When she retired after "Wrestlemania V," her feminine presence was replaced by two very different women, Sapphire and "Scary" Sherri. Sapphire was a short, plump African-American woman who accompanied "The Common Man" Dusty Rhodes to the wrestling ring. She danced and hollered, and was not received very well by fans. None of the fans I interviewed were very enthusiastic about her presence at ringside. Because the WWF wanted to portray Rhodes as almost a white trash figure (indeed, in promotional video segments he was shown to be a trash hauler), they seemed to reason that to giving the overweight man a plump African-American consort would complete the scene.
Sapphire uttered bits of "down home" wisdom in her interviews, such as this inspirational tale: "See, I grew up in a poor neighborhood. Just gettin' a hot meal every night meant a lot...the only way I knew was bein' his [Rhodes] fan, and the rest is chitlins on the plate, honey" (WWF Magazine[a], p. 19). She even donned wrestling tights at times, although she was not the most adroit wrestler. In the end, Sapphire was wooed away from "The Common Man" by the expensive gifts of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, becoming his valet along with fellow African-American Virgil. Sapphire proved to be a fickle woman who could be bought, and was assigned to slave-like status in the WWF until she disappeared from the scene.
"Scary" Sherri is the polar opposite of the woman she succeeded as Randy Savage's manager, Miss Elizabeth. She interfered in matches vigorously for Savage, and as a result was often brutalized by Face wrestlers. A few signs decisively point to Sherri's treatment in the WWF. She used to wrestle, and was a Women's Champion for some time. Because she had the power to wrestle as well as most males in the WWF, she was a dangerous figure. The vision of a physically powerful woman did not fit into the structure of the WWF in the late 1980s. Her ability was not a virtue, but instead made her a whore. "She's hideous, she looks like an old prostitute," one fan complained.
Sherri is called a "gorgon" in a profile found in the official WWF Magazine, and one wrestler is quoted as calling her a "witch" (WWF Magazine[b], p. 52—54). In some 1990 television speeches, Sherri even talked of creating a "potion" to help her man to win an upcoming match. "This queen has claws," Sherri says about herself, and the magazine profile agrees, calling her "as sinister as a black widow spider (WWF Magazine[b], p. 54). Recently, in a January 1991 bout at Madison Square Garden, Sherri was abused by the heavyweight champion Ultimate Warrior in a fashion bordering on rape. After interfering to allow Savage to win a steel cage match, Sherri became trapped in the cage with the Warrior, who slowly ripped off her blouse and skirt and body-slammed her. Some audience members seemed offended, having brought children to the event, but the WWF has performed the same show practically every night for the next month or two.
The noble Miss Elizabeth and the ignoble Sherri are assigned roles that great western religions have traditionally assigned prominent women (Combs-Schilling, p. 269). In Christianity their counterparts are the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, while in Islam they are Muhammed's wives Fatima and 'A'isha. The Virgin Mary and Fatima were interpreted by adherents of Christianity and Islam to be passive and asexual, being virgins at the time of birth, and effectively non-threatening to men. So is Miss Elizabeth seen to be not a power-possessing threat to men in wrestling, but only a beautiful, patient icon to be venerated. On the other hand, Mary Magdalene and 'A'isha are "highly charged sexual and sensual females" "the one suspected of adultery in the desert, the other confirmed of prostitution" (Combs-Schilling, p. 91). Yet neither became the dominant and proper image of womanhood in their respective religions, although they were both very significant to the founders (Combs-Schilling, p. 91). So is Sherri too anthropologically "hot" for the WWF and becomes a whore rather than a Madonna.
Other trends in ethnic imaging in the WWF are equally discouraging. One African-American dresses in "tribal" feathers and carries a spear. An effeminate Heel appeared in 1989 called "the Genius," implying that men with great educations were rather prissy. Recent exploitation of the Persian Gulf War earned the WWF almost universal condemnation. All of these images are attempts to perceive popular sentiment among the lower and middle class fans of professional wrestling; to see what characters can be "sold" to them and become powerful symbols of good and evil, and ultimately compel them to buy tickets to live wrestling events. The people who create the items to be sold are largely behind-the-scene figures, called "bookers," who are often ex-wrestlers.
By attempting to reflect trends in society and politics, as well as drawing upon religious imagery, professional wrestling has survived and thrives cyclically. Although it has become a victim of its technological andideological excesses at times, as is evident in the decrease in live wrestling attendance, professional wrestling, the WWF in particular, will probably be elastic enough to remain a force in American society for some time to come.
On March 24, 1991, at "Wrestlemania VII," WWF wrestling history came full circle as "the Immortal" Hulk Hogan defeated another foreign threat from the Mid East to regain his World Heavyweight Championship belt. Hogan defeated not the Iranian Iron Sheik of 1984, but Sergeant Slaughter, managed by an Iraqi "general." The infidel was again driven from the wrestling ring, and the prophet Hulk Hogan again gained transcendence. Hogan's blood was spilt during the match, and his saving blood enabled WWF wrestling fans to once again enjoy communal regeneration. The religious power of "the Immortal" Hogan endures.
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