TV Guides Interview with Sable

Alleging sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions and steriod use, wrestling star Sable slaps a lawsuit on her bosses and sits down for a no-holds-barred interview. When TV Guide met up with Rena Mero in Vancouver two months ago, there were hints that she was unhappy with her job as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)’s übervixen Sable. She was in Canada to film a guest spot on the Sci Fi Channel’s First Wave series (to air nextMarch), and she was clearly ecstatic about the opportunity to flex her acting talents rather thanher muscles. Out of her Sable trademark thigh-high leather boots, Mero worried about the dangers of wrestling and sighed wearily about life on the road and the contract that committed herto 250 dates per year. She mentioned not complaining, not yet the raucous backstage atmosphere that prevented her from bringing her daughter, Mariah, 11, with her to work. She pointedly presented herself not as slayer Sable but as Rena, 30, loving mom and devoted wife (her husband is wrestler Marc Mero), who lives on a quiet equestrian estate near her hometown of Jacksonville, FL. And she spoke of her desire to build an acting career outside the ring, a career she hoped would be jump-started by an April Playboy cover that brought her worldwide attention. Those hints, however, turned to a battle cry June 3, when Mero filed a lawsuit against the WWF in federal court in Connecticut, alleging unsafe conditions, sexual harassment (including a request to incorporate a lesbian angle into her ring performance) and steroid abuse. she also asked to be released from her WWF contract, $100 million in damages, the right to retain the name of Sable and profits from future merchandising. WWF lawyers call the allegations false and say they will fight the suit. Hours after filing the action, she gave this exclusive interview to TVGuide.

TV Guide: How has wrestling become more dangerous in the three years since you’ve been in the ring?

Sable: Wrestling used to be a sport that was performed in a padded ring with ropes. Nowadays, everything that we’re asked to do is just over the top. It has almost nothing to do with wrestling anymore. They’re basically asking us to be stuntmen.

TVG: Does the WWF provide training for those stunts? Was wrestler Owen Hart [who died from
a 90-foot fall in a failed stunt in Kansas City, Mon, May 23] trained to work from cables?

Sable: I can’t speak for Owen Hart, but I did know him very well. I know that he and his wife were
uncomfortable with that. I was never trained as a wrestler. I was asked to go into the ring and perform things I was very uncomfortable doing jumps from the high ropes in five-inch heels. [WWF attorneys say Sable was never asked to perform an unsafe stunt.]

TVG: Your suit also addresses the scripting of wrestling.

Sable: Each match has apredetermined outcome. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. A lot of
tempers get very heated in the ring.

TVG: You speculate in the suit that that may have something to do with "’roid rage."

Sable: I can’t say for certain. But… it’s common knowledge that you do not look like the people in our sport without enhancement. The wrestlers, the crew that we count on to set up the ring and the ramp a lot of them, I believe, may be on drugs.

TVG: Then you didn’t see anyone taking drugs, but you asked that drug testing take place?

Sable: There was drug testing when I initially signed my contract. Then Mr. [Vince] McMahon [chairman of the WWF’s parent company, Titan Sports Inc.] felt like the costs were getting too out of hand. He sent out a memo saying that the costs were becoming too extravagant, and we
would no longer be drug testing. [WWF attorneys say the WWF carries out drug tests based on
reasonable suspicion.]

TVG: Speaking again about the death of Owen Hart: You had complaints about wrestling when
we talked in Vancouver in April. Did his death put you over the top about wanting to get out?

Sable: I came to this decision long before Owen’s death. This was a decision that was a long time coming to me.

TVG: Do you feel that wrestling has dramatically changed?

Sable: If you were to view wrestling films from 10 years ago, or 5 years or 3 years ago and compare it to today it has changed dramatically. It has become so obscene and so vulgar that I do not wish to participate in it.

TVG: Was therepressure to keep up the ratings by pushing the envelope?

Sable: Without a doubt. It’s all about ratings and money. For instance, going back to Owen Hart’s death, the show should have been stopped. One of our comrades died in the ring, and they continued the show.

TVG: You allege in the suit that the WWF crossed the line by trying unsuccessfully to get
you to bare your breasts. Yet you have posed twice for Playboy.

Sable: There is a time and place for that. I do not feel like in the middle of a wrestling arena where
they’re serving alcohol and there are screaming fans, including children, in the front row I don’t
feel like that is the proper place to be exposed. Posing for Playboy for me was a classy and tasteful thing to do.

TVG: What happened when you refused to expose your breasts?

Sable: Any time you refuse to do anything, you are taken down a notch, and someone else is put up.
It is total competition, 24 hours a day. Right after I told them I would not do that, it was scripted for me to lose my belt. If I would have agreed to do that, I would still be the WWF champion. [WWF attorneys say Sable’s loss was merely part of her character’s planned story line.]

TVG: You talk about guys punching holes in the walls between the men’s and women’s dressing
rooms, and then those guys walking into the women’s dressing rooms. Did you complain to the
organization?

Sable: Every time that happened, we complained about it. They changed the colors of the sign to bright neon pink to try to get the gentlemen I use that term loosely not to walk into our dressing rooms. We had several discussions with Vince McMahon to find out who was punching holes in walls to view us. One wrestler apologized. He felt so bad. [But] I felt very uncomfortable and unsafe working there or even being backstage. It is such an obscene atmosphere. Women are… having contests to see who has the largest nipples. They’re pulling their skirts up to expose their private parts. It’s our office. This is happening while we’re having lunch. This is happening all around us.

TVG: Obviously you couldn’t bring your daughter.

Sable: I quit bringing my daughter years ago.

TVG: Given what you’ve said, you don’t make the world of professional wrestling sound too
professional.

Sable: This is just the way the people I work with behave. I was frightened. I was scared. I never knew what to expect.

TVG: How much were you being paid?

Sable: If you were to compare my salary to a man’s, mine was much, much less.

TVG: Is a guesstimate of $150,000 a year in the ballpark?

Sable: That was my guarantee, and I did make more than that. But I feel like I contributed much more.

[Money, or Mero’s lack of it during her childhood, also entered into the April interview in Vancouver, excerpts of which follow.]

TVG: Where does your ambition come from?

Sable: I grew up in a very poor family. We had the essentials. A lot of times, we had more than
enough. But growing up in a family of six children [Mero was the second eldest] was very hard. I
think I got my drive seeing how hard my parents struggled to make ends meet. I never wanted to
live that way. I wanted to have nice things. And I wanted to be able to give my daughter everything in life that I could.

TVG: So to do that, you entered wrestling. How long do you think the current craze can continue?

Sable: In the ’80s, wrestling was huge, and it took more than 10 years for it to get huge again. I’m
sure there is going to come a time when it is not quite as popular as it is now.

( credit Tv Guide online)

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