The Fabulous Moolah

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The Fabulous Moolah
The Fabulous Moolah in April 2001.
The Fabulous Moolah in April 2001.
Statistics
Ring name(s) The Fabulous Moolah[1]
Slave Girl Moolah[1]
Masked Spider Lady[2]
Billed height 5 ft 6 in[3]
Billed weight 138 lb[3][1]
Born July 22, 1923
Kershaw County, South Carolina[4]
Died November 2, 2007 (aged 84)
Columbia, South Carolina
Billed from Columbia, South Carolina[1]
Trained by Mildred Burke[1]
Mae Young[5]
Debut 1949[1]

Mary Lillian Ellison[6] (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007), better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah, was an American female professional wrestler who was marketed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport.[1] She began her 27-year championship reign in 1956.[1]

She was well known as being the first WWF Women's Champion. According to WWE, Moolah held the title a total of four times.[2]

During her career, Moolah wrestled in Canada, Mexico, Japan, and throughout Europe.[1] She became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's title at seventy-six years of age, in 1999, forty-three years after she first won the title.[2] Ellison was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995.[7]

Contents

Early life

Mary Lillian Ellison was born on July 22, 1923, in Kershaw County, South Carolina,[8] and grew up in the Tookiedoo neighborhood, near Blythewood, South Carolina,[6] the youngest of thirteen siblings and the sole daughter. She was eight when her mother, Mary Suzanne Atkinson Ellison, died of cancer, and by age ten she was already working at her cousin's cotton farm. Ellison was deeply distraught over her mother’s death, so to cheer her up, her father, Henry Lee Ellison, took her to the local Tuesday night wrestling matches. Ellison immediately began idolizing the dominant woman wrestler of the era, Mildred Burke, who had given the female division added attention and popularity. A graduate of Columbia High School,[4] at age fourteen Ellison married twenty-one year old Walter Carroll, and though the marriage lasted just two years, Ellison gave birth to a daughter, Mary.[9] Ellison then ignored her dad’s pleas to stay home with the baby and set out for a wrestling career of her own.

Wrestling career

1940s-1950s

In the late 1940s, she began wrestling for Mildred Burke’s husband Billy Wolfe, the dominant women's promoter of the time. Wolfe was notorious for advising his wrestlers to sleep with competing promoters to ensure additional bookings,[10] a practice with which Ellison refused to go along. She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long, whom she eventually married. Long trained and introduced her to various promoters, who began using her as a valet for male stars. Ellison debuted as "Slave Girl Moolah" in 1949, serving as the valet for the Elephant Boy (Tony Olivas).[1] By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, providing eye candy for the male audiences while assisting Rogers against his opponents.[1] Following her divorce from Long, she dated country singer Hank Williams for a year.[10]

Within a few years, she began wrestling under the name "Fabulous Moolah", just as Burke was reaching the end of her long career. On September 18, 1956, Moolah defeated Judy Grable in a thirteen-woman battle royal to win the vacant Women’s World Title,[1] although June Byers still held claim to the NWA Women's Championship after beating Burke three years earlier.

Dominance (1960s-1970s)

Upon winning the championship, the Fabulous Moolah quickly established herself as the heir to Mildred Burke’s throne, as her first World Title reign lasted over ten years.[11] Moolah successfully defended the belt against the top female wrestlers in the world, while also continuing to befriend some of the biggest celebrities of the day, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.[10] In addition, she also opened a women’s wrestling school where she trained and promoted a variety of new female wrestlers, most notably the Lady Angel.

After June Byers retired in 1964, Moolah was subsequently recognized as the NWA Champion, thus making her the undisputed Women’s World Champion.[12] Defending the title across the world, Moolah was never averse to using heel tactics to retain her title. Nevertheless, Moolah finally dropped the belt on September 17, 1966 to Betty Boucher (Ellison's sister-in-law), although she regained the title just weeks later. She also traded the belt with Yukiko Tomoe during a tour of Japan in 1968. In 1972, Moolah became the first woman allowed to wrestle at Madison Square Garden. Previous to this, Madison Square Garden had had a ban against women's wrestling.[1] Moolah continued an uninterrupted eight-year reign before losing to Sue Green at Madison Square Garden in 1976. Any defeats, however, were temporary for the Fabulous Moolah, who always regained her title a short time later. Eventually, she purchased the legal rights to the belt, making her the virtual owner of the women's wrestling division. After losing the championship for two days to Evelyn Stevens in 1978, Moolah began another long reign, defending the title for another six years before a revolutionary storyline brought women’s wrestling to its zenith in the mid-1980s.

Rock 'n Wrestling Connection (1980s)

In 1983, Vincent K. McMahon began expanding the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) nationally, and he offered Moolah a lucrative deal for the rights to her Women’s World Title. Moolah agreed to appear exclusively for the WWF, and thus became the WWF Women's Champion. The following year, pop music superstar Cyndi Lauper began a verbal feud with heel manager "Captain" Lou Albano that brought professional wrestling into the mainstream culture in an angle that became known as the "Rock 'n Wrestling Connection."[13] When it was finally time for Lauper and Albano to settle their differences in the ring, a big matchup was scheduled with Albano representing Moolah against the challenge of Lauper’s protégé, Wendi Richter. In vintage WWF fashion, history was rewritten as Moolah was portrayed as having held the Women's Title uninterrupted for the previous thirty years, which was almost true, since all of the time since 1956 in which Moolah was not champion totaled just a few weeks. After much buildup and a tremendous amount of hype, the Fabulous Moolah finally lost the championship when she was defeated by Wendi Richter on July 23, 1984 in the main event of "The Brawl to End it All," which was broadcast live on MTV.[2]

After losing the title to Richter, Moolah's career seemed to have come to a close. She then trained Leilani Kai,[2] who beat Richter for the title in February 1985. Richter won it back at the inaugural WrestleMania, but when Richter’s relationship soured with the WWF, Moolah donned a mask as the "Masked Spider Lady", and regained the belt on November 25, 1985, in a controversial decision.[2] Richter was never told she would be losing the title, and fell victim to a real-life "screwjob" finish. Moolah was unmasked by Richter after the match. Richter promptly quit the WWF after this match, while Moolah continued to dominate the promotion's female division for another two years, excluding a six-day reign by Velvet McIntyre during a tour of Australia in 1986, before finally losing the belt to Sherri Martel on July 24, 1987.[2] She retired from full-time competition shortly after the loss to Martel, though she captained a team at the inaugural Survivor Series. Her team (Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin, and the Jumping Bomb Angels) defeated champion Martel and her team (Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Donna Christanello, and Dawn Marie).[2]

Semi-retirement

As women’s wrestling rose to new prominence in Japan during the 1980s and 90s, the division slowly faded into obscurity in the United States as the Fabulous Moolah disappeared into retirement. Throughout the early 1990s, she appeared in video packages and at live WWF events.[2]

On June 24, 1995, she was the first female wrestler to be inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.[2] When the professional wrestling industry hit another popularity boom in the late 1990s, Moolah along with long-time friend and fellow professional wrestling veteran Mae Young re-emerged in the WWE. This time however, the WWF women's division had since moved away from the traditional athletic matchups of the past, and now featured women with little to no wrestling experience competing in sexually-themed bikini contests and strip matches. On the September 9, 1999 episode of SmackDown!, Jeff Jarrett invited Moolah into the ring and proceeded to smash a guitar over Moolah's head.

Since then, Moolah and Young began appearing regularly in comedic roles as the women's division made a comeback from the year 2000 and onwards, with new stars like Chyna, Ivory, Lita, and Trish Stratus. On the September 27, 1999 edition of Monday Night Raw, Moolah and Young defeated Ivory in a "Handicapped Evening Gown Match". This led to a title match at No Mercy on October 17, 1999.[2] In the match, the seventy-six year old Moolah defeated Ivory to regain the Women's Title, thus becoming the oldest WWE Women's Champion ever,[2] though she lost the title back to Ivory eight days later. Also in 1999, Moolah and Young appeared on the tenth annual Billboard Music Awards. Moolah made a brief heel turn in 2000.

On the September 15, 2003 edition of RAW, Moolah won a match against Victoria. Moolah had been promised the match for her eightieth birthday, and became the first octogenarian to compete in a WWE ring.[7] After Moolah's victory, the "Legend Killer" Randy Orton came out and gave Moolah an RKO. Moolah and Mae Young made another appearance at New Years Revolution 2006, during a Bra and Panties Gauntlet Match attacking Victoria and stripping her of her top.[14]

Moolah and Young, along with several other lady wrestlers, starred in the 2004 film Lipstick and Dynamite a documentary about the women wrestlers from the 1950s era.[15] They also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote the film.

At WrestleMania 22, Moolah and Mae Young were featured in a segment involving King Booker and Queen Sharmell who, in the storyline, walked along a corridor of "freaks." On March 31, 2007, Moolah, along with Young, attended the WWE Hall of Fame 2007 Ceremonies on the eve of WrestleMania 23. At WrestleMania 23, she appeared along with Slick, Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Hart, Irwin R. Schyster, Dusty Rhodes, Sgt. Slaughter, Gene Okerlund, and Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco dancing backstage with Eugene, Cryme Tyme, Kelly Kelly, Layla El, and Brooke Adams. Moolah, along with Young, made another appearance at the 2007 Draft Lottery on June 11, 2007. Moolah was booked to make an appearance on SmackDown on August 24, 2007, but she could not make it due to her brother's death, so Mae Young appeared alone. Moolah and Mae both made an appearance at SummerSlam 2007 in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon and Raw General Manager William Regal. This was her last WWE appearance.[7]

Personal life

The youngest of thirteen children, Moolah had twelve older brothers. Her mother died of cancer when Moolah was young and she nearly had a nervous breakdown because she and her mother were very close. Her father took her to wrestling events to get Moolah interested in something.[10]

She had one biological child, a daughter named Mary. Moolah was 14 years old when she gave birth.[9] The father was Moolah's first husband, Walter Carroll. Mary wrestled briefly in the late 60s and early 70s as Darling Pat Sherry. Moolah also had six grandchildren.[16]

An animated version of Moolah was also included on a CBS Saturday morning cartoon during this lucrative time, titled Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. A Fabulous Moolah action figure was released in 2006 by Jakks Pacific as part of their Classic Superstars series.

In 2002, Moolah wrote her autobiography, The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle.[2]

The Fabulous Moolah died on November 2, 2007.[17] According to her daughter, the possible cause of death was a heart attack or blood clot related to recent shoulder replacement surgery.[citation needed]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

  • Other
    • JWPA Women's Champion [3]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s (p.86)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s (p.87)
  3. ^ a b c d FabulousMoolah.com. Profile. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
  4. ^ a b Dunbar Funeral Home (November 2, 2007). Ms Mary Lillian Ellison. Dunbar Funeral Home Obituary. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
  5. ^ Dave Scherer (October 2000). Life Begins At 77: Mae Young Interview. Wrestling Digest. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
  6. ^ a b Higgins, Lee (November 4, 2007). Friends wrestle with loss of Fabulous Moolah. The State. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
  7. ^ a b c Fabulous Moolah. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  8. ^ Kittle, Robert (November 05, 2007). Women's World Champion Wrestler "Fabulous Moolah" Dies in Columbia. WSPA Channel 7 website. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
  9. ^ a b Mooneyham, Mike. Moolah Simply Fabulous. Retrieved on 2007-12-17. “'My daughter's 14 years younger than I am,' says Moolah.”
  10. ^ a b c d Lillian Ellison (2003). The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle, 240. ISBN 9780060012588. 
  11. ^ Chris Schramm (October 5, 1998). Moolah:Twenty-eight years was the reign.
  12. ^ The Fabulous Moolah. Lipstick & Dynamite - The First Ladies of Wrestling [DVD]. WWE.
  13. ^ History Making Female Wrestler, The Fabulous Moolah, Dead at 84 - Salem-News.Com Sports
  14. ^ Bra and Panites Gauntlet Match.
  15. ^ The Ladies.
  16. ^ Mooneyham, Mike (1995). Moolah Simply Fabulous. The Wrestling Gospel. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
  17. ^ "Fabulous Moolah passes away", WWE.com, November 3, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-03. 

References

  • Brian Shields (2006). Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 9781416532576. 

External links

Professional wrestling
Portal
Persondata
NAME Ellison, Mary Lillian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fabulous Moolah, The
SHORT DESCRIPTION American professional wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Kershaw County, South Carolina, United States
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 2007
PLACE OF DEATH Columbia, South Carolina, United States