A Lawsuit & WCW Appearance: The Complete Story Of Sable's Controversial WWE Exit

Sable had one of the most unique careers in pro wrestling as she became one of the most popular television stars on the planet, after getting involved in pro wrestling almost by accident, and then leaving the industry by suing WWE for over $100 million, all of which happened in just a little over three years. 

Her story is about a woman named Rena who grew to be beloved by fans the world over as she simultaneously drew the ire of her co-workers and became a reviled figure within WWE. Her shocking exit and the fallout that ensued threatened to blackball her from the industry where she had made her name but, like any good wrestling storyline, there were plenty of twists and turns to come.

Sable’s Pre-WWE Life

Rena Marlette Greek was born on August 8, 1967 in Jacksonville, Florida. Outdoorsy and naturally athletic, Rena enjoyed gymnastics and horseback riding in her youth. She also competed in beauty pageants, winning her first one at 12 years old.

In the mid-1980s, she met and fell in love with a man named Wayne Richardson, with the two marrying in 1987. The couple’s daughter Mariah was born in March of 1988 and, while acting as a housewife and stay-at-home mom, Rena secured modelling gigs for big brands like Pepsi and Guess. 

Tragically, on October 19, 1991, Wayne Richardson died when he crashed his best friend’s Chevrolet Blazer into a concrete pole. Wayne and two of his friends died instantly, while another died in hospital two days later. Not long after the accident, police declared that Wayne was legally drunk at the time and had a blood alcohol level far above the legal limit.

Wayne had been described as a ‘wild-eyed Southern boy’ by close friends and his enjoyment of the party life was no secret. On the night of the crash, Wayne was drowning his sorrows following an argument he and Rena had gotten into about his weekend lifestyle. It was the last time the two would talk. 

The premature death of her husband was devastating, but Rena endeavoured to carry on with her life and sought more work as a model to support her and Mariah. Shortly after Wayne’s passing, Rena met Marc Meto at a mall restaurant. The man then known as Johnny B. Badd was in the area for a WCW event and he invited his new acquaintance to the show, with the pair soon becoming fast friends before they began dating and finally married in 1993, with Marc adopting Mariah too. 

Rena continued to model and raise her daughter while Marc was on the road, though she influenced her new husband’s career and had a hand in his WCW exit. In early 1996, Marc Mero informed WCW management that he wanted to drop Kimberley Page as his manager. Citing his Christian faith, Mero told Eric Bischoff that he didn’t want to be seen cavorting with another man’s wife on the road, regardless of whether it was scripted or not. Bischoff, for his part, didn’t want to deal with anyone who objected to what he considered a standard storyline, so Mero was let go by WCW. 

In the midst of a burgeoning wrestling war, Vince McMahon – a noted fan of the Johnny B. Badd character – was more than happy to snap up a new piece of talent that had just entered the free agent market and the two sides immediately entered into negotiations. 

In one of those fortuitous moments that probably seemed like no big deal at the time, but wound up greatly impacting the careers and lives of all involved years later when Marc invited Rena to accompany him for his meeting with WWE officials. Awestruck by her beauty, McMahon and co. ended up not only signing Marc to a then-rare guaranteed contract but snapped up his wife, too. 

Sable Debuts In WWE

Rena – using the name Sable – made her WWE debut at WrestleMania 12, accompanying Hunter Hearst Helmsley for his match with the Ultimate Warrior. 

Marc also made his debut that night as his backstage interview was interrupted by a seething Helmsley following his infamous squash match loss to Warrior. Shortly after, Sable ditched Helmsley for The Wildman and husband and wife became an on-screen and off-screen item, with Sable’s popularity rapidly growing with a fan base that was becoming younger and was predominately male. 

There had been female wrestlers, managers and valets on WWE television beforehand, but Sable was presented as an object of desire in a way that nobody else had been previously. At that time, the only females of note on the WWE roster were Sable, Sunny and Terri who were booked on TV to serve as eye candy for the fan base. 

With only a few spots available, competition for television time was fierce and a natural jealousy towards the newcomer led to tensions in the locker room, particularly between Sunny and Sable. Things didn’t get much better when Sable supposedly stiffed her counterpart in the eye during a ringside slap fight on the September 23, 1996 episode of Raw, with Sunny already annoyed after Mero had nixed plans for Sunny to win a confrontation with Sable, with Rena and Marc’s reluctance for Sable to get involved physically being a consistent issue during their WWE stay. 

Sable’s main function in 1996 was to accompany and manage her husband. Inevitably, the side dish became the main course in the eyes of the fans who chanted her name instead of his.

The Wildman character wasn't exactly a slam-dunk either, even if Mero enjoyed a push and captured the Intercontinental Title, but it was clear to everyone watching who the real star of the act was.

In February of 1997, disaster struck when Mero tore his ACL and was forced to undergo major reconstructive knee surgery. Marc would have to sit out for the next six to eight months, but Sable continued to be featured on WWE television in short segments, including where she would help sell merchandise.

Sable’s Popularity Continues To Grow 

The Slammy award-winner’s star continued to rise in Mero’s absence, which set up a natural storyline for his return. When he came back to television proper in October, he did so with a new look and gimmick as ‘Marvellous’ Marc Mero, sporting an attire and style that played on his past as a Golden Gloves boxer. 

Resentful of Sable’s success, Mero began a slow-burn heel turn that saw him mistreat his wife, scolding her for flaunting her body while he was out convalescing. His attempts to cover up his wife’s skin invariably backfired, as she shed the potato sacks and reindeer costumes for ever-skimpier outfits. 

Her flesh-bearing exploits were a big hit with the growing 18-34 male demographic and she became a genuine ratings draw who, at her peak, was behind only Steve Austin for bringing in viewers. Her 1998 VHS tape Sable Unleashed was also second only to one on Stone Cold’s.

This didn’t isolate Sable from criticism, however, and she was criticised in some quarters for a perceived lack of charisma or acting ability, with her detractors writing her off as only being over because of her body.

Regardless, as time went on and she became more and more over, Rena and Marc became more amenable to putting Sable in scenarios where physicality was involved, which included her in-ring debut that was saved for WrestleMania 14 where Sable teamed with Mero to defeat The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust and Luna Vachon in a well-received mixed-tag match. 

Considering her complete lack of experience and prior hesitancy when it came to doing anything that involved bump-taking, Sable put in a commendable performance and was duly showered with praise when she returned backstage. This reportedly upset Vachon, who didn’t get as much as a ‘thank you’ for helping to carry her opponent, and had to be consoled by a sympathetic Owen Hart.

Luna continued to have problems with Rena and Marc as the year wore on, which ended up being a deciding factor in her dismissal. Vachon envied Sable’s success and was dismayed at the direction the business was going, with a focus more on looks and sex appeal than in-ring talent. As the member of a famous wrestling family who had more than paid her dues, she felt as if she had been overlooked in favour of the flavour of the month. 

The two women briefly worked alongside one another in the Oddities stable, before starting a feud later in the year over the Women’s Championship – a belt which had pretty much been brought back for Sable to win at Survivor Series. 

It had been a banner 1998, during which Sable supposedly made somewhere in the region of $750,000 to $1 million, and Rena and Marc both signed three-year contract extensions with WWE in August of that year. 

That December, Sable completed her first photoshoot for Playboy magazine, for a cover edition that would be released in March to coincide with the big promotional push for WrestleMania 15. Signing a lucrative deal that supposedly made her (at that time) the highest-paid Playboy cover girl in history, Rena was also given full creative control over the shoot, including final say on what pictures would make it into the magazine.

Heat Within WWE Builds

On the surface, everything with the Meros and WWE appeared to be fine, but issues began to arise in 1999, with the first major warning signs emerging during the build to Sable’s Women’s Title defence against Luna Vachon at the Royal Rumble as Marc, who continued to be heavily involved with navigating Sable’s career to the annoyance of WWE management, expressed his concerns about the Strap Match stipulation, feeling it was too dangerous since Rena had never trained for it and there were no plans to do a practice session prior to the show, since Sable was so heavily booked doing personal and promotional appearances. 

The match was originally pulled from the show, but added back to the card after WWE agreed to do a walk-through on the morning of the Rumble. This was just one incident that put heat on the Meros, though, as the tide of opinion was beginning to turn against them. 

Just a couple of weeks after the Rumble, it was reported that there was a lot of internal heat regarding Sable and that Rena and Marc had requested their releases from their recently signed three-year contracts. Their requests were turned down, primarily because WWE didn’t want to lose Sable as they believed they were due a ton of exposure from her Playboy cover issue, and she remained one of the company’s top draws. 

Sable’s February 8 appearance on TSN’s Gallagher talk show only intensified the ill will towards her. Booked alongside Chyna and Debra to promote that night’s show at the Toronto Skydome, Sable and the Ninth Wonder of the World ended up working themselves into a shoot.

After bring asked about potentially challenging for Sable’s title, Chyna dismissed the idea, claiming it would take mere seconds for her to accomplish it. Naturally, that didn’t sit well with the champ, who somewhere in her comeback insinuated that Chyna had used chemical assistance to add to her look.

When word got out to the locker room about what had happened, they largely sided with the D-Generation X member, with the general feeling being that Sable crossed the line and that Chyna’s initial comments about beating her were clearly made in a worked fashion. 

In general, the roster and WWE management were growing tired of the Meros, who had made it clear that Rena never got into the business to be an actual wrestler. They were also dismayed about the evolution of the Sable character and wanted to tone down the T&A aspect. 

There was speculation that the issues could convince WWE management to have Sable drop the Women’s Title to Luna Vachon at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre pay-per-view, but the match was pulled when Luna was suspended. Luna then had a backstage altercation with the Meros, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back after consistently erratic behaviour, including previous confrontations with Jacqueline and road agent Blackjack Lanza, and Vachon was released in early March. 

Around this time, Rena Mero was extremely busy due to commitments around Playboy and WrestleMania, with the Sable issue of Playboy being the highest-selling issue of the magazine in 15 years, with Hugh Hefner’s company eager to do another shoot at the earliest opportunity. At WrestleMania, meanwhile, Sable successfully defended the WWE Women’s Title against Tori in a poorly received match. 

At the same time, there was a lot of chatter about Rena becoming a regular in a TV series and she began taking acting lessons. In early April of 1999, she filmed a guest spot on La Femme Nikita. To those within WWE, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Sable had at least one eye on Hollywood. 

On-screen, Sable turned heel and aligned with Nicole Bass while doing everything she could to avoid actually wrestling, which included her dropping the WWE Women’s Title after six months as champion.

Rena had already rejected proposals to drop the title on television and flat-out refused to wrestle on house shows, maintaining that she never agreed to wrestle when she joined the company. 

She was happy to wrestle on pay-per-view because of the money involved, but she didn’t want to take bumps. At one point she claimed during a televised interview that she actually had a ‘no bumps’ clause written into her contract. 

This led to a bizarre situation where they booked Sable to lose the title on the May 10, 1999 episode of Raw. 

Before the show, Rena gave a handwritten contract to WWE which said: 

"Notwithstanding any agreement between us and because we disagree about the fashion I would lose my belt, and because of my concerns of humiliation and safety, it is agreed that I appear tonight solely upon your contractual assurances that I will not lose my gown nor wrestle, and that the girl with whom I am interfacing agrees with her role. My appearance in Manchester shall be no more then parading in the ring and shall not include wrestling. I agree to make a scheduled personal appearance outside the ring, otherwise, I will have complete hiatus from the WWF until May 23rd, at which time we hope to have our contractual concerns resolved. Until such time, neither I nor the WWF, its employees or subcontractors shall speak disparagingly about the other scripted or unscripted."

Sable actually defeated Debra in a short Evening Gown Match before WWE Commissioner Shawn Michaels ruled that, in his opinion, since Debra lost her clothes, she was actually the winner and, therefore, the new champion. It was a ludicrous compromise to make, but Rena was agreeable to it and it got the title away from her, which was what WWE management required.

Six days later, Sable was in the United Kingdom for the UK-exclusive No Mercy pay-per-view. WWE had pulled her merchandise from sale and had cancelled promotional appearances she was scheduled for following the debacle on the May 10 Raw. 

Due to wrestle Tori on the show, Sable instead backed out of the match, claiming the Manchester weather had given her a chest cold. Sable’s bodyguard Nicole Bass took her place in the match and beat Tori in a very short match. This turned out to be Sable’s final WWE appearance for four years. 

Sables Sues WWE

When Rena and Marc returned home to Jacksonville, Florida they discovered that an unpleasant, unwanted extra had accompanied them on their transatlantic trip when they found human excrement in their luggage, with it later revealed that it was X-Pac behind the "rib."

In early June, it was reported that Rena and Marc Mero were in the middle of a "contract dispute" with WWE and were not being used, but that wasn’t the whole story and it soon emerged that Rena Mero had quit the company and filed a $140 million lawsuit against WWE’s parent company Titan Sports on June 3.

The lawsuit – filed in the US District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut – was the result of months and months of disagreements between the two sides.

The issues had started in April of 1998, when Sable tried to claim at least partial credit for Unforgiven’s pay-per-view buyrate of 300,00, which was high for the standards of the time. 

Sable had been booked in an Evening Gown Match against Luna Vachon on the show and felt that the possibility of her being seen in her underwear had enticed fans to part with their cash. That attitude - and putting herself on the same level as the top star in the industry - didn’t endear herself to the wrestlers backstage, who were already miffed at her reluctance to work all the house shows they were expected to.

Further problems arose in relation to Sable’s planned second Playboy cover issue, which was due for an August release. WWE had actively encouraged her to pose for the first issue, rightfully believing that it would be great publicity for WrestleMania 15, and Sable initially turned down the opportunity until her compensation was increased, with Sable earning $150,000 and a share of the profits from the issue. 

While WWE brokered the first photoshoot, Playboy went directly to Sable on the second occasion. By the terms of her contract, the deal should have been made with Jim Bell of Titan Sports acting as Rena’s agent since she would be using the WWE-owned name Sable. 

WWE weren’t necessarily concerned about getting a cut for her appearance, but they were concerned about setting a precedent and protecting their intellectual property. 

This all led to the Metros asking for their releases at the May 10, 1999 TV taping where Sable dropped the Women’s Title. WWE were happy to grant Marc his – since they hadn’t used him in months and frankly saw him as being a nuisance when it came to dealing with his wife – but Sable would have a non-compete preventing her from working anywhere else in wrestling until August of 2001, as well as using the name ‘Sable’ in film and television. 

Due to her incredible popularity and marketability at the time, reflected in her effect on WWE’s ratings, as well the ratings for her appearance on Pacific Blue, Rena had no shortage of offers coming in from the wider entertainment industry. 

In the 24-page lawsuit itself, Rena Mero levelled various claims against WWE, including that they had repeatedly requested for her breasts to become fully exposed on television in a ‘scripted accident’ despite her saying ‘no’ every time. She further alleged that she had signed her contract extension under duress, that male members of the WWE roster would frequently walk into the women’s locker room as if ‘by accident’, that WWE wanted her to do a lesbian angle, that wrestlers had threatened her during steroid-induced rages, that the company didn’t provide an accurate picture of her merchandise sales, and that she felt she had been lied to about several things, was being prevented from pursuing an acting career, and that WWE was an unsafe and morally objectionable working environment. 

Industry commentators felt that some parts of the suit had merit, while other parts were ridiculous, and that the $140 million figure she was seeking was really just a tactic to get her release along with the rights to use the Sable name. 

Just days after the lawsuit became public knowledge, Rena Mero showed up on the live broadcast of WCW Nitro. Seated in the front row, Mero smiled and waved at the camera while being shown in a close-up shot. WCW’s announce team (including Eric Bischoff) made a point not to reference her as either Sable or Rena Mero, but the fans were more than happy to chant her WWE-owned moniker. 

This had alarm bells ringing at Titan Towers as Sable was still technically under contract to WWE when she appeared on Nitro, and WWE had sent Rena a cease-and-desist letter one week earlier asking her to stop using the name ‘Sable.’

When it came to the Nitro appearance, Rena innocently claimed that she had just been in Chicago visiting a friend, noticed that wrestling was in town and bought a ticket of her own volition. WCW corroborated the story but, in actuality, Kevin Nash had acted as an intermediary and made sure with Turner Broadcasting’s legal department that Rena showing up wouldn’t cause any issues for either her or the company. 

WWE’s lawyer Jerry McDevitt immediately contacted WCW’s attorneys and threatened to file a lawsuit. WCW contended that Rena Mero/Sable was not negotiating with the company and would not appear on WCW programming until her contract expired in August of 2001 or she had obtained a full release. 

Speaking to the media, McDevitt vowed that Mero would never get the rights to the 'Sable' name and could "sue until the cows come home." Rena herself used the media - including an appearance on the Jay Leno show - to attack the wrestling business for being unregulated, sleazy and violent. She also filmed commercials and infomercials and fielded TV and movie scripts while waiting to see how the lawsuit would play out.

On July 12 – a little over a month after filing the suit – a court in New Haven, Connecticut ruled that the name 'Sable' was the intellectual property of Titan Sports. 

Once that had been decided, the two sides quickly began working out the details of a settlement around financial aspects of Mero’s deal with Playboy, future royalties, and the terms of the release for both her and Marc. 

The lawsuit was officially settled out of court on July 22, with both Rena and WWE agreeing not to discuss the matter in public, nor disclose the terms of the settlement. Marc Mero got his full contractual release, while Rena was bound to the original terms of hers, meaning she couldn’t work for WWE’s competitors until August of 2001. 

Sable After Her WWE Release

Rena may not have been able to use the name ‘Sable’, but Playboy reportedly negotiated with WWE to use it for the August issue of their magazine. They also announced a bumper ‘Ultimate Sable’ edition of the magazine for October, making her the first woman to grace the cover of Playboy three times in a calendar year. 

Jerry McDevitt, however, told the media in September that they had not reached a full agreement before the August issue went to print and they were suing Playboy for some of the issue’s profits, as well as attempting to block the forthcoming 96-page special. There was a lawsuit but issues were soon resolved and WWE’s relationship with Playboy continued to grow in the years after with the likes of Chyna and Torrie Wilson posing for the magazine in the years to come. 

Her WWE career ostensibly over, Rena Mero pretty much relocated to Los Angeles to try and get her fledgling Hollywood career up and running. She received some small parts in movies and television shows and got an offer to write an autobiography, which was never published, but without the WWE marketing machine behind her, Mero’s star began to wane. 

In December of 2000, Jim Ross noted during a conference call that he’d had conversations with the Meros regarding a potential return, but that the timing wasn’t right and that there were still hard feelings stemming from her acrimonious exit. 

In November of 2001, Rena resurfaced in wrestling as the heel CEO of the short-lived XWF, but was only around for one set of television tapings as the promotion never really got off the ground. Her name came up again in September of 2002, when she testified in the trial between WWE and her former on-screen bodyguard, Nicole Bass, who had sued the company citing sexual harassment. 

Mero testified that Vince McMahon had broken his promise to portray Sable as a classy, intellectual woman and that she had left after refusing to bare her breasts on television or participate in a lesbian storyline. 

While many would assume that testifying against the company on behalf of somebody attempting to sue them for millions, which was ultimately ruled in favour of WWE, would block any attempts from Mero to get back into the business, that wasn't the case. Rena had talks with the insurgent NWA: TNA in early 2003 and she ended up shocking the world by returning to WWE on the April 3rd, 2003 episode of SmackDown. 

Sable’s Second WWE Stint

Rena Mero's return came together when she called WWE to see if there was interest and the company subsequently flew to Los Angeles to negotiate with her, hammering out the details in a single sitting. Signing a multi-year deal, WWE assured her that what happened in the past would stay in the past. According to husband Marc, however, Rena did have to apologise to some of the top-ranking members of the locker room she’d rubbed the wrong way during her first run, including Steve Austin and The Undertaker. Two of the first things she would be asked to do on TV too were a lesbian angle with Torrie Wilson and a romance with Mr. McMahon. 

Outside of a major blowout with Wilson after working together for months, Sable was a positive influence behind the scenes in WWE, and Sable and Wilson graced another Playboy cover together in the annual WrestleMania tie-in feature, which also led to a tag team evening gown match at WrestleMania XX. 

At home, just two months after Sable’s return, it was reported that Rena and Marc Mero had separated, with it later being revealed the cause of the split was Rena’s affair with Brock Lesnar.

Soon after WrestleMania 20, though, it became apparent that the creative team might be struggling for ideas when it came to the former Women’s Champion and, after returning from a layoff caused by a punctured breast implant, her role was significantly lessened. 

This didn’t appear to concern Rena, though, and she continued to speak freely against the company line. In an interview published in the August 8, 2004 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Sable made several comments, including saying that women were hired on looks and not ability which she admitted benefitting from, that women with talent were overlooked because they didn’t have a particular appearance, that women were judged more harshly than men especially if they had kids and went out on the road, and that women were not part of the management structure in WWE. 

Sable’s release two days later was hardly a surprise, although the split was said to be amicable. Rena had asked for an easier schedule so that she could be at home with her teenage daughter more, whereas WWE wanted her to work more of the house shows. 

Twenty years later, Sable has not appeared on WWE programming again and has largely remained out of the spotlight beyond her marriage to Brock Lesnar. Together they live in rural Canada and raise their sons Turk and Duke. Public sightings of Rena are rare and most fans only caught glimpses of her when Brock fought in the UFC.

Rena does not make public appearances and is not signed to a WWE Legends deal. According to Torrie Wilson, WWE didn’t even want her name mentioned during her Hall of Fame induction. Not because of any bad blood, but because Rena Mero is happy living a quiet, private life.