Rena Mero

Rena Mero or Rena Merowitz in full (born August 8, 1967) is an American model, actress and professional wrestler. She is primarily known for her stints in World Wrestling Entertainment as the buxom Sable character. As Sable, she was one of the first WWE divas, gaining considerable popularity and gracing the cover of Playboy several times.

Early life

Born Rena Greek in Jacksonville, Florida, she was active in her youth and was interested in activities such as gymnastics, horseback riding and softball. After winning her first beauty pageant at 12 years of age, she eventually became a model, working with companies such as L'Oreal, Pepsi and Guess?. She married Wayne Richardson in 1987, with whom she had a daughter named Mariah in 1988. They were married until his death in October 1991.

World Wrestling Federation

She met her second husband, professional wrestler and former boxer Marc Mero (who had been performing in World Championship Wrestling as "Johnny B. Badd") in 1993. After marrying Marc in 1994, she broke into the wrestling business through the World Wrestling Federation. Rena Mero made her World Wrestling Federation debut as the Sable character at WrestleMania XII in March 1996, escorting Hunter Hearst Helmsley to the ring . She even won two awards at the 1997 Slammy Awards: "Dressed to Kill" and "Miss Slammy."

Rena's first major storylines as Sable involved her then real-life husband, who debuted at WrestleMania XII as "Wildman" Marc Mero. Witnessing Sable being mistreated by Helmsley backstage, the "Wildman" attacked Helmsley and took Sable as his manager. She remained Mero's manager until his injury in 1997. Between 1997 and the time he returned from injury in 1998, Sable became popular on her own. A returning Marc Mero (now known as "Marvelous" Marc Mero) became jealous, refused to let Sable get any of the spotlight and mistreated her. The duo would enter into a feud with Luna Vachon and The Artist formerly known as Goldust, which climaxed at WrestleMania XIV, when the two took on Goldust and Vachon. Sable proved to have some in-ring skill, delivering a superkick to Goldust and executing a powerbomb (known as the "Sable bomb") on Luna. At the following pay-per-view event, Unforgiven, Sable lost to Luna in the promotion's first evening gown match after being distracted by Marc Mero.

Sable eventually broke away from "Marvelous" Marc Mero and Mero debuted Jacqueline as his new manager. This resulted in a feud between Jacqueline and Sable. The two met in a bikini contest at WWF Fully Loaded in July 1998. Sable, only wearing impressions of painted hands covering her exposed breasts, won the contest easily. However, the next night on RAW, Vince McMahon disqualified Sable from the previous night's contest since she did not actually wear a bikini. The match was then awarded to Jacqueline. In response, Sable gave "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's double finger gesture to McMahon. . At SummerSlam, Sable and her mystery partner, federation newcomer Edge, defeated Marc Mero and Jacqueline in a mixed gender tag team match.

Sable and Jacqueline faced off for the newly reinstated WWF Women's Title on the September 21, 1998 edition of RAW. Jacqueline claimed the title after Marc Mero interfered. However, at Survivor Series, Sable won the title from Jacqueline. During this time, Rena had a guest appearance on an episode of the USA Network show Pacific Blue. Sable then briefly entered a storyline where she was forced to play a subservient role to Vince and Shane McMahon, but the storyline did not progress very far. Sable defeated Luna in a strap match at the 1999 Royal Rumble after an assist from a female Sable fan. This fan turned out to be federation newcomer Tori. Tori's debut would signify a change in Rena's Sable persona.

Heel turn

After the Royal Rumble, Rena (under her Sable ring name) was featured as the cover girl for the April 1999 issue of Playboy. It was around this time that the Sable character turned heel by "going Hollywood" with an inflated ego. Rarely defending her title, Sable continually berated her fan Tori and feuded with Tori and Luna Vachon (who turned face). She debuted a new catchphrase: "This is for all the women who want to be me and all the men who want to see me" and a dance move called "the grind". The feud with Tori lead to a match at WrestleMania XV. During the contest, Nicole Bass debuted as Sable's bodyguard and helped Sable win.

On May 10, 1999, Debra "won" the Women's Championship from Sable in an Evening Gown Match. Normally in an Evening Gown Match, the winner is the woman who forcibly removes her opponent's dress, which Sable did. However, kayfabe WWF Commissioner Shawn Michaels ruled that the woman who had lost her dress was the winner, making Debra the new Women's Champion. With this, Sable became the first woman to lose a title without losing it by pinfall or submission.

Post-WWF career

In June 1999, Rena Mero quit the WWF and filed a States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*110 million lawsuit against the company, with allegations of sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions. Mero reduced her settlement figure and eventually settled out of court. During the course of the lawsuit, Vince McMahon counter-sued Rena over the WWF licensing of the name Sable. Mero used her real name for her appearance in September 1999's issue of Playboy, becoming the first person to make the cover of the magazine twice in the same year. Her husband Mark exited the WWF around this time as well. After her WWF exit, she made an on-camera appearance on World Championship Wrestling's Monday night program, WCW Monday Nitro, but never performed for WCW.

During this time Rena made appearances on The Howard Stern Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. She also made appearances on television shows such as Relic Hunter and First Wave. She also appeared in the film Corky Romano. She released her autobiography, entitled Undefeated in August 2000. She also released a comic book entitled The 10th Muse starring herself as a superhero.

On November 13 and 14 of 2001, she appeared as the on-air "CEO" of the newly formed XWF. These would be her only appearances with the company. XWF went out of business a few months later. In 2003 she announced that she and Marc Mero were getting divorced. Despite this, as of June 2006 she continues to publically use Mero's surname.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Rena returned to the World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment) on the April 3, 2003 episode of SmackDown!, reprising her role as Sable. Sable spent several months in a storyline with new Playboy covergirl Torrie Wilson which led to a showdown bikini contest between the two that Torrie won. Sable then would go on to a heated feud with Stephanie McMahon which involved her in a storyline as Vince McMahon's mistress. At Vengeance 2003 in Denver, Sable defeated Stephanie after interference from her new ally, the A-Train. At SummerSlam, Sable was in the corner of the A-Train when he lost to The Undertaker. After the match, Undertaker held Sable as Stephanie delivered a slap.

Sable's next major move was when she appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine for the third time in her career, only this time with fellow diva Torrie Wilson, making them the first WWE Divas to pose in Playboy together. The duo feuded with RAW divas Stacy Keibler and Miss Jackie. The two teams squared off at WrestleMania XX in an Interpromotional Tag Team Evening Gown match, but the divas started the match in their underwear, making it more of a lingerie match. The changed was rumored to have happened after Sable suffered damage to her breast implant.

Following WrestleMania XX, Sable engaged in another short feud with Wilson, facing off in a match at the 2004 Great American Bash, which Sable won. Sable's final appearance in the WWE would be on SmackDown! when she, Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson would accompany Eddie Guerrero to the ring in his lowrider. On August 10, 2004, WWE's official website announced that Rena Mero and WWE had parted ways.

As of June 2006, Mero has not appeared on any wrestling shows since her WWE release and has stayed out of the wrestling media spotlight with the exception of her marriage to another former WWE performer, Brock Lesnar. In 2004 she became engaged to Lesnar. The engagement was called off in early 2005, but they were engaged again in January 2006 and the two married in May 2006.

Signature moves

As Sable, Mero had several signature professional wrestling attacks and throws. While still associated with "Marvelous" Marc Mero, she used Marc's cutter, which he had dubbed the "TKO". She also used a variety of kicks, including a rainbow-style crescent kick and a roundhouse kick. In addition, she used a hurricanrana called the "Sablecanrana", a double leg takedown and the slap, a common move for most WWE divas. Her finishing maneuver was a regular powerbomb, (an out-of-the-ordinary move for a female wrestler at the time) known as the "Sablebomb".

References

External links

RenaMero.net Official website

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