Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

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Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling
Acronym G.L.O.W.
Founded 1986; 2001
Style American Wrestling
Headquarters Las Vegas, Nevada (1986-1992)
Founder(s) David McLane and Jackie Stallone
Owner(s) David McLane (1986–1992)
Jackie Stallone (1986–1992)
Ursula Hayden (2001–present)
Website gorgeousladiesofwrestling.com

Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, also known as GLOW or G.L.O.W., is a professional wrestling promotion for women, begun in 1986 (the pilot was filmed in December 1985) and continued in various forms after it left television. Colorful characters, beautiful women, and over-the-top comedy sketches were integral to the series' success. Most of the performers were actresses, models, dancers, and/or stunt women hoping to get into show business through wrestling.

Original promotion

GLOW was created by Matt Cimber as an evolution of a somewhat different original concept by David B. McLane. That began as an aftermath of Jackie Stallone's physical fitness gym for women only, Barbarella's. David and Jackie promoted the girls for the entire running of the program, while Matt Cimber, very typically, remained out of the spotlight, with two notable exceptions. Mando Guerrero trained all of the girls, initially.[1]

The syndicated GLOW TV show was produced for four seasons (1986–1990) from the Riviera Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Seasons 3 and 4 were in fact, filmed at a former warehouse building approximately three miles east of the Riviera hotel which is currently a Harley-Davidson outlet. During the casting for the pilot, not all of the women were taking it seriously, so Mando Guerrero put one woman in a submission hold and made her cry.[1] They cast twelve girls for the show and trained them for six weeks prior to the shoot.[1] They wrestled approximately eight matches per show, which eventually was sold.[1] Some of the women moved to Las Vegas to continue working with the promotion.[1] The show itself differed from Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation in that they had actual seasons where some wrestlers were dropped, changed, or added before the new season began. Each season consisted of 26 episodes that were each rerun once to complete the year, with a total of 104 episodes produced.

Steve Blance was the senior referee in season two before becoming GLOW's "commissioner" in seasons three and four. He was always the recipient of a GLOW Girl beatdown in season two. Johnny Cafarella (as "Johnny C.") hosted seasons 3 and 4, was the figurehead owner (buying David McLane's "interest" in a storyline) and also served as company manager after the departure of McLane in 1987. Jackie Stallone (Sylvester Stallone's mother) was the figurehead owner and manager of the Good Girls, and Aunt Kitty (Kitty Burke) was the manager for the Bad Girls.

Each of the GLOW performers had her own rap song (personalized lyrics using the same backing track). It was shown on videotape prior to that wrestler's match. Similar to other wrestling promotions' use of wrestler-specific entrance themes, this gimmick may have been influenced by the Chicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle".

Revival

David McLane also was behind three subsequent women's wrestling leagues, Powerful Women of Wrestling (1986–1990), Ladies Sports Club (1990–1991) and Women of Wrestling (2000–2001). Johnny Cafarella promoted a similar show in 2003 called CRUSH along with Steve Blance. The CRUSH concept was revived in 2008 by Cafarella for the Wrestlicious promotion. The GLOW name is currently owned by Ursula Hayden, who portrayed Babe the Farmer's Daughter during seasons 3 & 4.

GLOW is still in existence, though not associated in any way with David McLane. It was revived by the Riviera Hotel & Casino, where it was originally filmed, in 2001. As the son of the director, Matt Cimber, Tony Cimber (the youngest child of the 1960s American sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and a half-brother of actress Mariska Hargitay), started on the show playing a character called "Nature Boy" and was led around the ring on a leash by a female wrestler named, "Jungle Woman". In April 2012, GLOW returned to Las Vegas for a show that reunited former GLOW girls Roxy Astor, Hollywood, Babe the Farmer's Daughter, Gremlina, Lightning, Thunder Bolt, Melody Trouble Vixen, Ashley Cartier, Godiva, Daisy, and Corporal Kelly. The show also featured new GLOW girls, including Sara Deathray.[2]

In 2014 an event called AfterGLOW was created and produced by original GLOW girl Roxy Astor. The event was a combination of a reunion and fan party. The event took place on Oct 25, 8:00pm at the Acme Comedy Theater in California. Several of the shows original stars attended and the fans were able to interact with the ladies of GLOW. There was also an autograph signing and a DVD produced of the show. More information on the AfterGLOW fan party can be obtained by searching for AfterGLOW on Facebook. The DVD that was produced of this event is still in limited edition print and can still be obtained by contact the shows producer Roxy Astor. The DVD features both the actual AfterGLOW show as well as special features which contain exclusive interviews from the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. GLOW ladies in attendance were: Roxy Astor, Godiva, Matilda The Hun, MTV, Little Egypt, Major Tanya, Dallas, Sunny The California Girl, Jailbait, Gremlina, Daisy and the shows announcer Johnny Caferella.


In 2015 GLOW Girl MTV published her first novel in her "Banners of Avalon" series, "The Return of Ealauna" under the name E. F. O'Hara. The e-copy was published on Amazon under her publishing company Indi-e Publishing, with paperbacks published by The Book Patch. She is working on the second novel in the series "Ordained" anticipated to be published in late 2016. Originally written as a 5 season TV series, Eileen enjoyed writing the characters so much she novelized the screenplays.


In 2016 the second AfterGLOW event will occur. This event will be held on a cruise ship and will feature theme nights and allow GLOW fans to interact with their favorite stars from the show. This event can also be found by searching AfterGLOW Cruise on Facebook.

Documentary

A documentary film entitled GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was completed in late 2011. The film was directed by Brett Whitcomb and written by Bradford Thomason, and features the music of ESG.[3]

GLOW: The Story of The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling premiered at Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival to positive reviews, and has since been featured in New York Magazine, LA Weekly, rogerebert.com, VICE, /Film, The Village Voice, and Mental Floss magazine. The film recently won the Best Documentary award at Comic-Con International Film Festival in San Diego, CA, and Audience Choice Best Documentary at Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL.[4]

Alumni

Character Actress(es) Seasons
Americana Cindy Maranne 1, 2
Amy The Farmer's Daughter Trudy Adams 2
Angel Andrea Baird 2
Ashley Cartier Nadine Kadmiri 1, 2
Attache Laura Fisher 1, 2
Babe The Farmer's Daughter Ursula Hayden 3, 4
Beastie Kelle Favara 3, 4
Big Bad Mama Lynn Braxton 3, 4
Brittany Astor The Brat 5
Broadway Rose 1 Eva Chirumbolo
Broadway Rose 2 Andrea Janell 3
Brunhilda Deann Murray 4
The California Doll Jane Hamlin 1, 2
Cheyenne Cher Dee Chocktoot 3, 4
Cinnamon Canela Arechiga 1
Colonel Ninotchka Lori Palmer 1–4
Corporal Kelly Olympia Hartauer 1
Corporal Kelly 2 Lillian Weaver Crabtree 3
Daisy Helena LaCount 3, 4
Dallas Debi Pelletier 1
Debbie Debutante Ann LaBree 1, 2, interim 3
Dementia 2 Nancy Daley 3
The Widow Nancy Daley 4
Dementia, Sugar Michelle Duze 2
Ebony 1, 2
Evangelina Christy M. Smith 3
Godiva Dawn Maestas 3–5
Gremlina Sandy Manley 3, 5
Habana Christina Garcia 3
The Heavy Metal Sisters
Spike - Sharon Wilinsky and Chainsaw Donna Wilinsky
The Housewives, Arlene and Phyllis		 1, 2
Hollywood Jeanne Basone 1–5
Jailbait Trish Casella/Trish King Casella 3 (Unaired), 5
Jungle Woman Annette Marroquin 1
Justice Narice Crockett 3, 4
Liberty Penny Johnson 3
Lightning Cheryl Rusa[5] 3–5
L'il Mama Jerrie Micheline Swoopes 5
Little Egypt Angelina Altishin 1, 2, 5
Little Feather Kuno 1
Little Fiji Nha Woo 1–3
Major Tanya Noelle Rose 3, 4
Matilda the Hun Dee Booher[6] 1, 2
Melody Trouble Vixen, MTV Eileen O'Hara 3–5
Mika the Headhunter Mikaela Karr 1
Mina the Headhunter 1
Mana the Headhunter 1, 2
Mountain Fiji Emily Dole 1–4
Olympia Debbie Core 1
Palestina Janeen Jewett 1, 2
Pepper Cynthia Peretti 1
Princess of Darkness Janet Bowers 1, 2
Roxy Astor Tracee Meltzer 3–5
The Royal Hawaiian April Homm 1
Sally The Farmer's Daughter Beckie Mullen 1, 3
Salt Charli Haynes 1
Sara and Mabel, The Hicks 1, 3, 4
Scarlet the Southern Belle Janice Flynn 1
Sneaky 3, 4
The Soul Patrol, Envy and Adore 1, 2
Spanish Red Ericka Marr 1, 2
Star Suzanne Duplessis 3, 4
Stinky Michelle Javas 3, 4
Sunny Patricia Summerland 3
Susie Spirit Laurie Thompson 1, 2
Tammy Jones Debbie D'Amato 1
Tara the Southern Belle Shiela Best 1, 2
Thunderbolt Dana Felton Howard 3
Tiffany Mellon Sandra Margot 3–5
Tina Ferrari Lisa Moretti 1, 2
Tulsa Jody Haselbarth 2 (interim), 3, 4
Vallerie Vendetta Sarah Del Ray 5
Vicky Victory Peach Janae 3, 4
Vine Janet Bowers 1–3
Zelda The Brain Marie Moore 3, 5

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://www.glowgirls.tv/
  3. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559038/
  4. ↑ Various references:
  5. ↑ http://www.cherylrusa.com/
  6. ↑ http://www.queenkong.com

External links

The AfterGLOW Fan Cruise The AfterGLOW Fan Party

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