June 2005, she confirmed her pregnancy on WWE's internet talk show, Byte This!. Before she was released by WWE on July 6, 2005, she appeared at ECW One Night Stand. As of May 8, 2007, she is currently involved with a lawsuit against with WWE over her departure from the company due to being pregnant.
On November 5, 2005, a visibly pregnant Dawn Marie appeared at the ECW reunion event Hardcore Homecoming: November Reign, holding the key for the main event steel cage match between Jerry Lynn and P.J. Polaco. The match was won by Polaco after Dawn Marie, Jason, and Lance Storm interfered on his behalf.[12]
After giving birth on December 20, 2005, Dawn Marie began training for a return to wrestling. She was briefly scheduled to team with Jackie Gayda to face Traci Brooks and Lollipop in a tag team match on April 26, 2006, but backed out of the match, believing that she would not be in ring-shape in time for the event. In June 2006, Dawn Marie managed Johnny Candido in a match for the National Wrestling Superstars promotion.
As of late, Psaltis has been involved in the real estate industry.
- Signature moves
- Wrestlers managed
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- Themes
- "Phat Props", a WWE production
- "Hammer Jammer", a WWE production
Dawn Marie starred in the 1999 independent film The Vampire Carmilla as "Rachel". She also appeared in the original Austin Powers MTV special as an extra, and can be seen on the Clerks tenth anniversary DVD in the Jay and Silent Bob MTV spots.
Psaltis is of French, Greek, and Italian descent.
Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Psaltis was in a relationship with Pat "Simon Diamond" Kenney.
Dawn married the father of her son, Matthew in June 2005.[13]
On December 20, 2005, Psaltis gave birth to her first child, a boy named Matthew. [14] He was born seven days prematurely. In January 2006, she filed a complaint against WWE with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that her contract had been wrongfully terminated as a result of her pregnancy, and that she had suffered mental duress as a result of the release.[3] She maintains that Kenney is not the father.
Psaltis is good friends with several other female wrestlers, including Torrie Wilson, Stacy Keibler, Jackie Gayda, Lita, and Victoria. She attended the wedding of Wilson and Billy Kidman and was a bridesmaid at Jackie Gayda's marriage to Charlie Haas. She and fellow ECW alumna Francine share a mutual dislike for unknown reasons.[15]
- ^ An interview with Dawn Marie, conducted by Mike Mooneyham.
- ^ "Dawn Marie lives and learns" - an interview with Canoe.ca.
- ^ a b Online World of Wrestling Profile.
- ^ An interview with Dawn Marie, conducted by Mike Aldren.
- ^ Dawn Marie at WrestlingMuseum.com.
- ^ An interview with Dawn Marie, conducted by Steve Gerweck.
- ^ SmackDown Results: May 30, 2002.
- ^ Michael McAvennie. "WWE The Yearbook: 2003 Edition", Pocket Books, 2003, pp. 183. (English)
- ^ Michael McAvennie. "WWE The Yearbook: 2003 Edition", Pocket Books, 2003, pp. 200. (English)
- ^ Michael McAvennie. "WWE The Yearbook: 2003 Edition", Pocket Books, 2003, pp. 298-299. (English)
- ^ Michael McAvennie. "WWE The Yearbook: 2003 Edition", Pocket Books, 2003, pp. 328-330. (English)
- ^ Storm interrupts November Reign - November Reign results.
- ^ In June of 2005, Matt and I got married.
- ^ In December of 2005, I had my son Matthew.
- ^ Francine responds to backstage altercation with Dawn Marie.
- The official website of Dawn Marie
- Dawn Marie at the Internet Movie Database
- Dawn of a New Era: August 2001 article
- 9/27/07 Dawn Marie writes letter to her fans
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Psaltis, Dawn Marie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 3, 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Woodbridge Township, New Jersey |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Categories: Articles needing additional references from May 2007 | Wikipedia articles in need of updating | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since April 2007 | 1970 births | American color commentators | American film actors | American models | American professional wrestlers | American radio personalities | Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni | Female professional wrestlers | Greek-Americans | Living people | New York University alumni | Italian-Americans | People from New Jersey | Professional wrestling managers and valets | World Wrestling Entertainment alumni