Dawn Marie has heard the assumption that she joined OnlyFans because she burned through her wrestling money — and she thinks that’s pretty funny. According to the former WWE star, there wasn’t some giant wrestling fortune to blow through in the first place.
Speaking to Soundsphere, Marie addressed the criticism she knew would come with joining OnlyFans. She said people immediately jump to the idea that a former wrestler must be broke if they start an account, but she insists this was something she chose to do.
“Like I chose to do OnlyFans. I had no idea what was ahead of me, you know, and I knew I was going to have so many people come at me and be like, ‘Oh, you must be broke,’ or ‘You must be this.’ And I do.”
Marie then got pretty blunt about how much money she was actually making during her wrestling career. Despite being on WWE television and spending most of the year traveling, she said she was hardly living some millionaire lifestyle.
“But, like, people don’t understand, when I was in wrestling, I made nothing. I was broke in wrestling. Right? Like, no, we were broke in wrestling.”
Marie even revealed what WWE was paying her at the time. With WCW and ECW already gone, WWE was basically the destination available to her, and she said her contract paid $75,000 per year despite being on the road 275 days annually.
“Like, when I was in wrestling, there was nowhere to go. WCW was gone. ECW was gone. I went to WWE. Contract was for $75,000 a year. I make more as a nurse than I did being on the road 275 days a year.”
That’s why Marie doesn’t buy the narrative that OnlyFans became some last resort after she supposedly blew through her WWE money. From her perspective, she simply found something she wanted to do and made the decision to go for it.
“You know, so it’s like I laugh at it because they’re like, ‘Oh, she blew through all her money. Now she’s going to go to—’ No, I’m choosing this.”
That choice has since become a pretty serious part of Marie’s life. She previously revealed that OnlyFans is now her full-time gig, with a studio built inside her home and different costumes, backdrops and live content allowing her to scratch some of the same creative itch she once got from wrestling.
Marie also pushed back on another assumption — that doing OnlyFans means she’s desperately trying to hang onto her wrestling fame. She pointed out that she spent 14 years deliberately staying away from the business, even turning down appearances during that period.
“I’m not trying to live in my heyday. A lot of people question that, ‘Oh, you can’t let go of the past.’ And I’m like, guys, I stepped away from wrestling for 14 years. I didn’t even take an appearance. I totally divorced the business for 14 years. Nothing.”
At nearly 56 years old, Marie isn’t interested in recreating the Dawn Marie wrestling fans watched decades ago either. She sees what she’s doing now as a new version of herself rather than an attempt to rewind the clock.
“I’m not trying to, like, I’m not caught in my past. I’m not trying to live my past. I’m Dawn Marie in her 50s, embracing her sexuality, embracing her confidence, and doing Dawn Marie at this age.”
Marie’s career path certainly looks nothing like it did during her WWE days, and that seems to be exactly the point. She walked away from wrestling for 14 years, built another career in nursing and is now choosing something completely different because she actually enjoys doing it — whether people think she “needs” the money or not.
Do you think Dawn Marie’s comments change the perception around why former wrestlers join platforms like OnlyFans? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
