Mero enjoys carrying Sable's bags

By GREG OLIVER -- SLAM! Sports  Marc Mero finds his current situation rife with humour.

 He literally is carrying his wife's bags around these days, escorting the WWF Women's champion Sable from town to town.

 Sometimes he even misplaces them, such as on Friday at a taping of TSN's Off The Record.

The Wildman and Sable when they first burst upon the WWF scene.

 Mero had been in the studio watching the show, and just before the end of the taping, he left to do an interview with The LAW's Donnie Abreu. Unfortunately, he left his wife's purse in the studio, and she was a little perturbed at him in the green room backstage.

 The bag recovered, Mero took some time to chat with SLAM! Wrestling -- about his future, his gimmicks and, the topic de jour, his wife.

 "A lot of people that are married can probably understand this, but when you're in love, you have one goal in life, and that's to always be together and support each other," Mero explained, relaxing on a couch in the green room of the north Toronto TSN headquarters. "And whether it was taking me down a couple of notches to make her popular, so be it. I'm so happy for her that she's become so successful."

 The word successful hardly describes the phenomenon that Sable has become. A marketing juggernaut. The Women's champ. Beauty hanging out with the Beasts.

 And she has done a Playboy pictorial. Now, how does her husband feel about that?

 "It was something we both discussed. As she's stated many times, they've been asking us to do this for two years, and for two years she's said no," said Mero. "She just came to a decision that, financially, it was something that they were offering her, she told them how much she wanted, they agreed to it and something we just discussed as a family and went for."

 How did the couple present the idea to their 10-year old daughter?

 "Before she even did the shoot, my daughter, my wife and I all sat down and talked about it. We were surprised by how much a 10-year-old knows. Boys in school know about Playboy. Kids in school at that age, they already know what Playboy is. My daughter's really big into sports. She knows who Kattrina Witt is, who Cindy Crawford is, so she compared it to a celebrity doing it. And she was fine with it."

 One thing that Mero isn't fine with is his current gimmick as 'Marvellous' Marc Mero, the boxer turned wrestler. Sure, it plays into his real life boxing success before he turned to wrestling, but it wasn't what he wanted to do.

 "Honestly, I would like to do something other than the character I have been doing, the boxing gimmick," he said. "I never was too comfortable with that. I think you have to be comfortable out there to really perform at the level that's going to be successful in the World Wrestling Federation."

 Why didn't the boxing gimmick work?

 "Well, you know, people go to watch wrestling. Boxing itself isn't as popular as it used to be. So, for me, the character of Marvellous Marc Mero, as a boxer, just never sat well with me."

 Did the pairing with Jackie make life uncomfortable for the married Mero?

 "No, it wasn't uncomfortable," Mero responded. "It wasn't going to be something long-term, it was just something, Sable and her had that angle and it worked well for a while. It was time for both of us to move on."

 Mero has held only the Intercontinental title in the WWF, and that for only a short period of time. Before that, in WCW, he held the WCW TV title on a couple occasions.

 He keeps in touch with many old friends in WCW, but wrestling isn't usually a topic of discussion.

 "I still have a lot of good friends [in WCW]. We talk on the phone quite a bit and discuss wrestling very little actually. We talk about our families and what's going on with our lives and stuff."

 Mero doesn't believe that WCW will ever truly make it to number one in the wrestling business.

 "There are a lot of problems over there and I think they're never going to be as successful as the World Wrestling Federation. Maybe for a little while, or for a show or two, but never in the overall, around the worldwide realm of it, they'll never be as popular as the WWF."

 He isn't sure when he will be back in the ring, but is looking forward to return. Mero is enjoying his time off, and spending time with his wife and daughter while his body heals up.

 "I think the best of Marc Mero is yet to come. I've got a lot inside that I look forward to getting back and doing more than I have done. Being a company man, you do what you're told. I think that if more people had that attitude, there wouldn't be as many problems in our business. But I think I've got a lot more to offer."