LILLIAN ELLISON (THE FABULOUS MOOLAH)

Lillian Ellison (The Fabulous Moolah) Biography

The following biography is from Wikipedia.org “The Free Encyclopedia.”

Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007), better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah, was an American female professional wrestler. She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke, as well as working alongside professional wrestler "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. She won the NWA World Women's Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty years.

In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship in 1984. Ellison was marketed by the WWF (later World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE) as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport.[1] According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Women's Champion and held the title a total of four times.

In addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in woman's professional wrestling. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a comedic role with longtime friend Mae Young. Ellison became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's Championship at age 76, in 1999.

****

Ring name(s) The Fabulous Moolah[1]

Slave Girl Moolah[1]

The Spider[2]

Height 5 ft 4 in[3]

Billed height 5 ft 6 in[4]

Billed weight 138 lb[1][4]

Born July 22, 1923(1923-07-22)

Kershaw County, South Carolina[5]

Died November 2, 2007 (aged 84)

Columbia, South Carolina

Billed from Columbia, South Carolina[1]

Trained by Mildred Burke[1]

Mae Young[6]

Johnny Long[7]

Debut 1949[1]

****

Early life

Mary Lillian Ellison was born in 1923 in Kershaw County, South Carolina,[8] and grew up in Tookiedoo, twelve miles from Columbia.[9][10] The youngest of thirteen children, Ellison was the only daughter of a part Cherokee father and an Irish mother. Her parents owned a farm, a grocery store, and a service station.[10]

When her mother died of cancer aged forty, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother and worked on her cousin's cotton farm to make money. At age ten, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mother’s death; to cheer her up, her father took her to the local wrestling matches. Ellison liked the matches, but it was not until she saw Women's Champion Mildred Burke wrestle that "they began to mean much more to me."[11]

Ellison returned to the Columbia home of her father and brothers.[12] She graduated Columbia High School,[5] but at age fourteen married twenty-one year old Walter Carroll. They soon became parents to a daughter.[12][13] A few months after the birth of her daughter, she divorced Carroll.[12] Still only fifteen, she left her daughter with a friend and set out on a wrestling career of her own.[12][13][14]

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1940s–1950s)

Ellison began her wrestling career with Mildred Burke’s husband Billy Wolfe, the dominant women's promoter of the time.[15] Her first match was on May 26, 1949 against June Byers at the Boston Arena.[14] Wolfe was notorious for advising his wrestlers to enter into sexual relationships with either himself or competing promoters to ensure additional bookings, a practice with which Ellison refused to go along.[16] She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long. Long later introduced Ellison to Jack Pfeffer who gave her the moniker "Slave Girl Moolah".[3][15] By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, accompanying him to the ring while providing eye candy for the male audiences and assisting Rogers against his opponents.[1][3] Ellison broke up the partnership because Rogers kept pushing her to begin a sexual relationship.[3] She then served as the valet for the Elephant Boy (Tony Olivas).[1][3] Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine.[17] At one show in Oklahoma City, a man, who thought that Olivas was a black man, attempted to stab Ellison with a knife for kissing him.[17] Moolah later left Pfeffer's promotion and began wrestling under Boston promoters Tony Santos and Paul Bowser.[18] In 1955, she began working for Vince McMahon, Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling Corporation.[18]

World Champion (1956–1970s)

On September 18, 1956, Moolah defeated Judy Grable in a thirteen-woman battle royal to win the vacant World Women's Championship, which shares a lineage with the NWA World Women's Championship.[1][15][19][20] She was not immediately recognized by everyone as the NWA Champion because Billy Wolfe, with whom she had had conflict earlier in her career, still controlled the promotion.[21] After the match, Vince McMahon, Sr. dubbed Ellison with a new ring name—The Fabulous Moolah.[20] Subsequently, June Byers came out of retirement to challenge Moolah to a match for the title.[21] During the match, Moolah acted as the aggressor and pinned Byers to retain the championship.[21] Moolah's first World Championship reign lasted over ten years.[22] Moolah successfully defended the belt against the top female wrestlers in the world, such as Judy Grable and Donna Christanello, while also purporting to befriend some of the biggest celebrities of the day.[23] Moolah claimed in her book, "First Goddess of the Squared Circle," that she formed friendships with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.[23]

After June Byers retired in 1964, Moolah was subsequently recognized as official NWA Champion, thus making her the undisputed Women’s World Champion.[24] Nevertheless, Moolah dropped the belt on September 17, 1966 to Betty Boucher, although she regained the title just weeks later.[25] She also traded the belt with Yukiko Tomoe during a tour of Japan in 1968.[25] On July 1, 1972, Moolah became the first woman allowed to wrestle at Madison Square Garden, which had previously banned women's wrestling.[1][26] In fact, Moolah helped overturn the ban on women's wrestling in the entire state of New York, which the New York Athletic Commission lifted in June 1972.[26] During her quest to overturn the ban, she flipped football player Roosevelt Grier onto his back on The Mike Douglas Show.[26] Moolah continued an uninterrupted eight-year reign before losing to Sue Green at Madison Square Garden in 1976.[25] Moolah regained her title a short time later.[25] She also bought the legal rights to the championship in the late 1970s,[25] and after losing the championship for two days to Evelyn Stevens in 1978, began another long reign, defending her title for another six years.[25] Also in the 1970s, Moolah held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice with Toni Rose.[27][28]

Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection (1980s)

See also: Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection

In 1983, Vince McMahon, Jr. began expanding the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) nationally, and Moolah sold him the rights to her Women’s World Championship.[29] Moolah agreed to appear exclusively for the WWF, and thus became the first WWF Women's Champion.[29] The following year, singer Cyndi Lauper began a verbal feud with manager "Captain" Lou Albano, who long had a reputation of being a villain, that brought professional wrestling into mainstream culture in a storyline that became known as the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection."[30][31] When it was finally time for Lauper and Albano to settle their differences in the ring, a match-up was scheduled with Albano representing Moolah against the challenge of Lauper’s protégé, Wendi Richter.[31] After much buildup and hype, the Fabulous Moolah lost the championship when defeated by Richter, who had Lauper in her corner, on July 23, 1984 in the main event of The Brawl to End it All, which was broadcast live on MTV.[2][19] Prior to the match, the WWF promoted Moolah as holding the championship for the previous 28 years.

After losing the title to Richter, Moolah aided Leilani Kai in defeating Richter for the title in February 1985.[2][32] Richter won it back at the inaugural WrestleMania, but when Richter’s relationship soured with the WWF, Moolah donned a mask as "The Spider Lady" and regained the belt on November 25, 1985, in a controversial decision.[2] Richter was never told she would be losing the title and fell victim to a real-life "screwjob" finish known as "The Original Screwjob".[33] Richter promptly quit the WWF afterward,[33] while Moolah continued to be champion for another two years—excluding a six-day reign by Velvet McIntyre during a tour of Australia in 1986—before losing the belt to Sherri Martel on July 24, 1987.[2] She later captained a team at the inaugural Survivor Series.[2] Her team (Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin, and the Jumping Bomb Angels) defeated champion Martel and her team (Leilani Kai, Judy Martin, Donna Christanello, and Dawn Marie).[2]

Semi–retirement

Throughout the early 1990s, she made appearances in video packages and at live WWF events.[2] On June 24, 1995, she was the first female wrestler to be inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame.[2] In the late 1990s, Pat Patterson and Ellison began jokingly discussing a comeback for her, which resulted in Patterson contacting WWF Chairman Vince McMahon about the possibility.[34] In 1998, Moolah and Mae Young re-emerged in the WWF (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE).[34] The WWF women's division, however, had since moved away from the traditional athletic match-ups of the past and now featured women competing in sexually-themed bikini contests and strip matches.[35]

Moolah received a call from McMahon in late 1998 about returning to the company.[36] On the September 9, 1999 episode of SmackDown!, Jeff Jarrett invited Moolah into the ring and smashed a guitar over her head.[30] Moolah and Young then began appearing regularly in comedic roles.[30] On the September 27, 1999 edition of Monday Night Raw, Moolah and Young defeated Ivory in a Handicapped Evening Gown match, which led to a title match at No Mercy on October 17, 1999.[2] The match saw seventy-six year old Moolah defeat Ivory to regain the WWE Women's Championship, thus becoming the oldest WWE Women's Champion ever,[2][19] though she lost the title to Ivory eight days later.[37]

On the September 15, 2003 edition of Raw, Moolah won a match against Victoria.[38] Moolah had been promised the match for her eightieth birthday and became the first octogenarian to compete in a WWE ring.[39] After Moolah's victory, the "Legend Killer" Randy Orton came out and performed an RKO on her.[38] Moolah and Young made another appearance at New Years Revolution in 2006, during a Bra and Panties Gauntlet match attacking Victoria and stripping her of her top.[40] She also made brief appearances at WrestleMania 23 and the 2007 Draft Lottery on June 11, 2007.[41][42] Her last WWE appearance before her death was at SummerSlam in August 2007, in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon and Raw General Manager William Regal.[39]

Training and promoting

Ellison and her second husband Johnny Long began training women to become female wrestlers, which included Ella Waldek, Daisy Mae, and Katherine Simpson.[7] Long later contacted promoter Jack Pfeffer, who agreed to book some of the wrestlers at his shows.[7] After marrying wrestler Buddy Lee, he began helping Ellison train the female wrestlers.[43] After she left Pfeffer's promotion in the 1950s, Ellison found it difficult to book her trainees in shows due to Pfeffer's influence over other National Wrestling Alliance promoters.[43] Ellison claimed Pfeffer would threaten to reveal the pre-planned nature of wrestling if any other promoters did not do as he liked.[43] As a result, Ellison began selling cosmetics door-to-door and Lee opened a service station to make enough money to pay their bills.[43] They later began to book their wrestlers, including Judy Grable in Boston, under promoter Paul Bowser.[18]

In the late 1950s when the once-dominant promoter of women's wrestling, Billy Wolfe, was out of business, Ellison and Lee began to book their female wrestlers for more and more shows.[44] They began calling their promoting business Girl Wrestling Enterprises (GWE).[44] Ellison demanded a lot from the girls of GWE, including that they had to keep their hair and make-up done, act like a lady, and not date men who were in the professional wrestling business.[44] In addition to women, Ellison also trained midget professional wrestlers, including Katie Glass in the 1960s.[44]

Over the years, various female wrestlers have come forward with stories accusing Moolah of being a pimp that often provided various wrestling promoters with unsuspecting female wrestlers that would be used as sex objects. One of the most notorious accusations is from the family of Sweet Georgia Brown (Susie Mae McCoy). McCoy, who was trained and booked by Moolah and her then-husband Buddy Lee, told her daughter that she was often raped, given drugs and made an addict in an intentional attempt by Moolah and Lee to control her. Ida Martinez, who wrestled during the 1960s, also recalls that many of the regional promoters “demanded personal services” before they would hand over a lady wrestler’s pay.[45]

Sandy Parker, a lesbian former pupil of Moolah's, also claims that Moolah forbade her from going to any gay bars and tried to persuade her to date men. Parker says this enranged her, because "(Moolah) was two faced because she had her own little dalliances that we all knew about."[46]

As well as allegedly exploiting female wrestlers sexually, Moolah has been accused of using her financial influence to control the women's wrestling scene. Rhonda Sing (also known as Rhonda Singh) stated that Moolah contacted her and offered to let Singh wrestle Wendi Richter in a couple of pay-per-view matches, but demanded she receive half of Singh's pay check; a stipulation Singh was unwilling to accept.[47] Moolah also used her influence to steal the spot originally held by Mad Maxine on the animated series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. Maxine, who was being managed by Moolah and about to receive a big push by Vince McMahon, left the WWF shortly afterward due to her spot being taken away on the animated series and because Moolah was unwilling to provide her with additional bookings.[48]

Ellison founded the Ladies' International Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization to help retired professional wrestlers, in the late 1980s.[13][49] In the 1990s, she spent most of her time training female wrestlers at her school in Columbia, South Carolina.[36] She also began training men, including Del Wilkes, and in 1995 trained more men than women.[13] She also spent time training in Los Angeles at Verne Langdon's Slammers Gym.[50]

Other media

An animated version of Moolah was included on a CBS Saturday morning cartoon during this lucrative time, titled Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling.[51] In addition, she appeared in one of Cyndi Lauper's music videos, "Goonies 'R' Good Enough".[52] An illness in the mid-1970s meant Ellison had to pull out of the Bill Cosby movie Mother, Jugs & Speed, which had a role written specifically for her.[53] In 2002, Moolah wrote her autobiography, The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle.[2] The book has been criticized for keeping kayfabe, the belief that wrestling storylines are real, and did not reveal a lot about her time controlling women's wrestling.[54] Defending herself against these claims, Ellison retorted it was hard to fit all of her almost five decade career into one book.[54]

Moolah and Young, along with several other lady wrestlers, starred in the 2004 film Lipstick and Dynamite a documentary about the women wrestlers from the 1950s era.[24] They also appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien promoting the film.[55]

Personal life

Ellison's first husband was Walter Carroll, who became the father of her daughter Mary.[12][13] Mary wrestled briefly but decided against pursuing the profession.[12] Ellison had six grandchildren, five biological and one adopted.[12][13] Ellison and Carroll divorced shortly after their daughter's birth. Later, Ellison married wrestler Johnny Long.[7] Marital conflicts developed when Long wanted Ellison to be a housewife instead of a career woman.[7] In addition, Ellison claims Long was a "womanizer".[3] Ellison and Long divorced, and she claims to have dated country singer Hank Williams, Sr. for four months in 1952.[23] Ellison alleged that during their supposed relationship, Williams proposed to Ellison,[23] but Williams's drinking and heroin abuse forced the couple to go separate ways.[23] She further claimed that he wanted Ellison to quit her wrestling career, which she did not want to do.[23] Two months after the break up, Williams died due to an overdose.[23]

Later, Ellison met a wrestler named Buddy Lee, whom she claims was the "love of her life."[23] They were eventually married, and after divorcing in 1970 after nine years of marriage, they remained friends until Lee's death in 1999.[13][43] The divorce was attributed to Lee's affair with Rita Cortez, one of the wrestlers the duo was training.[56] In the early 1980s, Ellison opened Moolah's Hideaway, a bar and grill which was operated by her daughter Mary and frequented by Andre the Giant.[57]

Beginning in 1991, Ellison lived with Mae Young in a house in Columbia, South Carolina.[36][55] Her estate was located on a road named Moolah Drive.[36] A midget professional wrestler named Katie Glass also lived with Moolah for over forty years.[36] Another wrestler, Donna Christantello, also lived with Ellison on-and-off for forty years, ending in May 1999.[27]

During her return to the ring in 1999, Ellison began experiencing occasional dizziness, and as a result, her doctor requested that she begin to wear a heart monitor.[58] A few days later, Ellison was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be two clogged arteries and viral pneumonia.[58] She stayed at the intensive care unit of the hospital for 24 days, during which she was unconscious for fifteen days.[58] After leaving the hospital, she again slipped into unconsciousness in the bathroom at her home, crushing several vertebrae.[58] She underwent successful back surgery in mid-December.[58]

Ellison died on November 2, 2007.[59] According to her daughter Mary, the possible cause of death was a heart attack or blood clot related to a recent shoulder replacement surgery.[60]

In wrestling

Finishing moves

Backbreaker[61]

Schoolgirl[1]

Small package[61]

Signature moves

Diving headscissors takedown[60]

Jumping snapmare[60]

Missile dropkick[60]

The Moolah Whip (Moolah grabs the opponent by their hair and whips them through the air)[44]

Managers

Harvey Wippleman[62]

Wrestlers managed

Mae Young

Terri Runnels (WrestleMania 2000)

Leilani Kai[2]

The Elephant Man[1]

"Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers[1]

Championships and accomplishments

Cauliflower Alley Club

Ladies Wrestling Award (1997)[63]

National Wrestling Alliance

NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Toni Rose[27][28]

NWA World Women's Championship (5 times)[4]

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI Stanley Weston Award (1991)[64]

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum

Class of 2003[15]

World Wrestling Federation

WWF Women's Championship (4 times)[2]

WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)[2]

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

Worst Match of the Year (1984) vs. Wendi Richter on July 23

Other

JWPA Women's Championship[4]

USA Women's Wrestling Championship[65]

Notes

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s, p.86.

2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s, p.87.

3. ^ a b c d e f Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.60–65.

4. ^ a b c d "Profile". FabulousMoolah.com. http://www.fabulousmoolah.com/profile.html. Retrieved 2007-05-10. 

5. ^ a b "Ms Mary Lillian Ellison". Dunbar Funeral Home. November 2, 2007. Archived from the original on November 07, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071107025908/http://dunbar.createatribute.com/registryMain.php?i_memorialid=1194215708. Retrieved 2007-11-05. 

6. ^ Scherer, Dave (October 2000). "Life Begins At 77: Mae Young Interview". Wrestling Digest. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCO/is_3_2/ai_65858906. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 

7. ^ a b c d e Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.55–57.

8. ^ Kittle, Robert (November 5, 2007). "Women's World Champion Wrestler "Fabulous Moolah" Dies in Columbia". WSPA Channel 7 website. http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/news.apx.-content-articles-SPA-2007-11-05-0014.html. Retrieved 2007-11-05.  [dead link]

10. ^ Higgins, Lee (November 4, 2007). "Friends wrestle with loss of Fabulous Moolah". The State. Archived from the original on November 04, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071104174801/http://www.thestate.com/local/story/219934.html. Retrieved 2007-11-05. 

11. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.26.

12. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.30–32.

13. ^ a b c d e f g Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.36–38.

14. ^ a b c d e f g Mooneyham, Mike (1995). "Moolah Simply Fabulous". The Wrestling Gospel. Archived from the original on December 06, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071206015507/http://www.mikemooneyham.com/pages/viewfull.cfm?ObjectID=BA253264-7A38-4098-A3B2F0ABE84A3973. Retrieved 2007-12-17. 

15. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.43–45.

16. ^ a b c d Burke, Tom. "The Fabulous Moolah". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. http://www.pwhf.org/halloffamers/bios/moolah.asp. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 

17. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.46.

18. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.68–69.

19. ^ a b c Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.90–91.

20. ^ a b c Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.2–7.

21. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.98–100.

22. ^ a b c Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.104–107.

23. ^ Schramm, Chris (October 5, 1998). "Moolah:Twenty-eight years was the reign". SLAM! Wrestling. http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingGuestColumn/oct5_schramm.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 

24. ^ a b c d e f g h Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.73.

25. ^ a b The Fabulous Moolah. (2004). Lipstick & Dynamite - The First Ladies of Wrestling. [DVD]. World Wrestling Entertainment. 

26. ^ a b c d e f Slagle, Steve. "Hall of Fame: Fabulous Moolah". The Ring Chronicle. http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/pages/bios/halloffame/moolahbio.html. Retrieved 2009-03-25. 

27. ^ a b c Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.134–137.

28. ^ a b c Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.143–145.

29. ^ a b Duncan, Royal and Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 

30. ^ a b Slagle, Steve (2000). "Hall of Fame Inductee: The Fabulous Moolah". The Ring Chronicle. http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/pages/bios/halloffame/moolahbio.html. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 

31. ^ a b c "History Making Female Wrestler, The Fabulous Moolah, Dead at 84". Salem-News.Com Sports. http://www.salem-news.com/sports/november52007/Moolah_death_110507.php. Retrieved 2008-07-05. 

32. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.169–170.

33. ^ "Leilani Kai's reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/women/304454132121112211. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 

34. ^ a b Richter, Wendi and Mark Nulty. Wendi Richter Shoot Interview. [DVD]. HighSpots. 

35. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.205.

36. ^ Oliver, Greg (April 13, 2000). "'Slop' matches haven't stopped Ivory". SLAM! Wrestling. http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingWM2000/apr13_ivory.html. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

37. ^ a b c d e Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.8–10.

38. ^ "Women's title history: Moolah's reign". World Wrestling Entertainment. http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/women/30445413212111215. Retrieved 2009-03-31. 

39. ^ a b Tylwalk, Nick (September 16, 2006). "Raw: Goldberg down but not out". SLAM! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2003/09/16/194387.html. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 

40. ^ a b "Hall of Fame: The Fabulous Moolah". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071218112356/http://www.wwe.com/superstars/halloffame/fabulousmoolah/bio/. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 

41. ^ Sokol, Chris (January 9, 2006). "Edge surprise champ after Revolution". SLAM! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/PPVReports/2006/01/09/1385492.html. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 

42. ^ Plummer, Dale and Nick Tylwalk (April 1, 2007). "Undertaker the champ, McMahon bald". SLAM! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/PPVReports/2007/04/15/4024168.html. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 

43. ^ McAvennie, Mike (2007-06-11). "One wild night". World Wrestling Entertainment. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/archive/06112007/. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 

44. ^ a b c d e Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.82–85.

45. ^ a b c d e Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.108–112.

46. ^ Murfee Faulk (December 20, 2006). "Baby of Sweet Georgia Brown". free-times.com. http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=121304064644348&z_Issue_ID=11012501070771714&ShowArchiveArticle_ID=11012501071127229. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 

47. ^ Kreiser, Jamie Melissa (April 7, 2008). "Sandy Parker: Addicted to wrestling". SLAM! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/03/14/5009196.html. Retrieved 2009-06-30. 

48. ^ Stephen Laroche (January 9, 2001). "SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: Rhonda Sing / Monster Ripper". Slam Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingBiosS/sing_rhonda_01jan-can.html. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 

49. ^ Scott's Blog of Doom (February 10, 2007). "Biggest, Smallest, Strangest, Strongest". rspwfaq.com. http://www.rspwfaq.com/?p=259. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 

50. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.23.

51. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.198.

52. ^ Oliver, Greg (December 17, 1999). "Rock 'n' Wrestling best left in the past". SLAM! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingReviews/rocknwrestling.html. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 

53. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.173.

54. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.150.

55. ^ a b Oliver, Greg (November 3, 2007). "Fabulous Moolah dead at 84". SLAM! Wrestling. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2007/11/03/4628394.html. Retrieved 2009-06-18. 

56. ^ a b Ringel Gillespie, Eleanor. "'Lipstick & Dynamite': You'll fall for these ladies". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. http://www.austin360.com/movies/content/shared/movies/reviews/L/lipstickanddynamite/ajc.html. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 

57. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.118.

58. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.159–160.

59. ^ a b c d e Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.18–22.

60. ^ "Fabulous Moolah passes away". World Wrestling Entertainment. November 3, 2007. http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/fabulousmoolahpasses. Retrieved 2007-11-03. 

61. ^ a b c d Goldstein, Richard (November 6, 2007). "Mary Lillian Ellison, 84, the Fabulous Moolah, Is Dead". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/sports/06moolah.html?fta=y. Retrieved 2009-03-25. 

62. ^ a b Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.128.

63. ^ "Bruno Lauer's profile". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/h/harvey-wippleman.html. Retrieved 2009-08-03. 

64. ^ "Past honorees". Cauliflower Alley Club. http://www.caulifloweralleyclub.org/reunion-news/past-honorees/. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 

65. ^ Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, p.201, 231.

66. ^ Kociaba, Bill. "Ann Casey: More than just a pretty face". Cauliflower Alley Club. http://mrkurtnielsen.com/CAC/Interview-Anncasey01.html. Retrieved 2009-08-17. 

References

Ellison, Lillian (2003). The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. ReaganBooks. ISBN 978-0-06-001258-8. 

Shields, Brian (2006). Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-4165-3257-6. 

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