This past week marked 20 years since one of WWE’s most bizarre SmackDown storylines came to an unfortunate conclusion, but the original plans for the story’s end were quite different.
In the fall of 2002, Al Wilson made his way onto television as he began visiting his real life daughter Torrie Wilson during episodes of SmackDown. Torrie was embroiled in a feud with Dawn Marie at the time, and Dawn Marie began to seduce Al as a way to mess with her foe.
The relationship between Al Wilson and Dawn Marie blossomed, and despite Torrie’s continued protests, the two were engaged in November of 2002. As wedding preparations ramped up, Dawn Marie approached Torrie and said that if Torrie spent the night with her, she would call off the wedding. Despite Torrie doing as her foe asked, Dawn Marie convinced Al that she only slept with Torrie because she was thinking of him, and the wedding plans continued. Al called Torrie a disappointment for not supporting his relationship.
The January 2nd wedding saw the two strip down to their underwear as they recited their vows, with Stephanie McMahon insisting to Dawn Marie that she wasn’t allowed to get married in the nude. As a wedding present, Dawn Marie purchased a video camera for Al, promising to document their honeymoon in detail.
However, tragedy struck during their honeymoon as Al Wilson became exhausted from constant love-making with his new bride and suffered a heart attack as he lay face down in bed. Despite him having a pulse when the January 9th episode of SmackDown went off the air, it was revealed the next week that he had indeed passed away.
The January 16th episode of SmackDown saw a distraught Dawn Marie mourning her husband at his funeral, and when a devastated Torrie Wilson came to pay respects to her father, Dawn Marie accused her of causing his death as he was heartbroken over her lack of support. The two women brawled, and the casket containing Al Wilson broke, one end of it falling to the floor.
Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie would go on to have WWE‘s only Stepmother vs. Stepdaughter match at the 2003 Royal Rumble, and Torrie emerged victorious from the bout.
Vince McMahon “Loved” An Original WWE Storyline Pitch That Would Have Seen Al Wilson Fake His Death
Speaking in a 2017 interview with Jason Solomon, former WWE writer Dave Lagana talked about the creative process leading up to Al’s funeral, revealing that there was an original pitch that would have seen him fake his own death before being hit by a bus outside the funeral home.
“Dawn [Marie] would have shtupped him to death. Al would have been in the casket. Torrie would have been there crying,’I’m sorry, dad. I should have accepted you being in love with Dawn Marie. I’m sorry, I wish I could have one more minute.’ And then Al was going to sit up in the casket [having faked his own death], and he would’ve said, ‘You’re a terrible daughter.’
“And he would have cut this heel promo on his daughter, he would have walked out the front of the funeral home and then he would have gotten hit by a bus and he would have died. Vince loved it, but we never got to do it, sadly. I never told that story, and probably for good reason because it’s terrible.”
While it’s been twenty years since his on-screen demise, the real life Al Wilson passed away on April 4th, 2019. Days later, Torrie thanked her father during her induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.
h/t Fightful