In the late 90’s, Sable was one of the biggest names in professional wrestling. She was a massive ratings draw for the World Wrestling Federation and she was everywhere. She appeared on magazines, TV shows, and at the time she seemed destined to become a big star outside of wrestling. So how did she go from being one of the biggest stars in the business to suing the company for $140 million and then returning for another run with the WWF and now having her name banned from the Hall of Fame? In this video (see below), we will cover Sable’s rise in WWE and her controversial departure from the company.
Born Rena Marlette Greek in Jacksonville, Florida, Sable competed in beauty pageants as a teenager and she worked as a model for companies such as L’Oreal, Pepsi, and Guess. She married Wayne Richardson in 1987 and they had a daughter named Mariah. Richardson passed away in a drunk driving incident in 1991. She met her second husband, Marc Mero in 1993 while he was wrestling in World Championship Wrestling under the name Johnny B. Badd.
Mero left WCW in early 1996 because he objected to having Kimberly Paige as his manager. Mero didn’t have a personal problem with Kimberly and he has described her as being a sweetheart but it was difficult for his 9-year-old daughter to see her father on screen with another woman. Mero said his daughter would cry at night and he told WCW management that he didn’t need a valet. A story that has been told for years is that Mero objected to working with Kimberly because of his religious beliefs but he’s asserted that this was not the case and it had more to do with his daughter.
Mero signed a contract with Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation. According to a lawsuit filed in 1999, Rena stated that she accompanied Mero to a contract signing in 1996 and McMahon was struck by her beauty and that’s when she was offered a contract to work as a valet. We’ll have more on the lawsuit later.
During the weeks leading up to WrestleMania 12, Hunter Hearst Helmsley’s rich snob character would walk out to the ring accompanied by an attractive woman. Rena escorted Hunter out to the ring for his match with The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 12. After the match, Mero intervened when he saw that Rena was being mistreated by Hunter in the backstage area. Rena would manage Mero from that point until 1997 when Mero suffered an injury.
During this time period, women’s wrestling was non-existent. Vince McMahon disbanded the women’s division in late 1995 and there weren’t many women featured on WWF programming at the time. That is with the exception of two women. Terri Runnels, known as Marlena, was the real-life wife of Dustin Rhodes, who played the character of Goldust. Tammy Sytch, known to WWF fans as Sunny, became one of the most popular names in the company because of her sex appeal. Her popularity skyrocketed after her debut in 1995 and she eventually became the most downloaded on America Online, surpassing Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Cindy Margolis. Unfortunately for Sytch, her popularity would be overshadowed by Sable and their professional rivalry would turn personal behind the scenes. Sunny took a dislike to Sable not only because Sable quickly replaced her as the fan’s new favorite eye candy, but also because Sable allegedly potatoed Sunny by accident in a slap-fight segment on Monday Night Raw.
Sable’s popularity soared in 1997 and she regularly appeared in WWF Magazine and calendar shoots. At WWE events, she was getting bigger crowd reactions and the company realized that they needed to break her away from Mero. Mero returned from his injury in early 1998 as “Marvelous” Marc Mero playing off his Golden Gloves boxing background. In Storyline, Mero mistreated Sable and refused to allow her to get the spotlight because he was jealous of her popularity. At WrestleMania 14, Mero and Sable teamed up against Goldust and Luna Vachon but it was Sable who was treated as the star of the match. The big spot came when Sable delivered a TKO and then followed up with a powerbomb on Luna to win the match for her team. In July, she competed in a bikini contest against Jacqueline at the Fully Loaded pay-per-view in one of the most remembered moments from the Attitude Era. Jacqueline wore an outfit that left very little to the imagination and instead of a bikini top, Sable had hands painted over her chest.
By this point, Sable was one of the top stars in the WWF and, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, she was only second to Stone Cold Steve Austin as the biggest rating draw in the company. Vince McMahon recognized this and then decided to revive the WWF Women’s Championship and she was booked to win the title by defeating Jacqueline on the September 21, 1998 episode of Monday Night Raw.
Around this time, the issues between Sable and the WWF began. She reportedly told the company that since she wasn’t a trained wrestler, she was not comfortable wrestling in a strap match against Luna Vachon and she never signed to become a wrestler. Sable confirmed on TSN’s “Off The Record” that she had a “no bump” clause in her contract.
As Sable’s popularity continued to soar with the fans, she became very unpopular among the wrestlers in the locker room who resented her. Some felt that she didn’t deserve to be a top star and others felt that she was disrespectful to the wrestling business for not being willing to take bumps and for refusing to work a full-time schedule. The resentment got even worse when she appeared on the cover of April 1999 issue of Playboy magazine. It was one of the highest-selling issues ever and there was a feeling that she could become a breakout star in Hollywood.
Sable and Chyna had heat with each other after they appeared on a TSN show together. Chyna was asked why she wasn’t the Women’s Champion. Chyna said she wasn’t interested in the title and never challenged for it, but if she did, she could beat Sable in two seconds. Sable asked how she could say that when they never wrestled each other. Chyna said she’s twice as big and twice as strong. Sable fired back and asked Chyna what she puts in her body to make her twice as big and twice as strong. Chyna then mentioned Sable’s plastic surgery and Sable told Chyna she had more plastic surgeries than anybody in the company.
Luna’s frustrations continued to escalate over Sable’s push. She mentioned on Raw she couldn’t get a shot at the title because she is not as pretty as Sable. She also had problems backstage with Marc Mero and Jack Lanza and complained about her husband, Gangrel, being hanged by the Ministry of Darkness before joining the group. WWF released Luna when they realized the problems with her were continuing with no solution on the horizon as long as Sable and her were on the same roster.
Playing off some of the real-life backstage resentment, the company had Sable turn heel by “going Hollywood” and having bodybuilder Nicole Bass do all of the dirty work for her. This was done to cover for the fact that Sable wouldn’t take bumps. Sable rarely defended the Women’s Title and then dropped it after six months to Debra in an Evening Gown match where the loser was the woman who could rip the clothes off her opponent. But in this case, the rules were changed and it was announced by Commissioner Shawn Michaels after the match that the loser was the woman with the least amount of clothes on. The match was booked this way because of Sable’s “no bump” clause.
This was Sable’s handwritten agreement with the WWF before she dropped the title:
“Notwithstanding any agreement between us and because we disagree about the fashion I would lose my belt, and because of my concerns of humiliation and safety, it is agreed that I appear tonight solely upon your contractual assurances that I will not lose my gown nor wrestle, and that the girl with whom I am interfacing agrees with her role. My appearance in Manchester shall be no more then parading in the ring and shall not include wrestling. I agree to make a scheduled personal appearance outside the ring, otherwise, I will have a complete hiatus from the WWF until May 23rd, at which time we hope to have our contractual concerns resolved. Until such time, neither I nor the WWF, its employees or subcontractors shall speak disparagingly about the other scripted or unscripted.”
In June of 1999, Sable quit and then filed a $140 million lawsuit, alleging sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions. She claimed that she filed the lawsuit after she refused a request to go topless. If you aren’t familiar with the Attitude Era, this was during a time when Jerry Springer and Howard Stern were at their peak and the WWF was looking to go in a similar adult direction to draw in a large young demographic. Val Venis was a male pornstar character, The Godfather was a pimp, D-Generation X was doing crotch chops and telling people to “suck it” and Stone Cold Steve Austin was giving the middle finger to his boss. Today, those characters and storylines would not be accepted on a weekly national television show but in the late 90’s, this is what millions of fans wanted to see. The WWF continued to push the envelope and, according to Sable’s lawsuit, she was not comfortable with everything that she was asked to do.
To the shock of many wrestling fans, Sable was shown in the crowd on the June 14, 1999 episode of WCW Monday Nitro. She was never referenced by name but she was shown on camera and Eric Bischoff wondered on commentary what she was doing there. It was implied that she could be doing more with WCW but on June 16, WWF attorney Jerry McDevitt threatened to file a federal lawsuit because she was still under a WWF contract until August 2001. WCW responded by saying that Rena was not signed and there were no contract negotiations ongoing and she would not be appearing on WCW TV again. WCW claimed that Rena was only at the show because she bought a ticket but skeptics pointed out that she had WCW security sitting next to her and her appearance was mentioned the following day on the WCW.com website.
Vince McMahon filed a countersuit over the rights to the name Sable and both parties settled out of court in August 1999.
Under her real name, she had limited Hollywood success after leaving the WWF. She appeared again on the cover of Playboy in the September 1999 issue, making her the first woman to grace the cover of the magazine in the same year. She made appearances on “The Howard Stern Show” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and TV shows such as “Relic Hunter,” “First Wave” and films “Corky Romano” and “Ariana’s Quest.” On November 13 and 14, 2001, she was part of the XWF wrestling television pilots taped in Florida.
Mero said that Sable told him that she was disappointed with her Hollywood career and decided to make the call to Vince McMahon about returning to the WWF. He said, “She went back to wrestling and she had to apologize to certain people. The Undertaker, Stone Cold, certain people that Vince made sure that she apologized to because a lot of people were upset that she was coming back. She did that and made amends and went back and had to do what Vince asked her to do. Then unfortunately she fell in love with another wrestler while we were still married and found out about it and that’s when I filed for divorce and moved on in my life. I’ve never spoken to her since then. If I could ever say anything to her it’s two words – ‘Thank you.’ If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have this incredible life that I have today.”
Sable returned in April 2003 and kicked off a storyline with Playboy cover girl Torrie Wilson. She also had feuds with Stephanie McMahon and Dawn Marie. She worked as a heel during most of her second run and then turned babyface in 2004 around the time of her third Playboy pictorial where she appeared alongside Wilson. On August 10, 2004, WWE announced on their website that Rena left the company but this time on good terms. Her soon-to-be husband Brock Lesnar stated that she left the company so she could spend more time with her family.
After that, we didn’t hear much from Rena. Aside from accompanying Brock at New Japan Pro Wrestling and UFC events, we haven’t heard much from Rena and she hasn’t spoken publicly about her time with WWE. There are no shoot interviews with her and the only photos we see are rare because she does not have a public social media presence.
Rena Lesnar seems like a surefire candidate for the WWE Hall of Fame but an induction seems unlikely right now. During an autograph signing at The Asylum Wrestling Store, Torrie Wilson said that she was told not to mention Sable at the WWE Hall of Fame. Wilson said, “You’re not even allowed to mention her. I mentioned her name in my Hall of Fame speech and right before, they told me, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re not allowed to mention her name. Good luck seeing her. You’re gonna have to go up Timbuktu in Minnesota to get Sable’s autograph.” It was implied that it was Sable who didn’t want her name mentioned because she was living a private life.
A Hall of Fame induction seems unlikely right now but it was Triple H who worked to bring back names like Bruno Sammartino, The Ultimate Warrior, and others so perhaps, one day, Sable will return and allow the fans to pay respect to her for her contributions to the wrestling business. She wasn’t known as a great wrestler but there is no doubt that she was one of the most recognizable names during the Attitude Era.
