Sherrie Martel was born on February 8, 1958 under the name of Sherrie Russell. She entered professional wrestling in 1980 after being trained by Butch Moore, the Fabulous Moolah and Donna Christanello. It would be five years before she would capture her first Women’s World Title and that was in the now defunct AWA, the American Wrestling Association. It was the Super Clash pay-per-view and she defeated a woman named Candi Devine for the title. Martel held that title three times and all three times she had beaten Devine for it.
She remained with the AWA until 1987 when she joined the WWF and where she would spend most of her career and became the most recognized. She would eventually defeat the very woman who trained her, the Fabulous Moolah, for the WWF’s Women’s title. She would remain with the WWF until 1993 when she was fired for failing a drug test, but it was publicly stated that she left the company to go to Cosmetology school. During her tenure in the WWF she would assume many hats from wrestler to manager to valet and even a queen. She was the “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s manager when he defeated “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan in the final round of the King of the Ring tournament to become Macho King and she would become “Queen” Sherrie. She would adopt the names of Sensational Sherrie, Queen Sherrie, and Scary Sherrie. She would also don a blond wig and sunglasses to become Peggy Sue, the valet of the Honky Tonk Man. However, her biggest claim to fame would be as the manager of the “Heart Break Kid” Shawn Michaels and even sang his entrance song, “Sexy Boy”.
Sherrie would join the Smoky Mountain Wrestling organization and feud with Tammy “Sunny” Sytch. A few short months later, Martel would join the ECW organization and manage Shane Douglas and help him win the ECW championship. She would stay with ECW until May 1994 when she joined WCW. She was at the Slamboree pay-per-view scouting wrestlers that she could manage. She was then known as “Sensuous” Sherrie.
At the next Clash of Champions Super card, Sting would face Ric Flair to defend his World title. Sherrie came to the ring wearing identical face make-up as Sting and cheered him on throughout the match. At one point, Flair was on the outside of the ring and Sting dove out over the top rope to nail him with a flying splash, but, Flair would pull Sherrie in front of him and Sting hit her. Sting then spent the rest of the match being distracted by Sherrie being hurt and Flair would eventually roll Sting up, grab his tights for leverage and pin the “Stinger” to win the World Title. Sherrie came into the ring and hugged Flair and they both attacked Sting until Hulk Hogan came running down to the ring to make the save.
Sherrie would eventually manage the Harlem Heat, Booker T and Stevie Ray and go by the moniker of Sister Sherrie. She would later on make some appearances in the WWE again and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006. In June of 2007, Sherrie succumbed to death from a drug overdose as is the story of many professional wrestlers over the years. She had several drugs in her system, but there were high amounts of Oxycodone. It is a tragic end to a spectacular life and she will be missed by all who knew her and followed her career.
