Ringbelles Roundup (7 August 2012) – Wrestlers Rescue, Dawn Marie, BLOW & more
Former WWE and ECW personality Dawn Marie seems to have a good heart. Setting up Wrestlers Rescue in 2008 (and the subsequent Pro Wrestlers Relief) in 2009, her goal was to make life easier for wrestlers with medical issues to help them pay their bills – a common problem for wrestlers outside of WWE who may not be able to secure the proper insurance needed to cover their ailments.
In the last week or so, her charity has received a battering from James “Kamala” Harris, who has had both of his legs amputated due to complications stemming from diabetes and high blood pressure. He claims that Wrestlers Rescue and Boston-based independent wrestling promotion the Millennium Wrestling Federation promised to help him out financially, and never did so, calling Dawn Marie “no good” and accusing her of keeping the money that was raised for him.
Wrestlers Rescue has not had the best of reputations in its short existence, but following this high-profile attack on her work, Dawn Marie decided to go public with all the details. (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: MadUSA USA USA USA
Come on, it’s Independence Day, we have to do something to mark the occasion, and who was more patriotic a female wrestler than Madusa? Well apart from GLOW‘s Americana, maybe…
Sporting the stars and stripes on her gear during her stints in WCW, even Madusa’s name talked about her love for her country. She did her bit to fight for national pride during her wars with Japanese stars like Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto in the mid-1990s, but for this Retro, we’ve selected a match from the tail end of the decade – in fact, it’s from the final pay-per-view of the millennium.
In 1999, Madusa was linked with Macho Man Randy Savage as part of Team Madness, accompanying him to the ring alongside his then-girlfriend Gorgeous George, as well as Miss Madness, who later became Mona and then was renamed Molly Holly in the WWF. However, in-fighting between Madness and Madusa led to the group falling apart and her later forming a relationship with Evan Karagias, and guided him to winning the Cruiserweight Championship at Mayhem in November of that year. However, he was then spotted flirting with Nitro Girl Spice, and so Madisa and Evan arrived at Splitsville. (more…)
Madusa is “contacted by WWE”
Could something be brewing for WrestleMania XXVIII that we had not considered? When Stew ran through the most likely options for a Divas match in Miami, FL or April 1, a number of different possible scenarios were raised from Divas title defences to battle royals. However, a curveball may have been thrown that has been bubbling under for a little while, and may start to spill out over the pan.
Madusa made a couple of posts on her Facebook yesterday giving some more information about her plans for the upcoming months. It started with her saying that she would not be at a couple of the WrestleReunion fanfests taking place over the next month:
Just want to let you all know I am NOT at the wrestle reunion in Miami or Canada.
just to set the record straight!
However, after taking away with one hand, she gave with the other:
However…. did receive a call from WWE…… :) and thats all i am say’n!!
The former WWF Women’s Champion has been pretty vocal on her Twitter about challenging current WWE Divas Champion Beth Phoenix in a winner-take-all affair, even going as far as posting up a picture of herself with the old Women’s Title belt – the one that she dropped in the trash on WCW Monday Nitro in late 1995. Although it all seemed like a bit of grandstanding, maybe WWE has decided to capitalise on it, considering they’re Twitter-crazy these days, and also short of a women’s match for WrestleMania. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (1 November 2011)
Imagine SHIMMER, WSU, ACW, Femmes Fatales, ECCW, AIW, OVW and FCW all clubbing together, putting up their best representatives and holding a tournament where they would be whittled down to one promotion as the best? Can you imagine the politics, jostling, arrangements, hostility, distrust and remarks there could possibly be? On the flip side, there is the chance that all would get on, things would be decided amicably and all would work together for the greater good – highlighting the plethora of great female wrestling talent out there, showing off their top wrestlers and then taking that momentum, breaking off again and working their own areas to capitalise on the buzz that was created in order to sell more tickets, shift more merchandise and create more awareness of their product. After all, women’s wrestling is a niche product within a niche product, and the amount of awareness – and interest – is not as high as it could be.
OK, I’m dealing in extreme hypotheticals on both sides, but if anything, it could create an intriguing night of action, capitalising on the sort of buzz that wrestling fans experienced when the WWF bought WCW a decade ago, throwing up some potential dream matches. Fair enough, it never really worked out that way, but that doesn’t stop wrestling fans from dreaming.
Over in Japan last week, such an event took place. Wednesday’s FLASH tournament featuring talent from Sendai Girls, JWP, Diana, REINA, WAVE, Ice Ribbon, Stardom and a freelance team drew a hugely impressive 1835 fans to Tokyo’s Korukuen Hall – a Super No Vacancy Full House. The first round was 5 on 5, the semi finals were 3 on 3 and the final was a straight tag match. (more…)
One more appearance for Bull Nakano
Earlier this week, Ringbelles found out about a show taking place on January 8, 2012. We knew nothing about it except that it was taking place at the Tokyo Dome CIty Hall and would be called Bull Nakano Produce “EMPRESS”. And that’s all we knew… until Dave Meltzer furnished us with more information as part of this week’s mammoth Wrestling Observer.
Keiko “Bull” Nakano will be appearing – but not wrestling – on her retirement show on her 44th birthday. Barring a very brief nostalgia comeback when she teamed with her mentor Dump Matsumoto in 2001, Nakano has had very little to do with wrestling since retiring in 1997 at the age of 29 due to injuries suffered because of her hard-hitting style and weight, which was around 220 pounds at the time.
After her retirement, Nakano dropped a shedload of weight – last year, she was reportedly down to 130 – and took up professional golf in 1998. The learning curve turned out to be very steep, and finished 250th place of 251 in a LPGA Futures (essentially a farm system for rising golf stars) Qualifying Tournament in November 2004, and didn’t fare much better the following year when she finished 261st out of 271. However, she managed to make it into Futures in January 2006 a couple of weeks after her 38th birthday. (more…)
Fight Like A Girl: Amber Gertner
We’ve been letting you know about K&S WrestleFest’s A Hot Summer Night since the lineup started to be revealed back in May. Well, the time is upon us, and female wrestlers from the past and present are descending on Philadelphia on Saturday for the show. From recent stars like Candice Michelle, Shelly Martinez, Amber O’Neal and Annie Social to stars of the Monday Night Wars era such as Debra, Stacy “Kat” Carter, Torrie Wilson and Terri Runnels, all the way back to stars of the 80s and early 90s like Wendi Richter, Madusa, Heidi Lee Morgan and Mike McGuirk, they’ll all be there.
Someone else who will be there is SHIMMER‘s resident interviewer Amber Gertner, who granted Ringbelles some of her time before heading off to the Ramada Philadelphia Airport Hotel in Essington, PA to talk to us about the event. She also discusses how she reverts back to being a fan around the stars of yesteryear, how some of the attendees’ appearances are as rare as rocking horse-guano, and also talks about Highspots TV, a new project which Highspots is looking to promote. Listen in to get the opportunity to receive a free two-week trial, so you can see what you think of it…
(left click on picture to stream, right click and “save as” to download)
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Will Beth/Kelly match up to Blayze/Nakano?
OK, the title is probably a silly question, but there is always a chance.
If you have never seen Alundra Blayze (AKA Madusa) v Bull Nakano from SummerSlam 94, you HAVE to take 11 minutes out of your life before tonight’s pay-per-view to watch this. The match came about after the late Luna Vachon had failed in trying to wrest the WWF Women’s Championship from Blayze’s grasp, so decided that if she could not do it, she would bring in someone who could – the 220lb Nakano, who had fought with Blayze when she was predominantly wrestling in Japan earlier on in the decade. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (14 June 2011)
“I hate wrestling”.
I’ve said this quite a few times during conversations with people, and generally, the topic which causes me to say the aforementioned statement is TNA Wrestling (or Impact Wrestling, whatever they want to be called this week).
Unlike most other Roundups, instead of reporting the big news (as there is none) I’m venting about the decline about the Knockouts division and for me, how it’s probably the most hair-extractingly frustrating thing in wrestling today. I equate it to having a child who you know is a genius, but instead decides to hit the crack pipe – you know it’s capable of so much more, but makes the decision to screw things up, and it saddens you, as you know said child is capable of so much.
Remember when everyone used to rave about TNA’s women’s division and how it was so much more varied and dynamic than the WWE Divas, and how the wrestling was in a different league in terms of quality? Remember how it used to be the place that female wrestlers aspired to go, believing that it would give them the freedom to do what they love to do on national and international TV? Those days are long gone, though that belief still lingers on.
Sacrifice, Victory Road, Slammiversary – all of the Knockouts offerings were no better than average, and at worst, were really bad. The reasons for this all come down to the Knockouts being a victim of their initial success. They’re being overbooked to the nth degree. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (17 May 2011)
The Big News
Hide your kids, hide your wife – Wrestlicious is back.
On Monday, it was announced that the second season of TakeDown would be shown on a cable network owned by Viacom. That could mean it could be hosted on Comedy Central, an MTV channel, VH1 or even Spike – the channel which currently hosts TNA TV.
In the official press release, Union Square Agency, with whom Wrestlicious has formed this partnership, says it will provide sponsorship sales, television production, syndication, media sales, event extensions, venue selection, strategic partnerships and manage licensing and merchandising.
Wrestlicious launched on TV in the US and Canada last year, two years after host and producer Johnny Cafarella and Jimmy Hart teamed up with Jonathan Vargas, a 19-year old who won $35.3 million on the Powerball Lottery. The original concept for Wrestlicious was dreamt up in 2003 when Hart produced a pilot for Crush, which was exactly the same as what Wrestlicious is – a mix of cartoony wrestling with comedy skits spliced in. Featuring wrestlers like Melina, Lacey, Rain and Cheerleader Melissa, it had proper wrestlers as well as models who would be trained up – sound familiar? Some of the characters were even recycled – the Felony character was originally played in Crush by Melissa, but seeing as she was contracted to TNA at the time, Felony was played by Rain in Wrestlicious. (more…)
Ringbelles Retro: Malia Hosaka in WCW
Earlier today, we unleashed our latest Women Of Wrestling Podcast with Malia Hosaka, where she talked about cosmetic surgery, meeting Luna Vachon, being messed around by the WWF and a range of other topics. But two of the spikier subjects that Malia discussed was her feeling on Madusa and Molly Holly.
If you haven’t listened to the podcast yet, go and check it out, but also make sure you have a watch of these two matches from Hosaka’s time in WCW, which includes a rare win over Madusa in the summer of 1996, and a loss to Holly (then wrestling as Starla Saxton and still in her first year in the business) from 1998.
Enjoy them both after the jump. (more…)
LPWA founder passes away
It has been announced that the founder of the Ladies Pro Wrestling Association (LPWA) has passed away. John Thurston “Tor” Berg was 72.
Dave Meltzer covers this comprehensively in this week’s Wrestling Observer:
John Thurston “Tor” Berg, who promoted the Ladies Pro Wrestling Association (LPWA), a more wrestling oriented offshoot of GLOW from 1989-1992, passed away on 3/4 due to a ruptured colon from a bowel obstruction that was never treated. Ken Resnick, who announced for the group and remained friends with him, noted he would mention having horrible stomach pains but never got it checked out. Berg was 72. (more…)
Ringbelles Retro: Inside The Power Plant
Bret Hart blamed it for not teaching Bill Goldberg to protect whoever he’s in the ring with, it had an 85% dropout rate, and it’s head trainer made a documentary maker throw up just to prove a point, but on this week’s Retro, we take a look at the Women Of WCW training at the Power Plant in Atlanta. (more…)
Ringbelles Roundup (08 March 2011)
The Big News
Tammy Lynn Sytch, known better to WWE fans as Sunny, is joining the WWE Hall Of Fame Class of 2011.
38-year old Sytch has been involved in wrestling for close to two decades, and was a mainstay in the WWF between 1995 and 1998 – along with Rena “Sable” Mero and Terri “Marlena” Runnels she ushered in the era of the female valets, which then evolved into the WWF/E Divas.
Sytch started in Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1992 with her then-boyfriend Chris Candido, debuting as Hillary Clinton-idolising heel Tammy Fytch in 1993. She managed Brian Lee to the Heavyweight Title and then represented Candido before the couple jumped ship to the WWF in 1995.
She was teamed up with Candido to form the Body Donnas – a pair of fitness gurus who vowed to get everyone into shape and take care of the “out-of-shape opponents” put in front of Candido (now known as Skip). However, it was Sunny’s promos and manager character that saw her receive the lion’s share of the attention, so when Skip’s star started to fall, Sunny was turned into the “Manager of Champions”, being the only person to guide three consecutive pairs of Tag Team Champions – the Body Donnas (now with Zip partnering Skip), the Godwinns and the Smoking Gunns. Sunny also managed the Legion of Doom in 1998, but by then, she was trying the patience of WWF brass due to no shows and a reported abuse of painkillers and was released in July of that year. (more…)
Ringbelles Retro: Here’s how you do an entrance
November 20, 1994 was a big day for women’s wrestling. More to the point, November 20, 1994 was a LONG day for women’s wrestling. All Japan Women presented Big Egg Wrestling Universe – a ten hour show in front of more than 42,000 fans in Toyko’s Egg Dome. You read that right – TEN HOURS, and FORTY TWO THOUSAND FANS. Featuring women’s wrestling matches from competitors across the world, it pulled in a record $4 million, unheard of for an all-girls show.
Most of the show was dedicated to the Five Star tournament which was won by Akira Hokoto, but the second to last match featured a contest which was shown on WWF TV – that’s because the WWF Women’s Title was on the line, and even changed hands, in what may have been the final WWF/E title change that didn’t take place on a WWF/E show.
Alundra Blayze and Bull Nakano had been feuding for months – not as hated enemies, but as competitive rivals, both believing that they were the best and fighting to be WWF Women’s Champion. Blayze held the title, and had beaten Nakano in their highest-profile match up to that point at SummerSlam 94. The rematch took place at Big Egg Wrestling Universe. (more…)
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