The women wanted to be her and the men came to see her, when Sable was under the bright lights, but the real life of Rena Lesnar hasn't always been enviable.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00The women wanted to be her, and the men came to see her when Sable was under the bright
00:05lights. But the real life of Raina Lesner hasn't always been enviable.
00:10The then-Raina Greek married Wayne Richardson in 1987. The two had a daughter and remained
00:15together until Richardson died in a drunk driving accident in 1991. She met her second
00:20husband, former boxer and up-and-coming professional wrestler Mark Merrow, in 1993. Sable told
00:27The Ottawa Sun that their romance began when Merrow sent a handwritten note to her table
00:31at a restaurant. The couple tied the knot in 1994, after a few months of dating.
00:36Sable's first real angle in WWE involved Merrow when he saw her being mistreated backstage
00:42by Hunter Hearst Helmsley at WrestleMania XII in 1996. Merrow attacked Helmsley and
00:48took his real-life wife on as his manager. Sable remained at Merrow's side in storyline
00:53until 1997, but became a star in the company on her own while he was out rehabbing from
00:58an injury throughout the following year. The two eventually split in storyline after Merrow
01:02caused his wife to lose an evening gown match against rival Luna Vachon at Unforgiven 1998.
01:08Sable called out her husband following his interference. A few weeks later, the Merrows
01:12faced off on Raw, and she hit him with a Sable Bomb. The angle added fuel to the couple's
01:17real-life marital issues, with Sable becoming increasingly more popular than her husband.
01:22Following their on-screen split, Merrow took Jaqueline as his manager, and the two women
01:26feuded. Upon Sable's return to WWE in 2003, she started a romantic relationship with Brock
01:32Lesnar while still married to Merrow. Merrow revealed that he found out about Sable's affair
01:37with Lesnar while listening to his wife's voicemails. They got divorced in 2004.
01:41We've never said a bad word about each other. I have nothing bad to say other than, you
01:47know, that you think about the good memories that you had together."
01:51Sable had backstage heat throughout her wrestling career, in part because she was never actually
01:55trained to compete in the ring. Many women resented her for her push, especially when
01:59the Blonde Beauty won the Women's Championship at the end of 1998.
02:03Luna Vachon particularly couldn't stand Sable, but she was asked to help train her ahead
02:07of her in-ring debut. WWE officials reportedly threatened to fire Vachon if she injured their
02:13new Golden Goose star. Backstage reports say that Vachon never got the credit she deserved
02:18for training Sable. Vachon allegedly continued to make snide comments about Sable not paying
02:22her dues, and Sable reportedly refused to drop the Women's Championship to her because
02:27of it.
02:28She was being the bully, and sometimes they don't always come out on top.
02:31Troubled fellow diva Sonny had plenty of issues with Sable backstage, too. Former WWE Head
02:36of Talent Relations Jim Ross talked about the heat between the women on an episode of
02:40his Grilling JR podcast in 2020. He said Sable inadvertently stiffed Sonny in the eye with
02:46a slap because she was so inexperienced in the ring, and things escalated from there.
02:51I think Sonny overreacted. She got fatigued. Big deal. That's part of the game.
02:57Ross added that Sonny initially had a monopoly as the company's top diva, and may have felt
03:01threatened by Sable's popularity. A confrontation between the two wasn't exactly a surprise.
03:07Ross said it was what anyone expected to happen, and that's the way things were back in the
03:10day, especially in the women's locker room.
03:14Sable also had real-life heat with Chyna. The two were top stars at the same time in
03:18the late 1990s, but couldn't have been more different. Sable was the virtually untrained
03:23blonde beauty, and Chyna was a mega powerhouse, mixing it up with the guys in the ring.
03:27Both Sable and Chyna held the company's women's championship only once, but Chyna surpassed
03:32Sable in the gold department thanks to her runs with the Intercontinental Championship.
03:36Their real-life hatred for each other even spilled out into the mainstream media at one
03:40point.
03:42The pair got into a real argument on live TV when they both appeared on a TSN talk show
03:46alongside Debra to promote events around WrestleMania 15. The host asked Chyna why she wouldn't
03:51be challenging for Sable's women's championship, and she replied she had no interest in the
03:56belt, claiming she could beat the champion in two seconds. Sable fired back.
04:00I work out just as hard as you do, but I do not supplement my body the way you do either."
04:07The clear implication there was that Chyna had used steroids. Chyna fired back at Sable,
04:11calling her breasts supplements, referring to implants. The pair stared holes into each
04:16other as the host awkwardly threw the show to a commercial break.
04:19Sable and Chyna never settled their real-life differences in the ring. Sable left the company
04:24just four months after the TV showdown. Most of the locker room reportedly sided with Chyna
04:28in the feud. Sable's thinly-veiled accusation of steroid use wasn't taken lightly behind
04:33the scenes. Chyna left WWE in 2001 when the company didn't meet her financial demands.
04:40Some of the men in the WWE locker room weren't too keen on the amount of screen time Sable
04:44was getting, either. D-Generation ex-member Sean Waltman, better known as X-Pac, played
04:49a gruesome prank on the star. Former WWE head writer Vince Russo described the rib on an
04:55episode of Sportskeeda's The Bro Show, calling it the worst thing he ever heard, and said
05:00it was still awful to him to this day.
05:02Waltman admitted what he did, putting poop in Sable's bag, on Stone Cold Steve Austin's
05:06podcast.
05:07I made the deposit, and I f----- ran as fast as I could back to Gorilla."
05:12Jim Ross even had to get involved as head of talent relations. Waltman also revealed
05:16Sable only became aware when she went through customs at the airport while traveling home.
05:21X-Pac was informed by WWE officials that Sable's attorneys were considering taking legal action,
05:26which they soon did following her departure.
05:30After leaving WWE, Sable took legal action against the company in a Connecticut federal
05:34court to the tune of $110 million. She also wanted the right to retain the Sable name
05:40and profits from all future merchandising involving her sports entertainment moniker.
05:45Sable accused the company of unsafe working conditions and alleged sexual harassment while
05:49she was employed. The allegation of unsafe working conditions was filed just after the
05:54accidental death of Owen Hart at the Over the Edge pay-per-view in May 1999.
05:59Sable also said in the suit that the backstage environment of the company was fueled by steroid
06:04After filing the lawsuit, Sable did an interview with TV Guide discussing the alleged steroid
06:09use among wrestlers, the incident involving feces in her bag, as well as peepholes between
06:13the men's and women's locker rooms. She said,
06:16"...I can't say for certain, but it's common knowledge that you do not look like the people
06:20in our sport without enhancement. The wrestlers, the crew that we count on to set up the ring
06:24and the ramp, I believe may be on drugs."
06:27The lawsuit was fraught with behind-the-scenes information and allegations against WWE. The
06:32former women's champion claimed she was asked to wrestle topless against Debra on an episode
06:37of Raw, but refused due to the sizable group of children and teenagers who watched the
06:41program.
06:42The suit went on to allege other additional instances of sexual harassment, including
06:46pressure to participate in storylines Sable deemed inappropriate, as well as do things
06:50she deemed dangerous. She told E.T. at the time, if asked to do those things again,
06:54"...I think the way that wrestling is today, the industry is, I think that I would have
06:59to say no."
07:02Sable reduced the amount of monetary damages she was seeking, and she and WWE settled her
07:06lawsuit out of court in August 1999. When it came to the use of the name Sable, she
07:11used her real name, Reena Mero, at the time, for her special Playboy's Wrestling Superstar
07:15issue. Jim Ross explained on an episode of his Grilling Junior podcast that WWE was blindsided
07:21by Sable's suit. He said he personally never saw the lawsuit coming at the time, and called
07:25it a nuisance lawsuit.
07:27I thought the lawsuit was put in place so she could get a release, and that would be
07:31the negotiating chip she needed to walk."
07:35After about four years away from the company, Sable returned to WWE in April 2003. Things
07:40were very different for her upon her return. She was no longer the company's top female
07:45star.
07:46Sable often played second fiddle to Tori Wilson in storylines. Whether it was feuding with
07:50the fellow blonde beauty in matches and bikini contests, teaming up in a tag team, or gracing
07:55the cover of Playboy magazine for her third time alongside Wilson.
07:59Sable was also given the role of Vince McMahon's mistress in a feud against the boss' daughter,
08:03Stephanie McMahon. Despite Sable alleging sexual harassment and being asked to do things
08:07she was uncomfortable with in the lawsuit just years before her return, at one point
08:12during the feud, her breasts were exposed on live television during a parking lot brawl
08:16with Stephanie, who ripped off Sable's top.
08:19Sable went on to have various feuds and character changes during her very short return to the
08:23company, which lasted only through 2004.
08:27Sable's career with WWE officially ended in August 2004, but they split on good terms
08:32the second time around. Sable claimed that she left the company to spend more time with
08:36her family, though her exit seemingly came at the behest of her current husband.
08:41In Brock Lesnar's memoir, Death Clutch, My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival,
08:46Lesnar wrote that before he could marry his love, he needed to get her out of WWE. He
08:51wrote that he told her that neither one of them could work for the company due to long-term
08:55side effects of everything there. Lesnar called it his only demand of Sable, while acknowledging
09:00the fact that his soon-to-be wife had worked hard to get back into WWE, and was now giving
09:05up her career for him.
09:06What we've actually done with our life now is try to simplify it a little bit. It makes
09:10it a lot easier."
09:11That said, their relationship wasn't all sunshine and rainbows after Sable left WWE. The couple
09:17broke off their engagement in 2005 before getting back together in January 2006. They
09:22married in May of that year. Following their nuptials and the birth of their two sons,
09:26Turk and Duke, Sable removed herself from the public eye almost entirely, outside of
09:31a few times when her husband fought in the UFC and made other public appearances.
09:35Sable has never made another on-screen appearance for WWE, despite Lesnar's multiple returns
09:40and runs with the company. There have never been rumors of her appearing backstage to
09:44visit her husband either. Sable doesn't use social media, keeping both her and her children's
09:49lives extremely private. The family currently lives on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada.
09:55In January 2024, former WWE employee Janelle Grant filed a lawsuit naming Vince McMahon,
10:02former WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, and WWE itself as defendants. Among its claims
10:08were charges of sex trafficking. Sable's husband, Brock Lesnar, was not named as a defendant,
10:13nor was his name used in the complaint, but he was implicated. Lesnar was allegedly promised
10:18a sexual interaction with Grant upon his re-signing with the company.
10:22The Wall Street Journal directly identified Lesnar as the former UFC heavyweight champion
10:27described in the suit. This led to Lesnar being reportedly dropped from creative plans
10:31in WWE, including those for the 2024 Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 40. Since the lawsuit
10:37was filed, Lesnar has not appeared on WWE programming. His name has been mentioned as
10:42recently as the Money in the Bank event in July 2024, though, suggesting that he hasn't
10:47been totally blacklisted. Sable, as private as ever in recent years, has not publicly
10:51commented on the allegations, and neither has her husband.
10:54WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul Triple H Levesque confirmed that Lesnar is still with WWE, though
11:00he didn't comment on his alleged involvement in the Grant case. As of the making of this
11:04video, the battle between WWE and Grant rages on, as the federal government is investigating
11:10McMahon.
11:11If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit
11:15the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
11:20at 1-800-656-HOPE, 4673.