In a recent edition of Bruce Prichard’s Something To Wrestle, Prichard discussed Sable’s run with WWE. One of the more interesting topics of discussion was WWE striking a deal with the famous men’s adult magazine Playboy. Sable graced the cover of the April 1999 edition of the magazine:
“We were hot at the time and the product itself was hot and Rena was — good god, Sable that character [was] one of the most downloaded females in the world,” Bruce Prichard said. “Playboy as they often or at least did back in the day would often reach out to celebrities or other people who would appeal to their audience and make that offer, ‘would you pose nude for Playboy?’
“They approached WWE about Sable and asked. There was even talk of doing the women of WWF and all that other stuff but Playboy had approached us. I don’t know all the particulars about this but usually they approach the company and since we have the talent contract we’re the ones that broker the deal and yeah the company gets a portion of that money because they’re under contract to the company.
“So I’m sure Vince looking at it and saying, ‘which of the females?’ Then approached her and asked if she would even be in interested in it if it’s something she’d consider doing and she interested in doing it so they went further on with the deal until finally it was actually done and everybody agreed on it.”
Two different photos were shot as options for Sable’s cover photo. The first was Sable being covered by nothing except a WWF Women’s Title. The other, which was eventually selected, was Sable wearing a black catsuit:
“I think it was Playboy’s choice looking at the two pictures and deciding which one was gonna sell more magazines,” Prichard said. “Not just appealing to the wrestling fan with the belt and what have you. I don’t know what the hell their thinking was behind it but I thought the cover they picked was a pretty good one.”
You can listen to Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard by clicking this link here.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
