All language subtitles for Dark.Side.Of.The.Ring.S01E06.The.Fabulous.Moolah.1080p.WEB.x264-CAFFEiNE

Now, I understand you had a rough match
last night. You wrestled a lady and she

got 14 stitches.

Yeah, well, if that's what it takes to
try to win, that's what I'll do.

You can't say women's wrestling without
thinking the fabulous Lula. If she had

not run the women's wrestling business,
there may not have been women's

wrestling. Introducing first to my
right, former world's women's champion,

fabulous Lula.

As Lula the promoter.

I want to make money for my talent.

I want to make money for Moolah.

Even to this day, if you say women's
wrestling, the picture of Moolah

appears in my mind.

If Moolah was alive today, I'd probably
slap her.

She was so jealous of any woman that was
younger than her in wrestling.

She was also a manipulator, and she was
also a thief.

She wanted to hurt me.

There was drugs.

There was sex.

There was a lot of abuse.

I'm like, wow, they waited until she
passed away to say all these things so

couldn't stand up and defend herself.

I was warned, but I wanted to wrestle so
bad.

She gave her whole life to professional
wrestling.

She gave all these girls an opportunity.

And for nobody to stand up for, I don't
know, couldn't deal with it. She was

a great professional wrestler.

But she didn't know when to stop.

On this episode, the life, legend, and
controversy of the fabulous Moolah.

And it's Fabulous Moolah with a WWF
Women's title on the line here. She made

of her costumes herself.

Anything flashy she loved.

She was just that kind of person. It
really never impressed me that much

to me she was just my mother and I
didn't really realize how popular she

My name is Mary Austin and I'm the only
child of the Fabulous Moolah.

My mother kind of kept me out of the
spotlight, but she loved the spotlight.

She was determined to do it.

When you really love something, you put
yourself into it, and she had all of

herself into it. This is one Mary let me
have.

As you can see how beautiful it is,
sparkly, just like Moolah liked it. Oh,

yeah.

My name is Selena Majors.

I wrestled as Bambi.

Started in 1986, so I've been in it for
32 years.

I wanted my name as a kid to be Dynamite
Dixie Majors. So I've got these big

posters that would say, The Fabulous
Moolah Champion vs.

Dynamite Dixie Majors.

I had this lifestyle doll.

And I'd take that doll and I would body
slam it and climb up on the bed and drop

an elbow.

I'd stand in front of the mirror with my
hair brushed, do little interviews and

tell Moolah how I was going to come and
wrestle her.

As you can tell, I like the bad guys,
the heels.

She was a heel. She played that part.

My name is the fabulous Moolah. I've
been wrestling since I was 15 years old,

and I am the world's champion lady
wrestler.

They hated her, but that's what she
wanted.

Oh,

I'd fix up a little spoon handle, you
know, about the size of your finger,

it up with tape, and put it down in my
bra.

The meaner she was, the more they liked
it, you know, and she loved being a

heel. They get in the eyes and the
throat.

The 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.

I first broke into wrestling as a
photographer. I was a 15 -year -old kid,

was doing all of the photography that
was sold in the arenas for the entire

Memphis wrestling territory.

Moolah, can I get a couple of pictures
for the magazines?

Always say for the magazines, right?
Well, of course you can, darling. And

had her stock poses, boom, boom, boom,
in 30 seconds, and she's off to the

Moolah pioneered the hair -pulling, cat
-fighting, scratching, crowd -pleasing

kind of women's wrestling.

She broke glass ceilings one after
another.

She got into wrestling when there was no
women in wrestling.

Women's wrestling was actually banned in
Madison Square Garden, and Moolah was

the one that was chosen to break the
ban.

She was the featured girl in the first
girls' match in the Garden.

Now that she's almost 60, she's on MTV.

It's 1984, the rock and wrestling
connection, Cyndi Lauper, and that whole

of network TV and Madison Square Garden
and MTV and rock and roll stars.

And this place is ready to explode
tonight.

got so much national attention that NBC
and everybody else started looking at

pro wrestling. She made it from the mid
-50s to the dawn of MTV for the biggest

payoff she ever made. There she is, the
fabulous one, the fabulous Moolah,

putting her title on the line.

There'll never be anyone to have the
guts that she had.

This must have been really old.

Look at that, look at her hair.

This is a wrestling license.

Her mom passed away when she was about
nine, I think.

And then it was her dad and her brothers
that raised her. So she learned how to

fight real early.

It was rough for her. I was an only
child, and she was just a teenager.

She went to wrestling matches every
week.

And my mother saw Mildred Burke, and she
said, that's what I want to be.

It's Mildred Burke of Los Angeles,
California, world champion.

Back in the 30s and 40s, Mildred Burke
was such a legitimate athlete. She was

tremendous shape, and she just had a
natural flair for wrestling. But behind

scenes, Billy Wolf, Mildred Burke's
husband, was pulling the strings and

the whole women's troupe for good and
bad.

When she was 17 or 18, she went to see
Billy Wolf.

When you became a wrestler for Billy
Wolf, you automatically had to go to bed

with him.

She said she wasn't doing it.

She could find some other way to wrestle
without.

having to go to bed with him or anyone
else what's the worst experience you you

might want to say that like you ever had
with a promoter that's kind of hard to

talk about really the fabulous mulai at
one point was married to a guy named

buddy lee buddy lee used to wrestle of
course they met and they sort of fell

each other and she did most of the
wrestling and he did most of the booking

basically copied the mildred burke and
Billy Wolf playbook, they kept their own

stable, they took all the bookings, and
more importantly, a booking fee out of

all of the girls' pay.

You knew right off the bat why she got
in the business and why she wanted to be

a star.

She loved money.

Moolah would play such a dominant role
in women's wrestling that in 2018, 11

years after her death, her memory still
loomed over the sport.

The WWE made the announcement on March
the 12th that they were going to honor

the Fabulous Moolah by having the
Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal.

I thought it was very nice that they
would name it after her, keeping her

going.

Two or three days later, that had all
been taken away.

Let's talk about the Fabulous Moolah
controversy.

I think it's a bunch of bull.

I really think it's a bunch of bull.

Moolah has an awful past.

Some really, really sick shit.

She was an evil person. Moolah was
pimping girls out. A lot of this stuff

alleged. We've got to say that.

Alleged. Grossed out about it. Name it
something else. It's not hard. Crap it.

Stories started coming out on the
internet.

Fabulous Moolah suddenly was a horrible
person who took advantage of all these

women and pimped them out and fed them
drugs and all this stuff. They contacted

the sponsors and they had to take her
name off.

I was very shocked because I knew
better. I knew none of that was true.

And thanks to Nigel, he took the lead
way on it.

My name is Nigel Sherritt. I'm mostly
known as a wrestling hogan.

The Fight for Moolah campaign came about
because we started a petition to put

the truth out there and to honor the
woman who broke down the walls for

everybody else.

I just wanted to clear a name because
Moolah's not here to defend herself.

Did Moolah indeed take advantage of the
girls? Some of the girls have said yes,

some of the girls have said no.

I think that it was ignorant, canceling
the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle

Royal, because I interviewed over 20
women, and they all said the same thing.

No truth to those rumors.

Accusations about Moolah polarized the
wrestling world.

They originated from an investigative
newspaper story that quoted serious

allegations by the family of one of her
former wrestlers.

St. Mark, if you see these guys moving
around, they are a professional film

company, and they are doing an episode
dealing with pro -women wrestlers,

which one of them was my mother.

South Carolina's first black female
professional wrestler, Sweet Georgia

I'm Michael McCoy.

I'm the senior pastor at St. Mark
Baptist Church.

That article that came out in the
Columbia Free Times, it was about what

mother had to go through and endure
while she was in wrestling.

I started a search to try to find out
the truth.

Maybe you could just tell us your name
and a little bit about yourself.

Yes, my name is Barbara Harsey, and I am
the proud daughter of Susan A. McCoy.

Who is also known as?

Queen Georgia Brown.

When my mom went into wrestling, she was
with the so -called great mullah.

She said she was forced to do a lot of
things against her will.

Now, these are just stories that I
heard. Do I know any truth to them? No,

can't sit here and say I know truth to
it or not.

But, you know, when more than one, two,
three people saying the same story.

You know, somebody ain't lying.

Phillip!

Honey, can you walk these guys outside
and show them the banister? This is my

husband, Phillip.

Back here.

Oh, wow.

Back when Moolah died.

My husband, he went over to tear down
the barn that the ring was in, and

he found a banister, the women's
wrestlers, and he brought it back,

would want, you know, keep it.

For the better part of 25 years, every
top girl wrestler was trained by Moolah,

booked out by Moolah, and was controlled
by Moolah's group.

Can you tell us who Sweet Georgia Brown
was?

Yeah, she was one of the first.

African -American women to wrestle, and
my mother trained her.

Believe it or not, it was on a mattress
in the living room.

It was unreal, but they learned a lot.

I was told she had that drive to go get
it.

You know, it's like she had a purpose.
She wanted to be there.

The first time I seen a wrestler play
for a jam pack, throwing each other out

the ring, they kicking, body slamming.

I just figured, no, this is one tough
lady.

Being one of the first black females to
get into the wrestling business, the

KKKs was at their fullest.

The segregation was really bad at that
time.

Whenever they were on the road, my
mother was very protective.

There was a time in Mississippi she did
have a run -in with some KKKs. She was

thrown on the floor of the bar.

And she was scared for her life.

She had to have been super passionate
because, see, in 1964, she was ranked

number four in the world. If she would
have had the opportunity to fight for

world's title, she probably would have
won it. But Moolah was most definitely

not going to let a student challenge her
for the world's title.

When my mom went...

Into wrestling, she left us with one of
her sisters.

She would call us names.

Half -breed.

She was a witch.

God forgive me.

She's dead and gone.

Every time my mother went on the road
and she'd come back, just about, she was

pregnant. One of my aunts said that
every time you come back home, you come

home with one of these half -white kids,
half -breeds.

And we got mistreated, you know, for
years growing up because of our color.

I hated where she had left us.

I hated her career.

But then when I got the full story from
her, I kind of understood.

There's a lot of abuse with Mola and
Buddy Lee.

I saw her one time. This big old car had
pulled up.

She was getting out the back of the car.

and it was only for a few hours.

I didn't know the man's name at the
time, but he thought it was time to go.

My sister and I, we grabbed hold to her
leg, but he kind of like pushed her, and

she hit her head getting into the car.

I don't know if it was intentionally or
it was an accident.

My mom said everywhere she went and
everything she did was done according

to Buddy Lee and Moolah.

I think she thought that it was going to
be glamorous and glory, but it turned

out to be something totally different.

I heard different stories about my
mother.

It's real things, and I have no reason
not to believe that account.

There was one gruesome time that we
talked about.

She was told to drink and pop pills.

She was made to have sex with us.

On the road, some of the promoters
wouldn't pay some of the girls until

slept with other promoters.

From what my mother told me, he was
their favorite.

And you can call it entertaining or
whatever.

It's still pimping and prostitution.

Buddy Lee was not a nice person. And my
mother was on the road, and she came

home a day early and caught him in her
bed with one of the girls that she

trained. And she threw Buddy out. That
was it.

A lot of the girls went with him.

Georgia Brown was one of the girls that
went with Buddy.

I started to search for my father, and
then one of the first places where I

started was with the Fabulous Moolah.

Honestly, I was almost kind of afraid a
little bit because I heard of the Moolah

that everybody else talked about, but
the Moolah that I met, she seemed to be

fine lady.

I asked Moolah, did my mother ever talk
about who my father was?

Then Moolah took me to her wall, and she
pointed out this one picture.

And I said, who is this guy right here
in the middle?

She said, well, his name is Buddy Lee.

He was kind of rough on the girls.

I think that happened with Sweet Georgia
Brown, that she was one that had to go

to bed with Buddy.

And as a matter of fact, I think the
son, Michael, is proof of that.

If Buddy Lee's my father, then that's
who he is.

I wasn't coming in to look for anything,
and I didn't want anything.

I just wanted to close a chapter in my
life.

I knew that everything was over when my
uncle burned up all

of her stuff, and he poured gas on it,
and he set it on fire right

there in front of us.

At the end, she kind of thanked him.

because of the things that she had to
endure, the things that she was made to

by Mueller, by Buddy Lee, by the
industry itself.

Listening to your mom describe some of
the most horrific things she had to do,

you can't just walk away.

Regardless of the abuse she went
through, regardless of if they made her

drugs, They made her use alcohol.

Rather, they pimped her.

She still was South Carolina's first
black female professional wrestler.

Honor it.

Sweet Georgia Brown's life was shaped by
forces beyond her control.

For Moolah to succeed, she would need to
build her own women's wrestling empire.

The fabulous Moolah single -handedly
built her women's training school into a

powerhouse that dominated the industry.

It attracted young women eager to follow
in her footsteps.

In Columbia, South Carolina, there was a
location called Moolah Drive.

And on Moolah Drive was the house that
Moolah built and also a variety of other

buildings. It was a compound.

The women not only trained there, but
they lived on the property, and Moolah

presided over it like a mother lion.

She took girls from all walks of life,
and she brought them in. She taught them

a skill.

She put it together like a group or a
union and took care of the girls and

sure they were taken care of.

She was one of the most powerful women
in the wrestling business. If you were a

female wrestler at that point and you
wanted to get booked, you pretty much

to go through moolah or you weren't
going to work.

I have a bunch of questions.

Okay.

I took my truth serum before I came in.

My name is Wendy Richter. Wendy Richter!
I was a professional wrestler for over

20 years.

The first time I ever watched a
wrestling match, I watched the fabulous

versus Vivian St. John.

And I told my friend, I could beat
Moolah.

The referee gave me Moolah's phone
number. She told me to come on to

South Carolina.

I was there within two weeks.

My name is Victoria Otis. I wrestled
with Princess Victoria.

I come from a very, very abusive
childhood.

And that's basically what took me to
wrestling.

You had to want it.

You had to bleed. You had to cry.

When I was wrestling, and it had been
about a year, and I was told by my

promoter, look, I've done all I can do.

I've tried to get you booked other
places. The only way I can get you

I've got to send you to Moolah.

I still remember a friend of mine
telling me, Vicki, don't go to Moolah.

Find a job, get on your feet, just don't
go to Moolah.

I was warned.

But I wanted to wrestle so bad.

When you first got to the property,
there's these big gates.

After dark, the gates were locked.

If you weren't home and you weren't
working, you got locked out.

Moolah had a roommate named Diamond Lil,
and we all called her Katie.

And I really liked Katie.

My name is Diamond Lil, and Buddy Lee
named me Diamond Lil.

Katie come from a hard background, too.
She was a wrestler, and she lived in the

house with Moolah, and she called her
Ma.

And she's been right there with my
mother through thick and thin.

Katie liked to drink beer, but she
wasn't allowed to.

Katie used to come out to the pond and
go fishing, and I'd come in there and

drop a six -pack in the pond, and her
and I'd sit there and drink beer.

I was famous for getting the beer on the
property.

They had apartments, and she would put
two or three girls in there at a time,

and they would come down to the gym
every morning.

What I remember the most about my
training at MOLA's was learning to drop

I would go out there and drop kick and
drop kick and drop kick and just land on

the mat. The mat wasn't soft.

It was all bloody. And by that time, a
lot of it was mine.

There were buckets strategically placed.
And it wasn't if you were going to

throw up.

It was when you were going to throw up
and would you hit the bucket.

One thing that Moolah taught me, take a
bite and growl.

Moolah, she never trained me. She just
took the money and she had the girl

me.

She wanted her $300. Now, can you
imagine?

Four girls in one little house, she's
getting $1 ,200 a month in

the 80s?

And on top of that, she's taking 25 %
off of what she's telling us we're paid.

Bullpucky. I'm sitting here 24 hours a
day making you connections with the

promoters. All you got to do is set your
lazy butt in the car and go to Russell

and collect their money and send me 25%.

And I thought that was fair.

There is a picture of me in this brown
outfit that Moolah presented to me at

Christmas in front of all the girls
after she had given all of them a $5 or

$10 gift.

That was no cheap outfit.

That was hand -beated. That was a $200
to $300 outfit.

She couldn't take me in privately and
give me this outfit. She had to do it in

front of the girls. That was another one
of her little manipulation things.

Everything brings back memories now.

And it's like the floodgates get opened.

I was in a match. I know it was the
first or second week in September 1984.

A girl.

Shut up!

The night I broke my neck in the ring, a
girl stumbled and sat on

my head.

That was the day my world fell apart.

It hurt so bad I couldn't stand it.

I remember a moment at the hospital.

They had my neck braced.

I remember being on a cot.

Then the next thing I remember, I don't
know how, but I'm back at Moola's

property, and Moola's walking me out to
the range. I want to see if you can take

a bump.

I took a bump, and I cried.

Every time I took a bump, I felt like
something was exploding.

This went on for a month, two months.

Moo comes to me one day.

She said, hon, if you go see this guy in
Holland, he'll give you a payday.

I thought to myself, I can't wrestle.

Might as well.

I get on the phone with this guy, and I
make it explicitly clear.

It's a separate motel room.

The conversation after I hung up from
him with Moo was, you know, hon, the

you are to him, the bigger your payday
will be.

And you could really use a payday.

And so was Moolah sort of insinuating,
like, the idea that... When Moolah

at me and said, You know, the nicer you
are to him, the nicer he'll be

to you.

What else can I say?

When this guy first picked me up at the
airport, I said, damn, this guy didn't

get beat by the ugly stick. He got beat
by the whole damn forest.

I wake up the next morning. I catch him
right here, and I grab his hand, and I'm

holding it.

I said, dude, I will break your wrist.

And she was fire engine red pissed when
I got back.

I can't believe she didn't sleep with
him.

Well, not a week after I got back is
when Moo came to me and said, look, you

can't wrestle and I need my ransom.

I'll take that yellow outfit. I'll take
the brown outfit that she gave me for

Christmas.

I left the property that day with my
Chevy Malibu station wagon and 20 bucks

my pocket.

She dumped me.

And I never wrestled again.

When I walked away 30 years ago, my
heart was broke.

I can't even explain it.

I missed the road.

I missed my friends. I missed my family.

And when I left, do you know what told
the girls? She told them I was in prison

for dealing cocaine.

For God's sake, she couldn't tell them
that I broke my neck and I was of no use

to her anymore.

So I had to go because then they knew
their fate.

I love wrestling.

To protect this business, to me, is like
protecting the country.

If wrestling needed me, I'd do it in a
heartbeat.

All someone has to do is ask.

Moolah! As wrestling gained popularity
in the early 1980s, the WWF looked to

replenish its roster with younger
wrestlers.

Moolah's protege, Wendy Richter, was an
obvious choice.

Wendy Richter.

Hell of a person.

Hell of a lady.

She loved her business. She honed her
skills. She worked very hard to become

wrestler she was.

Do you have an assumption as to why
there was so much friction between you

Lola? The only thing I can think of why
there was so much friction is possibly

she was jealous of me because I was
younger than her.

And like my father said, they couldn't
put her face on a can of dog food to

it.

Wendy Richter began to eclipse her
mentor, and she left Moolah's stable to

Vince McMahon.

When I left Moolah's, I had a
conversation with Vince McMahon and told

I didn't want to live there anymore, and
I did not want my check going to her.

I wanted the check to come to me, so I
knew what I was making.

As soon as Vince took over from his
father, he started making changes.

One advantage that he had was that a lot
of celebrities had grown up in the New

York area as fans of wrestling. And one
of those was Cyndi Lauper.

Cyndi Lauper was on an airplane flight
with Lou Albano.

And then Lou Albano tells everyone that
he was managing Cyndi Lauper.

I created and made Cindy Lauper. Took
her from the nothing.

I don't know if anybody knows it, but
when she did Girls Just Want to Have

he was in it.

That's how all of this came together.

It all boiled down to that Lou Albano
said, I'm going to choose someone to

represent me in the ring. So Lou Albano
chose Fabulous Moolah. And

Cindy Lauper chose me.

the world's championship belt, but she
also has Lou Albano on her side.

As soon as Cyndi Lauper got involved
with Lou Albano, Vince McMahon saw gold

fostered that connection into the rock
and wrestling connection.

The wrestlers giving their hand at it,
they have been involved with rock and

roll in the past year.

It brought the dated look of wrestling
into the mainstream.

Wendy Richter morphed from the Dallas
Cowgirl to Wendy Richter, a little bit

more Cyndi Lauper -ish, a little more
rock and roll, and that's what led the

movement there in 1984 that pretty much
paved the way for the first

WrestleMania. They were giving girls
more of a push than they probably ever

before. They were really trying to
escalate the girls up, trying to get

the men.

It was the turning point for women's
wrestling.

Vince wanted to make Wendy Richter the
equivalent as Hulk Hogan would be, so he

had a male role model and a female role
model. Since the most widely recognized

female champion of the previous 30 years
had been the fabulous Moolah, Wendy

needed to beat Moolah for the title.

Well, with that in mind, ladies and
gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you

number one contender for the ladies'
championship, Miss Wendy Richter.

And the rest is history.

Ladies and gentlemen, this title belt
will be on the line at Madison Square

Garden just moments from now. This lady
to the fan.

Their rivalry was about to explode in
what would become one of the most

matches of all time.

That was probably the most nervous I've
ever been in my life. I knew every move

mattered.

There was so much at stake, and it was
against Moolah. It was the culmination

my whole career.

Moolah had been very jealous and guarded
of that championship for a long time,

but Vince was able to write the
appropriate amount of money on a check

changed Moolah's mind. And also, by
doing that, Moolah got Vince McMahon

loyalty for life.

One, two.

That's when everything changed.

When I won the championship, it was a
feeling like no other.

Everyone was up on their feet and
screaming.

I can't believe someone beat her after
28 years, and that someone was me.

It was a big deal for the fans because
they wanted to see Wendy win, right? But

it was a bigger deal inside the business
because two generations of wrestlers

had come and gone without ever seeing
the fabulous Moolah lose.

It was shocking to the folks in the
business who knew about the stranglehold

that Moolah had had on the thing.

Right here is the new champ, the
terrific symbol of the new woman.

My match against Moolah for the
championship was kind of ground zero for

wrestling.

It moved towards a different level of
women's wrestling.

See, what a lot of people don't
understand is once you step in that

addicted.

I think Moolah let her ego get in her
way, and Moolah

couldn't quit.

Oh, my. We were on the top of a
skyscraper.

I remember I was hot. I was hungry. I
was thirsty.

And it felt like the day would never
end.

When I went to visit my father and my
grandmother in Kokomo, Indiana, people

recognized me. I'm thinking, they know
me in Kokomo.

Even though Wendy was a household name,
Wendy wasn't getting paid like a

household name, though.

I found out early in my career that the
men were being paid far more than the

women. But if I'm the only one saying
that, one person can be replaced.

Vince McMahon had been pushing Wendy
Richter, going to make her a superstar.

possibly was getting too big for her
britches. He decided that she needed to

lose the belt, and who's going to beat
her for the belt?

I was on the road constantly, but it was
always matches against Moolah over and

over.

I'll never forget one time she got me in
a move, the Boston Crab. With that, you

never go all the way back because you
could break someone's back.

Well, she did.

She tried to break my back.

She wanted to put me out.

My spine snapped like firecrackers. She
was just so bitter.

I really believe in the golden rule,
treat others as you'd like to be

But sometimes you've got to treat fire
with fire.

And in the ring, when that bell rang,
you had no friends.

When I was to wrestle the Spider Lady
for a championship match, it changed my

career.

It changed my life.

I really didn't think anything of it. I
thought, well, it's just another

championship match.

and it's against the Spider Lady.

Wendy said that Moolah had showed up.

She didn't understand why Moolah was
there.

I've wrestled a Spider Lady before, and
I didn't recall her being that thought.

A very determined young lady is going to
take one heck of a wrestler to be able

to strip that title from her.

The match really didn't go that good.

It was just a wrestling halt.

Spider going, oh, small package.

The referee counted one.

I kicked out, had my shoulder up.

Two, three.

And that was it.

What was that?

Appears that the referee has made a
three count.

The match was over.

Then.

The masked person took their mask off.

And it was Moolah.

It is Moolah.

It is Moolah. Take a look. Fabulous
Moolah, the oldest, saltiest dog in the

yard, knows all the tricks.

She was the one that was chosen because
it was thought that if things did break

down, that she can handle Wendy
legitimately anyway.

Did you have any idea that that was
Moolah? Did it match at all? No.

I couldn't tell who it was.

It was obvious who was under that mat.

Everybody in the arena knew who was
under that mat.

Wendy knew.

This double -cross blurred the lines
between business and storyline.

Whatever the truth was, Wendy came out
the loser.

I demanded to talk to Vince McMahon, and
no one would tell me where he was.

I probably would have killed him with my
bare hands.

What Vinny and Moo did to her?

Wendy was over like a million dollars at
that time. Her and Cindy Lauper and the

cartoon, the Goonies.

You know, Wendy was over as big as
Hogan, and maybe that was the problem.

The only thing I can think of is I was
asking to be paid fairly.

I feel like it was a sad situation that
happened because the girls should be

paid maybe more than they were at the
time. But when a promoter tells you

going to win or lose, you have to go
with the one who's running the show,

whether you like it or not.

That was her choice to walk away from
it.

If everything had worked with Wendy,
there would have been an established...

women's division with women featured in
more important matches a lot before it

actually happened.

I was angry for what she just did to
women's wrestling. For so long, she held

back, she held it back, she held it
back. Then finally, it started to bloom,

she killed it.

I think Lula was afraid.

I think she was afraid of walking away.

I left the arena fully dressed in my
wrestling suit, hailed a cab in New York

City, and went to the airport.

They were dead in my life.

They were dead.

Have you ever seen the footage of the
mass?

I almost did. I couldn't bear to see it.

What good would it do? The bitch is
dead, okay? I don't need to see it. I

there.

At 1995, the Fabulous Moon became the
first woman inducted into the WWF

Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Tonight is the greatest night of my
life.

being inducted into the WWF Hall of
Fame.

By the year 2000, the WWF had phased out
traditional women's athletic wrestling

in favor of strip matches and comedy
storylines.

But Moolah showed no sign of slowing
down.

She teamed up with fellow wrestling
legend Mae Young.

Mae Young wrestled the seven different
decades.

She was tougher than Moolah.

And that's saying something.

Years ago, they had to put up a chicken
wire fence up over the ring because they

hated me so bad.

It's insane that more people saw Moolah
and Maeve in the late 90s and early

2000s when they were both everybody's
grandmother.

Maybe the Adams family's grandmother.

I have to be real careful with her.
Everywhere I go, she either wants to get

drunk or naked. This would be the place,
I guess.

And then, of course, they go out on TV
and they can take the tremendous...

bumps and incredible falls and still
somehow not break into a million pieces.

She should have stopped in her 60s, but
she couldn't.

I mean, my God, she was 80 years old
wearing a checkered schoolgirl outfit.

No, no, stop.

Stop. Stop it.

Stop.

Shh.

I get the last word, not you.

Be a good boy.

What was her funeral like?

It was crowded, and I don't, I tell you
the truth, I don't know. I was just in a

daze the whole time.

I didn't even know that he was there.

I just remember thinking that it was the
end of an era.

In 2007, Moolah passed away at the age
of 84.

The wrestling family showed up in large
numbers to pay their respects.

This is where she's buried.

This is hers here.

And this is Katie's, and this was Johnny
Mae's here.

She had that little thing put there. She
said, when you want to come talk to me,

there's a bench in there. You won't get
wet if it's raining.

She was all I had.

And I miss her every day.

No one can ever, can ever be as good as
she was.

Never.

Women's wrestling today has undergone a
renaissance I don't think would have

been possible without the rise of women
in mixed martial arts, and specifically

Ronda Rousey. Now it's so much more
refined. It wasn't that way in Moolah's

because that wasn't her strong point.

Ten years after Moolah's death, her
impact on wrestling remains

Well, I think in wrestling there...

is blurred lines between your character
and who you really are.

I believe that the fans couldn't tell
the difference between Moolah and the

character she was playing.

Nobody really knows how it hurts you to
hear that, that you worked for somebody

and they pimped you out, so you get what
you did.

She had never once ever drugged any of
us. It just really...

Pisses me off that they're taking away
the legacy of the fabulous Moolah.

I mean, I'll be honest with you. Bambi
was never a famous wrestler. But if

there's one thing that I could do, it
would be to save Moolah's name and

and restore what she gave to the
professional wrestling business.

Moolah may have initially opened doors,
but she quickly closed the door.

She held women's wrestling back probably
for 40 years.

If Moolah had left Wendy with the belt,
I think women's wrestling would have

skyrocketed.

She wasn't as big a star as Mildred
Burke.

She's not as big a star as Ronda Rousey,
but she was the placeholder for 30

years.

How do you think people should remember
Moolah?

Any way they like.

Everybody have their own opinion, and me
personally, I don't have an opinion of

Moolah.

Nothing that I care to share.

If I choose not to like her because of
what she did to me, that's fine.

But Moolah needs to be remembered.

She was an icon in this business.

You can't take away her history just
because she's an asshole.

All the girls that she tried, remember
her.

and they know that they wouldn't be
where they are now without her, and they

wouldn't have had the career they had
without her.

Whoever's starting these rumors, you're
not just calling Moolah a pimp.

You're calling me a prostitute.

And that hurts.

And if you were not on that property, if
you were not in that room, you don't

know what happened, and you need to shut
up.