Women of the '80s

[mrluck_07]

When it comes to the women in WWE in the '80s probably the most oft-mentioned is Wendi Richter, whose popularity was the highest and even compared to that of Hogan. Of course the division would be effectively shut down by the end of the decade but there were a few other notable names such as Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin or Jumping Bomb Angels. Was anybody here a fan of these ladies?

[LionDen]

I was, I got a lot to say on them lol I will be interested in chatting about The Fabulous Moolah who was the inaugural WWE Women's champion around 1983 The women's championship can be a little dodgy to look into. lol

For now I will add this match

Wendi Richter vs. The Dazzler - April 22, 1989
AWA Ladies Championship - Champion Wendi Richter defends against a slippery opponent in The Dazzler
AWA All-Star Wrestling, Rochester, MN (4/22/89)

[LionDen]

1960 - 2003

Wrestling Company career:

ICW (International Championship Wrestling)
1983 - 1985

WWF (World Wrestling Federation) now as WWE
1985 - 1992

WCW (World Championship Wrestling)
1996 - 2000

Just wanted to point out Miss Elizabeth, although not a wrestler in the 80s (or did she and I do not remember, I know she got in the ring a lot lol) she was a huge part of that era. We can do a bio on her later but she was always in the middle of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage .. a huge part of storylines and of course later in the 90s with Savage again and finally Lex Luger.

Her death: R.I.P

On May 1, 2003, in Marietta, Georgia, Luger called 9-1-1 to report that Hulette was not breathing. She did not respond to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and paramedics rushed her to the WellStar Kennestone Hospital Emergency Room, where she was pronounced dead at the age of 42. A medical examiner listed the cause of death as "acute toxicity", brought on by a mix of painkillers and vodka. Her death was ruled an accident. Hulette was buried at Frankfort Cemetery.

[LionDen]

One thing I notice about women's 80s matches, they do not change camera angles when there is a crotch shot with legs split like they do now adays. lol Just saying.

[averagemuta]

The women's division in mid to late 80s WWF could've been a lot more. Unfortunately, I suspect that the amount that Moolah had her hands in the whole thing probably weighed proceedings down a bit since I think most of the talent used were her trainees. The titles didn't really move around a lot, and a lot of the women are kind of forgotten about and never mentioned nowadays. Velvet McIntyre for example won both WWF women's titles at the time and even challenged for the singles title at Wrestlemania and I don't remember the last time they ever mentioned her on TV (which probably suits her alright since she's moved on with life and isn't involved at all in wrestling anymore.)

I do have a soft spot for Velvet because she's local to my home area, so it was neat to see her on the big stage and then learn later on that she lives a couple cities over and knows a few of my friends. She was also pretty unique too since she was one of the few wrestlers that wrestled barefoot without a real gimmick attached to why she was doing it.

The Jumping Bomb Angels were way ahead of their time, but were sort of given a quick run at best with the tag titles before they were phased out.

Rockin Robin had the title through Wrestlemania V and instead of wrestling, they had her sing America the Beautiful at the event? I think Sherri might've had it through Wrestlemania IV and I don't think she defended it there either?

Wrestling fans in general are pretty fickle and passive, so if the company themselves aren't really promoting the women seriously, why would the fans like myself who lived inside a WWF bubble want to see them?

I honestly don't remember seeing a single women's match on any of the syndicated TV shows (we didn't have cable so all I had access to were the Canadian equivalents to what you guys in the US had as All American Challenge and I think Wrestling Challenge) -- I didn't even know WWF had a women's division until I rented Wrestlemania 2 on VHS, which must have been 2 years after I'd seen my first wrestling match (and after WWF had phased out the division the first time)

Granted, AWA might've been doing more with them at the time but I didn't know it. I know they ended up hosting a lot of the talent of one of the McLane promotions at Superclash III, though I'm pretty sure it was an evening gown or lingerie battle royale or something like that.

....I don't want to bucket the entire 80s into poor women's booking though. There's some great footage out there of early 80s pre-VKM WWF women's stuff, especially around the northeast circuit. There's great singles and tag matches floating out there with wrestlers I mentioned above along with Desiree Petersen, Princess Victoria, Leilani Kai and such.

[LionDen]

The women's division in mid to late 80s WWF could've been a lot more. Unfortunately, I suspect that the amount that Moolah had her hands in the whole thing probably weighed proceedings down a bit since I think most of the talent used were her trainees.

Welcome averagemuta, any questions or ideas , feel free to PM or ask in UOW Feeedback forum.

Good post, a lot to chat about in there but I will start with Moolah. She had a lot of power. We talk about Vince McMahon and his problems wit ladies from the 90s and onwards, I can just imagine what he was like back then in the 80s with Moolah around. I am not a fan of Moolah as I have looked into her history and from what I have found most of it is true. She was worse before she came to the WWE. Anyway, always time to talk about her later, I like this thread, even when UOW was huge and busy, mostly people just wanted to see the new "Divas" etc naked etc but not really chat about women of wrestling. There are many videos online, I have seen them all but picked this one at random on Moolah. Her book is quite the read also with some crazy claims.

Not So Fabulous Moolah

[Ian_C]

One of my earliest memories of women's wrestling on TV.

[LionDen]

One of my earliest memories of women's wrestling on TV.

That was cool, have not seen that in years. Good for the women of wrestling also, even though it would have been called a novelty back then.