The woman scowled as she sat back on the sofa, her arms crossed over her chest in an almost hostile manner. She hated having to do it - it was like an obsessive compulsion for her - but she had no other choice. And so, she kept her hard gaze trained on the television set as she pored over the many, many tapes in her collection.
She had yet to gauge what everyone had found so special about the woman. What exactly was it about her that drew people in, whether it be management or fans? Sure, she was beautiful - she was woman enough to admit that. But what was it about her aura that seemed to charm so many?
"Baby, are you coming to bed?"
Michelle McCool looked up at the sound of her boyfriend's voice. Pressing pause on the VCR remote she held in her right hand, she appealed to Mark Calloway.
"Not yet, honey. I'm a little busy," she replied. Her gaze returned to the TV as she hit the pause button again, putting back to life Torrie Wilson, where she was in a lingerie match, of all things, with Stacy Keibler at No Mercy 2001.
Mark edged closer so that he was farther into the room. He stood just beside the left arm of the sofa as he peered at the television.
"Baby, why are you watching this?"
"Just doing a little studying," Michelle told him, her gaze never leaving the TV screen. She shook her head as she bitterly wondered why both WCW and WWE management had always been so high on the other blonde. She was nothing special in the ring as far as she was concerned. McCool thought it was a miracle that Torrie had never seriously injured anyone with that horrendous swinging neckbreaker of hers. Then again, she had heard rumors that the other woman had once broken former diva and Tough Enough wonner Nidia Guenard's jaw. She scoffed at that, as it was no secret around the locker room that Torrie had broken the jaw of the son of the governor of Connecticut back in December. Evidently, the blonde had a real knack for doing that.
"Studying?" Mark echoed. He shook his head, eyeing his girlfriend with confusion. "A lingerie match, of all things?"
"No," the blonde replied flatly, with barely a touch of emotion in her voice, "I'm studying her." She pointed a slender finger at Torrie Wilson's image on the screen.
Calloway eyed her wordlessly, not quite knowing how to respond to that. He knew Michelle had some sort of 'problem' with Torrie, but it perplexed him. He had no idea what it was all about, but he hoped the two women would move past it. He knew they'd been called into Mr. McMahon's office for a lecture not too long ago. He just hoped it would all have been ironed out by now. Maybe he should just go and speak to Vince himself. He didn't voice a syllable of this to his girlfriend, as he sensed she might overreact, but he decided he would give it some thought.
"All right, then... Whenever you're ready, you come up to bed." Mark leaned down to kiss Michelle on the forehead. She barely even reacted to the gesture and contact.
"Yeah." The skinny blonde never moved her steely gaze off the scene taking place on the screen. And with that, Calloway left.
Although it was late, after one in the morning, Michelle sat there and continued to watch the tapes. She had a myriad of matches and general segments of Ms. Torrie Wilson. She was determined to watch these until dawn, maybe even later, if that was what it took. Not only did she want to gain one tiny ounce of comprehension as to what the company had found so dear and cherishable in the Boise native, she also wanted to study her... After all, they were currently engaged in a feud, and McCool found herself having to face Torrie in the ring, in matches, and possibly putting herself in harm's way.
She suddenly found herself watching Torrie's WCW debut, in which she was a temptress named 'Samantha' who seduced an unknown man into doing her bidding. Her gaze hard, she scowled. The blonde sure had lousy acting skills back then. Michelle had to admit, as much as she hated to, that she had improved over the past nine years.
She found it strangely ironic that they actually had a few things in common. Aside from the physical, especially with the blonde hair, like herself, Torrie had been an athlete all her life. However, the other woman had been a well known fitness model, and that had been how she'd gotten into pro-wrestling. She shared that with Trish Stratus as opposed to Michelle herself, who had of course gotten her own start by competing in the first ever Diva Search contest.
The blonde supposed all of that was fairly admirable. But did she admire Torrie Wilson? Hell, no she
didn't! If anything at all, watching these tapes and knowing everything she knew about the buxom blonde fueled her
already strong hatred for her.