She would train under the legendary Fabulous Moolah before joining Verne Gagne's AWA in 1985, defeating Candi Devine to capture the AWA World Women's Title. She dropped the belt back to Divine in October but won it back for the second time, and a third time over Divine after yet another title trade. She lost the title to Divine AGAIN in January and Sherri took a while to get it back. She had to win a 9 woman Battle Royal, which included future legend Luna Vachon and legend Joyce Grable, at AWA WrestleRock 1986 in April and won the gold from Divine a little over a month later. Martel's last major ring victory came on May 2nd 1987 when she defeated Madusa Miceli at Superclash 2. During her AWA tenure, she also served as the manager for Doug Sommers and Buddy Rose in their brutal feud with a young Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty, the Rockers. She also went on to manage the man who would one day become Nailz in the WWF, Kevin Kelly. She started an infamous trend in a spring edition of AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN when, after she interfered in an arm wrestling match between Kelly and Tommy Rich, Rich cornered her and ripped off her dress, revealing a pink teddy! Sherri chose to leave the company in the spring of 1987 after a tumultuous ride with what many performers thought to be a difficult promoter in Verne Gagne, vacating the AWA World Women's Championship. 

    Sherri Martel joined the WWF and defeated the Fabulous Moolah on July 24th, 1987 to become the new WWF World Women's Champion. She would effectively end Moolah's regular wrestling career and Moolah felt quite comfortable in passing the torch to Sherri, who would become the top heel woman's wrestler of the 1980s and 1990s. Moolah turned face for her final run and made her last major appearance for the WWF (or so we thought) at the 1987 Survivor Series to captain a team consisting of Rockin Robin, Velvet McIntire and the Jumping Bomb Angels to defeat the WWF Champion Sherri Martel, the WWF Women's Tag Team Champions Leilani Kai & Judy Martin, the original Dawn Marie and Donna Christianello when the Bomb Angels emerged as the sole survivors. During this time, Sherri also began pulling double duty as the Honkey Tonk Man and Jimmy Hart's dancing friend, Peggy Sue, wearing a blonde wig, large sunglasses and 1950s style diner attire. This was never acknowledged on WWF programming as Sherri Martel continued to be the WWF Women's Champion. Sherri lost the title to Rockin Robin in October of 1988 and wasn't able to regain it. A lack of interest in the division lead to its being cancelled and Sherri became one of the hottest heel managers in WWF history. 

    Sherri Martel appeared at Wrestlemania V in a non-wrestling capacity and began publishing trashing Miss Elizabeth for having Hogan and Randy Savage fighting over her. When Savage and Elizabeth split on camera, Sherri Martel was introduced as the Macho Man's new manager on one of the early editions of the Brother Love Show. Sherri Martel would go on to have a manager versus manager feud with Miss Elizabeth, who would second Hulk Hogan for much of the earlier stages of the feud. When Macho Man defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan to become the Macho King in the fall of 1989, Sherri Martel became known as the Sensational Queen Sherri. 

    Together, the Macho King and the Sensational Queen would feud with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Hulk Hogan. Savage would captain the "King's Court" at the 1989 Survivor Series which was originally billed to include Barry Windham. At the event, Randy Savage, Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine and the WWF newcomer the Earthquake defeated Hacksaw JIm Duggan, Ronnie Garvin, Hercules, and an emerging solo star Bret Hart. This allowed Duggan to move on to the Earthquake and Savage moved on to one of his greatest feuds, teaming with Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and his "common woman", Sweet Sapphire. The two "teams" would have wild altercations on editions of the Brother Love Show, including a famous one at the 1990 Royal Rumble pay per view, and would settle the score in the ring at Wrestlemania VI in the Skydome. This marked the return of Sherri's ultimate nemesis, Miss Elizabeth, who would help Rhodes and Sapphire win the bout by shoving Sherri into a pinning combination by Sapphire. There would be a series of rematches between the two teams and many singles bouts between Sherri and Sapphire. Sherri was to face Sapphire at Summer Slam 1990, but Sapphire sold out to Ted DiBiase and forfeited the match. 

    The Macho King and his Sensational Queen moved on to feud with the newly crowned WWF Champion, the Ultimate Warrior. Savage would make demands for a WWF World Title shot but the Warrior repeatedly denied him the opportunity. It came to a head at the 1991 Royal Rumble. Early in the night, the Sensational Sherri walked out into the arena, dragging Mean Gene Okerlund and cut a promo demanding that the Ultimate Warrior come out and prove he wasn't a coward and accept a match with the Macho King. The Warrior came and Sherri turned sensual, trying to seduce the Warrior, rubbing his chest and going so far as to kiss the WWF Champion. The Warrior, though, smiled, began to shake and then turned her down flat! Savage went crazy and tried to find the Warrior with no success. Later in the night, during the Warrior's defense against Sgt. Slaughter, Sherri returned to run interferance several times. When the Warrior pulled Sherri into the ring, Savage ran down to save the day but instead of helping her, the Warrior gorilla press slammed Sherri out over the top rope and onto Savage in what was then a huge highlight. An irate Savage would proceed to smash the Warrior with his sceptre, allowing Slaughter to become the WWF Champion. 

    The WWF, as the storylines went, wasn't big enough for both and a Career Match was signed for Wrestlemania VII, which the Warrior won. Sherri went crazy and began to assault Savage until Miss Elizabeth ran out from the audience to throw her off and reunite tearfully with the Macho Man. Sherri would quickly find her way back into a major storyline... actually, within the hour! She ran out after the match between Ted DiBiase and Virgil to help DiBiase attack the legendary Roddy Piper. Sherri would accompany Ted DiBiase throughout the rest of 1991 and into 1992, feuding with Piper and Virgil. She also was at DiBiase and IRS' side when they won the WWF World Tag Team Championship after the 1992 Royal Rumble. 

    When Jimmy Hart took over the duties as manager of Money Inc, Sherri showed up on WWF Superstars to reveal that she had fallen in love... with the Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels! She made history by signing the first version of Shawn's entrance theme "Sexy Boy" and lead him to defeat Tito Santana in his first pay per view singles bout at Wrestlemania 8. Michaels, under Sherri's guidance, sought after Bret Hart's WWF Intercontinental Title and Sherri managed Michaels during a classic Ladder Match shown on WWF Coliseum Video. Rick Martel was also looking to become the Intercontinental Champion and, along the way, developed a conflict with Michaels over the belt and over the love of Sherri, who seemed smitten with Martel, who is of no relation. The two pretty boys would collide at Summer Slam 1992 and Sherri added the stipulation that neither man was allowed to hit the other in the face, thus protecting their looks. Of course, they began a fist fight during the bout and Sherri fainted. In a humourous interchange, Martel and Michaels took turns trying to carry Sherri backstage and each time an attempt was foiled, Sherri went down in the aisleway. Michaels would finally get the honour as Martel was pushed out by officials but when Martel returned, he had a bucket of ice water and threw it on Sherri to revive her. Shawn chased Martel out and a humiliated Sherri had to run out of the Hoosier Dome soaking wet as the 80,000 fans laughed loudly. Sherri would return faithfully to Michaels' side, for better or worse. In the fall of 1992, Sherri and Shawn Michaels were in the ring when Marty Janetty made his return to the WWF to attack Michaels. He grabbed the mirror away from Sherri and threatened to hit Michaels as Sherri screamed and cried for him not to. In a heinous act, MIchaels pulled Sherri in front of him and Janetty hit her by mistake with the mirror, knocking her out of action. Sherri returned at the 1993 Royal Rumble for the long awaited battle of the Rockers but sat in a neutral corner. Eventually, she came into the ring and with the referee down, took off her shoe to hit Michaels, who was being held by Janetty. In grand wrestling fashion, Michaels moved and Sherri nailed Janetty, allowing Michaels to win the match. A hysterical Sherri ran out of the arena as Michaels pinned Janetty 1, 2, 3. 

    Sherri became a fan favourite for the very first time in her career and began to meddle in the life of Shawn Michaels, trying to make him lose the Intercontinental Title that he had won in November of 1992. Sherri would accompany Tatanka in his Wrestlemania IX attempt on Michaels' title but Michaels brought out the deranged Luna Vachon to protect him from Sherri. After Tatanka's victory by count out, Sherri was applauding on the apron when Luna yanked her off and drilled her with one of the stiffest clotheslines on the entire card. Luna beat Sherri mercilessly at ringside and then in the first aid room, setting up the first primarily in-ring WWF women's feud since Sherri was WWF Women's Champion in the late 1980s. Sherri and Luna would wrestle several matches at house shows and one on WWF Superstars as talk began to circulate that the WWF was going to revive the WWF World Women's Title. Sherri left the WWF in 1993 before that could happen, though, and began touring the independent circuit. 

    Sherri showed up in Extreme Championship Wrestling as the valet of Shane Douglas, leading him to the ECW World Title. She began to work towards a feud with Douglas' "Head Cheerleader" Missy Hyatt, but that would never come to pass. Sherri also worked in Smokey Mountain Wrestling and engaged a young Tammy "Sunny" Sytch in a feud where she teamed with Tony Anthony against Sytch, Chris Candido and Brian Lee. 

    Sherri Martel signed with World Championship Wrestling in the spring of 1994 and began managing the team of Kevin and David Sullivan, as well as Cactus Jack, as a fan favourite, no less. This would be brushed under the carpet in terms of WCW storylines and Sherri came on WCW television to make it known that she would select either Ric Flair or Sting as her man at the Clash of the Champions, where the two were set to unify the belt formerly recognized as the NWA World Title and the WCW World Championship. She was knocked out during the match by Sting and eventually chose Ric Flair, helping him become the unified WCW World Champion. She would reprise her "Queen" like gimmick as Flair's manager and was in his corner when Hogan defeated him to win his first WCW World Title at Bash at the Beach. Sherri would also serve as a manager to Steve Austin, at times, leading into the WCW Halloween Havoc Retirement Match between Flair and the champion Hogan. Sherri lost her second main event superstar in a retirement match when Hogan defeated Flair and she went into a hiatus. 

    An idea was proposed to turn the OJ Simpson scenario into a wrestling storyline, with Sherri managing Ron Simmons, but the idea was nixed and Sherri was given not one, but two large African American stars in Harlem Heat, her first tag team since the AWA. The storyline went that Harlem Heat had begun to wrestle successfully as a tag team, all because of the advice of someone on a cell phone they would bring to the ring with them. Sherri revealed herself as the inspiration of Harlem Heat and helped them defeat Stars & Stripes for the WCW World Tag Team Titles. The Heat would go on to win several more titles under Sherri's guidance and feuded with the Nasty Boys and the team of Bunkhouse Buck & Dick Slater. During the latter, Sherri and Colonel Robert Parker began a romantic storyline that was often ridiculous and always comical. Harlem Heat would eventually "fire" Sherri as their manager and Sherri would leave WCW after suffering some unfortunate bouts with drug and alcohol abuse. 

    Sherri became a regular on the indepenent scene after owning a beauty parlour. She would wrestle, often times as a heel, during legends reunion shows including a big one in January of 2005 when she captained a team against that of Wendy Richter. She made her return to the WWF, now the WWE, in March of 2005 as part of the build up to Shawn Michaels' match against Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania. Sherri showed up on Smackdown on March 24th to parody the "Sexy Boy" song she had sung for michaels 13 years previously, changing it to "Sexy Kurt". When Angle showed a retrospective of Shawn's career, Sherri became emotional and began to cry, clearly sentimental for Shawn. Angle snapped and put her in the ankle lock submission ass he screamed for her life! All this on her honeymoon to husband number... well, Sherri isn't quite sure. 

    Sherri joined the Fabulous Moolah in 2006 as a WWE Hall of Fame inductee, only the second to be added to the roll call that includes such icons as Hulk Hogan, Buddy Rogers, Billy Graham and Harley Race. She was a trend-setter throughout her career, proving that a woman can be just as tough as any man. She revolutionized the role of the heel female valet, getting physically involved in matches in such a way that she has yet to be matched. Her wild interview style and her tough matches solidified her as one of the most hated wrestlers, male or female, in wrestling history! There is a fine line between love and hate, though, and she is also one of the most fondly remembered by fans that got to be a part of Sherri's rise to legend status. She would be the woman that the Fabulous Moolah passed the torch to when she retired from regular competition in 1987 and was the last great AWA World Womens Champion. Sherri Martel, welcome to the Hall of Fame. You began as a fan in the crowd and became larger than life! Congratulations, you are one of wrestling's greatest legends.

    Sadly, like so many from her era, the Sensational Sherri Martel passed away on June 15th, 2007 in Birmingham, Alabama at her Mother's home with the cause of death being an accidental overdose. It was rumoured that Sherri Martel would be hired on by the WWE as a Road Agent, though it was not to be. Sherri, you will be missed.