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WU ONLINE: Thank you for joining me today. You are truly one of the most legendary women wrestlers in all of history. When did you decide you wanted to be a wrestler?

SHERRI MARTEL: Probably when I was 11 or 12. My Mom used to take me to wrestling matches with my sister. I just fell in love with it.

WU: Did you ever experience any sexism?

SM: Wrestling itself has always been male dominated. Women had their place and men had theirs. Men was always dictated and always will.

WU: What was it like to be trained by The Fabulous Moolah?

SM: Torture. (laughs) It brought a lot of emotions. When I first met her she had legendary status in 80-81. She was very strict, very demanding. She wanted perfection from you. She was the most phenomenal women, but she demanded perfection from you and knew how to get it. I had a bartending job at night and had to be at the gym at 7 and what I didn't tell you was I didn't get off of work until 2.

WU: Everyone knows you competed in the WWF and WCW, but what other wrestling organizations have you competed in?

SM: All of them. (laughs) I started out in Memphis, I went to a small school. I was in the school at Memphis for a year before I went to Moolah's school., I went to Japan for a 8 week tour. Then we had to go to Memphis. I worked with Leliani Kai and Judy Martin. At the time we had a mixed battle royal and I got hurt for a year or two. I had a brace on my left leg from the hip down. I didn't break it. I dislocated it. It took a long time for it to cure, almost a year and it took a while for me to gain their confidence again.

WU: In 1985 you won the AWA Women's Championship and while you were the champion, you also managed AWA wrestlers. Did you ever find yourself exhausted from competing and managing your men?

SM: Never. It was always a challenge job. Managing and wrestling are two different things. Both are challenging and fun but it was a lot of hard work and demanding.

WU: In 1987 you joined Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation and in July of 1987, you defeated your former trainer, Fabulous Moolah to capture the WWF Women's Championship. How did it feel to be the student and defeat the teacher?

SM: Well, it was something that I never thought would happen. At the time she was, even for a woman for her age, was the toughest women I have ever met. You could get out there with her and she'd literally beat you to death. I did something that she didn't expect and beat her. I had a hell of a time getting there. I had to reschedule a couple of fights. The lady who picked me up at the airport was laughing at me because I had to change and I didn't know what match I was on the card. I got dressed in the car and when I got to the arena it was an hour and forty-five minutes before my match. I kept in touch with them throughout the day and told them about reschedules and delays.

WU: After you lost the championship to Rockin' Robin in 1988, you became a manager and managed such stars as Randy"Macho Man"Savage, Ted"Million $ Man"DiBiase, and "The HeartBreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. All of these stars are huge names in the sport. How does it feel to know that you helped their careers?

SM: It was amazing. All three had different personalities, it was more of a challenge to compliment in the ring and making sure my character was individual. Randy was phenomenal. He was big on body maintaince. He was a perfectionist. He was a Scorpio and had a strong presence when he walked in a room, everyone knew it.

Ted, who is a minister now, was one of the finest men to be around. He was able to get along with. He was also a perfectionist and second generation wrestler. He was very understanding with women wrestlers since there are so few of us.

Against Shawn and Marty in AWA, we had some phenomenal matches but when I was in AWA it never entered my mind that I'd be working with Shawn. He was a great person. He loved satin. He would take my gloves and would rub the fabric, I had never seen a guy like satin like that before. it was just cute when he did it. The dresses I wore were satin and he liked the fabric. He was a smart person and will go down in history as a perfectionist. There is no one with his charisma, he's a special person and has a phenomenal personality. I feel privileged to work with him. All three were really great.