Sapphire

Juanita Wright, known to the World Wrestling Federation as "Sapphire", was a professional wrestler and valet who was well known for being the manager of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. She was also well known for wrestling against other female wrestlers. She was billed under the name "Sweet Sapphire", and on occasions "Princess Dark Cloud" She wore the same polka dot attire as Dusty Rhodes wore. Sapphire’s fun loving attitude and dance moves helped compliment Dusty’s gimmick, and helped get her over with the crowd. Sapphire’s fun loving attitude and dance moves helped compliment Dusty’s gimmick, and helped get her over with the crowd. Despite a relatively short run with the WWF, she appeared at all of the “big 4” pay per views, including WrestleMania VI, and 1990’s SummerSlam where she sold out to the Million Dollar Man.

## Birth and Death Details

born: february 4, 1945, St Louis, Missouri

died: december 29, 2013, St Louis, Missouri

cause of death: congestive heart failure

age at death: 68

burial: st louis, missouri

## Early life

Juanita Wright was born in her hometown on February 4, 1945 in St Louis, Missouri. She became a huge wrestling fan growing up over the years. A few months after Dusty Rhodes made his debut in the WWF, Sapphire became a huge fan of him and managed to become his manager a few years later.

## Professional wrestling career

On November 23, 1989, Wright debuted at Survivor Series as a fan cheering on Dusty Rhodes who was a part of the Dream Team against The Enforcers. Sapphire began to manage Dusty Rhodes, both adorned in black outfits with yellow polka dots. She along with Rhodes later on entered into a feud with "Macho Man" Randy Savage then referred to as "Macho King" and Sensational Sherri then Queen Sherri as Sapphire teamed with Rhodes to take on Savage and Sherri in a tag team match at Wrestlemania VI. Sapphire pinned Sherri, with some help from Miss Elizabeth, who had allied herself with Sapphire and Rhodes after a previous incident that precipitated the match. Sapphire and Sherri would continue their feud competing against each other in singles and tag team matches, across the country from April 21, 1990, at the Richmond Coliseum where she lost to the Queen in a one-on-one match, up until August 25, where she and Rhodes emerged victorious as a team. In the spring and summer of 1990, she began to receive gifts from a mysterious benefactor. At SummerSlam, Sherri defeated Sapphire via forfeit after Sapphire failed to show. Seconds before Rhodes' match against Savage, Ted DiBiase revealed that he had bought Sapphire. A distraught Rhodes lost a quick match to Savage after being hit with Sherri's purse behind the referee's back. Sapphire began appearing in segments where she would do favors for DiBiase, including ironing his money. She left the WWF a short time later. Although it was never explained why on WWF programming, Virgil revealed in an interview with *WWF Magazine* several months later that the (kayfabe) reason for her leaving was that DiBiase took all the gifts back.

In a later shoot interview, Sherri Martel revealed that Wright's admiration for Rhodes was legitimate, and that she literally broke down crying when the office told her that they were severing her and Rhodes' on-screen partnership. Martel believes that Wright lost complete interest in the wrestling business after this, which is why she left the company not long after SummerSlam.

Wright was later brought into the USWA for a brief period of time in 1993, participating in a feud featuring Jerry Lawler and Bert Prentice.

## Personal life

Wright had two children, named Wanda and Ricco. She worked at GrandPa Pidgeon's in University City, Missouri, where she enjoyed telling old wrestling stories to her co workers' children. This is all that is known about Sapphire's life after leaving the wrestling business.

## Death

It was the night of December 29, 2013, which was a few days before the 2014 new year. Wright was 68 at the time of her death and was going to turn 69 in two more months. All that is known about Sapphire's death is that she suddenly died of congestive heart failure in her hometown of St Louis, Missouri.