Sensational Sherri Martel

Born in 1958, Sherri Martel (her real name Sherri Schrull, born Sherri Russell) is beyond doubt one of the biggest names in ladies’ professional wrestling, and a Hall of Fame staple. Unfortunately for the wrestling world, Sherri is no longer with us: she passed away on June 15, 2007, due to an accidental drug overdose.
Sherri Martel’s career was a truly monumental one, spanning several decades and multiple wrestling promotions.
Sherri became interested in professional wrestling at an extremely tender age: her mother used to take her to pro wrestling shows in Mississippi and she got hooked. It wasn’t until 1974 that she decided to act on her passion though. She sought guidance from Grizzly Smith but she was turned away. For a while she seemed to have lost interest, but following her second divorce, she made another attempt to get into the sport. This time, she turned to Butch Moore, in Memphis, Tennessee and she finally made it into the ring. During her early career, she wrestled as Sherri Martine. Her skills still raw, she joined Fabulous Moolah’s wrestling school to improve. Moolah was the one who sent her to Japan in 1981, to get a taste of what the sport was like over there. With valuable experience under her belt, Sherri got booted from Moolah’s school on account of her partying ways.

After her Moolah stint, she went back to Tennessee where she suffered an injury in a match which set her career back.

She joined the AWA in 1985 acting as a valet, and later as a wrestler. She held the AWA ladies belt several times, trading it back and forth with Candi Devine. From 1986 to 1987, she focused on managerial roles, but in 1987 she made her WWF debut (as a wrestler this time) defeating none other than her former mentor Fabulous Moolah, for the Women’s title. It was around this time that she took up the "Sensational" moniker, which would see her through the rest of her professional wrestling career. Her WWF career proved to be a truly stellar run. She feuded with Rockin Robin (losing the title to her at one point) and she took part in some of the most hyped ladies singles and tag team bouts of the era.
Unfortunately for Sherri and the other lady wrestlers, the WWF did away with the women’s division in 1990. Unlike most of the other female wrestlers who just faded away, she stuck with the company, albeit she would only manage male wrestlers from that point on.
Between 1990 and 1992, Sherri managed a number of wrestlers like Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase. She even managed to wrestle a couple of times in mixed tag matches.
In 1994, she showed up in WCW, managing wrestlers like Ric Flair and the Harlem Heat. She went through several ring names in the WCW (Sensuous Sherri and Sister Sherri during her Harlem Heat days) and she became known as a true drama queen, as she was involved in many of the WCW’s storylines despite the fact that she wasn’t an actual wrestler there. During the later stages of her WCW career, she actually had a few real matches, with Madusa and Mona, which she lost.
April 2006 carried special significance for her wrestling career: it was then that she was indicted into the WWE Hall of Fame. She even had a brief appearance in TNA before her untimely death.
During her long and extremely prolific wrestling career, Sherri carried a wide range of ring-names: Sister Sherri, Sensuous Sherri, Sherri Martine, Sherri Martel, Sensational Sherri, Scary Sherri and Queen Sherri.

Clad in a shiny black nylon/lycra unitard, Sensational Sherri Martel reverses an airplane spin into a pin on Debbie Combs