Sherri passed abruptly on the 16th of June of 2007. RIP, wonderful woman.

S T A T S

A B O U T

Sherri "Martel" Russell was a New Orleans, Louisanna native. She first became intested in wrestling while attending matches with her mother and sister in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

After approaching Grizzly Smith asking to be trained (and being turned down), she was trained by the Fabulous Moolah in her North Carolina facculty in 1979. She debuted in 1980 during a tour of Japan, then returned to the US and began working in the Memphis territories as both a valet and a wrestler. She took the ring name Martel around this time.

Larry Zbyszko helped her break into the AWA, where she became the Women's Champion on September 28th, 1985 after defeating Candi Devine. She and Devine traded the title back and forth, with Martel winning the belt three times. She began managing Kevin Kelly. She played a part in the Tommy Rich/Kevin Kelly feud, which involved her being stripped down to her underwear by Rich after she interfeared in an arm-wrestling match, and then being tauned with her stolen dress.

Jesse Ventura brought Sherri to the attention of Vince McMahon, and she was signed to the WWF in July of 1987. On July 24th, 1987, she defeated the woman who trained her, Moolah, for the women's title. Sherri remained the AWA women's champion at the time of her win, and lost the AWA belt on July 27th.

She held onto the belt for fifteen months, then embarked on a feud with Rockin' Robin, to whom she lost her title on October 8th of 1988.

From early 1988 to early 1990, Sherri valeted under a blonde wig and behind cat's eye glasses as "Peggy Sue," valet to the ever-evil Intercontinental champion The Honkey Tonk Man, wrestling all the while under her "Sherri" alter-ego.

Then, from mid-1989 to early 1991, Sherri had her most fameous stint as "The Sensational One", "Macho Man" Randy Savage's post-Elizabeth valet. She became involved with Savage's angle at Wrestlemania V, introduced as a hated rival for Elizabeth, which led to a long series of matches between Hogan, Elizabeth, Sherri and Savage. The audience dubbed her "Scary" Sherri as she supported Savage but, when Savage defeated "King" Jim Duggan, he became "The Macho King," and Sherri became "Sensational Queen Sherri." This led to a feud between "Common Man" Dusty Rhodes and his valet Sapphire and the "Royal" Savage and Martel (with Miss Elizabeth occasionally showing up as a valet for Rhodes and Sapphire).

Savage ended up losing a retirement match against The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII and Sherri turned heel on him, leading to a Savage/Elizabeth reunion and Savage turning face.

Sherri, meanwhile, became a valet for Ted DiBiase for just under a year. She became a manager for Shawn Michaels when she announced she was "in love" with him in 1992.

Portraying Michaels' "biggest fan" Sherri was charged with singing his themesong (she can still be heard in the opening notes of the current version) and carrying a large mirror for him to admire himself in and konk enemies over the head with. She seconded Michaels during his first feud with Bret Hart, then became the object of affection in a tug-of-war between Michaels and Rick "The Model" Martel. Michaels briefly feuded with Randy Savage, then began feuding with Marty Janetty. During a match late in 1992, Jannetty grabbed the mirror from Sherri and swung it at her, but Michaels grabbed her and pulled her into harms way, resulting in the mirror shattering over her head; Martel then took a hiatus to sell the injury.

She re-appeared in 1993, at the Royal Rumble. In a neutral corner initially, she turned face and slapped Michaels, then went to attack him with her shoe but hit Jannetty instead. Despite this error, she began to valet for Jannetty, a short stint that concluded when Marty left the company. She briefly valeted for Randy Savage and Crush at house shows before working with Tatanka. A Martel/Luna Vachon feud was sparked at Wrestlemania IX, and after Vachon began valetting for Bam Bam Bigelow, a Martel and Tatanka versus Vachon/Bigelow feud was scheduled to begin, a plan that was unfortunately scrapped when Sherri was fired from the WWF in spring of 1993.

In fall of 1993, she worked with Tammy Sytch in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the NWA. She and Tammy feuded, with Martel getting the ultimate upper hand.

She also worked for ECW during this frame of time, until early 1994, seconding Shane Douglas and managing him during his world title run. A feud with Madusa Micelli never materialized due to Micelli signing a contract to become Alundra Blayze with the WWF. Sherri worked briefly in Mexico and signed a contract with WCW in the early spring of 1994.

In WCW, she briefly aided Kevin and Dave Sullivan, then became "Sensuous Sherri". Her debut was treated as a big deal, and it was insinuated she would valet for Sting. At The Clash of Champions XXVII, it was teased this way, but she turned on him and went on to second Flair in feuds with Sting and Hogan.

Flair lost a "retirement match" against Hulk Hogan in the summer of 1994, and Sherri was once again left without a wrestler to manage. She was attached to Steve Austin, Shane Douglas and Ron Simmons at varrying times, but ultimately ended up seconding Harlem Heat as "Sister Sherri."

By 1995, Harlem Heat were feuding with Col Robert Parker (the team's first manager), Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck. Martel developed "amnesia" after a "hit" to the head during a mixed-gender tag match at Clash of the Champions XXXI and "fell in love" with Parker. The twosome nearly "married" at Clash of the Champions XXXII, but Madusa appeared and interrupted the ceremony.

Martel and Madusa began a feud, which was abrupted in February of 1996 when Sherri was briefly fired from WCW. On returning that summer, she feuded with Debra and wrapped up the Robert Parker conflict. She was fired again in the summer of 1997.

Sherri began working on the independent circut immediately. From 1999 to 2006, Sherri worked in various promotions, with brief stops back to WCW, where in the winter of 2000 she turned down a long-term commitment after a teased feud with Madusa. She made an impact in Ohio Valley Wrestling in 2002, feuding with Victoria. In 2005, she made a one-shot appearence with the WWE, where she appeared in a skit with Kurt Angle.

On April 1st, 2006, she was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Ted DiBiase. A brief stop in TNA followed, where she turned down another long-term offer to wrestle against Trinity.

She passed away on June 15th, 2007, dying of an accidental overdose at her mother's home in Alabama. She left behind her teenaged son, sister, husand, mother and a fleet of fans who mourn her to this day. - thanks to sherri_the_catwoman for allerting me to factual errors in and assisting me in correcting this biography.

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