Women in wrestling: Rock n' roll into the mainstream

KARACHI:

It's the 1980s. Vince K. McMahon has bought WWE (then known as WWF) from his father and is defying all the unspoken territorial rules in the pro-wrestling industry to begin a national expansion. He has one male superstar in Hulk Hogan but no woman who could be the next big thing.

One of the wrestlers from the Fabulous Moolah's camp, Wendi Richter, who had had enough of the mistreatment, underpayment and exploitation, approached Mr. McMahon to join WWE. In Vice's Dark Side of the Ring episode about the Fabulous Moolah, Richter said she "didn't want my check going to Moolah."

With WWE's rising popularity in the '80s, McMahon chose Richter as the new face of the women's division to lead into the new era. But to sell her as the new face, she had to defeat the old guard in Moolah, who had been recognised as the women's champion for the past 28 years.

Rock N' Wrestling Connection

In 1983, wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano appeared in the music video of Cyndi Lauper's iconic anthem Girls Just Want To Have Fun. Soon after, he began taking credit for making Lauper popular and disparaging women in general. This started what will be known as the 'Rock N' Wrestling Connection' where pro-wrestling went rock n' roll (way before Chris Jericho became the Ayatollah of Rocknrolla), bringing WWE and women's wrestling mainstream attention.

"I created and made Cyndi Lauper," said Albano on Late Night with David Letterman in 1984. This started a rivalry between Lauper and Albano. But since Albano was retired as a wrestler, he chose Moolah to represent him against Lauper's representative Richter.

On July 23, 1984, Richter defeated Moolah to end her 28-years-long reign of terror and became the new Women's Champion at MTV's The Brawl to End It All. While Moolah had been beaten several times in 28 years, McMahon chose to market her as the unbeaten champion, very much like he presented Andre the Giant as the undefeated villain for a babyface Hogan in 1987. Their losses had occurred during the territorial days and since WWE was now nationally broadcasting shows, most of the audience would not have been aware of the records, allowing McMahon to dictate how he saw fit in order to promote the matches in the most effective ways.

Richter's era had begun with a bang. She would lose the title once before regaining it at the first ever WrestleMania in 1985. However, by this point, she had grown doubtful of McMahon's practices and again felt she was underpaid. And her demands to be paid what she deserved led to the first screwjob.

In November 1985, Richter was supposed to defend the Women's Championship against a masked wrestler called The Spider. The match took place at the Madison Square Garden where women's wrestling was once banned until Moolah broke it. During Richter's match, the Spider went off-script and pinned her to win the title. After the match, The Spider revealed herself to be, in fact, Moolah.

While Richter claims she never knew The Spider's real identity, it's doubtful that that's the truth. Regardless, McMahon had just executed the 'Original Screwjob', over a decade before he would do the same to Bret 'The Hitman' Hart in the '90s. Richter immediately quit WWE, left the arena and went home. Women's wrestling in the US had just had another setback and lost its biggest star.

While Richter's career after the Original Screwjob was never the same, she did return to WWE to accept her well-earned WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2010, and made a couple of appearances after that, including one alongside Lauper.

Joshi Puroresu

While female wrestlers in the US faced their own obstacles, Japanese female wrestlers known as Joshi weren't doing any better. Sadako Ikari joined her two brothers 'Inokari Brothers' to form a vaudeville-style athletic group and toured across Japan. She would become the first known Joshi as they gained popularity in post-war Japan.

The post-WWII Japan saw waves of American troops settle in the country and this gave way to new forms of entertainment, including women's wrestling, albeit mainly as catfights in strip joints.

It's fascinating to note that Japan's first wrestling promotion was All Japan Women's Wrestling Club started by Inokari Brothers, who featured their sister Sadako and several other Joshi like Katsumi "Rose" Tayama, Hiroi Hojoji, Yumi "Miss Potato" Katori, Yoko Sakurai, Masako Izu, and Yukiko Tomoe as the stars of the promotion. This was years before the god of Japanese wrestling Rikidozan (a Korean by birth) would come to Japan and establish the Japanese Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) in 1953.

After her split with ex-husband Billy Wolfe and the rise of Moolah in the States, Mildred Burke visited Japan in 1954. During her week-long tour, she, along with Mae Young and Rita Martinez, wrestled in eight shows and also trained with Joshi including Ikari.

Meanwhile, Rikidozan also started featuring women in his promotion. Altogether, it was a booming period for women's wrestling in Japan. In 1955, The Matsunaga brothers formed a new governing body 'All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association' for Joshi puroresu (Japanese women's wrestling). However, the abrupt exit of Inokari Brothers from wrestling shook its foundation, and women's wrestling suffered and went back to being entertainment for American soldiers in strip joints.

By 1968, the Matsunaga brothers established All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) and laid the foundation of women's wrestling to become a well-respected industry in itself which didn't need male stars to survive.

While Ikari continued wrestling sporadically, she was never again a hot brand like she was in the 1950s. But her contributions, with the support of her brothers, did in fact help promote women's wrestling and she is recognised as one of the pioneers until today.

While Moolah had a chokehold on women's wrestling in the US and was struggling, AJW landed a TV deal and established itself in the 1970s. Their popularity skyrocketed with the arrival of a women's tag team named 'Beauty Pair'. Composed of Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda, the team ushered in a new era of Joshi puroresu as they became pop music idols for teenage girls. At one point, their fame is said to have rivaled the likes of Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin at their peaks. They drew television ratings that blew away the most profitable periods in American pro-wrestling. Beauty Pair also paved the way for The Crush Gals in the '80s who ruled the industry while Moolah refused to step away from the spotlight in the US.

This is part two of the Women's Wrestling series.

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