Sherri Martel | |
---|---|
Birth name | Sherri Russell |
Born |
Birmingham, Alabama |
February 8, 1958
Died | June 8, 2007 McCalla, Alabama |
(aged 49)
Cause of death | Overdose |
Children | 1 |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Sensational Sherri Sherri Martel Sister Sherri Queen Sherri Scary Sherri Sensuous Sherri Sherri Martine Peggy Sue |
Billed height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
Billed weight | 132 lb (60 kg) |
Billed from | New Orleans, Louisiana |
Trained by |
Donna Christanello The Fabulous Moolah |
Retired | 2006 |
Sherri Schrull (born Sherri Russell, February 8, 1958 – February 8, 2007) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri.
Martel began her professional wrestling career in the Mid South after training in Columbia, South Carolina. She joined the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the mid-1980s and held its AWA World Women's Championship three times. In the late 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where she held the WWF Women's Championship. Also in the WWF, Martel continued to act as a manager to wrestlers such as Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, and Shawn Michaels. She appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1990s. In the latter, Martel acted as the manager for the tag team Harlem Heat. After leaving WCW, she made few wrestling related appearances until her death in 2007. She also appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in September 2006 as a manager for Bobby Roode which ended up being her last televised wrestling appearance.
Martel was first introduced to professional wrestling as a child, when her mother took her and her sister to shows in Mississippi. In 1974, Martel approached Grizzly Smith for advice on becoming a wrestler, but he questioned her conviction and told her to come back to him in five years when she was an adult. She eventually married her second husband and gave birth to a son named Jared, but she soon divorced her husband. During this time, she again became interested in becoming a professional wrestler and sought training from "Mr. Personality" Butch Moore in Memphis, Tennessee. She started wrestling as Sherri Martine, but decided she needed more training. She continued to train at The Fabulous Moolah's school, where Moolah changed her name to Sherri Martel and sent her to wrestle in Japan in 1981. Moolah claims that Martel frequented night clubs and liked to party, which resulted in Moolah kicking her out of the school.