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The Fabulous Moolah was born Mary Ellison in 1923. Born and raised in the American south, by the 1930s Ellison was attending local wrestling shows with her fatherb seeing the polarizing women of the time; Mar Young, Mildred Burke, and Cecilia Blevins. From this point on Ellison was hooked on the sport and wanted to be a star. The story that follows is one of success and triumph, but also a tale of dark secrets, drugs, and deceit. Fabulous Moolah ran the women’s wrestling world for 30 plus years, and it wasn’t always a world of glitz and glam. The wrestler Moolah and the promoter, booker, and trainer Moolah have two very different, but equally dark histories.
Mary Ellison Becomes The Fabulous Moolah
During the early part of Moolah’s career, she was under the tutelage of Mildred Burke and her husband Billy Wolfe. Burke and Wolfe were, at the time, the premier bookers and promoters for almost all of women’s wrestling. The Burke/Wolfe playbook also asked for their contracted talent to engage in sexual favors with other promoters for preferential bookings, on top of an already huge booking percentage of all payouts. Ellison refused to participate in these practices, causing tension between her and Wolfe.
By the mid-50s Moolah and her husband Buddy Lee were using their own versions of Burke’s practices and had started booking and promoting their own women wrestlers, and booking them against their rivals. After Burke and Wolfe’s retirement, Moolah would have a stranglehold on the world of women’s professional wrestling. The same woman who broke barriers, like being the first woman to wrestle at the historic Madison Square Garden Arena, was now building walls to prevent the growth of the sport.
The Fabulous Moolah Becomes A Promoter And Booker
During this part of Moolah’s career, she would feed and house her trainees and wrestlers. Some women Moolah booked and trained told stories of the property being locked down by a certain point, and if you weren’t home in time, you would be left out until morning. These were not provided accommodations either. Moolah was collecting rent from the women who stayed there, living two and three people in a single room efficiency style cabin, charging upwards of $1,200 a month for their rooms in the 1970s. With inflation that equates to about $9,100 if charged today.
The financial strain didn’t end there. With Moolah and Lee handling all the women’s promoting and booking, women’s wrestling went through the Fabulous Moolah, so if a woman was booked to wrestle, she was also collecting a 25% booking fee of their payout whether they were “one of her girls” or not.
That means, “Moolah’s Girls” were also paying the 25% on top of their already outlandish rent. This, mixed with the allegations of forced sex, drug use, prostitution and theft, left the wrestling world buzzing when women started coming forward. The training schedules, the booking schedule, and the expectations Moolah had for the women wrestlers was also extreme. Princess Victoria was a superstar trained and booked by Moolah, who experienced a tragic career ending injury. Victoria aas quoted as saying that she was thrown out with almost nothing to her name, but would refute the allegations of Moolah being a pimp.
“Moolah was not a pimp and she hated drugs. She did steal from all of her girls including me, but she was the only way to keep wrestling back then, so it was Moolah or almost nothing. […] I think [The WrestleMania Battle Royal] should have stayed named after Moolah, no matter how crooked she was, she is and was a very important part of women’s wrestling and if they are going to do her like this, then Snickers better reevaluate their sponsorship on all sports after the many arrests made for multiple different things in sports.”
“My neck was broken in the ring and I was basically thrown out with no medical attention and very little to my name. I am now fully disabled sometimes having to use a wheelchair due to the lack of medical attention. I have had multiple concussions and have donated my brain for a future lawsuit to prove that we wrestlers have been misused by the WWE for many many years. […] I want nothing to do with the WWE and will not, even if invited to allow my name to be in their so-called Hall of Fame.”
External: Princess Victoria Speaks out on WWE, Moolah and Tag Team Titles
The Fabulous Moolah Was Part Of The Original "Screwjob"
Moolah’s wrestling career inside the ring was just as cloudy as her booking and training reputation. During the early parts of her career, Moolah had a reign with the Women’s Wrestling World Championship that would rival Sammartino. Her initial reign lasting 10 years was ended, but she quickly and suspiciously picked the title back up almost a month later.
Then in the 1980s came the Rock and Wrestling connection. Along with that came a new and electric following for professional wrestling. With this following came a new star named Wendi Richter. Richter would go on to dethrone the reigning queen of wrestling. After 28 years of dominating the sport, with two generations coming and going, Richter was now the world champion.
After the match, during house shows, there were more rumors surfacing of Moolah intentionally trying to hurt Wendi in matches. Then, one night on the card, there was no Moolah, but instead Wendi was wrestling the “Spider Lady.” Through politics and the inner workings of WWE, Moolah would participate in the match under a masked disguise. This was the original WWE screwjob. After a small package rollup, the referee counted three despite a clear kick out by Richter. Richter left wrestling that night, and ultimately never returned, after giving her everything.
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Whether or not fans believe the accusations, one thing is for sure. If it were not for the Fabulous Moolah, women’s wrestling would not be where it is. Changing the names of battle royals or memorials won’t answer the bigger question, however. What cost did it take to get us here?