Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Sean Oliver and the Kayfabe Commentaries Crew
Tammy Sytch grew up in a military household, her father being a Navy vet. Perhaps it was this sense of discipline that saw her driven to great success at a young age. In high school, her boyfriend was Chris Candido, grandson of “Popeye” Chuck Richards, a WWWF veteran. Candido started training for wrestling at age 14 and Tammy was a childhood fan of the business (A New Jersey gal in WWF Rock and Wrestling country) so it made for a great pairing and the two of them were together for essentially the rest of Chris’ life, for better or for worse.
Chris broke in the biz in the early 90’s and by 1992 was a fairly respected independent wrestler, leading to Jim Cornette recruiting him for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and Chris brought Tammy in tow.
Tammy played a liberal snob, who idolized Hillary Clinton for heat with the Republican leaning fans in the conservative leaning states that SMW ran. She managed “Prime Time” Brian Lee and Candido, first as singles and then as a team. Candido and Lee feuded with the Rock and Roll Express and Candido and Tammy also abused mental midget Boo Bradley (Balls Mahoney), which led to Cactus Jack coming in to defend him.
Tammy’s attractiveness and promo work led to her being called up to the WWF to be an on screen “Live Event News” broadcaster, and a few weeks later Candido was called up as well- the duo being given a lame Richard Simmons gimmick called “The Body Donnas”.
Candido and Tammy were dubbed Skip and Sunny and pretty much stayed in mid-card purgatory due to Skip’s undersized body. Skip suffered through an embarrassing series of losses to perennial jobber Barry Horowitz. Skip and Sunny added a flunkie in jobber Rad Radford but after some tag team losses, they dumped him for veteran Tom Pritchard- with a buzz cut, dye job and now being dubbed Zip. Sunny managed these two to the WWF Tag titles at Wrestlemania 12. Sunny began to mess with the heads of number 1 contenders The Godwins by attempting to use her burgeoning sexuality to seduce Phineas. Sunny eventually turned on the Body Donnas and joined the Godwins briefly- who had just won the tag titles. Sunny’s outfits during this period really began to expose her breast implant enhanced cleavage and made her a major heat magnet and sex symbol. Sunny would turn on the Godwins and follow the titles to The Smoking Gunns. The idea seemed to be that Sunny was banging Billy Gunn and Bart seemed more focused on the team. An angle was run around this time that the Godwins avenged Sunny’s behavior by having P.I.G slop her:
Supposedly the locker room assisted in making that batch of slop by donating their semen and urine to the pail in order to get Sunny back for her diva-ish backstage behavior. Sunny would manage the Gunns till Fall only to dump them after they lost the titles. Sunny also briefly managed Ron Simmons that Summer, but that partnership ended almost as quickly as it begin. Sunny pretty much was ignored as a manager for the next year and a half, instead being used as a ring announcer, interviewer, show host, and other random roles – such as having “sex” with a giant Elmo doll on an early Shotgun Saturday Night show. Sunny was awarded the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Manager of the Year for 1996 and was also the most downloaded woman on America Online that year.
By mid-1997 Sunny was splitting time with the WWF and ECW, joining Candido at times. She was also actively cheating on Chris by this point, having affairs with Shawn Michaels and Davey Boy Smith, with others very possible. She was also becoming chemically dependent during this period. Sunny was also supposedly offered a 6 figure contract from Playboy to pose nude during this time frame.
Sunny would receive one final moment of glory in the Spring of 1998, when she briefly managed the Road Warriors 2000 – she was released soon after thanks to drug abuse, and having issues with Vince’s current top blond, Sable – whose popularity grew at seemingly the same rate as her breast implants.
Now In ECW, she and Chris became as well known for their drug use as much as their on screen performances. By Fall, even ECW took them off TV due to substance abuse ruining their performances.
Sunny – known under her real name again – returned with Chris a few months later and Candido received a main event level push. Sytch had on screen issues with ECW valet Francine. Tammy was arrested for a restraining order violation (instigated by her own mother!) and she was taken off TV again. She returned to ECW in 1999 and gave a maligned interview about her drug issues. Shortly after the interview aired, rumors stated that she was found passed out in the locker room. Subsequent shoot interviews have revealed that Tammy was cheating on Chris often during this period, trading drugs for sexual favors with Raven, Sabu and other ECW stars. She left ECW in late ’99 for their competitor XPW, then signed with WCW along with Chris. Candido won the Cruiserweight title and Tammy feuded with valet Paisley. After a few months, drug issues saw her leave WCW.
Tammy and Chris bounced around the independents for the next few years, and Tammy did pornographic pictures in a bid for cash. A freak accident in a match with TNA in 2005 saw Chris develop complications from the injury and pass away unexpectedly. Tammy gained weight and became a bit of a joke, but still took independent bookings frequently.
Sytch stayed clean long enough to make an appearance on the 15th Anniversary of Raw special; being part of a “comedy” segment full of people Vince McMahon had sex with over the years. Afterwards, she returned to the indy scene, even making some appearances for ROH. She was welcomed back to the WWE at Wrestlemania 25 as part of a diva battle royal. Two years later she was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Her life pretty much spiraled out of whack after this as alcoholism over took her and she was arrested multiple times. Her personal issues with men also played out in real time, thanks to the wonders of social media. In 2012 Tammy would be arrested five times in four weeks, which is covered in the shoot below.
After this shoot was filmed, Tammy ended up being sentenced to 113 days in jail, and also lost her dream of being a mother because of cervical cancer that forced her to get a hysterectomy. Her fiance that she mentions in her shoot (which was taped around the later part of 2012) is also out of her life by this point. Her plans to retire from wrestling have also not come to pass, as in early July 2013 she promoted that she was going to do a fan convention specialty photo shoot, where you can pay 50 dollars to “spoon” with Sunny in bed while a photo is taken. Stay classy Tammy.
The Shoot: Tammy is asked “What’s wrong?” and she says too much to comprehend.
Sunny talks of her drinking alone and coming out of black outs just long enough to buy more liquor.
She went to rehab for a month in July and felt great. By September she was arrested again for disorderly conduct.
Tammy wants to retire from wrestling, and so this is her first truthful shoot interview, in the rest she lied to make for entertaining viewing.
Sunny learned 60 days after rehab that her boyfriend cheated on her, and thus started drinking vodka till she blacked out.
She got out of the police station and went to the liquor store.
WWE paid to send her to a 10 day rehab.
Tammy’s mother is 78 and her sister is a cunt, so she has no support system.
Sunny got back from rehab and found out her boyfriend cheated on her while she was in there.
Time to go back to the liquor store after that…
She ended up arrested again. She was blacked out and in her boyfriend’s apartment who had a restraining order against her.
Her phone, clothes, etc. were all in her boyfriend’s apartment so after she got bailed out by a bondsman, she went to the liquor store and then “broke in” to her boyfriend’s place.
Tammy had a police officer neighbor who watched her scale up her boyfriend’s balcony and she was arrested AGAIN.
She ended up in state prison. She made friends with a murderer.
Another trip to rehab at a cost of a $1,000 a day followed.
Tammy was kicked out for using the phone too often and talking to men on the campus – which was against the rules.
She was sent to a different “low rent” facility that was run by the police system at 1/10th the cost of the last place she was in.
Sunny whines that they banned phones and made her cook and wash dishes.
Tammy had a teenager attack her so she defended herself as the councilors watched. The people who run the rehab wouldn’t let her call her lawyer or the cops. She was kicked out 2 days after the fight and the WWE told her they were done paying for her rehab.
Sunny is so disgusted by the WWE’s refusal to pay for her rehab that it makes her want to sell her HOF ring.
She is dating a wrestler, and will support him even though her love for the business is gone.
Tammy had a privileged child hood and can’t site that as a reason for drinking.
At one point she was drinking a gallon of Scotch a day.
She’s often depressed since 2000, but doesn’t know why.
Sunny is not sure if Chris Candido ever found out she was screwing Shawn Michaels while dating him.
Tammy’s embarrassed that she cheated on Chris, and Sean mentions Davey Boy Smith was getting some from her too. Tammy says she didn’t love Chris at that point, but considered Chris her best friend. She feels Chris still loved her.
She plans on going to college, getting a 9-5 job and getting married in 2014 to a man 13 years younger than her.
Final Thoughts: I was disappointed that they chose to focus entirely on Tammy’s recent arrests. This made for a rather dry subject matter. Given her large amount of available shoots, I guess I could have got more of her career/wrestling in general elsewhere, but even if we just stayed on the drugs/booze issues, Tammy could have shared info on what she and the locker room did in the 90’s in WWF and ECW. As it stands, I can’t honestly say this shoot is worth seeking out unless you want to hear about one short, albeit traumatic segment of her life.
