WWF,WCW: Terri Ann Boatwright Runnels, Part 1

Ring name(s) Alexandra York,Marlena,Terri Runnels,Terri
Billed height 4 ft 10 in (150 cm)
Billed weight 95 lb (45 kg)
Born October 5, 1966,Live Oak, Florida
Resides Atlanta, Georgia
Trained by Dustin Rhodes
Pro wrestling debut 1990
Retired March 2005

Terri Ann Boatwright Runnels is a former American professional wrestling manager. She is best known for her eight year career with WWE, and as the former wife of Dustin Runnels.

Runnels was originally a make-up artist for CNN, and worked in the same studios in which episodes of WCW were taped. When WCW was purchased by Ted Turner in 1988, booker Ole Anderson invited her to become part of the roster. Terri debuted in 1990 as Miss Alexandra York, an accountant who led the WCW faction known as the York Foundation. The York Foundation was a consortium of wrestlers with finance themed gimmicks, including Terrance Taylor, Richard Morton, Thomas Rich and Michael Wallstreet. Terri carried a laptop (actually a Tandy 100 computer, which at that time had been obsolete for about six years) to ringside which she purportedly calculated the means (and time) necessary for her clients to win matches.

Terri debuted in the WWF at the 1996 Royal Rumble as Marlena, the cigar-smoking manager and wife of her real-life husband Dustin Runnels, then packaged as the eccentric, cross-dressing, bisexual wrestler Goldust. Terri managed Goldust until on November 3, 1997 he revealed his new valet, Luna Vachon. Terri disappeared from TV, re-emerging in 1998 as the manager of Val Venis. Venis fired her and ended their relationship when Terri announced that she was pregnant.

In November 1998 the jilted Terri formed the stable "Pretty Mean Sisters" (P.M.S.) with Jacqueline and Ryan Shamrock, both of whom also had reason to resent men. In one of the more controversial WWF storylines, when D'Lo Brown accidentally knocked Terri from the ring apron to the floor during a match, she claimed to have suffered a miscarriage. This was later found to be untrue, as was the entire pregnancy, but in the meantime Terri used the incident to exert control over D'Lo, who became a virtual servant to P.M.S. The stable eventually grew to encompass Meat, a male wrestler who the ladies constantly abused. P.M.S. gradually drifted apart, and the stable finally split in August 1999.

In late 1999, Terri arranged the "Terri Invitational Tournament" between Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz, with the winner receiving her managerial services and the sum of $100,000. The Hardy Boyz won the Tournament, which culminated in a Ladder Match at No Mercy 1999 (with the prize money suspended above the ring in a briefcase), and Terri spent the next few months as their manager until she was injured when Bubba Ray Dudley powerbombed her through a table on January 24, 2000. Terri returned on February 27, 2000 and cost the Hardy Boyz a match, complaining that they had not visited her while hospitalized. She then became the manager of Edge and Christian, but cost them numerous matches, including a bout for the WWF World Tag Team Championships. After she cost Christian a match on an episode of SmackDown!, Edge and Christian dispensed with her services. After Terri mocked the departing tag team with her signature "she-devil" taunt, Edge, noticing the gesture on the Titantron, turned around and speared Terri.

Terri Runnels sites at Celebrity Link
technorati tags:sports wrestling ,professional wrestling ,pro wrestling news ,pro wrestling ,wrestling wrestler ,wrestling wrestlers ,wrestling ,wrestling news ,women's wrestling ,women of wrestling ,girls wrestling ,ladies wrestling