All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring s01e06_English

Now I understand you had
a rough match last night.

Ah, 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.

[cheering]

You can't say
"women's wrestling"

without thinking
The Fabulous Moolah.

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
Women's Champion...

The Fabulous Moolah!

[cheering]

As Moolah, the promoter,
I want to make money

for my talent and I want to
make money for Moolah.

[cheering]

Oh, come on!

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...
Bruise me...

[shouting]

I'll knock your teeth out!

There was drugs;
there was sex;

there was a lot of
abuse with Moolah.

I'm like, wow, they waited
'til she passed away to say

all these things so she 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 her, I don't know...

just 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.

[bell chimes]

♪

[match bell chimes]

...Fabulous Moolah, with a WWF
women's title on the line here.

She made all of her
costumes herself.

Anything flashy, she loved.

She was just that
kind of person.

It really never impressed
me that much because,

to me, she was just my
mother and I didn't

really realize how
popular she was.

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.
[laughs]

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.

- [laughs]
- Oh, yeah.

My name is Selina Majors.
I wrestled as Bambi.

Started in 1986.

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 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.

I'd stand in front of the
mirror with my hairbrush,

do little interviews
and tell Moolah

how I was gonna
come and wrestle her.

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

She was a heel.
She played that part.

My name's
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.

She's nasty and she cheats!

[shouting]

Oh, 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.

The meaner she was, the more
they liked it, you know.

And she loved being a heel.

Stick it in their eyes,
in the throat.

Ha!

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
and I 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 magazine?"

Always say for
the magazines, right.

"Why of course
you can, darling."

And she had her stock poses.
Boom, boom, boom,

and 30 seconds and
she's off to the ring.

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 girl's match
in the Garden.

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

It's 1984, the Rock 'n'
Wrestling Connection.

Cyndi Lauper and that
whole era of network TV,

and Madison Square Garden,
and MTV,

and rock 'n' roll stars...

And this place is
ready to explode tonight!

...Got so much national
attention that NBC and

everybody else
started looking at,

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,

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 9, 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.

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 in tremendous shape,

and she just had a natural
flair for, for wrestling.

But behind the scenes,
Billy Wolfe,

Mildred Burke's husband,
was pulling the strings and

managing the
whole women's troop,

for good and bad.

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

When you became a
wrestler for Billy Wolfe,

you automatically had to...
go to bed with him.

She said she
wasn't doing it,

and 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?

[laughs] That's kind
of hard to talk about.

- Really is.
- Hm.

The Fabulous Moolah,
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 for each other.

And, she did most
of the wrestling,

and he did most
of the booking.

She basically copied the

Mildred Burke and
Billy Wolfe 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.
[laughs]

♪

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 legacy going.

2 or 3 days later,
that'd 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 the
stuff was alleged,

we gotta say that.
It's alleged.

Grossed out about it.
Name it something else.

It's not hard.
Scrap it.

♪

Stories started coming
out on the internet,

Fabulous Moolah, suddenly,
was a horrible person

who took advantage of
all these women,

and pimped 'em out,
and fed 'em 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 Sherrod.

I'm mostly known as
a wrestling host.

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
her 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:

"There's 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, they are a
professional film company,

and they are doing an
episode dealing with

pro women wrestlers...

which one of 'em was
my mother, South Carolina's

first black female
professional wrestler,

Sweet Georgia Brown.

[applause]

I'm Michael McCoy.

I'm Senior Pastor at
St. Mark Baptist Church.

That article that came out
in the Columbia Free Times,

it was about what my 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 Susie Mae McCoy.

- Who is also known as?
- Sweet Georgia Brown.

♪

When my mom went
into wrestling,

she was with the
so-called great Moolah.

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 'em?

No, I can't sit here and say
I know truth to it or not.

But, you know,
when more than 1, 2, 3 people

saying the same story...

You know,
somebody ain't lying.

♪

Philip... Honey.

Can you walk these guys outside
and show them the banister?

This is my husband, Philip.

- Hi, how are y'all doing?
- How's it going?

Sure, sure I can.

♪

- Back here, hanging.
- 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,
thought I 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,

by Moolah's group.

Can you tell us who
Sweet Georgia Brown was?

Yeah, she was one of the,
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 was
like she had a purpose,

she wanted to be there.

The first time I
seen her wrestling,

the place was jam packed.

Throwing each
other out the ring,

they're kicking,
body slamming.

I just figured, you know,
this is one tough lady.

Being one of the first black
females to get into the

wrestling business, the
KKKs was at their fullest.

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 bus,

and she was
scared for her life.

♪

She'd 'a had to have been
super passionate because, see,

in 1964, she was
ranked #4 in the world.

If she would 'a had the
opportunity to fight for

the world's title, she
probably would 'a won it,

but Moolah was most
definitely not gonna 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'd call us names,
"half-breeds."

She was a witch.

God forgive me.
She's dead and gone.

Every time my mother went on
the road and she come back,

just about,
she was pregnant.

One of my aunts said that,
"Every time you come back home,

you come back home
with one of these half,

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
Moolah 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 of 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
gonna be glamorous and glory,

but it turned out to be
something totally different.

♪

I heard different
stories about my mother.

It's real sad.

And I have, 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,

and she was made to have...

sex with other men.

On the road, some of the
promoters would pay

some of the girls until they
slept with other promoters.

From what my mother told me,
she 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 a fine lady.

I asked Moolah,

"Did my mother ever talk
about who my father was?"

And 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?"

And 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, 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 do by Moolah,

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 use drugs,

they made her use alcohol,
whether 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 [laughs] 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 'em in,
she taught 'em a skill.

She put it together like a
group or a union and

took care of the girls, and made
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 had to

go through Moolah or
you weren't gonna work.

♪

- I have a bunch of questions.
- Okay.

I took my truth
serum before I came in.

Okay.
[laughs]

My name is Wendi Richter.

Wendi Richter!

I was a professional
wrestler for over 20 years.

The first time I ever
watched a wrestling match,

I watched The Fabulous Moolah
vs. 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 Columbia, South Carolina.

I was there within 2 weeks.

My name's Victoria Otis.

I wrestled as
Princess Victoria...

...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,
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 booked is

I gotta send you to Moolah."

I still remember a
friend of mine telling me,

"Vickie," he said,
"Don't go to Moolah's.

Find a job,
get on your feet.

Just don't go to Moolah's."

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 like Katie.

My name is Diamond Lil,

and Buddy Lee named me
Diamond Lil.

Katie come from a
hard background too,

and she was a wrestler,
and she lived

in the house with Moo,
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,

then I come in there and
drop a 6-pack in the pond,

and her and I'd sit there
and drink beer. [laughs]

I was famous for getting the
beer on the property. [laughs]

♪

They had apartments.

And she would put 2 or 3
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 Moolah's

was learning to drop kick.

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 gonna throw up,

it was when you were
gonna throw up and

would you hit the bucket?

The 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 girls train me.

She wanted her $300.

Now, can you imagine,
4 girls in one little house,

she's getting $1200 a month?
In the 80s!

And on top of that,
she's taking 25% off of

what she's telling
us we're paid.

Bull puggy.

I'm sitting here
24 hours a day,

making your connections
with the promoters.

All you got to do is sit
your lazy butt in the car

and go to wrestle,
and collect their money and

send me 25%.
And I thought that was...

that was fair.

♪

There's 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-beaded.

That was a 2 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
flood gates get opened.

I was in a match.

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

- [dogs barking]
- A girl...

Shut up!

[sighs]
Um...

The night I broke
my neck in the ring.

A girl stumbled and
she 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 Moolah's property

and Moolah's walking me
out to the ring.

She said, "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 pay day."

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 separate motel rooms.

[sighs] The conversation after
I hung up from him,

with Moo was,
"You know, hon,

the nicer you are to him,
the bigger your pay day'll be,

and you could
really use a pay day."

Producer: And so,
was Moolah sort of insinuating,

like, the idea that...?

When Moolah
looked 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."

♪ [suspenseful]

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 rent.

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 in my pocket.

She dumped me and
I never wrestled again.

♪

When I walked
away 30 years ago,

my heart was broke.
[sighs]

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 Moo told the girls?

She told them I was in
prison for dealing cocaine.

For God sakes, she couldn't tell
'em that I broke my neck and I,

and I was of no use to her
anymore so I had to go

'cause 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 protégé,
Wendi Richter,

was an obvious choice.

♪

Wendi Richter,
hell of a person.

Hell of a lady.

She loved her business.
She honed her skills.

She worked very hard to
become the wrestler she was.

Do you have an assumption
as to why there was

so much friction between
you and Moolah?

The only thing I can think of
why there was so much friction

is possibly she was
jealous of me 'cause

I was younger than her.

And, like my father said,
they couldn't put her face

on a can of dog
food to sell it.

Wendi Richter began
to eclipse her mentor,

and she left Moolah's stable
to join Vince McMahon.

When I left Moolah's,
I had a conversation

with Vince McMahon
and told him that

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.

♪

♪ GIRLS, THEY WANNA
HAVE FUN ♪

Cyndi Lauper was on an
airplane flight with Lou Albano.

And then, Lou Albano
tells everyone that

he was managing
Cyndi Lauper. [laughs]

I created and
made Cyndi Lauper.

Took her from a nothing.

I don't know if anybody
knows it, but when she did

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun,"
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.

Whoo, I'm happy!

And Cyndi Lauper chose me.

Moolah may have the
World's Championship Belt,

but she also has
Lou Albano on her side.

Oh, Lou.
[laughs]

As soon as Cyndi Lauper got
involved with Lou Albano,

Vince McMahon saw gold and
fostered that connection

into The Rock 'n'
Wrestling Connection.

- Happy New Year!
- At MTV!

The wrestlers
giving their hand at it.

They have been involved with
rock 'n' roll in the past year.

It brought the dated look of
wrestling into the main stream.

Wendi Richter morphed
from the Dallas cowgirl to,

Wendi Richter, a little bit
more Cyndi Lauper-ish,

little more rock 'n' roll,
and that's what led the

MTV 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 had before.

They were really trying
to escalate the girls up,

trying to get
equal to the men.

It was the turning point
for women's wrestling.

Vince wanted to make
Wendi 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,

Wendi needed to beat
Moolah for the title.

Well, with that in mind,
ladies and gentlemen,

we'd like to introduce to you
the number one contender

for the ladies championship,
Miss Wendi 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 defend.

Their rivalry was about to
explode in what would become

one of the most watched
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
of 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 and,
that changed Moolah's mind.

And also, by doing that,

Moolah got Vince McMahon Jr's
loyalty for life.

- 1, 2...
- [match bell]

That's when
everything changed.

The winner of this title and
new World Women's Champion!

Wendi Richter!

- [cheering]
- Oh my word!

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
'cause they wanted

to see Wendi 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
women's wrestling.

And, 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 ring...

you're addicted.

I think Moolah let
her ego get in her way.

And, Moolah couldn't quit.

♪

Wendi, show 'em
what you got!

[laughs]
Cyndi Lauper!

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 Wendi
was a household name,

Wendi wasn't getting paid like
a household name though.

[cheering]

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, he had
been pushing Wendi Richter,

gonna make her a superstar,
she possibly was getting

too big for her britches.

He decided that she
needed to lose the belt,

and who's gonna
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

'cause you can
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 treated,

but sometimes you gotta
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.

Wendi said that
Moolah had showed up...

♪

She didn't understand
why Moolah was there.

I'd wrestled the
Spider Lady before and

I didn't recall her
being that size.

A very determined
young lady.

Gonna 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 hold.

Spider going--
Oh, small package!

The referee counted, "1,"
I kicked out,

had my shoulder up.

[claps]
"2, 3."

♪

- And that was it.
- [match bell]

What was that?

It appears that the referee
has made a 3-count.

- [match bell]
- The match was over.

Then, the masked person...

took their mask off...

And it was Moolah.

- It is Moolah!
- [cheering]

It is Moolah!
Take a look, kids!

Fabulous Moolah, the oldest,
saltiest dog in the yard

that knows all the tricks,
she was the one

that was chosen because
it was thought that

if things did break down,

that she could handle Wendi
legitimately anyway.

Did you have any idea that,
that was Moolah...

- Mm-mm.
- ...In the match, at all?

No.
I couldn't tell who it was.

[crowd chanting]
Moolah! Moolah!

It was obvious who
was under that mask.

Everybody in the arena knew
who was under that mask.

Wendi knew.

This double-cross
blurred the lines between

business and story line.

Whatever the truth was,
Wendi 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,

Wendi was over like
$1 million at that time.

Her and Cyndi Lauper,
and the cartoon, The Goonies...

You know, Wendi 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 who's gonna 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 Wendi,

there would've 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 it back,
she held it back,

she held it back.
Then, finally,

it started to bloom
and she killed it.

I think Moolah was afraid.

I think she was
afraid of walking away.

I left the arena fully dressed
in my wrestling suit,

I 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 match?

[sighs] 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.
[laughs] I was there.

♪

In 1995, The Fabulous Moolah
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 story lines.

But Moolah showed no
sign of slowing down.

She teamed up with fellow
wrestling legend Mae Young.

Mae Young wrestled in
7 different decades.

She was tougher than Moolah,
and that's saying something.

Years ago, they, 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 Mae

in the late 90s and early 2000s

when they were both
everybody's grandmother.

Or, maybe the Addams
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.

[laughs]

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.

Ah! Come on!

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

I mean, my God,
she was 80 years old,

wearing a checkered
school girl outfit.

- [dog growling]
- No, no, stop.

- Stop. Scooter, stop it.
- [barks, growls]

Stop. Sh.

I get the last word, not you.
Be a good boy.

What was her funeral like?

It was crowded and I don't--
I'll 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 families
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 Johnnie Mae's here.

She had that
little thing put there.

She said, "When you
wanna come talk to me,

there's a bench in there.

You won't get wet
if it's raining."

[sighs]
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 day because

that wasn't her strong point.

10 years after
Moolah's death,

her impact on wrestling
remains controversial.

♪

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 could get
where you did.

She was-- 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 legacy,

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
Wendi 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,

should remember Moolah?

Any way they like.

Everybody have
their own opinion.

And me, personally, I don't
have an opinion of Moolah.

None 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
trained 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.