Sherri debuted in the AWA and, on September 28, 1985, at SuperClash in Chicago, she defeated Candi Devine for the AWA World Women's Championship. She traded the belt with Devine, and on June 28, 1986, at "Battle by the Bay," Martel defeated Devine to win the AWA World Women's Championship for a third and final time. Martel, however, only held the title briefly before vacating it.
During this time, in addition to wrestling, Martel acted as the manager for the team of "Playboy" Buddy Rose and "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers, whom she managed to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship. Rose and Somers then engaged in a lengthy feud with The Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty), who defeated Rose and Somers for the tag team title on January 27, 1987, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Sherri debuted on July 24, 1987, defeating The Fabulous Moolah for the WWF Women's Championship. Renaming herself Sensational Sherri, she reigned as WWF Women's Champion for fifteen months before losing it to Rockin' Robin on October 8, 1988 in Paris, France. At the Survivor Series in 1987, Martel's team consisting of Martel, Women's World Tag Team Champions The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin), Dawn Marie, and Donna Christanello lost to The Fabulous Moolah's team consisting of Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin, and the Jumping Bomb Angels (Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki). When the WWF phased out its women's division in 1990, Martel remained with the company and turned her attention to managing male wrestlers.
Concurrent with her reign as WWF Women's Champion, Martel made several appearances in costume as "Peggy Sue," the girlfriend of The Honky Tonk Man, who was in the midst of a run as Intercontinental Champion. Her primary role was to irritate Honky's opponents—namely, Randy "Macho Man" Savage and Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake—and interfere in his matches.
After WrestleMania V, Martel confronted Miss Elizabeth, manager of newly-dethroned former WWF World Champion Randy Savage, during an interview, leading to a confrontation between the two in which Savage fired Miss Elizabeth and repeatedly threatened to hit her. Martel then attacked Hulk Hogan from behind as he came to Miss Elizabeth's rescue, leaving him open to a chair attack from Savage. Throughout the remainder of 1989, Martel and Savage feuded with Hogan and Miss Elizabeth. At SummerSlam, Hogan and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake defeated the team of Savage and Zeus. After the match, Miss Elizabeth knocked out Martel with Martel's purse, and she, Hogan, and Beefcake cut Martel's hair.
At WrestleMania VI in 1990, Martel and Savage lost a mixed tag-team match against Sapphire and Dusty Rhodes after Miss Elizabeth, who was in the corner of Sapphire and Rhodes, interfered and shoved Martel. During a steel cage match at Madison Square Garden, The Ultimate Warrior pulled off an escaping Martel's miniskirt to reveal matching black garter belts and lace underpants. Practically in tears, Martel raced back to the locker room. At WrestleMania VII, Savage lost a "retirement match" against The Ultimate Warrior, in which the loser would be forced to retire. After Savage lost the match, an irate Martel attacked Savage but was thrown from the ring by Miss Elizabeth, who had been watching from the audience. Later on the card after she and Savage parted ways following the career match, Martel came to the ring to help "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase in his assault on an injured "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. She would go on to manage DiBiase until 1992.
Subsequently, Martel began managing Shawn Michaels. She also sang Michaels' theme song called "Sexy Boy". As part of his gimmick, Michaels would admire himself in a full-length mirror before his matches. In 1992, before a match, his former partner Marty Jannetty grabbed the mirror and attempted to hit Michaels with it, but Michaels pulled Martel in front of him. After being hit with the mirror, she was absent from television until the Royal Rumble in January 1993. At the Rumble, she was in a neutral corner for the match between Michaels and Jannetty but eventually turned on Michaels during the match. Backstage, Michaels confronted her and Jannetty came to her rescue. The storyline, however, was cut short as Jannetty was released from the company in the midst of the feud. Martel spent the remainder of the year aligned with Tatanka, who aided her in her feud with Luna Vachon and Bam Bam Bigelow. She was released from the World Wrestling Federation during the summer.
She began working in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1993, managing Shane Douglas. Sherri turned on Douglas in a tag match with Brian Pillman, costing Douglas the match on behalf of Ric Flair. At November to Remember on November 13, Martel faced Malia Hosaka in a match.
Martel signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994. The original plan for her was to manage Kevin and Dave Sullivan against Missy Hyatt and The Nasty Boys, but after Hyatt was fired in February 1994, the proposed rivalry went on with no managers for either team.
Martel made her debut on the April 23 edition of WCW Saturday Night, under the name Sensuous Sherri. In an interview with Gene Okerlund, she said her goal was to find a man that can bring her the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. She was at ringside during at Slamboree on May 22, during the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match between Ric Flair and Barry Windham. On June 24, a title unification match took place at the Clash of the Champions XXVII between WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair and the WCW International World Heavyweight Champion Sting. Although she revealed in the beginning of the match she sided with Sting (including wearing his signature face paint), it turned out to be a double cross, as she sided with Flair, who won the match and unified the titles, double-teaming Sting, until the newly signed Hulk Hogan made the save.
At Bash at the Beach, Martel tried to help Flair to defeat Hogan in a match by giving him brass knuckles but failed. At the feud's climactic battle, a steel cage match at Halloween Havoc, Martel climbed the cage to aid Flair and in the process had her dress pulled off by Jimmy Hart, Hogan's manager, leaving her dangling from the cage in black lingerie.
Next, Martel began managing Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) using the name Sister Sherri. She managed the team to seven WCW World Tag Team Championship reigns. In late 1994 (while still managing Harlem Heat in WCW), Martel made a return appearance in ECW managing Shane Douglas and Brian Pillman against Ron Simmons and 2 Cold Scorpio. Back in WCW, Martel had a brief on-screen romance with Col. Robert Parker until October 1996 when Harlem Heat fired him and Martel had a match with him at World War 3 in November. She continued to manage Harlem Heat until she got fired from the group on the July 7, 1997 edition of Nitro.
In 2000, she made three wrestling television appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The first was at the Souled Out 2000 pay-per-view event, watching at ringside along with other superstars, the Chris Benoit versus Sid Vicious matchup for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The second was on the January 19, 2000 edition of WCW Thunder where she had a match with Madusa, which she lost. In her third and final appearance in World Championship Wrestling, she had a match with Mona, which she also lost.
In 2005, she took part in a World Wrestling Entertainment storyline with Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle shortly before WrestleMania 21. She made a return to SmackDown!, singing a parody of Michaels' theme song with Angle.
She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Ted DiBiase in April 2006.
On June 15, 2007, Sherri passed away.