Dawn Marie Psaltis (born November 3,1970 in Woodbridge, New Jersey), better known simply as Dawn Marie, is a Diva formerly working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), under its SmackDown! brand.
Contents
- 1 Career
- 1.1 Early career
- 1.2 Extreme Championship Wrestling
- 1.3 World Wrestling Entertainment
- 1.3.1 Goodwill work
- 1.3.2 Training
- 1.4 Outside of WWE
- 2 Personal life
- 3 Profile
- 3.1 Stage names
- 3.2 Finishing and signature moves
- 4 Trivia
- 5 External links
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Career
Early career
In her youth, Dawn was a fan of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). She was raised to be a tomboy. Her father was a zookeeper. Growing up, Dawn admired Bob Backlund and Roddy Piper as well as his Piper's Pit.
At the age of 23, Dawn Marie found herself out of NYU business school and into a real estate consulting firm in Manhattan, New York. Dawn was working as the Director of International Real Estate before deciding to move into the entertainment industry with the goal of being either a model or actress.
Later, during an autograph signing for an independent promotion in Florida Dawn met Jonathan Gold, a talent agent. He had asked her if she wanted to get into the business. Shortly she received a phone call telling her she was booked on a show in New Jersey. She reluctantly went, managing Tony Atlas that night in a match against Jimmy Snuka. She stopped modeling and acting and started to learn all about the wrestling industry with the help of Snuka (who became like a second father to her) while she was traveling the Indy circuit. She made her debut in January 1995.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Four years later, after valeting for various promotions, Dawn heard that Mark Lamonica (better known as "Bubba Ray Dudley") from Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) had an interest in her and invited her to try out for the company. Dawn left for Philadelphia where ECW promoter Paul Heyman paired her with Lance Storm. In her first night with ECW, Dawn lost her dress and was left in the ring in her underwear. Dawn was only billed to be with ECW for one night but Paul Heyman loved her chemistry with Lance Storm so much that she was offered a developmental contract. She was then immediately added to Lance Storm's current storyline.
Dawn was soon put into a high profile storyline involving Chris Candido's manager Tammy Lynn Sytch. Her alliance with Lance Storm put over Storm's storyline that had him feuding with Candido. During this time, Dawn was dubbed "Dawn Marie Bytch", to spite Candido and his manager. Dawn worked with Lance through his solo career in ECW as well as with Lance and Justin Credible as part of the Impact Players faction. The trio had a high profile run until Lance left for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in May of 2000. Dawn was offered a contract by WCW as well, but she declined in order to stay with her fiancè in ECW.
Dawn also was involved in various cat fights while in ECW and did some color commentary before working with her real life fiancè Pat Kenney (better known under his ring name "Simon Diamond") in late 2000 and early 2001, until ECW closed down. During her ECW tenure, she also worked with Justin Credible, Raven and Shane Douglas.
World Wrestling Entertainment
After ECW's demise, Dawn decided to return to the independent promotions and worked in various promotions with Pat until she was contacted by the WWE. Dawn made her wrestling debut for the WWE on 13th April at a live event, on May 30, 2002, Dawn made her WWE television debut on SmackDown! as Vince McMahon's legal assistant, Dawn Marie Renaldi.
Dawn's first PPV match was at No Mercy in which she lost to Torrie Wilson.
In her next angle, Dawn was in a relationship with Torrie's father Al Wilson. Torrie shared a lesbian kiss with Dawn at a hotel to avoid her "marrying" him. Despite this, Dawn and Al Wilson "married" anyway. As part of the storyline, Al Wilson died during their honeymoon. Outside of kayfabe, Dawn was called 'Mom' by Torrie.
After being on hiatus from SmackDown! programming, Dawn began a feud with Miss Jackie, bragging that her and Jackie's fiance Charlie Haas had an affair. This angle lead up to a match between the two at WWE 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 on ECW One Night Stand.
Goodwill work
On April 15, 2003, in Norfolk, Virginia Dawn Marie 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 knows what its like for their families at home since Dawn has a brother in the military.
During the WWE's tour of Iraq, Dawn spent the night in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. The palace was gutted and slept on a cot as did the other WWE Superstars.
Training
While under WWE contract, Dawn traveled once a week to Louisville, Kentucky, the home of OVW where she and the rest of the Divas practiced and teamed up. They listened to Fit Finlay's ideas and suggestions and worked on some matches together.
Outside of WWE
Dawn's release from WWE was rumoured to be because of her pregnancy. Dawn's baby is due in January. On her official website Dawn Marie Online she is accepting bookings. During a recent interview, at the Retroslam Convention in New Jersy, Dawn was asked if she would return to WWE after her pregnancy was over but she said that it is unlikely.
Dawn also appeared at Hardcore Homecoming, holding the key for the main-event steel cage match. She said you don't know what you've got until it's gone and she was released for wanting to have a family, but she's realised that ECW is her true family. She stated in an online interview that her baby would be a boy, called Matthew and was due on the 7th of January.
Dawn also had also got several bookings for the year 2006. She and Jackie Gayda were supposed to be teaming up to take on Traci Brooks and Lollipop in tag action, for an indy event on April 26th. Instead Lollipop will work as a referee while Brooks wrestles Gayda. Dawn believed three months would not be enough to get back into shape for the match considering the weight she has gained.
Personal life
Dawn Marie's hometown is Woodbridge, New Jersey. She was once engaged to Simon Diamond, who is not the father of her unborn son.
Dawn celebrated her 32nd birthday on the road in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania wrestling in a match that pitted her and John Cena against Torrie Wilson and Billy Kidman. She is good friends with several WWE Divas, including Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler.
She has starred in an independent film called The Vampire Carmilla. She was also in the original Austin Powers MTV special as an extra and actually had a few speaking lines.
Profile
- Height: 5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
- Weight: 120 lb (54 kg)
- Trained by: Simon Diamond, Mikey Whipwreck
- Debut: January 1995
- Quotes: "I'm a star!"
Stage names
- Beulah McGillyslutty
- Dawn Marie
- Dawn Marie Bytch
- Dawn Marie Renaldi
- Dawn Marie Wilson
- Tammy Lynn Bytch,
Finishing and signature moves
- Schoolgirl
- Atomic drop
- Sitout facebuster
- Reverse splash
Trivia
- Dawn is of Greek heritage (second generation).
- Dawn is ticklish on her knees.
- Dawn loves cooking and people with dry humor.
- Dawn used to clean chicken coops and pluck the eggs out of the nest.
- Dawn has green eyes and brown hair.
- Dawn attended the wedding of Torrie Wilson and Billy Kidman.
External links
- Dawn Marie's Official Website
- Dawn Marie group @ Google
Search Term: "Dawn_Marie_Psaltis"
Categories: 1970 births | Female professional wrestlers | American professional wrestlers | Professional wrestling managers and valets | People from New Jersey | American models | American actors