Trivia / Debra Marshall

• Dyeing for Your Art: For the movie Gathering of Heroes: The Legend of the Seven Swords, she had to dye her blonde hair dark brown.
• Enforced Method Acting: A backstage Cat Fight between her and Stephanie McMahon had Debra telling Stephanie to slap her for real to make it look good.
• Follow the Leader: Debra was one of many women brought in during the Attitude Era to capitalise on the success Sable had based on her sheer attractiveness. In the case of Debra in particular, they even shared the same storyline of both taking a liking to appear only in her underwear, resulting in the wrestlers they managed (Marc Mero for Sable, Jeff Jarrett for Debra) to first try to cover them up at any opportunity, then become outright abusive towards them (through in Jarrett's case this was taken up to eleven into him attacking pretty much every woman he came across).
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Debra's on-screen persona was very playful, seductive and sexual. Debra claims that was hard for her to portray, as she's much shyer in real life.
• Hostility on the Set: She had a run-in with Torrie Wilson - who admitted to being star struck around Steve Austin and Debra mistook it for flirting. Debra was good friends with the Undertaker's then-wife Sara, who also hated Torrie, and the latter says they ganged up on her for that brief 2001 period.
• I Am Not Spock: Debra McMichael is sometimes treated as her kayfabe name, since she debuted in WWF with it.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Debra became Women's Champion because Sable wanted out of her contract, and taking the title off her was decided one week before she left. Debra didn't find out she'd be winning the title until the day it happened.
• Romance on the Set: She married "Stone Cold" Steve Austin while she was in WWF.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A planned storyline while Debra was managing Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart was for her and Owen to have an affair, but either the creative team or Owen himself vetoed it before it could play out onscreen. Debra was also going to christen the team 'Talent and Attitude' (or T&A for short) before Owen's sudden death. The T&A pun would later be used for Trish Stratus's team with Test and Albert one year later.
  • Debra nearly played the lead in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation because Renée Zellweger (who was the first choice) had turned it down. When Renee changed her mind and accepted the role (and the film is now a major Old Shame for her), Debra was given a smaller role as a police woman.
  • She was offered $500,000 to do a spread in Playboy, and she really wanted to do it. She turned it down however, because she knew Steve Austin would disapprove. She jokes that if she'd been offered before she was with him, she would have done it "in a heartbeat".