In the early 2000s WWE tried to recreate the popularity of the Attitude Era by pushing
the boundaries of their TV product. It didn’t always work out for them, and a partnership
in 2003 blew up in their faces resulting in a poorly-produced and badly-received PPV.
I am Luke Owen and this is when WWE teamed up with Girls Gone Wild.
In 2003 WWE were trying as hard as they could to bring back the Attitude Era audience that
disappeared at the end of the Monday Night War in 2001. Raw had averaged a 5.8 rating
in 2000, but had dropped to a 4.0 by the end of 2002. Steve Austin was nearing his final
match and The Rock was finding other success elsewhere in Hollywood. Wrestling just wasn’t
as popular as it was a few years prior.
WWE tried to counteract this by pushing the envelope as much as they could, pushed by
former WCW head honcho Eric Bischoff who used his “controversy creates cash” mantra
to promote HLA on Monday Night Raw - HLA standing for Hot Lesbian Action. WWE also worked again
with Playboy to recapture the success of Sable and Chyna posing in the magazine by having
Torrie Wilson do a shoot in early 2003 which they hoped would beat the 1.1 million copies
sold when Sable was on the cover.
One of their other projects was set-up by Bischoff who had purchased the PPV rights
for video series Girls Gone Wild. Founded by Joe Francis in 1997, Girls Gone Wild was
a popular product for men in their early 20s, who would order the videos that were advertised
late at night through infomercials. Typical videos were filmed at nightclubs or at parties,
and featured women willingly taking their clothes off or taking part in wet t-shirt
competitions. By 2001, Girls Gone Wild had sold 4.5 million videos. As reported by Slate
in 2004, “The brand is so popular they will soon launch an apparel line, a compilation
CD with Jive Records of GGW-approved club hits, and a restaurant chain [described as]
Hooters with better food.” Brad Pitt had given Girls Gone Wild videos as wrap gifts
to the cast of Troy, and Justin Timberlake had been seen wearing hats with their logo
on it. They worked with popular rap acts Eminem and most famously Snoop Dogg. This was a brand
WWE wanted to get involved with. As Bruce Prichard revealed on Something to Wrestle,
“Eric was the executive producer of the PPV, and Eric asked WWE if they wanted to
help with the production. It became a joint production of Girls Gone Wild and BHE Productions
and TV and WWE.” Joe Francis told The Hollywood Reporter at the time, "We have an incredible
partnership with the WWE. They own the pay-per-view space, so there's no better people to be in
business with."
Bischoff and Francis set out to have the first-ever Girls Gone Wild PPV which would air in March
2003 and produced by WWE. The company pushed heavily that WWE Divas like Torrie Wilson,
Stacey Kiebler and Nidia would be at the event - promoting a “Body Challenge” between
Torrie and Nidia. While never explicitly said, it was heavily implied by both WWE and Girls
Gone Wild that if you ordered this PPV - you would see WWE Divas expose themselves. On
the night of the PPV, Smackdown aired a broadcast in which Dawn Marie took her top off to the
crowd to push this idea even further.
The PPV went down on March 13th 2003, and was originally going to take place at Panama
City in Florida with Josh Matthews as that’s where Bischoff used to shoot Spring Break
episodes of WCW Nitro. However on the day of the event, the major of Panama City dropped
by and threatened to arrest anyone who bore too much skin for the PPV. This meant the
majority of the show took place in the other location in South Padre Island in Texas. That
event was hosted by Jonathan Coachman with Torrie, Test, supermodel Kylie Max, Joe Francis
and Snoop Dogg. Prichard revealed on an episode of Something to Wrestle that Snoop Dogg - who
was already late for the show - had an altercation with WWE director Kevin Dunn who was on hand
to lead the production. “Kevin is trying to explain to Snoop what he’s got to do
for that night. And Snoop is just standing there staring off into the distance puffing
on a cigar. And Kevin is getting madder and madder because Snoop won’t acknowledge him
and finally Snoop, without ever looking at him goes: ‘hey motherf******, just because
I ain’t looking at you don’t mean I ain’t hearing you! I got this s***!’ And he just
walked off.”
The show didn’t follow a usual Girls Gone Wild format and was instead there to crown
Miss Girls Gone Wild 2003 - a gimmick Bischoff had used in 1998 at nWo Souled Out when crowning
Miss nWo. However because of the involvement of the law, both Girls Gone Wild and WWE got
spooked and had Coachman step in anytime the action got too risque. The advertised Body
Challenge between Nidia and Torrie turned into a wrestling angle when Nidia hit Torrie
with a chair while she was trying to take her top off. In their review of the show 411Mania
wrote, “Snoop is so concerned that he yells “Get the a** shot!” as [Torrie is] lying
in pain on the stage.” They added: “Basically [WWE] get people to pay $20 to see something
you can’t see on Smackdown, and then deliver the same stupid non-finish you see on Smackdown
and just as much skin, if not less.” Pro Wrestling Torch wrote in their review, “The
show ran under 90 minutes and was not worth twenty dollars. The mayor of Panama City must
have scared someone because they only went to Josh Matthews about three times… Why
the seemingly a-sexual Coach hosted the event and not the perverted Jerry Lawler is a mystery
to me.”
In an odd coincidence - or maybe not given this is pro-wrestling - TNA’s PPV the night
before saw a match between Holly Wood and Lolly Pop which also contained nudity. Mike
Johnson reported, “Lolly Pop’s right nipple was exposed during their mat scuffle. Seconds
later, when both stood up, Holly Wood ripped off Lolly’s top completely, exposing her
breasts. She didn’t seem especially concerned, and continued to fight briefly in the ring.”
Mike Johnson reported in issue #753 of The Torch that there was an incident backstage
where Joe Francis tried to kiss Stacy Keibler and she rejected him, and Test - her real
life boyfriend at the time - was not happy about the news when he heard it. The show
drew between 120,000 and 140,000 PPV buys - which was above their 125,000 break-even
mark - and Girls Gone Wild were set to produce more PPVs in the future. However according
to Mike Johnson they weren’t going to be doing it with WWE, writing in the Torch: “Not
only is WWE not interested in being involved in future GGW pay–per–view events, but
GGW officials don’t want to work with WWE again. Apparently, the production expenses
WWE charged were double what GGW officials had forecast.”
The relationship between WWE and Girls Gone Wild was certainly a product of its time.
When asked by Politico about the partnership during Linda McMahon’s political career
in 2010, WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman said, “WWE engaged in what was known as sensationalized
TV in a TV-14 environment. Since then, WWE has made a full transition to TV-PG content
and storylines.”
Check out another WWE Backstage Expose episode by clicking the videos on screen right now
for more awesome wrestling content.