Imagine standing right in the center of Madison
Square Garden. Oh, wow. Yeah, you have 20 ,000
people just screaming for your absolute destruction.
Right. And they're cheering wildly as a 275 pound
man literally rips your skirt off, leaving you
completely humiliated in the middle of the ring.
Which is just, I mean, an insane scenario. Completely
insane. But imagine enduring that entirely on
purpose, deliberately orchestrating your own
public humiliation just to make sure the guy
standing next to you looks like a hero. That
is dedication. It really is. And today we are
validating that incredible curiosity of yours,
taking you on a journey to learn something truly
fascinating about the hidden mechanics of sports
entertainment. Minus the usual information overload,
of course. Exactly. Our mission for this deep
dive is to explore the incredible barrier breaking
life of professional wrestling icon Sherri Martel.
And we're using her Wikipedia page as our singular
roadmap for this. It is such a dense, revealing
document to parse through. It really is. And
just a quick note before we jump in. You know,
we are purely analyzing the narrative presented
in this source regarding her life and the industry's
darker eras. We're impartially reporting on the
material to understand the mechanics of her career.
Right. We're not here to endorse or judge the
personal choices detailed in it. Exactly. We're
just looking at the facts provided. And looking
at my backdrop today, I've actually got to set
to a classic Smoke -filled 1980s wrestling arena.
Oh, I love that complete with the harsh spotlight
cutting through the haze You know it because
to really understand this story. You have to
place yourself in that gritty Smoke -filled environment,
right? We are looking at an era where the business
was intensely territorial, fiercely protective,
and honestly, deeply unforgiving. Okay, let's
unpack this. Because we're not just looking at
a standard wrestling biography today. We are
tracking a literal master class in audience psychology.
Without a doubt. But before we get to the massive
stadium shows and the championship gold, I really
want to look at the foundation. Because according
to the source, her entry into this world required
a sheer, almost alarming level of willpower.
It really did. I mean, she was born Sherri Lynn
Russell in 1958 in Birmingham, Alabama. Right.
And her introduction to the sport is just fascinating.
Yeah. Her mother literally gave her and her sister
a choice. Did they want to go ice skating or
go to a wrestling show in Mississippi? It's just
one of those incredible sliding door moments.
Exactly. You choose the ice skates. Yeah. And
maybe you live a quite conventional life. Right.
You choose the wrestling show and, well, You
set off a chain reaction. That spark caught early.
By the time she was just 16 years old, so this
is 1974, she approached Grizzly Smith. He was
a massive veteran wrestler, right? Huge guy,
yeah. Yeah. She asked him for advice on how to
get into the business. And he just brushes her
off, tells her to come back when she's an adult.
Yeah, which goes pretty standard for the time.
Now, this is where the Wikipedia timeline hits
you like a ton of bricks. Because her path back
in the ring involved working as an exotic dancer,
marrying a man named Leroy Gonzalez in 1976,
and having a son named Jared. But then it takes
a sharp turn. Right. She divorces her husband
and leaves her family entirely behind to enroll
in a wrestling school in Memphis run by Butch
Moore. Yeah. I mean, I have to stop you there.
Just looking at the mechanics of breaking into
the industry, why was walking away from her life
the necessary step? That's a great question.
Like, why couldn't she just train locally or
treat it like a normal, conventional career path?
It feels like the obsession of a method actor
or a driven artist. Is it fair to say that to
break into such a closed -off, carny -like business
in the 70s, you needed a level of obsession that
bordered on destructive? What's fascinating here
is the absolute reality of the territorial era.
You have to remember there was no corporate training
center you could just commute to. No performance
centers back then. Exactly. This was a closed
network of regional promoters who actively locked
outsiders out. You had to fully immerse yourself
in the nomadic, honestly grueling lifestyle of
the territories to even be considered. Wow. Proving
your commitment meant showing you were willing
to bleed for the business. And that often required
completely detaching from your previous life.
So it was an all or nothing sacrifice? Completely.
She wrestled initially under the name Sherri
Martin, but Moore eventually told her she needed
more advanced training. Which leads her right
to the fabulous Moolah. Moolah essentially held
a total monopoly on booking female wrestlers
in North America at the time. She controlled
everything. Everything. She changed Sherri's
name to Sherri Martel and sent her to Japan in
1981 to really hone her craft. But even that
critical relationship fractured, didn't it? It
did. Moolah ended up kicking Sherri out of her
school. The source actually claims it was because
Sherry liked to party in frequent nightclubs.
That seems like a massive career -ending setback.
You get kicked out by the one person who controls
the entire women's booking landscape. For most
people, it would be the end. But she doesn't
quit. She travels back to Tennessee, gets managed
by Jim Cornet in Memphis, and even suffers an
injury in a mixed battle royal. She was relentless.
She just keeps pushing through the regional circuits
until Larry Zbysko helps her get into the American
Wrestling Association, the AWA. Right. And by
September 1985, at Super Clash in Chicago, she
defeats Candi Devine for the AWA World Women's
Championship. Which is huge. Yeah. She ends up
trading that belt with Devine, holding it three
times in total. Wow. And this is a really crucial
period because it's where she starts to establish
her multitasking abilities. Doing more than just
wrestling. Right. While she's wrestling, she
also begins managing. She takes on the team of
Playboy Buddy Rose and Pretty Boy Doug Summels.
Oh, yeah. She manages them to the AWA World Tag
Team Championship. and she sparks a massive bloody
feud with the Midnight Rockers. Which was a young
Shawn Michaels and Marty Gionetti, right? Yeah.
Put a pin in Shawn Michaels because that relationship
is going to pay massive dividends later. But
right now, her drive takes her to the absolute
top of the mountain. The very top. In 1987, Jessie
Ventura refers her to the World Wrestling Federation.
She debuts in July, completely skips the line,
and immediately defeats her old trainer, the
fabulous Moola for the W. Women's Championship.
Talk about full circle. Seriously, she renames
herself Sensational Sherry and holds that title
for 15 straight months. She reaches the ultimate
pinnacle, but you know in this industry you are
entirely at the mercy of the promoter's vision.
Always. In 1990... The WWF makes a sweeping,
systemic decision. They completely phase out
the women's division. Wait, I really need to
stop you here. I'm genuinely confused by this
maneuver. Yeah, it's drawing. She is the reigning
face of the division. The company decides to
just close up shop on women's wrestling. Why
doesn't she just leave? Right. Why not take her
star power to Japan or go back to the AWA? Instead,
she accepts a pivot to being a full -time manager
for the men. From the outside that looks like
a massive demotion. If we connect this to the
bigger picture, you'll actually see it wasn't
a demotion at all. It was a brilliant survival
instinct. Really? How so? Well, the WWF in 1990
was the undisputed king of national television
exposure. The AWA was dying and Japan, while
prestigious, just didn't offer the massive mainstream
American audience. That makes sense. When the
system literally erased her division, she looked
at the landscape and realized where the real
power and the TV time were concentrated. And
that was the men's main event scene. Here's where
it gets really interesting. I see where you're
going. She wasn't stepping down. No. She was
attaching herself to the engine because she wasn't
filling out paperwork. She was a hype woman,
a stunt double, and an on -screen instigator
all rolled into one. Precisely. She made herself
indispensable to the top heels by absorbing the
audience's hatred. The heat? Exactly, the heat.
In wrestling, heat transfer is a very delicate
mechanic. If a heel does something despicable
to generate heat, the crowd naturally demands
to see them punished. Right, they want payback.
But if the heel is a massive main event star,
you don't want them getting beaten up every single
week. It completely diminishes their aura. So
the manager takes the punishment instead. Exactly.
Sherri absorbed the physical consequences to
keep her wrestlers looking strong. Let's look
at the mechanics of that with Randy, Macho Man
Savage, because this is legendary television.
Oh, absolutely iconic. Savage loses his title
and fires his manager, the beloved, totally angelic
Miss Elizabeth. And Sherry immediately steps
in, creating this perfect, jarring dichotomy.
Night and day. Right. Elizabeth was elegant and
quiet. Sherry is aggressive, loud, wearing intense
face makeup and just completely unapologetic.
She actively elevated Savage's villainous persona.
She wasn't just standing there looking pretty.
She was a combatant. She got involved. Big time.
She attacked Hulk Hogan from behind with a chair.
And at SummerSlam 89 during a tag match, Miss
Elizabeth actually knocked Sherry out with a
loaded purse. Oh, wow. And then Hogan and Brutus
Beefcake literally cut Sherry's hair in the middle
of the ring. But look at the psychology of that
for a second. You have male baby faces, the supposed
heroes physically cutting a woman's hair against
her will. Yeah. Why does the crowd cheer that?
If she's a woman, wouldn't the audience instantly
turn on the baby faces for bullying her? What
is the psychological trick there? This raises
an important question about how Sherry subverted
traditional tropes. Okay. The standard narrative
of that era was the damsel in distress. Sherry
inverted that completely. She was so vicious,
so relentlessly aggressive that the crowd stopped
viewing her as a vulnerable woman. Oh, I see.
They started viewing her as an equal combatant.
She transcended the gender barrier through pure
malevolence. That is brilliant. When Hogan and
Beefcake cut her hair, the crowd didn't see a
woman being victimized. They saw a dangerous
villain finally getting her comeuppance. And
she sold every single second of it. Which brings
us to WrestleMania VII in 1991. Savage is in
a retirement match against the Ultimate Warrior.
If he loses, his career is over. The stakes couldn't
be higher. Right. And he loses. And instead of
comforting him, Sherry absolutely snaps. She
attacks him in a fit of rage, kicking him repeatedly
while he's down. Which is the essential mechanical
trigger for what happens next. Miss Elizabeth,
who is sitting out in the audience, jumps the
barricade, throws Sherry out of the ring, and
reunites with Savage. It's widely considered
one of the greatest emotional payoffs in wrestling
history. Without a doubt. But that payoff doesn't
work without Sherry. If she just walks away in
disappointment, Elizabeth coming to the ring
is nice, but it doesn't have urgency. Exactly.
By actively assaulting Savage, Sherry forces
Elizabeth to become the savior. She masterminds
the emotional manipulation of 80 ,000 people.
Given the physical risks she took and the character
work she did, wasn't she actually carrying the
narrative weight for some of these male stars?
She absolutely was. And she endured incredible
physical indignities to achieve those reactions.
You mentioned the Madison Square Garden steel
cage match earlier? Or the skirt. Yeah, where
the ultimate warrior pulls off her miniskirt
as she tries to escape. leaving her in matching
black garter belts and lace underpants. Right.
And the source notes that Jerry Lawler in the
USWA and Jimmy Hart in WCWA later did the exact
same spot to her. She was constantly put in these
compromising, humiliating positions. But she
owned it. She was a master psychologist. willingly
weaponizing her own humiliation. To get a reaction.
Yes. When she was stripped or attacked by the
baby faces, she absorbed that punishment to make
the men she managed look more despicable for
letting it happen. Or to make the heroes look
more dominant. Exactly. She carried the narrative
weight for them entirely. And she did it across
multiple eras too. After Savage, she managed
the million dollar man Ted DeBias, and then she
reunites with that face from her AWA past. Shawn
Michaels. Oh, the Shawn Michaels era. Yeah, in
early 1992, Michaels turns on Marty Gennetti.
Sherry declares she is, quote unquote, in love
with Michaels. And this pairing was just pure
unadulterated arrogance. Sherry orchestrated
his presentation perfectly. She carried a full
length mirror to the ring so Michaels could admire
himself during his entrance. It's so good. And
the source mentioned she sang his theme song,
Sexy Boy. Wait, really? Was she the actual original
vocal track for that? It was. I always assumed
that was a studio singer hired by the company.
No, that was Sherri Martel herself on the original
recording. That's amazing. It was entirely her
voice echoing through those arenas, adding just
another layer to the obnoxious vanity of the
character. Totally. And there is a brilliant
match detailed in the Wikipedia article from
SummerSlam1992 that perfectly encapsulates her
ring IQ. She's managing Michaels against Rick
Martell. Which is a rare heel versus heel match.
Two incredibly arrogant, handsome villains fighting
each other. Right. And the stipulation is that
neither man is allowed to hit the other in the
face. Because they're both too obsessed with
their own looks. But Sherry completely steals
the show without ever taking a bump. The match
ends in a double count out because Sherry feigns
a fainting spell at ringside. She just pretends
to pass out. Yeah. Both men are so narcissistic
and so obsessed with looking like the hero who
saves her that they stop fighting the match and
start fighting over who gets to carry her backstage.
That is genius. She controlled the entire finish
of a major pay -per -view match just by pretending
to pass out. She was the absolute center of gravity.
But, you know, the lifespan of a wrestling career
is notoriously brutal, and the journeyman years
that followed paint a very different, much more
grueling picture. They really do. The descent
begins in 1993. She's released from the WWF.
The source gives two alleged reasons for her
departure. What's where? Either her decision
to enroll in cosmetology school or failed drug
tests. That second point introduces a dark shadow
that kind of looms over the rest of her story.
It does. But she doesn't stop working. She hits
the regional road again. She goes to Eastern
Championship Wrestling, ECW, managing Shane Douglas.
Right. She works in Smokey Mountain Wrestling.
And in 1994, she signs with World Championship
Wrestling, WCW. Where she continues to be a major
tactical player, she debuts as sensuous Sherri.
Because the WWF owned the sensational trademark,
right? Exactly. And she manages Ric Flair. She
actually pulls off a massive double cross at
Clash of the Champions. Oh, what happened? She
wears Sting's signature face paint to trick him
into thinking she's an ally, only to turn around
and help Flair win the unified World Heavyweight
Championship. That visual deception is brilliant.
But her most enduring run in WCW was managing
the tag team Harlem Heat, Booker T., and Stevie
Ray. Right. She became Sister Sherry. And she
wasn't just standing ringside holding their belts.
She added this layer of chaotic legitimacy to
that. managing them to an incredible seven WCW
World Tag Team Championship reigns. She was still
at the absolute top of her game managerially,
but as the 90s bled into the 2000s, her television
appearances became highly sporadic. She started
fading out. Yeah. She makes a few final TV appearances
for WCW in early 2000. She wrestles her final
match at a Wrestle Reunion show in 2005. Wow,
2005. She does a brief cameo for WWE in 2005
too, and her very last televised wrestling appearance
is a backstage vignette for TNA Wrestling in
September 2006. So what does this all mean? Amidst
all of this fading spotlight, her personal life
is jarringly quiet compared to the chaos of her
persona. It's a stark contrast. By 2003, she
and her husband, Robert Trull, are living in
Tennessee renovating houses together. Just doing
drywall. Right. You have this woman who stood
in front of massive stadiums, orchestrated the
emotions of millions, took falls onto concrete
floors, and now she's quietly putting up drywall
in Tennessee. It highlights the deeply human,
almost fragile reality behind this indestructible
character. And that fragility caught up with
her in the most devastating way. It really did.
On June 15th, 2007, Sherry Martell passed away
at her mother's residence in McCalla, Alabama.
She was only 49 years old. 49 is just tragically
young. It is. And the toxicology report released
by homicide investigators stated she died of
an accidental overdose with multiple drugs in
her system, including high amounts of oxycodone.
That's heartbreaking. It is. We have to contextualize
this tragedy within the broader history of the
industry though. The Wikipedia page we are pulling
from specifically categorizes her under drug
-related deaths in Alabama and links directly
to a list of premature professional wrestling
deaths. It's a sobering reminder of the physical
cost of the art form. The scripted entertainment
that we unpack and analyze often masks very real
excruciating physical pain. Absolutely. When
you spend decades throwing your body onto wood
and steel, traveling non -stop and putting yourself
through a meat grinder just to keep your spot
on television, the toll is immense. The reliance
on painkillers in that era is a well -documented
epidemic, and Sheri sadly became a part of that
statistic. Her dedication to her craft ultimately
contributed to her physical undoing. It is a
heartbreaking end to a life that was lived at
maximum volume. It really is. But as we wrap
up this deep dive into the source material, I
really want to address you directly. When you
look at the legacy of Sheri Martel, It is vital
to remember that she was never just a side character
or an accessory. Never. She was inducted into
the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Ted Dibbius.
She's in the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
and the Women's Wrestling Hall of Fame class
of 2024. Well deserved. She was a pioneer who
forced her way into an exclusive boys club, broke
the mold of what a female performer could be
and laid the literal groundwork for modern character
psychology. She wrote the playbook on how to
manipulate a crowd. without ever needing to be
the one pinning shoulders to the mat. Absolutely.
And looking at the entirety of her journey from
the grid of the territories to the heights of
WrestleMania leaves us with a fascinating final
thought to chew on. What's that? Well, look at
how performers are created today. Major promotions
have massive multi -million dollar corporate
training facilities. They teach safe bumping,
promo classes, and character development in a
highly controlled, sanitized environment. Right.
But Sherry Martell was forged in the brutal,
unforgiving fire of the 1970s territorial system,
a system that demanded she sacrifice her family,
endure physical humiliation, and navigate an
industry that actively tried to keep her out.
Wow. Yeah. So it makes you wonder, could a modern,
safe corporate system ever actually produce a
performer with the visceral edge and terrifying
commitment of Sherry Martell? That's a great
point. Or was her genius inextricably tied to
the absolute brutality of the era she had to
survive? Furthermore, if she were in her prime
today, where women made event for millions, would
she even need a male star to manage? Or would
she simply be the biggest box office draw in
the world entirely on her own? That is a profound
question. Does a safer industry mean we'll never
see another sensational Sherry? Something to
think about the next time you watch a perfectly
polished performer walk down the aisle.