Women of the '80s

[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.

[Shootkick Man]

I always liked Moolah. She was ladies wrestling in the 60s, 70s, & 80's. She had her own training camp in Columbia SC. I met her and Mae Young at fan fest years ago and she was very nice to me.

[LionDen]

I always liked Moolah. She was ladies wrestling in the 60s, 70s, & 80's. She had her own training camp in Columbia SC. I met her and Mae Young at fan fest years ago and she was very nice to me.

Always two sides to a coin. lol