Brian Damage
The World Wrestling Federation’s ‘Attitude Era’ back in the late 1990’s, delivered many memorable and some unmemorable moments in the promotion’s history. One particular segment, still gets talked about today…all these years later. It wasn’t a match, but rather a bikini contest of all things. Today, we delve into the story of the bikini contest that pitted wrestler Jacqueline against WWF personality Sable.
In 1998, Sable aka Rena Mero was taking off in popularity with WWF fans. She was becoming so popular, that WWF creative decided to split up real life couple Sable and Marc Mero with Mero being the heel and Sable the babyface. Marc Mero then replaced Sable with a wrestler named Jacqueline. That led to a program between the two women. According to head writer Vince Russo, the storyline was all about drawing “heat” for a heel Marc Mero. Sable never intended to become a focal point of storylines, nor did she seem interested in becoming an actual wrestler. However, fans reactions towards her made it almost impossible to ignore and she was being used more and more.
On the July 26, 1998…the WWF held a pay per view in Fresno, California called ‘Fully Loaded.’ For that event, Vince McMahon wanted a break between matches to save the fans energy before the main event which would see Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Undertaker take on Kane and Mankind for the WWF tag team titles. McMahon turned to his head creative writer Vince Russo to come up with a segment to cause a break in the action. Russo admittedly said around this time, he was “smitten” with Sable and wanted to showcase her while advancing the storyline of his close friend Marvelous Marc Mero as a heel. Russo came up with the idea for a bikini contest between Sable and Mero’s new valet Jacqueline.
Vince McMahon greenlit the idea pending approval of the outfits that the two women chose. Initially, Jacqueline was opposed to the idea, feeling she was a trained, professional wrestler and something like a “bikini contest” was a bit demeaning to her and her profession. Despite the initial pushback, Jim Ross praised Jackie for being a team player and willing to do whatever was asked of her. With both ladies able to pick and choose their own bikinis, Jacqueline decided to play along, but was going to make this a much more difficult decision for the fans who would be judging the contest. The original plan was Sable winning the contest, but Jackie wanted to make legitimately give Sable a run for her money. Jackie said that many of the backstage staff, never even considered her a legit threat to get fans to cheer for her.
Before the contest, Marc Mero summoned his friend Vince Russo to Sable’s dressing room. Russo said he was expecting to see something skimpy, but had no idea what the couple had planned. It was the Meros who came up with the idea to replace a bikini top with handprints painted on her breasts. Russo said he was rendered speechless by the sight and knew that McMahon needed to approve the idea before it was presented to the public. After McMahon inspected both women’s attire and was approved, Russo said he and McMahon rewrote the ending the bikini contest right then and there.
Bruce Prichard said that there were a small contingent of WWF staff that were against the outfits worn by both Sable and Jacqueline. They were mainly the television staff like Kevin Dunn and director Kerwin Silfies who felt that their bikinis were too revealing and exposed too much underboob for their liking. Ultimately, McMahon had the final say and decided that everything was okay to move forward with the segment on pay per view. McMahon did advise his TV staff to use discretion when filming the women in their very scantily clad attire and warned both women not to go overboard with sexualized movements that may have anything slip out.
Jerry ‘the King’ Lawler was the obvious choice to be the emcee during the contest. According to Jim Ross, neither he or Lawler were given a sneak peek at the ladies outfits before the segment went live on television to provide an authentic element of surprise. Before the segment started, Russo had Dustin Runnels interrupt and say a prayer before the contest started warning that the “messiah” was about to return.
When the segment began, first out was Marc Mero and Jacqueline who was wearing Mero’s satin robe to hide her assets. Sable was next to be introduced and she walked to the ring in a ‘Sable Bomb’ t shirt. When the contest started, Jacqueline took off her robe to show off a very revealing red slingshot type of attire. There was a rather loud roar from the crowd, with Jacqueline’s skimpy outfit. She began dancing and gyrating and while playing with the straps of her bikini, her nipple was exposed on TV. Prichard said that the incident freaked McMahon out and was screaming in anger at the cameraman to pan away from her. Years later, Jackie insisted that the ‘nip slip’ was purely accidental. She had simply gotten carried away in the moment and the exposure happened. She said that she wanted to avoid that exact thing from happening, so she had her breasts taped to the bikini, but during her dance, the tape had given way. While this was live TV, the replay of the show edited out the exposure.
Next up was Sable and admittedly, with what the fans in attendance and those watching live at home on pay per view just witnessed, Sable had (no pun intended) a large mountain to climb to get fans back on her side. When Sable took off her t shirt, she revealed a thong bikini bottom, but wearing a very ordinary halter top. She revealed that Mr. McMahon ordered her to wear something so conservative. She then went against Mr. McMahon had removed the top to reveal her painted on handprints to the shock and delight of Jerry Lawler and fans alike.
JR said that Lawler’s reaction was 100% authentic and made that segment such a memorable piece of Attitude Era history as much as the bikini contest itself was. Sable was naturally cheered as the winner of the contest, only to have Mr. McMahon walk out to the ring and drape his suit jacket on Sable covering her up. Jacqueline was then declared the winner by disqualification because apparently body paint did not count as a bikini top.
The bikini contest was a huge success for the WWF and had many young teens who recorded the broadcast to wear out their VHS tapes by constantly rewinding and pausing their tapes to see highlights of the contest. The overall positive reaction to the segment also helped inspire McMahon to relaunch the WWF women’s title in the company. A title that was DOA, ever since 1995 when Alundra Blayze and several other talents were fired and she decided to show up on Nitro and throw the WWF women’s title in a trash can. In September of 1998, Jacqueline defeated Sable in a match to become first champion of the newly revived title.
