Dawn Marie Psaltis (born November 3, 1970) is an American real estate agent and model turned professional wrestler and valet. She is best known for her appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling and the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment under her ring name Dawn Marie.
Psaltis began managing wrestlers on the independent circuit, starting with Tony Atlas, before she signed a deal with ECW after what was supposed to be a three-week stint as the manager of Lance Storm, feuding with Chris Candido and his manager, Tammy Lynn Sytch, but Paul Heyman was impressed by the chemistry between Psaltis and Storm that he offered her a contract, which she accepted.
Storm and Psaltis feuded with Candido and Sytch for several months, during which time Psaltis was renamed "Tammy Lynn Bytch" to spite Candido and his manager. After the respective feuds ended, she 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, she managed both men, helping them win the ECW World Tag Team Championship on two occasions. Psaltis continued to manage Storm until he left ECW for World Championship Wrestling in May 2000. After Storm departed ECW, Dawn Marie opted to manage Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger until ECW's bankruptcy in 2001.
Dawn Marie then went back to the independent circuit until WWE signed her, where she made her debut on the SmackDown! brand as Vince McMahon's legal assistant. She debuted with the name "Dawn Marie Rinaldi" although it was quickly shortened to the original "Dawn Marie." Later that year she would begin her most notable feud, involving her marrying Al Wilson, the storyline father of her rival Torrie Wilson. She was released from her WWE contract on July 2005 and returned to the independent circuit. She was inducted into the WSU Hall of Fame in 2010.
"Dangerous Tropes":
- A-Cup Angst: At ECW House Party 99, January 16, 1999, there was a three-way dance with Tommy Dreamer (w/Francine) vs. Justin Credible (w/Jason, Chastity, Nicole Bass and the woman who would become known as Jazz) vs. Lance Storm (w/Dawn). Dreamer ran down Justin's entourage, with Dawn laughing at Dreamer's insults, leading to Dreamer turning his attention to her.Dreamer: I don't know what you're laughing at, honey, because you're a carpenter's dream: Flat as a board and easy to screw! Oh!note
- Action Girl: When she got the chance. She'd been in wrestling since 1995.
- Arch-Enemy:
- Torrie Wilson was who she had a nine month long feud with - going to several PPV matches. Even after the feud was over, they still hated each other. Dawn's last match in the WWE was against Torrie.
- Jackie Gayda became this when Dawn claimed to have an affair with her husband. Possibly the only person in WWE who Dawn was meaner to than Torrie.
- Outside of Kayfabe, she absolutely HATES Francine. In a since-deleted post from her
Twitter, someone asked Dawn about Francine and Dawn said that the fan can like them both but to never mention Francine's name to her again, and added the hashtags "#dirtynastybitch" and "#neverforget." It's not known why she hates Francine (it doesn't seem to be mutual, as Francine has nothing about Dawn on her Twitter), just that she does.
- BattleCouple: When she was dating Simon Diamond she frequently tagged with him.
- Blackmail: Pulled this on Torrie Wilson in order to get her to kiss and possibly sleep with her at a hotel room or else she wouldn't call off the wedding.
- But Not Too Foreign: She's of Greek, French and Italian descent, none of which was ever mentioned through her career. She went by just 'Dawn Marie', rather than using her last name.
- Catfight: So many with Francine in ECW.
- Clothing Damage: Her pants ripped in the back during her match with Torrie Wilson at Judgment Day 2004, revealing her thong and she had to wrestle the rest of the match that way.
- Cool Teacher: Buddy Landel and Devon Storm helped with her transition from valet to wrestler. Marie in turn helped train Bobcat, who went on to team up against Marie with Simon Diamond in Maryland Championship Wrestling and then take on both Maria and Simon Diamond in USA Pro Wrestling.
- Darker and Edgier: Played a ditzy valet in ECW, and then progressed to playing a Femme Fatale vamp in WWE - who wrestled a lot more.
- Designated Girl Fight: Kurt Angle used Dawn to punish Torrie Wilson by putting Torrie in matches with her.
- The Ditz: This was her early character in ECW.
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: She blackmailed Torrie Wilson into having sex with her in a hotel room because she knew Torrie would do anything to protect her father. Instead of being taken seriously, it was treated like a fanservice segment, so the crowd booed Dawn but not the actual footage.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Debuted on the May 30 (taped May 28), 2002 SmackDown! as Vince McMahon's paralegal, with the name "Dawn Marie Rinaldi." This was eventually all forgotten about. It did provide Jerry Lawler the chance to make the cheap joke about how he'd "like to see her briefs" during the Divas Undressed competition. Given Vince McMahon's sense of humor, this may have been the entire reason for the gimmick.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite her horrific treatment of Torrie at Al's funeral, Dawn did seem to genuinely love Al and was saddened by his death.
- Genius Bruiser: Graduated from the New York University Stern School of Business.
- Groin Attack: Her moveset includes a headbutt to the groin.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Various photoshoots.
- Heel:
- Remained one for most of her career. She played a brilliant bitch. That being said, she did work a couple of matches against Nidia on Velocity where she played the Face.
- She worked as a face valet for lifelong face Tito Santana in this match against "The Cold-Hearted Playa" Danny Demanto, probably one of the only times Tito ever had a manager or valet in his corner.
- The Host:
- Of the Piledriver Rock and Wrestling Radio Show
- Of Dragon Gate USA's live events.
- Jobber: Only won one match in WSU, which was a Tag Team match alongside Portia Perez and even then, both of them together failed to beat Angel Orsini in a handicap match.
- Joisey: She's from Wildwood and usually played a heel. At the start of the 2003 WWE Divas Desert Heat DVD, she said, "I'm from the East Coast, I'm a total Jersey girl. It's the big hair."
- Kick Them While They Are Down: At No Mercy 2004, she and The Dudley Boys faced Charlie Haas, Rico and Miss Jackie in a six-person mixed tag match. This was during the time when she was claiming that she and Charlie were having an affair. Prior to the match, Dawn walked into a locker room where Jackie was getting dressed and was topless with her arms wrapped around her breasts. Dawn proceeded to cut a promo on Jackie, who was essentially defenseless. Dawn literally could have done anything she wanted to at the time since Jackie would be incapable of countering or defending against it since she'd risk exposing herself in the process.
- Lingerie Scene: The WWE Divas Undressed DVD, and often in catfights.
- Male Gaze: The camera actually showed her cleavage before it showed her face on the March 13, 2003 SmackDown. (See Scenery Censor below).
- May–December Romance: To Al Wilson, father of Torrie Wilson. It ends tragically with Al suffering a heart attack during their honeymoon.
- Ms. Fanservice: As usual with women in her role during the late 1990s/early 2000s.
- Power Stable:
- (in NSWA in Detroit): The East Coast Invasion, led by Dave Prazak.
- (in ECW): The Impact Players, with Justin Credible, Lance Storm and Jason.
- Raised by Dudes: On the WWE Divas Undressed DVD, she said that she was raised by her dad.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: She was pregnant when she seconded Lance Storm for his match with Chris Jericho at ECW One Night Stand 2005. Because of this, she was limited to distracting the referee so Justin Credible could hit Jericho in the head with a Singapore Cane, setting up Storm scoring the pin. While there were very few ways to get disqualified in ECW, and that wasn't one of them, there was nothing else she could have done.
- Real Women Have Curves: John Cena once spoke very positively about her regarding this:"I would like to be stranded on an island with Dawn Marie, because she's representin' Dirty Jersey, and she's got a J-Lo booty."
- Red Baron: "Dangerous" in her pre-ECW days.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After she succeeded in splitting up Charlie Haas and Jackie Gayda, Charlie turned around and dumped Dawn as well for being a slut.
- Ring Oldies: She was mostly a valet in ECW, so she didn't properly train to wrestle until she was in her thirties. That being said, she was only thirty-six when she retired.
- The Rival: Engaged in a very one sided rivalry with Becky Bayless in National Wrestling Superstars and WSU, although Bayless is also one of two wrestlers Marie holds any kind of WSU victory over.
- Scarpia Ultimatum: Dawn Marie agreed to break off her engagment to Torrie Wilson's father, Al, if Torrie met her in a hotel room, (hinting that Torrie was Dawn Marie's intended target all along). Torrie agreed. At Armageddon 2002, Torrie met Dawn in a hotel room and Dawn stripped herself and Torrie down to bras and panties and they kissed a bit, until the camera cut away.
- Scenery Censor: From the March 13 (taped March 11), 2003 SmackDown!, the same night that the Girls Gone Wild PPV (featuring appearances by Stacy, Torrie and Nidia) aired. Sean O'Haire, doing his Corrupter gimmick, approached her backstage and noticed she was upset. Dawn said that she was upset that Playboy had picked Torrie instead of her. Sean suggested that she should take the opportunity to show her body on SmackDown, signing off with his Catchphrase "I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." Dawn walked down to the ring and opened her top to "flash" the crowd, with the top rope in the way, of course. Oh, and she actually had tape over her nipples.
- Shower of Love: Dawn and Matt Hardy defeated Torrie and Rikishi on the October 17, 2002 SmackDown!. After the match, Torrie went looking for her father and found him, fully clothed, in a shower with Dawn, who was naked and her butt was briefly shown on camera. Torrie was shocked and ran and, when the camera cut back, Dawn was standing behind Al.
- Sidekick: To Lance Storm and Steve Corino in ECW.
- Take That!: Used for one. Introduced in ECW as "Tammy Lynn Bytch," Lance Storm's rip on Tammy Lynn Sytch during his feud with Chris Candido after being kicked out of the Triple Threat. Storm tried it again in 1999, calling her "Beulah McGillicutty" for a feud with Tommy Dreamer. It didn't stick, and eventually ECW just started calling her Dawn Marie.
- Three Month Rule: For a while after Al's kayfabe death, she was still billed as Dawn Marie-Wilson. After three months had passed, this was dropped.
- Took a Level in Badass: In contrast to her ditzy ECW character, her WWE character was more of a Dark Action Girl and The Vamp.
- Two First Names: She dropped Psaltis on-screen and just went by 'Dawn Marie'.
- Use Your Head: She would use headbutts in her matches, either to her opponent's face or groin.
- The Vamp: As if her storyline with Al and Torrie wasn't enough, there was her storyline with Miss Jackie, based around whether Dawn Marie and Jackie's fiancée, Charlie Haas, had an affair.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: Many Divas photoshoots and bikini contests.
- Wicked Stepmother: She of course played the heel in the 'Stepmother vs Stepdaughter' match at the Royal Rumble.
- Xenafication: In WWE she had a much, much more serious character than when she was in ECW.
