Source: WWE.com
Today WWE Superstars past and present mourn the sudden passing of WWE Hall of Famer “Sensational” Sherri—chief among them, one of Sherri’s closest friends, one-half of the former “Heavenly Bodies” tandem, Dr. Tom Prichard.
“It’s so cliché, but we’ve lost a legend who really loved this business, and gave a lot to it,” says Prichard, who today is a trainer for one of WWE’s developmental territories. “She had a heart and a passion that matched the most passionate men in this business. I mean, it was really a man’s sport back then, but she pulled her weight and didn’t ask for any shortcuts. A lot of us have lost a good friend.”
According to Prichard, every memory he has of the “Sensational” one “is a good one. She was so nice and, I hate to say this, but she was always so sweet. She really was.” His fondest recollections, however, go as far back as the early 1980s, when she managed Prichard and tag partner Pat Rose at Mid-South Wrestling. And they weren’t all memories around the squared circle.
“I used to ride with her during those trips to Memphis,” Prichard recalls, “and she was just like one of the boys. Then one time—I don’t remember the year—I broke my leg in Louisville, Ky. Sherri and her roommate Tina, who was a nurse, made sure that I went to the hospital and got my leg X-rayed. I found out that it was broken, and that I had been wrestling a week on it without knowing it was broken. When I had a cast put on the leg, Sherri and Tina insisted that I stay over at their apartment. I slept on their couch, and they fed me and took care of me. They were really, really good to me, Sherri especially. She was such a down-to-Earth, nice person, and if she was your friend, you had a friend forever.”
Aside from her friendship, Prichard will most miss what Sherri offered as a sports-entertainer, both inside the ring as a mat competitor, and on the outside floor as a manager. “We lost a pioneer, in my opinion, in women’s wrestling,” he explains. “Before there were Divas, Sherri was proud of being a women’s wrestler. Her intensity and passion stood out more than anybody else I’ve seen, even today. She went all-out every time stepped into the ring, and she set the bar for intensity at ringside, whether she was managing the Midnight Rockers in AWA, or myself and Pat in Mid-South.”
Dr. Tom Prichard admits that it’s “difficult” to sum up how much “Sensational” Sherri personally meant to him; instead, all he can do is tell her many other friends, plus millions of her fans, “Sherri was meant for this business, and she gave everything she had for it. I think we’ve all lost somebody very special.”
