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00:00Now I understand you had a rough match last night, you wrestled a lady, she got 14 stitches.
00:05Yeah, well, if that's what it takes to try to win, that's what I'll do.
00:10You can't say women's wrestling without thinking the fabulous Moolah.
00:14If she had not run the women's wrestling business, there may not have been women's wrestling.
00:19Introducing first to my right, former world's women's champion, the fabulous Moolah!
00:25As Moolah the promoter, I want to make money for my talent, and I want to make money for Moolah.
00:36Even to this day, if you say women's wrestling, the picture of Moolah appears in my mind.
00:45If Moolah was alive today, I'd probably slap her.
00:50She was so jealous of any woman that was younger than her in wrestling.
00:57She was also a manipulator, and she was also a thief.
01:00She wanted to hurt me, bruise me.
01:06There was drugs, there was sex, there's a lot of abuse with Moolah.
01:13I'm like, wow, they waited until she passed away to say all these things so she couldn't stand up and defend herself.
01:20I was one, but I wanted to wrestle so bad.
01:24She gave her whole life to professional wrestling.
01:27She gave all these girls an opportunity, and nobody to stand up for.
01:34I don't know, just couldn't deal with it.
01:36She was a great professional wrestler, but she didn't know when to stop me.
01:44On this episode, the life, legend, and controversy of the Fabulous Moolah.
01:50And it's Fabulous Moolah with a WWF women's title on the line here.
02:02She made all of her costumes herself.
02:05Anything flashy she loved.
02:08She was just that kind of person.
02:11It really never impressed me that much because to me she was just my mother,
02:15and I didn't really realize how popular she was.
02:18My name is Mary Austin, and I'm the only child of the Fabulous Moolah.
02:26My mother kind of kept me out of the spotlight, but she loved the spotlight.
02:31She was determined to do it.
02:33When you really love something, you put yourself into it, and she had all of herself into it.
02:38This is one Mary let me have.
02:41As you can see how beautiful it is, sparkly, just like Moolah liked it.
02:45Oh, yeah.
02:45My name is Selena Majors.
02:49I wrestled as Bambi.
02:51Started in 1986, so I've been in it for 32 years.
02:55I wanted my name as a kid to be Dynamite Dixie Majors.
02:58So I've got these big posters that would say,
03:00The Fabulous Moolah Champion versus Dynamite Dixie Majors.
03:04I had this life-size doll, and I'd take that doll, and I would body slam it and climb up on the bed and drop an elbow.
03:13I'd stand in front of the mirror with my hairbrush, do little interviews, and tell Moolah how I was going to come and wrestle her.
03:19As you can tell, I like the bad guys, the heels.
03:24She was a heel.
03:25She played that part.
03:26My name is The Fabulous Moolah.
03:28I've been wrestling since I was 15 years old, and I am the world's champion, Lady Wrestler.
03:33They hated her, but that's what she wanted.
03:35Oh, I'd fix up a little spoon handle, you know, about the size of your finger, roll it up with tape, and put it down in my bra.
03:47The meaner she was, the more they liked it, you know, and she loved being a heel.
03:52Stick it in the eyes and the throat.
03:56The Fabulous Moolah started as a female wrestler, and then she became the female wrestling champion, and then she became the booker of all the girl wrestlers.
04:03I first broke into wrestling as a photographer.
04:06I was a 15-year-old kid, and I was doing all of the photography that was sold in the arenas for the entire Memphis wrestling territory.
04:13Moolah, can I get a couple of pictures for the magazines?
04:15Always say for the magazines, right?
04:16Well, of course you can, darling.
04:18And she had her stock poses, boom, boom, boom, in 30 seconds, and she's off to the ring.
04:23Moolah pioneered the hair-pulling, cat-fighting, scratching, crowd-pleasing kind of women's wrestling.
04:30She broke glass ceilings one after another.
04:35She got into wrestling when there was no women in wrestling.
04:39Women's wrestling was actually banned in Madison Square Garden, and Moolah was the one that was chosen to break the ban.
04:46She was the featured girl in the first girls' match in the Garden.
04:49And now that she's almost 60, she's on MTV.
04:54It's 1984, the Rock and Wrestling Connection.
04:58Cyndi Lauper and that whole era of network TV and Madison Square Garden and MTV and rock and roll stars.
05:05And this place is ready to explode tonight.
05:08Got so much national attention that NBC and everybody else started looking at pro wrestling.
05:15She made it from the mid-50s to the dawn of MTV for the biggest payoff she ever made.
05:20There she is, the fabulous one, the fabulous Moolah, putting her title on the line.
05:26There'll never be anyone to have the guts that she had.
05:30This must have been really old.
05:35Look at that, look at her hair.
05:37This is a wrestling license.
05:40Her mom passed away when she was about nine, I think.
05:43And then it was her dad and her brothers that raised her.
05:46So she learned how to fight real early.
05:49It was rough for her.
05:50I was an only child, and she was just a teenager.
05:54She went to wrestling matches every week.
05:57And my mother saw Mildred Burke, and she said,
05:59That's what I want to do.
06:00It's Mildred Burke of Los Angeles, California, world champion.
06:05Back in the 30s and 40s, Mildred Burke was such a legitimate athlete.
06:09She was in tremendous shape, and she just had a natural flair for wrestling.
06:13But behind the scenes, Billy Wolf, Mildred Burke's husband,
06:16was pulling the strings and managed the whole women's troupe for good and bad.
06:21When she was 17 or 18, she went to see Billy Wolf.
06:25When you became a wrestler for Billy Wolf,
06:27you automatically had to go to bed with him.
06:30She said she wasn't doing it.
06:32She could find some other way to wrestle without having to go to bed with him or anyone else.
06:37What's the worst experience you might want to say that you ever had with a promoter?
06:41That's kind of hard to talk about.
06:44It really is.
06:45The fabulous moolah at one point was married to a guy named Buddy Lee.
06:50Buddy Lee used to wrestle.
06:51Of course, they met, and they sort of fell for each other.
06:55And she did most of the wrestling, and he did most of the booking.
06:58She basically copied the Mildred Burke and Billy Wolf playbook.
07:05They kept their own stable.
07:06They took all the bookings, and more importantly, a booking fee out of all of the girls' pay.
07:12You knew right off the bat why she got in the business and why she wanted to be a star.
07:17She loved money.
07:19Moolah would play such a dominant role in women's wrestling that in 2018, 11 years after her death,
07:28her memory still loomed over the sport.
07:31The WWE made the announcement on March the 12th that they were going to honor the fabulous moolah
07:36by having the fabulous moolah Memorial Battle Royal.
07:39I thought it was very nice that they would name it after her, keeping her legacy going.
07:44Two or three days later, that had all been taken away.
07:47Let's talk about the fabulous moolah controversy.
07:50I think it's supposed to be a bunch of bull.
07:52I really think it's a bunch of bull.
07:54Moolah has an awful pass.
07:56Some really, really sick shit.
07:58She was an evil person.
07:59Moolah was pimping girls out.
08:02A lot of this stuff is a legend.
08:03We gotta see that.
08:04It's a legend.
08:05Grossed out about it.
08:06Name it something else.
08:07It's not hard.
08:08Scrap it.
08:11Stories started coming out on the internet.
08:13The fabulous moolah suddenly was a horrible person who took advantage of all these women
08:18and pimped them out and fed them drugs and all this stuff.
08:22They contacted the sponsors and they had to take her name off.
08:25I was very shocked because I knew better.
08:29I knew none of that was true.
08:31And thanks to Nigel, he took the lead way on it.
08:35My name is Nigel Sherrod.
08:36I'm mostly known as a wrestling host.
08:38The fight for moolah campaign came about because we started a petition to put the truth out there
08:45and to honor the woman who broke down the walls for everybody else.
08:51I just wanted to clear a name because moolah's not here to defend herself.
08:55Did moolah indeed take advantage of the girls?
08:58Some of the girls have said yes.
09:00Some of the girls have said no.
09:02I think that it was ignorant canceling the fabulous moolah memorial battle royal
09:07because I interviewed over 20 women and they all said the same thing.
09:12There's no truth to those rumors.
09:15Accusations about moolah polarized the wrestling world.
09:19They originated from an investigative newspaper story
09:22that quoted serious allegations by the family of one of her former wrestlers.
09:28St. Mark, if you see these guys moving around,
09:31they are a professional film company.
09:33And they are doing an episode dealing with pro-women wrestlers,
09:40which one of them was my mother.
09:43South Carolina first black female professional wrestler, Sweet Georgia Brown.
09:48Matt.
09:51I'm Michael McCoy.
09:53I'm a senior pastor at St. Mark Baptist Church.
09:57That article that came out in the Columbia Free Times,
10:01it was about what my mother had to go through and endure while she was in wrestling.
10:06I started a search to try to find out the truth.
10:08Maybe you could just tell us your name and a little bit about yourself.
10:11Yes, my name is Barbara Harsley, and I am the proud daughter of Susan May McCoy.
10:18Who is also known as?
10:20Sweet Georgia Brown.
10:23When my mom went into wrestling, she was with the so-called great moolah.
10:29She said she was forced to do a lot of things against her will.
10:37Now, these just stories that I heard, do I know any truth to them?
10:41No, I can't sit here and say I know truth to it.
10:44I'm not.
10:45But, you know, when more than one, two, three people saying the same story,
10:51you know, somebody ain't lying.
10:53Philip, honey, can you walk these guys outside and show them the banister?
11:06This is my husband, Philip.
11:08How y'all doing?
11:09Yeah, sure.
11:10And back to your hands.
11:14Oh, wow.
11:16Back when moolah died, my husband, he went over to tear down the barn
11:21that the ring was in, and he found the banister, the women's wrestlers,
11:28and he brought it back, thought I would want, you know, keep it.
11:33For the better part of 25 years, every top girl wrestler was trained by moolah,
11:38booked out by moolah, and was controlled by moolah's group.
11:42Can you tell us who Sweet Georgia Brown was?
11:44Yeah, she was one of the first African-American women to wrestle,
11:49and my mother trained her.
11:52Believe it or not, it was on a mattress in the living room.
11:57It was unreal, but they learned a lot.
12:00I was told she had that drive to go get it.
12:03You know, it's like she had a purpose.
12:05She wanted to be there.
12:07The first time I seen a wrestler, the place was jam-packed,
12:11throwing each other out the ring, they're kicking, body slamming.
12:15And I just figured, you know, this is one tough lady.
12:19Being one of the first black females to get into the Rassman business,
12:25the KKKs was at their fullest.
12:28The segregation was really bad at that time.
12:31Whenever they were on the road, my mother was very protective.
12:35There was a time in Mississippi she did have a run-in with some KKKs.
12:39She was thrown on the floor of the bus, and she was scared for her life.
12:48She'd have had to have been super passionate because, see,
12:51in 1964, she was ranked number four in the world.
12:55If she would have had the opportunity to fight for the world's title,
12:59she probably would have won it.
13:00But Moolah was most definitely not going to let a student
13:04challenge her for the world's title.
13:06When my mom went into wrestling, she left us with one of her sisters.
13:15She would call us names, half-breeds.
13:18She was a witch.
13:20God forgive me, she's dead and gone.
13:24Every time my mother went on the road and she'd come back,
13:26just about, she was pregnant.
13:28One of my aunts said that every time you come back home,
13:31you come back home with one of these half-white kids, half-breeds.
13:34And we got mistreated, you know, for years growing up because of our color.
13:39I hated where she had left us.
13:43I hated her career.
13:45But then when I got the full story from her,
13:49I kind of understood.
13:53There's a lot of abuse with Moolah and Buddy Lee.
13:57I saw her one time.
14:01This big old car had pulled up.
14:04She was getting out of the back of the car.
14:06And it was only for a few hours.
14:10I didn't know the man's name at the time,
14:13but he thought it was time to go.
14:15My sister and I, we grabbed a hold to her leg,
14:19but he kind of, like, pushed her.
14:22And she hit her head getting into the car.
14:25I don't know if it was intentionally or it was an accident.
14:30My mom said everywhere she went and everything she did was done,
14:36according to Buddy Lee and Moolah.
14:39I think she thought that it was going to be glamorous and glory,
14:44but it turned out to be something totally different.
14:47I heard different stories about my mother.
14:52It's real sad.
14:54And I have no reason not to believe that account.
14:58There was one gruesome time that we talked about.
15:03She was told to drink and pot pills.
15:07And she was made to have sex with other men.
15:14On the road, some of the promoters wouldn't pay some of the girls
15:18until they slept with other promoters.
15:20From what my mother told me,
15:23she was their favorite.
15:27And you can call it entertaining or whatever.
15:31It's still pimping in prostitution.
15:33Buddy Lee was not a nice person.
15:38And my mother was on the road.
15:40And she came home a day early and caught him in her bed.
15:44It was one of the girls that she trained.
15:46And she threw Buddy out.
15:47That was it.
15:48A lot of the girls went with him.
15:51Georgia Brown was one of the girls that went with Buddy.
15:53I started to search for my father.
15:55And then one of the first places where I started was with the fabulous moolah.
15:59Honestly, I was almost kind of afraid a little bit.
16:03Because I heard of the moolah that everybody else talked about.
16:06But the moolah that I met, she seemed to be a fine lady.
16:12I asked moolah, did my mother ever talk about who my father was?
16:16Then moolah took me to her wall.
16:18And she pointed out this one picture.
16:21And I said, who is this guy right here in the middle?
16:24She said, well, his name is Buddy Lee.
16:28He was kind of rough on the girls.
16:30I think that happened with sweet Georgia Brown.
16:33That she was one that had to go to bed with Buddy.
16:36And as a matter of fact, I think the son, Michael, is proof of that.
16:41If Buddy Lee's my father, then that's who he is.
16:44I wasn't coming in to look for anything.
16:46And I didn't want anything.
16:48I just wanted to close a chapter in my life.
16:50I knew that everything was over when my uncle burned up all of her stuff.
17:00And he poured gas on it.
17:02And he set it on fire.
17:05Right there in front of us.
17:08At the end, she kind of thanked him.
17:10Because of the things that she had to endure.
17:14The things that she was made to do.
17:17By moolah.
17:18By Buddy Lee.
17:20By the industry itself.
17:23Listening to your mom describe some of the most horrific things she had to do.
17:30You can't just walk away.
17:32Regardless of the abuse she went through.
17:35Regardless of if they made her use drugs.
17:38They made her use alcohol.
17:40Rather, they pimped her.
17:42She still was South Carolina's first black female professional wrestler.
17:47Honor it.
17:50Sweet Georgia Brown's life was shaped by forces beyond her control.
17:54For moolah to succeed, she would need to build her own women's wrestling empire.
18:05The fabulous moolah single-handedly built her women's training school into a powerhouse
18:10that dominated the industry.
18:12It attracted young women eager to follow in her footsteps.
18:16In Columbia, South Carolina, there was a location called Moolah Drive.
18:20And on Moolah Drive was the house that Moolah built.
18:24And also a variety of other buildings.
18:27It was a compound.
18:28The women not only trained there, but they lived on the property.
18:32And Moolah presided over it like a mother lion.
18:36She took girls from all walks of life.
18:39And she brought them in.
18:41She taught them a skill.
18:42She put it together like a group or a union.
18:45And took care of the girls.
18:47And made sure they were taken care of.
18:49And she was one of the most powerful women in the wrestling business.
18:53If you were a female wrestler at that point and you wanted to get booked,
18:57you pretty much had to go through moolah or you weren't going to work.
19:03I have a bunch of questions.
19:04Okay.
19:05I took my truth serum before I came in.
19:08My name is Wendy Richter.
19:11Wendy Richter!
19:13I was a professional wrestler for over 20 years.
19:17The first time I ever watched a wrestling match,
19:20I watched the fabulous Moolah versus Vivian St. John.
19:24And I told my friend I could beat Moolah.
19:28The referee gave me Moolah's phone number.
19:32She told me to come on to Columbia, South Carolina.
19:35I was there within two weeks.
19:38My name is Victoria Otis.
19:39I wrestled as Princess Victoria.
19:41Princess Victoria!
19:43Victoria!
19:45I come from a very, very abusive childhood.
19:49And that's basically what took me to wrestling.
19:52You had to want it.
19:54You had to bleed.
19:55You had to cry.
19:57When I was wrestling, and it had been about a year,
20:00and I was told by my promoter,
20:02look, I've done all I can do.
20:05I've tried to get you booked to other places.
20:07The only way I can get you booked is I've got to send you to Moolah.
20:10I still remember a friend of mine telling me,
20:13Vicky, he said, don't go to Moolah's.
20:15Find a job, get on your feet, just don't go to Moolah's.
20:19I was warned.
20:21But I wanted to wrestle so bad.
20:26When you first got to the property, there's these big gates.
20:31After dark, the gates were locked.
20:33If you weren't home and you weren't working, you got locked out.
20:38Moolah had a roommate named Diamond Lil,
20:42and we all called her Katie.
20:44And I really like Katie.
20:47My name is Diamond Lil,
20:49and Buddy Lee named me Diamond Lil.
20:52Katie comes from a hard background, too.
20:54She was a wrestler, and she lived in the house with Moolah.
20:57And she called her Ma.
20:59And she's been right there with my mother through thick and thin.
21:04Katie liked to drink beer, but she wasn't allowed to.
21:09Katie used to come out to the pond and go fishing,
21:11and I'd come in there and drop a six-pack in the pond,
21:13and her and I'd sit there and drink beer.
21:15I was famous for getting the beer on the property.
21:21They had apartments,
21:24and she would put two or three girls in there at a time,
21:27and they would come down to the gym every morning.
21:29What I remember the most about my training at Moolah's
21:35was learning to drop kick.
21:38I would go out there and drop kick and drop kick and drop kick
21:44and just land on the mat.
21:45The mat wasn't soft.
21:47It was all bloody,
21:48and by that time, a lot of it was mine.
21:50There were buckets strategically placed,
21:55and it wasn't if you were going to throw up.
21:57It was when you were going to throw up,
21:59and would you hit the bucket?
22:02One thing that Moolah taught me,
22:05take a bite and growl.
22:10Moolah, she never trained me.
22:12She just took the money,
22:14and she had the girls train me.
22:16She wanted her $300.
22:20Now, can you imagine four girls in one little house?
22:24She's getting $1,200 a month in the 80s?
22:30And on top of that,
22:31she's taking 25% off of what she's telling us were paid.
22:37Bullpugging.
22:39I'm sitting here 24 hours a day
22:41making you connections with the promoters.
22:44All you got to do is set your lazy button
22:46in the car and go to wrestle
22:47and collect their money and send me 25%.
22:50And I thought that was fair.
22:57There is a picture of me in this brown outfit
23:00that Moolah presented to me at Christmas
23:03in front of all the girls
23:05after she had given all of them a $5 or $10 gift.
23:11That was no cheap outfit.
23:13That was hand-beaded.
23:14That was a $200 to $300 outfit.
23:16She couldn't take me in privately
23:19and give me this outfit.
23:20She had to do it in front of the girls.
23:22That was another one of her little manipulation things.
23:26Everything brings back memories now,
23:28and it's like the floodgates get opened.
23:33I was in a match.
23:35I know it was the first or second week
23:36in September, 1984.
23:38A girl...
23:40Shut up!
23:50The night I broke my neck in the ring,
23:53a girl stumbled.
23:56She sat on my head.
23:57That was the day my world fell apart.
24:05It hurt so bad I couldn't stand it.
24:07I remember a moment at the hospital.
24:10They had my neck braced.
24:12I remember being on a cot.
24:16Then the next thing I remember,
24:18I don't know how,
24:19but I'm back at Moola's property,
24:21and Moola's walking me out to the ring.
24:23She said,
24:23I want to see if you can take a bump.
24:25I took a bump,
24:26and I cried.
24:28Every time I took a bump,
24:30I felt like something was exploding.
24:33This went on for a month, two months.
24:36Moola comes to me one day.
24:38She said,
24:39Hon, if you go see this guy in Holland,
24:41he'll give you a payday.
24:43I thought to myself,
24:44I can't wrestle.
24:45Might as well.
24:46I get on the phone with this guy,
24:48and I make it explicitly clear.
24:51It's separate motel rooms.
24:54The conversation after I hung up with him
24:56with Moola was,
24:58You know, Hon,
24:59the nicer you are to him,
25:01the bigger your payday will be,
25:03and you could really use a payday.
25:06And so was Moola sort of incendiary
25:07like the idea that...
25:09When Moola looked at me
25:11and said,
25:13You know,
25:13the nicer you are to him,
25:15the nicer he'll be to you.
25:19What else can I say?
25:22When this guy first picked me up at the airport,
25:24I said,
25:25Damn.
25:26This guy didn't get beat by the ugly stick.
25:27He got beat by the whole damn force.
25:31I wake up the next morning,
25:32I catch him right here,
25:34and I grab his hand,
25:35and I'm holding it.
25:37I said,
25:38Dude, I will break your wrist.
25:42And she was fire engine red pissed when I got back.
25:48I can't believe she didn't sleep with him.
25:50Well, not a week after I got back
25:53is when Moola came to me and said,
25:54Look, you can't wrestle,
25:56and I need my ranch.
25:57I'll take that yellow outfit.
25:59I'll take the brown outfit
26:00that she gave me for Christmas.
26:02I left the property that day
26:04with my Chevy Malibu station wagon
26:06and 20 bucks in my pocket.
26:09She dumped me,
26:10and I never wrestled again.
26:12And I walked away 30 years ago.
26:17My heart was broke.
26:21I can't even explain it.
26:23I miss the road.
26:25I miss my friends.
26:26I miss my family.
26:27And when I left,
26:30do you know what Moola told the girls?
26:32She told them I was in prison
26:34for dealing cocaine.
26:36For God's sake,
26:36she couldn't tell them
26:37that I broke my neck,
26:39and I was of no use to her anymore.
26:42So I had to go,
26:43because then they knew their fate.
26:50I love wrestling.
26:54To protect this business,
26:56to me,
26:56is like protecting the country.
26:59If wrestling needed me,
27:01I'd do it in a heartbeat.
27:03All someone has to do is ask.
27:07Moola!
27:08As wrestling gained popularity
27:10in the early 1980s,
27:12the WWF looked to replenish its roster
27:15with younger wrestlers.
27:17Moola's protege,
27:18Wendy Richter,
27:19was an obvious choice.
27:23Wendy Richter.
27:25Hell of a person.
27:27Hell of a lady.
27:29She loved her business.
27:31She honed her skills.
27:33She worked very hard
27:35to become the wrestler she was.
27:38Do you have an assumption
27:38as to why there was so much friction
27:40between you and Moola?
27:42The only thing I can think of
27:44why there was so much friction
27:45is possibly she was jealous of me,
27:47because I was younger than her.
27:49And like my father said,
27:51they couldn't put her face
27:52on a can of dog food to sell it.
27:55Wendy Richter began to eclipse her mentor,
27:58and she left Moola's stable
28:00to join Vince McMahon.
28:01When I left Moola's,
28:04I had a conversation with Vince McMahon
28:06and told him that
28:07I didn't want to live there anymore,
28:09and I did not want my check going to her.
28:13I wanted the check to come to me,
28:16so I knew what I was making.
28:19As soon as Vince took over from his father,
28:22he started making changes.
28:24One advantage that he had
28:26was that a lot of celebrities
28:28had grown up in the New York area
28:31as fans of wrestling,
28:32and one of those was Cyndi Lauper.
28:35Cyndi Lauper was on an airplane flight
28:43with Lou Albano,
28:45and then Lou Albano tells everyone
28:47that he was managing Cyndi Lauper.
28:50I created and made Cyndi Lauper.
28:53Took her from the nothing.
28:54I don't know if anybody knows it,
28:56but when she did Girls Just Want to Have Fun,
28:59he was in it.
29:00That's how all of this came together.
29:02It all boiled down to
29:04that Lou Albano said,
29:06I'm going to choose someone
29:07to represent me in the ring.
29:09So Lou Albano chose Fabulous Moolah,
29:12and Cyndi Lauper chose me.
29:16Moolah may have the world's championship belt,
29:18but she also has Lou Albano on her side.
29:22As soon as Cyndi Lauper got involved
29:25with Lou Albano,
29:26Vince McMahon saw gold
29:27and fostered that connection
29:29into the rock and wrestling connection.
29:32The wrestlers giving their hand at it,
29:36they have been involved with rock and roll
29:38in the past year.
29:39It brought the dated look of wrestling
29:42into the mainstream.
29:44Wendy Richter morphed from the Dallas Cowgirl
29:46to Wendy Richter a little bit more Cyndi Lauper-ish,
29:49a little more rock and roll,
29:50and that's what led the MTV movement there in 1984
29:53that pretty much paved the way
29:55for the first Wrestlemania.
29:56They were giving girls more of a push
29:58than they probably ever had before.
30:00They were really trying to escalate the girls up,
30:04trying to get equal to the men.
30:06It was a turning point for women's wrestling.
30:09Vince wanted to make Wendy Richter
30:10the equivalent as Hulk Hogan would be,
30:13so he had a male role model
30:14and a female role model.
30:16Since the most widely recognized female champion
30:18in the previous 30 years
30:19had been the Fabulous Moolah,
30:21Wendy needed to beat Moolah for the title.
30:23Well, with that in mind, ladies and gentlemen,
30:24I'd like to introduce to you
30:26the number one contender
30:27for the ladies' championship, Miss Wendy Richter.
30:30And the rest is history.
30:33Ladies and gentlemen,
30:34this title belt will be on the line
30:36at Madison Square Garden
30:37just moments from now,
30:38this lady to the band.
30:40Their rivalry was about to explode
30:42in what would become
30:43one of the most once-matches of all time.
30:46That was probably the most nervous
30:50I've ever been in my life.
30:51I knew every move mattered.
30:55There was so much at stake,
30:56and it was against Moolah.
30:58It was the culmination of my whole career.
31:01Moolah had been very jealous
31:03and guarded of that championship
31:05for a long time,
31:06but Vince was able to write
31:08the appropriate amount of money
31:10on a check
31:10that changed Moolah's mind.
31:12And also, by doing that,
31:15Moolah got Vince McMahon Jr.'s
31:17loyalty for life.
31:19One, two!
31:22That's when everything changed.
31:25I love this cup,
31:27and you
31:29won his championship
31:31with you
31:34and you can do it.
31:36Oh, my word!
31:38When I won the championship,
31:40it was a feeling like no other.
31:43Everyone was up on their feet
31:45and screaming.
31:47I can't believe someone beat her
31:49after 28 years,
31:50and that someone was me.
31:53It was a big deal for the fans
31:54because they wanted to see Wendy win, right?
31:56But it was a bigger deal
31:57inside the business
31:58because two generations of wrestlers
32:00had come and gone
32:01without ever seeing
32:02the fabulous Moolah lose.
32:04It was shocking to the folks
32:05in the business
32:06who knew about the stranglehold
32:08that Moolah had had on the thing.
32:10Right here is the new champ,
32:12the terrific symbol
32:13of the new woman.
32:14My match
32:15against Moolah
32:16for the championship
32:17was kind of ground zero
32:18for women's wrestling,
32:20and it moved
32:22towards a different level
32:23of women's wrestling.
32:25See, what a lot of people
32:26don't understand is
32:27once you step in that ring,
32:31you're addicted.
32:32I think Moolah
32:35let her ego get in her way,
32:38and Moolah couldn't quit.
32:46Wendy, show what you got!
32:49Cindy Lauper!
32:52Oh, my God.
32:53We were on the top
32:54of a skyscraper.
32:56I remember I was hot,
32:58I was hungry,
32:59I was thirsty,
33:00and it felt like
33:01the day would never end.
33:04When I went to visit
33:05my father and my grandmother
33:07in Kokomo, Indiana,
33:09people recognized me.
33:11I'm thinking,
33:12they know me in Kokomo.
33:14Even though Wendy
33:15was a household name,
33:16Wendy wasn't getting paid
33:17like a household name, though.
33:20I found out early
33:22in my career
33:22that the men
33:23were being paid
33:24far more than the women,
33:25but if I'm the only one
33:27saying that,
33:29one person can be replaced.
33:31Vince McMahon
33:32had been pushing
33:33Wendy Richter,
33:34going to make her
33:35a superstar.
33:36She possibly was getting
33:37too big for her britches.
33:38He decided
33:39that she needed
33:40to lose the belt,
33:41and who's going to beat her
33:42for the belt?
33:44I was on the road
33:45constantly,
33:46but it was always
33:47matches against Moolah
33:48over and over.
33:51I'll never forget
33:52one time
33:53she got me
33:54in a move,
33:55the Boston Crab.
33:56With that,
33:57you never go
33:58all the way back
33:58because you could
33:59break someone's back.
34:01Well, she did.
34:02She tried
34:03to break my back.
34:05She wanted
34:06to put me out.
34:08My spine snapped
34:09like firecrackers.
34:10She was just so bitter.
34:13I really believe
34:14in the golden rule,
34:15treat others
34:16as you'd like
34:16to be treated,
34:17but sometimes
34:17you've got to treat
34:18fire with fire.
34:20And in the ring,
34:21when that bell rang,
34:22you had no friends.
34:25When I was
34:27to wrestle
34:27the Spider Lady
34:28for a championship match,
34:30it changed
34:31my career.
34:33It changed my life.
34:37I really didn't think
34:39anything of it.
34:40So I thought,
34:40well, it's just
34:41another championship match,
34:43and it's against
34:44the Spider Lady.
34:46Wendy said
34:47that Moolah
34:48had showed up.
34:49She didn't understand
34:52why Moolah was there.
34:54I'd wrestled
34:55the Spider Lady before,
34:57and I didn't recall
34:58her being
34:58that size.
35:01A very determined
35:02young lady
35:03going to take
35:04one heck of a wrestler
35:05to be able to strip
35:06that title from her.
35:07The match
35:08really didn't go
35:09that good.
35:09It was just
35:15a wrestling hole.
35:17Spider going,
35:18oh, small package.
35:20The referee counted
35:21one.
35:22I kicked out,
35:23had my shoulder up.
35:25Two, three.
35:26And that was it.
35:32What was that?
35:35Appears that the referee
35:36has made a three count.
35:38The match was over.
35:41Then the masked person
35:44took their mask off,
35:47and it was Moolah.
35:51It is Moolah!
35:54It is Moolah!
35:55Take a look,
35:56the fabulous Moolah,
35:57the oldest,
35:58saltiest dog in the yard
35:59that knows all the tricks.
36:00She was the one
36:01that was chosen
36:02because it was thought
36:03that if things did break down,
36:05that she can handle
36:06Wendy legitimately anyway.
36:08Did you have any idea
36:09that that was Moolah?
36:11The match at all?
36:12No.
36:12I couldn't tell
36:13who it was.
36:17It was obvious
36:18who was under that mask.
36:20Everybody in the arena
36:21knew who was under that mask.
36:23Wendy knew.
36:24This double-cross blurred the lines
36:27between business and storyline.
36:29Whatever the truth was,
36:32Wendy came out the loser.
36:33I demanded to talk to Vince McMahon,
36:36and no one would tell me where he was.
36:39I probably would have killed him
36:41with my bare hands.
36:43What Vinny and Moolah did to her,
36:46Wendy was over like a million dollars
36:48at that time.
36:49Her and Cyndi Lauper
36:50and the cartoon,
36:53the Goonies.
36:55You know,
36:56Wendy was over as big as Hogan,
36:57and maybe that was the problem.
37:00The only thing I can think of
37:03is I was asking to be paid fairly.
37:07I feel like it was a sad situation
37:09that happened
37:10because the girls should be paid
37:13maybe more than they were at the time.
37:15But when a promoter tells you
37:18who's going to win or lose,
37:19you have to go with
37:21the one who's running the show,
37:23whether you like it or not.
37:25That was her choice
37:25to walk away from it.
37:27If everything had worked with Wendy,
37:30there would have been
37:31an established women's division
37:34with women featured
37:35in more important matches
37:37a lot before it actually happened.
37:39I was angry for what she just did
37:42to women's wrestling.
37:43For so long,
37:45she held it back,
37:46she held it back,
37:47she held it back.
37:48Then finally,
37:49it started to bloom,
37:51and she killed it.
37:53I think Moolah was afraid.
37:55I think she was afraid
37:56of walking away.
37:59I left out of the arena
38:01fully dressed in my wrestling suit,
38:04hailed a cab in New York City,
38:06and went to the airport.
38:08They were dead in my life.
38:11They were dead.
38:16Have you ever seen the footage
38:17of the match?
38:20I almost did.
38:22I couldn't bear to see it.
38:23What good would it do?
38:24The bitch is dead, okay?
38:26I don't need to see it.
38:28I was there.
38:29In 1995,
38:38the fabulous Moolah
38:39became the first woman
38:40inducted into the WWF
38:42Wrestling Hall of Fame.
38:45Tonight is the greatest night
38:47of my life,
38:50being inducted into
38:51the WWF Hall of Fame.
38:53By the year 2000,
38:55the WWF had phased out
38:57traditional women's
38:58athletic wrestling
38:59in favor of strip matches
39:01and comedy storylines.
39:03But Moolah showed no sign
39:05of slowing down.
39:07She teamed up
39:07with fellow wrestling legend
39:08Mae Young.
39:10Mae Young wrestled
39:12for seven different decades.
39:13She was tougher than Moolah,
39:15and that's saying something.
39:16Years ago,
39:17they had to put up
39:19a chicken wire fence
39:20up over the ring
39:21because they hated me so bad.
39:23It's insane that
39:24more people saw
39:25Moolah and Mae
39:26in the late 90s
39:28and early 2000s
39:29when they were both
39:30everybody's grandmother.
39:31Or maybe the Adams
39:32family's grandmother.
39:33I have to be real careful
39:35with her.
39:35Everywhere I go,
39:36she either wants
39:37to get drunk or naked.
39:38This would be the place,
39:39I guess.
39:41And then, of course,
39:41they go out on TV
39:42and they can take
39:43the tremendous bumps
39:45and incredible falls
39:46and still somehow
39:47not break into
39:48a million pieces.
39:49Oh, come on!
39:50She should have stopped
39:51in her 60s,
39:53but she couldn't.
39:55I mean, my God,
39:56she was 80 years old
39:57wearing a checkered
39:58schoolgirl outfit.
40:01No, no.
40:03Stop.
40:03Stop.
40:04Cooter, stop it.
40:06Stop.
40:08Shh.
40:09I get the last word,
40:11not you.
40:12Be good boy.
40:16What was her funeral like?
40:18It was crowded
40:19and I don't,
40:21I'll tell you the truth,
40:21I don't know.
40:22I was just in a daze
40:23the whole time.
40:24I didn't even know
40:25that he was there.
40:27I just remember thinking
40:28that it was the end
40:30of an era.
40:32In 2007,
40:33Moolah passed away
40:34at the age of 84.
40:37The wrestling family
40:38showed up in large numbers
40:39to pay their respects.
40:41This is where she's buried.
40:43This is hers here
40:45and this is Katie's
40:47and this was Johnny May's here.
40:49She had that little thing
40:50put there.
40:50She said,
40:51when you want to come talk to me,
40:52there's a bench in there.
40:53You won't get wet
40:54if it's raining.
40:58She was all I had.
41:01And I miss her every day.
41:04No one can ever,
41:05can ever be
41:07as good as she was.
41:08Never.
41:09Women's wrestling today
41:12has undergone a renaissance
41:14I don't think
41:14would have been possible
41:15without the rise of women
41:17in mixed martial arts
41:18and specifically Ronda Rousey.
41:20Now it's so much more refined.
41:23It wasn't that way
41:24in Moolah's day
41:25because that wasn't
41:27her strong point.
41:29Ten years after Moolah's death,
41:31her impact on wrestling
41:32remains controversial.
41:36Well, I think in wrestling
41:37there is blurred lines
41:39between your character
41:40and who you really are.
41:43I believe that the fans
41:44couldn't tell the difference
41:45between Moolah
41:47and the character
41:48she was playing.
41:50Nobody really knows
41:51how it hurts you
41:53to hear that,
41:55that you work for somebody
41:56and they pimped you out
41:57so you get where you did.
41:59She had never once
42:02ever drugged any of us.
42:03It just really pisses me off
42:06that they're taking away
42:07the legacy
42:08of the fabulous Moolah.
42:12I mean, I'll be honest with you.
42:13Bambi was never
42:14a famous wrestler.
42:15But
42:16if there's one thing
42:18that I could do,
42:19it would be to save Moolah's name
42:21and legacy
42:22and restore
42:23what she gave
42:24to the professional
42:25wrestling business.
42:28Moolah
42:28may have initially
42:30opened doors,
42:32but she quickly
42:33closed the door.
42:34She held women's wrestling
42:36back
42:36probably for 40 years.
42:39If Moolah
42:40had left Wendy
42:41with the belt,
42:42I think women's wrestling
42:44would have skyrocketed.
42:47She wasn't as big a star
42:48as Mildred Burke.
42:49She's not as big a star
42:50as Ronda Rousey,
42:51but she was the placeholder
42:52for 30 years.
42:53How do you think
42:55people should
42:56remember Moolah?
42:58Anywhere they like.
43:00Everybody have
43:01their own opinion.
43:02And me personally,
43:04I don't have an opinion
43:05of Moolah.
43:07None that I care to share.
43:09If I choose
43:11not to like her
43:13because of what she did
43:13to me, that's fine.
43:15But Moolah
43:16needs to be remembered.
43:17She was an icon
43:18in this business.
43:20You can't take away
43:22her history
43:22just because
43:23she's an asshole.
43:25All the girls
43:26that she trained
43:26remember her
43:27and they know
43:28that they wouldn't
43:29be where they are now
43:30without her
43:32and they wouldn't
43:33have had the career
43:33they had without her.
43:35Whoever's starting
43:36these rumors,
43:37you're not just calling
43:39Moolah a pep.
43:41You're calling me
43:41a prostitute.
43:43And that hurts.
43:46And if you were not
43:48on that property,
43:49if you were not
43:50in that room,
43:52you don't know
43:53what happened
43:53and you need
43:54to shut up.
43:55You're calling me
43:57out
43:57and you're not
43:58there
44:02and you're not
44:03whee IV
44:05as they handheld
44:05and�νο上
44:05does not
44:06in that room.
44:06And the
44:08you're not
44:08going to
44:08go
44:10as itrü shorten