Jim Ross shooting on Sable on his “Grilling JR” podcast episode of two months ago: a thread.
There’s some interesting tea, so lemme share.

Marc Mero asked Vince to hire his wife too and he said he would have thought about it. Once he saw Sable, Vince saw star power and star in the making in the way she looked and carried herself in the room, her posture etc... and she was instantly more valued than Mero.

He called JR 2 hours later after the meeting and asked “Did you see what I just saw?”, but the conundrum was, “what do we do with her?”.
Neither of them knew because she had no product knowledge, she had not been in the wrestling business before and she wasn’t a long term fan.

JR warned Mero about how difficult would have been having a wife in the wrestling biz at the time.
He tells the story about how Randy Savage always said “I entered in this business with a wife (Miss Elizabeth), now I’m leaving it with no wife anymore” but Mero wasn’t worried.

She debuted as a valet for Triple H but then they put her back with her husband as his valet.
The second time she made her entrance by accompanying Marc to the ring, the crowd paid attention to her without Sable speaking a word or doing anything but walking to the ring.

The whole locker room got mad because to have that kind of reaction, they had to take big bumps and put their bodies on the line every night, while Sable got loud reaction just by walking Marc to the ring.
After that, the locker room got very hostile to Sable, especially Sunny.

The Sunny-Sable drama started because Sunny was jealous of all the attention Sable was getting.
What caused all the heat was Sable inadvertently stiffing Sunny with a slap during a catfight outside the ring, Sunny was furious but JR thinks she really overreacted.

"That’s part of the game and it’s inevitable that it’s gonna happen occasionally" - JR talking about Sable inadvertently stiffing Sunny during a catfight.
Marc Mero got mad backstage because he didn't want his wife to get physical since she was a not-trained housewife.

JR doesn't blame Mero for not wanting his wife to get physical since she wasn't trained and he doesn't blame Sable either since she didn't know how to fake slapping Sunny, especially because nobody taught her anything.
But Sunny was very outspoken and started the whole drama.

Sunny’s always been outspoken, and she had enough tenure and enough product knowledge that she knew what she was talking about, but her objectivity got little blinded during her storylines and angles and especially when Sable was involved in something.

"Sunny’s got the whole domain, she had the monopoly on that territory, and all of a sudden there is a new storefront coming that’s gonna be selling their goods. So it’s competition and that didn’t sit well with some stars backstage which is unfortunate".

JR says Sable knew that for her to get to the big money level of drawing, whether it be through merchandise or her payoffs she’d have to learn to acquire some wrestling skills, so she learned to do a few things cuz that was the only way she was going to get to the next level.

JR talks about how in 1998 Sable made more money in a year than any of the guys did for the majority of their career, she may have had years after that that surpassed Ric Flair. The talents became aware of that and they targeted her.

He thinks it's extraordinary when you stop and think about
her short career. She got so much notice and many accolades and support, buzz, chatter, whatever for no longer than she has been in the business was amazing especially for having no trainings and for being super green.

"I don’t know if there is anybody we can name that started as a nobody and was in the business less than 2 years and then become that famous and perceived as a star. Here’s the thing. In less than 2 years, Rena became a global star and that has not happened since.”

Creative didn't even work hard to get her to the next level since she was getting over just by walking, but Vince always worked hard to let her have the spotlight because not only she made him earn a lot of money, but because he was enamored/infatued of Sable.

Once Mero became "Wildman" Mero, her character needed a change too so she ditched the classy dresses for leather jumpsuits and a new hairstyle which made her look like Pamela Anderson in Barb Wire.
That way they realized she looked like a star more than anyone else in the roster

Sable got used even when Mero got injured and they realized how she didn't need him anymore, so they started a storyline where Marc acted in an abusive way to Sable.
During a match with Lawler, Sable's sunglasses fell over and she revealed a black eye: JR thinks it was too much

They used a real life accident Sable had when she got kicked to her face by one of her horses to "glamourize" domestic abuses, he thinks that was too far even for the 90's. Sable and Marc hated doing it, especially since they were both very catholic and religious.

Vince had programmed other segments like that, but sponsors and the network blocked him even tho they knew the domestic abuse thing was just a storyline. JR thinks it was gross and he's happy he got stopped by doing other segments like that.

Once they told Sable they wanted her to make her in-ring debut at Mania, she started training with Marc or whoever was available before shows to learn the basics and how to not hurt herself or her opponents.
She mainly trained with Mero since almost nobody was willing to help.

He thinks Sable did decent for someone who just had weeks of trainings. He says that the most credit should be given to Luna Vachon, since she had to back herself off and not going "full Luna" against Sable because she wasn't a real competitor and couldn't keep up.

Luna Vachon was kinda disappointed because she wanted to wrestle big and tough girls, more physical competitors but she understood that that was they need her for, so didn't complain much. He thinks what the girls did at WrestleMania exceeded people's expectations.

JR speaks highly about Jacqueline and her work with Sable. Just like Luna, she wanted to wrestle girls with no restrictions but never complained and always helped Sable, that's why they got along and worked well together.
He thinks she's one of the most underrated wrestlers ever.

JR says that most fans didn't pay their respect to Jacqueline in her whole career because she was a black female and he knows that for a fact. He says she deserves much more recognition from everyone because she was a team player and outwrestled almost the whole men's locker room

Since Sable was so over, they thought they could have done everything with her and she would have made it work. Therefore, someone pitched bringing back the Women's Title and use Jacqueline as a placeholder before giving it to Sable to make her win even more bigger.

He talks about how after dealing with Jackie for so long they needed someone new for Sable, someone who could wrestle and help her so they brought in Tori.
He speaks highly about Tori, saying she was an amazing athlete, a gorgeous woman and how she was very nice and professional

JR says she was brought in just to put Sable over, but telling her that if she would've been constant in the ring and on the mic she would have caught Vince's eyes.
Sadly, that never happened as Vince was never impressed with Tori.

JR goes on talking about how Sable was the first-ever homegrown talent and how she was learning how to wrestle "on the go". He says he was impressed by her Survivor Series match and how much work she was putting in her training with Mero and wrestling Jackie, Luna, and then Tori.

He thinks the Survivor Series match showed how Sable was serious about training for in-ring actions, but what he thinks the most about the match it's how Jacqueline was always ready to do everything the company asked her to do.

She was getting more comfortable in the ring and especially in promos since when she started was a low-voice, very reserved girl.
Once she reached her peak, JR thinks she really started to realized she was doing amazing and her self-esteem got bigger.

JR talks about how Sable wanted to become a more respectable character on TV and not just being the sexy bomb who was always ready to get naked because she was afraid of getting stale after years of being like that.

He admits she was scared to bump because she didn't want to deal with physical injuries that could have prevented her from a career in Hollywood.
JR says she wanted to leave for Hollywood at one point and that she wasn't different from all the girls he worked with years later.

JR thinks that there was nothing wrong with that because he thinks working for hollywood is a dream all the girls have. So, they started to think about a way to just let her being on TV without wrestling but it was tough because she was a champ at the time.

He talks about how it wasn't difficult for him to deal with her and how they worked together a lot because he was in charge of talents and relationship with them. He offered her a new contract, he wanted to sign her for 5 years but later agreed for a 3 years contract extension.

Interviewer asks about the drama between Luna and Sable: apparently Luna became very problematic backstage because she compained all the time about how they didn't give her title just because she wasn't as beautiful as Sable and got mad at anyone.

She even challenged Mero to a fight backstage at one point and blew up at Jacqueline, whom she was friend with, and Ivory too because she felt both of them stole her "way to work a match" during a segment they had on Heat and got mad at the agent for that too.

At one point, Luna was scheduled to win the title from Sable at WrestleMania but then her Playboy covers sold a lot and Vince thought it wasn't the right moment to strip Sable of the title. Luna was mad and she started having problems backstage.

For this reason, they changed the plans they already had for a storyline between Sable and Tori turning her into a crazy fan and giving her a spot at WrestleMania.
This started for seperate incidents between Luna and other talents that made her difficult to work with.

JR says Luna was always scared of the way she looked and suffered of a very low self-esteem, something that had tormented her since she was a child. He says she has dealt with those kind of issues through all her life and he tried to help her the way he could.

Those incidents leaded to her getting release since the things that happened put her into a very bad position.
He thinks her family influenced her the whole life, she wanted to get pushed like Mad Dog Vachon but that would have never happened and she took it in a very bad way.

About Sable's Playboy issue: Playboy itself reached to them and convincing Sable was hard but at the end she talked about it with Marc Mero and when he gave her the okay she went for it and became one of Playboy top-seller issues.

At one point, they reached a 5.9 audience on an episode of Heat and a 6.1 audience during an episode of RAW.
During Sable's segments they reached the most ratings they ever did and finally defeated WCW after months of them winning the ratings war.

JR goes on saying that no men and not even Chyna at her peak helped them in reaching that.
This is why they always valued Sable like that, that's because she was something WCW could have never had, while they could have got amazing wrestlers like Flair they didn't have a Sable.

The biggest victory they got against WCW was when WCW reached a 3.4 and WWF a 6.4 with the peak of it being a segment where Tori was stripping Sable of her clothes.

One big problem was when they wanted to build Tori as the top babyface but they couldn't do it because Sable wasn't even getting booed as a cocky heel.
While talking about it, she said "Why would they want to boo this?" and pointed at herself.

She was their weapon to win the ratings war as she always obliterated all the segments and matches WCW was airing while she was on TV and this is why she was their biggest star doing all that in just 24 months.

He talks about how she was never booked to have the best match of the card, but her matches or segments were always an attraction. He compares Sable to Andre The Giant, saying he did the same things over and over for 20 years in his matches but he was still an attraction.

About her leaving WWF: he thinks he listened to the wrong people who promised her a great acting career and a future in Hollywood, something she didn't get cuz it flopped.
She started to ask to not get booked in matches, to not wrestle in house shows and just wrestling in PPVs.

He says she only wanted to perform in big cities and big venues because performing in small venues or small cities would have not been good for her character, she was listening to the wrong people.
At some point it was always her having a problem with someone from management.

JR says she was worried about all those silly things because Rena was a very insecure woman, unlike Sable. She got adviced by the wrong people, one of them being her husband who convinced her of all the success she would've got outside wrestling. He then became her manager.

They had to think about a way to strip her off the title and they gave it to Debra cuz she was popular with the crowd and loved backstage.
Sable later sued WWE for a 150 million dollars lawsuit.
JR thinks she only sued WWE because that was the only way to facilitate her release

*140 million dollars