Several years ago after the backlash of using Moolah’s name for the women’s WrestleMania battle royal started, several people tried to campaign for the match to be named after Sherri Martel. Chris Jericho even opined the match should be called “The Sensational Invitational.”
To this day, the love of The Sensational Sherri knows no bounds amongst industry fans and wrestlers alike. She was one of the best managers and wrestlers combined in an era where that was a rarity amongst the girls - she could do it all. But she doesn’t get spoken about nearly as much except on lists like this one. Hopefully one day that will change.
10 First Women To Take Bumps From Men
Between the now-off-putting behavior towards women during the Attitude Era and the intergender matches of the last few years, it’s easy to forget how uncommon women taking shots from men was during Sherri’s heyday. But that’s only because it was uncommon until Sherri began taking the bumps. In fact, Hogan was so trustworthy of her, that she got involved in his WCW feud with Ric Flair.
9 WCW Thunder January 18, 2000
Sherri’s run in WCW was most memorable for being the missing piece of The Harlem Heat as Sister Sherri. But she did get to have one real match on Thunder against her old rival from the AWA, Madusa.
The idea was to bring her back as part of Vince Russo’s WCW to feud with Miss Madness. However, plans fell short of that when Sherri was gone shortly after the match on Thunder.
8 Was Peggy Sue
How versatile was Sherri? In an era long before dirt sheets and Internet-fueled fans’ knowledge of the sport, it was easy to be in full sight of an audience and still not have them know who you are. For a period of time whenever The Honky Tonk Man came to the ring, his number one groupie Peggy Sue would head to the ring dancing up a storm in her poodle skirt. With the blond hair and huge sunglasses, it was hard to tell that Peggy was actually The Sensational Sherri.
7 First Woman To Win AWA & WWE Women’s Champion
While probably most remembered for her time as The Sensational Queen and Sister Sherri, Martel was a fierce competitor. She was trained by the likes of The Fabulous Moolah and refined her skills in Japan. When she came home, she found herself in the AWA before the WWE. She would wind up becoming the first of three women to win both the AWA and WWE women’s championships, and became a three-time AWA champion during her time there.
6 Appeared In Five Major Promotions
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Starting her career at the tail end of the territories and lasting until the Monday Night Wars made it possible for Sherri to be a part of every single major US territory from the late '80s until the early 2000s! After the AWA and WWE, she of course headed to WCW and achieved more fame seconding the likes of Ric Flair and Harlem Heat to the ring. She’d head to ECW for a stint as well, even facing off against Japanese legend, Malia Hosaka. Her final stint in the big time was a brief cameo in TNA, campaigning to manage Bobby Roode.
5 First Intergender Match In WWE History
It might have happened before in other promotions, but before Sherri, the thought of intergender matches certainly wouldn’t have happened in the WWE.
But after several months of The Macho King coming at the common man Dusty Rhodes and The Sensational Queen joining him by terrorizing Sweet Sapphire, the common woman, there was no choice but to wrestle. The four met in the first-ever intergender match in WWE history at WrestleMania 6.
4 The Original Singer For Sexy Boy
For nearly his entire career since turning on Marty Jannetty, the cocky and arrogant Shawn Michaels would do what a cocky and arrogant heel would do - sing his own theme song. However, during the early part of his transformation into The Heartbreak Kid, he was not just paired with The Sensational Sherri (at this point a major stamp on HBK’s development), but she also sang The Sexy Boy theme as well for her man.
3 Moolah Blew Her Up
Even at 60-plus years old, The Fabulous Moolah was still able to go in the ring. According to a Bruce Prichard story, the former perennial Women's Champion had seen her former trainee rising through the ranks and knew that WWE wanted to push her as the new champion.
So she did what a lot of top guys would do and pushed the rising star to the limit in an effort to test her. She was stiff in the ring with Sherri and blew her up, taking her out of breath. The former WWE stalwart essentially was telling Sherri and the WWE brass that Martel might not be as ready as everyone thinks she is to hold the gold.
2 Slapping Miss Elizabeth
Despite her onscreen presence as one of the toughest and nastiest people to hit the ring (male or female!), Sherri was a born and raised respectable Southern Belle. She didn’t want to do anything that might make a person feel uncomfortable. That certainly including The Macho Man. As well documented, Savage was heavy-handed in determining how Liz should be used and what she’d (re: he) be comfortable handling in the ring. That made the ever game-for-anything Sherri a little skittish about doing anything to Liz, especially one particular day when both ladies were scheduled to be part of The Brother Love Show. Savage got the wrong impression and let everyone know that Sherri wouldn’t be slapping Liz, until Vince explained to him what was really meant to happen. But even after that, Sherri was timid and gave her a pat on cheek.
1 Sister Sherri Was Real
Oftentimes in wrestling, the manager/wrestler relationship is a very real one off-screen (just ask the likes of Jimmy Hart and Hulk Hogan). Harlem Heat was just another big bruiser tag team in WCW; which wasn’t a bad thing. But it was only when they got paired with Sherri that the team began to become the icons that they would be. That friendship extended far beyond the ring, too. Booker T was able to walk Sherri down that aisle when she tied the knot to housing renovator, Robert Schrull.