Evolution Schematic 12.16.07: Sunny

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 12.16.2007

Given that reaction, I guess you people need to be reminded just who the hell that is.

Writer's Notes

Ignore the man in the corner. He's just there fixing up the temporal displacement I've used to ensure that this is posted on time, as opposed to a bit late like it was to be. If you don't recall seeing it at the right time, then clearly the special bubble has yet to get to you, so just prepare by getting really drunk, and it'll all work out.

*shifty eyes*

Seriously, my apologies, but ‘tis the season and all that. Anyway, this week's ES is more of a public service than anything, given that Sunny got little reaction on Raw (which kicked ass. I know everyone has said it, but I'll add my voice to the choir.). Ergo, I feel I need to educate newer fans as to just who the hell that was and why you should care. After all, that's the next manager of (Insert Team Here) right there…



Overview

It's fitting in a way. The first Diva in wrestling, the first woman to be hot and a threat as a manager, the first woman to be her own person, to stand up by herself and prove herself… Is just in it for the glory. The woman who blazed a path for all non-wrestler women in the industry, the woman most fondly remembered by many, the prototype Diva, the woman who is synonymous with it, was after that all along. But right now, she's lost that fame, through a rough few years, she's down, but she's damm sure not out. So let's recap. The name is Sunny. Remember it; you'll be screaming it later.

Origins- Training, her boyfriend and Hillary Clinton?

Tammy Lynn Sytch was your normal rich young woman in the early 90's, albeit a slightly more focused one than usual. See, whereas many women as good looking as Tammy would date football players and dream of being a rock star, Tammy dated a wrestler and idolised Hillary Clinton. She eventually hooked up with Chris Candido, whom she would remain most of the time with until his death, and he convinced her that she had a mind for the business. So, she applied for a job with Smokey Mountain Wrestling, wanting to be her own woman and not just Candido's woman. And that's where the trouble started.

Debut- SMW- Where there's as many lawsuits as there are titles!

Because her application was denied. Dubbing herself Tammy Fytch (and thus making sure no-one from her past caused trouble and/or giving herself a slightly more marketable name), she threatened fed owner Jim Cornette with legal action if he did not sign her. Jim, already having problems with The Gangsters, eventually relented and gave Tammy a contract.

One problem. No-one wanted her to manage them.

She tried guy after guy, and finally she found one, Brian Lee, who agreed to take her on as his manager. And he saw benefits immediately, as her sharp mind came to the forefront, and Brian was soon SMW Champion. As 1993 came to a close and 1994 started, Tammy felt comfortable enough to bring in Chris Candido as her second client, feeling sure enough that she was taken as her own person by then. The duo continued their success, winning the tag titles and running roughshod over the company, despite everyone gunning for them.

But then in mid-94, after Brian and Chris lost to the Rock & Roll Express she fired Brian for his terrible performance, taking on Boo Bradley (Balls Mahoney back before he found himself and/or finding out that hitting people with chairs was fun) as her new second client. She went from managing Brian Lee to feuding with him, Chris and Boo fighting Brian and Cactus Jack and several over major stars of the company, until she, in late 94, parlayed her success in Smokey Mountain to a job with the big leagues, the WWF.

Phase 2- Tamara Murphy? TAMARA MURPHY?

When she found out that WWF wanted to use her as a commentator of sorts, advertising WWF Live Events in the WWF's syndicated shows, she took a new name once again, taking a name less harsh, more friendly. And it's a good name, but it didn't last very long as she was quickly removed from that role once Chris Candido signed a contract and she transferred to be back at his side. But that was her choice, not anyone else's.

Phase 3- We are the Bodydonnas, and we're fitter than you~!

Now going by the name Sunny, she and Skip (Chris Candido) saw that there was an opening in the WWF roster for true athletes. People who trained religiously and were in peak physical condition. So much so that they threw themselves into it, making fun of everyone else's lack of stamina and physical training, pissing people off for pointing out that they were, well, not Skip and Sunny.

This then led to some victories, and then a loss to Barry Horowitz.

Wait, what?

Phase 3b- The Horowitz saga.

It was just meant to be a simple match. Barry Horowitz never won matches in the WWF. NEVER. Then suddenly, Skip got way too overconfident, and got pinned on Raw by Barry. Rematches saw the same result of sorts (Barry getting quick roll-ups or just lasting the set time limit) until SummerSlam 95, when Barry won AGAIN, thanks to Hakushi's… Well, not really interference. He just jumped in the ring over both Barry and Skip, confused Skip, Barry got the roll up pin.

Regardless, Skip and Sunny realised that single's competition was for now off limits. They needed a partner for Skip. And one fell into their laps.

Phase 4- Rad Radford, Bodydonna In Training

Rad was, frankly, out of shape. Hence why he wanted to be like Skip and Sunny. So, he asked to be let in, and eventually Sunny agreed to train him. But after a couple of months, it was clear he wasn't about to change, so Sunny fired him in December of 95, and Skip then placed a call to a vet of the industry and his twin brother, although they had never let on this fact.

Phase 5- Skip, Zip and Sunny.

Zip, a.k.a Tom Prichard, agreed to help his brother out, and the two became The Bodydonnas, the Tag Team. They rose up the ranks, thanks to Sunny's leadership, and eventually they won the Tag Team titles at Wrestlemania XII in a tournament final, after the Smoking Gunns forfeit the titles due to a neck injury to Billy Gunn.

The team that they beat in the finals, The Godwinns, chased the Bodydonnas across the country, Sunny helping to keep them at bay by pretending to ‘like' like Phineas, thus keeping him off balanced and focused on her rather than the title belts.

This worked, at first. But then soon enough The Godwinns got their heads together and managed to win the belts off the Bodydonnas. So what's a girl to do?

Go Country, that's what.

Phase 6- Sunny with The Godwinns?

Sunny turned her back on the Bodydonnas and became the Godwinns' manager, or more specifically Phineas' manager, it clear to everyone except the pig farmers that she was just sticking to the tag team titles. Regardless, she managed the Godwinns until she found a better team to manage that would want her as a manager, so she then turned her back on the Godwinns, helping The Smoking Gunns win the belts and becoming their manager.

Phase 7- Sunny goes Western!

Dressing the part of a country girl, Sunny shacked up with Billy Gunn and managed the tag champs yet again, the actual people holding the belts irrelevant; she just wanted the belts in her hands. By this point she was a major, major star, becoming the Most Downloaded Personality On The Internet of 1996 (or really, the most downloaded off AOL thanks to a series of racy photo shoots exclusively on AOL), while she continued to manage the Gunns. However, she let her own sex appeal ruin everything, as Billy Gunn became too focused on impressing Sunny rather than, say, winning matches. This led to tension between the brothers, and then they lost the belts at the Mind Games In Your House to Owen Hart and The British Bulldog.

Immediately afterwards, I mean Owen and The Bulldog were still walking to the back, Sunny fired the Gunns, and began to look for a new client. She found one, but she made a rare mistake when she brought him in.

Phase 8- Ron Simmons, former WCW Champ…I'm sorry, I meant Faarooq Asad, Street Thug Gladiator. Wonder why it didn't work?

Well, it was less a mistake as several key errors of judgement. See, she brought Ron in and gave him a new name, since that had worked for herself and Skip. But then she let Faarooq as he was now called to indulge his passion for old, old, OLD school fighting, in the Gladiator era back in ancient Roman times. Thing is, Ron was/is a large black man. Hence the whole thing was a mess as the two people involved had totally different ideas as to what to do and where to take themselves. So soon enough Sunny and Faarooq parted ways.

Phase 9- Sunny, WWF Employee

WWF, keen to keep Sunny around, tried everything they could think of to get her out there and fresh in people's minds when she didn't find a client right away. Hosting Livewire, guest commentating, special guest ref slots, "Under The Covers With Sunny" debuting as her own interview segment, T-shirt modelling, they tried to keep her happy. But her passion began to drift, right about the time her on-again off-again main squeeze Chris Candido debuted in ECW and she turned down Playboy.

Phase 9b- Sunny, WWF Employee and ECW Guest

In early 98 Sunny, like many lower down WWF guys, Sunny began to occasionally make appearances in ECW, managing her man Chris Candido and "his" "new" Triple Threat stable. However, she found another tag team in need of help, and she made one last crack at managing World Tag Team Champions.

Phase 10- LOD 2000. Right.

The Road Warriors, The Legion Of Doom, needed a makeover. So Sunny gave them one, updating them for the new Millennium, the new look LOD debuting at WM XIV, winning a 15 team battle royale to win a shot at the Tag Titles. But as soon as they failed to win them, Sunny left the team and the WWF.

Phase 11- Tammy Lynn Sytch, ECW Employee.

At Heatwave 98, she re-debuted by Chris Candido's side, now an ECW employee and going by her real name. She helped Chris that night beat Lance Storm, the feud between the two men increasing as Storm got his own manager, dubbed Tammy Lynn Bytch, although she eventually changed that to Dawn Marie. The 4 had several mixed tag matches, Sytch stepping into the ring for the first time on a regular basis.

Eventually her problems with Bytch died down, and she focused her emotions on Francine, the other manager of the Triple Threat that Candido was a part of, Francine Shane Douglas' manager at the time. The two women's constant cat fights and problems lead to the group breaking up, the men sticking by the respective women.

After some revealing interviews were Tammy went into her past problems with drugs (a side effect of fame, it seems), Tammy and Chris decided that ECW was beneath them, and they agreed to join WCW, under the new Russo/Bischoff New Blood banner to prove a point.

Phase 12- New Blood…7 years in the business, but hey…

Chris ‘Hard Knox' Candido, as he now called himself, was one of the New Blood's new recruits, and Sytch was his ace in the hole, Tammy coming to the ring at the Spring Stampede PPV during the 6 man match for the Vacant Cruiserweight belt, distracting The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea (the former champ) while wearing a chicken suit, allowing Candido to take advantage and win the title.

The two then dubbed themselves the ‘First Couple Of Wrestling', feuding with TAFKAPI and his valet Paisley (Sharmell), the two having some mixed tag matches and Paisley managing to strip Tammy at Slamboree after Chris' win.

They then moved onto Crowbar and Daffney who also had problems with Chris and Tammy's claims. Tammy then cost her man his title, as in a mixed tag match where the winner of the fall won the title, Daffney pinned Tammy to win the Cruiserweight Title.

Due to this embarrassment, the duo were soon released from the company. Or they quit. Or both.

Phase 13- Hard times. How else to explain Wrestling Vixxxens?

While Tammy and Chris worked the Indy circuit, Tammy fell on hard times, and thus started the Wrestling Vixxxens site with Missy Hyatt and a few other lesser women in the industry, a pay porn site.

Sigh.

Tammy began to spiral downwards, gaining weight, taking more drugs, and basically falling into depression, quitting the business at one point to become a flight stewardess, and while not going mad like some people, she did hit rock bottom.

Then things went from rock bottom to even worse.

Phase 14- Of all the things to die from…

It seemed things were on the up and up. Chris had a new job in TNA, teaching and leading The Naturals, and it seemed a matter of time before Tammy would join him. Then in a cage match, Chris suffered a freak injury, breaking his leg.

And then due to complications from an operation to repair it, he died.

This sort of event normally has one of two outcomes. Either it sends the partner deeper and deeper, or it's a wake up call. Luckily for us, and for her, Tammy took this as a sign of sorts, and made the turn. She began to clean up, work some shows, and while she had a couple of relapses and odd turns, for the most part, Tammy began to head back from the brink. And now, she's back to being, well, Sunny.

Today- Sure, one night only. That's what they all say…

Sunny returned to us on Raw this past week, admitting to the world that she once slept with Vince McMahon. She sadly got little reaction from the fans. But then, that might be a good thing. The woman, when she's on, lives on fame, lives on being recognized. If the fans have forgotten about her, then by golly, maybe she should remind them of just who the hell she is. If only there was a tag team she could manage, a couple of young, hungry guys with a proven track record, a great pedigree of training and no ties to anyone. If only she could find a team like that, a couple of Hooligans to lead…

Conclusion

Tammy Lynn Sytch, Sunny, is a woman who has hit the highest highs and the lowest lows. Despite, or perhaps because of this, she's regarded by many as a legend, a trailblazer, a path setter, an all round important figure in modern Wrestling history. Which she loves.

Plus she's desired after and is seen as very very hot. That's also something she loves.

It's really a Sunny Life.

And now, another sliver of a fractured view of life, as from the pen of Dave Lovelace...