Tamara "Tammy" Lynn Sytch (born December 7, 1972) is an American Professional Wrestling manager and occasional wrestler that achieved her greatest success under the ring name Sunny within the World Wrestling Federation during the 1990s, and is widely considered the first Diva. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011. She also performed in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (with her last name slightly tweaked to "Fytch") and under her real name in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling.
Sytch started out traveling with her boyfriend Chris Candido. She first appeared in SMW in 1993 as a heel who idolized Hillary Rodham Clinton and threatened to file a sexual discrimination lawsuit due to the lack of prominent positions offered to women by the promotion. She managed Brian Lee to the SMW Heavyweight Championship belt and also began accompanying Candido in his matches. By May 1994, she was managing the two men as a tag team, which won the SMW Tag Team Championship belts from The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Both Sytch and Candido left SMW in early 1995 for jobs with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as The Bodydonnas, Skip and Sunny, doing a gimmick of being evil fitness trainers. Sunny would lead Skip and Zip (Tom Prichard) to win the WWE Tag Team Championships over The Godwinns at WrestleMania XII. In 1996, she was AOL's most downloaded woman of that year. Weeks after WrestleMania XII, The Godwinns regained the belts, and Sunny turned on The Bodydonnas in favor of the new champions. She then turned on The Godwinns and helped The Smokin' Gunns win the WWF Tag Team Championships, managing them until they lost the titles at In Your House 10: Mind Games. She spent a short time as the manager of Faarooq Asaad, aiding him in his feud over the WWF Intercontinental Championship with Marc Mero and his valet Sable. In 1998, Sunny became a face and briefly became the manager for The Legion of Doom 2000, leading them to a win in a Tag Team Championship number one contender battle royal at WrestleMania XIV. Sunny would continue to manage them until she was released in July 1998.
Meanwhile, Candido had left the WWF for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and it was not long before she began making guest appearances with him in the promotion. In August 1997, she appeared at ECW Hardcore Heaven 1997 pay-per-view. She appeared on ECW Heat Wave 1998 four days after her WWF release to assist Candido in his win over Lance Storm and their subsequent feud, before having a feud of her own with Shane Douglas's manager Francine. Sytch and Candido would later on with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Sytch debuted at WCW Spring Stampede 2000 in April 2000, helping Candido win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Sytch and Candido then briefly feuded with Crowbar and Daffney. Candido later dropped the title, which marked the end of the couple's run with the company.
They would return to ECW, but Candido would later die of acute pneumonia in 2005. Beginning in The New '10s, Tammy’s life spiraled down with a spate of DUI arrests, stints in jail, stints in rehab, probation violations and arrests for assault. Unfortunately her latest drunk driving incident in March 2022 caused a death and multiple serious injuries. In November 2023, Tammy Sytch was sentenced to seventeen and a half years in prison and eight years probation.
Tropes related to Tammy Lynn Sytch:
- Arch-Enemy:
- Barry Horowitz, by virtue of his surprise win over Skip, then whoever Skip and The Bodydonnas were feuding with, carrying over to the enemies of whoever she was managing at a given time.
- Ahmed Johnson qualifies as well, since she once offered to manage him and he turned her down, calling her "trash." She responded by bringing in Faarooq Asad, who gave him the kidney injury that pretty much wrecked his momentum for the rest of his WWE run.
- The Disciples of Apocalypse (8-Ball and Skull, aka Ron and Don Harris), when she managed LOD 2000 in Spring 1998.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
- Censor Suds: When she was shown taking a bath on Raw.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She managed 3 of the 4 teams to hold the WWF World Tag Team Championships
in 1996 (the Bodydonnas, the Godwinns, and the Smoking Gunns) because she'd inevitably switch her allegiance to whichever team had the gold at a given time. - Dark Action Girl: Surprisingly, given that she hadn't done any wrestling in WWF, in WCW she was handing out flying crossbody blocks and Northern Lights suplexes.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Her early work in SMW, in which she portrayed a prim-and-proper, business suit-wearing◊ fan of Hillary Clinton is day and night in comparison with the unabashed sex symbol she became more famous for portraying in the WWF, ECW and WCW.
- Heroic Seductress: Offered Austin Aries money, fame and sex in an attempt to keep him away from The Age of the Fall.
- High-School Sweethearts: With Chris Candido.
- Joisey: From Matawan, and of course often seen with Jersey braggart Candido.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Her habit of ditching the previous WWF Tag Team Champions in favor of the then-current ones in 1996 finally caught up with her when the Smokin' Gunns rejected her after they lost the belts to Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith in September 1996, breaking up the team in the process.
- Ms. Fanservice: In late 1996 and all of 1997, this was her main job in the WWF. Episodes of Raw would open with her in the bathtub or doing some other sexy activity. In fact, she was easily the first female character in WWE history to have this specific role. She even won a Slammy for "Best Buns". An unaired 1998 ''RAW'' segment also had her mooning the audience.
- Non-Action Guy: In the WWF, she had an arm-wrestling match with Marlena. That was as close as she got. Surprisingly, once she ended up in WCW she turned out to be pretty good (by valet standards, at least) at actual wrestling, busting out flying crossbody blocks and Northern Lights suplexes.
- Older and Wiser: When Ring Warriors restarted in 2011 as part of the National Wrestling Alliance Sytch showed up demanding a prominent position for females. Sytch was a baby face unlike when she did so in Smoky Mountain, her demands were for Ring Warriors to start a women's division and she presented second generation wrestler Santana Garrett to be the face of it. Ring Warriors took an extra step and started a sister company so it could run male majority and female majority shows, though it took a little while for Garrett to live up to Sytch's expectations.
- Product Placement: As part of her filling many different roles in 1997, she did a skit with the Honky Tonk Man to plug the Super Soaker water gun.
- Power Stable: Was in the New Blood during her brief run in WCW.
- Put on a Bus: She was released from the WWF in July 1998 and dropped off, under her real name, in ECW. The only In-Universe explanation was offered on the June 29, 1998 Raw, when Jim Ross said she was "out ill."
- Red Baron: In the WWF, "The Golden-Haired Fox".
- Reset Button: When she became the commissioner of NWA Shockwave she vacated every championship belt.
- Shoe Slap: Infamously attacked Low Ki with her removed shoe.
- Spanner in the Works: Underwent serious training and got a wrestling license 2007 after WSU, where she was a referee, was made into an all women's promotion, which allowed her to thwart the schemes of Alicia and Becky Bayless.
- Stay in the Kitchen: After trying her hand as a pro wrestler in the 1990s, she decided that not only it wasn't for her, but that women in general weren't fit for the role. She had a change of heart, evidenced by her compliments following a Ring of Honor three way featuring Daizee Haze, Sara Del Rey and The Lovely Lacey, but Lacey wasn't impressed, accusing Sytch of making their careers more difficult than they had to be.
- Take That!: During his feud with Chris Candido after being kicked out of the Triple Threat in ECW, Lance Storm introduced his new valet "Tammy Lynn Bytch" (later best known as Dawn Marie), his rip on Tammy Lynn Sytch.
- The Tease: She was a very attractive woman and was very aware of it and not afraid to use it to her advantage. Her WWF theme was even named "I Know You Want Me".
- Third-Person Person: In the WWF, at times. Her Catchphrase was, "What Sunny wants, Sunny gets."
- Un-person:
- A downplayed example; Sunny's WWE Hall of Fame induction wasn't broadcasted, but Trish Stratus' induction was — it's a mystery. Though it might have to do with her constant trashing of the other inductees.
- The WWE cut all ties with her for "being ungrateful" after she revealed the day after Linda McMahon's failed senate run they'd moved her from a top dollar rehab facility to one that she claimed was so low budget it was roach-infested, accusing them of only doing the "free rehab for all current and former employees" scheme for PR.
- She was effectively blackballed from the industry entirely after she caused a nasty pile-up that killed at least one 75-year-old person while driving under the influence and arrested for it a month later.
- The Vamp: Wore thongs and skimpy outfits and would use her looks to distract the opponents of whoever she was managing at the time.
- Vocal Evolution: Her voice has deepened considerably as she's aged.
- Wrestling Family: Her late husband, Chris Candido.
