Perry Saturn just dropped a wild backstage accusation involving Terri Runnels and Jim Ross — and this one goes way beyond anything fans saw on WWE television. Saturn claims JR “had a real thing” for Terri and says she eventually started staying in his hotel room just to get away from Ross constantly calling and pestering her.
Saturn spilled the story while speaking with Chris Van Vliet about his WWE run with Runnels. Saturn had arrived in WWE after leaving WCW as part of the group that became The Radicalz, and his pairing with Terri eventually became one of the most memorable parts of his run.
Before any romance started on television, Terri apparently made sure Saturn understood exactly where he stood. Saturn said she immediately told him that working together did not mean they were going to hook up behind the scenes.
“She tells me, she goes, ‘If you say it’s okay, they’re going to put us together.’ And I go, ‘Okay, yeah, I’ll try it.’ And she goes, ‘Okay, let’s get this out of the way. You are not fcking me, so don’t try.’ And I go, ‘Okay.’”*
Saturn said Terri being that direct actually made things much easier between them. There was no guessing about her intentions, and he says it allowed him to build a legitimate friendship with her.
“Which was the best thing she could ever have done. Now I know I can’t, so I won’t ever hit on her or anything, and I can actually concentrate. Terri, I think she was really the first woman that I was ever really friends with because you always have that in the back of your mind. Terri was awesome to work with.”
That lines up with what Terri has said about Saturn herself. Terri previously revealed that Saturn developed feelings for her while she kept him firmly in the friend zone, while also explaining that their friendship showed her a man and woman could be close without turning it into a sexual relationship. Then Saturn took the story in a completely different direction. He warned that what he was about to say was something fans had never heard before, and then he put Jim Ross directly in the middle of it.
“I know no one’s heard this, so I don’t know, but yeah, fck it, I’m going to say it. I don’t care. JR had a real thing for her.”*
According to Saturn, WWE originally wanted him and Terri to remain nothing more than wrestler and manager on television. Saturn specifically claimed that Jim Ross wanted the pairing kept as a business relationship instead of allowing their characters to become romantically involved.
“So in the beginning it was supposed to be a business relationship, right? Because that’s what JR wanted. That’s why we were doing that instead of a couple.”
Things apparently became a lot messier once everyone got back to the hotel. Saturn claims Ross was constantly calling the room looking for Terri — and says she finally started staying with him just to avoid the situation.
“He’d call the room all the time and f*cking pestering her. So she started staying with me to avoid him.”*
Saturn immediately made sure nobody got the wrong idea about Terri sleeping in his room. He insisted there was nothing sexual happening between them and that they were strictly friends.
“Just friends. Never touched her in my life.”
That makes what happened next even crazier. While Saturn says Terri was already staying with him backstage to avoid JR, their WWE characters were still being presented as nothing more than a business arrangement. Eventually, Terri apparently decided that had run its course.
“One day she just said, ‘I think this business relationship’s over with.’”
Instead of waiting for WWE creative to turn them into a couple, Saturn says they simply started doing it themselves. The kissing began on television without management giving them the green light.
“We just started kissing each other on TV without the office’s approval. And that’s how it went on to something else.”
Saturn claims JR wasn’t thrilled when the relationship started looking romantic on television either. According to Saturn, Ross questioned why everyone needed to be paired off romantically.
“He goes, ‘Not everybody can be dating.’ He was like lecturing us about it. It doesn’t make any sense to put a guy and girl together and have it. But yeah, in the beginning, we were just a business relationship.”
Saturn didn’t exactly listen. He says he started sneaking kisses into their Heat appearances, including stopping Terri at the top of the entrance ramp and kissing her before they even made it to the ring. Eventually, he says WWE couldn’t ignore what they were doing anymore.
“We were working on Heat and stuff, and when we’d go out and get on the top of the ramp, I’d stop her and kiss her all the time. And then I started getting heat and during the Heat rolling over and kissing her so they couldn’t deny it anymore.”
The reason Saturn kept doing it was pretty simple — fans were eating it up. He believed the audience wanted to buy into Saturn and Terri as an actual couple instead of watching another cold wrestler-manager pairing every week.
“Then it was getting over because that’s what they want to see. But they at least want to believe that, you know, we’re doing it because they want to be doing it.”
What fans saw on WWE television was Perry Saturn and Terri Runnels slowly turning a business partnership into a romance. Saturn’s version of what was happening behind the curtain is a hell of a lot messier — he claims JR wanted Terri, kept pestering her with calls, and Terri wound up hiding out in Saturn’s hotel room to get away from the attention.
Saturn’s accusation is his account of what happened, but he certainly didn’t leave much room for interpretation. Decades later, he’s saying the woman WWE paired him with was staying in his room to avoid Jim Ross before their characters ever started kissing on television — and that’s one backstage story fans definitely weren’t getting on Sunday Night Heat.
What do you make of Perry Saturn’s accusation involving Jim Ross and Terri Runnels? Do you think the backstage situation explains why Saturn and Terri eventually took their WWE relationship in a completely different direction? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know what you think.
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.
