Evolution Schematic 09.15.07: Sherri Martel (Part 2)

Hi, remember me? I used to write here. Actually that’s not fair, it’s just that it seems a long time since this is my first posting on a Saturday (so you don’t have to hurry to read this during work, you can read it at your leisure!), and there was the whole ‘too lazy to post last week’. Well, actually it was work related, and I decided a while ago to go with not posting anything rather than post crap. And with my column, you can tell if it’s crap. Speaking of crap, the Ice Climbers are in Super Smash Bros Brawl… Now that’s unfair, really. But still, I better get my Mr. G&W, all I’m saying. This would be a good time to give my Wii friend code, like I promised last time, but I realised that since I have to insert yours as well, it’s kinda pointless doing it one way. So pop me an email with yours and I’ll send you mine. And feel free to suggest VC titles at the same time. Like telling me which RPGs are turn based, since I’m addicted to Paper Mario at the moment. Oh, and please check out and enter Stablewars Play-Per-View comp for Unforgiven. See if you can outscore me and Scott Keith, along with many others! Fun for the whole family, especially now with the automated form, no need to send an email or anything! Huzzah!

Anyway, back to our whole point here. To remind you, we’ve covered Miss Martel’s life from birth to Savage’s ‘retirement’ at Wrestlemania VII. She had dumped Savage, who had reunited with Liz…

Phase 6- Time to get from Phase 5b to here for us: 16 days. For Sherri: 30 minutes

So Savage was gone, finished, done for. Was Sherri about to sit back and accept this? Was she about to give up? Hell no! She took stock of the situation, then went to the only man who could afford her services, the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase. Ted thought about her offer for a good 5, 6 minutes and then accepted, Sherri running out at the end of Ted’s match against that ungrateful bastard Virgil, Sherri helping Ted get away before Virgil and Roddy Piper embarrassed him further.

She became Ted’s trophy girlfriend, a role she fitted into perfectly, the best girl money could buy, and a high spot in a period of time that for Ted was fairly lackluster. He lost his Million Dollar belt to Virgil at Summerslam, his team won at Survivor Series only because Ric Flair wasn’t involved in a mass brawl and thus DQed, and then being the first man eliminated from the 1992 Royal Rumble making the period of having Sherri at his side not a great one for Ted, perhaps distracted by Sherri, rather than keeping his mind on the game.

Regardless, the problem was soon solved, as in early 1992 the two split up, as Ted dumped her and/or she left him, depending on whom you ask. Regardless, while she was no longer a trophy girlfriend, she soon took another moniker.

Cradle robber.

Phase 7- A few moans and she’s locked into wrestling history.

For Sherri announced to the world that she was in love with another man, not Ted. And that man was the newly singles competitor, The Heart Break Kid, Shawn Michaels. Shawn had made a name for himself when he broke up the Rockers by tossing Marty Jannetty through a barber shop window, and thus he realised that he needed some sort of back up, now that he’d made a lot of people angry and/or wary of him. Sherri, with her years of experience, was just the sort of manager he needed.

That, and she was a hot piece of ass he could tap at will.

So, he welcomed Sherri with open arms (well, open something’s at any rate), and the duo became inseparable throughout 92, Sherri singing Shawn’s theme music before he re-recorded it himself, although her moans of ecstasy still start it off even to this day, that’s Sherri moaning when Shawn makes his entrance.

Sherri helped Shawn develop into the well rounded wrestler and all round jerk he became famous for, Sherri helping to mold him, getting him wins at Wrestlemania VIII, and also finding him at least one man he could rely on to tag with him should he need it, The Model Rick Martel. But then again, that didn’t work out so great…

Phase 7b- They aren’t related, so it’s ok. I think…

As Sherri helped Shawn out, managing him against Bret Hart, Randy Savage and other beloved superstars, she and Rick Martel began having a bit of a flirtatious relationship. Nothing serious, just a Bond/Moneypenny type relationship, a few choice words here, a smoldering look there, a friendly pat here and there (which was all right, since they were wrestlers). They were both adults, both attractive and they worked together, so what was a bit of harmless fun?

Well to HBK, everything. He didn’t exactly like this, and made it clear. Martel responded by, well, being arrogant, just more so. This lead to a match between the two, a rarity for the time, at Summerslam 92, held in England. Sherri was aghast, and vowed to be at ringside in a neutral corner AND making sure that the match was signed with no shots to the face, so as not to spoil either man’s looks.

The two fan hated wrestlers spent a few minutes trying to out cheat each other, until they eventually got sick of the other one’s cheating and began throwing punches, forcing Sherri to ‘faint’ to get them to stop. This only led to them fighting on the outside as they each tried to be the one to help Sherri up and calm her down, leading to both getting counted out. After Sherri took stock of her bearings, and thus proved she was faking the whole thing, she ended up getting water dumped all over her by a well meaning Rick Martel to wake her up, thus ruining her outfit and her night.

This lead to a period of rockiness for the happy couple, as Shawn and Sherri kinda broke up, but at times still came out together. But they were few and far between, as for the most part their relationship was ‘off’, Shawn winning the IC belt without her, the two trying to work on their relationship outside the ring before working on the one inside it.

Then in late 92, Shawn finally broke up with her in a somewhat unusual way.

Phase 8- From a window to a mirror…

It was late in 1992, and Sherri and Shawn were giving another go at their relationship, and Shawn came down to the ring with Sherri in tow, along with her mirror that she tended to carry so Shawn could revel in his own magnificence (and so she could check her make up). Then Marty Jannetty returned from injury, still upset about that whole ‘getting tossed through the barber shop window’ thing. Marty grabbed Sherri’s mirror and swung for the fences. Shawn, clearly not caring for Sherri and knowing he had to get rid of the weapon AND Marty’s attention, pulled Sherri into the path of the mirror. This of course stopped Marty cold, enough for Shawn to beat him up some then run.

So this led to the 93 Rumble, where Shawn was set to defend his IC belt against Marty, with Sherri once again in a neutral corner. But she didn’t stay neutral for long, as she tried to help Marty with her shoe, but ended up nailing Marty instead of Shawn. She then just couldn’t bring herself to hit Shawn without Marty’s help, and thus Shawn won the match.

Phase 9- Sherri ‘vs.’ Michaels

Sherri then began to warm up to Marty, but before she could officially become his manager or anything close to this, Marty left the company, and so she floated around, managing anyone who was fighting Shawn, mostly Crush and Randy Savage, accompanying whomever to ringside to help them fight Shawn, occasionally getting to slap him.

This peaked at Wrestlemania IX when she accompanied Tatanka to ringside (in a very flattering American Indian Princess type outfit) for his match with Michaels, who had Luna with him to counter her. This had the effect of getting Sherri out of Shawn’s hair, as the two women instantly hated each other./

Phase 10- Sherri vs. Luna

The two women were constantly at each others throats, ripping off each other’s clothing one of the first Raw broadcasts and the first Diva-centric segment of the show’s history, having matches at live events, dragging in their new men, Bam Bam Bigelow for Luna and Tatanka for Sherri. But the industry was starting to get to Sherri, and so eventually she tired of the wars and quit to go back to beauty school.

Phase 11- That didn’t last long.

About a year or so after leaving the WWF, Sherri re-appeared on the radar, working for smaller companies, Smokey Mountain, NWA areas. After word got around that Sherri Martel was back, someone came calling who needed some help to get what he deserved.

Phase 12- The Franchise Era.

Shane Douglas had a goal. To become Eastern Championship Wrestling champion. To become the champion of the new breed, the new era of Pro Wrestling. And Sherri was just the sort of help he needed, a manager who could help him get what had eluded him. And with her help he did win the ECW Title (not yet a ‘world’ title, that came after she left, and is the subject of another ES for another day). But she did not limit herself to just Shane Douglas. She worked in Mexico, and in other independent companies that were part of the NWA, and appeared a few times in the biggest NWA member, WCW. Her appearances in WCW in early 94 were limited, merely helping out her good friend Kevin Sullivan and his brother, Dave. But these limited, few appearances in the company eventually led to her leaving ECW and joining WCW in May 94, just as WCW was undergoing a revolution of sorts…

Phase 13- Sherri and Ric Flair. A ‘perfect’ combo.

At first, Sherri merely appeared to scout talent. Going by the name ‘Sensuous Sherri’, from Slamboree in May 94 through to the start of the 27th Clash Of The Champions, she scouted, merely telling anyone who asked that she was scouting for a new client, whomever she felt was WCW’s top star, she would manage, clearly not wanting to risk an attempt to help build someone up but instead establish herself in a new world by attaching her wagon to the biggest train.

This quest came to an end at said 27th Clash, as in the main event unification match with the WCW and WCW International Titles both up for grabs (ah, the International Title. Yet another ES waiting to happen) in the Sting V Flair match, with the obvious prize of fighting Hulk Hogan for the unified world title at the Bash At The Beach, Sherri made her choice, and came out in Sting face paint, cheering Sting on. Up until Flair pulled her in the way of a Sting cross body, knocking her out, taking Sting out of his game and thus letting Flair roll him up for the win and the titles.

Sherri then woke up, embraced Flair, and helped beat Sting up until Hogan came out to save the day, Sherri and Flair running for cover as the show went off the air. She and Flair went strongly, albeit as strongly as they could given Flair lost the World Title to Hogan and then lost a retirement match to Hogan at Halloween Havoc 94, at which point they went less strongly, or to put it another way, they broke up completely.

Phase 14- Sister Sherri. Works for me.

With only a few weeks off to scout, she quickly found new clients to manage, then World Tag Champs, Harlem Heat. Possibly she felt she should trying going for a darker man, or men at least once. She managed the duo into 1995 (with a brief return to ECW to try and humiliate Shane Douglas on behalf of long time rival Ric Flair, an attempt which went badly for her, ending with her being stripped down to her Ric Flair emblazoned underwear), right up until Clash 31, at which… Oh boy.

Phase 15- The Martel/Parker… Thing.

See, by the time August 95 rolled around, Harlem Heat was feuding with Col. Robert Parker and his team of Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater. And, at the 31st Clash, there was a mixed 6 person tag between the two teams with their managers. And at a crucial moment, Sherri got slammed into the mat. And when she woke up… Parker had been making advances at Sherri see, and she had resisted them. But after the knock on the head… Either she genuinely suffered some head trauma, or she secretly felt that way all along but needed an excuse to show it. Either way, she woke up and was suddenly in love with Parker, winning the match by pinfall as she kissed him. The two became an item, Parker abandoning his men to help manage Harlem Heat and thus be with Sherri (Parker becoming their ‘promoter’ to Sherri’s ‘manager’), with the wedding set for the 32nd Clash. But Madusa showed up, angry that ‘her man’ was marrying someone else, and she and Sherri brawled, thus curing Sherri. She and Madusa had the first women’s match on WCW Monday Nitro, and then shortly afterwards Sherri was fired for undisclosed reasons.

Phase 16- The Return

She returned to WCW a few months later, reuniting with Harlem Heat after they fired Parker once and for all. She managed the duo into 97, beating Parker by count out at the 96 World War III PPV, until she finally quit the company for good in mid 1997, due to her problems with Eric Bischoff.

Phase 17- Back to the Indies.

Since the WWF failed to show any interest in her, Sherri once again returned to smaller, independent companies. She popped up on the disastrous ‘Heroes Of Wrestling’ PPV managing George Steele against Greg Valentine, later in the year also getting a remarkable honor, being awarded the AWA Women’s Title for her 4th reign, a reign that lasted for 7 years, never losing the belt until she retired in 06.

Phase 18- Hi WCW!

In 2000 she made a very brief return to WCW, wrestling Madusa and Mona on Thunder and Worldwide respectively, teasing long term problems with Madusa but nothing came of it, and it was merely a double shot deal.

She went back to the Indies, until a rather unexpected man called her up.

Phase 19- Hi WWE!

In the lead up to Wrestlemania 21, Kurt Angle was going round proving he was better than Shawn Michaels. And one week, he did so by brining out Sherri, mocking Shawn by proving he was a better singer than him and better at using Sherri. Sherri was happy to mock Shawn, but couldn’t hide a smile as she saw a history video package of Shawn’s Career, something she helped build and shape. For this, she got her ankle almost broken by Kurt.

A year later, she was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame, and gave a very passionate, entertaining speech. A few months later, she would have her final appearance in a wrestling ring.

Phase 20- Hi TNA!

For in mid to late 2006, Robert Roode was looking for a manager, someone to best utilize his talents since Team Canada was disbanded. Sherri was one of several managers who vied for Roode’s contract, a contract eventually won by Traci Brooks. It was a slightly sad end to a great career.

Today- RIP

Today, Sherri has sadly passed on, due to an overdose of certain drugs she took due to her long career of physical behaviour. But her legacy lives on.

Conclusion

Sherri Martel was, in many respects, a trail blazer. Women in wrestling went through a change in the 80’s through to the 90’s, where it went from being a serious, albeit minor part of the industry to a joke, then to eye candy and then back to legitimacy. And at every stage, Sherri was there. As a no-nonsense wrestler, as a piece of eye candy, as an extremely effective manager, and as a respected vet, and sadly as a statistic, Sherri was always one of the best in her trade, and proof that anyone can make it in this business, provided they work hard, and they are willing to change their goals.

Sherri Martel was many things, and at all of them, she excelled. She truly was Sensational.