This Is Real Wrestling by Michael D. Bryson

09/18/2025

07/25/2025

03/27/2025

Written by Michael Bryson.
The next inductee into the Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame is the great Judy Martin. She’s the first inductee who never won a major (NWA, AWA or WWF) Women’s World Title. She’s inducted based on her degree of awesomeness! LOL!
Judy did win important Championships. She was a 3X NWA Women’s United States Champion and a 2X NWA Women’s World Tag Team Champion with as her partner. Kai, Joyce Grable and the Fabulous Moolah were actually who trained Martin for Pro Wrestling. She started her career in 1978 and worked all over, from Japan to Mid South to the WWF. She and Kai became 2X WWF Women’s World Tag Team Champions holding the title for a combined 1,157 days, longer than any other team. In the mid 80’s they were known as The Glamour Girls and were managed by . They had a tremendous feud with the Japanese team . The 2 teams electrified the ring, and traded the titles back and forth in 88. While the Jumping Bomb Angels were high flying, the Glamour Girls were more grounded. Judy in particular was a powerhouse at 5’7” and 175 pounds. She was famous for using power moves that were usually reserved for the guys. For instance, she was the 1sr wrestler I ever saw deliver a Power Bomb. Yes. The 1st Power Bomb I ever saw was done by Judy Martin. I believe Vince McMahon as announcer described it as, “What a maneuver!” LOL. As a side note the 2nd and 3rd wrestlers I saw use the Power Bomb were the 6’4”, 300 pound Terry Gordy and the 6’7”, 305 pound Dan Spivey, respectively. Judy was a tremendous in-ring worker who made every move she did look absolutely perfect and devastating.
In 89 she had a great series of matches against WWF Women’s World Champion .rockin.robin. By the end of the year Vince made what I think was a mistake; he phased out the Women’s Division altogether.
In 89 Judy went to the AWA where she challenged Wendi Richter for the AWA Women’s World Title, but never won the Belt.
She worked in various companies during the 90’s including the LPWA, WCW and PGWA where she won the Women’s Title in 99. She retired later that year.

03/27/2025

Repost from
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The next inductee into the Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame is the great Leilani Kai.
Leilani (born Patty Seymour in 1957) was trained by the Fabulous Moolah in the mid 70’s. Moolah thought she looked a bit Hawaiian so she gave Patty the ring name Leilani (heavenly flowers) Kai (ocean water). In 1978 she and Judy Martin became the NWA Women’s Tag Team Champions. Their reign lasted just 2 days, but in December 79 they won the belts again and held them for 126 days before dropping them to Joyce Grable and Wendi Richter.
In the 80’s Leilani rocketed to the top of the Women’s Wrestling world.
In late 83 Moolah and all the top performers of her Women’s Wrestling troupe signed to work for Vince McMahon Jr. in the WWF, essentially parting ways with the NWA. In the mid 80’s this meant high visibility for the women as the WWF had gone national with cable TV shows being seen nationwide. On 02/18/85 Leilani challenged WWF Women’s World Champion Wendi Richter in a sold out MSG at the War to Settle the Score. The card was broadcast on MTV. In front of the biggest audience to ever watch a Pro Wrestling event up to that time, Leilani won the World Title as part of the huge Rock & Roll Connection.
which involved one of the biggest Rock stars in the world; . It was truly an amazing time for Women’s Wrestling in America.
On 03/31/85 Leilani defended her Title against Richter at the 1st Wrestlemania. Richter won the Title back.
It was the end of Kai’s World Title reign, but not the end of her brilliant career. In August 85 Kai once again teamed with Judy Martin to defeat Desiree Petersen and Velvet McIntyre for the WWF Women’s World Tag Team Title. The most dominant Women’s team in WWF history, they held the Title for 906 days. They lost the Titles to the Jumping Bomb Angels on 02/24/88, but won them back in June and held them for 251 more days. On 02/14/1989, in one of McMahon’s biggest failures as a promoter (my opinion) he abandoned the Women’s Division.
In 2003 she won the NWA Women’s World Championship and reigned for 465 days. She’s truly one of the all time greats.

03/27/2025

Written by Michael Bryson
The 4th inductee into the Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame is Wendi Richter.
Say what you will, but Wendi was the Hulk Hogan of Women’s Wrestling in the mid 80’s. Her career began in 1979 as a student of the Fabulous Moolah. In the early 80’s she had great tag team success with the amazing Joyce Grable. They became known as the Texas Cowgirls and together they became 2X Women’s World Tag Team Champions.
Whenever the ladies came to the WWF, Wendi wrestled in the Philadelphia Spectrum and I had the chance to see her several times. She was different from the other ladies…and as an early teen, I definitely took notice. At 5’8” and 145-150 pounds, she was a pretty young woman with a beautifully toned physique. She was a heel but I still rooted for her. I remember her and Grable having a great match against Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria. I liked Velvet and Victoria…but I REALLY liked Wendi! 🤣
In late 83, Vince McMahon signed Moolah and many of her top protégés to work exclusively in the WWF during his huge national expansion.
In 84 Wendi underwent a huge gimmick refresher. She was paired with in a very cool, very 80’s Rock

03/27/2025

Written by Michael Bryson
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The 3rd inductee into the Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame is the late great June Byers (real name DeAlva Sibley 1922-1998).
The 5’7”, 150 Byers was trained by famed wrestling promoter and booker of Women Wrestlers, Billy Wolfe. She made her debut in 1944 and was one of Wolfe’s top traveling performers wrestling in all of the major territories of the NWA.
In the 1950’s the world of Women’s Wrestling was rather shady and controversial. Wolfe was the booker of 25-30 women and was married to the Women’s World Champion Mildred Burke. He was also the father in law of Byers. Burke separated from Wolfe in 1952 amid rumors of his infidelity. Some including the Fabulous Moolah claimed Wolfe was cheating with Byers…yep, his daughter in law.
Burke started her own company with herself as Champion. Wolfe and other promoters considered the Women’s World Title vacant at the time and a Battle Royal was held 04/13/1953 in Baltimore, MD to declare the new Women’s World Champion. At Wolfe’s encouragement the winner and new Champion was Byers. Still, many NWA promoters still considered Burke the NWA Women’s Champion.
In 1954 a match was signed between Byers and Burke to declare an undisputed Champion. The match was scheduled best 2 out of 3 falls (the standard for World Title matches at the time). The match turned into a shoot with Burke injuring her knee early on. Byers won the first fall in 13 minutes. The second fall went over an hour with no winner. The referee called the match and declared Byers the winner. This did nothing to clarify things as Burke continued to declare herself World Champion and Byers being considered by most, though not all, NWA promoters as the World’s Champion.
Byers continued to defend the title for 10 years, though in 1956 the promoters in the Northeast stopped recognizing her as Champion and held a Battle Royal which Moolah won to be recognized as their World Champion. Still, most NWA promoters recognized Byers as Champion until she had a serious car accident in late 1963. Injuries to her leg and being left with double vision ended her career at 41 years old. She passed away at age 76 from pneumonia in 1998.

03/27/2025

Written by Michael Bryson
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PART THREE…
Her loss of the WWF Women’s World Championship to “Sensational” Sherri Martel in 1987, just 4 weeks before turning 64, was not the end of her Wrestling career, nor her Championship reigns.
Unbelievably she had a 1 week reign again in 1999 at 76 years old when she defeated the Ivory () for the title. Ivory regained the crown, ending the Championship reigns of the oldest Women’s World Champion of all time.
recognizes her as being World Champion a total of 10,737 days, nearly 29.5 years. Unequivocally the greatest Women’s World Champion ever. Her character is a subject for another day, and is pure speculation. She passed away at 84 on 11/02/2007 possibly the result of a heart attack or a blood clot caused by a shoulder replacement surgery she had undergone not long before her death. During her prime she stood 5’6” and weighed 138-150 pounds. In her later runs as Champion in 1987 and 1999 she was about 5’5” and 155 (in 87) and 5’4” and 160 (in 99). She was, in my opinion the greatest female heel of all time. She learned a lot working with “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers on how to be a cocky heel. She knew how to beg off like a coward, and just when to lower the boom on her unsuspecting opponent. There was always something that felt just a little evil behind her eyes that I don’t mind admitting scared me a little when I was a kid. I believed in her gimmick…and though I considered myself “smart” at 6 years old thanks to spending time at Gorilla Monsoon’s house as a kid…she still scared me. In later years there have been stories of her actions outside of the ring that might hint to her being more similar to her gimmick than most heels are in real life. I don’t know how much truth there is to those stories. To be honest, I don’t feel the desire to look into it. She’s gone now. I’d rather remember the greatness of the Fabulous Moolah than delve into the possible darkness of Mary Lillian Ellison. Besides, there are plenty of places on the internet to search for that sort of thing if you’re interested. I choose to keep a little lighter, paying homage to the past and present babyfaces, heels and the amazing stories.

03/27/2025

Written by Michael Bryson
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PART TWO…
It’s always been reported that Moolah was World Champion for 28 years straight, but it’s not true. She dropped the Belt to Bette Boucher in Seattle in 09/66 after 3,651 days as Champion, but regained it 16 days later. After another 524 days as Champ she dropped the Belt to Yukiko Tomoe in Japan and won it back 23 days later on 04/02/68. This reign lasted 3,841 days during which she purchased the rights to the Belt

03/27/2025

Written by Michael Bryson
Today I’m starting inductions into the Women’s Wrestling Hall of Fame and the first inductee is the late great Mildred Burke (real last name: Bliss. 07/05/1915-02/18/1989).
Bliss married a man when she was 17 and had a son with him shortly before turning 19. Soon, they split up and she left them behind to follow her dreams in Professional Wrestling. She met promoter/wrestler Billy Wolfe and begged him to train her. He refused at first, she was only 5’2” and 115 pounds, but she was relentless so he agreed. He told a young male wrestler he was training to rough her up so she’d quit. Problem was, when he shot on her she countered and ended up on top of him, pinning his shoulders to the mat. Wolfe said, “Try again,” and this time she scooped slammed the young man. With that, Billy saw incredible potential.
By 1936 the now Mildred Burke was 130 pounds and would eventually peak at 138. In April 1937 she defeated Clara Mortenson who had be recognized as the 1st true Women’s World Champion since February 1932. Burke was a good looking woman with a great athletic physique and was very marketable.
Thirteen years later in 1950 the NWA decided to recognize Burke as the first NWA Women’s World Champion. She toured the country defeating all competitors.
In 1952 she and Wolfe (who she married at some point) divorced. Wolfe used his influence with the NWA to put over his stepdaughter, the talented June Byers, on 04/15/1954. June legitimately shot on Mildred at 13 minutes into the 1st fall (all title matches were 2 out of 3 falls) and scored a pin. For the next 50 minutes the women mostly struggled in a clinch and rolled around in a straight shoot. The referee finally called the match and declared Byers the new World Champion.
Furious, she left the NWA and opened a wrestling school for women and started her own promotion; the WWWA. She declared herself the Women’s World Champion with the conviction that her World Champion status had been continuous from 1937. She retired as Champion in 1956.
Mildred passed away after a series of strokes at 73, but her mark on Women’s Wrestling lives forever. BTW, she trained both Mae Young and the Fabulous Moolah.

03/27/2025

Repost from
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PART ONE…
As a kid growing up in southern New Jersey during the 70’s and early to mid 80’s I only knew of one Woman’s World Champion and that was the Fabulous Moolah (real name: Mary Lillian Ellison 06/22/1923-11/02/2007).
Her early life was hard, as her mother died of cancer when Ellison was 8 years old. Her father sent her to live with his parents and to work on their cotton fields to make money. By the time she was 10 her dad started taking her to the local Wrestling shows to cheer her up. She loved it and the first time she saw the Women’s World Champion Mildred Burke wrestle, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life.
Upon graduation from high school she got married. She had a daughter with her husband and shortly after the birth, the couple divorced and Ellison gave her daughter up to a friend and went off to follow her dream…a story not too dissimilar to Burke’s.
It was Burke’s school where she learned her craft studying under Burke, Billy Wolfe and Mae Young. Wolfe was apparently known for practically prostituting out his wrestlers to promoters and prominent male stars in the various territories. Ellison refused to play along with this and parted ways with Wolfe and was introduced to promoter Jack Pfefer by wrestler Johnny Long (whom she was dating). Pfefer placed her with the biggest star in the country; “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. She was given the name Slave Girl Moolah and was Rogers’ valet. She loved working with Buddy until he started pressuring her for…romance. She eventually went to work for Boston promoter Paul Bowser and in 1955 she started working in the Capital Wrestling Corporation for Vince McMahon Sr.
In 1956 she won a 13 woman Battle Royal for the vacant NWA Women’s World Championship. At that time McMahon gave her the name The Fabulous Moolah. Her first title reign lasted 10 years. Some NWA promoters still recognized Billy Wolfe’s stepdaughter June Byers as Champion. In 1964, Byers did the right thing for a retirement match (against Wolfe’s wishes) by doing the job for Moolah allowing Moolah to become the Undisputed NWA Women’s World Champion.
TO BE CONTINUED…