Why Is Queen Sharmell In The WWE Hall Of Fame?

A year on from her bizarre induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, it still baffles us why Queen Sharmell was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

This is not a knock against Sharmell herself. I’m sure she is a lovely lady who made everybody backstage happy all the time, and has a long and happy marriage with her husband, fellow WWE Hall of Famer-Booker T.

However, I simply cannot shake the feeling that there is literally no reason why Queen Sharmell should have been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. In my mind, she was akin to an Adam Rose, or a Curt Hawkins. Good additions to the roster in their day, but nowhere near being labelled as “all-time greats” (as the hall of fame does suggest).

So, let’s look into it. I’ll look back at Sharmell’s career (including outside of the WWE, otherwise this article would be shockingly brief) and analyze what it is that WWE saw in her to think “she deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame”.

Why Is Sharmell In The WWE Hall of Fame?

Sharmell’s career in wrestling was not particularly long, nor particularly impressive. She started out as one of the “Nitro Girls” in WCW in 2000 as “Storm”, before changing her name to “Paisley”.

She wrestled a handful of matches in her time with World Championship Wrestling, making her in-ring singles debut against Tammy Lynn Sytch (AKA Sunny) on the April 26, 2000, episode of WCW Thunder. She won the match with a DDT, although she had made her real debut weeks earlier, in mixed-tag team action.

Sharmell wrestled 13 matches in WCW before it closed down. She was always regarded as a poor wrestler, although with how awful Monday Nitro and Thunder were at this time, she even failed to stand out in that regard.

WWE signed Sharmell to a contract once they bought out WCW, but an injury forced her to retire from competing as a wrestler in 2001. After retiring, she became a backstage interviewer for the WWE until she left the company in 2002 (when they changed their name from the WWF to the WWE) to run her own clothing store.

However, Sharmell returned to the company in 2005, for a two-year sting as the valet/manager of her husband, Booker T. The pair met in WCW and she remained married to the former WCW Champion for the entire time she was out of the wrestling business. She was a part of the infamous angle where she was stalked by Kurt Angle, who claimed he wanted to have “bestiality sex” with the WWE Hall of Famer.

She helped facilitate Booker T’s heel turn in 2005, when she began interfering in his matches. Sharmell also helped him with the King of the Ring tournament in 2006, which led to a change of gimmick for both of them. Booker T spoke in a faux-English accent, proclaiming himself to be “King Booker” and referred to his wife as “Queen Sharmell”.

While this was the most memorable part of Sharmell’s career, she really didn’t do much. Outside of her saying “All Hail King Booker!”, the gimmick was carried entirely by the main himself. When King Booker defeated Rey Mysterio to win the World Heavyweight Championship at The Great American Bash 2006, he declared himself to be “King of the World”, adding to the already ridiculous gimmick.

However, after losing the belt and turning on each other, Sharmell and Booker T left the WWE in 2007 due to creative differences. Both of them headed to TNA, where she continued to stand near Booker T while he did things, so you’d struggle to attribute any of his success to her “managerial talent”.

Sharmell did have one notable match in TNA, however. Jenna Morasca vs. Queen Sharmell at TNA Victory Road 2009 (one of the companies worst shows ever) earned the coveted “Minus Five Stars” rating from Dave Meltzer, and became the subject of Bryan Alvarez’s famous rant, where it called it “the worst match I’ve ever seen in my whole life”.