Ringbelles Retro: Legends honoured by SHINE
SHINE Wrestling announced yesterday that it would be honouring wrestling legends, though exactly who it would be were not revealed by the time yesterday’s Roundup was published. However, we now have the names – they’re Sabrina, Diane Von Hoffman, Joyce Grable and Leilani Kai, all trained at some point by the Fabulous Moolah.
Now, most of you will know who Leilani Kai is – former WWF Women’s singles and tag team champion, participated at WrestleManias I and X and also won the NWA World Women’s Title in 2003 at a TNA show. Joyce Grable adopted the name as she bared a resemblance to the original who retired in 1974, and won the NWA World Women’s Tag Team Championship on four occasions.
Von Hoffman still wrestles occasionally today – she originally portrayed herself as a German Nazi and then as Moondog Fifi, teamed with Kai and also made two tours of Japan in the early 1980s. Finally, there’s Sabrina, who still laces up the boots once in a while. She started wrestling under the name of Susan Stirling before changing her moniker and also held the NWA tag straps in 1982 with her partner Princess Victoria. (more…)
Ringbelles Retro: A full LPWA show
Sometimes a great Retro just falls into our laps, and such an occurrence happened earlier today, when the official YouTube channel of the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association uploaded one of its home videos for everyone to see.
LPWA wasn’t around for long – a mere three years in its original incarnation between 1989 and 1992, before coming back for a further two between 1998 and 2000 – but differed from Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling, which preceded it by a couple of years by being more about the in-ring action, making it more similar to Powerful Women of Wrestling, which was set up by GLOW creator David McLane after he left his original concept.
You may also notice a few of the women featured on the video, such as former World Wrestling Federation Women’s Tag Team Champions the Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai & Judy Martin), as well as former WWF Women’s Champion Madusa “Alundra Blayze” Miceli, D-Generation X member Terri Power, who went on to be better known as Tori, and Reggie Bennett, who went on to win the All Japan Women All Pacific Championship (a title that both Kai and Martin also held prior to their LPWA days).
Click after the link to see the video, as well as the match listings. (more…)
Ringbelles Retro: A couple of Sherri matches
Have you listened to the latest Women Of Wrestling Podcast yet? It was released on Friday to mark five years since the passing of Sensational Sherri, featuring a group of men and women who knew her well – Bill Apter, Candi Divine, Marianne Ryan, Lexie Fyfe & “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. Seriously, if you haven’t had a chance to hear it yet, give it a download, if only for the Ric Flair story that Marianne Ryan tells…
At the bottom of the piece, there are a few links to some videos from Sherri’s career, including one of her matches with Devine, and some other skits and moments. However, we reckon we could add a couple of extra matches from her time in the WWF before she became the manager of Randy Savage. As a result, we bring you this week’s Retro featuring two matches from the tail end of 1987.
The first is from the first ever Survivor Series on November 26, with then-WWF Women’s Champion Sherri captaining a team consisting of Dawn Marie (no, not that one), Donna Christianello and then-WWF Women’s Tag Team Champions the Glamour Girls (Judy Martin & Leilani Kai) taking on the Fabulous Moolah‘s quintet, also including Velvet McIntyre, Rockin’ Robin and Noriyo Tateno & Itsuki Yamazaki of the Jumping Bomb Angels. The other is from a month later with Sherri defending her Women’s Title against Robin in Madison Square Garden. (more…)
WOW Podcast #33 with Amber O’Neal
Episode 33 with Amber O’Neal
Audio Week concludes with the first Women of Wrestling Podcast of the new year, featuring the woman behind the ArenaChicks project, Amber O’Neal. The ArenaChicks will be at the LA WrestleReunion event at the end of the month, launching volume 2 of their DVD series and having a mini show at the event. Amber joins us to announce new names for the WrestleReunion taping, and discuss the concept behind the project. We hear about working the convention circuit (and the Gathering of the Juggalos) and a rundown on what to expect on Vol 2. In addition we talk about Amber’s career to date, including a story from her first match (wrestling Leilani Kai), help from Molly Holly, wrestling on a torn ACL for a year, shenanigans with Krissy Vaine as Team Blondage, SHIMMER and more.
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