Playboy and WWE have had a great relationship for decades.
Multiple WWE divas have graced the cover of the famous, if not controversial, magazine over the years.
Stars like Chyna, Sable, Maria, Candcce Michelle and many more former WWE wrestlers have been on the cover of Hugh Hefner’s magazine, bringing a huge amount of eyes to the WWE.
However, as Hugh Hefner was winding down and growing in age, there was a chance that he wanted to sell the magazine. During this time, WWE was interested.
Bruce Pritchard, speaking on his “Something to Wrestle” Podcast, revealed that during the time where WWE were focusing on moving to a more “PG-Themed Product”, they were in talks to buy the magazine.
WWE were negotiating to buy Playboy and run the infamous men’s magazine for themselves. However, that never happened and they continued to the move PG without Playboy.
“We were winding down the Playboy association And again, we were in transition. We were transitioning to a more PG-themed product.
But there was a point in time where we were negotiating to actually purchase Playboy. That was an interesting time as well.”
I think that anytime that you can be on news-stands in front of the public, whether they bought it or not.
When you would walk by a news-stand, you would see your stars on the cover. Whether they bought it or not, they saw those stars on the cover of Playboy and that was like ‘Oh hey — wow, that’s a huge celebrity.'”
Bruce Pritchard on WWE almost buying Playboy
The Playboy covers usually played into storylines on WWE TV. Candice Michelle revealed her cover on an episode of Monday Night Raw, which you can watch below.
