Views From The Turnbuckle: A Brief History Of Women’s Wrestling

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc or its staff.

In the last couple years, women’s wrestling has increased in popularity to the mainstream wrestling fan. Once on the end many jokes made by WWE fans, the women’s matches have become one of the most talked about segments on each WWE event. Mid-way through 2015 WWE decided to openly promote a new look for the women in their company. WWE essentially admitted that women had not been given a fair shake by the company. WWE of course was behind the times when it came to promoting the women. For years they languished as a sideshow on the mid-card that fans utilized as a chance to get a snack or go to the bathroom. When it came time to change the philosophy of the division, WWE acknowledged that in the past the women hadn’t been applied to the best of their ability and that things were going to change. Stephanie McMahon of course was given full credit for this revelation, acknowledging that the days of bra and panties matches were in the past (never mind the fact that Stephanie had a big role in creative during the heyday of the bra and pantie matches). With an influx of talented new women, WWE began promoting a new era in Women’s wrestling. Because of this new chapter, WWE as they are wont to do began rewriting history. To WWE, the history of women’s wrestling only includes the exploits of a few chosen performers (Lita, Trish, Alundra Blayze, Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young) and everything else is a mystery. That is really why I wanted to write this piece; because WWE is for better or for worse the gatekeeper of wrestling history to most wrestling fans and what they promote as history unfortunately ends up usually being taken as fact. Women’s wrestling has a much longer, more defined history than the narrow scope of what WWE decides to promote. Women’s wrestling as a form of entertainment has been around for about as long as men’s wrestling. During the Victorian era, women appeared on the carnivals along with male wrestlers, frequently challenging participants from the crowd that often included men. The women who wrestled in this era were on par with the most disfigured of freak show attractions because of how brazen their violation of gender roles were during such a stifling time period for female rights. Around the turn of the century women’s wrestling for the first time began to embrace the idea of sex appeal. While Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt were wrestling in front of large crowds at baseball stadiums, women’s wrestling began to gain traction in burlesque houses and in taverns across the US, as drunken fans wildly cheered on the competitors. Similar to the carnival days, they would often take on male challengers from the crowd to baffle and entertain the audience. During this period a couple of women began to stand-out, with Josie Wahlford proclaiming herself the Women’s World Champion and her title belt would eventually become the standard title for women’s wrestling until the 1950s. Other wrestlers like Laura Bennett and the Russian Masha Poddubnaya, who took the championship to Europe, would emerge as top names. While these women would earn title reigns, they could hardly be considered stars. They were unknown to the general population and women’s wrestling was very much a niche form of entertainment. Women’s wrestling during this era became a unique form of theatre, wildly different than the style of wrestling that women would employ in later eras. Max Viterbo, a French sportswriter described attending one of the shows at a burlesque club in Paris. “The room was wild with impatience. The stale smell of sweat and foul air assaulted your nostrils. In this overheated room the spectators were flushed. Smoke seized us by the throat and quarrels broke out…a lubricious gleam came to the eyes of old gentlemen when two furious women flung themselves at each other like modern bacchantes—hair flying, breasts bared, indecent, foaming at the mouth. Everyone screamed, applauded and stamped their feet.” Things would begin to change for women’s wrestling in 1910 when Cora Livingston, a young grappler from Buffalo, emerged. She defeated Bennett for the title and became the first person to be officially recognized as the Women’s Champion of the World. Livingston would in a lot of way become the Ed Lewis of women’s wrestling, ruling the scene for decades as the indominatable champion, disposing of all-comers. What separated Livingston from the women of the past as that she was able to make women’s wrestling more of a legitimate attraction than just appearing in the red light districts of major cities. In 1913 she married Paul Bowser, who later would become arguably the biggest regional promoter in the United States thanks to his promotion of stars in Boston like Danno O’Mahoney and Steve Casey. Her relationship with a respected promoter like Bowser opened new doors for women’s wrestling. Livingston began appearing on major wrestling shows and while women’s wrestling was still seen as a bizarre, freak show attraction, it was no longer restricted to taverns and night clubs. In the 1920s the famed Gold Dust Trio of Ed Lewis, Toots Mondt and Billy Sandow began to revolutionize the wrestling business, turning it more into the spectacle of entertainment that it is today than just a formal athletic contest. This opened the door for more promoters to work with women’s wrestlers, and in turn Livingston and other wrestlers were able to appear on more shows. Livingston retired from wrestling in 1925 and took the championship with her. However, due to her prominence as a wrestler more women had broken into the industry and one of them, Clara Mortenson, a wrestler from Portland who was taught to wrestle by her father, would claim the title in 1932. She held it until 1937, when women’s wrestling first true star would emerge and change the industry forever. In 1932, Mildred Bliss was an 18 year old waitress working in on an Indian Reservation in Gallup, New Mexico. Eventually she married a man who whisked her away to Kansas City and introduced her to professional wrestling. Bliss became captivated with the sport and while the marriage did not last, her fascination with professional wrestling did. Blessed with a naturally muscular physique that was unheard of for a female during that time period, Bliss cut a striking figure that was both athletic and sexually attractive to men. Billy Wolfe was a World War I veteran who was a run-of-the-mill middleweight wrestling in the Mid-West. In the 1930s he found a niche by training and managing women’s wrestlers in Kansas City and was approached by Bliss in 1935. As legend has it Bliss was eager to be trained by Wolfe, who was originally dismissive and to teach her a lesson he ordered a male wrestler to perform a body slam on Bliss to show the lady that wrestling was not for her. When Bliss ended up body slamming the male wrestler instead, Wolfe did a complete 180 and released that Bliss could be his ticket to success. He agreed to train Bliss and developed a personal relationship with her that led to their marriage. Changing her name to Mildred Burke (which is humorous because today Mildred Bliss would be considered a far superior in-ring name than Mildred Burke) she proved a natural and quickly became the top draw in women’s wrestling.

In 1937 she defeated Mortenson for the Women’s World Championship and began an incredible run of dominance. While Mortenson and Livingston broke barriers by appearing on the undercard of male-dominated shows, Burke became the first female wrestler to be a true drawing card. Burke is still today the most popular women’s wrestler in American history. She became the first women’s wrestler to regularly main event shows and drew crowds that still stand today as records for American women. In 1941 she successfully defended her championship against Elvira Snodgrass in Louisville in front of 18,000 fans, an insane accomplishment for a female competitor. Considering WWE, the global leader in the industry only draws 18,000+ people a handful of times a year, it’s amazing in retrospect to see how big of a star Burke was. Wolfe leveraged the success of his wife to eventually negotiate a deal with the fledgling National Wrestling Alliance, where he would become responsible for booking and training all female wrestlers for the Alliance. While at first this worked out splendidly for Burke, who became the queenpin of women’s wrestling in the NWA, it soon turned into a nightmare. Wolfe, now in charge of dozens of women, proved to be a less than spectacular husband and his numerous indiscretions along with his often brutal treatment of Burke who he treated more as meal ticket and less as a wife, led to her filing for divorce in 1952. The divorce of Burke and Wolfe would prove disastrous for women’s wrestling, and in a lot of ways it still hasn’t recovered. Burke formed her own promotion, the World Women’s Wrestling Association and created her own world title. However, Wolfe’s connections with the NWA allowed him to shuffle the recognized championship (still the old Women’s World Championship) onto his daughter-in-law June Byers. Wolfe savagely blackballed Burke from the NWA and promoted Byers as the real champion. This eventually led to a 2-out-of-3 falls match between Byers and Burke to determine the true champion in 1954. Burke was told she was going to lose the first fall but rally back to win the next two, but when she lost the first fall Wolfe and the NWA double-crossed her and ended the match right there, giving the impression Byers had defeated Burke clean in the middle of the ring. Left with little recognition, Burke continued to train women’s wrestlers in California for the rest of her career—the biggest women’s wrestler in American history toiling away in virtual anonymity because of blatant misogyny and trickery by the business that had made her a star. Byers would hold the championship until 1956 when she retired. Byers’ retirement mostly marked the end of Billy Wolfe’s involvement in women’s wrestling. While he was controversial and smeared Burke out of wrestling, the fact is that he was incredibly dedicated to pushing women’s wrestling as a serious form of entertainment and women’s wrestling was never taken more seriously in the United States than when Wolfe was involved. Looking to wash their hands of the whole debacle, the NWA decided to put their faith in a new star, Lillian Ellison, a 33 year old veteran from South Carolina. Ellison began to work with veteran promoter Jack Pfefer who had her billed as The Fabulous Moolah and with the support of Pfefer she was given the women’s world title that was recognized by the NWA in September of 1956. Moolah was a mediocre wrestler, but her real skill was maneuvering herself into positions of power. With Wolfe out of the picture, Moolah became the new power broker in women’s wrestling. She created Girl Wrestling …

continue reading in source www.WrestlingInc.com